• Hamas’ response to President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace proposal could come as soon as today, following Trump’s comments on Tuesday in which he said he was giving the terror group “three or four days” to respond to the proposal, threatening a “sad end” if it rejected the plan.
  
• We’re also keeping an eye on the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza as it nears Israeli maritime space. Last night, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, citing the delicate diplomatic situation following Trump’s proposal to end the war, called on the flotilla’s organizers to “stop now and accept one of the various proposals put forward for the safe delivery of the aid.”
  
• As the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks nears, Jewish organizations around the world will begin hosting memorials and ceremonies to mark the day. Read more in eJewishPhilanthropy about efforts to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks.
  
• In New York on Sunday, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is opening “Lessons from The Tree of Life: Lighting the Path Forward,” a traveling exhibition from Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life ahead of the seventh anniversary of the deadly synagogue attack.
  
• Also Sunday, Democratic Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania is holding its annual Defender of Democracy Event. This year’s event, which will include an appearance by Gov. Josh Shapiro, will honor Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’s Josh kraushaar

Zohran Mamdani isn’t the only far-left, anti-Israel candidate running for mayor in a city with a notable Jewish constituency in November. As we’ve noted in these pages, socialist Katie Wilson is vying to unseat Mayor Bruce Harrell in the Seattle mayoral race. (More below on that race.) And far-left challenger Omar Fateh is running competitively against Mayor Jacob Frey in a closely watched Minneapolis mayoral contest.

But one lower-profile race featuring a Democratic Socialists of America activist with involvement in anti-Israel groups has flown under the radar. In the progressive city of Somerville, Mass. — just outside Boston and bordering Cambridge — City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr. advanced to a runoff against another city council member, Jake Wilson. 

In the city’s first round of balloting, which ousted the city’s sitting mayor, Katjana Ballantyne, Wilson finished first with 42% of the citywide vote, but Burnley wasn’t far behind with 34%. Ballantyne, facing a backlash to the city’s rising housing costs, lagged in third place with just 23% of the vote.

If Burnley prevails, he would be the city’s first Black, openly queer and polyamorous mayor, according to Axios.

But Burnley’s unconventional self-identification pales in comparison to his radical record. He’s been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and has been active in the organization for at least the last several years. He has participated in anti-Israel protests, including one where he is standing in front of a protester holding a sign with a Nazi swastika flag next to an Israeli flag. At a Tufts University anti-Israel protest last year, he posed in front of posters reading “Glory to the martyrs.”

He has touted his endorsement from the anti-Israel group “Somerville for Palestine” and walked out on a Jewish constituent objecting to the city council’s consideration of a measure that would require Somerville to divest city funds business from companies that do business with Israel. In 2018, he was pictured being involved with the anti-Israel group IfNotNow.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Rubik’s Cube of Diplomacy: The New York Times’ Tom Friedman posits that President Donald Trump’s proposal to end the war in Gaza could fundamentally reshape the region for the better. “In a lifetime of covering this conflict, I have never seen it broken into so many little pieces, each soaked in more distrust and hatred of the other than ever before. Aggregating these pieces together to implement this complex plan for a cease-fire, phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, hostage release, Palestinian prisoner release and then rebuilding of the Strip under international supervision will be a herculean task. It will require solving a diplomatic Rubik’s Cube every day — while all the enemies of the deal try to scramble it every day. … If, if, if this Trump peace plan can create a bridge back to a two-state solution, it will give enormous leeway for Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and even Iraq to consider joining the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel.” [NYTimes]

Qatar’s New Calculus: In The Wall Street Journal, Amit Segal considers why Qatar is now applying pressure on Hamas to accept the proposed deal to end the war. “The regime, which thwarted the last hostage deal, changed its mind because the war has reached its home. After the Israel Defense Forces operated in five Muslim capitals — Gaza, Beirut, Damascus, Sana’a, and Tehran — it hit Doha. The attempted killing of senior Hamas officials in broad daylight in Qatar signaled to the natural-gas emirate that it couldn’t continue the double game it has played in recent years. Despite the threats against Israel, the Qataris are now working to make Hamas accept the demands from Jerusalem. Qatar had until recently defended Hamas’s efforts to remain in power and its demands for a full Israeli withdrawal in exchange for releasing the hostages. Now, Doha is among those threatening Hamas with destruction if it won’t accept a deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s telephone apology for violating Qatar’s sovereignty is lip service to divert attention from the emirate’s turnaround.” [WSJ]

The New Neo-Nazis: In his Substack “The Reset,” Yashar Ali reflects on the surge in antisemitism he has observed online since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. “Over the past two years I have tracked a stunning but not surprising shift: the ranks of Neo-Nazis and outright Jew haters were growing rapidly and becoming very diverse in a way that has not ever been seen in American history (including in the 1920s–30s). To be clear, I am not talking about the blanket antisemitism label that conflates various types of antisemitism and the mislabeling of criticism of the Israeli government and military as antisemitism. I am talking about unquestionable hatred of global Jewry and the embracing of some of the most dangerous and oldest conspiracies about Jews. The point is that I was seeing groups of people, by age, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, who traditionally would never have been attracted to Neo-Nazi ideology, suddenly becoming radicalized, believing in it, and becoming dedicated to the cause.” [TheReset]

The University of Maryland Student Government Association is set to consider a resolution at the start of Yom Kippur on Wednesday evening calling on the university and its charitable foundation to implement a boycott of companies and academic institutions with ties to “Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), speaking in a webinar with Democratic Majority for Israel on Tuesday, emphasized that colleagues who push to block aid to Israel or recognize a Palestinian state risk emboldening Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran when they are on their back foot, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

President Donald Trump told reporters that the administration is close to reaching a deal with Harvard after a monthslong deadlock and legal battle that will see the university pay around $500 million to open and operate trade schools; “They’re going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things,” Trump said at an executive order signing…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Organization sued Apple on behalf of a Jewish employee in the company’s Reston, Va., location who said his manager made antisemitic remarks and refused his request not to be scheduled to work on Shabbat…

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and 18 other House progressives wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio accusing Israel of genocide and demanding that the U.S. protect the Global Sumud Flotilla attempting to breach the Israeli maritime blockade of Gaza…

A federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration’s effort to deport international students who participated in anti-Israel campus activity was unconstitutional…

Following a court ruling, the Trump administration restored hundreds of grants from the National Institutes of Health that it had suspended from the University of California, Los Angeles over the summmer…

The Department of Justice opened an investigation into the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ response to campus antisemitism…

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale filed paperwork under the Foreign Agent Registration Act registering his work with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Parscale’s work through his Clock Tower X LLC is expected to focus on digital outreach to younger Americans… 

Singer Cat Stevens, who changed his name to Yusuf Islam in 1978, postponed an upcoming book tour in North America, citing visa issues; Stevens, who has expressed support for Hamas, has previously backed a fatwa issued by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against writer Salman Rushie…

A new survey from the Council for a Secure America found high levels of support for the U.S.-Israel relationship among Israeli respondents…

Israel’s Cabinet unanimously approved David Zini as the new head of the Shin Bet, effective Oct. 5…

The family of Rabbi Dr. Mordechai “Mark” Steintzag, who was killed in a terror attack in Jerusalem last month, is working to complete the writing of a Torah scroll he commissioned before his death, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

The Associated Press reports on the sexual exploitation of Palestinian women in Gaza by aid workers affiliated with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency and other international groups…

A new survey found that 15% of Italians consider physical attacks on Jews to be “entirely or fairly justifiable,” while 18% said that antisemitic graffiti was legitimate…

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is launching its Program on Energy and National Security; the new program will be led by Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at FDD and former senior counselor on the White House National Energy Dominance Council…

Families of hostages with German citizenship who are still being held in Gaza met on Tuesday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin. The families pressed Merz to leverage Germany’s relationship with Turkey to influence Hamas into accepting President Donald Trump’s proposal to end the war.

Reality television personality, model and actress, Cynthia Dawn “Cindy” Margolis turns 60… 

U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Lynn Steven Adelman turns 86… MLB second baseman who appeared in 18 straight All-Star Games, he is immortalized as Jewish in Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song, Rod Carew turns 80… Senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Andrew David Hurwitz turns 78… Professor at the Technion, he won the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Aaron Ciechanover turns 78… Tony Award-winning writer and lyricist for the musical theater, television and film, Lynn Ahrens turns 77… Former co-owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and co-founder of the publicly traded TechTarget, Bruce Levenson turns 76… Professor emeritus of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Jacob Yuval turns 76… Copy editor at Politico since 2009, Andrew Goodwin… Film, stage and television actress and, since 2009, an ordained Jewish cantor, Lorna Patterson turns 69… Israel’s ambassador to the United States, a native of Scranton, Pa., Yechiel “Michael” Leiter turns 66… The first-ever Jewish chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, Steven C. González turns 62… Member of the Aspen City Council from 2011-2019, Adam Bennett Frisch turns 58… Retired in 2024 after 16 years as director of philanthropic partnerships at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert A. Rosen… Film director, screenwriter and producer, Stacie Passon turns 56… Partner at FGS Global, specializing in telecommunications, technology, consumer protection and privacy for companies in regulated industries, Robert Bennett Seidman… Former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, now a nominee for a judgeship on the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Rebecca L. Taibleson turns 42… Director of investor relations and strategic engagement at FDD, Samantha J. (Greenberg) Weinberg… Chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum, Michael Koplow… Former consultant at Deloitte focused on critical infrastructure risk, now an MBA candidate at Georgetown, Samuel Koralnik… Account manager at Fiserv, Yossi Raskas… Scott Rosenthal…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

The clock continues to tick on whether Hamas will accept President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, presented with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House yesterday.

The plan itself says in Point No. 4 that “within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.”

Trump affirmed that timeline, telling reporters this morning that he would give Hamas “three or four days” to agree to the ceasefire and said later during remarks to military leaders in Quantico, Va., “We have one signature that we need, and that signature will pay in hell if they don’t sign”…

Officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are urging Hamas to agree, despite being angered by several changes to the plan negotiated by Netanyahu, particularly on the conditions and timeline for the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza, before it was presented to the public yesterday, Axios reports…

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee postponed a rare trip to Egypt, originally planned for Sunday, to mid-October. Huckabee said the purpose of his visit, requested by Egyptian officials, is to “build dialogue, trust and understanding,” without providing further details on the agenda or the reason for the delay…

The Israeli Foreign Ministry today claimed that the Sumud Flotilla currently making its way to Gaza, including anti-Israel activist Greta Thunberg and around 500 others, was organized and funded indirectly by Hamas through the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad, an organization led and endorsed by Hamas affiliates.

The flotilla and the Israeli Navy are expected to make contact as the ships approach Gaza tomorrow. Italy and Spain dispatched their own navies to accompany the flotilla, though those ships will turn back before reaching Israeli waters.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called in a statement today for the flotilla to cease its operation for risk of “blowing up” the “fragile balance” created by Trump’s peace proposal. In the U.S., meanwhile, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and 18 other House progressives wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding that the U.S. protect the flotilla…

Elon Musk and several right-wing influencers misrepresented the Anti-Defamation League’s classification of the antisemitic Christian Identity movement as an extremist group, circulating a partial, out-of-context screenshot on social media purporting that the civil rights organization was disparaging the Christian religion at large, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.

Musk said the ADL “hates Christians” and called it a “hate group,” while Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said the group is “intentionally creating a targeted hate campaign against Christians.” In reality, the Christian Identity movement, which the ADL lists on its website as an extremist group, “is a virulently antisemitic and loosely organized movement that has nothing to do with mainstream Christianity,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X…

Trump told reporters this afternoon that his administration is close to reaching a deal with Harvard after a monthslong deadlock and legal battle that will see the university pay around $500 million to open and operate trade schools. “They’re going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things,” Trump said at an executive order signing.

The potential deal comes after the Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday that it was initiating the process of “debarment” against Harvard, which would cut the school off from future federal research funding, a large blow to its financial standing.

Harvard had sent a scathing letter to the administration on Sept. 19 accusing it of relying on “inaccurate and incomplete facts” in determining that the school had violated civil rights laws, The New York Times reports. The letter also said the administration failed to meet legal requirements to prove discrimination and relied on findings from a fraction of a percentage of the student body…

Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled today that the Trump administration’s moves to arrest and deport international students for actions at anti-Israel protests were illegal, saying that the Department of Homeland Security and State Department aimed to “tamp down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorize” students. 

A DHS official testified during the trial that the department relied heavily on the advocacy work of the pro-Israel group Canary Mission, creating reports on between 100-200 student protesters based of the group’s profiles of people involved in anti-Israel activity on campus…

In another legal loss, the administration was forced to restore almost all of the 500 National Institutes of Health grants it had suspended from the University of California, Los Angeles after a federal ruling last week…

Another campus drawing attention: The University of Maryland’s Student Government Association is set to consider a resolution at the start of Yom Kippur on Wednesday evening, calling on the university and its charitable foundation to implement a boycott of companies and academic institutions with ties to “Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation,” JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on the rise of DSA-aligned candidates in key congressional and mayoral contests.

On Sunday, Democratic Jewish Outreach of Pennsylvania, a Jewish Democratic PAC, will present its annual Defender of Democracy award to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at an event with special guest Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. 

Also on Sunday, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York will open its exhibit honoring the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.

In observance of Yom Kippur, we’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. G’mar chatima tova and Shabbat shalom!

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

In a press conference this afternoon at the White House, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had agreed to sign onto the White House’s 20-point peace plan to end the war in Gaza. 

The plan, which has not yet been agreed to by Hamas, would see the release of all of the remaining hostages in Gaza in exchange for an immediate end to the war and the release of 2,250 Palestinians in Israeli jails, including 250 serving life sentences. Hamas would be removed from power in Gaza with its members offered amnesty if they “commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons.” 

Netanyahu and Trump weren’t in lockstep on the future of Gaza, though. The Israeli PM said in his remarks that “Gaza will have a peaceful civilian administration that is run neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority,” while the White House’s plan says that the PA will control Gaza once the body has reformed (a process that could take years).

Even if Hamas rejects the plan, humanitarian aid operations will continue to be scaled up, and terror-free areas of Gaza will be handed over from the IDF to an international stabilization force. But Trump said that Israel will have the “full backing” of the U.S. to resume fighting in Gaza if Hamas does not accept. 

“If Hamas rejects the deal — which is always possible, they’re the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it. But I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer. But if not, as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing,” said Trump. Read JI’s coverage of the press conference here…

During their meeting beforehand in the Oval Office, Netanyahu and Trump held a phone call with Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, where Netanyahu apologized for killing a Qatari serviceman in an attempted strike on Hamas leadership in Doha and promised not to violate Qatari sovereignty again. 

The conversation came after Trump has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with Israel’s decision to strike a major non-NATO U.S. ally without providing sufficient notice to the White House.

The apology was met with frustration and scorn from Netanyahu’s right-wing political allies and left-wing opponents in Israel. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich compared the apology to U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler during World War II. Netanyahu’s “groveling apology to a state that supports and funds terror is a disgrace,” Smotrich said on X…

A New York Times/Siena College poll released today found dramatic declines in American support for Israel, with slightly more American voters saying they sympathize more with Palestinians (35%) than with Israelis (34%) for the first time since the Times started asking the question in 1998, though there remains a large segment of the population that is unsure or that sympathizes with both equally (31%).

Around 60% of voters said that Israel should end the war in Gaza “in order to protect against civilian casualties” even if the remaining hostages are not released and even if Hamas is not fully eliminated. Among Democrats, that figure is an overwhelming 81%. 

The majority of the shifting sentiment against Israel comes from Democrats: 59% also think that Israel is intentionally killing Gazan civilians. Within the party, the biggest shift is coming from white, college-educated, older voters. In a similar poll two years ago, Democrats ages 45 and older “sympathized with Israel over Palestinians 2-to-1. That is now reversed, with 42% saying they sympathize more with Palestinians, compared with 17% who feel more sympathetic toward Israel”…

Among Israel’s detractors, New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani declined to denounce Hamas on Friday, when asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s remarks at the U.N. General Assembly that Hamas is a terrorist group that needs to be destroyed. 

“I’m not going to echo the words of Benjamin Netanyahu,” Mamdani said. “I can, however, share my own words and say them right here, which is that my politics is built on a universality. I can think of no better illustration of that than from the words of the hostage families themselves: Everyone for everyone.”

“What has been so infuriating to me and so many New Yorkers, frankly, is Benjamin Netanyahu’s use of the hostages as a justification to continue a war that has only continued to endanger the lives of those very hostages, as well as of so many Palestinians,” Mamdani said…

A new study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs found that antisemitism is “thriving” on the social media platform X in an analysis of over 679,000 posts. The study found that X took action on only 36 out of the 300 most-viewed posts espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories and only four of them received community notes, which X owner Elon Musk has touted as the antidote to harmful content instead of increased moderation…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for the latest reporting and analysis of the White House’s Gaza peace plan and a breakdown of the anti-Israel candidates running for all four open Chicago-area House seats in hotly contested Democratic primaries.

Tomorrow evening, Democratic Majority for Israel will host a virtual briefing with Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) and Jacob Magid, The Times of Israel‘s U.S. bureau chief, on the implications of today’s White House meeting, the status of the war, political developments in Jerusalem and Landsman’s reflections from his recent trip to Israel.

• All eyes are on Washington today ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 11 a.m. at the White House. Following the meeting, which comes a day after Trump said that an end to the war was in sight, the two will sit for lunch before holding a joint press conference at 1:15 ET. More below.
• U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is slated to travel to Egypt this week for talks with senior officials, including Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, in Cairo.
• We’re also tracking the mayoral race in New York City, following Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement on Sunday that he was dropping his reelection bid. Adams was lagging well behind in polls, and much of his support is likely to move to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. More below.
• In Tenafly, N.J., Edan Alexander and his family will participate in a ceremony to name a street in the former Israeli American hostage’s honor. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is slated to deliver remarks.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads into his meeting with President Donald Trump today, the key question is what kind of Gaza ceasefire plan he will agree to — and how Hamas will respond.

“We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday, ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu. “ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE!!! President DJT.”

Netanyahu was more circumspect. “I hope we can make it a go because we want to free our hostages,” he told Fox News on Sunday.

“He won’t say no to Trump,” a source in the prime minister’s delegation said. But what Netanyahu has been saying is something like, “yes, but.”

While Trump clearly would like to make a big announcement at the end of Netanyahu’s White House meeting, having repeatedly said in public that the war will soon end, he has left out the specifics. 

A version of the plan that Trump shared with Arab leaders has leaked, but the administration has not made it public or talked much about specific goals beyond ending the war and freeing the hostages. Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who held Witkoff’s role in the first Trump administration, met with Netanyahu twice in New York and again in Washington, quietly working out the details.

Among the elements of the plan Trump shared with a group of Arab countries at the U.N. General Assembly last week are that the war would end and Hamas would release the 48 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive, within 48 hours of the ceasefire taking effect. In exchange, Israel would release over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences for serious acts of terror. Israel would not occupy or annex Gaza, and would gradually withdraw from territory.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Rahm’s Run?: The Wall Street Journal’s John McCormick shadowed Rahm Emanuel as the former U.S. ambassador to Japan appeared at an Iowa Democratic Party event in Des Moines amid speculation that he could mount a 2028 presidential bid. “While he wasn’t technically campaigning, it was the first time the famously combative Emanuel had made a high-profile retail political appearance on his own behalf for the better part of a decade. It felt at times a bit like watching a professional athlete return to the arena after an extended absence. The game has changed significantly since the 65-year-old was last a candidate in 2018, with the explosion of social media and viral videos in politics. Emanuel made frequent mentions of political and policy wins he helped presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama achieve, as well as his own in Chicago. But gone were his recent criticisms of his party’s brand as ‘toxic’ and ‘weak and woke.’” [WSJ]

Trump, Bibi and the Endgame: In The Washington Post, Dennis Ross weighs in on the Trump administration’s proposal to end the war between Israel and Hamas. “An Arab force may not come in with the mandate to kill Hamas members, but it will come in with a mission of protecting the population. … That said, there needs to be a genuine commitment by the interim administration, largely led by key Arab states, to implement disarmament. A wink and a nod won’t cut it. There must be a similar commitment, with a real mechanism, to ensure an end to the smuggling that Hamas used to build its military and tunnel infrastructure. Trump will remain the key player. He will have to hold the interim administration’s feet to the fire to make sure the disarmament commitments are actually carried out — and also be prepared to support Israeli responses if Hamas begins to reemerge. But first, he will have to insist that the Netanyahu government end the war and withdraw.” [WashPost]

Lit Crit: In Arc Magazine, Alexander Nazarayan considers the increasing politicization of the LitHub magazine, which has drifted to the ideological left in recent years. “But in becoming more overtly political, LitHub has also alienated some readers and writers, turned off by its increasingly leftward slant, which sits uneasily next to traditional literary content. That lean has become especially pronounced since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, leading the writer Lisa Smith Siegel to call its newsletter ‘a daily delivery of anti-semitism in your email box.’ On topics such as free speech and gender politics (including, inevitably, l’affaire Rowling), LitHub has embraced positions well to the left of the mainstream — though arguably not so far to the left of the industry it covers. You can still find LitHub posts about how Substack is a font of right-wing propaganda, the kind of Biden-era stance that most outlets, and writers, have dialed (or walked) back in the current moment, for better or worse.” [ArcMag]

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

The U.N. Security Council voted down a proposal from China and Russia to delay the reimposition of snapback sanctions on Iran until April; the sanctions went back into effect Friday night…

The New York Times looks at the effort by Alex Witkoff to secure business deals with Qatar and other Gulf nations as his father, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, engages with Doha and the region in his official capacity…

The Free Press spoke to government ethics experts about the move by former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Timmy Davis to become president and partner at the Doha-backed Irth Capital Management, which was co-founded and is chaired by a member of Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family. State Department ethics rules require a one-year cooling-off period for high-level diplomatic officials, preventing them from lobbying for foreign governments after their service ends…

Electronic Arts is in talks with a group that includes Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners over a $50 billion deal that would see the video game company go private…

The Wall Street Journal goes behind the scenes of the decision by Disney executives, including CEO Bob Iger, to briefly take Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air following the talk show host’s comments about the death of Charlie Kirk…

Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who lost her House seat last year following a primary challenge from Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO), is expected to announce a challenge to Bell as soon as next week…

Jewish Insider has learned that Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, the anti-Israel speaker for whom the Uncommitted movement pushed for a speaking slot at last year’s Democratic National Convention, is expected to soon launch a gubernatorial campaign… 

Oracle CEO Safra Catz announced last week that sheis stepping down after 11 years in the role and 26 years at the company…

More than 200 Northwestern University students who refused to watch mandatory antisemitism awareness videos were barred from enrolling in classes for the fall semester…

The Trump administration launched an investigation into the handling of antisemitism at the nearly two dozen schools in the California State University System…

A U.K. court threw out a terrorism charge against a member of Irish rap group Kneecap who had displayed a Hezbollah flag at a concert last year, citing the failure by prosecutors to meet a filing deadline…

Organizers of the Giro dell’Emilia cycling race announced that Israel Premier Tech would not be permitted to participate in an upcoming race in Italy, citing concerns over the potential for anti-Israel protests…

Iran’s intelligence service attempted to recruit hundreds of Israeli citizens over the weekend through phone calls originating from an unknown number…

Iran claimed to have executed “one of the most important spies for Israel” amid a broader crackdown following the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June…

U.S. citizen Amir Amiry, who had been detained in Afghanistan for nine months, was freed on Sunday following what the State Department said was months of negotiations led by the U.S. and Qatar…

The U.N. said that 1 million Syrians who were displaced or fled since the start of the country’s civil war in 2012 have returned…

Aron Bell, the youngest brother in the Bielski family that hid more than 1,000 Jews in the forests of Belarus during the Holocaust, died at 98… Adman Neil Kraft, who was behind some of Barneys New York, Esprit and Calvin Klein’s most notable campaigns, died at 67… Attorney Jerome Cohen, a pioneer in the study of Chinese law, died at 95…

Former Israeli hostages Agam Berger, Naama Levy and Karina Arayev participated in Selichot services at the Western Wall on Saturday night in Jerusalem.

Tony Award-winning actor and singer, Roger Bart turns 63… 

Holocaust survivor, later a psychologist and a specialist in the treatment of PTSD, she is the author of two international bestsellers, Edith Eva Eger turns 98… Mathematician and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hillel “Harry” Furstenberg turns 90… President of New York University from 2002-2015, he is the author of Baseball as a Road To God, John Edward Sexton turns 83… Israeli author, translator, journalist and restaurant critic, Avital Inbar turns 81… Retired CEO of Southern California-based LinQuest Corporation, he is a board member at Temple Sinai, Leon Biederman Ph.D…. Former member of the Knesset, he serves as the executive director of Beit El Yeshiva and as chairman of Arutz Sheva, Ya’akov Dov “Katzele” Katz turns 74… CEO at Chain Link Services and past treasurer of the Board of Trustees of JFNA, Harold Gernsbacher… Professor of sociology at the University of London, and the academic director and CEO of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, David Hirsh turns 58… Composer and pianist, he is the winner of the 2020 Azrieli Foundation Prize for Jewish Music, Yitzhak Yedid turns 54… Governor of Delaware since early this year, Matthew Stephen Meyer turns 54… Strategic consultant at 2048 Ventures, following 21 years in senior positions at AIPAC, Brian Shankman… Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s office of global affairs, Aviva Rosenthal… City controller of Philadelphia until 2022, Rebecca Rhynhart turns 51… YouTube-based yoga instructor with more than 1.6 billion views, Adriene Mishler turns 41… Program manager at New York State Homes & Community Renewal, Aron Chilewich… Research director at D.C.-based S-3 Group, Shawn Pasternak… Film and television actress best known for her role in the ABC comedy “The Neighbors,” Clara Mamet turns 31… CEO of the Center for Jewish History, Rio Daniel…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Asked about reports that he had told Arab leaders this week he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, President Donald Trump confirmed to reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon, “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, nope, I will not allow it. It’s not gonna happen.”

Pressed if he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the issue, Trump said, “Yeah, but I’m not going to allow it. Whether I spoke to him or not — I did — but I’m not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There’s been enough, it’s time to stop now”…

The comments came shortly after Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House today, where Trump suggested that he may permit Ankara to purchase F-35 fighter jets, which it has been prohibited from doing since it acquired a Russian S-400 missile defense system in 2017.

Trump said without mentioning the F-35s or the less-advanced F-16 jets by name that he expected Erdogan would “be successful with buying the things” he would “like to buy.” “He needs certain things, and we need certain things, and we’re going to come to a conclusion. You’ll know by the end of the day,” Trump said.

The prospect of the sale has sparked concern from lawmakers: Bipartisan groups have urged the administration on several occasions not to change policy on the issue, including in a new letter today…

Elsewhere in the White House, one of the architects of the Trump administration’s negotiations with universities said that the large financial sums being extracted in the settlements are meant to bring attention to the administration’s aggressive approach to tackling discrimination in higher education, rather than punish the schools financially.

May Mailman, a conservative attorney who until last month served as a senior White House strategist, told The New York Times that “These are small dollar figures compared to the amounts that they are getting every year from the federal government and from their donors — but I think it provides a seriousness and a focus on these in ways that promises only wouldn’t.”

“When you see numbers like that, then you pay attention, and you look, and then you’re able to learn a little bit more, something maybe you wouldn’t normally learn,” Mailman said…

Getting in the holiday spirit, New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani joined Rosh Hashanah services on Monday night at Kolot Chayeinu, a Brooklyn synagogue known for its anti-Zionist activism, where the rabbi spoke extensively about Israel carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza. 

The congregation, one of the first to call for a ceasefire just weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, faced criticism last year for promoting anti-Israel views in its Hebrew school curriculum. One of its rabbis, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace’s Rabbinical Council, was kicked out of a White House event for disrupting former First Lady Jill Biden to call for an arms embargo on Israel.

Two of Mamdani’s challengers also spent time in NYC synagogues over the holiday: Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined the Park East Synagogue for its services and Mayor Eric Adams spoke to the Sephardic Lebanese Congregation.

Mamdani also plans to join Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) for Yom Kippur services next week, where Nadler said some of the congregants will be “frankly very upset to see” Mamdani. It remains unclear which synagogue they will attend; the B’nai Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side, which Nadler frequents, told Jewish Insider that Mamdani “will not be joining services with our community”…

Also in New York, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the U.N. General Assembly by video today after the Trump administration revoked his visa to attend in person. He called Israel’s actions in Gaza “war crimes” and said the PA would be willing to govern the enclave, which he said is an integral part of a future Palestinian state…

Elon Musk’s xAI announced today it has reached a deal with the Trump administration to allow federal agencies to use its AI chatbot Grok, just months after the bot went rogue on X proclaiming itself to be “MechaHitler” and espousing extreme antisemitic rhetoric…

Over 1,200 celebrities including Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing, Sharon Osbourne, Howie Mandel, Haim Saban, Gene Simmons and Liev Schreiber have signed on to an open letter urging over 4,000 of their Hollywood colleagues to reconsider their signatures on a recent pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions. “We cannot stay silent when a story is turned into a weapon, when lies are dressed up as justice, and when artists are misled into amplifying antisemitic propaganda,” the letter reads…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for reporting on Microsoft’s decision to restrict the IDF’s use of its software after repeated protests by its employees and on what the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business may mean for the platform’s algorithm, which has been accused of promoting antisemitic and anti-Israel content.

This evening, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk will speak on Jews United for Democracy & Justice’s “America at a Crossroads” series about President Donald Trump’s approach to higher education. Read JI’s interview with Frenk here. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the first world leader to speak at the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow morning, after many of the week’s speeches by world leaders included condemnations of Israel and recognition of a Palestinian state. On Monday, Netanyahu will meet with Trump at the White House.

Also tomorrow, the Nova Music Festival Exhibition opens in Boston.

We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

In a moment of Democratic soul-searching, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said in remarks at a security briefing hosted by Jewish groups on Capitol Hill today that she’s grown concerned with left-wing animus towards the Jewish community.

“We’re used to the right-wing side. What is new and what I think has so many in the Jewish community on our heels is that new left-wing antisemitism and how to approach it. How do we counteract it? How do we protect against it? How do we educate?” she said.

“And certainly, we’re watching, on many college campuses, a lot of young people who actually maybe didn’t grow up with the Jewish community at all, get to campus and maybe repeat what they’re hearing, sometimes not even understanding or knowing. I would just say that one of our responsibilities as Jewish leaders and Jewish activists is to try and really parse through how to deal with antisemitism on the left, since antisemitism on the right isn’t good, but it’s more of a well-known threat,” Slotkin continued…

On the other side of the aisle, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told a group of pro-Israel leaders in a private meeting today that he’s attempting to push back on the isolationist wing of the GOP in the House and in his candidate recruiting efforts, but that the party is likely bound for a major debate on the issue after President Donald Trump leaves office, attendees told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod…

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) separately accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza today, the first Jewish lawmakers to do so…

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delayed his announcement to recognize a Palestinian state until this weekend, after Trump has departed from his state visit to London…

On the campus beat, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said this morning at the Federalist Society and the Defense of Freedom Institute’s annual Education Law & Policy Conference that the Trump administration is hopeful in reaching a settlement with Harvard and seeing changes in its approach to antisemitism implemented on the elite campus without a protracted legal battle.

“Harvard has already started to put in place some of the things we wanted them to do. They reassessed their Middle East policies. They actually fired a couple of their professors. They are looking at having safe measures on campus, and so without even admitting any guilt in any way, they have started to change their policies, and that is the ultimate goal of our investigation, of making sure that things are proper on campus,” McMahon said.

A federal court recently ruled in favor of Harvard in its First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump administration; McMahon said they intend to appeal…

Engaged in its own negotiations with the Trump administration over hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen federal funding, regents of the University of California met today in San Francisco; this month, UC Berkeley notified 160 people connected to allegations of antisemitism that it had given their information to the federal government as part of the investigation into the school, sparking community uproar at the meeting…

The New York Times spotlights the upcoming governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia, considered predictive for the 2026 midterms. Yesterday, the Democratic National Committee announced it was doubling its support of Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) in the Garden State to a total of $3 million, the most it’s ever contributed to a New Jersey gubernatorial election, in a sign of tightening polls in the Democratic state…

Meanwhile in New York, The Gothamist reports on growing tensions between Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani and City Comptroller Brad Lander, just months after they cross-endorsed each other in the primary race.

Lander is reportedly insinuating behind closed doors that he’ll be appointed first deputy mayor, the mayor’s right hand, should Mamdani win the election, while Mamdani is said to have told him to back off and insists no personnel decisions have been made… 

Billionaire pro-Israel philanthropist Ronald Lauder injected $750,000 to the Fix the City PAC, which is backing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his bid to defeat Mamdani as an independent, despite Cuomo’s recent turn away from his full-throated support of Israel…

The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced today that it has completed the development of the Iron Beam laser missile interception system, which will be operational by the end of the year. Each laser interception costs less than $5, while Iron Dome interceptions cost around $40,000-$50,000 each…

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to advance several nominees out of committee for consideration of the full Senate, including Sergio Gor for ambassador to India, Mike Waltz for U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Michel Issa for ambassador to Lebanon and Richard Buchan for ambassador to Morocco…

Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas announced plans today for the EU to impose tariffs on Israel and sanction Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, following on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s call last week for the EU to suspend free trade measures with Israel.

The tariffs on Israeli imports, which currently receive preferential access to the EU under existing free trade initiatives, would require a majority of EU countries’ support, while the sanctions would have to be unanimous, neither of which currently has the requisite support from European capitals to pass. While Kallas’ proposals are more limited than some European leaders have called for, the move is another sign of the increasing demand for action against Israel in Brussels…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for a rundown of what to expect from the reimposition of U.N. Security Council snapback sanctions on Iran.

Tomorrow morning, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing on the state of K-12 education.

The Atlantic Festival begins in New York City tomorrow, opening with a session including former Vice President Mike Pence and former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. 

In the evening, the Israeli Embassy will host its Rosh Hashanah reception in Washington.

United Hatzalah will hold its 2025 Los Angeles gala with honorary guest Gal Gadot. Israeli Eurovision performer Yuval Raphael will receive United Hatzalah’s Hero Award and American venture capitalist Shaun Maguire, fresh off a visit to Israel, will receive its Am Israel award.

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that President Donald Trump invited him to the White House on Sept. 29, after the prime minister’s Sept. 26 speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. This will be Netanyahu’s fourth visit to the White House during Trump’s second term…

At the same press conference, Netanyahu attempted to walk back comments he made yesterday about Israel needing to look towards a self-sufficient, or “autarkic,” economy after the Israeli market reacted negatively, saying that it was a “misunderstanding.” 

Netanyahu pointed out the performance of the Israeli stock market and the shekel, unemployment numbers and foreign investment into the country as signs of economic strength, and said he had specifically been speaking about the Israeli defense industry, which has been impacted by western European arms embargoes…

As the IDF begins its takeover of Gaza City, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, responded to concerns about the safety of the remaining hostages, many of whom are thought to be held in the city, in a statement on the operation, saying, “I want to emphasize: the return of our hostages is a war aim and a national and moral commitment.”

Noa Argamani, a former hostage whose boyfriend, Avinatan Or, remains held in Gaza after they were kidnapped together on Oct. 7 from the Nova Music Festival, said on X, “I cannot breathe watching the fighting inside Gaza City. As a former hostage, I know exactly what these moments feel like. The booming blasts, the gunfire, the walls shaking, the helplessness and despair that take over. The emotions come rushing back all at once, and it is unbearable. Right now, I fear deeply for Avinatan’s life”…

In a view from the U.S., former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said that as of May 2024, concessions that the U.S. would make to Saudi Arabia in exchange for Saudi-Israel normalization were “all but finished,” having continued to be negotiated even during the Israel-Hamas war, but that the deal cannot be finalized until the war ends.

Speaking at a briefing hosted by the Democratic Majority for Israel, he characterized Netanyahu’s “autarky” comments as the opposite of the goal of the Abraham Accords and regional integration.

Shapiro also called Hamas leaders in Doha “legitimate targets” and said it’s “appropriate” for Israel to eliminate them, but that the “who and the how and the where matters” and the Israeli strike in Doha has “backfired” for Israel.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who spoke after Shapiro, encouraged Israel to let Western press into Gaza to see that the issue with humanitarian aid is the U.N.’s failure to distribute it, rather than a lack of it. Shapiro said the humanitarian situation is “not nearly as dire” now as a few months ago but that international reporting hasn’t reflected that…

On the domestic front, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in an address at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit today in Pittsburgh that “we need to create more opportunities for peaceful and respectful dialogue, respecting each other’s fundamental rights as Americans.”

He invoked the Priestly Blessing, sent to him by a chaplain of a local fire department after his residence was attacked by an arsonist last Passover, which he said he recites to his children every night. “Those are words of healing, words of hopefulness to me. They are also words that again remind us of our shared humanity.” 

After his address, Shapiro, who is seen as a Democratic contender for the 2028 presidential election, answered questions from reporters about Israel’s campaign in Gaza City, saying, “I’ve been very outspoken about the fact that these children in Gaza need to be fed, that the violence needs to end, the hostages need to come home, and this war needs to be over.”

“I’ve also been very clear that I think Benjamin Netanyahu is taking Israel down a very dark and dangerous path, isolating Israel in the world even more than they were before, which I think threatens Israel’s security,” Shapiro continued, following on comments he made last month calling Netanyahu’s claim that there is no starvation in Gaza “quite abhorrent”…

Meanwhile in New York, Carl Heastie, the Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, is expected to endorse New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani this week, The New York Times reports, one of several state leaders in the party who have thus far resisted doing so. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, is reportedly also set to do so on Monday…

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced a bill that would “prohibit state and local law enforcement from arresting foreign nationals within the United States” solely based on warrants from the International Criminal Court, as Mamdani has threatened to do to Netanyahu…

After selling Paramount to Skydance Media, Shari Redstone has taken on a new venture: The media mogul was named chair of the Israeli production company Sipur, which she called a “hands-on investment” to build a “global production powerhouse”…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an analysis of a new poll of Gen Z conservatives’ views on Israel and antisemitism.

This evening, Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) will join Fox News’ “Special Report” to discuss political civility.

Tomorrow morning, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a markup of bills aimed at reorganizing and reforming the State Department. Read JI’s breakdown of the legislation here.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote to advance a series of nominees out of committee — including Michel Issa to be ambassador to Lebanon; Richard Buchan to be ambassador to Morocco; Ben Black to lead the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation; and a second vote on the nomination of Mike Waltz, the former national security advisor, to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N., in order to prevent a procedural challenge from Democrats.

Also on the Hill, the U.S. Helsinki Commission will hold a briefing on “conspiracy theories, antisemitism and democratic decline.”

The annual Defense of Freedom-Federalist Society Education, Law & Policy Conference begins in D.C. tomorrow, including featured speakers Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Brandeis Center Chairman Ken Marcus. 

• The Israel Defense Forces launched a major ground operation in Gaza City on Tuesday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the military announced, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will be delivering a speech this morning on political violence in America at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh. 
• The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing this morning on oversight of the FBI with FBI Director Kash Patel.
• Democratic Majority for Israel is hosting a live briefing with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Gottheimer’s recent trip to Israel, next steps for the Abraham Accords and the latest in the Israel-Hamas war.
• The Center for a New American Security is holding a live fireside chat with Adam Boehler, the U.S. special envoy for hostage response.
• Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard Law School professor and prominent defense attorney and Israel advocate, is speaking at the JFK Jr. forum at Harvard at the first “Middle East Dialogues” event of the academic year, hosted by professor Tarek Masoud, who invites polarizing speakers to debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• In the evening, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) will host its Lamplighter Awards at D.C.’s Union Station. This year’s honoree is Palantir CEO Alex Karp, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will receive a leadership award.
• Magen David Adom will host its 2025 New York City Gala in Manhattan, where political commentator Meghan McCain will receive its Champion of Israel Award. 

A QUICK WORD WITH jI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

As Zohran Mamdani wins support from a growing number of Democratic leaders in his bid for mayor of New York City, he has notably walked back some of his most polarizing views on several key issues — with one major exception: Israel.

In recent days, the Democratic nominee, who has long been an outspoken critic of Israel and its war in Gaza, has doubled down on his campaign vow to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if elected, even as legal experts cautioned such a move could be illegal. 

Mamdani, a vocal supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, also said that he would seek to divest city holdings in Israel bonds and terminate a program established by Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, to foster business partnerships between companies in Israel and New York City.

Meanwhile, Mamdani has refused invitations to explicitly condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” even as he has acknowledged concerns from Jewish voters who see the phrase as provoking antisemitic violence. He has said he will instead discourage use of the slogan, which he himself has not used publicly.

The 33-year-old democratic socialist and Queens assemblyman has otherwise declined to denounce Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has said that “America deserved 9/11” and has used antisemitic rhetoric in commenting on Israel. Mamdani sat for a lengthy interview with Piker during the primary.

Mamdani’s unyielding approach to opposing Israel underscores just how central the issue is to his self-conception as an activist and an elected official long involved in such causes. “This is something that I will never stray from for the rest of my life,” he explained in a Zoom discussion in 2020 with a pro-Palestinian advocacy group. “This is kind of, in many ways, the founding battle for justice that I’ve had.”

Read the rest of  ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Charlie Kirk and the Debate on Israel: Semafor Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith writes about what the right-wing debate over Charlie Kirk’s views on Israel say about the future of the MAGA movement. “Future historians will puzzle over why the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been the issue, above all others, to split both US political parties in the 2020s. But one thing the feuding MAGA factions agree on is that there isn’t really another prominent figure like Kirk — a big voice who was focused on smoothing over his movement’s fractures, not hashing them out in public for clout. The only other one, in fact, is Donald Trump, who has proven — in his transactional way — a master of holding together disparate Republican factions. But so far, Trump has firmly chosen Israel’s side in the intraparty dispute. And now it’s not clear who remains to try to smooth over the generational divide, or who would even want to try.” [Semafor]

The Social Media Curse: Jewish Journal Editor-in-Chief David Suissa applauds Gov. Spencer Cox’s statement that “Social media is a cancer on our society right now,” and call for people to “log off, turn off, touch grass,” a message Cox conveyed as he announced the arrest of the suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk. “We’ll hear plenty of sermons during the upcoming Holy Days, but I can’t help wishing that every rabbi finds a way to squeeze in that message. Why? Because our country has gone off the deep end. The reactions to the murder of Charlie Kirk have brought out our worst. The poor guy can’t die in peace without becoming a lightning rod for our societal dysfunctions. Unlike the old days before social media, today this toxic ugliness is front and center and screeching loud. Indeed the minute Kirk died, armies of social media soldiers put on their uniforms and let fly their predictable bullets. When Cox called social media a ‘cancer on our society,’ he might have added that it’s also an addiction.” [JewishJournal]

The Clock is Tik(Tok)ing: Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition, calls for the Trump administration to enforce the ban on TikTok in The Washington Post ahead of the Sept. 17 deadline for the company to be acquired by an American company or face a ban, calling it “critical to heading off a military confrontation and, if necessary winning one” against the Chinese Communist Party. “Imagine the following scenario. China decides to attack Taiwan, and, fearing the United States will come to Taiwan’s aid, launches preemptive strikes against American targets overseas. In the United States, Chinese operators launch drone attacks from secret bases located on more than 380,000 acres of farmland China has purchased. As the government considers its options, the 170 million American TikTok users open their feeds to thousands of bots disguised as people, rattling off anti-American propaganda; encouraging young students desperate for meaning to fight their own government; and spreading disinformation at such a rapid rate that it is impossible to discern fact from fiction.” [WashPost]

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called Israel’s war in Gaza “horrific” in an interview with The New York Times on Monday and called for an immediate end to its military operations. “There is no doubt that the people of New York and the nation see the continued carnage that is happening and are deeply, deeply disturbed and want it over, and believe it has gone on way too long,” he said…

An independent United Nations inquiry has concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have incited genocide, in a 72-page report released today. Israel said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry.” …

Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said she was fired from the paper on Monday over her social media posts reacting to the Charlie Kirk assassination. Attiah, a far-left commentator, retweeted social media messages justifying the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel as it was taking place… 

The Fallen Servicemembers Religious Heritage Restoration Act, which aims to ensure that Jewish World War I and II veterans receive the proper grave markers reflecting their religion, passed the House. “This bill is an important step to allow for the research necessary to correct these errors and ensure there are resources for that work,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who is leading the bill with Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), said. “This will make it possible for these brave Jewish servicemembers’ descendants to know that their loved one’s military service, life and religious heritage are properly honored”…

Micah Lasher, a New York state assemblyman and former aide to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), launched his campaign for his former mentor’s congressional seat on Monday…

Former Sen. Joe Manchin’s (I-WV) new book, Dead Center, comes out today, detailing his departure from the Democratic Party to become an independent, featuring scathing remarks for his former Democratic colleagues…

The New York Times investigates a series of trade and business dealings over the UAE’s access to AI chips that appear to be connected with cryptocurrency windfalls for the Witkoff and Trump families…

U.S. and Chinese negotiators have reached a framework deal for switching ownership of TikTok, in an effort to avert a threatened shutdown of the app…

HBO Max acquired the rights to a new series, “One Day in October,” the first scripted portrayal of the Oct. 7 attacks, filmed on location in Israel and based on real accounts. The show will premiere Oct. 7, 2025, the two-year anniversary of the attacks…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview clip that accusations that he’s prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political purposes are “malicious and false.” The interview with Israel’s Channel 13, a rarity for Netanyahu, will air in full today… 

Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff and close confidant, was approved to serve as Israel’s ambassador to the U.K., replacing Tzipi Hotovely at the end of her five-year term, though he likely won’t be posted to London for several months…

The Heritage Foundation released a report yesterday marking the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, “looking back at all the Accords achieved and looking forward to the fulfillment of their tremendous potential.” …

UJA-Federation of New York announced new grants totaling approximately $7.8 million to expand support for Israel’s recovery and long-term rebuilding efforts, including recovery in Israel’s north and south and support for families including those of reservists, wounded soldiers and hostages, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Sotheby’s is launching its new flagship at the Breuer Building in Manhattan in November by staging a major auction featuring the late Leonard Lauder’s $400 million art collection —including Gustav Klimt masterpieces —and an estimated $80 million group of artworks from the estate of Jay and Marian Pritzker… 

The Monuments Men and Women Foundation stopped the auction of two Nazi-looted oil paintings from the collection of more than 300 works seized from Adolphe Schloss during World War II…

The New York Times announced a new weekly newsletter on religion and spirituality, hosted by the Times’ Lauren Jackson…

Lynn Forester de Rothschild is exploring a sale of a minority stake in the parent company of The Economist magazine, according to Bloomberg, which would mark the publication’s first ownership shakeup in over a decade…

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the inauguration yesterday of the Pilgrimage Road archaeological site in the City of David, Jerusalem, calling the site “an enduring cultural and historical bond between the United States and Israel” and “a powerful reminder of the Judeo-Christian values that inspired America’s Founding Fathers.”

Israeli windsurfer, he won bronze in Atlanta 1996 and gold in Athens 2004, Israel’s first Olympic gold medalist, Gal Fridman turns 50…

Argentinian physician, author of books on gender relations, Esther Katzen Vilar turns 90… Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives for multiple terms, in 2015 she became the president of Plaza Health Network, Elaine Bloom turns 88… NYC-based real estate investor and the founder of Cammeby’s International Group, Rubin “Rubie” Schron turns 87… Defense policy advisor to Presidents Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 and member of a number of D.C. based think tanks, Richard Perle turns 84… Montebello, Calif., resident, Jon Olesen… Pompano Beach, Fla., resident, Shari Goldberg… Israeli playwright and screenwriter, Motti Lerner turns 76… Sheriff of Nantucket County, Mass., James A. Perelman turns 75… Founder and CEO of OurCrowd, Jonathan Medved turns 70… Media sales consultant, Fern Wallach… Award winning illusionist, who has sold tens of millions of tickets to his shows worldwide, known professionally as David Copperfield, David Seth Kotkin turns 69… Anthropology professor at Cornell, his work centers on Jewish communities and culture, Jonathan Boyarin turns 69… Director of stakeholder engagement at the National Council of Jewish Women, he is a nephew of former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, Dan Kohl turns 60… President and rabbinic head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in Riverdale, N.Y., Rabbi Dov Linzer turns 59… Writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine, Jason Zengerle… Mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, a city in the Haifa suburbs, Tzvi (Tziki) Avisar turns 47… VP of public affairs and corporate marketing at Meta / Facebook, Josh Ginsberg… President of basketball operations for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, Koby Altman turns 43… National field director at the Israel on Campus Coalition, Lauren Morgan Suriel… VP of customer success at SimpliFed, Suzy Goldenkranz… Actor, best known for starring in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” Daren Maxwell Kagasoff turns 38… NYC-based economics and wealth reporter at The Wall Street Journal, Rachel Louise Ensign… Israeli actress who played the lead role in Apple TV’s spy thriller “Tehran,” Niv Sultan turns 33… Winner of an Olympic bronze medal for Israel in Taekwondo at the 2020 Games in Paris, Avishag Semberg turns 24…

Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, an office within the General Services Administration, Joshua Z. Gruenbaum turned 40 on Monday…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted that Israel will have to become increasingly self-reliant as countries call for embargoes and sanctions against the Jewish state. Speaking at a Finance Ministry conference in Jerusalem today, Netanyahu said, “We will increasingly need to adapt to an economy with autarkic characteristics.”

“I am a believer in the free market, but we may find ourselves in a situation where our arms industries are blocked. We will need to develop arms industries here — not only research and development, but also the ability to produce what we need,” the Israeli PM said…

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem today, where they gave remarks on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords. “Imagine, despite the difficulties the region has confronted over the last few years, how much more difficult it would have been had the Abraham Accords not been in place,” Rubio said…

Elsewhere in the region, after an emergency summit of Arab states convened in Qatar to discuss last week’s Israeli strike in Doha, the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries today directed the GCC defense ministers to hold an “urgent meeting” to “assess the defense situation of the Council states.”

The countries also issued a communique calling on states to “review diplomatic and economic relations” and “initiate legal proceedings” against Israel…

At the International Atomic Energy Agency’s annual conference happening now in Vienna, Iran is circulating a resolution to censure the U.S. and Israel over their strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. Iran was unexpectedly elected by other Middle Eastern countries to serve as vice president of the gathering.

Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said in an interview that “if [participating countries] want to obey the law of the jungle and the rule of coercion and force” by blocking the motion, “it’ll end in chaos”…

Stateside, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) announced he will not be endorsing Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor, on the heels of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement that she’s supporting the candidate.

Suozzi, who represents a swing district on Long Island, said that, “While I share [Mamdani’s] concern about the issue of affordability, I fundamentally disagree with his proposed solutions. Like the voters I represent, I believe socialism has consistently failed to deliver real, sustainable progress.”

On Hochul, Suozzi said that he did not discuss his decision with her and is “not in a position to give the Governor political advice considering the fact that when I ran against her she beat me soundly”…

In another high-profile New York race, Micah Lasher, a state assemblyman and former aide to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), officially launched his campaign for his former mentor’s congressional seat today, joining a Democratic primary that’s likely to become crowded in the heavily Jewish Manhattan district. Nadler is expected to offer Lasher his support, a key endorsement in the race…

The New York Times investigates a series of trade and business dealings over the UAE’s access to AI chips that appear to be connected with cryptocurrency windfalls for the Witkoff and Trump families.

When David Feith, then senior director for technology on the National Security Council, attempted to change AI chip policy, which would have inhibited that access, he was fired by President Donald Trump, after a conversation with his influential advisor Laura Loomer…

The fallout from Charlie Kirk’s killing continues: Semafor’s Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith writes about Kirk’s legacy on Israel within the GOP and how both the isolationist and pro-Israel camps of the party are now claiming him as their own.

“A bereft White House official told me that Kirk functioned as something like a Republican chairman and Rush Limbaugh ‘rolled into one.’ Clips of his speeches and debates are everywhere, but movement-building is a subtler thing, and Kirk’s public statements, friends said, often reflected attempts at intraparty diplomacy,” Smith wrote…

Karen Attiah, an opinion columnist at The Washington Post who regularly espoused anti-Israel views, was fired from the paper over her posts on social media about Kirk’s death, including mischaracterizing some of his positions and positing that her “journalistic and moral values” prevented her from “engaging in excessive, false mourning” for Kirk.

Attiah, the Post’s founding Global Opinions editor, retweeted social media messages justifying the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel as they were taking place and wrote a piece on Oct. 13, less than a week after the attacks, headlined, “We cannot stand by and watch Israel commit atrocities”…

Also in the media, Jewish influencer Hen Mazzig reacts to Jewish actress Hannah Einbinder’s pro-Palestinian commentary at the Emmys last night in The Hollywood Reporter: “Hannah should know there is no such thing as a ‘good Jew’ who can launder antisemitism. The ‘good Jews’ trope — the ones who sign boycott pledges or reassure progressives that this isn’t about hatred — are always used as cover. They are never enough. And at the end of the day, the people demanding ‘good Jews’ don’t actually believe there is anything good about being Jewish”…

After the Vuelta a Espana bike race in Madrid was called off during its finale on Sunday due to anti-Israel protests on the route, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called today for Israel to be banned from sports events due to its military campaign in Gaza, despite the team being protested, Israel-Premier Tech, not being an official Israeli team. 

The international union of cyclists voiced its disapproval of Sánchez’s stance, saying in a statement that it “strongly condemns the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general, and especially coming from a government”…

Lynn Forester de Rothschild is exploring a sale of a minority stake in the parent company of The Economist magazine, according to Bloomberg, which would mark the publication’s first ownership shake-up in over a decade…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an interview with Yaakov Katz, former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, on his new book about Oct. 7 and an interview with Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), a rising national security voice on Capitol Hill.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will deliver a major address on political violence at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh tomorrow, nearly a week after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk and several months after the firebombing of Shapiro’s residence over Passover. 

Also speaking at the summit will be KIND Snacks founder and former CEO Daniel Lubetzky alongside Lonnie Ali, founder of the Muhammad Ali Center with her eponymous late husband. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow morning on oversight of the FBI with FBI Director Kash Patel.

Democratic Majority for Israel will host a live briefing tomorrow with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Gottheimer’s recent trip to Israel, next steps for the Abraham Accords and the latest in the Israel-Hamas war.

The Center for a New American Security will hold a live fireside chat tomorrow with Adam Boehler, the U.S. special envoy for hostage response.

Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard Law School professor and prominent defense attorney and Israel advocate, will speak tomorrow at the JFK Jr. forum at Harvard at the first “Middle East Dialogues” event of the academic year, hosted by professor Tarek Masoud, who invites polarizing speakers to debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the evening, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) will host its Lamplighter Awards at D.C.’s Union Station. This year’s honoree is Palantir CEO Alex Karp, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will receive a leadership award.

Magen David Adom will host its 2025 New York City Gala in Manhattan, where political commentator Meghan McCain will receive its Champion of Israel Award. 

• President Donald Trump will be interviewed on “Fox & Friends” today at 8 a.m. ET.
• This evening, the president and special envoy Steve Witkoff are slated to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who arrived in the U.S. days after an Israeli strike in Doha killed several senior Hamas officials. Al-Thani is scheduled to meet this morning with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.
• The U.N. General Assembly is set to vote today on a resolution calling for a two-state solution, the release of the remaining hostages and an end to Hamas’ rule in Gaza.
• In Sacramento, Calif., we’re keeping an eye on amended legislation targeting antisemitism in K-12 schools that passed out of committee earlier this week. The bill, AB 715, still needs to pass through both chambers today, the last day of session, before heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The bill’s passage had been stalled amid pushback from the California Teachers Association and anti-Israel groups. Read more from JI’s Gabby Deutch on the legislation.
• On Sunday, the Capital Jewish Museum is holding its annual gala in Washington. This year’s event will honor Carlyle Group Chairman David Rubenstein and Esther Safran Foer.
• In Israel on Sunday, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman and his wife, technologist Neri Oxman, will each receive honorary degrees from the University of Haifa at a gala dinner. Earlier in the day, Oxman and Ackman will deliver “master classes” on “material ecology and computational design” and leadership, respectively.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

We’re well into September, and the state of play in the New York City mayoral race hasn’t changed much in the last couple months, despite the many eye-catching developments. But a new New York Times/Siena poll released this week showcases an in-depth picture of the city’s electorate — one that is clearly wary of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s brand of socialism, even as he remains the clear favorite to become the next mayor.

As has always been the case, the divided field of Mamdani opponents is the far-left candidate’s biggest asset. Mamdani leads former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 15 points among registered voters, 41-26%, with all the candidates on the ballot. But in a head-to-head matchup, Cuomo pulls narrowly ahead, 46-45%.

The results continue to underscore how the splintered field is the biggest reason Mamdani is favored. Hardly any of the supporters of Mayor Eric Adams, running as an independent, or Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa would support Mamdani over Cuomo if their candidate dropped out. Indeed, among those not supporting Mamdani, over half (52%) said they would never support him for mayor — higher than any other candidate.

Working in Mamdani’s favor is the relatively respectable favorability rating he holds with New York City voters, especially in comparison to his rivals. Nearly half (49%) of respondents viewed Mamdani favorably, with only 35% viewing him unfavorably. That means that despite holding a record far to the left of past New York City mayors, many voters aren’t (yet) holding that against him. But there’s been no significant outside advertising effort against Mamdani, as you would typically expect in the run-up to a high-stakes contest.

Without any effort to remind voters about his far-left record, it’s no surprise that the fresh-faced political newcomer has a respectable image. 

Cuomo, on the other hand, has an underwater favorability rating, with 42% viewing him favorably and 51% viewing him unfavorably — largely a result of the ethical scandal he faced that forced him to resign as governor. 

But on the issues, it’s easy to see how Cuomo remains competitive in a one-on-one matchup. Crime is the top issue for New York City voters, with 26% naming it as the most important problem facing voters, slightly ahead of affordability at 24%. One of Mamdani’s biggest vulnerabilities is his long record of public comments supporting defunding the police and others critical of the NYPD.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Violent Streak: The New York Times’ David French reflects on the assassination this week of commentator Charlie Kirk. “When I speak on college campuses, I’m often asked what single thing worries me most about American politics and culture. I have an easy answer — it’s hatred. Even vast political differences can be managed when people acknowledge the humanity and dignity of their opponents. At the same time, however, small conflicts can spiral into big ones when hatred and vengeance take away our eyes and ears. Every threat, every assault, every shooting, every murder — and certainly every political assassination — builds the momentum of hate and fear. … Assassination can cost us our country. We lose it when we stop seeing our opponents as human, when we crave vengeance more than peace, when the motivation for our political engagement stops being the common good of our constitutional Republic (or even just the security of our families), but is rather inflicting pain and anguish on our political enemies.” [NYTimes]

9/11 Reconsidered: The Free Press’ Niall Ferguson considers the evolution of his views about the Sept. 11 attacks, which he now sees as a clash of civilizations rather than a confluence of historical trend lines. “Over the past 24 years, I have valiantly tried to see 9/11 differently—not as a civilizational clash between Islam and ‘the West’ but as something that fit better into my own secular frame of reference. Raised an atheist, trained as an economic historian, I felt obliged to look behind what I took to be the facade of religious zealotry. … In short, comparing the world today with that of 24 years ago, I am tempted to say that bin Laden lost the war on terror but is winning the clash of civilizations. That’s not to say his particular brand of Salafist jihadism is winning; it can even be argued that it’s in decline. Bin Laden’s creed was always too uncompromising to form alliances of convenience. By contrast, the pro-Palestinian ‘global intifada’ is much more omnivorous, and can easily absorb the old left (Marxism and pan-Arabism) and the new (anti-globalism and wokeism).” [FreePress]

Blowing Up Assumptions: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh posit that the outcome of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities is markedly different than previous presidential administrations had warned. “This isn’t how many American officials expected the Islamic Republic to behave after being bombed. When selling his Iran nuclear deal, President Barack Obama dismissed those who thought that ‘surgical strikes against Iran’s facilities will be quick and painless.’ His deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes was more damning. ‘The default view in Washington is that if there’s a challenge in the Middle East, the U.S. has to solve it,’ he said. ‘Our basic point has been, no, sorry, we learned the opposite lesson from Iraq. It’s not that more U.S. military engagement will stabilize the Middle East. It’s that we can’t do this.’ … However much Americans incorrectly forecast the war’s results, the shock in Iran—the failure of strategic imagination—was far worse.” [WSJ]

The U.S. joined the rest of the U.N. Security Council in signing onto a statement condemning Israel for its attack on Hamas officials in Qatar earlier this week…

President Donald Trump said he will posthumously award Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom…

The Pentagon announced its approval of a $14.2 million aid package to Lebanon to assist Beirut in disarming Hezbollah…

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) accused House Republicans of having an “antisemitism problem” after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said in a social media post directed at Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), who had just given a speech arguing that plastic surgery is “gender affirming care,” that she has “a good surgeon if you ever want to get your nose done”…

The House Foreign Affairs Committee released a series of bills aimed at reorganizing and reforming the State Department, ahead of a committee meeting next week where the lawmakers are expected to debate a host of amendments related to foreign policy and national security issues across the globe, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports… 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams signaled in a meeting with business leaders this week that he is open to dropping his reelection bid if he does not see a credible pathway to victory over front-runner Zohran Mamdani…

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Mamdani on Thursday; Bloomberg had spent upward of $8 million opposing Mamdani’s primary bid earlier this year…

Mamdani said he would apologize for social media comments he made in 2020 calling the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety”…

Josh Kraft dropped his Boston mayoral bid after a preliminary election showed him trailing incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu by 49 points…

Nadine Menendez, who earlier this year was convicted for her role in a corruption scheme involving her husband, former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison…

The University of California, Berkeley submitted to the Trump administration more than 150 names of students and faculty with “potential connection[s]” to antisemitic activity…

A Queens College Zoom lecture featuring an Israeli academic was disrupted by some attendees shouting antisemitic threats and displaying violent and sexually explicit images…

Amazon suspended a Seattle-based engineer who criticized the company’s business ties to Israel…

Paramount Skydance is reportedly moving toward making a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery that would merge the parent companies of HBO Max and Paramount+…

Jon Kelly’s Puck news company is finalizing an agreement to acquire Graydon Carter’s Air Mail…

An Iranian man living under a new identity in Central Florida is facing a $225 million lawsuit from three former political prisoners who allege the 89-year-old served as the head of the secret police during the reign of the shah of Iran before he was deposed in 1978…

Jewish Voice for Peace is suing the City of Miami Beach as well as its mayor and a city commissioner, alleging that the group’s First Amendment rights were violated by the passage of an ordinance on public protests…

The Mount Kisco [N.Y.] Recreation Commission reversed its denial of a permit to Chabad of Bedford to use a town park for the annual tashlich ceremony; the town originally cited a ban on the use of parks for religious purposes…

Relatives of Raphael Lemkin, a writer and lawyer who coined the term “genocide,” are pushing the Pennsylvania-based Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, which accused Israel of genocide 10 days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, to stop using his name, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…

Ireland’s public broadcaster said the country will opt out of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is permitted to participate…

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel told the country’s parliament that the government plans to implement a boycott of products from Jewish settlements in the West Bank…

Former English soccer player and BBC “Match of the Day” presenter Gary Lineker won the U.K. National Television Awards’ prize for best TV presenter, months after he left the broadcaster amid widespread criticism over his sharing of a social media post that compared Zionists to rats…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on a plan to move forward on a proposed E1 settlement expansion plan that would cut through the West Bank…

Two people were injured in a stabbing attack at a kibbutz hotel outside of Jerusalem…

Russian-Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov was reunited with family in Israel, days after being freed by an Iran-backed Iraqi militia that kidnapped her in Baghdad more than two years ago…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran and Paris were nearing a prisoner exchange that would release detained French nationals in exchange for an Iranian woman who was arrested in France earlier this year on charges of promoting terrorism online…

Senior officials in Jordan warned that Iran is increasingly posing a security threat in the Hashemite Kingdom…

David Halbfinger, who served as New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem from 2017-2021, is returning to the role following the departure of Patrick Kingsley; longtime NYT correspondent Isabel Kershner was promoted to senior correspondent for the bureau…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) met on Thursday with U.K. Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis in London during Herzog’s trip to the country, where he met with Jewish leaders as well as Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

President emeritus of the Democratic Majority for Israel, Mark S. Mellman turns 70… 

FRIDAY: 2020 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, Harvey James Alter turns 90… Chairman at Waxman Strategies, he served for 20 terms through 2015 as a Democratic congressman from Los Angeles, Henry Waxman turns 86… 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, University of Chicago behavioral economist, Richard H. Thaler turns 80… Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama White House, he was previously lieutenant governor of Kentucky and mayor of Louisville for 20 years, Jerry Abramson turns 79… Former president of AIPAC, Amy Rothschild Friedkin… Denver Jewish community leader, Sunny Brownstein… U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom during the Trump 45 administration, he was governor of Kansas and a U.S. senator, Sam Brownback turns 69… Miami-based chairman of American Principles Super PAC, Eytan Laor… Former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, he is now the global chair of the litigation department at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Geoffrey Steven Berman turns 66… SVP of government and public affairs at CVS Health, Melissa Schulman… Internet entrepreneur and a pioneer of VoIP telephony, Jeff Pulver turns 63… Chair of ADL’s Board of Directors, Nicole G. Mutchnik… Attorney specializing in the recovery of looted artworks during the Holocaust and featured in the 2015 film “Woman in Gold,” E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg turns 59… Senior paralegal and contract manager at The St. Joe Company, Sherri Jankowski… Senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Max A. Boot turns 56… Screenwriter, producer and director, he won three Emmy Awards for episodes of “Robot Chicken,” Douglas Goldstein turns 54… Chief advocacy officer at the Defense Credit Union Council, Jason Stverak… Israeli singer, songwriter and musician, Idan Raichel turns 48… Founder of the Loewy Law Firm in Austin, Texas, Adam Loewy… Venture capitalist and one of the co-founders of Palantir Technologies, Joe Lonsdale turns 43… AIPAC’s area director for Philadelphia and South Jersey, Kelly Lauren Stein… Actress, director and singer, she directed and starred in the 2022 Peacock miniseries “Angelyne,” Emmanuelle Grey “Emmy” Rossum turns 39… Former advisor to the prime minister of Israel for foreign affairs and world communities, now a venture capitalist, Sara Greenberg… Manager of operations communications at American Airlines, Ethan Klapper… National political correspondent at Politico and the author of The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power, Ben Schreckinger… Product manager for pixel watch at Google, Natalie Raps Farren… Film and television actress, Molly Tarlov turns 33…

SATURDAY: Retired motion picture editor, Avrum Fine… Columnist, author and etiquette authority known as Miss Manners, Judith Perlman Martin turns 87… Chairman of global brokerage at CBRE, a worldwide commercial real estate services company, Stephen Siegel turns 81… Folk artist, photographer and writer focused on European Jewish history, Jill Culiner turns 80… Retired after 57 years as a D.C. reporter for many print and broadcast media, he now writes a Substack focused on antisemitism and the Middle East, Richard Pollock… Ice dancer, who, with her partner Michael Seibert, won five straight U.S. Figure Skating Championships between 1981 and 1985, Judy Blumberg turns 68… Former executive director of the Maryland/Israel Development Center, Barry Bogage turns 68… Founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, he is the author of 16 books, Rafael Medoff turns 66… Executive director of Aspen Digital, part of the Aspen Institute, Vivian Schiller… Senior lecturer in Talmud at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Rabbi Chaim Kosman… Comedian known as “Roastmaster General” for his Comedy Central celebrity roasts, Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz turns 60… Governor of North Carolina, one of three Jewish governors named Josh, Joshua Stein turns 59… Member of the Los Angeles City Council, Robert J. Blumenfield turns 58… Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel and president of its U.S.-based support organization, Friends of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer turns 52… Israel’s minister of health until this past July, he is a member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Uriel Menachem Buso turns 52… VP of state and local advocacy for the Anti-Defamation League, Meredith Mirman Weisel… Former nine-year member of the Colorado House of Representatives, Jonathan Singer turns 46… Advocacy strategist with experience in opinion research, Gary Ritterstein… Senior editor and elections analyst at the Cook Political Report focused on the U.S. House of Representatives and redistricting, David Nathan Wasserman turns 41… Founder and president of Reshet Capital, Betty Grinstein… Director at Finsbury Glover Hering, Walter Suskind… Policy associate at Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Sierra DeCrosta… Senior software engineer at Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan Chase, David Behmoaras… Managing director at Page Four Media, Noa Silverstein…

SUNDAY: Actor, writer and director, first known for his role as Chekov in the original “Star Trek” television series, Walter Koenig turns 89… The only basketball head coach to have won both an NCAA national championship and an NBA championship, Lawrence Harvey (Larry) Brown turns 85… Executive chairman of MDC Holdings (parent company to Richmond American Homes) until last December, and the principal supporter of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, Larry A. Mizel turns 83… San Diego-based attorney, a specialist in mass torts, Frederick A. Schenk turns 72… Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava turns 70… Born in Chicago as Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV turns 70… Plastic surgeon and television personality, Dr. Terry Dubrow turns 67… Chairman and chief investment officer of The Electrum Group, he is the world’s largest private collector of Rembrandt’s works, Thomas Scott Kaplan turns 63… Founder of Mindchat Research, Amy Kauffman… Founder of Vermont-based Kidrobot, a retailer of art toys, apparel and accessories, and Ello, an ad-free social network, Paul Budnitz turns 58… British secretary of state for defence until 2024 and knighted earlier this year, he was a national president of BBYO, Sir Grant Shapps turns 57… President of Strauss Media Strategies, during the Clinton administration he became the first-ever White House Radio Director, Richard Strauss turns 56… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ketanji Brown Jackson turns 55… Managing director at Gasthalter & Co., he is a past president of the Young Israel of New Rochelle, Mark A. Semer… Comedian, television actor, writer and producer, Elon Gold turns 55… Managing partner of Berke Farah LLP, his clients include SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, Elliot S. Berke… Senior White House reporter for CBS News, Jennifer Jacobs… CEO of San Francisco-based Jewish LearningWorks, Dana Sheanin… Senior booking producer at CNN’s Inside Politics with Dana Bash, Courtney Cohen Flantzer… Governor of Florida and former 2024 POTUS candidate, Ron DeSantis turns 47… Israeli-American actress, Hani Furstenberg turns 46… Artist, photographer and educator, Marisa Scheinfeld turns 45… Staff writer at The Atlantic since 2014, Russell Berman… Co-founder and co-executive director of the Indivisible movement, Leah Greenberg… Los Angeles based attorney working as a contracts supervisor at MarketCast, Roxana Pourshalimi… New York Times reporter since 2011, now focused on in-depth profiles, Matt Flegenheimer… EVP at Voyager Global Mobility, Jeremy Moskowitz… Founder and owner of ARA Capital, a British firm with holdings in e-commerce and energy, Arkadiy Abramovich turns 32… MSW graduate this past May at Yeshiva University, Julia Savel… Artistic gymnast, she represented Israel at the 2020 (Tokyo) and 2024 (Paris) Summer Olympics, Lihie Raz turns 22…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Lawmakers, candidates and officials from across the political spectrum continued to reel in the aftermath of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah yesterday, with many changing their planned appearances. 

Vice President JD Vance went to pay his respects to the Kirk family in Salt Lake City instead of attending a 9/11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero in New York. Kirk’s casket will be flown back to his home state of Arizona on Air Force 2 along with his family and friends. 

In addition, President Donald Trump moved a Pentagon 9/11 memorial event to a more secure location, as his team was especially shaken by Kirk’s death; Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico devoted his campaign kickoff speech in San Antonio last night to memorializing Kirk; right-wing media personality Ben Shapiro, a close friend of Kirk, canceled an event tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in California; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) announced she is postponing a rally in North Carolina this weekend out of respect for Kirk and security concerns; and more…

The fallout continues from Israel’s strike against Hamas leaders in Doha this week, with Democratic Majority for Israel accusing Trump in a new scathing statement of betraying Israel by coming out publicly against the strike and potentially foiling its effectiveness by tipping off Qatar (though U.S. and Qatari officials have said that the warning call from Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff came as the strike was already underway).

The statement puts the group at odds with many Democratic lawmakers, who have come out against the strike. 

“After years of criticizing Democrats — despite our party’s 75-year history of supporting Israel — President Donald Trump yesterday broke with our vital ally in an unprecedented manner,” DMFI CEO Brian Romick said. “The White House must answer whether their pre-warning of the attack in any way compromised Israel’s ability to eliminate Hamas’ terrorist leadership”…

Doubling down in its displeasure, the Trump administration joined a unanimous U.N. Security Council statement today that condemns the strike, though it does not mention Israel nor Hamas.

“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar, in line with the principles of the UN Charter. Council members recalled their support for the vital role that Qatar continues to play in mediation efforts in the region,” the statement read…

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will travel to Washington tomorrow to discuss the incident, Israeli media reports, meeting with senior Trump administration officials and potentially the president himself, and Qatar will host an emergency summit beginning Sunday with Arab states.

Al Thani said in an interview that, prior to the strike, a meeting had been scheduled for Friday between himself, Egyptian and Turkish intelligence officials and Witkoff, but Israel’s attack “destroyed the mediation efforts” for a ceasefire with Hamas and “extinguished the last glimmer of hope”…

Back in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized a plan to build the long-disputed E1 settlement project, which would make a contiguous Palestinian state nearly impossible, at a signing ceremony today at the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, where the new units will be added.

“We said a Palestinian state will not be established — and indeed, a Palestinian state will not be established,” Netanyahu said at the event…

The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau announced that David Halbfinger is returning to Israel to serve as the paper’s bureau chief, and Isabel Kershner was named senior correspondent.

The newly merged Paramount Skydance is now preparing a bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, The Wall Street Journal reports, including its cable networks and movie studio. The bid is backed by the Ellison family — Paramount owner David Ellison is the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on the belated passage of a K-12 antisemitism bill in the California Legislature that pitted Jewish Democrats and their allies against teachers’ unions in the state.

The Capital Jewish Museum in Washington will host a gala Sunday evening honoring Esther Safran Foer, the former executive director of D.C.’s Sixth & I Synagogue, and David Rubenstein, chairman of the Carlyle Group.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to land in Israel early next week, with a planned appearance at the opening of the Pilgrimage Road at the City of David archaeological site on Monday. (Read JI’s coverage of the Pilgrimage Road excavation here).

A bipartisan delegation of 250 U.S. state legislators will also land in Israel for a trip next week.

The Climate Solutions Prize Tour, in partnership with the Jewish Climate Trust, will begin in Israel on Sunday, after several days in the UAE.

We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk died this afternoon after being shot in the neck while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”

Kirk, 31, was a highly influential right-wing leader, co-founding Turning Point USA, one of the most prominent conservative youth organizations in the U.S. The Republican Jewish Coalition said in a statement, “Charlie has been a shining light in these troubled times for the American Jewish community, and we are deeply saddened at his passing. All people of good will must condemn this horrific murder and demand justice for Charlie.”

Law enforcement officials told CNN that there is no suspect in custody. Prior to news of Kirk’s death, the shooting was condemned by lawmakers and activists across the political spectrum…

Ahead of the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks tomorrow, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement today that Israel “also [has] a Sept. 11,” comparing it to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, and drawing parallels between Israel’s strike yesterday targeting senior Hamas officials in Doha, Qatar, to the U.S. killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. 

Netanyahu highlighted the U.S. resolution at the U.N. Security Council, passed two weeks after 9/11, that said “governments cannot give harbor to terrorists,” accusing Qatar of providing “terrorist chieftains” with “sumptuous villas” and safe haven.

“And I say to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu concluded. 

The Israeli PM’s remarks seem to contradict the White House, after Trump made clear yesterday that he’s “very unhappy with every aspect” of the strike and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president had assured Qatari leaders “that such a thing will not happen again on their soil”…

Netanyahu’s opposition was busy on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, with Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid spotted walking into House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-NY) office — Lapid declined to tell reporters what they discussed — and MK Benny Gantz meeting with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), the two of whom covered “the importance of leaving no stone unturned in eliminating terrorist Hamas; in Gaza or abroad.” Lapid and Gantz are both attending the MEAD Summit in Washington this week…

Nearby at the White House, Trump met with a delegation of former hostages, including Ohad and Raz Ben Ami, and hostage families, including Ilay and Yeela David, siblings of Evyatar David…

Another former hostage, Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli-Russian academic held captive by an Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq since 2023 and released to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad yesterday, has landed in Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office and Mossad announced…

On the campaign trail, Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is reportedly interviewing staff for a potential bid against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Punchbowl News reports. Mills would be a strong contender in the race, likely overshadowing Democratic candidate and oyster farmer Graham Platner, who has made his anti-Israel stance a focus of his bid thus far…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the body would propose suspending EU free trade measures with Israel, in an annual state of the union speech to the European Parliament today. The move is unlikely to be put into effect as it would need broad support from EU countries, which remain divided on the issue, but it’s a concerning step from the EU, which is Israel’s largest trading partner…

In an excerpt from former Vice President Kamala Harris’ forthcoming book, 107 Days, released in The Atlantic, Harris remarks on those in the Biden administration who were worried her visibility as VP would negatively impact President Joe Biden’s standing. 

She writes about her appearance in Selma, Ala., in March 2024 where “I gave a strong speech on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. … It was a speech that had been vetted and approved by the White House and the National Security Council. It went viral, and the West Wing was displeased. I was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well”…

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison surpassed Elon Musk as the world’s richest person today after the software giant reported higher quarterly earnings than expected, largely due to significant AI contracts…

Also getting in on the AI rush is Jared Kushner, whose AI firm Brain Co., co-founded with Israeli angel investor Elad Gil and former Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, came out of stealth today with an announcement that it raised $30 million in its first funding round…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for news on a surprising congressional endorsement of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani. 

On the Hill, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing tomorrow for several diplomats including Sergio Gor, former head of the Presidential Personnel Office, to be ambassador to India. Read JI’s coverage of Gor’s departure from the White House here.

In Jerusalem, the Jewish National Fund and U.S. Embassy will be hosting a 9/11 Memorial Ceremony.

• We’re keeping an eye on the situation in the Middle East and Washington following Israel’s targeting of senior Hamas officials in Doha yesterday. More below.
• The California Senate’s Education Committee is holding a hearing this afternoon on AB 715, legislation meant to address antisemitism in the state’s K-12 schools. One of the legislators supporting the bill told The Jewish News of Northern California that the text had become “narrower” after the bill’s backers “compromised on numerous things with our colleagues who expressed concerns” over the legislation.
• Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Ari Berman will serve as the Senate’s guest chaplain today. C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman, author of When Rabbis Bless Congress, notes that Berman, who delivered the benediction at President Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, will become the third rabbi to have prayed both in Congress and during a presidential inauguration.
• Elsewhere on Capitol Hill today, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s subcommittee on early childhood, elementary and secondary education is holding a hearing on antisemitism in K-12 schools. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Brandy Shufutinsky, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’s Rachel Lerman, Defending Education’s Nicole Neily and T’ruah’s Rabbi Jill Jacobs are slated to testify.
• Brandeis University is unveiling its “New Vision for American Higher Education” this afternoon at the National Press Club. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is slated to speak at the event. Across town, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is speaking at a Heritage Foundation event focused on the Muslim Brotherhood.
• The American Jewish Committee is holding an event this morning marking the upcoming fifth anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords.
• This afternoon, the Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting “Israel and Gaza: Two Years Later and What Comes Next” with Israel Policy Forum’s Michael Koplow.
• Elsewhere in DC, the National Union for Democracy in Iran and MEAD are continuing their conference in Washington today.
• Some MEAD attendees are heading to Israel for the Jefferies TechTrek conference in Tel Aviv, which kicked off with a welcome reception last night. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, Paul Singer, Bill Ackman, Shaun Maguire and Dan Loeb are among those gathered for Jefferies.
• The Climate Solutions Prize Tour kicks off today in the United Arab Emirates, before moving to Israel on Sunday.
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in London today for a two-day visit.
• In Canada, “The Road Between Us,” about Israeli Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon’s efforts to rescue his son’s family from their Gaza envelope home on Oct. 7, 2023, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, after it was previously removed from the slate of films over what organizers said was a failure to get Hamas to approve the use of its videos of the attacks.
• In Pennsylvania, representatives from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will deliver a victim impact statement at the sentencing of Talya Lubit, who pleaded guilty in May to charges of conspiracy and defacing and damaging Chabad of Squirrel Hill.