Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the city’s mayoral election, according to the Associated Press, which called the race today. Raman will become the fourth democratic socialist to lead a major U.S. city, joining those in New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C…

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is considering leaving the Trump administration in the aftermath of the midterm elections, according to Bloomberg, as he is seen as a potential contender for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination. The White House and State Department both vehemently denied the reports…

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Leading figures in the Israeli opposition bloc presented themselves today as being able to salvage the U.S.-Israel relationship by removing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid wrote a lengthy post on X calling for “a work plan instead of panic” in response to the midterm results, where Democrats swept House and Senate seats across the country, noting that most Democrats “are not against Israel … They are mostly against Netanyahu.”

Democrats party leader Yair Golan called the election an indication of “how poisonous Netanyahu is among Democrats and Republicans”…

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Following the conclusion of his consulations with Israeli parties today, Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced that Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot received recommendations from factions representing 67 lawmakers to form a government, while Netanyahu received backing from factions representing 46.

Despite the clear results, Herzog said he would hold further consultations with some parties and only hand over a mandate to form a government on Sunday… 

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Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman has reportedly dropped his opposition to forming a government with ultra-Orthodox parties, potentially clearing the way for Eisenkot’s bloc to form a coalition with United Torah Judaism; if Liberman does not lift his opposition to sitting with Arab parties, such a coalition would still be a minority government…

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Herzog said during his meeting with Yashar representatives that President Donald Trump’s announcement that he had agreed with Netanyahu to end U.S. aid to Israel by the end of the year “hit me like a bolt out of the blue” and “worries me greatly.”

In an interview on Israel’s Channel 12, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he’s “not sure” if the announcement means aid will cease at the end of 2026 or at the end of the current memorandum of understanding as scheduled in 2028. “We’re asking for some clarity on that. I’m sure the Israelis are as well,” he said…

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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a senior figure on the Board of Peace, met in Israel today with Herzog, and is expected to meet separately with Netanyahu and Eisenkot during his visit…

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Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, emphasized in an interview with JI’s Marc Rod that moderates need to come together around a common message to address challenges.

“We need to find people that are like-minded and build a team of people that are going to push this narrative, because the left is very well organized, very well funded,” he said. But, he said, given the size of the faction of moderate and red-district Democrats, “It’s going to be more about who’s going to build the consensus. Nobody’s going to be able to hold anything hostage”…

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House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), the No. 2 House Democrat, formally announced her bid for House majority leader today in a letter to Democratic colleagues. She is widely expected to win the position, with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) poised to become House speaker…

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Jeffries alluded to Democratic plans to target Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the next Congress, posting on X, “Why is Pete Hegseth still around?”…

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Iran is considering “concrete proposals” offered by mediators on its nuclear program, officials told The New York Times, suggesting that renewed efforts by Qatar to get Tehran back to the table may be making headway…

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The Trump administration held secret talks with Iran over the deportation of Iranian nationals during the war, according to unsealed court documents. The administration, which previously deported more than 100 Iranians before the war began, was still planning additional deportations as recently as mid-October, prompting a federal judge to require advance notice before any removals could proceed…

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Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan recorded another strong showing today in the race for United Nations secretary-general, increasing her support in the eighth Security Council straw poll, while Turkey’s newly nominated candidate, former Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu, struggled in his debut, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

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Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson and Mayor Cherelle Parker joined a growing chorus of state leaders condemning an upcoming anti-Israel “Boycott Ride” targeting Jewish- and Israeli-owned businesses in the city, warning that the planned demonstration risked fueling antisemitism and intimidating the local Jewish community, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

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The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) suspended its operations after a federal judge rejected its request to block Gov. Ron DeSantis’ designation of the group as a domestic terrorist organization — which came into effect today — while CAIR continues to challenge the ban in court…

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Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, resigned from the Justice Department today, leaving her role that included spearheading the Trump administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism on college campuses, JI’s AJ Rodriguez reports…

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The Saudi-backed LIV Golf league is shutting down and moving to liquidate its assets, its attorneys announced today; Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which put $5 billion behind the league since its launch in 2022, said it would end its funding after the 2026 season, and a $300 million BC Partners bailout later collapsed…

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After canceling its planned exhibit honoring the work of fashion designer John Galliano due to public outcry over his past conviction for antisemitic remarks, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the new theme for its spring exhibition — focused on the “extraOrdinary” and everyday fashionwear…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

The fallout from last night’s blue tsunami in the midterm elections continues: Vice President JD Vance blamed Republicans’ poor performance on the war in Iran, calling it “obvious to almost everyone,” as well as the current state of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

President Donald Trump later told reporters that Vance’s comments about the Iran war were “largely true” but maintained that he did not have any regrets about the conflict: “The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it,” he said…

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Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot vowed in a post-midterm message today to “renew and deepen” the partnership between the U.S. and Israel, to “strengthen the bipartisan foundations that have long sustained it, and [to] work with our allies to advance a Middle East defined not simply by the absence of conflict, but by the presence of opportunity and cooperation,” as he seeks to become prime minister…

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In Florida, one of the only states where the GOP won competitive statewide races, a far-right Republican with neo-Nazi ties who marched at the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., was elected to the state’s Legislature, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

Marshall Rawson reportedly attended the rally carrying a flag of the League of the South, a white supremacist group with which he has been affiliated, and has drawn scrutiny for extremist social media posts, including opposing same-sex marriage and invoking biblical justifications for slavery…

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Meanwhile, former Democratic Socialists of America activist William Lawrence defeated Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) in Michigan’s battleground 7th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press. The Democratic establishment had sought to block Lawrence from winning the primary after his past comments disparaging Black political leadership resurfaced; he has also called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and accused the country of genocide…

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And Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) was unseated in a Democrat-on-Democrat race by DSA member Angela Gonzales-Torres, who campaigned repeatedly with far-left influencer Hasan Piker and staked out positions sharply critical of Israel on the campaign trail, after having participated in the anti-Israel encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles. She likely benefitted from an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into Gomez for alleged sexual assault and harassment…

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Voters in Providence, R.I., approved a ballot measure yesterday that would prohibit the city from investing public funds in foreign countries deemed to be conducting “ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal military occupation or genocide,” an initiative championed by anti-Israel activists.

The measure received approximately 75% of the vote, after having featured prominently in the Democratic primary for Providence’s mayoral race where Mayor Brett Smiley, who is Jewish, was defeated by democratic socialist David Morales, who was a key supporter of the measure and sailed to victory in yesterday’s general election…

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Far-left commentator and Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan celebrated Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Senate race overnight by jeering at a lengthy list of political figures, including prominent Jewish lawmakers, journalists, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and AIPAC, to “cry more,” JI’s AJ Rodriguez reports.

Speaking during Zeteo’s election-night coverage, Hasan singled out Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and CNN anchor Dana Bash. He also named Jason Turkish, a prominent Jewish Democrat in Michigan and the fiancé of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who opposed El-Sayed during the Democratic primary…

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The American Jewish Committee said in a statement that while it recognizes the significance of El-Sayed‘s victory as the first Muslim elected to the Senate, the “historic moment has been tarnished by the Senator-elect’s continued anti-Israel rhetoric that alienates countless Jewish Michiganders and other supporters of the State of Israel, and endangers American Jews”…

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Correction: A national NBC News exit poll found that 67% of Jewish voters said they backed Democrats (today’s Daily Kickoff misidentified this as a poll of Michigan Jewish voters casting ballots for El-Sayed)…

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The jockeying has begun among the GOP for leadership, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reportedly told staff this morning he does not plan to run for minority leader in the new Congress. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) both announced they intend to seek the position.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) formally launched his bid for speaker in a letter to House Democrats, Axios reports…

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Upon receiving the certified results of the Israeli election, President Isaac Herzog noted in a speech the “unparalleled symbolism” of beginning coalition consultations today on the 31st anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and urged party leaders to accept that “it is not possible to fulfill every commitment and promise” they made on the campaign trail as he works to prevent a repeat election.

Herzog also said he trusts the Shin Bet and law enforcement to fully investigate “any suspicion of subversive outside influence on the election results” — a reference to Likud’s allegations of interference — while warning against collective blame of Arab voters…

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The Wall Street Journal examines the “guerrilla tactics” being employed by Iran to stop oil from transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, including using undersea drones, rocket-propelled grenades and manually placed limpet mines to target shipping vessels…

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At the same time, the Treasury Department sanctioned today an India-based maritime network accused of providing false vessel registrations and certifications to ships transporting sanctioned Iranian oil, including ones operating on behalf of Iran’s military and its proxies…

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New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has once again been named as a contributor nominee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame; he has been named as a candidate for 14 consecutive seasons and was chosen as a finalist for the first time last year…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

As voters began heading to the polls across the U.S. this morning to cast their ballots in the midterm elections, President Donald Trump made headlines by announcing on “Fox & Friends” that he made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “months ago” for the U.S. to stop providing military aid to Israel by the end of the year.

“We give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping, and they’re fine with it, because, you know, they’ve become a very successful country,” Trump said, adding that Israel would still be permitted to purchase U.S. military equipment.

While Trump framed the agreement as a reflection of Israel’s economic strength, he also noted that the move could neutralize “the best talking point that these lunatics have on the left” for opposing Israel, naming specifically Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed…

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Though the announcement did not come out of the blue — Jewish Insider reported in January that Netanyahu was advocating for such a timeline to end U.S. aid — experts were still rankled by its timing on Election Day and some Jewish groups expressed concern about its implications.

AIPAC said in a statement that it continues to support the current memorandum of understanding, which runs through 2028, indicating that the pro-Israel group — for which supporting aid to Israel is a central policy goal — is not in favor of terminating the agreement early.

Brian Romick, CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel, said that Trump’s announcement ending the MOU two years early “with no details and no plan before Congress, captures everything unserious about this administration’s approach to the world.”

How the agreement will be executed is somewhat unclear, particularly as the 2027 appropriations bills currently making their way through Congress still include the expected $3.8 billion in aid and cooperative missile-defense funding to Israel…

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Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s chief rival, lambasted the prime minister for failing to notify the public of the agreement: “The fact that the security establishment, along with Israeli citizens, is learning about a change in the strategic relationship framework through the media highlights just how much Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct poses a genuine danger,” Eisenkot said in a post on X, and called on Netanyahu to speedily “provide answers to Israeli citizens”…

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Israel has shared intelligence with the U.S. and some Gulf countries that Iran is planning to use chemical weapons against its adversaries, The New York Times reports — a claim that the paper said has been met with skepticism and concern by some officials that Jerusalem is using such a claim to push the countries back towards war with Tehran…

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Meanwhile, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on X today that Tehran rejects the latest U.S. offer to restore a ceasefire and launch further negotiations, arguing that Washington’s response to Iran’s demands “was not convincing.” Rezaei said the U.S. must “fully and explicitly” meet Iran’s seven conditions — including lifting sanctions, ending the naval blockade and releasing billions of dollars in frozen assets — before the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened…

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In Election Day news, voting machines across Westchester County, N.Y., experienced widespread issues today processing paper ballots — which, according to officials, were printed too thick to scan — forcing polling sites to collect paper ballots that will be hand-counted after polls close. The snafu could delay results in the closely watched NY-17 race, where Democrat Cait Conley is challenging Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in one of the most competitive House contests in the country…

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Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) requested protection from the U.S. Marshals Service after she said she received death threats for endorsing Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, Axios reports…

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Owners of the Jewish- and Israeli-owned businesses being targeted by an antisemitic boycott campaign in Philadelphia told JI’s Haley Cohen that they would not be deterred by the bicycle rally planned for this weekend; Mac Mart owner Marti Lieberman said she “refuse[s] not to wear my Magen David,” while Allan Domb, owner of Schlessinger’s Deli, said, “Not only are we going to stay open on Sunday, but I’m going to be there myself.”

The local Jewish Community Relations Council is organizing a Friday lunch at one of the targeted restaurants, bringing together local leaders to demonstrate solidarity with the businesses…

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D.C. police are now seeking the public’s assistance in identifying an individual who allegedly spray-painted derogatory and antisemitic graffiti on the district’s Adas Israel synagogue last month, as they investigate the incident as a hate crime…

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Palantir CEO and co-founder Alex Karp made an appearance today at the Ohel — the resting place of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s longtime leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — in Queens, N.Y., where he posed for a selfie with Rabbi Mendy Uminer, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

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Even as Qatar cuts government spending across multiple sectors in response to a steep decline in government revenue following attacks from Iran on its energy infrastructure, Al Jazeera, the influential media network owned by the Gulf state, is undertaking a sweeping expansion of its broadcasting and digital operations, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said last month that government revenues had fallen 42% during the first half of 2026, and public expenditures declined 14% following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damage to the country’s energy facilities. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is introducing 33 new programs and continuing to build out its U.S. presence…

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Syrian authorities arrested two members of a suspected Hezbollah cell and seized explosive devices they reportedly planned to use to attack the country’s Homs oil refinery, state media reported…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed defended his sharp criticism of Israel over other Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, in an extended “60 Minutes” interview released yesterday, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

When pressed by CBS News’ Ross Douthat on why Israel attracts more intense criticism from American progressives than other countries in the region, El-Sayed cited “the scale of U.S. spending, the scale of those war crimes, and the impact on our politics,” and asked, “Do you really think that there is any entity on behalf of the Saudi government that is as strong as AIPAC is on behalf of the Israeli government?” Riyadh routinely outspends Jerusalem and pro-Israel groups in total registered lobbying expenditures…

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Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) told The Free Press that she decided to abandon her support for El-Sayed and endorse his opponent, Mike Rogers, due to several of El-Sayed’s “anti-American” policies that she found concerning, including his “obsessive, obsessive, obsessive” fixation on Israel and refusal to condemn the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

She said she believes Rogers “loves the country” but that she isn’t “going to be best friends” with him either, and has accepted that her political career is over following the fierce backlash she received from fellow Democrats over her decision…

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Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen told The Guardian that his 11-seat Arab alliance is prepared to support a change government led by Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot from outside the coalition to remove Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power.

But Avigdor Liberman, chair of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, who is backing Eisenkot for prime minister, pledged again today that he would not sit in a government supported from the outside by Arab parties…

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The Iranian Foreign Ministry offered today to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in two days if the U.S. agrees to a set of demands including lifting sanctions, releasing billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds and recognizing an agreement between Iran and Oman on administering the strait.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said a recent letter sent to Tehran by Vice President JD Vance had a changed tone and was a “good sign”…

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President Donald Trump told Axios today that “one way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush” to decide whether to resume military operations against Iran…

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An unsubstantiated claim by far-right influencer Tucker Carlson that Netanyahu is pressuring Trump to authorize a nuclear strike against Iran gained traction today among prominent liberal figures on social media, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

One such booster was Christiane Amanpour, the longtime chief international anchor of CNN, who reposted Carlson’s post on X with the caption, “This would be insane”…

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The NYPD and Jewish security group Shomrim are investigating antisemitic graffiti spray-painted on several Jewish school buses in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, including the phrases “F**k Israel,” “USA first” and “free Palestine.” New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin condemned the “absolutely abhorrent display of antisemitism”…

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The New York Times examines declining support for the Democratic Party among Jewish New Yorkers, including Bonnie Lautenberg, the widow of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who recently hosted a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman.

Support for the party among Jewish voters in the state fell from 76% to 61% between 2018 and last month, according to surveys from Siena University, while support for Republicans increased from 23% to 30%…

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A congressional staffer who previously worked for GOP Senate nominee Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) appears closely linked to an anonymous X account that called for “Nuremberg tribunals” for elected officials and disparaged women, immigrants and democracy, The Washington Post reports. Other staffers and family members of Collins have been linked to white nationalist and antisemitic social media activity…

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Abu Dhabi’s state energy company ADNOC and Emirati AI firm G42 signed an agreement with OpenAI today to deploy AI across ADNOC’s operations, making it the first energy company to adopt OpenAI’s technology, Reuters reports.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi, where the company also announced agreements with sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and G42 subsidiary Inception42…

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The U.S. Army confirmed that it is investigating as a potential cyberattack a spate of refrigerator systems failing at military facilities over the summer, after similar incidents took place this week at supermarkets across several European countries…

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Andy Baker, former deputy national security advisor to Trump and national security advisor to Vance, is joining a16z’s Global Affairs team as an advisor, Anne Neuberger, a16z’s head of global affairs, announced on X…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today of exploiting unverified allegations of Qatari interference in Israel’s election to undermine the results and potentially delay the swearing-in of the new Knesset.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari denied that Doha interfered in the election or funded efforts to influence its outcome, calling the allegations “ridiculous and dangerous” and accusing Israeli politicians of using Qatar as a scapegoat…

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Israel’s pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 reported that the prime minister spoke on Wednesday evening with far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich and promised to keep them as part of a new government. “We are together and we are staying together,” the network quoted Netanyahu telling his allies…

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Thailand has revoked the citizenship of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, who has led the country’s Chabad movement since 1993, after authorities determined that he continued using his U.S. citizenship for international travel after becoming a Thai citizen in 2013, Bloomberg reports.

The decision, signed by Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, comes amid a broader government crackdown on foreign nationals and follows searches of Chabad-linked properties as part of separate investigations into business and property holdings, though no charges have been brought against Kantor or Chabad…

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CNN’s editor-in-chief, Mark Thompson, offered a glowing assessment of Qatar today at the news network’s Global Perspectives forum in Doha. Thompson said the country, which has been linked to funding antisemitism on U.S. campuses, “stands for growth, for innovation, and for trying to nurture and build human potential”…

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President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal has stalled in Congress amid disputes over funding for the Iran war and growing frustration among lawmakers in both parties with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s handling of congressional relations, The Washington Post reports…

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Iran has used a network of more than 5,000 Defense Ministry-linked agencies to import military equipment and dual-use materials despite Western sanctions and the U.S. naval blockade, Reuters reports, including rocket propellant, explosives and components for its missile and drone programs, with shipments originating from China, Russia and Germany…

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Tehran has explored recruiting agents involved in U.S. and Israeli election processes and established cyber groups to target election systems, Iranian officials told The Telegraph, as Tehran seeks to deepen political divisions in both countries amid the ongoing war.

One official said Iran was not backing a particular candidate but wanted to see a “divided America and a divided Israel.” The report did not establish that voting systems in either country had been compromised…

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A super PAC backing Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race is up with a new ad today highlighting Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s ties to Arab American activist Omar Siblani, who has justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks and called for Israeli Jews to be sent back to Poland.

The ad features Taylor Weintraub, whose son was in a classroom at the Temple Israel preschool during the March terrorist attack. “With Abdul El-Sayed, who knows what the future of the Jewish community here will look like,” Weintraub says in the ad…

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A final wave of CNN-commissioned Senate polls show Democrats leading in Maine, Michigan, Texas and Kansas. The Maine Senate poll found Democrat Troy Jackson leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) 49%-45%, while showing El-Sayed with a seven-point lead, 49%-42%, over Rogers in Michigan.

The polling also found Democrat Adam Hamilton leading by four points over Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) in the Kansas Senate race, and Democrat James Talarico pulling ahead of Texas’ attorney general, Ken Paxton, by six pointsin the state’s Senate race…

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), one of the leading Israel critics on the left in the Senate, is eyeing a bigger leadership role in the chamber after the midterm elections, according to Politico…

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Mohamed Soliman, who is already serving a life sentence for the June 2025 firebombing attack on a demonstration supporting Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colo., is expected to plead guilty to federal hate-crime and explosives charges today after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, the Associated Press reports…

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A new House Education and Workforce Committee report found that senior officials with the American Psychological Association repeatedly dismissed concerns from Jewish psychologists about the organization’s handling of antisemitism-related complaints following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

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A Greek container ship traveling from Haifa, Israel, to Romania sank after being struck by three naval drones off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast Wednesday, Reuters reports. All 18 crew members were rescued, and it remains unclear who carried out the attack…

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The Cambridge, Mass., City Council voted 5-4 yesterday to divest municipal retirement funds from companies it says contribute to the “genocide, apartheid, and occupation of Palestinians,” while rejecting a separate proposal to boycott those companies in city purchasing.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston condemned the divestment measure but welcomed revisions explicitly rejecting the broader Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and reaffirming the city’s ties with Israeli institutions…

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Paula Reid, a former CNN Justice Department correspondent, has joined MS NOW as its new chief White House reporter…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

With all of the regular votes counted after yesterday’s election in Israel — excluding the absentee ballots of soldiers, diplomats and others, which are still being tallied — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc received 53 seats, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc got 48 and the Arab parties — Ra’am and the Joint List — together got 19…

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Netanyahu’s Likud party alleged today that the election was “stolen” by Arab parties through voter bribery, intimidation, forgery and the use of prohibited voter-mobilization software. Likud said it was submitting evidence to the police, Shin Bet and Central Elections Committee and demanding an immediate investigation; Israel’s election authorities have not reported evidence of systemic electoral fraud…

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President Donald Trump told Axios that he would “take a look” at whether to get involved in efforts to form a unity government led by Netanyahu; Trump said the prime minister was “in pretty good shape now” after initially receiving “horror reports” about the election results, adding, “I heard my endorsement made a big difference for Bibi”…

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A potential military operation against Iran following next week’s U.S. midterm elections could involve a week of strikes targeting Iranian leadership, energy facilities, nuclear sites and other infrastructure, U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, reportedly spoke with CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper on Monday to coordinate ahead of possible attacks.

But Vice President JD Vance also recently sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in an effort to restart peace negotiations before the midterms, The Wall Street Journal reports…

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Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official told Reuters today that Qatar’s latest mediation efforts to end the war had produced only “unacceptable ideas and not an offer,” reiterating that Tehran would not compromise on its nuclear program. An official briefed on the negotiations separately said Qatari mediators had presented a new seven-day peace proposal outlining daily confidence-building measures, with a response from Iran expected by the end of the week…

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The U.S. military sent a notice today to maritime traffic not to transit through the Strait of Hormuz or Gulf of Oman unless it is required to, in order “to avoid unnecessary delays to their voyage”…

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Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democratic megadonor, has “taken a liking” to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, The New York Times reports, as donors begin to line up behind potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates…

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Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) warned today that a victory by Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed could put the U.S. on the same trajectory as France, pointing to recent anti-government riots there, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Speaking at Sen. Jim Banks’ (R-IN) Northeast Indiana Defense Summit, McCormick pointed to El-Sayed’s candidacy as an example of “a real-world experiment playing out on television” that would help decide “the future of America”; the Pennsylvania senator campaigned for El-Sayed’s GOP challenger Mike Rogers earlier this week…

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Despite the postponement of Saudi Arabia’s flagship Future Investment Initiative summit, executives including Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman and KKR co-CEO Scott Nuttall still visited the region this week, making stops in the UAE and Kuwait.

During his visit, Rowan announced in an interview with “The Inside Brief” podcast that Apollo this week acquired a 10% stake in Abu Dhabi-based asset management firm Mubadala Capital for over $1 billion, and said the Middle East is a safer region for investment now than a year ago…

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A Milan judge ordered the release of Youssef Siher — a 30-year-old anti-Israel activist accused of helping orchestrate violent protests that left more than 100 officers injured — infuriating Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who called the decision “shameful” and “an unbearable ​humiliation of the work of the police”…

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A dozen former Biden administration officials who resigned over the war in Gaza released a pledge today calling on potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates to reject both the Biden and Trump administrations’ policies toward Israel and commit to not hiring officials who helped shape U.S. support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, The Washington Sun reports.

A State Department official said the group has discussed the pledge with several prospective candidates but does not expect any to sign until they formally announce their campaigns…

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Jeremy Lewin, the State Department’s director of policy planning and a top advisor to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is leaving the Trump administration for the private sector, Axios reports…

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IDE Technologies, an Israeli water-treatment firm that operates some of the world’s largest seawater desalination plants, was awarded a contract to construct a $6.4 billion facility on the Texas Gulf Coast, which is poised to become the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere…

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Dennis Prager, the conservative commentator and co-founder of PragerU, delivered his first in-person public speech since suffering a severe spinal cord injury in November 2024 that left him paralyzed. Speaking to an audience in Miami earlier this month, Prager discussed why he remains optimistic and his determination to continue writing and teaching…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Exit polls released today following the end of voting in Israel show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc at around 50 seats — a resounding loss of support for the prime minister from the 64 seats his bloc won in 2022 — with the opposition led by Gadi Eisenkot at around 52 seats.

Netanyahu’s Likud remains the largest individual party, according to the polls, with around 24 seats, two more than Eisenkot’s Yashar party. The Arab parties emerged with a record 17-18 seats — up from their current 10 seats — amid the highest reported turnout in an Israeli election in half a century.

The results, which could change as votes are officially counted over the next several days, leave both blocs far short of an outright 61-seat majority and no straightforward path to forming a coalition…

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Because of the record turnout, Dean Livne, the acting director general of Israel’s Central Election Committee, warned that counting absentee ballots from diplomats, soldiers, prisoners and others could take longer than expected…

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The New York Times examines efforts being made by Israeli volunteers and election authorities to ensure that the vote remains secure and trusted by the public, in an election that Livne said will be “the most transparent ever”…

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told Politico in an interview released today that her job would become “a lot easier” if Netanyahu is ousted as prime minister and said she warned his government during her trip to Israel shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks “not to overreach”…

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Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the U.N. Security Council today that the nuclear watchdog has “not identified any activity to repair or reconstruct” any of Iran’s nuclear facilities that were targeted by the U.S. and Israel in 2025 and 2026, but reiterated that the IAEA has been unable to verify the status of Iran’s enriched uranium as Tehran has prevented inspectors from accessing the sites…

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Christina Bohannan, a leading Democratic recruit running against Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, has balanced support for Israel with criticism of its war in Gaza in public comments, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

“I have always thought that Israel is an ally of the United States. Israel has a right to exist, and has over the last many decades faced existential threats,” she said in an August interview. “However, there is no question that the war in Gaza has gone on for far too long. It has killed tens of thousands of innocent people, and it needs to end, just as the Iran war needs to end”…

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New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander claimed that Israeli immigration authorities revoked his ETA-IL entry permit to the country after he was detained during an olive harvest in the West Bank last week. Revoking the permit, which typically lasts two years, does not amount to a deportation, though he will not be allowed to reenter the country without it…

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The University of California, Los Angeles filed a motion yesterday requesting that a federal judge dismiss a Trump administration lawsuit accusing the school of permitting antisemitism against Jewish and Israeli employees after the Oct. 7 attacks.

UCLA conceded in the motion that there is “no question that some university employees were exposed to antisemitism on campus,” but argued that the administration ignored the school’s efforts to combat it and failed to prove a deliberate “pattern or practice” of discrimination…

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CNN spotlights Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) in the final week of his reelection race — the most expensive House race in the country and the only district where two Jewish candidates are competing. Asked about anti-Israel forces in the Democratic Party who have opposed his ascension, Moskowitz said, “They wanted my voice gone. That voice is not only not going anywhere, that voice is now pissed”…

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British authorities charged two men today with national security offenses connected to a September incident at the U.S.-run RAF Fairford air base, with one accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service — believed to be Iran — and the other charged with entering a prohibited site for a purpose prejudicial to the U.K…

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The Houthi militia in Yemen claimed today to have struck Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery, the kingdom’s largest, with a ballistic missile; Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the strike caused a fire at the facility, though Saudi authorities have not confirmed the attack…

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UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed awarded the FlyDubai crew of Flight FZ1073 with the First Class Order of Zayed II, one of the country’s top honors, for their actions in thwarting the attempted plane hijacking last month…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign disavowed an ad circulated by anti-Israel commentator Cenk Uygur and an affiliated PAC supporting El-Sayed, as the ad faced widespread condemnation over what critics said was a blatantly antisemitic message, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

The ad features two actors in a grocery store blaming U.S. aid to Israel for the price of groceries in the U.S. In posting the ad to X, Uygur said, “We have to suffer here at home, so Israel can get all its wars. That’s why they buy politicians like [El-Sayed opponent] Mike Rogers.” An El-Sayed spokesperson said the ad “is not affiliated in any way with the Abdul for Senate campaign,” but didn’t specifically condemn the ad’s message…

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Tom Stillman, the St. Louis Blues chairman, issued a statement today condemning an antisemitic protest that occurred during the NHL team’s home game last week, which included a demonstrator holding a banner depicting an Israeli flag splattered with red paint with the words “Israel Kills” written across it, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

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The Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Committee is set to consider tonight whether to rescind its L.A. chapter’s endorsement of mayoral candidate Nithya Raman — and potentially expel her from the organization — over her positions on Israel and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, after the committee found the chapter broke DSA rules by not confirming her support for BDS before endorsing…

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A new survey by the Jewish Federations of North America found that the bond between American and Israeli Jews has strengthened significantly over the past five years, with a growing number of Americans now viewing Israelis as an extension of their own family, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

The survey, conducted alongside a parallel poll of Israeli Jews, found that 62% of American Jews now view Israeli Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 46% in an American Jewish Committee survey in 2021. Among Israeli Jews, 53% now view American Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 45% in 2021…

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Lana Nusseibeh, an Emirati diplomat and candidate for U.N. secretary-general, welcomed Palestinian support for her bid, writing on X that “throughout my career including at the United Nations, I have worked to advance a political pathway that enables Palestinians and Israelis to live in security, freedom and dignity.” About Iran’s criticism of her candidacy, Nusseibeh told Bloomberg that she would “commit to engaging with Iran, like all member states, to advance peace and stability.”

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon praised Nusseibeh as a “skilled diplomat” in an interview with i24 News and said he believes she “has the tools to lead the organization” but said Israel would not be endorsing any candidate for secretary-general…

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Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey concluded high-level talks in Tehran today, framed by the Saudi Defense Ministry as part of efforts to de-escalate the region and support mediation by Qatar and Pakistan to end the Iran war…

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Saudi Arabia is also moving to set aside its differences and repair its frayed ties with the United Arab Emirates as Riyadh attempts to fend off escalating Houthi attacks, the Financial Times reports — part of a broader Saudi scramble for allied help as the U.S. has so far declined to offer its assistance.

The Egyptian parliament, meanwhile, voted today to authorize the country’s military to provide defensive support to the Saudis…

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Shelley Greenspan, the former White House liaison to the Jewish community under former President Joe Biden, has joined the Trump administration’s Board of Peace, where she will oversee the body’s external affairs, including outreach to Congress and think tanks, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports…

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Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told JI’s Emily Jacobs that his recent trip to Israel, Greece and Cyprus reinforced his critical stance against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, citing the shared frustration of all three governments with Turkey’s incursions into Greek airspace and its efforts to block an undersea energy cable linking the three countries…

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CNN profiles former Vice President Kamala Harris as she stumps for Democratic candidates around the country and wrestles with whether to run for president again in 2028: Harris said she keeps going “back and forth” on whether to run, citing “so many factors.” Asked about the role of the DSA in the party, she said Democrats are “a big tent” and “I don’t think anybody should be kicked out”…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

The likeliest outcome of Israel’s upcoming election is a stalemate, according to the final polls ahead of next Tuesday’s election, with neither side — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the bloc opposing him, led by Gadi Eisenkot — projected to reach a majority of the Knesset, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

The overall average of today’s polls put the bloc led by Netanyahu ahead, with 54 seats, while the opposition would get 50 seats, both short of the necessary 61-seat majority. Israeli law prohibits the publication of new polls from now until the election…

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U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee raised concerns about whether the U.S.-led Board of Peace has sufficient personnel and resources to carry out its plans for Gaza, according to a diplomatic cable obtained by Politico.

Huckabee questioned whether the International Gaza Support Center could sustain operations as the Pentagon reduces its personnel over the next year, while the Board of Peace maintained that its plans and systems are ready for implementation…

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Ronald Lauder — the World Jewish Congress president and a former close confidant of Netanyahu — delivered a scathing rebuke of the prime minister days before Israel’s election, warning in a Haaretz interview that Israel would “lose badly” if he wins.

Lauder, who backed Netanyahu’s early career before publicly breaking with him in recent years, also revealed for the first time that he brokered a near-complete 1990s peace deal with former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad that he said Netanyahu rejected, choosing “politics over peace”…

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New York elected officials representing the Bronx — including Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), state Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz — issued a joint statement on Thursday warning that the radical group PAL-Awda, which has organized several disruptive demonstrations in Jewish neighborhoods, plans to target Riverdale next.

The officials called PAL-Awda’s “campaign to hunt down” Jewish gatherings an “attack on Jewish New Yorkers” and said that “the Bronx will not tolerate it”…

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Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a retiring moderate Republican and co-chair of the House antisemitism task force, blasted independent Nebraska Senate nominee Dan Osborn — who is running with the support of Democrats — over what Bacon called an “anti-Jewish” ad targeting Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) for receiving support from AIPAC, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

At one point, the ad, which was shared by the Osborn campaign on social media, features an image of a grinning Ricketts in front of a building labeled “Hospital for Orphans & Puppies” being blown up by a bomb…

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A federal grand jury indicted a 22-year-old Utah man on charges including possessing a destructive device, threatening to bomb a building and attempting a hate crime, after he allegedly posted “I wanna blow up a synagogue” online in December 2025 and a search of his home found six pipe bombs and two rifles…

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Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said today that a constituent of his had been arrested in Boca Raton for making a death threat directed at him, the second such arrest since 2024…

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A super PAC aligned with President Donald Trump announced plans to spend $6.3 million against Moskowitz to boost his opponent, former Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, days after a super PAC aligned with House GOP leadership pulled out of the district…

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Politico spotlights Wedgewood Polls, the polling firm that admitted on Tuesday it had fabricated the data it released ahead of the midterms — numbers that had been picked up by major aggregators, including The New York Times and Politico itself.

Facing a forthcoming investigation, Wedgewood said it was an “experimental project” to show how a fake pollster could influence public opinion, though former Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow said the firm had real impacts on her campaign as its data showing her falling behind in the primary led to a loss of fundraising…

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Jared Kushner forcefully denied allegations in a forthcoming book — Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East by Matthew Cole, a correspondent for the left-wing Intercept — that he had access during Trump’s first term to accounts with some $2 billion from UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Kushner called the claims “completely insane” and “categorically false,” and noted Cole “failed to provide a single shred of evidence.” The book, an excerpt of which ran today in Vanity Fair, is being published by Simon & Schuster later this week…

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U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz accused International Court of Justice judge and recent Nobel Peace laureate Navi Pillay of seeking to lower the legal threshold for genocide — which currently requires proof that a perpetrator specifically intended to destroy a group — in the ICJ’s genocide case against Myanmar, warning it could be “weaponized” against U.S. and allied troops and calling her Nobel “shameful” over her “antisemitic agenda”…

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Bill Ackman, speaking today at the Sheba Medical Center’s annual ARC summit in Tel Aviv, predicted that Israel would soon have its first $1 trillion company — “I would be surprised if not in the next five years, let alone the next 10.”

Ackman — who also spoke with CNBC today from the floor of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, of which he and his wife, Neri Oxman, own a ​5% stake — backed that bet with a new investment in Israeli AI startup Two Delta, which raised tens of millions of dollars in a round backed by investors including Ackman and former Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Calcalist reports. Ackman also appeared yesterday on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” where he spoke about meeting Oxman and his daughter’s health journey with a recent brain hemorrhage, among other topics…

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Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, the media company led by David Ellison, Semafor reports; the investment deepens Musk’s financial ties to the Ellison family, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who invested in Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter as well as in Tesla…

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Axios reporter Barak Ravid told “The Long Game” podcast, hosted by national security veterans Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, that he speaks to Trump “about once or twice a week”…

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Jew in the City interviews Raz Shabtai, head chef of the North Miami restaurant Mutra, which earlier this year became the first kosher restaurant to win a Michelin star. Shabtai attributed his inspiration for his cooking and his restaurant to his grandmother’s house in Jerusalem…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

AIPAC announced today that, after three cycles of direct political involvement through its political action committee AIPAC PAC, it will no longer issue endorsements or directly earmark contributions to candidates, but said it will remain involved in political organizing and fundraising in other ways, including with its influential United Democracy Project super PAC, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The decision is a striking turnabout just five years after the group first launched its PAC and super PAC and began directly endorsing and fundraising for candidates…

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed at an IDF graduation ceremony today that Iran has renewed its efforts at developing a nuclear weapon. “There is only one way to remove this threat once and for all — to topple the regime in Iran, and that is my directive to the IDF, the Mossad and the security agencies,” he said…

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Dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted flights earlier this week through Syrian and Iraqi airspace to the Iranian border, Axios reports, intended as a “power projection” to deter Iran from launching attacks ahead of the Israeli elections…

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Asked why he declined to endorse Netanyahu after having campaigned for former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Vice President JD Vance said the difference comes down to the U.S. election cycle: “Fundamentally, [his endorsement of Orbán] was in April, I think, of 2026. We’re in the middle of an American election cycle where I’m very focused on getting candidates elected in the United States … I’m not endorsing any more foreign candidates now or in the future”…

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The Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander’s visit to the West Bank with a delegation of left-wing activists participating in an olive harvest with Palestinians as a “stunt,” after he was detained and subsequently released by the IDF.

The ministry said Lander ignored requirements, which were communicated to his team, to coordinate with local authorities before entering a restricted security area — claims which Lander later disputed in a briefing. “Brad Lander came looking for a confrontation. Now he is pretending to be its victim,” the ministry said…

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UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed formally nominated Lana Nusseibeh, a former Emirati ambassador to the U.N. who now serves as a minister of state, as a candidate for U.N. secretary-general, as Security Council members remain at an impasse over who will succeed Secretary-General António Guterres when his term concludes at the end of this year…

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Netanyahu’s Likud party pledged that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir will remain a senior minister in the next government should the pro-Netanyahu bloc retain power, after Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party accused Likud of planning to exclude him…

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Israel barred a United Airlines pilot from entering Israeli airspace after a review of his social media apparently found that he had expressed support for Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, Israeli media reports. The move is largely symbolic, as the pilot is not qualified to fly international aircraft…

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A new review by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) of Syria’s national school curriculum under President Ahmad al-Sharaa — the first review since former President Bashar al-Assad’s fall — found that the old regime’s Ba’athist, pan-Arab content has been largely replaced by Islamist and Sunni-exceptionalist themes that marginalize minorities and glorify jihad and martyrdom.

The study of 130 textbooks found that Jews are consistently described in demonizing and antisemitic terms, while Israel remains consistently delegitimized — referred to as the “enemy,” “thieving” and “filth” — and Palestinian violence against it justified, despite Al-Sharaa positioning himself as a pragmatic statesman with no hostility toward Jerusalem…

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French President Emmanuel Macron made a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia today amid his tour of Gulf states to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and demonstrate “solidarity” with the kingdom in the face of continued Houthi attacks, his office said. Macron is the first Western leader to visit Riyadh since the conflict reignited…

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Oil exports out of the Persian Gulf have rebounded above pre-Iran war levels at more than 24 million barrels a day, shipping tracker data shows, as the U.S. military continues to help tankers safely transit waterways including the Strait of Hormuz…

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Asked about a boycott campaign of his new movie, “Ali G: Who Iz I?,” based on what critics call his pro-Israel views, Sacha Baron Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’m not surprised that prominent Jews are being targeted. I knew that this was going to happen. The level of organization is surprising, but this is a trend of Jews being portrayed in certain ways and trying to be silenced”…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

In the closing stretch of the campaign, Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has continued to focus his ire on Israel, repeating comments in an interview released yesterday that Israel is not a friend or ally of the United States and characterizing it as a threat comparable to Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

“I don’t think an ally who uses you as a shield in war is actually an ally,” El-Sayed said in an ABC News interview. “And I think the broader part of the American public agrees with me on that. … An ally that takes your money to put you into wars you shouldn’t be fighting is not an ally,” he added…

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U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said today at the Global Security Forum in Doha, Qatar, that it is “not America’s job” to resolve the threats posed by Iranian-backed terror groups and militias across the Middle East, arguing that regional governments must take greater responsibility for their own security rather than relying on the U.S., JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

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Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and Foundation for Defense of Democracies executive director Jonathan Schanzer squared off last night at the 92nd Street Y over whether Israel would be better off weaning itself from U.S. military aid, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.

Oren argued that Jerusalem should shift toward a strategic partnership before political winds in Washington dictate more unfavorable terms, while Schanzer warned that abandoning the arrangement mid-war could leave Israel exposed…

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The U.K. will deploy Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to help defend the kingdom against ongoing missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, the Ministry of Defense said today. Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said the aircraft would be used strictly for defensive operations, with the U.K. also sending a military transport aircraft and advisors to support Saudi air defenses…

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Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is donating around $80 million to help Democratic candidates around the country in the midterm elections, his team told The New York Times, including $50 million for House races to ensure Democrats have a sizable majority. Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg’s political advisor, said the megadonor is not “directing” money to candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America and is concerned about the party’s leftward drift, particularly on Israel policy…

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A Jewish high school student in a Washington, D.C., suburb faced a campaign of antisemitic harassment at school, culminating in an anonymous phone call threatening to bomb him, followed by fireworks set off outside his home, according to a new federal civil rights complaint accusing Montgomery County Public Schools of failing to protect him.

While attending Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., the student was allegedly accused of supporting genocide for wearing an Israel baseball shirt, targeted with demands that classmates shun him as a “Zionist” and told by other students to “go back to 1935,” among other incidents, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt spoke at the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference’s leadership summit today and announced an expansion of the two groups’ partnership, including working together on federal buffer zone legislation, a bilingual Sunday school curriculum and new connections between churches and synagogues…

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The Heritage Foundation announced the hiring of Will Ruger, a leading critic of U.S. military engagement who served as a key deputy to former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, as a distinguished fellow, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports…

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Joel Kaplan, Meta‘s chief global affairs officer and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s top Washington advisor for more than 15 years, will leave the company next year, Axios reports. Kaplan — a Harvard Law graduate, former Marine and deputy White House chief of staff under former President George W. Bush — helped forge the company’s ties to the Trump administration…

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J.P. Morgan helped Syria open a letter of credit for the first time in over a decade, clearing the way for Damascus to finalize a deal this month to buy fuel from Saudi Aramco, a Syrian energy official told Reuters, in an early sign that Syria is reentering the global banking system…

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is weathering a hard year, The Economist reports, with his three big bets — beating the Houthis, remaking the Saudi economy and relying on President Donald Trump — all faltering at once.

Despite courting Trump with investment deals, MBS couldn’t stop the Iran war and has not secured assistance against the Houthis, leading him to question his longtime reliance on Washington, according to the outlet. “He’s not loyal to anyone for long,” one Saudi said…

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Donald Trump Jr. has privately opposed the Iran war and told his father so, The Atlantic reports, citing two people who have discussed it with him. A longtime skeptic of U.S. military engagement, Trump Jr. has reportedly sought to keep his dissent out of the public eye, while Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have also voiced private doubts about the war…

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Joe Lonsdale, founder and managing partner of venture capital firm 8VC, visited Dubai today where he met with Emirati businessman Hussain Sajwani…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video today of his phone call with President Donald Trump following Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu over the weekend. During the call, Netanyahu told the president, “We have a job to finish, and we’ll finish it together,” and hinted at more countries joining the Abraham Accords…

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Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz announced today he is withdrawing from the upcoming Israeli election, after polls showed his party consistently failing to meet the electoral threshold to enter the Knesset. With the election only eight days away, Blue and White will still appear on the ballot, but any votes for the party will not be counted…

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Hillel’s Georgia affiliate is disputing allegations made by Rabbi Nikki Golomb, a former campus rabbi at Emory University Hillel, saying that she was terminated due to her failure to be “truthful or transparent during the interview process,” and not, as she has claimed, because of her fiancé’s anti-Israel activism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Hillels of Georgia said that Golomb was asked direct questions before her hiring intended to identify potential conflicts, but that her conduct changed shortly after she began working at Emory Hillel. Her fiancé, Sam Stein, has long identified as non-Zionist and anti-Zionist and condemned fundamental elements of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state…

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New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, City Comptroller Mark Levine and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) unveiled a street sign today co-naming East 47th Street and Second Avenue “Jewish Community Relations Council of New York Way.” The location has seen pro-Israel rallies, demonstrations supporting Soviet Jewry and a recent protest against antisemitism during the U.N. General Assembly…

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The NYPD is investigating as a hate crime the vandalism of a Capital One bank on the Upper East Side that had a window smashed in and was graffitied with the words “Drop Elbit,” referring to the Israeli defense firm, and “Pal Action,” a U.K.-based anti-Israel activist group that has been named by the U.S. as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist…

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Leading Jewish organizations issued a statement denouncing a recent incident in which a group of Jewish early childhood educators was asked to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza before attending a trip in Reggio Emilia, Italy, the birthplace of a teaching method long embraced by Jewish preschools.

“There is no circumstance in which educators at Jewish institutions should be singled out for their personal views, social media or online profiles in an effort to identify connections to a country of deep religious, cultural, historic, and personal significance to Jewish people worldwide. Further, to use those connections against them is alarming and antisemitic. It must be recognized as such — not legitimized with political litmus tests,” said the Jewish Federations of North America, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Prizmah…

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Saudi Arabia has postponed its flagship Future Investment Initiative conference until 2027 amid a series of attacks on the kingdom by the Iran-backed Houthis, disrupting one of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s most prominent efforts to attract international investment, JI’s AJ Rodriguez reports.

The annual conference, known as “Davos in the Desert,” was scheduled to take place Oct. 26-29 in Riyadh, bringing together world leaders, major investors and executives from some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Organizers decided Monday to cancel the in-person gathering before informing attendees that the event would be postponed until next year…

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The State Department marked five years today of the unjust detention of more than 20 current and former staff of the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a by the Houthis. “Their only ‘crime’ was working honorably to build peaceful relations and shared prosperity for Americans and Yemenis, to include delivering humanitarian and development assistance to the very communities the Houthis claim to represent,” the department said, calling for their immediate and unconditional release…

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Federal prosecutors said the Saudi national accused of bugging the headquarters of OpenAI was in communication with a member of the Saudi royal family, and that the Saudi government and a member of the country’s military booked flights for the alleged perpetrator’s wife and son to travel to Qatar after he was arrested…

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Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar hosted 250 technology and innovation leaders from all 50 U.S. states in Jerusalem today for the Foreign Ministry’s Flightech initiative, meant to connect “America’s tech leaders with Israel’s innovation ecosystem to build long-term partnerships,” Sa’ar said…

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French President Emmanuel Macron is facing criticism for traveling to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates while France continues to grapple with widespread protests, rioting and looting; his trip is focused on the Strait of Hormuz crisis and efforts to ease rising energy prices…

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Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor for CNN, announced today that she will end her 43-year tenure with the network in June…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met quietly in recent days with Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot amid the final stretch of Israel’s high-stakes election campaign, Gili Cohen reports for Jewish Insider — the first known time U.S. officials have met with the former IDF chief of staff, who is considered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival in the contentious race…

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Eisenkot vowed in a speech today that he would end Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip within 18 months of becoming prime minister, either through fully enacting the U.S.-led Gaza peace plan or through military action if necessary…

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In a combative interview on NBC yesterday, Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed dismissed his half-sister’s past comments about his family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood as “hearsay,” JI’s Marc Rod reports.

El-Sayed has denied that his family has any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, but newly resurfaced tweets by his half-sister threw those denials into question, as she repeatedly said that family members of theirs, including their mother, had long been Muslim Brotherhood members. “You want to ask me about what was happening in Egypt in 1970. Are you serious?” El-Sayed told host Tom Llamas. “I have no ties. We have no ties. … I have never had these conversations with my mother. I wasn’t raised by my mother”…

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Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a joint resolution of disapproval today that aims to block the U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal, allowing the Democrats to force a vote on the deal as soon as Nov. 29, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

It appears unlikely at this point that the GOP-controlled Congress will vote to block the deal, with most Republicans expressing support for it, though some GOP holdouts have voiced their concerns…

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The 10-year-old son of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wrote to his father that he wanted to “hold the Kalashnikov and shoot the Jews” when he grows up, accompanied by drawings of tanks, rifles and rockets, according to letters recovered by the IDF in Gaza and provided by the military to The Telegraph…

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James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, reiterated his sharp criticism of Israel at a CNN town hall yesterday, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of targeting Palestinian civilians and restricting humanitarian aid, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Speaking onstage with the rabbi of a Reform congregation in Dallas, Talarico acknowledged the scale of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and Israel’s right to defend itself, adding, “I don’t believe that Benjamin Netanyahu has a right to wage war against civilians or use collective punishment or restrict aid to civilians”…

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Talarico’s campaign reported today that he brought in $64 million in the third quarter of the year, which the campaign said is the most any candidate for U.S. Senate has raised during that period. Talarico’s GOP opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, reported raising $18 million during the third quarter, though most of the spending on his behalf in the race has come from outside Republican groups…

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Former President Barack Obama criticized Israel’s security policy as having “ceded moral ground” and said that Israel’s founding had unjustly taken land from Palestinians in remarks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, this week, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

“The fact is that the Jewish people for millennia were oppressed, discriminated against, killed. … They understandably sought a refuge in a place where they had historic ties. That is undeniable,” Obama said. “What is also undeniable is that they took the land of people and they were expelled. And those people, understandably, said, ‘This is an injustice, and I want my land back,’” he continued…

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Voting in Israel’s Oct. 27 election began overnight as polls opened at Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide, allowing roughly 4,800 eligible voters — diplomats, emissaries and their families — to cast ballots at 101 stations across 99 missions over a roughly 30-hour window. The largest overseas polling station is the Israeli consulate in New York City, where more than 700 people are eligible to vote…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Former Vice President Kamala Harris said today at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, South Korea, that the Biden administration should have acted “sooner and more forcefully” to restrain Israel during the war in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s AJ Rodriguez reports, as Harris has become more critical of the Biden administration’s policy towards Israel since leaving office…

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani today sharply criticized Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — the GOP nominee for New York governor — calling the Republican’s assertions that he would not protect Jewish communities from arson and sexual violence “directly racist,” JI’s Will Bredderman reports.

Referring to Blakeman’s comments in a private meeting with Hasidic leaders in Williamsburg that Mamdani would likely do little “if there is rioting here, if they’re burning down the yeshivas and your shuls, and burning down your house and raping your women,” the mayor said, “It’s not even a dog whistle. It’s just directly racist to say that I would not respond to Jewish New Yorkers being killed and raped”…

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Mamdani also said today that he “welcome[s]” the decision by New York City Comptroller Mark Levine not to reinvest portions of the city’s pension system in Israel Bonds, which Levine said was solely a financial consideration and not an ideological one.

“It is something that I’ve said in the past that I don’t believe that our city should purchase Israel Bonds. We don’t purchase the bonds of any other sovereign nation. I don’t think that we should make an exception when it comes to Israel,” Mamdani said…

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Addressing the House of Commons today, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham denounced as “wrong” and “antisemitic” a recent motion passed by the Green Party defining Zionism as racism, JI’s AJ Rodriguez reports. Burnham stated that the Labour party would “have nothing to do with” the motion and would not sit in a coalition with the Green Party while it maintains such a policy…

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The mayor of Reggio Emilia, Italy, defended the city’s handling of a controversy where Israeli and American Jewish preschool teachers were asked to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza before being permitted to join a trip to his town, denying that the pledge was a requirement to attend, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

After outreach from the State Department, Mayor Marco Massari said the city’s Charter for Democratic and Participatory Education, a document associated with Reggio Emilia’s early childhood education approach, was intended to be an “open document” and not a requirement that visitors sign on to a particular position…

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The Herbert Park Hotel in Dublin canceled 70 rooms booked for participants of an international conference of envoys for combating antisemitism, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Maurice Cohen, the head of the Irish Jewish Representative Council, said at the opening of the summit that the hotel canceled the group’s reservation made in May after finding out the nature of the event and after inquiring if the IDF would be involved, despite having no relevance to the topic of the gathering…

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The Israeli Defense Ministry and the Pentagon signed an agreement today for Israel to acquire 12 Boeing-made Apache “Echo” attack helicopters for the IDF, wtih delivery scheduled to begin early next decade…

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Colombia opened its embassy in Jerusalem today, fulfilling a campaign pledge by President Abelardo de la Espriella and marking a further restoration of ties with Israel under his right-wing party…

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog met today with Bahraini Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani while attending the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Herzog said the two “discussed the friendship and ties between Israel and Bahrain, as well as the importance of the U.S.-led Abraham Accords in strengthening security, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East”…

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New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced that the council will allocate $1.25 million to the Blue Card program — which provides financial assistance to families of Holocaust survivors — to develop a virtual Holocaust education experience and expand educational opportunities for students across the city…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump declined today to answer whether he had decided to order U.S. strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis, telling reporters only that the group is “behaving very badly,” and later wrote on Truth Social that he “thought they learned their lesson a year ago when we bombed the HELL out of them … but now they’ve emerged again, probably at the behest of Iran.” Trump separately said the administration expects to determine its next steps on Iran “very soon”…

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with Trump several times about the possibility of striking Iran before the U.S. midterms and Israeli elections, Axios reports, with the Israeli leader pushing to address Iran’s apparent efforts to reconstitute its nuclear program — though Trump has recently said he has no intention to resume operations against Iran before November…

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The Houthis reportedly attacked today the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, after Riyadh targeted a Yemen Petroleum Company fuel depot; the extent of the damage to Saudi Aramco was unknown, though one source told the Financial Times that the site caught on fire…

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters today that he has no plans to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, as parts of his socialist base have called for him to do, and commended her success in combating violent crime and corruption…

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The Congressional Leadership Fund, the independent expenditure arm of the House GOP aligned with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), is reportedly withdrawing plans for independent spending against Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), alongside several other swing districts the PAC is seen as essentially surrendering to Democrats, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Landsman has been one of the most outspoken pro-Israel Democrats and is running comfortably ahead in a Cincinnati-area district Trump won in 2024…

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MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, is now devoting more resources to countering state threats than during the Cold War, Director General Ken McCallum said today, as the country works to fend off attacks from Iran and Russia. The U.K. has “entered a new era of national security,” McCallum continued, with terrorist and state-threat operations now “pretty much of equal scale”…

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Representatives of the J7 Task Force Against Antisemitism, a body representing the seven largest Jewish diaspora communities, gathered at Herzog Park in Dublin — named for Chaim Herzog, the Dublin-raised sixth president of Israel, which activists have sought to rename — in order “to stand in solidarity with Ireland’s Jewish community and raise concerns about antisemitic rhetoric and actions in Ireland.” The group also conveyed those concerns directly to Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Foreign Affairs Secretary-General Joe Hackett…

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Canada, Australia, France and the U.K. said in a joint statement today that they “deeply regret” the Palestinian Authority’s decision to postpone its elections until September 2027 and urged it to hold a vote “without further delay.” The countries also called on Israel to refrain from actions that could impede the vote and reiterated that Hamas should have no role in the future governance of the Palestinian territories…

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A Delta Air Lines flight arriving in Tel Aviv from New York was cleared today at Ben Gurion Airport after an anonymous report indicated that a “suspicious” device was on board…

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Asked if he’s considering running for president in 2028, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a co-chair of the House Antisemitism Task Force, said during a recent podcast appearance, “I won’t lie — yes, I would love to, but I would also just be happy to be the right-hand or the left-hand man to someone else that has the same values”…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the House of Commons today that the suspected plot targeting the U.S.-run RAF Fairford air base was “highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran” and “almost certainly directed by” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In a joint statement, the U.S. and 27 other countries backed Britain’s assessment, condemned Iran’s use of proxies for attacks on Western soil and vowed to identify, disrupt and prosecute those responsible…

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British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband agreed today to host a meeting of officials from seven countries to coordinate efforts against antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s AJ Rodriguez reports, following talks in London with representatives of the J7 Task Force Against Antisemitism — a body of organizations representing the seven largest Jewish diaspora communities.

William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JI that their discussion with Miliband was “frank and direct. We called him to task for the U.K. government’s sanctions against Israel and its rhetoric, which exacerbate antisemitism and increase the risks Jewish communities face. We made clear that these consequences cannot be brushed aside,” they said.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told JI that, “while there are areas of strong disagreement [with Miliband], we identified some common concerns including our shared view on the bigoted antizionism of the Green Party … But this was just the first conversation. We intend to keep pushing for action and demanding accountability”…

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Former President Barack Obama officially endorsed Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in a video where he praised El-Sayed for refusing corporate money and for supporting “invest[ing] money here, instead of wasting money on endless wars.” Asked about his past criticisms of Obama following his 2012 reelection, El-Sayed said on “Meet the Press” this weekend that he was “younger” and “angry about circumstances” back then…

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El-Sayed’s opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), released an ad pushing back on El-Sayed’s claim that neither he nor his family have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, highlighting a social media post from his sister that said, “My family has long been MB [Muslim Brotherhood],” among other similar reports…

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Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told reporters today that Lebanese and Israeli leaders both expressed to him strong interest in the Michigan Senate race while he was on a trip to the Middle East last week, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

Among his conversations, Lankford said Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told him there was an “extension of [his] party in Michigan that he just initiated.” Berri leads the Amal Movement, a Shia political faction allied with Hezbollah….

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A teenager was killed and 24 others were injured today when an unexploded Hezbollah cluster munition detonated during a school hike in northern Israel near the Lebanon border. The IDF said the explosive had remained in the area from an earlier Hezbollah attack and that the incident remains under investigation…

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American citizens have been detained in Saudi Arabia for photographing recent missile or drone incidents, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh confirmed today, as it warned Americans not to film or share images of intercepted projectiles or impact sites so as not to violate Saudi law…

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Speaking at the TRENDS conference in Abu Dhabi, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo predicted that “the large Islamic nations,” including Malaysia and Indonesia, will “come to see that something akin to the Abraham Accords makes sense for their countries as well,” given Iran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East…

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A federal court in California denied a motion by The Pokémon Company International attempting to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit brought by an Israeli American professional Pokémon player, who claims he was banned from all Pokémon competitions over his efforts to lobby the gaming company to host official tournaments in Israel. The court found that the allegations represent a “plausible claim of discrimination and retaliation,” allowing the case to proceed…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post today that the U.S. is having “productive discussions” with Iran and that he “want[s] to make it clear” that Washington will not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, after reports indicated the president was considering such a move…

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani today shrugged off the protest — which featured jeers of “traitor” and chants of “long live Hamas” — that sought to drown out an event he attended last night memorializing the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

“I was proud to attend last night’s vigil, as I did last year, to listen to testimonies from family members of those who were killed on Oct. 7, and those who’ve been killed in the three years since, and all of whom united in a vision for peace and an end to the genocide in Gaza,” Mamdani told reporters. “As for those protesting me, I am the mayor of New York City, and this is what I signed up for”…

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A planned trip to Reggio Emilia, Italy, for some 100 Jewish early childhood educators from the U.S. and Israel was canceled after participants were required to sign a statement condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The educators were meant to study the Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education, a method long embraced by Jewish preschools. But ahead of the trip, participants were asked to sign a statement declaring, “I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children’s and human beings’ rights in the occupied territories as well as in every places [sic] in the world,” according to a screenshot obtained by JI’s Haley Cohen…

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An ad set to air during the Michigan Senate debate tonight, paid for by a pro-Mike Rogers super PAC, features a mother of a student at Temple Israel who said she identified as a lifelong Democrat but will be voting for Rogers due to remarks by Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed seeming to justify the attack on the synagogue earlier this year…

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British counterterrorism police arrested two Latvian men today after they were found inside RAF Molesworth, an air base used by the U.S. military and NATO for intelligence operations. The men were detained on suspicion of entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the U.K.; police said there is no evidence at this stage linking the incident to the suspected Iran-related plot at RAF Fairford…

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The Israeli Defense Ministry opened a national pavilion and led a delegation of defense firms — including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael — at the Marrakech Airshow in Morocco this week, marking Israel’s first official participation in a Moroccan defense exhibition since signing the Abraham Accords…

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The first Iron Dome Tamir interceptor fully produced and assembled in the United States was delivered to the Israeli Defense Ministry at a ceremony yesterday in East Camden, Ark., attended by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The Raytheon-Rafael facility is the first site outside of Israel to manufacture complete Tamir interceptors, part of the U.S.-Israel missile-defense cooperation program…

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Several speakers at the right-wing National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem this week berated Jews for speaking out against antisemitism, accused Israel of drawing the U.S. into wars and mocked evangelical Christian beliefs about Israel, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Amanda Milius, a conservative documentarian, portrayed those accusing others of antisemitism as being “in a fit of hysteria” and said that doing so is “at risk of becoming [Black Lives Matter] to the younger American right. They are correctly sick of being called racists”…

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Trump clarified that his recent comments about Iran bombing Los Angeles and San Diego were not invitations for Tehran to do so, writing on Truth Social that he only meant to make a comparison between the “small price to pay” of increased gasoline prices amid the Iran war and the regime potentially bombing major U.S. cities…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today to wish him and the Israeli people well on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. Trump called the attacks “a horrible tragedy” and said “the other side is paying a very big price for what they did on Oct. 7”…

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani observed the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks with a statement that opened with a denunciation of Hamas and the “horrific war crimes” it committed that day, but spent most of its length excoriating the Israeli response — drawing fierce criticism from mainstream Jewish organizations, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

“Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them — all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes,” Mamdani’s statement said. “Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.”

UJA-Federation of New York accused Mamdani of choosing “to respond to the grief of Jewish New Yorkers by advancing false and inflammatory attacks against Israel — not only inappropriately shifting the focus away from Hamas’s cruelty, but also placing Jewish New Yorkers at risk”…

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Metropolitan Police in the U.K. arrested 11 individuals today at anti-Israel marches, including five at a “spontaneous protest” outside the Camden headquarters of the Board of Deputies — the representative body of British Jews — for “inciting racial hatred, involving allegedly shouting or chanting slogans calling for intifada,” according to a police statement…

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot visited Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and Kibbutz Be’eri today, saying in a statement that France “will never forget” the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks — “Nothing will erase their faces or their names,” he added. A French official told The Times of Israel that Barrot has no plans to meet with Israeli officials during his visit, as Jerusalem and Paris continue to be at odds over issues including settlements in the West Bank and the war in Gaza…

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The White House has asked the Pentagon to prepare potential options for strikes in Iran to be executed before the midterm elections, The Atlantic reports, as the president considers avenues to signal strength before voters head to the polls…

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Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed recently called far-left influencer Hasan Piker to warn him that his extreme rhetoric was costing the candidate votes and asking him to stop, CNN reports…

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In a lengthy profile on El-Sayed, CNN revealed that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel avoided attending religious services for the High Holy Days after she endorsed El-Sayed, knowing her position was controversial among the Jewish community. Speaking to the outlet, she credited El-Sayed with largely having stopped attacking AIPAC in his public statements, which she said she asked him to do.

Lansing, Mich., Mayor Andy Schor, a Jewish Democrat, also told CNN that he won’t endorse El-Sayed without having spoken to him, and his campaign has not yet made contact. El-Sayed also seems aware of his shortcomings: “I’m not the Democrat the Democrats want, but I am the Democrat that Democrats have,” he told the outlet…

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As of this afternoon, El-Sayed still had not issued a public statement about the Oct. 7 anniversary, unlike many other candidates and elected officials across the country…

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Meanwhile, the Republican Jewish Coalition announced today a $2 million ad campaign targeting Jewish voters in Michigan, highlighting Jewish Democrats who refuse to support El-Sayed, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

Ads from the group call out El-Sayed’s response to the terrorist attack earlier this year on Temple Israel, featuring several self-described lifelong Democrats saying they will not vote for El-Sayed, including a woman who says in the ad that her grandson attended preschool at the synagogue…

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New YouGov polls of key midterm Senate elections found Democrats ahead in Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio as well as Texas, where state Rep. James Talarico is leading his GOP opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, by six points (50%-44%)…

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In an address today at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed Western civilization, drawing a contrast between the Iranian regime, which he cast as a “cult of death” that glorifies martyrdom, and the West’s tradition of loyalty and sacrifice.

Rubio warned that the West has lost its will to fight and its drive to excel, saying that “the ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, a world devoid of risk or failure” — one in which “we hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre”…

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Former Boca Raton, Fla., Mayor Scott Singer, the Republican candidate running against Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) in South Florida, traveled to Qatar in 2024 where he met and was photographed with Qatar’s minister of municipality, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, during a visit to the Qatar Economic Forum with other mayors from around the U.S., JI’s Marc Rod reports.

Singer and Moskowitz have been battling over which one of them is the stronger and more reliable supporter of Israel, in a district with a substantial Jewish population that could be up for grabs in the midterm election…

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The authors of a play about the Oct. 7 attacks are calling for a police investigation after a fire alarm disrupted a showing of the play at Northwestern University yesterday. Alleging that someone intentionally pulled the alarm, playwright Phelim McAleer told Jerusalem News Syndicate, “These people are demonic.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) similarly called for an investigation into the incident, calling it “unacceptable”…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem today, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israel “can and must bear a growing responsibility for its own security, develop military and economic independence and stand up for its own interests,” and that Jerusalem “respect[s] the right and the duty of the United States to put the American people at the top of its policy priorities”…

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Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said similarly at the conference that, “if Americans put America first, like Israelis put Israel first … we can stand up to this new threat and, bound firmly together, toss red-green leftism into the ash heap of history”…

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Roberts told The New Yorker in an exposé on the right-wing think tank released yesterday that he now believes far-right commentator Tucker Carlson is “exacerbating antisemitism in America,” after having previously released a video defending Carlson amid backlash over his friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes — a move that fractured the organization…

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The Telegraph reports that the Green Party member who proposed the “Zionism is racism” motion recently adopted at the party’s conference is a self-described close friend of an al-Qaida terrorist jailed for a foiled 2011 plot to bomb travelers arriving at Heathrow from Israel.

Lubna Speitan had offered to testify in defense of Minh Quang Pham — now serving a 44-year sentence for the plot — and confirmed to the outlet that the two remain friends, suggesting he had been wrongly “targeted” by “the system”…

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Meanwhile, the European Green Party said the British Green Party’s “Zionism is racism” policy runs counter to its support for a two-state solution and that it would immediately seek clarification from the British party’s leadership. German Greens co-leader Felix Banaszak separately called the policy “intolerable and unacceptable”…

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British counterterrorism police arrested a seventh suspect today in connection with the alleged plot targeting the U.S.-run RAF Fairford air base, detaining a 22-year-old British man in London on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. The other six suspects have been released on bail as the investigation continues…

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The Cook Political Report changed its ratings of three key Senate races further in favor of Democrats: Kansas switched from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up,” New Hampshire changed from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democratic” and North Carolina shifted from “Lean Democratic” to “Likely Democratic.” The three races will be critical to deciding which party takes control of the upper chamber…

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Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore would not commit to serving out a full second term if reelected in November, amid speculation that he plans to run for president in 2028: Asked at a gubernatorial debate today if he would serve the entirety of his next term, Moore said, “I would not be running for reelection if I was not committed to the people of Maryland,” and declined to comment further when pressed for a yes or no answer…

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Member of Knesset Zeev Elkin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today as part of an Israeli delegation to Ukraine marking the 85th anniversary of the widespread extermination of Jews by the Nazis at Babyn Yar. Zelensky said the two discussed Iran’s cooperation with Russia as well as regional issues, and stated, “Strong relations between Ukraine and Israel could certainly contribute to our shared security”…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) argued during her first joint campaign appearance with Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed that the Jewish vote is not a monolith and that some Jewish voters are prioritizing issues other than Israel and antisemitism in the state’s upcoming competitive Senate race, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

“There’s no such thing as the Jewish voters, just like there’s no such thing as the Muslim voters or the Black voters. People have their own views and the things that they prioritize are going to drive their vote,” she said during a joint appearance on MS NOW, after participating in a town hall with El-Sayed over the weekend. “But I think frankly … people want to see a Jewish woman and a Muslim man being able to get along, debate, push and pull each other, and move the state forward”…

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Appearing on Fox News this afternoon, El-Sayed declined to answer directly when asked if he supports U.S. terror designations for Muslim Brotherhood chapters in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. “I will support a terrorist designation for any organization that is engaged in or committed to political violence,” he said.

He also praised the Israelis who thwarted the attack on the FlyDubai flight last week, calling terrorism “awful and terrible”…

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Also lending a hand to El-Sayed on the campaign trail is former President Barack Obama, who is set to campaign with the Senate candidate, as well as Michigan Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, in Detroit on Oct. 24…

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Turkey and Pakistan will deploy troops to Saudi Arabia, the three countries said in a joint statement today, as the Kingdom continues to battle the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. The activation of the countries’ trilateral mutual defense pact “demonstrates the credibility of the commitment to collective defense” and “strengthens the effectiveness of deterrence,” the statement said…

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Speaking today at a memorial in Jerusalem for those killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “settle accounts” with the remaining “human beasts” who planned and carried out the attacks; Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that 4,000 of the terrorists who entered Israel on Oct. 7 have already been killed, while 2,000 remain at large…

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Asked if he thinks Iran was responsible for the attack on FlyDubai FZ1073, President Donald Trump told reporters today, “I personally do,” even as investigators have not officially determined Iranian involvement…

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Trump also said that the U.S. moved its B-1 bombers out of the RAF Fairford air base in the U.K. due to “some threats, and rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy.” Vice President JD Vance said similarly today that the planes were moved “out of an abundance of caution, trying to protect our guys” from an unspecified threat from Iran…

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Netanyahu while en route to Iceland today, according to a State Department spokesperson…

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British National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell reportedly visited Israel last week in an effort to prevent the closure of the British consulate in east Jerusalem; Israel ordered the consulate closed in response to British sanctions on West Bank settlements, and an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said it will shut Thursday as planned…

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A Kuwaiti national who attempted to attack the Israeli Embassy in London last year was sentenced today to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years after being convicted of preparing a terrorist act. Abdullah Sabah Albadri, 34, was arrested outside the embassy armed with two knives and carrying a note indicating he was prepared to die as a “martyr”…

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is continuing his travels in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia, where he met today with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, of whom he’s been a vocal critic. In a video update, Murphy said he pressed MBS about Gulf investments with the Trump family and freedom of political speech and discussed the Iran war and Palestinian statehood.

Murphy also visited the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, which was struck by Iranian drones early in the Iran war. He claimed, based on the damage, that the strikes would have caused a “mass casualty event” if they had occurred while the building was occupied…

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Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy, said at a press conference today that countries including the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Costa Rica and Chile are considering adopting or have already decided to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, as several Latin American countries have recently shifted more favorably towards Israel and prioritized combating antisemitism…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

The co-pilot who attacked his captain yesterday during a FlyDubai flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Fox News this morning based on initial findings from the investigation, and had asked his crewmates after being captured to “kill me.”

Netanyahu acknowledged concerns about how the assailant was able to serve as a co-pilot on a flight to Ben Gurion Airport as an Omani national, given that the Abraham Accords bar pilots from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Jerusalem from flying into Israel…

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While Netanyahu cautioned that investigators have not yet determined whether the attacker had ties to Iran or other foreign actors, President Donald Trump told reporters today that, “based on what I’m hearing,” the pilot was in fact linked to Tehran and “could have been” associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

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Netanyahu also said on CBS yesterday that Israel provided the U.K. with intelligence about an “Iranian-sponsored attack” on British soil, “and pretty much the next day they slapped sanctions on us,” referring to the new British sanctions regime targeting Israeli settlements.

Meanwhile, British counterterror officials arrested a 27-year-old dual British-Iranian national in London today on suspicion of plotting a terror attack in connection with the security incident at the U.S.-run RAF Fairford air base over the weekend. Five British men who were initially arrested near the base on suspected explosives and terror offenses have since been released on bail…

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Trump told Time magazine in an interview published this morning that he “can’t imagine” Netanyahu ignored warnings from both the UAE and Egypt in weeks ahead of the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, after reports emerged that the prime minister had been notified of the threats ahead of time.

“You know, I think if he would have known, he would have done something about it. Certainly, he would have had people at least alert,” Trump said…

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Democratic Majority for Israel released a proposal today for a “modernized U.S.-Israel relationship,” with a focus on reimagined ties between the countries following the end of the current memorandum of understanding on military aid, set to expire in 2028, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

The group urged focusing on “more joint development and production in missile defense, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies” but did not fully rule out the potential for “some” continued military aid and missile-defense funding past 2028 — though the group suggested that such aid would likely be phased out “over time, and by mutual agreement”…

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Roughly 20 empty Iranian oil tankers have been stranded off Sri Lanka’s coast — drifting with idled engines as food, fuel and water run low — since July, when the U.S. reimposed its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. Washington has since pressured Sri Lanka into barring local ships from resupplying the vessels and their crews, according to The Wall Street Journal…

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The Pentagon is reportedly sending a third aircraft-carrier strike group and additional Marine Corps ships to the Middle East — adding roughly 9,000 to 10,000 troops — which are set to arrive in the region in November, as Trump publicly weighs renewing strikes on Iran after the midterms. The buildup could bring the U.S. to three carrier-strike groups in the Middle East for the first time since April…

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio waived human rights conditions on $320 million in U.S. military aid to Egypt, citing national security interests and Cairo’s “helpful role” following the start of the war with Iran, according to a State Department memo…

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A CNN investigation found that Jared Kushner‘s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, is the largest shareholder in an Israeli financial group, Phoenix Financial, that holds stakes in Elbit Systems and at least eight other companies supplying the Israeli military — even as Kushner has served as a lead U.S. negotiator in the Gaza war.

Critics say his envoy status — which lets him avoid financial-disclosure requirements — blurs the line between his public role and private profit, though CNN found no sign that Kushner’s diplomacy affected the investments and his attorney said he has never directed Phoenix’s decisions…

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While hundreds of students gathered at the University of Texas at Austin last night to hear far-left streamer Hasan Piker speak about the future of progressive politics, former Israeli hostage Maya Regev was across campus recounting her 50 days in Hamas captivity at a counter-event organized by campus pro-Israel groups in response to Piker’s appearance, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

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The superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools acknowledged today that the district needs to do more to combat antisemitism, responding to a letter earlier this week from more than 40 local rabbis and cantors who warned that school leaders have failed to adequately address a rise in antisemitic incidents, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

In his reply, Thomas Taylor called the school district’s response after a swastika was drawn on a student’s desk last month at Walter Johnson High School a “misstep,” and pledged to address concerns about staff training, student education and harmful social media behavior…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Details continue to emerge about the suspected terror attack this morning on a FlyDubai flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, where a co-pilot stabbed his captain and attempted to crash the plane.

Upon landing safely back at Ben Gurion Airport — after making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, where video showed Saudi attendants offering medical assistance to the Israelis — a group of passengers met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One man, Yaniv Hayoun, described how he burst into the cockpit to subdue the attacker; watch the video of his account with English subtitles here.

The injured captain was identified as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national who has 13 years of experience as a pilot, who is reported to be in stable condition. One passenger was also lightly injured and treated by Magen David Adom in Israel…

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Israel will now ramp up security checks on pilots flying into the country, the Prime Minister’s Office said, including verifying the identities of pilots on both Israeli and foreign carriers…

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Netanyahu spoke with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed following the attack and was expected to speak with President Donald Trump about the matter afterward, according to Hebrew media…

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FlyDubai said it is temporarily suspending all flights to Israel as the incident is under investigation, while El Al announced it expects to restart its Tel Aviv-Dubai route in November…

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U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a BBC interview today that there are “strong indications” Tehran was involved in the suspected terror plot near a British air base housing U.S. military assets for operations against Iran…

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The New York Public Library is coming under scrutiny from Jewish leaders after it hosted author Benjamin Moser at an event where he mocked Jewish fears of antisemitism, ridiculing what he called the “poor me thing that all these Jews are suddenly having,” according to a recording of the event obtained by Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen.

During an event promoting his new book lauding anti-Zionism, Moser also accused “almost all of the main Jewish institutions” in America of having “supported this genocide” — referring to Israel’s war in Gaza — and said “nothing has made Jews look worse in history” than Zionism…

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Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani today defended his administration’s strategy to combat antisemitism by spending heavily on nonprofit-based hate crime prevention, while keeping up his fierce criticism of Israel.

Pressed by JI’s Will Bredderman about the effectiveness of allocating tens of millions of dollars to his Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, which has already seen a boost in funding while antisemitic hate crimes in New York have increased, Mamdani pivoted to discussing his experience learning about the Holocaust as a teenager and pointed to declining public awareness of it…

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The Democratic National Committee announced the launch of a new Jewish constituency council in order to organize and engage Jewish Democrats in advance of the 2028 election, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Adam Goldwyn, a North Dakota state representative who will chair the Jewish American Council, said it is intended to “support critical organizing needs to win elections and ensure Jewish Americans know that a vote for their Democratic candidate is a vote for their values,” as a growing number of Jewish Democrats have felt unwelcome in the party amid rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment…

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Senate Democrats told JI’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs that they’d plan to use federal funding authorities to force the Trump administration to negotiate with the Iranian regime and end the Iran war if their party regains the majority in the next Congress.

In addition to potentially blocking funds for military operations undertaken without congressional authorization, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said Democrats could threaten White House operations funding to put pressure on Trump…

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new four-star military command dedicated to drone and robotic warfare, aimed at speeding up how the Pentagon buys and deploys unmanned systems. The “Autonomous Warfare Command,” set to be running by October 2027, is meant to give the U.S. a homegrown supply of cheap drones…