• We’re closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East following last night’s escalation between Israel and Iran. Earlier this morning, Iran and its Houthi proxy fired several barrages at Israel, and Israel struck an Iranian petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran as well as additional targets that the IDF described as “strategic defense systems” belonging to the Iranian regime. Early this afternoon local time, Iran reportedly said it was halting its fire against Israel. More below.
• President Donald Trump said that “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting,’” in a post on Truth Social early Monday morning. For the latest developments delivered throughout the day, premium subscribers can stay updated with JI’s What We’re Watching live briefing.
• The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding its markup of the 2027 NDAA.
• Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin will be the keynote speakers at tonight’s annual Rabin lecture hosted by Washington Hebrew Congregation and the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School.
• Elsewhere in Washington, the American Council on Education is convening faith-based higher education leaders today for a daylong summit.
• Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani are both expected to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight in New York, where the Knicks will take on the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks lead 2-0 in the best-of-seven championship series.
• The Seminar Annual Forum in Scottsdale, Ariz., kicked off yesterday and runs through tomorrow. Among those slated to speak is Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

Millions of people across northern Israel heard a familiar sound from their phones late Sunday night: an alert from Israel’s Homefront Command, notifying them for the first time in two months, of an incoming ballistic missile attack from Iran.

Just after sunrise, residents of Israel’s center — from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — received the same notification, and groggily huddled in shelters as Iran, joined by its Houthi proxy in Yemen, launched fresh salvos at Israel. Shortly after, Israel struck a petrochemical plant in southwest Iran.

Last night’s initial Iranian attack came in response to Israeli strikes in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold that had in recent weeks been off-limits to the IDF in accordance with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Lebanon that limited Israeli action to southern Lebanon, another Hezbollah stronghold. 

What matters more than how the latest round of fighting started is what will happen next. Israeli media reported that its overnight strikes on Iran had been coordinated with the U.S., even as President Donald Trump spent Sunday afternoon on the phone with reporters trying to publicly de-escalate the situation. But early this afternoon local time, Iran reportedly said it was halting its fire against Israel.

Shortly after Iran’s initial missile attack on Sunday, Trump told Fox News that the incident was “certainly not going to help” the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. He continued, “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”

Trump’s comments could be taken at face value — or viewed with some skepticism in light of the Israeli media reports that the strikes were coordinated with Washington. It would not, after all, be the first time in which the U.S. and Israel publicly emphasized their differences while privately remaining aligned — even amid alleged fissures in the relationship. That includes leaks to NBC News and The New York Times over the weekend that the Defense Department’s Defense Intelligence Agency had raised its counterintelligence threat level for Israel to the highest level. The Times named three U.S. officials that were allegedly being tracked for information on the Iran negotiations: White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, the Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby and Colby’s deputy, Michael DiMino.

But things move fast in the Middle East. Recall that last June, after 12 days of intensive strikes between Israel and Iran, joined by the U.S., a ceasefire was announced mere hours after Iran launched missiles at a U.S. airbase in Qatar. Addressing the overnight escalation between Israel and Iran — and Iran’s continued intransigence in the region — is likely to be the White House’s top order of business today. Indeed, Trump issued his first comments of the day shortly before 6 a.m. ET, posting on his Truth Social site that “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’”

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

No Room for Debate: In his Substack, commentator and “Making Sense” podcast host Sam Harris explains why he refuses to debate critics of Israel. “What do the Jews and Muslims in the region really yearn to accomplish? What are they willing to sacrifice for? What are they willing to die for? And what are they willing to let their children die for? When we focus on the present this way, if we’re being honest, we must concede that there are two very different realities on either side of this conflict: culturally, psychologically, ethically, spiritually — in every way that matters. Yes, Israel has its religious fanatics too. But they aren’t the same sort of fanatics we find in Hamas or Hezbollah, and they’re far less representative of the surrounding culture.” [Substack]

The Platner Paradox: The Washington Post’s Ramesh Ponnuru reacts to efforts by some supporters of embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who last week was the subject of a lengthy New York Times piece in which former girlfriends raised concerns about his behavior, to defend Platner in spite of the latest reporting. “Progressives, who went all in on ‘believe women’ just a few years ago, have in many cases decided that certain exceptions apply. Conservative women whose testimony is inconvenient for Democratic hopes of running the Senate apparently are on that list. … Maine voters are free to support Platner, of course, as are progressive political commentators — notwithstanding the tattoo, the lying about it, the lying about his home loan, the extramarital sexting and everything else. But it’s a strange race to jettison moral standards for.” [WashPost]

Axios spotlights growing concerns among Jewish Democratic officials and political staffers over growing antisemitism — and its acceptance — within the party…

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is calling on the Tampa Sports Authority to reconsider the city’s plans to host two upcoming Kanye West concerts, citing concerns that taxpayer funds will go to support performances by West, who has made numerous antisemitic remarks in recent years…

The Boulder, Colo., Jewish community unveiled a plaque during the Boulder Jewish Film Festival paying tribute to the victims of last year’s antisemitic firebombing targeting a hostage-awareness rally, in which one woman was killed…

The New York Times Magazine profiles director Steven Spielberg ahead of the release of his 35th film, “Disclosure Day,” this weekend…

Actor John Lithgow won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play for his portrayal of antisemitic author Roald Dahl in “Giant”…

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein married Caryn Zucker on Friday; the couple first exchanged vows in a ceremony officiated by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, followed by a religious ceremony at Washington’s Sixth and I synagogue officiated by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt… 

Police in Canada arrested a man in connection with last week’s arson attack at Montreal’s Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, one of the city’s oldest synagogues…

The Bank of Israel purchased approximately $800 million in May in an effort to stem the growing strength of the shekel; the move came as some Israel-based companies and NGOs were forced to downsize as a result of the currency’s appreciating value against a weakening dollar…

Ireland will issue travel bans prohibiting far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering the country… 

One person was killed and five injured in what is believed to be a terror attack in central Israel; the alleged assailant, an Arab Israeli man from the town of Tayibe, was killed by police soon after the spree…

Heedo Abu Laban is joining The New York Times as a reporter and researcher in the outlet’s Jerusalem bureau; Abu Laban previously worked at Israel’s Kan broadcaster and i24News…

Israeli singer Yishai Levi, known for his contributions over the decades to Mizrahi music, died at 63…

William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem on Sunday. Daroff told JI it was a “warm meeting that discussed a wide range of issues of concern to American Jewry and to the diaspora, generally.”

Winner of many Emmy and SAG awards, star of the long-running TV series “The Good Wife,” Julianna Margulies turns 60…

Hebrew University mathematics professor emeritus and 2005 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, Robert Aumann turns 96… Guru of alternative, holistic and integrative medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil turns 84… Hedge fund founder and manager, founder of the Paloma Funds, Selwyn Donald Sussman turns 80… Detective novelist, best known for creating the character of V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky turns 79… Founder and CEO of Sitrick and Company, one of the most prominent crisis management firms in the U.S., Michael Sitrick… Classical pianist, teacher and performer at the Juilliard School and winner of several Grammy Awards, he is the child of Holocaust survivors, Emanuel Ax turns 77… Former member of Knesset from the Zionist Union and Labor parties, now a professor emeritus at Ben-Gurion University, Yosef “Yossi” Yona turns 73… Barbara Jaffe Panken… Senior advisor at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based O2 Investment Partners, Robert Harris “Rob” Orley… Journalist, stand-up comedian, author, cartoonist and blogger, Aaron Freeman turns 70… CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, Stacy Ritter turns 66… AVP for campaign at the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Patti Frazin… Moscow-born, living in the U.S. since 1976, he is a major figure in the Russian energy sector and co-founder and chairman of the Genesis Prize Foundation, Stan Polovets turns 63… Israel’s state comptroller and ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman turns 60… Actor, screenwriter and producer, Dan Futterman turns 59… Former congresswoman (D-AZ), she is a survivor of an assassination attempt near Tucson in 2011, Gabrielle Giffords turns 56… Actor who starred in USA Network’s “Royal Pains,” he also co-wrote and created the CBS series “9JKL,” Mark Feuerstein turns 55… Former executive director at Consulate Health Care in New Port Richey, Fla., Daniel Frenden… Inaugural executive director of American Friends of IDF Widows and Orphans, Daniel Elbaum… Former deputy chief of staff for Charlie Baker when he was governor of Massachusetts, Michael Emanuel Vallarelli… Lead organizer at LA Voice, a multiracial multifaith community organization, Suzy Stone… Businesswoman, art collector and editor, founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Dasha Zhukova turns 45… Fourth-generation supermarket executive at Klein’s ShopRite of Maryland, Marshall Klein… Corporate litigation partner in the Wilmington office of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, Daniel Kirshenbaum… Three-time Tony Award-winning theatrical producer, he is the co-founder at Folk Media Group, Eric J. Kuhn turns 39… CEO of BZ Media and the Bnai Zion Foundation, Rabbi Ari Lamm… Offensive tackle in the NFL for nine seasons until he retired in 2022, his Hebrew name is “Mendel,” Mitchell Schwartz turns 37… 

• President Donald Trump will arrive in China this evening ahead of his meeting tomorrow in Beijing with President Xi Jinping. More below.
• In Washington, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding markups on a number of pieces of legislation, including a resolution condemning attacks on civilians in Sudan and calling for an end to external support for warring parties in the war-torn country.
• Elsewhere in D.C., the Jewish Democratic Council of America’s annual gathering continues. Speakers today include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, pollster Jim Gerstein, former diplomat Dennis Ross, former Pentagon officials Jeremy Bash and Dana Stroul, and former national security officials Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer.
• Tonight, the Israeli Embassy in Washington is holding a belated Yom Ha’atzmaut reception.
• Nonprofit executive Denise Powell defeated Nebraska state Sen. John Cavanaugh by two points (39-37%) in the Democratic primary last night in Nebraska’s 2nd District. Cavanaugh, a consistent Israel critic, was one of 10 state senators who declined to sign onto a resolution supporting Israel and condemning Hamas on the first anniversary of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Powell will face Republican Brinker Harding, an Omaha city councilmember, in a bid to succeed retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).
• President Isaac Herzog is hosting the “President’s Conference for a Shared Israeli Future” today in Jerusalem. Actor Gal Gadot is participating in a panel dedicated to relations between Israel and the Diaspora.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

There will be a number of items on the agenda when the two most powerful men in the world — President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping — meet in Beijing tomorrow, chief among them tech and AI. The president is bringing with him a roster of top business leaders, including Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman.

And while emerging technologies will be a major topic of conversation during the three-day trip, most eyes — and markets — are on the tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.

Beijing has, after all, been playing a major role in the U.S.-Iran conflict — even if it has done so from the margins: serving as the largest importer of oil from the Islamic Republic in violation of U.S. sanctions, meeting with top Iranian officials (including last week’s sit-down between Xi and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi) and transferring weapons to Iran through third countries.

Trump, who has spent much of his second term welcoming leaders to Washington, will be on Xi’s home turf, face-to-face with a leader who is opting not to use his leverage to push Iran into making concessions. The longer the uncertainty continues, the more restless even the president’s most fervent supporters will get — especially with the midterms approaching.

That dynamic is already beginning to play out on Capitol Hill. Yesterday, JI reported on divisions among Republican senators over whether the U.S. should reengage militarily with Iran, while last week, Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI), who is facing a tough reelection battle in his swing district, became the first GOP lawmaker to introduce an authorization for use of military force in Iran.

All of that is good for Xi, and gives him little incentive to use China’s economic and diplomatic leverage over the Islamic Republic, which while knocked down a few pegs, has managed to maintain control despite the severe blows it has been dealt.

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

Dahiya or Dubai?: The New York Times’ Tom Friedman talks to Emirati Lebanese writer Nadim Koteich about the two warring visions for the future of the Middle East, which Koteich refers to as “Dahiya or Dubai” — respectively a Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut and a flourishing Middle Eastern business hub. “Anything this Dahiya vision touches ‘is a kiss of death for a country,’ as Koteich put it. ‘It turns it into another mediocre version of Iran.’ … [The Dubai model] proclaimed that the future belongs to those governments that produce noncorrupt, responsible bureaucracies, and that support moderate Islam, religious pluralism and an openness to the world and anyone eager to bring their talents. … The Dubai model is precisely the one Tehran wants to destroy.” [NYTimes]

AI in the Negev: In The Wall Street Journal, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Mike Doran and Zineb Riboua advocate for the development of a joint U.S.-Israel AI hub in Israel’s Negev desert dubbed by Jerusalem as Project Spire. “Technologies developed at Spire would remain under American ownership, enabling scaling and manufacturing back in the U.S. — creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. A successful Negev base would serve as the prototype. Once proven, the model can be replicated with Britain, Japan, India and other trusted partners. In the contest to neutralize China’s espionage apparatus, Project Spire offers the foundation for enduring American primacy.” [WSJ]

Doing Deals in the ‘Stans: Politico’s Diana Nerozzi and Phelim Kine profile Sergio Gor, President Donald Trump’s envoy to India and Central Asia, who has focused the administration’s efforts in the region on dealmaking. “But Gor’s investment focus is a welcome change to those in the region and Central Asian countries have embraced the Trump administration’s focus on ‘business, business, business,’ said a Washington-based Central Asia diplomat. For Central Asian leaders that’s a welcome shift away from a traditional U.S. focus on governance issues. … ‘He’s much more effective because he has that direct line to the White House,’ a second Central Asian diplomat said. ‘That means he can much more easily overcome the bureaucracy of D.C.’” [Politico]

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday that the Trump administration does not plan to and does not believe it needs to seek congressional approval should it decide to resume military operations in Iran, further sidelining Congress at a time when a growing number of Republicans are becoming hesitant about continued U.S. military operations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Vice President JD Vance tapped Cliff Sims, who served as special assistant to the president and director of White House message strategy in the first Trump administration, to serve as a national security advisor; Sims previously worked closely with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and served as chair of the CIA’s external advisory board…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman has been turned into an “emergency logistics lifeline” for trucks carrying exports bypassing the closed Strait of Hormuz…

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps expanded its definition of the boundaries of the Strait of Hormuz to encompass a much wider area than before the war… 

Kuwait accused Iran of sending members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the strategically located Kuwaiti-held Bubiyan Island earlier this month, where the fighters exchanged fire with Kuwaiti soldiers, injuring one; four of the six IRGC fighters who took part in the attack on the island, located in the Persian Gulf, were arrested…

Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia launched covert strikes against Iran in late March in response to attacks from the Islamic Republic on Saudi territory…

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed into law a bill requiring the disclosure of foreign government funding in statewide K-12 schools; read more about the first-in-the-nation legislation here…

Politico reports on the “overwhelming evidence” that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who cites his background in medicine and experience as a physician in campaign materials and interviews, has “no experience as a licensed medical doctor”…

The New York Times looks at efforts by two GOP-linked super PACs to get involved in Democratic primaries in Nebraska, Texas, Ohio and California to boost their preferred general election candidates, in one instance sending out a mailer in support of a fringe candidate who has espoused antisemitic tropes…

The NYPD arrested four protesters demonstrating outside of a Jewish senior home in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood, which was hosting an event promoting real estate opportunities in Israel… 

In text messages shared on X, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt appeared to denounce antisemitism, calling it a “legitimate mind virus and sign of a decaying society,” adding that he has “been horrified to see how the Jewish community has been vilified over the past few years”…

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, released a new online resource that provides educational materials focused on the American Jewish experience…

The Wall Street Journal interviews Israeli-American therapist Orna Guralnik ahead of the release on Friday of the new series “Couples Therapy,” in which Guralnik plays a major role…

A survey conducted by the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia and presented to the royal commission investigating antisemitism in the country found that 80% of Jewish women surveyed said that they or a family member had experienced antisemitism firsthand in the last two years; the survey also found that of that group, more than two-thirds had been called “genocidal” because they were Jewish, Israeli or Zionist…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing growing calls to step down following last week’s local elections that saw his Labour Party lose more than 1,000 municipal seats…

Israeli singer Noam Bettan advanced to the Eurovision finals after his performance of “Michelle” at last night’s semifinals in Vienna…

Hezbollah head Naim Kassem called on the Lebanese government to pull out of direct talks with Israel, the third round of which is scheduled for Thursday, and return to indirect talks…

The family of slain Israeli American hostage Omer Neutra, who was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and his body taken to Gaza, was awarded an honorary degree from Binghamton University at a reception hosted by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (left) to mark Jewish American Heritage Month.

Emmy Award-winning film, television and stage actress, Zohra Lampert turns 89…

Professor emerita of Yiddish literature at Harvard University, she is presently a distinguished senior fellow at The Tikvah Fund, Ruth Wisse turns 90… Actor and producer, Harvey Keitel turns 87… Ophthalmologist in South Florida, he is the father of Facebook’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg, Dr. Joel Sandberg turns 83… Former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at American Jewish University, Samuel Edelman turns 78… Professor of mathematics at Princeton since 1987, he was a winner of a 1991 MacArthur genius fellowship, Sergiu Klainerman turns 76… Former FDA commissioner in the 1990s, then chief science officer for COVID-19 response during the Biden administration, David A. Kessler turns 75… Retired editor and columnist for the New York Post, he was also managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, Eric Fettmann turns 73… Rabbi Uren Reich turns 70… Chief rabbi of the city of Shoham in central Israel, chairman of the Tzohar organization and rabbi for the Ezra youth movement, Rabbi David Stav turns 66… Founder and former CEO of LRN, a legal research, ethics and compliance management firm, Dov Seidman turns 62… Past chair of JFNA’s National Women’s Philanthropy Board and of the Hartford (Conn.) Federation, Carolyn Gitlin… Retired NFL defensive lineman, he played for the Raiders and Panthers, Josh Heinrich Taves, a/k/a Josh Heinrich, turns 54… Ice hockey player, she won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Sara Ann DeCosta-Hayes turns 49… U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) turns 49… CEO of Friedkin Philanthropies, previously chief Jewish life officer at JFNA, Sarah Eisenman… Former Israel director for J Street, then the chief of staff for Israel’s Ministry for Regional Cooperation, Yael Patir … Member of the U.K.’s House of Lords, she was previously a member of the House of Commons, Baroness Luciana Berger turns 45… Software entrepreneur, Google project manager, then Facebook engineering lead, Justin Rosenstein turns 43… Israeli rapper, singer, songwriter and actor, known by his stage name Tuna, Itay Zvulun turns 42… Retired NFL offensive lineman for seven NFL teams, now a regional manager at Rocksolid, Brian de la Puente turns 41… Actress, writer, producer and director, best known as the creator, writer and star of the HBO series “Girls,” Lena Dunham turns 40… Hannah Sirdofsky… Co-founder in 2018 of Manna Tree Partners, she is the daughter of Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, Gabrielle “Ellie” Rubenstein… Chief of staff and senior program manager at Jigsaw, a unit within Google, she is an alum of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Raquel Saxe Gelb… Therapist in Philadelphia, Bela Galit Krifcher turns 33… Law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Dore Lev Feith turns 30… VP of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, Jesse Martin Arm… Gold medalist for Israel in rhythmic gymnastics at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Linoy Ashram turns 27… 

• President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that a call between Israeli and Lebanese leaders could take place today, following a State Department summit on Tuesday between the ambassadors from the two countries. Israeli Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun were slated to speak, while a Lebanese government official told Reuters earlier today that Beirut was “not aware” of any upcoming contact with Israeli officials.
• Pakistani army chief Asim Munir is in Tehran today for meetings with senior Iranian officials aimed at convening a second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad. Yesterday, Munir met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The meetings come as Pakistani Prime ‌Minister Shehbaz Sharif conducts a multicountry trip through the weekend, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. In Jeddah yesterday, Sharif met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• Voters in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District are heading to the polls today for the election to succeed now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Progressive organizer Analilia Mejia, who since the primary has gotten the backing of top Garden State Democrats, is the favorite to win in the blue district against Republican Joe Hathaway.
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a confirmation hearing for several positions: NTIA Deputy Administrator Adam Cassady to be ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy, attorney Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and the State Department’s Preston Wells Griffith III to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
• The House Appropriations Committee is holding a series of budget hearings over the course of the day. Committee members will hear this afternoon from Karen Evans, the acting administrator of FEMA, which administers the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
• Harvard University is hosting a landmark public conference on antisemitism and civil rights today, one of the terms of a legal settlement between the school and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. More below.
• The Shalom Hartman Institute’s Yehuda Kurtzer and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg will sit in conversation at an event this evening at the Capital Jewish Museum focused on “Jewish America at 250” ahead of the U.S. Semiquincentennial.
• Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington continues today. Speakers today include Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Todd Young (R-IN) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Steve Bannon, former Biden administration official Amos Hochstein and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

There’s been a lot of debate lately over whether President Donald Trump is losing some of his grip on the Republican Party, amid growing economic concerns and the ongoing military operations in Iran.  

While the media coverage has been amplifying any sign of intraparty discontent — to the point that former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is getting strange new respect from some Democrats and mainstream press — polls continue to show Trump with widespread backing from within his own party, and especially within the MAGA faction of the GOP.

Ultimately, election results are the best reality check. And you couldn’t draw up a better test on the degree of Trump’s impact on the Republican Party than examining the results from four states holding highly consequential primaries next month that will be a benchmark of the president’s power.

Key races in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas will speak volumes about the president’s ability to shape the GOP agenda for the remainder of his second term — and most consequentially, whether he will be able to maintain a unified front with his party on continuing to pursue military action against Iran. 

The biggest intraparty showdown, especially when it comes to foreign policy, is the May 19 primary between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and military veteran Ed Gallrein. Massie, one of the few anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, is being opposed by Trump but also has a solid base of grassroots support in the northern Kentucky district, which has thus far supported his anti-establishment brand of politics. But Gallrein has proven to be a credible challenger, raising millions and giving Massie the biggest political test of his career. 

Trump has spent some valuable political capital to boost Gallrein, including appearing at a recent rally in Massie’s district to promote his challenger. He’s been joined by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has poured $3.5 million into the race, airing five ads underscoring Massie’s record of breaking with Trump. (Further drawing Trump’s ire: Massie also joined with Democrats in championing the release of the Epstein files.)

It’s never easy to beat a sitting incumbent, but Trump also has an imposing record of winning primaries in which he chooses to engage. If Massie pulls out a victory despite breaking so flagrantly with Trump on a number of key issues, it will be a sign of the president’s diminished political clout.

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

The Problem with Piker: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik looks at Democrats’ continued embrace of Hasan Piker, despite the far-left streamer’s extensive history of praising terrorists and antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric. “The truth is they’re afraid of challenging Piker because they don’t want to alienate his next-gen Bernie Bro audience — a fear that is greatly exacerbated by their hand-wringing about not being on ‘the right side of history,’ down with the kids. … There’s a deeper problem here, one that is more cognitive, even spiritual: Too few Democrats can see that Piker is obviously, deeply wrong, that he lacks imagination, that he’s ignorant, that he camouflages his ignorance with just enough lingo to make his highly unoriginal neo-Marxist riffs and rants sound incisive.” [FreePress]

The Future of Warfare: In The Wall Street Journal, former CIA Director David Petraeus posits that despite the U.S.’ military successes in Iran, the war in Ukraine is more instructive as to the future of warfare. “War is increasingly defined by unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and mass precision. The Gulf offers useful insights, but Ukraine is the more demanding laboratory. There, the true challenges of unmanned systems at scale and the rapid emergence of autonomous capabilities are already on display. … The Gulf conflict demonstrates what American forces can achieve from a position of strength. Ukraine has shown what war looks like from a more vulnerable position, when that strength is contested at scale.” [WSJ]

At Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington on Wednesday, Chuck Robbins, CEO of the tech giant Cisco, spoke about his decision a decade ago to acquire Leaba Semiconductor, an Israeli company, before it had even developed a product, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…

UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, speaking at the confab, called for the Strait of Hormuz to be an international passageway that is not under the control of any one country…

Also speaking at the summit yesterday, “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, speaking to David Rubenstein, talked about documentarian Ken Burns‘ July 4 tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence out loud with his family, calling it “a Seder for America”…

A second U.S.-sanctioned supertanker entered the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the U.S.’ maritime blockade of the waterway…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how growing economic distress in Iran could push Tehran back to negotiations with the U.S. as it seeks much-needed sanctions relief…

Seb Gorka, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, is reportedly looking to be named the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, following Joe Kent’s resignation last month…

The Financial Times spotlights Paolo Zampolli, a close personal friend of President Donald Trump and the U.S. special representative for global partnerships, as he conducts multibillion-dollar deals on behalf of the White House…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the hurdles facing Kevin Warsh ahead of his confirmation hearing to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve…

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), appearing on “Pod Save America,” praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports… 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a challenge Wednesday to those seeking to challenge her plan to penalize protesters who get too close to religious institutions — “Bring it on.” Announcing new state programs to provide support and security for organizations deemed “vulnerable to hate crimes,” the governor, a Democrat, took questions regarding her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…

Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, apologized for using racist language in social media posts as a teenager, but fell short of addressing more recent comments in which she suggested that Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place,” and celebrated “freedom fighters of Palestine”… 

A new report from Yale University’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education found that universities themselves cultivated significant public distrust of higher education, citing soaring tuition costs, unclear admissions processes and the uneven applications of standards and rules…

Kent Syverud, who earlier this year had been tapped as the next chancellor of the University of Michigan, announced that he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will not assume the position in Ann Arbor; the school’s Board of Regents said it will begin a new search process in the coming days…

Duke University suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on Tuesday, one month after students began submitting complaints about an antisemitic Instagram post from the group, which depicted the U.S. and Israel as pigs frothing at the mouth, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Hebrew Union College President Andrew Rehfeld told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher that the school was “deeply disappointed” by a decision by the Ohio Attorney General’s office to file a lawsuit to block the institution’s plans to shutter its Cincinnati rabbinical programs…

Apple TV released the trailer for the upcoming Israeli thriller series “Unconditional,” which stars Liraz Chamami and Talia Lynne Ronn as a mother-daughter pair stranded in Russia and at the mercy of Moscow crime rings following Ronn’s character’s arrest on drug-smuggling charges… 

“Fauda” co-creator Avi Issacharoff shared a sneak peek of the show’s upcoming fifth season, which takes place in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…

Police in the U.K. arrested two people following an attempted arson attack at a synagogue in North London…

U.K. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for the deportation of foreigners who engage in antisemitism…

Immanuel College, one of London’s only private Jewish secondary schools, is set to close at the end of this year, citing financial challenges…

Kanye West postponed an upcoming show in Marseille, France, after government officials, as well as the mayor of Marseille, suggested the rapper would not be welcome in the country; the decision comes days after U.K. authorities revoked West’s visa ahead of a summer festival he was set to headline in the country…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law legislation levying criminal penalties — including fines and prison sentences — against individuals convicted of antisemitic offenses…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar spoke by phone on Wednesday, with a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office saying that the incoming Hungarian leader invited Netanyahu to the country for the 70-year commemoration of the Hungarian Uprising…

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil denied reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was planning to pull its financial support for the league, weeks before its first scheduled U.S. tournament of the season, slated to take place next month at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia… 

Front Office Sports reports that a multiyear deal between Michael Rubin‘s Fanatics and Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority is on the verge of collapse… 

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks is joining Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as a senior strategic advisor; Brooks will continue in his position at the RJC, in addition to his role leading the Jewish Policy Center…

Israel Malachi was named the new director general of Israel’s Finance Ministry after serving for nearly four years as the ministry’s deputy director general…

Amy Marks is joining JCC Association of North America as the organization’s chief advancement officer…

Former “All Things Considered” host Ari Shapiro is joining CNN as a contributor, where he’ll co-host a new podcast focused on digital trends with his former NPR colleague Audie Cornish…

Author and TV producer Barbara Gordon, whose memoir about her addiction to Valium and mental health challenges became a bestseller, died at 90…

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (center right), cut the ribbon at the official launch on Wednesday of ARC Landing Boston, a joint initiative between Healey’s administration and Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. Joining Healey for the ribbon-cutting were New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Sheba Director General Yitshak Kreiss and ARC Innovation Founder and Director Eyal Zimlichman. 

Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress and movie producer, Ellen Barkin turns 72… 

CEO and president of American Express in the 1990s, he now serves on many corporate and charitable boards, Harvey Golub turns 87… Chasidic singer, known by his stage name Mordechai Ben David or MBD, Mordechai Werdyger turns 75… Olympic track-and-field athlete, and survivor of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, Esther Roth-Shachamorov turns 74… Cofounder of Jordan Company LP, a New York private equity firm, David Wayne Zalaznick turns 72… Physician and venture capitalist focused on biotechnology and life-sciences industries, Lindsay Rosenwald turns 71… Professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, Aaron Louis Friedberg, Ph.D. turns 70… Filmmaker, he directed the 2011 documentary “Paul Williams Still Alive” and the 1997 slapstick comedy “Vegas Vacation” starring Chevy Chase, Stephen Kessler turns 66… Former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf turns 64… Former secretary of state of the United States under the Biden administration, Antony John “Tony” Blinken turns 64… Emmy Award-winning television producer and writer, he co-created and produced “Will & Grace” and “Boston Common,” David Sanford Kohan turns 62… Long Island native, he is a Los Angeles pharmacist, Jeffrey D. Marcus… U.S. ambassador to Egypt during the Trump 45 administration, Jonathan Raphael Cohen turns 62… Former mayor of Hoboken, N.J., Dawn Zimmer turns 58… Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. and minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer turns 55… Canada’s minister of the environment, climate change and nature, Julie Dabrusin turns 55… Celebrity plastic surgeon, he is active on social media as “Dr. Miami” and has been on reality TV about his practice, Michael Salzhauer, M.D. turns 54… Board member of Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, Ellen K. Finestone… Founder and president of Glass Ceiling Strategies, she is also a managing director for communications at Climate Power, Alex Glass… Founder of Jewish Fashion Council and journalist at Fabologie, Adi Heyman… Former pitcher in the Washington Nationals organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Richard Sidney Bleier turns 39… Attorney who has served as a law clerk to three Maryland judges, now a VP at JPMorgan Chase, Geoffrey S. Middleberg… Lead product manager at Anthropic, Uriel Kejsefman… Singer, pianist and composer, he is best known as half of the folk-rock duo the Portnoy Brothers, Mendy Portnoy turns 34… Climate and energy transition investor, he was a White House staffer in 2017, Matthew Saunders… Senior client strategy and success manager at Grow Progress, Adam Gotbaum… First baseman and free agent, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Matthew Jared “Mash” Mervis turns 28… Josh Goldstein… Sarah Wolfson…

• Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed this morning that Israel had killed Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, in overnight strikes. Larijani had been designated in January by since-assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to ensure the regime’s survival. Also killed in the overnight strikes was Basij paramilitary force commander Gholamreza Soleimani. Read more here.
• In Washington, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is slated to brief a small bipartisan group of senators on the status of the Iran war in a meeting organized by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
• The meeting comes after a report that Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had engaged in direct communication in recent days. On Monday night, Araghchi denied the back channel, saying that their last communication took place prior to the onset of the war late last month.
• On Capitol Hill, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing on reforming U.S. defense sales with officials from the State and Defense Departments as well as the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
• In the wake of last week’s attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., a delegation of Jewish officials from the Detroit area, including Jewish Federations of North America Chair (and Michigan native) Gary Torgow, Jewish Federation of Detroit CEO Steve Ingber, Temple Israel Rabbi Jennifer Lader and Gary Sikorski, the Detroit federation’s security director, will be meeting with legislators.
• It’s primary day in Illinois. We’ll be closely watching the results of a handful of high-profile Democratic congressional primaries in the Chicagoland area that will offer an early test of pro-Israel groups’ clout.
• The Jewish Funders Network convening wraps up today in San Diego.
• The Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference also concludes today. At this morning’s plenary, New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft will be awarded with the group’s Changemaker Award. The Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein and author and former NFL player Emmanuel Acho are also slated to speak. At this afternoon’s closing session, Scott Galloway, Dan Senor, Pamela Nadell and Nancy and Bob Milgrim, the parents of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Sarah Milgrim, will speak. More below.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Israel has a long history of conflict and military operations in Lebanon, and the IDF is now preparing for a broader ground incursion against Hezbollah.

After Hezbollah joined Hamas in attacking Israel a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Israel launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon and airstrikes against Hezbollah targets throughout the country, most famously killing the terrorist organization’s then-leader Hassan Nasrallah, and conducting its exploding pager operation in the fall of 2024.

But a few months after taking out the group’s entire leadership, leaving in place an uncharismatic and apparently flailing Naim Qassem in charge, Israel, at the behest of the Biden administration, reached a ceasefire with Lebanon in November 2024.

According to that ceasefire, the Lebanese government and military were meant to disarm Hezbollah and ensure it stays out of the area south of the Litani River, some 17 miles north of the border with Israel. Late last year, Israel started to voice concerns that Beirut was not keeping its commitments and that Hezbollah was regrouping.

Now, Israelis are experiencing deja vu: Once again, Hezbollah joined an attack on Israel a day later — this time, from its main patron, Iran — and has frequently launched rockets and missiles at Israel’s north. Israel started out with airstrikes in response, then, over a week later, began limited ground incursions into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government said a million residents — 20% of the country’s population — have been evacuated; the IDF has acknowledged about half that number. Israelis have not been evacuated from Israel’s north — the 2023-2024 policy was unpopular and many residents have not returned — but they are living under constant attack.

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

• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is in Israel today for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir before heading to the United Arab Emirates for Russia-Ukraine talks. Witkoff is expected to travel to Turkey later in the week for talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi aimed at calming tensions between Washington and Tehran.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is traveling to Saudi Arabia today to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, before traveling on to Egypt tomorrow to co-chair the second meeting of the Turkey–Egypt High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism is holding a hearing on terrorism in North Africa with the State Department’s Robert Palladino and Joel Borkert.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing this morning on the Nazis’ use of Swiss banks during World War II. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper is among those testifying at the hearing.
• The House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing this morning on U.S. policy in Lebanon with The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s David Schenker, Hanin Ghaddar and Dana Stroul.
• Elsewhere on the Hill, the Helsinki Commission is holding a hearing on “Securing Syria’s transformation by diminishing Russia’s influence” with The Washington Institute’s Anna Borschevskaya, the Hudson Institute’s Mike Doran and the Atlantic Council’s Richard Outzen.
• The House could vote as soon as today on a massive funding package after the legislation passed the Senate last week. The package also includes a continuing resolution that would keep the Department of Homeland Security funded for 10 days.
• The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is holding its Jewish Advocacy Day today. Gov. Wes Moore, who addressed the group’s legislative breakfast last month, will serve as today’s keynote speaker.
• The Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein will be the featured speaker at Gettysburg College’s 24th annual Blavatt Lecture tonight, where he’ll speak about the semiquincentennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
• In San Francisco, late-night host David Letterman is holding a fundraiser for NY-12 congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg.
• The three-day World Governments Summit kicks off today in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Speakers this year include former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Jeffrey Katzenberg, podcaster Tucker Carlson, MobilEye CEO Amnon Shashua and former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss.
• Web Summit Qatar continues in Doha. Anti-Israel activist Hasan Piker is slated to take the stage later today.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Ohio was once a perennial swing state but, as Democrats have lost ground with working-class voters, it has been a Republican stronghold over the last decade. But it could once again emerge as a political bellwether in 2026, as a test of whether Democrats can make inroads in rebuilding a coalition that can win back national power.

If Democrats want to have hope of regaining the confidence of the silent majority that propelled President Donald Trump to victory in 2024, they’ll need to be able to compete in the Buckeye State. And if Democrats hope to have any outside shot at retaking a Senate majority, the path runs through Ohio as well. 

The state is holding two major races: appointed Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) is facing off against former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who lost his reelection in 2024. Early polling shows the race is competitive. Of note: Brown significantly outraised Husted in fundraising over the last three months of the year, $7.3 million to $1.5 million, and already has more cash-on-hand than the sitting senator.

Brown had been the only statewide Democratic politician to maintain some support with the blue-collar voters that drifted away from the party in the Trump era. Husted, the state’s former lieutenant governor and secretary of state, is a traditional Republican politician with a party-line voting record but is facing the prospect of rough political headwinds this year for the GOP.

And in an open gubernatorial race to succeed the term-limited GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, Democrat Amy Acton is facing off against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, two candidates whose time spent in public service and politics have been quite polarizing.  

Acton, who was head of the state’s Department of Health during the COVID pandemic, ended up leaving the role early amid a chorus of conservative complaints about her heavy-handed approach to coronavirus regulations and safety protocols. Acton, who is Jewish, is hoping her medical background and role as a political outsider will matter more than the polarizing public health controversies. 

Ramaswamy, who made an unlikely jump to presidential politics in 2024 after a career as a biotech entrepreneur, alienated a number of Republicans for his anti-establishment and isolationist messaging during the campaign. But his gubernatorial campaign has tacked more to the center, as he has spoken out against white nationalists within the GOP during his campaign.  His newfound pragmatism helped him receive this month the endorsement of DeWine, who had been an occasional critic. 

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

The Saudi Shift: Bloomberg’s Ethan Bronner looks at the dwindling odds of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia as Riyadh takes an increasingly antagonistic approach to Israel. “Israeli officials are weighing whether the shifts are temporary or Saudi Arabia is permanently redrawing the balance of power in the region in a way that would make normalization impossible. While little has been said publicly inside Israel, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an Israeli diplomat both said the concern is real. … Adding to Israel’s concerns are what some see as an increasingly anti-Israeli tone from Saudi Arabia. The Anti-Defamation League in New York last month said it was ‘alarmed by the increasing frequency and volume of prominent Saudi voices — analysts, journalists, and preachers — using openly antisemitic dog whistles and aggressively pushing anti-Abraham Accords rhetoric.’” [Bloomberg]

War Dividend: The Washington Post’s Shira Rubin spotlights Israeli military-tech startups that have seen surging interest in their products, which were developed and improved over the course of two years of war and real-world battle testing. “By the time the Israeli start-up Kela opened its doors in 2024, its employees had already been serving as reservists on Israel’s battlefields. Once in the office, the team at the military tech firm began experimenting with solutions for overcoming the kinds of problems they’d personally seen drones encounter in war zones like Lebanon, including electronic jamming and signal loss. … Israel’s success in carrying out devastating pager attacks in 2024 against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, intelligence operations in Iran during the 12-day war last year and commando raids to rescue hostages in Gaza have stoked foreign demand for the weapons and other technology used by Israeli troops.” [WashPost]

Doomed to Fail: In a longform post on X, former Sky News Arabia General Manager Nadim Koteich explains why talks between the U.S. and Iran are unlikely to produce a resolution palatable to both the Trump administration and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Totalitarian systems inevitably suffer from catastrophic informational feedback loops. Khamenei’s reality is filtered through a sycophantic intelligence apparatus that interprets genuine domestic fury as the product of CIA machinations. To a man who views 47 years of systemic failure as a ‘foreign conspiracy,’ the concessions [White House Senior Advisor Steve] Witkoff seeks are not terms of a deal, they are ‘nonsense.’ The tragedy of the Islamic Republic is its structural inability to evolve. It is a brittle system that has mistaken rigidity for strength. When Khamenei says the American demands are impossible, we should believe him. The regime he has spent a lifetime fortifying is designed to break, not to bend.” [X]

Warsh of Wall Street: The Wall Street Journal’s Gregory Zuckerman explores the relationship between incoming Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh and his former boss, Stanley Druckenmiller, following President Donald Trump’s announcement on Friday that he was appointing Warsh to the position. “Druckenmiller and Warsh spent over a decade working together at Druckenmiller’s firm, discussing the economy, markets and more, according to people close to the men. Warsh’s relationship with Druckenmiller is one reason Wall Street largely appears comfortable that he will continue the central bank’s tradition of independence, despite pressure from Trump to lower interest rates. … Druckenmiller had made it clear to some on Wall Street that he hoped Warsh would get the job. Trump mentioned that Warsh worked for Druckenmiller in his Truth Social posting announcing his choice.” [WSJ]

Following a New York Times report on Monday that the Trump administration had dropped its demand for Harvard to agree to a $200 million settlement, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social site that he is seeking “One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University”…

A whistleblower complaint filed against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been stalled for eight months as her office refuses to move forward and share the complaint with Congress, saying that the disclosure of its contents could result in “grave damage to national security”…

Outgoing Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) endorsed Peggy Flanagan to be her successor, choosing Minnesota’s lieutenant governor over Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) in this year’s high-profile Democratic primary…

Democratic strategist Morris Katz, who played a key role in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory last year, is pushing progressive groups to back Micah Lasher’s congressional run as the state assemblymember makes a bid in the crowded primary to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY)…

Deborah Lipstadt, the former State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, was named the recipient of this year’s Jonathan Sacks Institute Prize for Outstanding Achievement as a Public Intellectual at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, named for the late U.K. chief rabbi and leading Jewish thinker…

Officials in France issued warrants for two dual French-Israeli citizens who participated in efforts to block trucks carrying humanitarian aid from reaching the Gaza Strip…

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza technocratic group set up to oversee the reconstruction of the enclave changed its logo to that of a Palestinian Authority symbol; in response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the original logo that had been presented to Israeli officials was “entirely different from the one published this evening” and that “Israel will not accept the use of a Palestinian Authority symbol,” adding that the PA “will have no part in the administration of Gaza”…

Iranian state media is facing criticism after the political satire show “Khat-Khati” aired a segment mocking Iranians killed in the country’s recent protests…

The IDF announced Maj. Ella Waweya as the army’s next Arabic-language spokesperson, replacing Col. Avichay Adraee…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a Knesset plenum on Monday marking the 77th anniversary of the first session of the body. 

Monday’s assembly was boycotted by opposition members over Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana’s decision not to invite Supreme Court President Isaac Amit to the plenum. The sole member of the opposition in attendance, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, railed against Netanyahu for excluding Amit from the session, amid a growing rift between the government and judiciary.

Australian actor and author, Isla Fisher turns 50… 

Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1993-2001, Arthur Levitt Jr. turns 95… President and CEO of clothing manufacturer Warnaco Group from 1986 to 2001, at one time she was the only woman CEO of a Fortune 500 industrial company, Linda J. Wachner turns 80… Chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. for almost the full eight years of the Obama administration, formerly president of the Lillian Vernon Corporation, Fred Hochberg turns 74… Partner at Shipman & Goodwin, following 18 years as a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, Joette Katz turns 73… Singer-songwriter, best known for composing “From a Distance,” a big hit for Bette Midler and winner of the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1991, Julie Gold turns 70… Retired member of both houses of the Utah Legislature, she was a co-president of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, Patrice M. Arent turns 70… Former head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Biden administration, now a professor at MIT and Harvard, Eric Steven Lander turns 69… Former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, prior to which he was an alderman of the 43rd Ward of Chicago, Edwin Eisendrath turns 68… Steven F. Schlafer… Member of the Knesset for the National Unity party, Michael Biton turns 56… General counsel of the Girl Scouts of the USA, Diana Hartstein Beinart… French actor with more than 50 film credits and a number of television shows, Vincent Elbaz turns 55… Record producer and music critic, known by her nickname Ultragrrrl, Sarah Lewitinn turns 46… Journalist and television host, best known for her 13-year tenure at CBS News Los Angeles, Brittney Hopper turns 44… Senior director at the GeoEconomics Center of the Atlantic Council, Josh Lipsky… Professional poker player, he won $12.1 million in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2023, Daniel Weinman turns 38… Senior associate program director at CSS/Community Security Service, Joshua Keyak… One of Israel’s most popular singers, his religiously themed music has become popular in Israeli secular culture, Ishay Ribo turns 37… Director at strategic counsel and communications firm Joele Frank, Noam Safier… Director for J Street U at J Street, Erin Beiner… Forward for Ironi Ness Ziona of the Israeli Basketball Premier League, during the 2021-22 season while at Yeshiva University he was the top scorer in all divisions of college basketball, Ryan Turell turns 27… Vice president for advocacy and innovation at the American Jewish Committee and regional director of AJC Atlanta, Dov Wilker… 

• The World Economic Forum wrapped up this morning in Davos, Switzerland. Some of those who are staying for the weekend will be attending tonight’s Shabbat dinner in the Alpine town. Though not an official WEF event, the exclusive annual dinner will bring together roughly 150 conference attendees at the conclusion of the busy week. Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, and Henry Schein Board Chair and CEO Stanley Bergman, will be the dinner’s main speakers this year, joined by Michelle Bolten, the chief of staff to the vice chairman of BlackRock. Rabbi Menachem Berkowitz, who received his semicha from Chabad last week, will give tonight’s d’var Torah, and professor Ricardo Hausmann will share his thoughts on current events, with a focus on Venezuela. Read more about past Shabbat dinners at Davos here.
• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are in the United Arab Emirates for the weekend for meetings aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war following a meeting last night in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was also attended by White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum, that went into the early morning hours.
• The U.N. Human Rights Council is holding an emergency session today on Iran‘s weekslong crackdown on anti-government protesters.
• Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El will hold a special interfaith service tonight honoring Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the longtime Catholic official retires as the archbishop of New York.
• The two-day JLI Leadership Summit starts on Sunday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

Tensions are running high across the Middle East after a week in which the U.S. and Iran lobbed threats at each other, dominating headlines, destabilizing markets and leaving many in the region unnerved at the prospect of renewed military action seven months after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran that included U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday, Trump warned that an “armada” was on its way to the Gulf — a reference to the aircraft carrier and fleet of fighter jets being redeployed from the South China Sea.

In response, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that Iran had its “finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief.”  

Trump, true to form, has been unpredictable and inconsistent in his approach to Tehran — alternating between threatening force and teasing diplomacy. “Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk,” Trump said at a signing ceremony in Davos on Thursday, just hours before he told reporters on Air Force One about the naval deployment to the Gulf. “We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” he said on AF1, managing in one whiplash-inducing sentence to lob a threat at Iran while also offering it a theoretical off-ramp.

The president has proven that he is willing to engage in bold action — especially when it comes to Iran. One has only to look to the 2020 killing of Quds Force head Gen. Qassem Soleimani or the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last June to see that the Trump administration is willing to engage militarily with Iran in ways prior administrations may have not. (Case in point: former President Joe Biden’s issuance in April 2024 of a one-word warning to Iran — “Don’t” — a day before Tehran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel.)

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

Iraq and a Hard Place: Bloomberg’s Sam Bagher observes the difficult decisions facing Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as the country finds itself being pulled by both Iran and the U.S.“The Arab country is torn between Iran, its erstwhile enemy that wants to maintain its longtime grip on its neighbor, and the U.S., the superpower whose disastrous 2003 invasion destroyed the country and destabilized the Middle East for a generation. … Over the past two years, Sudani has largely steered a middle path through the fallout from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war that have humbled Tehran, turned the Jewish state into a regional military hegemon and reshaped the Middle East. But at the same time, taking advantage of Iran’s weakness, he’s worked quietly to move Iraq closer to the US, its wealthy Sunni-led Gulf Arab allies and Turkey. It’s a fine line — he must dismantle Iran-backed militias, entice Western and Gulf Arab investment and bring in American oil companies, all without alienating Shiite political factions backed by Tehran or inviting a stronger response from the Islamic Republic.” [Bloomberg]

Bouncing Bibi: The Financial Times’ Andrew England and James Shotter look at efforts across the Israeli political spectrum to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this year’s election. “As the incumbent, Netanyahu only has to ensure he doesn’t lose. If there is no clear winner — as happened in a string of elections before a 2022 vote — he could remain as caretaker prime minister. Or Netanyahu, as he has done before, could attempt to peel off opponents to form a government. That means only an outright opposition victory, achieved just once in the past 17 years of Netanyahu’s dominance, would dethrone ‘King Bibi’. ‘Politics-wise, Netanyahu pretty much yet again dug himself out of a political grave,’ says Yohanan Plesner, a former member of the Knesset for the centrist Kadima party, now at the Israel Democracy Institute. ‘The least wise thing you can do is predict Netanyahu’s end in politics.’” [FT]

Day-to-Day Hate: In The Washington Post, Or Moshe, who spent more than two years working in the international department of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, warns that antisemitism is increasingly being accepted as a part of society even as attacks against Jews escalate in their brutality and frequency. “I have learned something painful and consistent. Jewish pain is rarely allowed to stand on its own. Instead, it is weighed. Qualified. Contextualized. Explained away. Violence against Jews is treated as a reaction rather than an atrocity. Fear is treated as an exaggeration. Mourning is treated as politics. … Antisemitism today does not always look like the caricatures people expect. It does not always announce itself with slurs or symbols. Sometimes it presents itself as moral clarity. It claims righteousness while denying Jews the right to safety, dignity and self-defense. It insists that Jewish fear is suspicious. That Jewish vulnerability is strategic. That Jewish deaths require footnotes.” [WashPost]

Monuments to Evil: In eJewishPhilanthropy, Menachem Z. Rosensaft calls on New York City leaders, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, to act on a long-standing request from the Jewish community to remove plaques in lower Manhattan honoring French war criminals Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval, who were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of French Jews during the Holocaust. “The two plaques remain as monuments not only to Laval and Pétain, but also to the callous indifference of three successive NYC mayors and municipal administrations to the glorification of two men who epitomized evil. During the primary campaign for last year’s Democratic mayoral nomination, Zohran Mamdani declared that he ‘condemned the Holocaust.’ … Fair enough. I am prepared to take him at his word. As mayor, Mamdani can now demonstrate affirmatively that he is genuinely committed to honor the memory of the more than six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis.”[eJP]

Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud and Israeli President Isaac Herzog both shared optimistic remarks about the region’s future at a lunch, hosted by Meta President Dina Powell McCormick and philanthropist David Rubenstein, following a signing ceremony inaugurating the new Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports… 

President Donald Trump said he had rescinded his invitation for Canada to join his newly created Board of Peace, amid a deepening rift between Washington and Ottawa and days after Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the world was “in the midst of a rupture”…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met this morning with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in Jerusalem…

The House passed a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, with seven moderate Democrats joining with Republicans to advance the bill in spite of Democratic uproar about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations; the bill, packaged with Pentagon funding legislation, now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain…

House Republicans narrowly defeated a war powers resolution that would have limited the Trump administration’s ability to act in Venezuela without congressional approval; GOP leaders delayed the closing of the vote in order to give Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) time to reach Capitol Hill from Dulles airport via police escort and cast a vote that tied the total count and prevented the resolution from passing…

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) filed paperwork to form a campaign committee as she moves closer to announcing a run for governor in Minnesota…

Former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the school’s anti-Israel protest movement, will likely be rearrested and deported to Algeria, a top Department of Homeland Security official said Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

A federal judge issued an order blocking the Trump administration from retaliating against the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association for their efforts to prevent the detention and deportation of visa holders who engaged in anti-Israel activity…

The NYPD arrested two teenagers in connection with the vandalization of a playground in Gravesend Park, Brooklyn, in which dozens of swastikas were graffitied on structures at the playground in two separate incidents; the teens are facing aggravated harassment charges, with one of them facing an additional charge of criminal mischief as a hate crime…

Children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel is under fire for liking a social media comment calling to “Free america from the Jews”; after posting a tearful apology for her initial engagement with the comment — which she said had been an accident —  the educator responded “ooooooooooohhhhh” to another user’s suggestion that Jews had left the antisemitic comment… 

Israel’s bobsled team, led by Israeli American athlete AJ Edelman, secured a slot in next month’s Winter Olympics in Milan, making history as the country’s first Olympic entrant in the sport; read more about Edelman’s yearslong effort to get an Israeli team to the Olympics here…

Former hostage Emily Damari got engaged to her girlfriend, food influencer Danielle Amit, at a party celebrating the British-Israeli citizen’s one-year anniversary of her release from Hamas captivity…

The U.S. is mulling a full troop withdrawal from Syria, days after Damascus took control over areas previously controlled by the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces; a U.S. assessment found that approximately 200 low-level Islamic State fighters escaped from a Syrian prison earlier this week but had been recaptured after SDF forces abandoned the facility they had been guarding…

Baltimore-based entrepreneur and political fundraiser Michael Bronfein, the co-founder and CEO of Curio Wellness, died at 70…

At the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, Chabad of Bondi, led by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman (pictured), marked the shloshim — the 30-day milestone after death — of the victims of the Hanukkah terror attack at Bondi Beach, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.

Singer-songwriter and one of the world’s best-selling recording artists of all time, Neil Diamond turns 85 on Saturday…

FRIDAY: Real estate developer, Bruce Ratner turns 81… Professor of biological chemistry at Weizmann Institute of Science, David Wallach turns 80… Educational consultant, trade association and non-profit executive, Peter D. Rosenstein turns 79… Manager of Innovative Strategies LLLP, he is a board member of the Baltimore-based Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, Howard K. Cohen… Former U.S. senator (D-DE), Tom Carper turns 79… Israeli archaeologist and professor at the University of Haifa, Estee Dvorjetski turns 75… Former Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa turns 73… President of Lazard, Raymond J. McGuire turns 69… Broadway theater owner, operator, producer and presenter and president of the Nederlander Organization, he is a 13-time Tony Award winner, James L. Nederlander turns 66… Former president of Staples Inc., she serves on the boards of Burlington Stores, CBRE and CarMax, Shira Goodman turns 65… Former CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp for 15 years, Jeremy J. Fingerman… Journalist and co-author of Game Change and Double Down: Game Change 2012, John Heilemann turns 60… Palm Beach, Fla., resident, formerly of Greenwich, Conn., Hilary Bangash Cohen… Journalist, screenwriter and film producer, in 2009 he wrote and produced “The Hurt Locker” for which he won two Academy Awards including for Best Picture, Mark Boal turns 53…Film director, comic book artist and musician, S. Craig Zahler turns 53… Israeli set and production designer for the television and film industries, Arad Sawat turns 51… Fourth rebbe of the Pittsburgh hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Meshulam Eliezer Leifer turns 47… Founder and executive director of Jew in the City, Allison F. Josephs… Strategic communications consultant, Arielle Poleg… Head of Meta’s Instagram, Adam Mosseri turns 43… Manhasset, N.Y., native who competed for Israel in figure skating, she was the 2014 Israeli national champion, Danielle Montalbano turns 37… Retired in 2024 as a soccer player for DC United, he also played on the U.S. men’s national soccer team, Steven Mitchell Birnbaum turns 35… NYC native who competed for Israel in pairs figure skating, she and her partner won silver medals in the 2008 and 2009 Israeli championships, Hayley Anne Sacks turns 35…

SATURDAY: Canadian architect and urban renewal advocate, she is a member of the Bronfman family, Phyllis Barbara Lambert turns 99… Born in Tel Aviv, 2011 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, professor at Technion and Iowa State University, Dan Shechtman turns 85… Chairman of the Sazerac Company and of Crescent Crown Distributing, two of the largest domestic distillers and distributors of spirits and beer in the US, William Goldring turns 83… Professor of modern Jewish history at New York University, Marion Kaplan turns 80… Politician and lawyer who was an official in the Reagan, Bush 43 and Trump administrations, Elliott Abrams turns 78… Professor of alternative dispute resolution and mediation at Hofstra School of Law, Robert Alan Baruch Bush turns 78… Ukrainian-born comedian, actor and writer, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1977 and is noted for the catchphrase “What a country,” Yakov Smirnoff turns 75… Conductor, violinist and violist, who has performed with leading symphony orchestras worldwide, Yuri Bashmet turns 73… VP of strategy at LiveWorld, Daniel Flamberg… Founder of an online software training website which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2015 for $1.5 billion, Lynda Susan Weinman turns 71… Burlingame, California-based surgeon at Peninsula Plastic Surgery, Lorne K. Rosenfield M.D…. Beryl Eckstein… Former senior correspondent for Fox News for 24 years, now a senior correspondent at Newsmax, Rick Leventhal… Former CEO of Ford Motor Company, and now on the boards of Hertz and Qualcomm, Mark Fields (his family’s original name was Finkelman) turns 65… B’nei mitzvah coordinator at Temple Beth Am of Los Angeles, Judith Alban… Former HUD secretary and OMB director, now the president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, a housing non-profit, Shaun Donovan turns 60… Co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy, he served as associate White House counsel in the Obama administration, Ian Bassin turns 50… Journalist and then tax attorney, now chief legal officer at Ripple Fiber, Joshua Runyan… Sporting director for Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Premier League and the FIBA Champions League, Yotam Halperin turns 42… Founder and CEO at TACKMA and a principal at Schottenstein Property Group, Jeffrey Schottenstein… Former regional director of synagogue initiative at AIPAC, Miryam Knafo Schapira… Law Clerk at Fried Frank, Michael Krasna… Musician and former child actor, Jonah Bobo turns 29…

SUNDAY: Senior partner of The Mack Company and a director of Mack-Cali Realty, a real estate investment trust, David S. Mack (family name was Makofsky) turns 84… Israeli peace activist and author, whose fiction and nonfiction books have been translated into more than 30 languages, David Grossman turns 72… Editor-in-chief of The National Memo, Joe Conason (family name was Cohen) turns 72… Retired in 2023 as Dean of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Naamah Kelman-Ezrachi turns 71… SVP and senior portfolio manager in the Los Angeles office of Morgan Stanley, Robert N. Newman… Stage, film and television actress and television director, Dinah Beth Manoff turns 70… Los Angeles resident, Helene S. Ross… Agent at Creative Artists Agency, Michael Glantz… Chief correspondent and executive editor for CBS News “Eye on America” franchise, Jim Axelrod turns 63… Former member of Knesset for Yesh Atid, he also served as minister of education, Shai Moshe Piron turns 61… Founding partner of merchant bank Finback Investment Partners, John Leachman Oliver III… Member of the Canadian Parliament from Montreal since 2015, he won 12 medals in swimming at the 2013 and 2017 Maccabiah Games, Anthony Housefather turns 55… Author of multiple novels, she is a writer-in-residence in Jewish studies at Stanford University, Maya Arad turns 55… Toronto-born movie and television actress, she had a recurring guest role on the Fox TV series “24,” Mia Kirshner turns 51… National political reporter at The Washington Post covering campaigns, Congress and the White House, Michael Scherer… President and CEO of Knollwood Cemetery Corp, David Newman… President of Ukraine since 2019, he is the first Jewish leader of that country, Volodymyr Zelensky turns 48… Member of the U.S House of Representatives (D-FL), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick turns 47… Benjamin L. Newton… Managing VP of executive operations for the National Association of Manufacturers, Mark Isaacson… Member of the Arizona House of Representatives until 2023, Daniel Hernández Jr. turns 36… Actress, writer and director, Pauline Hope Chalamet turns 34… Associate director of foreign policy at JINSA, Ari Cicurel…

• Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is in Washington today, where he’ll meet with Bolivian Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo Carrasco and sign an agreement to renew relations between Jerusalem and La Paz.
• On Capitol Hill, B’nai B’rith International and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) are holding an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the U.N.’s “Zionism = Racism resolution.” Former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), historian Gil Troy and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Ben Cohen are slated to speak, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog will deliver remarks by video.
• At the Washington National Cathedral tonight, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was the target of an arson attack during Passover, and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who gained national prominence for his response to TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination in the state, will sit for a conversation about political violence.
• The Jewish Democratic Council of America is holding its annual Hanukkah party tonight in Washington.
• Yale’s Shabtai group is hosting an event on “The Future of Global Jewry” tonight, featuring Rabbi David Wolpe, Yale professor Paul Franks and Rabbi Shmully Hecht.
• The Jerusalem Post is convening its two-day Washington conference today.
• Abu Dhabi Finance Week continues today in the United Arab Emirates. Speakers today include Stephen Schwarzman, Harvey Schwartz and David Rubenstein.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS AND MATTHEW SHEA

Tucker Carlson, Rob Malley and Bill Gates walk into a Gulf hotel. 

It’s not the beginning of a joke, but rather, part of the speaker lineup at the Doha Forum over the weekend in Qatar.

As we’ve reported frequently over the last year, Doha has gone to great efforts to establish itself as a critical cog in the wheel of a functioning global society. Nowhere were the fruits of that labor on display more than at the two-day Doha Forum, held at the glitzy Sheraton Grand Doha Hotel.

Alongside traditional conference-circuit speakers — among them former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Microsoft founder Gates, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker and Heritage Foundation senior fellow Victoria Coates — were more controversial voices.

Those voices include Carlson as well as Malley, the former Iran envoy who was suspended and had his clearance revoked for his alleged mishandling of classified documents; and Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, which was a co-sponsor of the forum, who has in the past faced accusations of operating as an unregistered foreign agent for Iran.

In Doha, Carlson, a last-minute addition to the forum’s lineup, sat in conversation with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a 20-minute conversation that preceded a sit-down between Donald Trump Jr. and investor Omeed Malik.

When discussing efforts to rebuild Gaza, Carlson suggested that Qatar should refrain from helping “rebuild a region that has been destroyed by a country [Israel] that has also bombed” them. Carlson also mocked Americans and lawmakers who have called out Qatar as a “terror state” or terror “financier,” despite Doha’s well-documented involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood and harboring of Hamas. 

As one longtime attendee of the Forum wrote on X, “[N]ever has Qatar displayed its immense convening power more effectively than this year.”

In an era in which American political figures face blowback for appearing at conferences that also platform extremist voices — such as Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) appearance this fall at Arabcon, where other speakers downplayed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks — more mainstream speakers at the Doha Forum have faced a remarkably low amount of condemnation, and legitimized the conference and its organizers in the process.

That lack of condemnation underscores the degree to which Qatar’s strategy of infiltrating virtually every element of Western society — from media to sports to academia to government — has rendered it a powerful and at times dangerous force, and one that forces for Western values and democracy are unwilling to challenge or confront.

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

Tales from the Quad: In The Washington Post, former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, reflects on the semester he spent teaching at Harvard University. “Yes, you may still find the intellectual underpinnings of Harvard’s embarrassing anti-Israel encampments in some clubs and faculty lounges. You will also find a new president, an observant Jew, who is making sure that similar disruptions of campus life and blatant antisemitism do not reappear, even as serious conservative speakers show up again. … What I’ve experienced may be a natural return to Harvard’s more moderate bearings, following noisy displays of intolerance by campus agitators in recent years. Or it may be due to the Trump administration’s forceful executive orders and fiscal pressure. Either way (and it’s probably both), let’s take the win and learn the broader lesson.” [WashPost]

The MAGA Melee on Israel: Politico’s Ian Ward does a deep dive into the conservative movement’s debate over U.S. support for Israel. “Foreign policy calculations aside, though, [American Conservative editor Curt] Mills acknowledged that much of the swing against Israel is being driven by a visceral sense that the GOP cares more about Israeli priorities than it does about the interests of its own voters. ‘There’s still no wall on the southern border. We still haven’t brought all these factories back. They still have not deported 10 million people,’ Mills told me. ‘But you know what they have done? They’ve kicked people out of the country for pro-Palestinian speech and they’ve bombed Iran.’ That view is enough to qualify Mills as a radical within the conservative movement, but he told me that he sometimes feels like a moderate compared to some of the Gen-Z conservatives. ‘They’re hardcore,’ Mills told me. ‘Frankly, some of them are so radicalized that they are, like, openly sympathetic to Hamas, which [they see as] close to pure freedom fighters.’” [Politico]

President Donald Trump will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Dec. 29 at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., according to the Prime Minister’s Office, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports… 

Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), a co-chair of the House antisemitism task force, will not seek reelection in his newly redrawn Texas congressional district…

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is moving closer to launching a bid for governor of New York; Blakeman, a Republican, would face Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who announced her bid last month…

A New Jersey court ruled that former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who is serving an 11-year sentence for bribery, is ineligible to hold public office or public employment in the state…

David Ellison’s Skydance Paramount is launching a $108 billion hostile bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery following the announced sale of the company to Netflix; filings made public on Monday revealed that Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar were on board to provide financing for Skydance Paramount’s bid…

A high school in San Jose, Calif., is investigating an incident in which students formed a swastika with their bodies and posted the image to social media…

The hate crimes unit of the Toronto police department is investigating an incident at a senior living community over the weekend in which mezuzot around the complex were removed from doorposts…

Argentina’s DAIA, the umbrella organization for the country’s Jewish community, filed a formal complaint after a number of far-left legislators pledged allegiance to a “free Palestine” during a swearing-in ceremony last week…

The New York Times looks at Hamas’ efforts to reconstitute itself and reassert its power in areas of the Gaza Strip from which Israel has withdrawn, challenging efforts by the U.S. and other countries to remove the terror group from power and rebuild the enclave…

Egypt and Iran — both countries where homosexuality can face legal consequences — were assigned the specially designated “Pride Match” celebrating the LGBTQ community during next year’s World Cup; the match, which will be played in Seattle, had been designated by the local organizing committee for the distinction before countries were assigned matches…

Iranian media reports that the trial of a European dual national charged with spying on behalf of Israel during the 12-day June war has begun…

The Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament said in a Telegram channel that he had been summoned by Iranian security agencies in recent weeks over social media activity, including liking and sharing posts about Israel, of some of his constituents…

Pennsylvania State Budget Secretary Uri Monson will depart his role to serve as the executive director of the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System… 

Washington, D.C., philanthropist Shirley Schwalb Small, who served on the boards of the Kennedy Center and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, died at 94…

Social justice activist Cora Weiss died at 91…

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) swore in new members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council on Monday night in Washington. Among those sworn in were American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, philanthropist Tila Falic, Sid Rosenberg, Siggy Flicker, Jonathan Burkan and Matthew Segal.

Film and television actor, Jaren Miles Lewison turns 25…

Retired diplomat who served as Israel’s ambassador to Russia, China and the U.K., Zvi Heifetz turns 69… Los Angeles investor and entrepreneur, she leads Saving Giving, Lisa Zola Greer… Former senior White House aide and deputy secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton and Obama administrations, now vice chair of the Brunswick Group, Neal S. Wolin turns 64… CEO at Alta Vista Partners and former COO of the New York Mets, Jeffrey Scott Wilpon turns 64… Persian-born author of four novels, she is a frequent lecturer on Iranian Jewish history and the topic of exile, Gina B. Nahai turns 64… Senior research fellow at the Cato Institute, Daniel “Dan” Greenberg turns 60… Foreign minister of Israel since 2024, Gideon Sa’ar (born Gideon Zarechansky) turns 59… Governor of Virginia since 2022, his term ends in mid-January, Glenn Allen Youngkin turns 59… U.S. senator (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand turns 59… Violinist and conductor, he is the music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Joshua David Bell turns 58… Singer-songwriter, music producer and founder of StaeFit workout apparel, Stacey Liane Levy Jackson turns 57… President of the National Democratic Institute and former State Department official, Tamara Cofman Wittes turns 56… Singer-songwriter and son of Bob Dylan, he rose to fame as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the rock band the Wallflowers, Jakob Dylan turns 56… Senior rabbi of the Boca Raton Synagogue, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg turns 51… Managing director at Finsbury / FGS Global and a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington until 2022, Eric Wachter… Award-winning screenwriter, film director and producer, Eliza Hittman turns 46… Actor, comedian and musician, best known for his role as Howard Wolowitz in the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” Simon Helberg turns 45… 2015 graduate of Yale Law School, she is a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s immigration law unit’s youth project, Daniella Esther Rohr Adelsberg… Singer, songwriter and entertainer in the Orthodox pop music industry, Mordechai Shapiro turns 36… Digital director at the Abundance Institute, Shoshana Weissmann… Israeli fashion model, Dorit Revelis turns 24…

• U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz is in Israel today for meetings with senior officials. Waltz was in Amman, Jordan, over the weekend, where he and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas met with King Abdullah II to discuss humanitarian aid efforts. Waltz noted that he entered into Israel through the Allenby crossing, which had been briefly closed after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a September terror attack at the crossing. The U.S., Waltz said, was “working hard to keep this crossing open for humanitarian aid and commerce.”
  
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog wraps up his two-day trip to New York today. Following last night’s keynote at Yeshiva University’s Hanukkah dinner (more below on that), he’ll address the American Zionist Movement’s Biennial National Assembly, which concludes today.
  
• Elsewhere in New York, Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin are slated to speak at Temple Emanu-El.
  
• Defense Tech Week begins today in Washington and runs through Friday.
  
• Hillel International’s annual General Assembly kicks off today in Boston.
  
• Abu Dhabi Finance Week kicks off today in the United Arab Emirates. Speakers today include Brevan Howard Asset Management’s Alan Howard, the Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein and Bill Gates.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

The 2028 presidential race is still well over a year away from beginning in earnest. But if there’s any indication about whether Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, long considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, is seriously considering running, it’s that the moderate swing-state governor recently sat down for interviews for two major magazine features — in The Atlantic and The New Yorker — both published in the last week. 

Shapiro faced questions about his ambitions, his successes and failures and his take on the increasingly divisive and vitriolic nature of American politics. The two interviews also offer a fresh look at how Shapiro, one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in America, thinks about and practices Judaism from his perch in Harrisburg. 

When he ran for governor in 2022, his first major campaign ad featured footage of him and his family observing Shabbat. He told The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta that Friday night dinners are “still a sacrosanct moment for our family.” But he also shared that he and his family have lately attended synagogue services “far less than at any other point in our lives.”

Shapiro regularly invokes religion in public addresses, choosing to speak about “my faith” rather than more specifically referring to his Jewish faith. 

“I feel more connected to my faith today than at any other time in my life. Truly. And I probably pray more now than at any other time in my life. But my connection to an institution of prayer, or a sort of formal structure of that prayer, has dramatically decreased,” Shapiro shared. “The sort of ritualistic practices became less of a focus of the way we practice our faith — with the exception, of course, of Friday nights.” 

In conversation with The New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Shapiro opened up about the arson attack on the governor’s residence in April, hours after his family had concluded their Passover Seder. At the October sentencing hearing for the assailant, Shapiro said for the first time that he may have been targeted, in part, for his Jewish faith. 

“The prosecutor felt it was important to introduce into evidence the bomber’s claims that he did that because of ‘what I did to the Palestinians,’ so clearly there was some motivation because of my faith,” Shapiro told The New Yorker, which reported that the dining room — now restored after being severely burned — features a small display of charred cups and dishes from the Seder, to remember that frightening evening. 

But Shapiro’s subsequent comments backed away from personally tagging an antisemitic motive on the perpetrator: “I think it is dangerous for you or anyone else to think about those who perpetrate these violent attacks as linear thinkers, meaning that they have a left-wing ideology or a right-wing ideology, or that they have a firm set of beliefs the way you might or I might. These are clearly irrational thinkers.”

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

Tighten the Screws: In Time, Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi calls for global pressure on Tehran to assist Iranians in their fight against the regime of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “The truth is, Iran is already in a transition. But transitions can move in many directions. The Iranian people have proved their courage. They have endured prisons, censorship, surveillance, bullets, and the loss of their children، yet they continue to fight. Not violently. Violence, whether imposed from outside or from within, is not the answer. What they ask for is not intervention, but recognition; not foreign armies, but international solidarity; not war, but peace. … Change in Iran requires global pressure to end human rights violations, gender apartheid, and executions; to free political and ideological prisoners; and to enable the functioning of civil society institutions. We need the international community to rethink its approach to ‘change’ in Iran, and lay the groundwork for a transition from authoritarianism to democracy.” [Time]

Right to Worship: In the New York Daily News, Ken Marcus, the founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, suggests that New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s accusation that a recent synagogue event on immigration to Israel violated international law, gave a green light to violations of a law protecting access to places of worship. “As the leader of New York City, his words have heavy implications. In one sentence, a spokeswoman for Mamdani undermined the legitimacy of protected religious conduct. This gave protesters a greenlight for antisemitic conduct, sending them a signal that conduct against religious institutions can be morally or politically justified. But the law is not up to the interpretation of Mamdani. Politicians do not have the authority to determine which religious gatherings are protected by federal law. And this is a critical part of the story: a federal civil rights protection was not only ignored, it was challenged by a man who will soon be responsible for upholding it.” [NYDN]

Draft Dodging: In the Jerusalem Journal, Israeli Likud MK Dan Illouz explains why he broke ranks with his party over the recent Haredi draft bill that Illouz does not believe will not rectify the deeply divisive issue. “A fake solution is not unity – it is escapism. A pretend draft law that enshrines inequality instead of addressing it will not calm the public; it will deepen division. It will tell the serving public — the backbone of the Likud — that their burden is invisible. When our soldiers risk their lives, the least we owe them is honesty. Likud voters understand this. They know that without a fair and effective enlistment framework, Israel’s security — and social cohesion — will erode. They know that a country that cannot maintain a strong, broad army cannot survive in the Middle East. And they know that the path to long-term unity between secular, traditional, religious, and Haredi Israelis is not built on denial but on shared responsibility.” [JerusalemJournal]

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff hosted trilateral talks in New York on Sunday between senior Israeli and Qatari officials, including Mossad chief David Barnea; the meeting is part of a broader effort to rebuild Israel’s relations in the region and make progress on the Abraham Accords…

The Trump administration is also looking to broker a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who have not spoken since before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…

Netanyahu, meanwhile, said during a press conference with visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that Israel and Hamas are “very shortly expected” to enter the second phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement… 

President Donald Trump tapped architect Shalom Baranes, who as a child immigrated from Italy with his Libyan-born parents to the U.S. through HIAS, to design the new White House ballroom; Baranes previously led the redesign of the Pentagon after the 9/11 attacks, as well as Washington’s City Center complex and the Georgetown Ritz-Carlton…

Congress released its finalized version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes repeal of sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Civilian Protection Act, as well as repeal of the authorizations for use of military force in Iraq that allowed for the Iraq war and the Gulf War. Those measures are now nearly guaranteed to pass Congress…

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), as well as a group of 13 House members led by Rep. Dave Min (D-CA), introduced bills requiring reports on internet freedom in Iran…

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said in an interview with CBS News’ Lesley Stahl that the recent congressional vote on an antisemitism resolution — which she voted against — was “an exercise that they force on Congress” and that “we don’t have to get on our knees and [denounce antisemitism] over and over again”; when pressed by Stahl that a majority of legislators backed the resolution, Greene responded, “Most members of Congress take donations from AIPAC and I don’t”…

New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill tapped Shlomo Schorr, the legislative director of the New Jersey office of Agudath Israel of America, to serve on her transition team’s Interdisciplinary Advisory Task Force…

A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro suggested that Philadelphia’s main school district “needs to take very seriously” allegations of antisemitism, amid a congressional probe into the School District of Philadelphia’s handling of the issue…

PBS and WETA announced an upcoming four-part docuseries examining Black-Jewish relations; Henry Louis Gates Jr. is serving as the executive producer of the series, which will premiere in early February…

The Washington Post spotlights GOP megadonor Jeff Yass as he increasingly contributes to candidates backing school voucher programs…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports on the Koum Family Foundation’s endowment of the Jan Koum Israel Studies Program at Stanford University, which was announced last month following a three-year pilot program… 

A Brazilian professor at Harvard Law School who was arrested by immigration authorities last week after he pleaded guilty to illegally shooting an air rifle near a Boston-area synagogue will voluntarily leave the United States…

The Real Deal looks at Alex Sapir’s dwindling portfolio and financial struggles, as the real estate developer and former owner of 11 Madison Avenue looks to sell off more of his properties following the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of his father, Tamir Sapir, who had owed more than $100 million in taxes…

Bloomberg interviews writer Salman Rushdie about his new collection of short stories, The Eleventh Hour, as well as Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and the 2022 assassination attempt that left Rushdie with severe injuries…

The U.S. deported more than four dozen Iranians as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s broader crackdown on illegal immigration… 

New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé dropped his primary challenge to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the House minority leader, after failing to get the backing of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America; Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, whom Jeffries endorsed shortly before the November election, had personally lobbied the DSA against backing Ossé’s bid…

The New York Times considers the “canonization” of Hannah Arendt in the 21st century, as her writings have increasingly been adopted by modern-day political observers and repurposed to address current events…

The Wall Street Journal reviews Celeste Marcus’ Chaim Soutine: Genius, Obsession, and a Dramatic Life in Art, the first English-language biography of the French Jewish painter, who died in Paris in 1943…

A senior law enforcement official in West Midlands, U.K., apologized to the Birmingham Jewish community for having told a committee investigating the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from a recent Aston Villa match that members of the Jewish community had supported a ban on the team’s fans…

Reuters reports on efforts by exiled former Syrian officials, including former intelligence chief Kamal Hassan and a cousin of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, to funnel millions of dollars to militants operating in the country in an effort to stage a revolt challenging the current government led by Ahmad al-Sharaa…

Famed architect Frank Gehry, born Frank Owen Goldberg, who has said the curved shape of many of his designs was inspired by the carp his maternal grandmother had in the bathtub as she made gefilte fish, died at 96…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog delivered the keynote address at Yeshiva University’s 101st annual Hanukkah Dinner on Sunday night in New York City.

During his speech, Herzog assailed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, whom he said “makes no effort to conceal his contempt for the Jewish democratic State of Israel, the only nation-state of the Jewish people.”

Referencing an event last month outside Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue in which a mob of anti-Israel demonstrators protested against a Nefesh B’ Nefesh event with chants of “globalize the intifada” and “death to the IDF,” Herzog said, “The incoming mayor’s response was to suggest that Jews who consider fulfilling [aliyah] are violating international law. In the face of such hatred, we must fight back fiercely and fearlessly.”

Read the full story from Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen in eJewishPhilanthropy here.

Tennis player, she won 22 singles titles, in 1968 and 1969 she was ranked No. 2 in the U.S., Julie Heldman turns 80… 

Founder and CEO of Top Rank, a boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas, Bob Arum turns 94… Film, stage and television actor, composer of film and theater music, John Rubinstein turns 79… Israeli folk singer, lyricist, composer and musical arranger, she has released more than 70 albums sold worldwide, winner of the Kinor David (David’s Harp) Prize, Chava Alberstein turns 78… Astrophysicist and senior scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Margaret Geller turns 78… Film director, producer and screenwriter, including box office successes such as “The Parent Trap” and “What Women Want,” Nancy Meyers turns 76… Canadian anthropologist and author of four books promoting Mussar, a Jewish ethical movement, Alan Morinis turns 76… Professor of human development at Cornell University, following high-ranking academic positions at the University of Wyoming, Oklahoma State, Tufts and Yale, Robert J. Sternberg turns 76… Writer, photographer and designer, founder of the Honey Sharp Gallery and Ganesh Café in the Berkshires, Honey Sharp… Bedford, Texas, resident, Douglas H. Bohannon… Senior executive producer of special events at ABC News until his retirement in early 2025, Marc Burstein… Emmy Award-winning sports commentator and journalist, Roy Firestone turns 72… Chairman of a nationwide insurance brokerage, Bruce P. Gendelman… Author of Toward a Meaningful Life, a book that has sold over 400,000 copies, he is the chairman of the Yiddish English weekly, The Algemeiner Journal, Rabbi Simon Jacobson turns 69… Retired administrative law judge at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Nadine Lewis turns 68… Rabbi, speaker and musician known as Rav Shmuel, for 21 years he led the Yeshiva program run by the IDT Corporation in Newark, N.J., Shmuel Skaist turns 61… Co-founder of three successful companies, including Office Tiger in 1999, CloudBlue in 2001, and Xometry in 2013, where he is CEO, Randy Altschuler turns 55… Attorney by training but in real life a social media blogger and author, she is the co-founder of TheLi.st, Rachel Sklar turns 53… CEO of Assemble, Aaron Kissel turns 51… Journalist and founder of the newsletter “Popular Information,” Judd Legum… President and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, Aaron Lerner turns 46… Actor and musician, Dov Yosef Tiefenbach turns 44… Actress, comedian and television writer, Joanna “Jo” Firestone turns 39… Co-founder and former chief scientist at OpenAI, in 2024 he co-founded Safe Superintelligence, Ilya Sutskever turns 39… Artist, Sophia Narrett… Venture capitalist in Israel, Alex Oppenheimer… Partner at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Ali Krimmer…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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