• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are traveling to Moscow today ahead of their meeting tomorrow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Witkoff and Kushner, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, met yesterday in Miami with senior aides to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Pope Leo XIV is in Lebanon this week as part of his first international trip since becoming pontiff. He first traveled to Turkey last week, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the head of the country’s Jewish community.
• Israel Defense Tech Week kicked off this morning at Tel Aviv University. Senior Pentagon official Mike Dodd; Adm. (ret.) Mike Rogers, a former director of the National Security Agency; and Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire are among the two-day conference’s featured speakers.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Ireland has long been competing for the title of most anti-Israel country in the West, and in recent years, the local Jewish community has expressed fears that the country has become systemically antisemitic. Calls to boycott Israel have permeated the political mainstream; the Emerald Isle’s under 3,000 Jews face hostility in schools and workplaces, and physical harassment has increased in recent years. Pleas to the former president not to politicize International Holocaust Memorial Day by making it another occasion to accuse Israel of war crimes fell on deaf ears; Ireland has since elected a president who is even more stridently opposed to the Jewish state.

Yet, Irish Jews and supporters of Israel notched two victories on Sunday.

Ireland is pulling its “Occupied Territories Bill” to boycott Israeli products from the West Bank in light of a “changed political climate” as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported. The legislation faced legal challenges due to its violation of European Union trade rules, and, as several members of Congress pointed out, could run afoul of U.S. states’ laws penalizing those who boycott Israel and damage relations between Washington and Dublin. 

In addition, following an uproar started by the local Jewish community that went global, leading Israel’s leadership and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to sound the alarm, pressuring Ireland’s government, a proposal to remove sixth Israeli President Chaim Herzog’s name from a public park and replace it with a name related to Palestinians was taken off of Dublin City Council’s agenda.

Herzog, father of current Israeli President Isaac Herzog, was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin. He was Israeli ambassador to the U.N. — famously tearing up its “Zionism is racism” resolution — before serving as president in 1983-1993. The park in Dublin was named after Herzog in 1995, to coincide with the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem’s establishment. It is adjacent to Ireland’s only Jewish school and close to major Orthodox and Progressive synagogues.

The current President Herzog, his brother, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Graham and others spoke out, saying “Ireland, once home to a proud, thriving Jewish community, has become the scene of raging antisemitism.”

Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin chimed in soon after, expressing concern that the name change would be seen as antisemitic, and hours later, it was no longer on Dublin City Council’s agenda.

Read the rest of What You Should Know here.

Penny Wise: In The Washington Post, philanthropist and Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky considers the overlap in Jewish and American values as he reflects on the rise in global antisemitism. “My maternal grandfather — who fled pogroms in Lithuania and landed on the shores of northern Mexico, where he became a successful cattle rancher — taught his grandchildren about humility and resourcefulness. He used to say, in Spanish, ‘A man who is too arrogant to pick up a penny is not worth a penny.’ The idea harbored by some that picking up a penny is beneath them, and is disgusting in others, isn’t just bad for Jews. Its manifestation today seems to reflect a cultural crisis marked by economic anxiety, frustration and a growing rejection of the very values that have long been the foundation of the American Dream. The crisis has been marked by the emergence of a victim-oppressor mindset; those who feel left behind often believe that they have no agency, and it is all too easy to deflect responsibility onto convenient scapegoats — including those perennial targets, the Jews.” [WashPost]

Qatar Ready For Its Close-up: Variety’s Nick Vivarelli looks at the effort by Qatar to break into Hollywood amid the backdrop of last week’s Doha Film Festival, which kicked off featuring “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza. “‘We are building the foundations of a world class [film and TV] ecosystem with new infrastructure, production facilities and post-production capabilities supported by vast technology, and data analytics,’ said Hassan Al Thawadi, the Qatari lawyer who oversaw the 2022 World Cup. He is now leading The Qatar Film Committee, an official body that is part of the Media City Qatar hub tasked with driving growth of the country’s entertainment industry. But Al Thawadi made it clear that Hollywood should not be expecting any handouts from Qatar. ‘This agreement is about more than financing films,’ he said, after announcing the relatively modest pact with Neon that involves six to 10 feature films and shorts over a four-year period that Neon will co-finance and distribute. ‘It’s about creating a new platform for Arabic and regional storytelling, ensuring that stories from Qatar and the wider Arab world are seen, celebrated, and shared globally.’” [Variety]

Beyond Denominations: In Tablet, Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz argues that the post-Oct. 7 landscape provides an opportunity for the American Jewish community to find new ways of collaboration and partnership relating to Israel that go beyond the confines of denominations. “We should drop the focus on denominational labels and instead be willing to partner with anyone — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and everything in-between — who is a Zionist. Now that the crisis of war is behind us, how do we together foster a new, inspiring Jewish identity of Oct. 8? We can invite rabbis from other regions and other denominations into our communities to speak and to teach to build bonds. We can also work together and pool resources in programming efforts. More communities can work together to share the messages of Zionist thinkers and authors, artists and musicians. Pooling our resources and ideas can help bridge the American Jewish connection with our Israeli brothers and sisters.” [Tablet]

Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), a pro-Israel stalwart among House Democrats, will run for reelection in his redrawn 1st Congressional District, which under the new state congressional map was won by President Donald Trump by 11 points…

A federal judge ordered the University of Florida’s law school to reinstate a student who had authored a paper arguing that “Jews must be abolished by any means necessary”…

The New York Times interviews former Israeli hostage Segev Kalfon about the more than two years he spent in Hamas captivity in Gaza…

Actor Guy Pearce apologized for sharing antisemitic social media posts, including content that blamed Israel for the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk…

A tribunal affiliated with the U.K.’s National Health Service suspended for 15 months a British-Palestinian doctor who defended Hamas terrorists as “oppressed resistance fighters” and called Israelis “worse than Nazis”…

U.K. police arrested a man in connection with the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur in which two congregants were killed…

A Nazi soldier photographed executing a Jewish man in the Ukrainian town of Vinnitsa was identified using artificial intelligence decades after the image, whose subjects were unknown, gained notoriety during the trial of Adolf Eichmann…

Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said the low-cost European carrier plans to open a hub in Israel in early 2026…

Israeli drone manufacturer Heven AeroTech raised $100 million in a round of funding, led by IonQ, that values the company at more than $1 billion…

Iran said it would boycott the 2026 World Cup draw this week in Washington after the U.S. denied visas to members of the soccer team’s delegation…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met with his Turkish counterpart in Tehran over the weekend, announced a $1.6 billion joint project with Ankara to build a rail link connecting Asia and Europe…

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized an Eswatini-flagged ship carrying oil and more than a dozen crew members as it transited through the Persian Gulf; the incident occurred less than a month after the IRGC seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel that originated in the United Arab Emirates… 

The Wall Street Journal reports on Iran’s efforts to funnel money to Hezbollah through Dubai-based companies…

In The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek reflects on his own marriage and the vows and promises made in his ketubah…

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alexis Lewis, who is Jewish, married in a ceremony co-officiated by Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, a longtime friend of Booker, in Washington over the weekend…

Tony Award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, whose “Leopoldstadt” reflected his own life as an assimilated Englishman who did not learn of his family ties to the Holocaust until adulthood, died at 88… Israeli Maj. Gen. (res.) Dan Tolkowsky, who led the Israeli Air Force from 1953-1958 before going on to found the country’s first VC, died at 104… Tekserve co-founder David Lerner died at 72… Architect Robert A.M. Stern, who gained global acclaim for Manhattan’s 15 Central Park West, died at 86… Psychologist Paul Ekman, whose pioneering work on facial recognition was used by Hollywood animators and the FBI alike, died at 91…

Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, head of the Israel Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense Research & Development, spoke this morning at the International DefenseTech Summit at Tel Aviv University. 

Singer, actress, comedian and author, Bette Midler turns 80… 

Former CEO of Marvel Comics and chairman until 2023 of Disney’s Marvel Entertainment, Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter turns 83… Former EVP of Stuart Weitzman, Jane Weitzman… NYC-based real estate mogul, he owned the New York Post, served as chair of NYC’s MTA and is a noted car collector, Peter Kalikow turns 83… Executive producer of over 200 shows with more than 15,000 hours of television over a lengthy career, David E. Salzman turns 82… Comedian, actor and voice actor best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist,” Jonathan Katz turns 79… Former director of Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, he is now the director of Yashrut, Rabbi Daniel Landes turns 75… Former president of the American Jewish Committee and a board member at Israel Policy Forum, John M. Shapiro… British playwright, director and scriptwriter who has won many awards for his work on the stage, film and television, Stephen Poliakoff turns 73… U.S. senator (R-FL), Rick Scott turns 73… Newly appointed rabbi at Congregation Beth El of Windsor, Ontario, Rabbi Gordon Fuller… Former chair of the board of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Isaac “Ike” Fisher turns 69… U.S. District Court judge in Oregon, Judge Michael H. Simon turns 69… U.S. senator (D-MI), Gary Peters turns 67… CEO of Oracle Corporation until a few months ago, now vice chair of the board, she also joined the board of the recently merged Paramount Skydance, Safra A. Catz turns 64… Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Cambridge, Raymond E. Goldstein turns 64… Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur, David Seldin… CEO at My Pest Pros in Fairfax County (Virginia), Brett Lieberman… Emmy Award-winning stand-up comedian, actress, producer and writer, Sarah Silverman turns 55… Rabbi of Shaarei Tefillah Congregation in Toronto, Rafi Lipner turns 52… Editorial lead in policy communications on the global affairs team at OpenAI, he is the author of a book on military suicides, Yochi J. Dreazen turns 49… Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director, comedian, producer, writer and actor, Akiva Schaffer turns 48… Marketing and communications executive, Natalie Ravitz… Editor-in-chief at Jewish Insider, Josh Kraushaar… Writer and television producer, including for NBC’s primetime series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Evan Daniel Susser turns 40… English teacher at Jerusalem’s Inbar School, the first secular, girls-only middle-high school in Israel, Shira Sacks… Senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, David Milstein… Mexican musician influenced by Sephardic brass and klezmer styles, known by his mononym “Sotelúm,” Jorge Sotelo turns 36… Becky Weissman…

• We’re keeping an eye on Lebanon following an Israeli strike on Sunday that targeted Hezbollah’s chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, amid indications that the Iran-backed terror group, which suffered significant setbacks amid a wave of Israeli attacks last year, was rearming. Israeli intelligence sources said that the strike could prompt Hezbollah to retaliate against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad. More below.
• We’re also monitoring the situation in the Gaza Strip, following Israeli strikes on Hamas targets that were prompted by Hamas gunfire directed at IDF troops.
• In New York, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is slated to make an announcement alongside Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) today in Rockland County.
• Former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel are scheduled to speak tonight about their time in captivity and the fight for Keith’s release at Potomac’s Congregation Beth Sholom.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

In the wake of Mark Mellman’s death last week, the longtime Democratic pollster is being remembered for his leadership of Democratic Majority for Israel, an advocacy group he helped launch in 2019 to counter a growing hostility toward Israel on the left, a value proposition that proved prescient. 

But his role leading the group, in what turned out to be the capstone to his decades-long career, was serendipitous — and almost didn’t happen. 

The group’s founding board members “reached out to Mark for advice on who we should hire,” one of the board members, speaking anonymously to discuss the details of the group’s founding, told Jewish Insider. “And Mark said, ‘I’ll do it.’ We went, ‘OK.’ We weren’t expecting that.”

San Francisco Democratic fundraiser Sam Lauter, a former AIPAC activist who has been involved with DMFI from the beginning, said Mellman’s role atop DMFI gave the group “instant credibility.” Weeks later, Mellman was weighing in on a series of tweets from then-freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) that trafficked in antisemitic tropes. 

As political activists reflect on Mellman’s life, several Jewish Democrats told JI that his clear-eyed support for Israel — and his ability to articulate its strategic importance to Democrats — will leave a lasting impact on the party.

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

X Marks the Spot: In her Substack “Agents of Influence,” Renee DiResta looks at how X’s new “location” feature has revealed the real, and often foreign, origins of accounts claiming to be supporters of the MAGA movement. “I used to work with [X’s disinformation] team as an outside academic analyzing the data sets they would make public; it was a constant cat-and-mouse game, because there is very little penalty for a manipulator beyond losing an account and having to start over. So when X’s ‘About this account’ panel suddenly reveals that one of those big ‘patriot’ culture war accounts is registered in India or Nigeria, that’s not a shocking twist. That is exactly what you’d predict when you understand how this market works. … I saw Pirate Wires had already posted digging into the Israel/Palestine accounts that fight online, highlighting similar inauthenticity — this problem happens outside of the U.S., too.” [AgentsofInfluence]

Dell the Younger:The Information’s Steve LeVine profiles Zach Dell, the son of businessman and philanthropist Michael Dell who launched his startup Base Power two years ago. “Dell concedes that he has basically been tutored since boyhood on exactly this sort of capture-an-industry play. ‘I got to see front row how this is done,’ he said. ‘And I feel very blessed to have had that perspective.’ Watching his father do that in computers, Dell obsessed over building his own ‘great company,’ and not just any great company. ‘I’d been looking for paradigm shifts,’ he said of his early 20s. ‘I was looking for a wave to surf.’ … In 2021, Dell went to work for Thrive Capital, the venture firm founded by Josh Kushner. He was part of an eight-member team that invested in SpaceX and Anduril Industries, both formative experiences. Dell looked up to the billionaire founders of those two companies — Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey — as role models. They went after big traditional Industries — Musk with space, Luckey with weapons — and won.” [TheInformation]

In a surprisingly chummy press conference, President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spoke about their “productive” Oval Office meeting on Friday, yet mostly dodged questions on Israel and antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

The 21 members of the House Jewish Caucus — every Jewish Democrat in the chamber — wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to express “extreme alarm and concern” about recent reporting that the Coast Guard would no longer classify the swastika as a hate symbol, and demanded answers about the policy, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the co-chairs of the Senate antisemitism task force, wrote to Adm. Kevin Lunday, the acting commandant of the Coast Guard, raising additional questions about policy changes regarding displays of swastikas, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Justice Department’s Harmeet Dhillon said that the department is investigating the protest outside a Nefesh B’Nefesh event at the Park East Synagogue last week in which demonstrators chanted “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the IDF”…

Meanwhile in the U.K., anti-Israel activists projected the text “Stolen lands sold here” on the outer wall of a North London synagogue…

Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger accused the Trump administration and outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin of political interference in their efforts to be involved in the hiring of senior administrators and implementation of policies at state’s public colleges and universities; Spanberger had previously requested that the University of Virginia pause its presidential search until she takes office in early 2026…

The Financial Times looks at the relationship between President Donald Trump and Indonesian businessman Hary Tanoesoedibjo as the White House works to encourage Jakarta to join the Abraham Accords and contribute troops to an international peacekeeping force in Gaza…

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) introduced a bill to require schools to treat antisemitic discrimination in the same manner that they treat racial discrimination…

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who is among the most vocal Democratic supporters of Israel in the House, will serve as the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, replacing Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) following her indictment last week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Craig Goldman (R-TX) introduced a resolution to recognize Nov. 30 as “Yom Haplitim,” Jewish Refugee Day…

A GOP operative in Georgia serving as a special advisor to the head of the state party was discovered to have shared — and deleted — xenophobic and antisemitic social media posts, including one mocking Claudia Sheinbaum, the Jewish president of Mexico… 

A pocket watch that had been worn by Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus the night he died in the sinking of the Titanic, and rescued two weeks later when his body was found, fetched $2.3 million at auction; a letter penned by Straus’ wife, Ida, on the ship’s stationery was sold for $131,000…

The U.K.’s Daily Mail and General Trust, which owns the Daily Mail, is in advanced talks with Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI to acquire theDaily Telegraph in a deal worth $655 million…

An annual report issued by the Federation of the Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic found that antisemitic activity in the Central European country had increased by 8.5% from 2023 to 2024…

A judge in Australia ruled that a homeless man who set fire to a Melbourne synagogue earlier this year was experiencing a mental health episodestemming from his failure to take medication to regulate schizophrenia, and not acting out of antisemitic malice…

The IDF is taking action — including censures and dismissals — against roughly a dozen senior officials related to security and military failures during and in the run-up to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…

Israel’s Cabinet approved a plan to bring the remaining 7,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community in India to Israel by 2030 as the group faces security threats and ethnic violence…

The Bank of Israel is expected to lower interest limits for the first time since January 2024, amid hopes that the ceasefire brokered last month will stabilize markets…

Israel’s Cabinet approved diplomats to be sent to posts in the U.S. next summer, doing so in a unanimous vote in its weekly meeting on Sunday. Adi Farjon is set to be Israel’s consul-general to Houston and the Southwest, while Ron Gerstenfeld was appointed consul-general in San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest. The Cabinet also authorized new ambassadors to Ukraine, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica and Uruguay, as well as consuls-general in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Sami Abu Janeb, previously deputy ambassador to Jordan, was appointed consul-general to Dubai, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

Rabbi Saul Kassin, a leader in the Syrian American Jewish community, wrote a letter to the Helsinki Commission, which is evaluating the repeal of Caesar Act sanctions on Syria, distancing the community from Rabbi Yosef Hamra; Kassin said that Hamra “is not a representative of the American Syrian Jewish community” and “has never held any authority, mandate, or permission to speak or act on our behalf in any religious, political, or communal matter” as Hamra advocates for a repeal of the sanctions…

Saudi Arabia is quietly expanding the ability to purchase alcohol in the country, allowing non-Muslims with a special residency status permit to shop at a store that had previously only sold its products to diplomats…

Iran, with assistance from Turkey, is battling wildfires at the ancient Hyrcanian Forests, a UNESCO World Heritage site, resulting from the drought that swept through portions of the country and record high temperatures…

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Eli Zeira, who led the IDF’s intelligence unit during the Yom Kippur War and whose legacy was shaped by his dismissal of warnings of the impending Syrian and Egyptian attack on Israel in 1973, died at 97…

Former hostages Segev Kalfon, Matan Angrest (pictured, with his father), Nimrod Cohen and Bar Kuperstein visited the Ohel, the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s gravesite in Queens, N.Y., over the weekend after meeting with President Donald Trump on Thursday in Washington.

Former co-CEO of global shopping center company Westfield Corporation, he is also chairman of the World Board of Trustees of Keren-Hayesod United Israel Appeal, Steven Lowy turns 63… 

Former member of Congress from Kansas, secretary of Agriculture and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Dan Glickman turns 81… Retired English teacher, Adele Einhorn Sandberg turns 81… Chairman of Lyons Global Insurance Services, he is a senior advisor to the Ashcroft Group, Simcha G. Lyons turns 79… Professor emeritus of chemistry at Bar Ilan University, he is also an ordained rabbi, Aryeh Abraham Frimer turns 79… Coordinator for the International Association of Jewish Free Loans, Tina Sheinbein turns 75… President of Gesher Galicia, Dr. Steven S. Turner turns 74… Actress, best known for her role as Gaby in the film “Gaby: A True Story,” Rachel Chagall turns 73… Senior consultant at Marks Paneth (now CBIZ), he is an honorary VP of the Orthodox Union and a trustee of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, Avery E. Neumark… Partner in the Los Angeles-based law firm of Gordon & Rees, Ronald K. Alberts… Past president of the University of Michigan, Mark Steven Schlissel turns 68… Former coordinator of clinical oncology trials at Englewood Health, Audrey E. Ades… Born to a Jewish family in Havana, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas turns 66… Media executive, lobbyist, and political consultant, Jeff Ballabon turns 63… Author and founder of Nashuva, a Los Angeles-area Jewish outreach community, Rabbi Naomi Levy turns 63… Member of the Knesset for the Democrats (the merger of Labor and Meretz), she is a granddaughter of Rudolf Kastner, Merav Michaeli turns 59… EVP and COO of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Dr. Joshua M. Joseph… Israeli actor and screenwriter, he is best known for portraying Doron Kabilio in the political thriller television series “Fauda,” Lior Raz turns 54… Professional poker player, his tournament winnings exceed $9.5 million, Robert Mizrachi turns 47… President of global affairs and co-head of the Goldman Sachs Global Institute, he is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Jared Cohen turns 44… Olami Texas rabbi at the Austin campus of the University of Texas, Rabbi Moshe Trepp turns 44… Assistant director of the electric unit at the Georgia Public Service Commission, Benjamin Deitchman… Director at Green Strategies, Rachel Kriegsman… Senior director of strategic marketing at Phreesia, Madeline Bloch… Actress best known for her lead role in the Netflix series “Bonding,” Zoe Levin turns 32… Chief of staff for Douglas Murray, Kennedy Lee… Michael Davis… Co-chair of the Bergen AIPAC Network and board member of the New Jersey Jewish Business Alliance, Philip Goldschmiedt…

• The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is hosting a virtual event with former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on his vision for the future of Israel’s security and relationships around the world.
• The Anti-Defamation League is hosting its annual real estate reception in New York City. This year’s event will honor Feil Organization CFO Eric Lowenstein.
• Elsewhere in New York, Birthright Israel is holding its annual gala tonight. Actor Jonah Platt is slated to emcee the evening’s events, which will honor Lynn Schusterman. 
• In Israel, the annual Christian Media Summit kicked off last night in Jerusalem. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

LAS VEGAS — Until last week, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit was expected to be a triumphant gathering to celebrate President Donald Trump’s accomplishments in the Middle East, chief among them his administration’s recently brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Jewish Insider‘s Matthew Kassel reports.

That all changed after Tucker Carlson hosted the neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on his podcast for a sympathetic interview, provoking fierce backlash. By the time that Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, came to Carlson’s defense on Thursday, the RJC recognized its conference would require a thematic update to more forcefully emphasize the urgency of confronting rising antisemitism — and its enablers — within the GOP.

“If there was ever a time for the RJC, this is our time,” Norm Coleman, the organization’s national chairman, said in opening remarks on Friday. “We have been called to this moment to fight the scourge of antisemitism.”

But even as multiple speakers at the three-day summit held at the Venetian Resort — including congressional leaders, conservative activists and media personalities — alluded to antisemitism in their ranks, many talked in broad strokes, didn’t mention Carlson by name or downplayed the issue as confined to the fringes, despite Carlson and Fuentes each commanding a significant number of dedicated followers on the far right.

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

Roberts’ Rules of Disorder: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board weighs in on Heritage Foundation CEO Kevin Roberts’ response to recent antisemitic comments by far-right commentators Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. “Amid criticism on Friday, Mr. Roberts scrambled to list Mr. Fuentes’s odiousness, but his initial contribution was to join in the Jew-baiting. His video framed the issue not as antisemitism, but as Christian freedom of conscience in the face of a hostile attempt to impose loyalty to Israel on Americans. … If conservatives — and Republicans — don’t call out this poison in their own ranks before it corrupts more young minds, the right and America are entering dangerous territory.” [WSJ]

Boycotting The Times: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait reflects on a push by anti-Israel figures to refuse to submit future op-eds to The New York Times over the paper’s perceived bias toward Israel. “But the extent to which these writers object to the sword depends on who is wielding it. The letter’s demands come from a coalition of nine groups, three of which have declined to condemn Hamas for the October 7 attack, while six — the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the Palestine Solidarity Working Group, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Pal-Awda, and National Students for Justice in Palestine — rationalized or directly endorsed the massacre.” [TheAtlantic]

Fear of Mamdani: In the Jewish News Syndicate, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO  and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, raise concerns about New York City mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdami over what they describe as his demonstrated “hostility toward the concerns of the Jewish community and contempt for the broader public interest” ahead of tomorrow’s election. “What begins as a debate about policy too often becomes a campaign of hostility toward Jews. In this context, any candidate who fails to condemn terrorists who burned families alive, abducted civilians, and committed rape and other war crimes, as Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists did in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, forfeits the moral right to seek public office.” [JNS]

PA Still Key: In the National Interest, David Makovsky and Shira Efron posit that the Palestinian Authority Security Forces could serve as an “imperfect but plausible” option on the ground in postwar Gaza. “Despite their shortcomings, these forces have over three decades of experience in security coordination with the IDF in the West Bank. … The PA today is like a car without wheels: it cannot drive Gaza out of the post-October 7 morass. But wheels can be added — reforms that build credibility, training that professionalizes the PA’s security forces, and service delivery that tangibly improves daily life for suffering Gazans. With each milestone, the PA gains a larger role, international donors gain confidence, Israel gains a more stable frontier, Gazans gain a path out of limbo, and Palestinians everywhere regain agency that could help establish a political horizon.” [NationalInterest]

In a wide-ranging CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday night, President Donald Trump described the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as being “very solid”; Trump also said that the U.S. would be “involved” in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, two weeks after the president, speaking at the Knesset, called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu… 

Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would “act as necessary” if Lebanon does not move to fully disarm Hezbollah, amid concerns that the Iran-backed terror group is rearming in defiance of the ceasefire inked last year…

Amos Hochstein, who served as a senior official in the Biden administration overseeing the Lebanon portfolio, cautioned that Israel’s muscular approach to Hezbollah in Lebanon could be “counterproductive” and that Beirut is “in a really tough spot” as it works to shore up international support…

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said his U.S. counterpart, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, canceled a planned trip to Israel following Jerusalem’s decision to hit pause on a $35 billion gas agreement with Egypt that would be the biggest gas deal in Israel’s history…

Video from a May 2024 city council meeting in Hamtramck, Mich., that was recently viewed by local media showed Mayor Amer Ghalib, the Trump administration’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, voicing support for the council’s passage of a boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution targeting Israel; Ghalib told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he had not supported the resolution…

The Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., condemned and apologized for a Halloween float representing a local Catholic school that included a replica of the front gates of Auschwitz with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei”…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Palantir’s new “Meritocracy Fellowship” in which 22 high school graduates spend four months at the company in lieu of pursuing a traditional college track…

A spokesperson for Zohran Mamdani said that the New York City Democratic mayoral candidate, if elected, would reassess the partnership between the Roosevelt Island campus of Cornell University and Israel’s Technion…

Former U.K. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was ousted from the party’s leadership over a series of antisemitism incidents, phone-banked for Mamdani over the weekend…

A London bus driver was suspended after refusing to return a dropped bank card to a visibly Jewish man and hurling antisemitic insults at the passenger for an hour until police arrived…

A French court sentenced four Bulgarian men to prison terms ranging between two and four years over the vandalism last year of Paris’ Holocaust memorial…

The bodies of three Israelis were repatriated to Israel and identified overnight as dual American Israeli citizen Capt. Omer Neutra, Col. Asaf Hamami and Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel; the exchange came a day after Israeli forensics determined that three bodies given to Israel by Hamas on Friday evening did not belong to any of the remaining hostages…

Israel announced a series of tax benefits aimed at luring Israeli high-tech workers abroad back to the country amid an exodus that followed the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and ensuing war…

Canadian Israeli philanthropist Sylvan Adams committed $100 million to help rebuild the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, Israel, which sustained significant damage during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told attendees at the IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain over the weekend that Gulf countries should reverse course on their isolation of Iran and deepen diplomatic, economic and security cooperation with Tehran…

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Iran would rebuild its nuclear facilities with “greater strength,” while denying that the country is seeking nuclear weapons…

The New York Times published a belated obituary for World War II partisan fighter and poet Hannah Senesh as part of the paper’s “Overlooked No More” series; Senesh was executed at age 23 after being captured by the Nazis in 1944…

Dutch-Jewish resistance member Selma van de Perre, who forged and delivered documents and helped Jewish families seeking shelter, died at 103…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem over the weekend with Aryeh Lightstone, who is serving as a senior advisor to White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; White House senior advisor Josh Gruenbaum and venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg, who is working with the U.S. team overseeing ceasefire efforts.

Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine, professor at Yale University, James Rothman turns 75…

Chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary where he also served as a professor of Jewish history, Ismar Schorsch, Ph.D. turns 90… Senior U.S. District Court judge in California, he is the younger brother of retired SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Charles Breyer turns 84… U.S. senator (D-HI), Mazie K. Hirono turns 78… Resident of Great Barrington, Mass., and a part-time researcher at UC Berkeley, Barbara Zheutlin… Rabbi emeritus at Temple Anshe Sholom in Olympia Fields, Ill., Paul Caplan turns 73… Actress, comedian, writer and television producer, best known for the long-running and award-winning television sitcom “Roseanne,” Roseanne Barr turns 73… Comedian, talk show host, political and sports commentator, Dennis Miller turns 72… Manuscript editor and lecturer, author of books on the stigma of childlessness and on the Balfour Declaration, Elliot Jager turns 71… Award-winning Israeli photographer whose works have appeared in galleries in many countries, Naomi Leshem turns 62… Regional director of development for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jeanne Epstein… Podcaster and clinical professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway turns 61… Co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, now CEO of Dreamhaven, Michael Morhaime turns 58… Entrepreneur-in-residence at Loeb Enterprises, he was previously co-chair of the board of the Yeshiva University Museum, Edward Stelzer… VP for federal affairs at CVS Health, she was the White House director of legislative affairs in the last year of the Obama administration, Amy Rosenbaum turns 54… Director of development for States United Democracy Center, Amie Kershner… Partner at political consulting firm GDA Wins, Gabby Adler… Agent at Creative Artists Agency, Rachel Elizabeth Adler… Actress who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for her role on “ABC’s General Hospital,” Julie Berman turns 42… Director of corporate responsibility, communications and engagement at Southern Company Gas, Robin Levy Gray… Senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities, Rowan Morris… General manager of NJ/NY Gotham FC, a women’s soccer team based in Harrison, N.J., Yael Averbuch West turns 39… Former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, he is a co-founder of D.C.-based Compass Coffee, Michael Haft turns 39… New York state senator, Michelle Hinchey turns 38… Deputy coordinator for global China affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Julian Baird Gewirtz turns 36… Recent MBA graduate at The Wharton School, Ben Kirshner turns 33… Marketing manager at American Express, Caroline Michelman turns 33… Founder and CEO of Noyse Publicity Management, Noy Assraf turns 30… Actress and model, Diana Silvers turns 28… Stu Rosenberg…

• We’re keeping an eye on efforts to locate and repatriate the bodies of the 13 remaining Israeli hostages, following President Donald Trump’s warning to Hamas on Saturday that the terror group had 48 hours to begin resuming the transfer of bodies. Teams from Egypt and the Red Cross also joined the effort over the weekend.
• Delegates from around the world are arriving in Israel today ahead of the start of the World Zionist Congress, which begins tomorrow in Jerusalem.
• Members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community are marking the seventh anniversary of the deadly attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in which 11 congregants were killed.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

As a fragile cease-fire holds in Gaza, Jewish Democrats see an opportunity to reengage party Democratic activists and elected officials who have grown frustrated with Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Jewish Insider spoke to more than a dozen fundraisers, activists and professionals in the pro-Israel space, most with a long history of involvement in Democratic politics. Their pitch to Democrats at this precarious moment involves two parts: First, push to make President Donald Trump’s peace plan a reality. Second, ensure that Democrats understand that the value of America’s relationship with Israel is independent from the leader of either country — and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains broadly unpopular with the American left, won’t be in power forever.

Unlike naysayers on the right who suggest Democrats have abandoned Israel — a claim made frequently by Trump — the Jewish activists and communal leaders who advocate for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and for U.S. aid to Israel still insist that support for the Jewish state remains bipartisan, and that congressional Democrats remain broadly pro-Israel. That proposition faced its toughest test during a two-year war, when Democrats became increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinians as Israel’s effort to eradicate Hamas left the Gaza Strip in ruins and claimed thousands of lives.

“I think ending the war turns the temperature down pretty dramatically,” said Brian Romick, CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel. “Right now, what we’re saying is, no matter where you were in the previous two years, we all need the deal to work, and so being for the deal [and] wanting the deal to work is a pro-Israel position right now, and then you build from there.”

At the start of the war, 34% of Democrats sympathized more with Israel, and 31% sympathized more with Palestinians, according to New York Times polling. New data released last month shows that 54% of Democrats now sympathize more with the Palestinians, compared to only 13% with Israel. That stark shift in public opinion corresponded to more Democratic lawmakers voting to condition American military support for Israel than ever before.

“I do think that there is room to build forward,” said Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, which works closely with Democratic lawmakers in deep-blue Massachusetts. “We have to be secure enough in our own belief in the future and our hope for the future to say ‘OK, if your point was that you’re committed to the long-term project of Israel’s security and safety, and you were looking for short term ways to pressure the government of Israel, then let’s move forward with the long-term project, even if we disagreed with you in the short term.’” 

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

Peace Dividends: In The Washington Post, Yuval Noah Harari posits that Israel’s peace treaties with its neighbors have been critical to the country’s survival since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and ensuing war. “Hamas hoped that its attack would trigger an all-out Arab onslaught on Israel, but this failed to materialize. The only entities that undertook direct hostile actions against Israel were Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran and various Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq — none of which had ever recognized Israel’s right to exist. In contrast, Egypt did not break the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1979; Jordan did not break the peace treaty signed in 1994; and the gulf states did not break the treaties signed in 2020. … As we reflect on the terrible events of the past two years, we should not let the silent success of Middle Eastern peace treaties be drowned out by the echoes of violent explosions. The peace treaties Israel had signed with its Arab neighbors have been put to an extremely severe test, and they have held. After years of horrific war, this should encourage people on all sides to give another chance to peace.” [WashPost]

Filling the Void: In The New York Times, James Rubin, an advisor to former Secretaries of State Tony Blinken and Madeleine Albright, considers the elements that could foster long-term calm in the Gaza Strip. “The linchpin of any lasting peace will be the creation and deployment of an international force, a feature of the U.S. peace plan that was announced by President Trump and endorsed by world leaders in Egypt earlier this month and that spawned the cease-fire. The force would create conditions to realize other aspects of the plan: filling the growing security vacuum in Gaza, allowing for Palestinian self-governance and ensuring that Israel will not be threatened. … With a clear plan, a U.N. resolution and a main troop contributor identified, it would then be much easier to fill out the force with actual commitments of personnel and expand the training of a Palestinian contingent, which would ideally over time replace the international forces, as envisioned in the Trump plan.” [NYTimes]

Annexation Angst: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg reflects on potential conflicts between far-right elements of the Israeli government and the Trump administration, on the heels of two Knesset votes regarding West Bank annexation that took place during Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Israel last week. “The more political and economic influence the Gulf states have over Trump and Israel, the more demands they will be able to make of both. Heading off formal annexation of the West Bank is the first ask, but it won’t be the last. Ultimately, the far right’s program of unfettered settler expansion and violence, unending war and eventual settlement in Gaza, and no negotiations with the Palestinian Authority is irreconcilable with a more regionally integrated Israel and an expanded Abraham Accords. In practice, this means that as long as Israel’s settler right holds power over Netanyahu, it will continue to threaten the Trump administration’s agenda.” [TheAtlantic]

The Next British Invasion: In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Pini Dunner suggests that the U.S. accept British Jews as refugees, citing antisemitism in the U.K. that is “marching down the high street, waving flags, shouting slogans,” as well as the recent precedent set by the Trump administration in granting some South Africans a pathway to refugee status. “Let’s offer a lifeline for Jews who can no longer walk the streets of London, Manchester or Birmingham without looking over their shoulders. America has always been a haven. We can open our doors to Jews who no longer feel safe in the country that once promised them safety. Yes, the U.S. refugee system is overwhelmed. Yes, immigration is politically toxic. But this is different. This is moral clarity. Every year, the U.S. admits thousands fleeing persecution because of race, religion or politics. British Jews now fit that category. Their persecutors aren’t warlords or terrorists. They’re neighbors, coworkers, teachers, even police officers — and Jews feel unsafe. When a Western democracy fails to protect its Jews, other countries must act. That isn’t interference, it’s conscience.” [WSJ]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who had held off endorsing a candidate in New York City’s upcoming mayoral election, announced his backing of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani on Friday, the day before early voting began in the city…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared at a Sunday rally for Mamdani in Queens, the first time the governor campaigned for Mamdani since endorsing him last month…

The Lakewood, N.J., Vaad endorsed GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, a week and a half ahead of Ciattarelli’s general election matchup against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), who in recent weeks has stepped up her outreach efforts to the state’s Jewish community…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he would make a decision about the 2028 presidential election after the 2026 midterms, amid speculation that he is preparing for a run…

Northwestern University announced that Provost Kathleen Hagerty will depart the Illinois school by the end of the academic year; the announcement comes a month after the resignation of President Michael Schill amid clashes with the Trump administration over the school’s handling of antisemitism…

British journalist Sami Hamdi, who praised the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, had his U.S. visa revoked during a speaking tour and will be deported over his comments…

A new report from the United States–Israel Business Alliance found that Israeli-founded companies in New York State generated $19.5 billion in gross economic output in 2024…

The Washington Post spotlights the Jewish bubbes who doled out “life advice from a nice Jewish grandma” from a table outside Washington’s Sixth and I Synagogue…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his Cabinet that Israel will determine which countries are “unacceptable” to send troops to Gaza to join an international stabilization force, as The New York Times looks at how tensions between Israel and Turkey are affecting Ankara’s participation in efforts to administer and rebuild postwar Gaza…

British Airways paused its sponsorship of Louis Theroux’s podcast, following an episode that featured an interview with punk musician Bob Vylan, who led cheers of “death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury music festival over the summer; in the interview, Vylan said he would lead the chant “again tomorrow, twice on Sundays”…

Hard-left independent Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly, who has called Israel a “terrorist state,” won the country’s election on Friday; read our profile of Connolly here…

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas designated longtime aide Hussein al-Sheikh as his temporary successor should he vacate his leadership role…

Qatar inaugurated its new embassy in Washington, in the 16th Street NW building that housed the Carnegie Institution for Washington until its sale in 2021…

Israel’s Mossad alleged that a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official oversaw a network of more than 11,000 operatives that was behind at least three Iranian plots against Jewish and Israeli targets in Western countries… 

Iran’s Ayandeh Bank is closing and being folded into the state-run Bank Melli; the shuttering of one of the country’s biggest lenders comes amid a growing economic crisis in the Islamic Republic resulting from crippling international sanctions…

The Financial Times profiles Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, who President Donald Trump has described as his “favorite field marshal,” as the military leader aims to consolidate power in the central Asian country… 

Jon Finer, who served as deputy national security advisor during the Biden administration, is joining the Center for American Progress as a distinguished senior fellow on CAP’s National Security and International Policy team…

Journalist Sid Davis, who covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was one of just three reporters on Air Force One during the swearing-in of President Lyndon B. Johnson, died at 97…

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) met earlier today with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Budapest. Sa’ar was joined on the trip by a delegation of several dozen Israeli business leaders.

Author, actress and comedian, Fran Lebowitz turns 75…

Treasurer of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, Gordon Gerson… Senior U.S. district judge in Maine, he was born in a refugee camp following World War II, Judge George Z. Singal turns 80… Rabbi emeritus at Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom, Gary Glickstein turns 78… SVP at MarketVision Research, Joel M. Schindler… President emeritus of Jewish Creativity International, Robert Goldfarb… Co-chair of a task force at the Bipartisan Policy Center, he is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland and Turkey, Eric Steven Edelman turns 74… Television writer, director and producer, best known as the co-creator of the 122 episodes of “The Nanny,” Peter Marc Jacobson turns 68… Senior advisor and fellow at the Soufan Group following 31 years at the Congressional Research Service, Dr. Kenneth Katzman… Co-owner of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and English soccer club Manchester United, Bryan Glazer turns 61… New York state senator from Manhattan, he serves as chair of the NYS Senate Judiciary Committee, Brad Hoylman-Sigal turns 60… Creator and editor of the Drudge Report, Matt Drudge turns 59… Hasidic cantor and singer known by his first and middle names, Shlomo Simcha Sufrin turns 58… Managing partner of the Los Angeles office of HR&A Advisors, Andrea Batista Schlesinger turns 49… Sportscaster for CBS Sports, Adam Zucker turns 49… Music composer, he is a distinguished senior scholar at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Yotam Haber turns 49… Member of the Netherlands House of Representatives, Gideon “Gidi” Markuszower turns 48… Television meteorologist, currently working for The Weather Channel, Stephanie Abrams turns 47… Writer, attorney and creative writing teacher, she has published two novels and a medical memoir, Elizabeth L. Silver turns 47… Israel’s minister of environmental protection, Idit Silman turns 45… Chair of the Open Society Foundations, founded by his father George Soros, Alexander F. G. Soros turns 40… Israeli actress best known for playing Eve in the Netflix series “Lucifer,” Inbar Lavi turns 39… Senior foreign policy and national security advisor for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Elizabeth (Liz) Leibowitz… Executive producer of online content at WTSP in St. Petersburg, Fla., Theresa Collington… Senior social marketing manager at Amazon, Stephanie Arbetter… Senior director of sales at Arch, Andrew J. Taub… Co-founder of Arch, Ryan Eisenman… Real estate agent and co-founder and president of Bond Companies, Robert J. Bond…

• We’re following today’s events as they unfold in Israel, following the release this morning of the remaining living hostages and President Donald Trump’s arrival in the country. Trump will travel to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, later today for a signing ceremony that will be attended by officials from around the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined an invitation extended earlier today by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, citing the Simchat Torah holiday, which begins this evening in Israel.

A QUICK WORD WITH MELISSA WEISS AND TAMARA ZIEVE

It was the day that Israelis have waited for after more than two years — or two years exactly by the Hebrew calendar. Thousands had already assembled by dawn at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, where some had slept overnight, for the release of the last remaining hostages known to be alive. Shortly after 8 a.m., the first seven hostages — Omri Miran, Matan Angrest, Ziv Berman, Gali Berman, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Alon Ohel and Eitan Mor — were released to Red Cross custody.

The song “Habayta,” meaning “home,” the unofficial anthem of the hostage families, played over a montage of photos of the 47 men and one woman who have spent the last 738 days in captivity — a scene that has repeated itself in the square every Saturday night for two years.

Israeli networks split coverage between the live festivities across the country, in-studio reporting and interviews with hostage families and former hostages. Former hostage Emily Damari called into Israel’s Channel 12 upon the release of her neighbors and friends, twins Zvi and Gali Berman, and said the Shehecheyanu prayer giving thanks — a prayer also recited by the thousands thronging in and around Hostages Square. The crowd erupted in joy at the sight of the two brothers being reunited. 

By midday, the 20 living hostages — also including Avinatan Or, Bar Kupershtein, Ariel and David Cunio, Eitan Horn, Elkana Bohbot, Evyatar David, Maksym Harkin, Matan Zangauker, Nimrod Cohen, Rom Braslavski, Segev Kalfon and Yosef-Chaim Ohana —  were on Israeli soil.

The first images of the men trickled out over the course of the morning: Miran, flanked by his wife and father, wearing a shirt with artwork by his two young daughters; the Berman twins in Maccabi Tel Aviv jerseys; Ohel, pale but smiling and standing on his own, with sunglasses to protect his damaged eyes.

In contrast to previous hostage release, as dictated by the agreement, there were no propaganda ceremonies staged by Hamas as they handed over the captive Israelis. Instead, Hamas made video calls to the hostages’ relatives, who spoke to their loved ones as they stood beside their masked and uniformed captors.

Amid the hostage releases, President Donald Trump descended from Air Force One to the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday morning, where he was greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump — who spoke at Saturday night’s hostage rally in Tel Aviv. Read our coverage of their speeches at the rally here.

Signing the Knesset’s guestbook after his arrival, Trump wrote, “This is my great honor — a great and beautiful day, a new beginning.” 

With the release of the last living hostages, and later today the remains of  four of the 28 deceased hostages, Israel will begin the process of releasing close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in accordance with the first phase of the deal. After that, attention will turn to negotiations surrounding the deal’s second phase. 

After addressing the Knesset, Trump will travel to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for a signing ceremony that will also include Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. Trump’s speech was delayed due to a call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who extended an invitation to Netanyahu to join the ceremony. Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that the prime minister thanked Trump for the invitation, but won’t be able to participate due to the close timing with the beginning of the Simchat Torah holiday this evening.

In Israel, it has been a day of celebration after two years of pain, longing, fear, anxiety. It was the first time in two years that Israelis were able to wholeheartedly greet each other with ‘chag sameach‘  — a greeting that took on a double meaning on the eve of Simchat Torah, which begins this evening. 

But the day will take a heavier turn this afternoon when the remains of just four of the deceased hostages are expected to be returned to Israel, bringing a combination of pain and closure to their loved ones who will finally be able to give them a proper burial. Meanwhile, the 24 other hostage families — who were shocked to learn this afternoon of the low number of bodies that will be released — will be left waiting for the remains of their loved ones to be located and returned home. The Hostages Families Forum called the development a “blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas,” and called on the Israeli government and the mediators to “take immediate action to rectify this grave injustice.” 

Read ‘What You Should Know’ here.

The Families’ Fight: The Free Press’ Matti Friedman reflects on the successes of the movement to free the hostages juxtaposed with the realities of war. “On the day of the Hamas massacres, which ravaged swaths of southern Israel and killed nearly 1,200 people, Israelis saw their feeling of security shattered, along with their faith in their leadership and army and in the basic promise that the helpless chapters of Jewish history had ended conclusively with the founding of the state of Israel. This rupture required psychological repair, and this became inseparable, for some, from the hostages’ return. ‘The slogan ‘Bring Them Home,’ rather than ‘Give Them Back,’ the fact that it’s directed inward, gets at the idea that this is really about restoring our own place and our own agency, which is at the heart of Zionism,’ [Tal] Becker said when we spoke again Sunday. Another popular slogan, seen on bumper stickers and protest signs, reads Nachzir, nakum: ‘We’ll return them and rise.’ Those two acts are linked, the second predicated on the first.” [FreePress]

Sharabi’s Survival: The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer considers what he calls the “existential heroism” of the released Israeli hostages. “Unlike Sharabi, some of the hostages already surmised that they had lost their families in the massacre, shattering the most compelling why of them all. Yet that didn’t diminish their will to live. Despite being secular, they found solace in listening to an observant hostage, the son of a rabbinical scholar, recite the Jewish grace after meals. Like Odysseus, they trained their minds to relentlessly focus on home. ‘There is no more regular Eli,’ Sharabi told himself in his first days in Gaza. ‘From now on, I am Eli the survivor.’ That he clung to optimism in the face of despair wasn’t inevitable.” [TheAtlantic]

Campus Beat: In The New York Times, Danielle Sassoon, who resigned as interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York earlier this year after she refused to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, raises concerns about free speech and civil rights on college campuses. “Universities, no less than the professionals they teach, have an obligation to uphold civil dialogue as the bedrock of a functioning democracy. Administrators continue to overlook that this obligation means they must guarantee forums to explore a diversity of ideas safely and openly. … Students who object to policies of the Trump administration or oppose Israel’s war in Gaza or who advocate abortion rights rarely have to worry that their campus speakers will be disrupted by protesters or generate security concerns related to the backlash of a student mob. Security concerns, real or fabricated, arise when a speaker promises to buck campus orthodoxy. And that is precisely when universities need to stand up for debate rather than surrender to those who would stifle it.” [NYTimes]

What’s Next: In The Times of Israel, Alan Gross, who was held as a political prisoner in Cuba for five years and now lives part-time in Israel, considers how Israelis and Palestinians can rebuild in a post-war era. “Healing will not come from slogans or ceremonies. It will come — slowly, painfully — through remembrance, accountability, and the rebuilding of trust where it has been shattered. It requires rejecting the easy narratives that divide “us” from “them,” and insisting instead on empathy — for our own people, yes, but also for those on the other side who have also lost children, parents, and homes. Too many of us already know what it means to wake up each day in a world changed by violence. Yet it is precisely in that fragile act of continuing — of refusing to surrender our humanity — that recovery begins.” [TOI]

Leaked U.S. documents indicate that Arab countries quietly expanded their military cooperation with Israel in the last three years in what the U.S. called a “Regional Security Construct”…

The New York Times reports on a recently discovered handwritten memo from slain Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar authored weeks before the 2023 attacks that directed Hamas members to set fire to and destroy residential neighborhoods and communities; the memo contradicts claims by other senior Hamas officials that the terror group did not plan to attack civilian areas…

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro raised concerns about the rise of “a conspiratorial right,” noting that social media users “get a lot more likes and clicks if you are promoting an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish agenda than if you are doing the opposite”…

The Atlantic published an excerpt from Rabbi Angela Buchdahl’s upcoming memoir detailing her conversations with a gunman who held a Texas synagogue hostage in January 2022…

The New York Times looks at the effort by Patrick Dumont, the son-in-law of Sands owner Miriam Adelson, to restore the relationship between the NBA and China, two years after relations soured following NBA executives’ pro-democracy social media posts…

The U.K. government directed universities in the country to crack down on campus antisemitism, with Education Minister Bridget Phillipson saying university administrators “have my full backing to use their powers” in “ridding their campuses of hate”… 

French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Sébastien Lecornu, who until last week served a brief stint as prime minister before resigning, to his role amid political and economic deadlock that has paralyzed the country… 

Israeli American hockey player Zeev Buium scored his first NHL goal on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets; Buium, a defenseman for the Minnesota Wild, is believed to be the first Israeli hockey player to ever score a goal in the NHL…

People celebrate in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Monday morning as they watch a livestream of the release. 

Emmy Award-winning film director, producer and screenwriter, Amy J. Berg turns 55…

Former deputy assistant secretary at the USDA, he retired in 2024 as an attorney working on organic food law, Richard D. Siegel turns 86… Musician, singer, songwriter, best known for his lead role in the Simon & Garfunkel duo, Paul Simon turns 84… Past chair of the Anti-Defamation League, Esta Gordon Epstein… Founder of PublicAffairs Books, an imprint of Perseus Books at Hachette Book Group, Peter L.W. Osnos turns 82… Author of 12 cookbooks, Mollie Katzen turns 75… U.S. senator (D-WA), Maria Cantwell turns 67… President of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Rabbi Donniel Hartman turns 67… Former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, now a media consultant and Fox News contributor, Ari Fleischer turns 65… Partner at FGS Global until 2024, Jack Krumholtz… Former Associated Press bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories, now a home builder in the Indian state of Goa, Steven Gutkin… Second gentleman of the United States in the Biden-Harris administration, Douglas Emhoff turns 61… Co-chairman of Disney Entertainment where she is responsible for television and streaming, Dana Freedman Walden turns 61… Richard Lamke… Attorney general for England and Wales for parts of 2021 and 2022, he was a member of the U.K. Parliament for 14 years until 2024, Michael Ellis turns 58… Award-winning actor, comedian and screenwriter, Sacha Baron Cohen turns 54… Israeli fashion model, Shiraz Tal turns 51… Offensive lineman in the NFL for ten seasons (Broncos, Redskins, Bears and Browns), now the COO of Raleigh-based VetOvation, Leonard Lebrecht Friedman turns 49… Adjunct professor of Jewish studies at Ohio University and director of member engagement at the Academic Engagement Network, Sarah Livingston… Emily Gould… Jerusalem bureau chief for CNN, Oren Liebermann turns 43… Land-use attorney at Seattle-based firm of Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, Joshua E. Friedmann… Political reporter for NBC News, Rebecca Shabad… Film director, producer and screenwriter, Jordan David “J.D.” Lifshitz turns 33…

• We’re monitoring the situation in Jerusalem, where six people are confirmed killed after a terror attack on a public bus near the Ramot junction entrance to the city. Ten others were wounded in the attack.
• President Donald Trump is delivering remarks this morning to the newly established White House Religious Liberty Commission at the Museum of the Bible in Washington.
• Elsewhere in Washington, the Israel Policy Forum is hosting an event this evening focused on Israel, Palestinian and U.S. perspectives on American foreign policy and the war in Gaza. RAND’s Shira Efron will speak in conversation with Samer Sinijlawi, the Jerusalem Development Fund’s founding chairman, and former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney.
• Up the Northeast Corridor, American Friends of Nir Oz is holding a benefit at Baltimore’s Beth Tfiloh featuring writer Douglas Murray and former Israeli hostage Gadi Moses, who was freed earlier this year.
• In New York, the Rabbi Sacks Legacy is holding an event at Fifth Avenue Synagogue to mark the launch of the Magerman Edition of the Koren Shalem Humash. Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh, was killed in Hamas captivity last year, will keynote the event. Read more about the new edition of the text here.
• Elsewhere in New York, the Jewish Theological Seminary’s inaugural storytelling festival continues today. Later today, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is hosting an event focused on bearing witness, featuring 2025 Sami Rohr Prize winner Sasha Vasilyuk, as well as Gal Beckerman and Benjamin Balint, who won in 2012 and 2020, respectively.
• French Prime Minister François Bayrou is calling a confidence vote in Paris’ National Assembly this afternoon that The New York Times described as a “suicidal move.” A no-confidence vote in the body — which is all but expected to pass given plans by France’s far-right National Rally party and a group of leftist parties to vote against Bayrou — would topple the government for a fifth time in 20 months.
• The U.N. Human Rights Council begins its 60th session today in Geneva. On the sidelines of the gathering, B’nai B’rith is holding “Seeking Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: Jewish Refugees in the Middle East.”
• The second annual two-day Hili Forum, cohosted by the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research and the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, kicked off earlier today in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Following up on comments made last week on Israeli proposals to annex parts of the West Bank, senior Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh said earlier today at the conference that such a move “would betray the very spirit of the Abraham Accords.”

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

As tensions rise around antisemitism in the U.K. and questions mount over Britain’s stance on Israel, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Cabinet reshuffle has put a spotlight on some familiar concerns. But despite fresh scrutiny — particularly over new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s past involvement in anti-Israel activism — experts tell Jewish Insider that little is likely to shift when it comes to U.K. policy toward Israel. 

A 2014 video of Mahmood resurfaced on X over the weekend, where it received millions of views. Mahmood made the selfie video during Operation Protective Edge, launched by Israel in Gaza after Hamas kidnapped three Israeli teenagers, at a protest outside a Sainsbury’s supermarket in Birmingham. Mahmood called on the store to boycott products from Israeli settlements, though the viral post, boosted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), falsely claimed she called to “globalize the Intifada.” Days after the supermarket protest, Mahmood spoke against Israel at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in London, telling Britons to start “getting involved with the boycott campaign” and accusing Israel of killing children. 

The resurfaced footage has reignited debate over Mahmood’s past, especially within the Jewish community. Jonathan Sacerdoti, a British Jewish journalist and columnist for The Spectator, told JI Mahmood “is not inspiring confidence in any Jews I know.” He added, “She appeals to the more antisemitic elements in the country. She is no friend of Israel and has never been shy about that … Her views are aligned with the Muslim electorate and community in the U.K. and beyond.” 

But Alex Hearn, a director of Labour Against Antisemitism, said of Mahmood: “I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much misinformation about someone.” Hearn argued that not only was the video of Mahmood at the protest taken during her “pre-government, pre-political life,” but noted she has taken a more nuanced approach as a member of parliament and has “no red flags” in her record on Israel.

Meanwhile, a new YouGov poll commissioned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism was released yesterday, finding that the Jewish community is currently experiencing “the worst antisemitism in the U.K. in living memory”: One in five Britons holds antisemitic views and 45% believe Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated Jews.

Some 70,000 people took to the streets on Sunday to take part in London’s March Against Antisemitism, organized by the Campaign Against Antisemitism. Protesters marched from the BBC headquarters — selected due to perceived anti-Israel bias in its reporting — to Parliament Square.

Absent from the gathering was any senior representative from Labour, a party whose previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn, had a history of antisemitic remarks and supporting antisemites, Campaign Against Antisemitism said. 

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

The JD Doctrine: In Israel Hayom, Israeli journalist Amit Segal compares Vice President JD Vance’s approach to Israel and the Middle East to that of former President Barack Obama, and considers what that portends for the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. “And while Vance’s book [Hillbilly Elegy] barely touches on foreign policy, it still offers lessons about the new Republican Party. It supports Israel, but the warmth is largely platonic. The prevailing view is this: every spare dollar belongs at home, not in grand projects abroad. There is respect for strength and a deep distrust of radical Islam (don’t forget Vance’s suggestion that Britain is ‘the first truly Islamist country to get a nuclear weapon’), but no appetite for blank checks or an endless supply of weapons. Israel’s challenge with the new Republicans is not hostility, it’s indifference, and Jerusalem needs to prepare for that reality now, perhaps by phasing out American security aid, just as Netanyahu ended civilian aid three decades ago.” [IsraelHayom]

Yom Kippur This Year: In The Times of Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi suggests that Israel is at a “moral crossroads” in the weeks leading up to the Jewish High Holidays. “How then, in this poisoned atmosphere, are we to subject ourselves to moral self-critique? How dare we risk inadvertently reinforcing the campaign of hatred and lies? Because we have no choice. Because preserving our moral credibility is essential for our strength. Because we cannot let the haters determine the inner life of the Jewish people. Because engaging in moral introspection reminds us that Zionism has won and that, even though we are vulnerable, we are no longer victims. Because we owe an accounting of our actions to our friends who have stood with us. Most of all, because Judaism demands it. This season of self-reckoning that begins with the Hebrew month of Elul and culminates on Yom Kippur is intended not only for individual Jews but also – in fact primarily – for the Jewish collective. Undergoing this process as a people doesn’t weaken us. It provides spiritual protection.” [TOI]

The Final Mitzvah: In The Forward, Austin Albanese reflects on his chevra kadisha volunteer work, in which he prepares bodies for Jewish burials. “Despite the sacred nature of this work, one thing has always stood out to me: the scarcity of younger volunteers. I’m in my late 20s, and in nearly nine years of participating in taharah, I’ve only once worked with someone close to my age. That person was also a convert. The work of the burial society is too meaningful, too vital, to be left only to older generations. For those who might hesitate to participate, I can only say this: Try it. You don’t need to be particularly religious. You don’t need to have all the answers about faith or tradition — this work welcomes anyone willing to honor and respect those who came before us. For me, the work of the chevra kadisha has been a profound reminder of some of Judaism’s central values: humility, equality before God, and the sanctity of memory.” [TheForward]

President Donald Trump, while attending the U.S. Open finals in New York on Sunday, where he was photographed sitting with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, posted on his Truth Social site that it was “time for Hamas to accept” the terms of a ceasefire proposal he said Israel had already accepted; Witkoff had last week sent a ceasefire and hostage-release proposal to Hamas through peace activist Gershon Baskin…

Trump signed an executive order cracking down on countries that unlawfully detain U.S. nationals…

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he “is not running for president” in 2028…

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said he backs City Comptroller Brad Lander’s decision to divest the city from Israel Bonds; Mark Levine, the Democratic candidate to succeed Lander, has said he will restore the city’s investments in Israel Bonds if elected…

Jack Schlossberg, who has been floated as a potential candidate in New York’s 12th Congressional District following Rep. Jerry Nadler’s announcement that he won’t seek reelection in 2026, said he is forming an exploratory committee…

As part of its agreement with the Trump administration, Columbia University will establish a $21 million claims fund for Jewish employees who experienced antisemitism at the school…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how the Trump administration’s crackdown on college campuses is affecting radical student activism that could attract the attention of administration officials…

Singer Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” music video, which was directed by Israelis Gal Muggia and Vania Heymann, won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Visual Effects…

Israel’s Supreme Court ordered that Palestinian prisoners receive increased and improved rations, saying that the current food offered falls below dietary standards…

A Gaza-bound flotilla carrying climate activist Greta Thunberg docked in Tunisia on Sunday; the boat will continue toward Gaza on Wednesday…

A Houthi drone struck the arrivals terminal of Ramon Airport outside Eilat, Israel, on Sunday, injuring two people; an investigation is underway into why the drone did not trigger an Israeli siren notifying of an impending attack… 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that a Hamas terrorist who was recorded on Oct. 7, 2023, calling his parents and boasting about killing Jews was killed in an IDF operation in Gaza City…

Israel’s basketball team fell short, 84-79, in its Round of 16 match against Greece in the FIBA EuroBasket tournament…

Iran paved over a burial ground containing the remains of people executed during the country’s Islamic Revolution in 1979…

Barbara Jakobson, art aficionado and longtime trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, died at 92…

Sports photographer Art Seitz, who rose to prominence for his images of tennis players and matches, died at 82…

President Donald Trump and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff huddled at the U.S. Open men’s singles final in New York on Sunday between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

Drummer for the funk metal band Infectious Grooves, he is the son of Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg, Jay Weinberg turns 35… 

Chair emeritus of Bath & Body Works, Leslie H. “Les” Wexner turns 88… U.S. senator from Vermont, he was a 2016 and 2020 presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders turns 84… Labour party member of the U.K. House of Commons, Dame Margaret Eve Hodge (née Oppenheimer) turns 81… Pharma executive, Samuel D. Waksal turns 78… Chairman of Douglas Elliman and its parent company, NYSE listed Vector Group, he is also chairman of Nathan’s Famous, Howard Mark Lorber turns 77… Owner of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, Jeffrey Lurie turns 74… Former co-chair of the Jewish National Fund, he was previously a member of Knesset, Eli Aflalo turns 73… CEO of Weight Watchers until early 2022, Mindy Grossman turns 68… Owner of Sam’s Fine Wines & Spirits in Walpole, Mass., for 41 years until 2022, Jay W. Abarbanel… British physician and professor of neuroscience at Columbia University, Daniel Mark Wolpert turns 62… Professional wrestler, known by his ring name, Raven, Scott Levy turns 61… Founder and president of Cedille Records, a classical music label, he is the son of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, James Steven Ginsburg turns 60… Real estate developer in Russia owning 14 million square feet of retail as well as many luxury hotels and shopping centers, Zarakh Iliev turns 59… Australian businessman, James Douglas Packer turns 58… Senior rabbi of the Jewish Center of Princeton, Rabbi Andrea Merow… Aspen, Colo., resident, Adam Goldsmith… Actress, model and television personality, she is the host of “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” Brooke Burke turns 54… Founder and executive education consultant at Atlanta-based JewishGPS, Robyn Faintich… Classical music composer and professor of music at Towson University, titles to his works include “Zohar,” “Nekudim” and “Heichalos,” Jonathan Leshnoff turns 52… CEO and co-founder of BerlinRosen, now known as Orchestra, Jonathan Rosen… One of the world’s best-selling music artists, known professionally as Pink, Alecia Beth Moore turns 46… Head coach for the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team, Eran Ganot… and his twin brother, the creative director of an eponymous clothing line, Asaf Ganot, both turn 44… Founder and CEO at SPARK Neuro, Spencer Gerrol… Director of corporate communications at Related Companies, Andrei Berman… Senior national correspondent for Jewish Insider, Gabby Deutch… and her twin sister, an MBA candidate at Tulane, Serena Deutch… Director of education at Itrek, Gilad Peled… Philip Ehrensaft…

• President Donald Trump is convening European leaders at the White House today following his meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump will meet privately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at 1 p.m. ET, followed by a larger meeting with the European heads of state at 3 p.m.
• Leaders expected to be in attendance include U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, President of the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
• Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed Al Thani is meeting with senior officials in Cairo today to discuss a new ceasefire proposal. The trip comes days after Al Thani met in Doha with Mossad head David Barnea.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S TAMARA ZIEVE

The unrest could be felt everywhere — in traffic jams, on the airwaves, in WhatsApp groups, even in the waiting room of a dental clinic.

Across Israel yesterday, hundreds of thousands joined a nationwide unofficial strike, led by hostage families and bereaved families, demanding an end to the war in Gaza and the immediate release of the hostages still held there. According to the Hostages Families Forum, over 1 million people participated in protests throughout the day. As the government plans to escalate its military campaign against Hamas, emotions ran high across towns, cities and online spaces, deepening a national rift.

Police clashed with demonstrators blocking roads. In Ra’anana, a truck driver was arrested after allegedly attacking a protester. In a Tel Aviv neighborhood mothers’ WhatsApp group, several members condemned local cafés for staying open, while another defended them for “not strengthening Hamas.” At a dental clinic, a man berated staff for opening their doors, shouting, “What about the hostages!?”

At the heart of the tensions is a painful divide: Protesters — including the majority of the hostage families — argue that rescuing the captives must come before all else. Meanwhile, the government and its supporters, and even several hostage families, claim such demonstrations weaken Israel’s negotiating hand and embolden Hamas. Israeli President Issac Herzog, speaking at Hostages Square, said, “There’s no Israeli who doesn’t want them back home. We can argue about philosophies, but truly, the people of Israel want our brothers and sisters back home.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his government’s stance in a public statement, warning: “Those who are calling for an end to the war today without defeating Hamas, are not only hardening Hamas’s stance and pushing off the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will recur again and again … to advance the release of our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel, we must complete the work and defeat Hamas.”

Yet recent polls show that a majority of Israelis support prioritizing the hostages’ release and bringing an end to the war.

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

Aid Aide: In Foreign Affairs, Jack Lew and David Satterfield, respectively the former U.S. ambassador to Israel and U.S. special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues during the Biden administration, detail their efforts to send aid into Gaza and suggest how the Trump administration can prevent a worsening humanitarian crisis in the enclave. “When aid was flowing before the cease-fire, it did not arrive by chance. It came one border crossing and one truck convoy at a time, and it required overcoming political and battlefield challenges every step of the way. As the world watches the crisis unfolding today and demands a solution, it is important to learn from what worked and what did not, and to remember that it falls to all parties to find a solution. The stakes are too high to allow the delivery of critical assistance to be derailed by Israeli political dynamics, obstruction by Hamas or armed Gazan gangs, or infighting among aid providers. And Washington must remember that it uniquely has the tools and leverage to avert an escalating catastrophe.” [ForeignAffairs]

Northern Exposure: In The Wall Street Journal, Eugene Kontorovich calls on the Trump administration to use its United Nations Security Council veto power to nix an effort to extend the mandate of UNIFIL, arguing that the U.N. peacekeeping force has long failed in its goals to maintain peace and calm along the Israel-Lebanon border. “The first Trump administration considered nixing Unifil but was persuaded to compromise on a package reducing its size and supposedly introducing reforms. There will be temptations for the U.S. to compromise again. But if Unifil survives, it will eventually regrow under a less vigilant administration. Some in the administration argue the Lebanese army isn’t ready to take over for Unifil. But Unifil doesn’t keep the peace, so there’s nothing to get ready for. … If the U.S. doesn’t veto Unifil, it would undermine the credibility of Washington’s broader demands — both for genuine disarmament of terror groups in Lebanon and Gaza and for broader U.N. reform.” [WSJ]

What ‘Pro-Israel’ Means Now: In the Jerusalem Journal, Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, considers what it means to be a pro-Israel American in a post-Oct. 7 era. “In 2025, being pro-Israel should mean standing with the Israeli people in the aftermath of October 7, supporting Israel’s security as it faces ongoing regional threats, remaining deeply committed to Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, and recognizing there’s no future for Hamas as part of any solution to this conflict. It also means expressing concern about the war — and continued captivity of hostages — which has gone on for too long. Calls to address the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza don’t make someone anti-Israel. American Jews are also concerned about the crisis in Gaza, though there’s a clear double standard when it comes to assessing support of Israel among Democrats.” [JerusalemJournal]

Fight Club: The Wall Street Journal profiles Mark Shapiro, TKO’s president and chief operating officer, following the $7.7 billion deal between Paramount Skydance and TKO to acquire the distribution rights to TKO subsidiary Ultimate Fighting Championship, which Shapiro orchestrated. “It was on a cross-country flight in 2002 that Shapiro had a chance meeting with [TKO CEO] Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood power broker. Emanuel spotted Shapiro frantically typing with his two index fingers. After watching him for a few hours, Emanuel was mesmerized. ‘I couldn’t take it anymore,’ Emanuel says. He persuaded the person sitting next to Shapiro to switch seats and asked, ‘what the f—k are you doing?’ Shapiro replied he worked at ESPN and was preparing a report for Disney bosses Michael Eiser and Iger. Emanuel and Shapiro, who are from neighboring Chicago suburbs, hit it off. Soon, they were talking regularly. Today, they are joined at the hip. Emanuel is executive chairman and chief executive of TKO and executive chairman of talent agency WME Group.” [WSJ]

The Trump administration halted the issuance of all visitor visas to Gazans, following a social media post by Laura Loomer citing the entry of families of Palestinian children seeking medical treatment in the U.S….

Members of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page talk to former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel about his opposition to the Democratic Party’s far-left flank as he mulls a 2028 presidential bid…

2020 Democratic congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar is weighing a rematch against Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Read Jewish Insider’s 2020 profile of Campa-Najjar here…

The New York City Parks Department issued an order to vacate to the leaders of a Queens community garden who required prospective members to sign a “statement of values” that opposed Zionism…

New Yorker staff writer Doreen St. Felix deleted a series of social media posts about the Holocaust after coming under fire for calling Sydney Sweeney an “Aryan princess” following the release of a viral American Eagle ad campaign featuring the actress…

An Ohio man pleaded guilty to hate crimes charges connected to the November 2023 assaults of two Jewish students from Ohio State University; according to court documents, Timur Mamatov punched a student wearing a “chai” necklace after asking if the student was Jewish…

The Forward interviews “Bojack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg about his new animated series “Long Story Short,” about a Jewish family… 

The World Economic Forum named Larry Fink a co-chair of the group’s board of trustees, alongside Andre Hoffmann; the two replace Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who served as chairman on an interim basis…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Camp Social, founded by entrepreneur Liv Schreiber, amid the rise in popularity of adult sleep-away camps… 

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned as “antisemitic hatred” the cutting down of a tree planted in a Paris suburb in memory of Ilan Halimi, a French-Jewish man who was tortured and killed in 2006…

Australia canceled the visa of far-right Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman hours before he was scheduled to depart for a speaking tour in the country; Australian Foreign Minister Tony Burke confirmed the ban, saying that Canberra “takes a hard line on people who seek to come to our country and spread division”…

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself in an Israeli prison warning Marwan Barghouti, the high-profile Palestinian political leader who is serving five life sentences for his role in the murders of numerous Israelis, “Whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders children and women — we will wipe them out. You need to know this”…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the deepening clean water shortage in the Gaza Strip…

An investment group led by Israel’s Leumi Partners is acquiring the rideshare app Gett for $190 million…

The New York Times looks at Iranian efforts to recruit Israelis to commit espionage and acts of terrorism within Israel…

The Israeli military said it struck a Houthi energy infrastructure site south of the Yemeni capital of Sana’a over the weekend…

South Africa’s Foreign and Defense Ministries distanced themselves from comments by army chief Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya, made during his recent trip to Iran, praising the close ties between Pretoria and Tehran and condemning Israel; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called Maphwanya’s trip to Iran “ill-advised” and said he planned to meet with the military leader over it…

Historian Rabbi Berel Wein, the founder of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Monsey, N.Y., who previously led the Orthodox Union’s kashrut division, died at 91…

Rachel Aliza Nisanov, the 13-year-old daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, died in a jet-skiing accident in Florida last Tuesday…

Seventeen-year-old Pushpa Joshi, the sister of Nepali hostage Bipin Joshi, speaks at a hostage rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. The Joshi family arrived in Israel last week for the first time as they work to raise awareness about the plight of Bipin, a farming student who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Alumim.

Auctioneer, television personality and sports card collector, he is featured on the Netflix TV series “King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch,” Kenneth Goldin turns 60…

Art collector, museum trustee in Chicago, Aspen, Colo., and Orange County, Calif. and former member of Cultural Property Advisory Committee to the U.S. State Department, Barbara Bluhm-Kaul turns 85… Baltimore resident, Jerome Seaman… Holocaust survivor, novelist, artist and producer, Sonia Wolff Levitin turns 91… Retired teacher of Talmud at Jerusalem’s Yeshiva Torat Shraga, Rabbi Noam Gordon, Ph.D…. Former two-term mayor of San Diego, the first Jewish mayor of San Diego, Susan G. Golding turns 80… Businessman and former chair of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, John D. Goldman turns 76… Partner in Chazan-Leipzig Consulting, Cindy Chazan… Retired judge of the Montgomery County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas, Gary S. Silow turns 74… Dramatist, screenwriter and poet, Winnie Holzman turns 71… President at Wyckoff, N.J.-based Benefit Connections, Raphael Schwartz… President of Touro University, Alan H. Kadish, M.D. turns 69… Labor law attorney in the Los Angeles office of Ogletree Deakins, Stuart Douglas Tochner… U.S. Treasury secretary in the Obama administration, now president of Warburg Pincus, Timothy Geithner turns 64… CEO of the Future of Privacy Forum, a D.C.-based think tank and advocacy group focused on issues of data privacy, Jules Polonetsky turns 60… Executive director of the Maccabee Task Force, David Brog turns 59… Criminal defense attorney and media personality in Las Vegas, Dayvid Figler turns 58… Award-winning comic book writer and artist for both Marvel and then DC Comics, Brian Michael Bendis turns 58… Professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, he served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, Jason Furman turns 55… Sarah S. Bronson… Conservative political talk radio host on the Sirius XM Patriot channel, Andrew Steven Wilkow turns 53… Greek Orthodox priest, he serves as a judge in Israel’s religious court system and encourages Christians to enlist in the IDF, Gabriel Naddaf turns 52… Best-selling author, her novels have been translated into 35 languages, Nicole Krauss turns 51… Writer, actress and stand-up comedian from NYC, Jessi Ruth Klein turns 50… Washington director of the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, Roger Zakheim… Actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician, David A. J. “Andy” Samberg turns 47… Commissioner of New York City Emergency Management, Zachary Iscol turns 47… Fellow at The Jewish People Policy Institute and managing partner of the Madad website, Noah Slepkov… Editor of Moment Magazine, Sarah Breger… Reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering the Justice Department and federal law enforcement, Sadie Gurman… Co-founder and CEO of Mostly Human, Laurie Segall turns 40… Mixed martial artist, she competes in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, Olga Rubin turns 36… Israeli judoka who won Olympic bronze medals at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, Or “Ori” Sasson turns 35…

• If it’s the week after July 4, all eyes are turning to Sun Valley, Idaho, for the annual Allen & Co. leadership retreat, which is set to kick off tomorrow. Attendees this year include Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, Sam Altman, Barry Diller, Alex Karp, Evan Spiegel, Ynon Kreiz, Charles Rivkin, David Zaslav, Brian Grazer, Bob Iger, David Ignatius, Bari Weiss, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mike Bloomberg, Govs. Wes Moore and Glenn Youngkin, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Casey Wasserman. 
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Donald Trump this evening at the White House. Earlier in the day, Netanyahu will meet at the Blair House, where he is staying, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to prepare for his sit-down with the president.
• Elsewhere in Washington, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittees will hold markups on the National Defense Authorization Act.
• Leaders from the BRICS alliance wrap up their two-day summit in Rio de Janeiro today. Absent from the gathering of officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was Chinese President Xi Jinping, while Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has largely curbed his travel abroad since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, addressed the gathering by video.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS AND LAHAV HARKOV

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits down with President Donald Trump today, one question will be on observers’ minds: What will each walk away with?

Netanyahu appeared to come away empty-handed from his April meeting in Washington, after the U.S. imposed tariffs on Israel, among other countries. Weeks later, Trump skipped Israel on his first trip abroad, while visiting three other countries in the region. 

Few knew at the time about Netanyahu’s plans to take on Iran. Following last month’s joint U.S.-Israel military effort to degrade Iran’s nuclear program and military infrastructure, relations between the two leaders have improved to such a degree that last week Trump called twice for an end to the legal proceedings against Netanyahu. A post-strikes-on-Iran victory lap is top of the public agenda for Netanyahu’s White House visit today, while Trump’s other goals, as they relate to Israel, remain works in progress.

The White House wants to wind down the war in Gaza, as Trump has said many times in recent months. After the American bunker busters dealt Iran the final punch that Israel pushed for, the president has newly gained leverage to push Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza — a move the Netanyahu government has thus far resisted until it has achieved its goal of “total victory” against Hamas. Trump told reporters on Sunday night that “there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the week pertaining to quite a few of the hostages.”

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

Tragedy in Tamra: In The Wall Street Journal, Fania Oz-Salzberger reflects on how the death of her student, an Israeli-Arab woman whose home was struck by an Iranian ballistic missile, underscores the ways in which the Israeli government has fallen short in protecting citizens. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked Iranian nuclear and military sites to defend the country — rightly, in my view. But the current Israeli government has failed in multiple ways to defend its citizens, both Jewish and Arab. … The Khatib family was killed by Iran, and they represent the exact opposite of the ayatollahs’ regime. They are democrats, moderates — crucial partners in any future Israeli society that might emerge from the current ruins and smoke.” [WSJ]

China First: In The Free Press, Yoram Hazony posits that President Donald Trump is guided by a doctrine that prioritizes alliances with regional powers and stunting China’s global ambitions. “According to the Trump Doctrine, America’s role in such a world is focused on countering China and on rebuilding itself at home. Beyond that, America will be interested in alliances with powerful, independent nation-states that can take care of themselves and their regions, coordinate with each other where beneficial, and look to America to supplement their strategic capabilities where necessary.” [FreePress]

Bibi Still Needs a ‘Day-After’ Plan: In The Washington Post, Dennis Ross suggests that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will need to end the war in Gaza and present a viable plan for the enclave’s future in order to cement his own legacy. “Almost a decade and a half later, Netanyahu has now acted on what he considered to be his primary mission as prime minister. He has done so after the Israeli military, on his watch, transformed the regional balance of power by devastating Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran’s most formidable regional proxies, with the Assad regime in Syria collapsing soon thereafter. But these admittedly breathtaking decisions will not automatically vault Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s founder in the history books. To surpass [founding father David] Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu will need to take these great military achievements and turn them into enduring political outcomes.” [WashPost]

The Wall Street Journal reports on a letter from a group of sheikhs from the West Bank city of Hebron to Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat calling for “cooperation” and “coexistence” with Israel as well as the city’s break from the Palestinian Authority in an effort to bolster ties with the Jewish state…

The Financial Times looks at initial plans for a “Trump Rivera” in Gaza that included the creation of “MBS Ring” and “MBZ Central” highways named after the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as an “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone” for electronic vehicle production along the Israel-Gaza border…

Nvidia is planning to expand its footprint in Israel as it looks to build a high-tech campus in the country with building rights up to 180,000 square meters…

Columbia University is continuing negotiations with the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and grants; recent conversations have not included discussion of a “consent decree” that had previously been considered, under which a federal judge would have oversight of the school’s compliance with the terms of a potential agreement…

The New York Times reports that New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani identified as “Asian” and “Black or African American” on his application to Columbia University; the Queens assemblyman, who was born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent, told the Times last week he “did not consider himself either Black or African American”…

Victoria, Australia, Premier Jacinta Allan announced the creation of a new anti-hate task force following the weekend firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue and the vandalism of an eatery in the city owned by Shahar Segal, a spokesperson for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation; Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed to apply the “full force” of the law against “those responsible for these shocking acts”…

Former U.K. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn said he is in “ongoing” discussions about the creation of a new political party, a day after MP Zarah Sultana announced that she was leaving Labour to form a new party with Corbyn…

The New York Times looks at an ongoing effort to locate and return a Stradivarius violin to the descendants of the Jewish family who had owned the violin until it was looted near the end of World War II…

The Bank of Israel will hold its interest rates at 4.5% for the 12th consecutive time, amid the shekel’s rally following last month’s ceasefire between Israel and Iran…

The Washington Post looks at efforts by members of the Syrian Jewish diaspora to restore sites and rebuild connections inside Syria, whose Jewish population was just six people by the end of the Assad regime…

The Guardian reports on Israeli court documents that detail Iranian efforts to recruit spies inside Israel…

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors left Iran, days after Tehran suspended cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog…

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance since last month’s war between Israel and Iran…

Hezbollah head Naim Kassem, speaking outside Beirut during an event marking the Shiite Muslim holiday of Ashura, doubled down on the terror group’s refusal to cease fighting until Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon…

Israel carried out strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen over the weekend, the first attacks on the Iran-backed terror group since Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last month…

The crew of a Liberian-flagged commercial vessel transiting through the Red Sea abandoned ship following an attack believed to have come from the Houthis in Yemen…

Broadway executive Paul Libin, who for many years ran Circle in the Square Theater, died at 94…

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid a wreath earlier today at the Paneriai Holocaust Memorial in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Cardiologist and former president of CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jews, Richard Prasquier turns 80…

Retired president of The Seeing Eye, the world’s premier guide dog school for the blind, Kenneth Rosenthal turns 87… Early collaborator on object-oriented computer programming in the 1970s, Adele Goldberg turns 80… Michigan-based real estate developer, he served as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia during the Bush 43 administration, Ronald N. Weiser turns 80… Board member of the Israel Policy Forum, he spent 27 years as a bankruptcy attorney at Cooley LLP, Lawrence C. Gottlieb turns 78… Israeli businessman with vast holdings in energy (Delek Group) and real estate (El-Ad Group), Yitzhak Tshuva turns 77… Former president of Hebrew University and a past member of the Knesset, Menachem Ben-Sasson turns 74… Co-founder and CEO of the biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Leonard Steven Schleifer turns 73… Pioneer of Israeli punk rock, nicknamed “HaMeshuga,” Rami Fortis turns 71… USAID official for 28 years until 2008, he now consults internationally on Rule of Law issues, Richard Gold… President of The Lapin Group, Avrum Lapin… Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion located in Alon Shvut, Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein turns 64… Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer, Akiva Goldsman turns 63… President of the United Synagogue of the U.K., Michael Howard Goldstein turns 62… President and CEO of HIAS since 2013, he first joined HIAS in 1989 as a caseworker in Rome, Mark Hetfield turns 58… Comic book creator and a cappella singer, he published the Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel, Jordan B. Gorfinkel turns 58… Chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, David Jeremiah Barron turns 58… Television and film actress, Robin Weigert turns 56… Azerbaijani-born businessman, he is a VP of the Russian Jewish Congress and the president of the International Charity Foundation of Mountain Jews, German Zakharyayev turns 54… Communications director for the Democratic Majority for Israel since 2019, Rachel Rosen… Consultant and project manager for nonprofits, Amy Handman… Head coach of the Florida Gators men’s basketball team that won the NCAA national championship last season, Todd Raymond Golden turns 40… WNBA player in her 13th season, she has also played on Israeli teams for six seasons, Alysha Angelica Clark turns 38… Ethiopian-born Israeli actress, Netsanet Mekonnen turns 37… Prime Video analytics expert on “Thursday Night Football,” Sam Schwartzstein turns 36… Olympic sports sailor, she competed for Israel in both the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Gil Cohen turns 33… Originally a figure skater and later a pairs skater, now a skating coach, Megan Wessenberg turns 27… Shalom Klein… U.S. editor at Jewish Insider, Danielle Cohen…

• President Donald Trump is holding an Oval Office meeting this afternoon with National Security Council officials as the administration mulls its next moves following the weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is in Moscow today, where he’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Attorney General Pam Bondi is slated to testify this afternoon before the House Appropriations Committee on the Justice Department’s FY2026 budget.
• The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is holding a situational update this morning looking at the fallout from the weekend strikes on Iran.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

In my years of covering politics, it’s pretty rare for mainstream Jewish organizations to be wildly out of step with the predominant views of the Democratic Party. But in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s decision to order bunker-busting strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend, the views of the institutional Jewish community and many rank-and-file Democrats couldn’t have been more divergent.

Consider: The American Jewish Committee’s CEO Ted Deutch, a former Democratic congressman, praised Trump’s decision and called it “an historic moment for the United States, Israel and the world.” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt thanked Trump for “holding true to the commitment that the United States will not stand by and watch the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and antisemitism develop nuclear weapons.”

Even the more-partisan Democratic pro-Israel group DMFI, which normally can be counted on to criticize the president, rejected its own party’s predominant view that further congressional approval should have been received before the strikes. “Iran was unwilling to give up its nuclear program through diplomatic negotiations across three different administrations, so the United States was left with no choice but to take decisive military action,” DMFI CEO Brian Romick said.

By contrast, it was tough to find many Democratic lawmakers — even among the many who are typical allies of Israel — to offer praise of the strikes severely degrading Iran’s nuclear program. 

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

Whipping ‘Six Armies’: The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman looks at how Israel destroyed Iran’s planned multifront onslaught against the Jewish state. “In Israel, where everyone has had to become an Iran expert, a video clip has been making the rounds. It’s from a 2021 speech by Gholam Ali Rashid, commander of Iran’s joint military headquarters, whom Israel killed in early strikes on June 13. Three months before the 2020 U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, Rashid recounts, the legendary Quds Force commander laid out his life’s work. ‘I have assembled for you six armies outside Iran and I have created a corridor 1,500 kilometers long and 1,000 kilometers wide, all the way to the shores of the Mediterranean,’ Soleimani told Iran’s army chiefs. ‘Any enemy that decides to fight against the Islamic Revolution, and against the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, will have to go through these six armies. It won’t be able to do so.’ Yet Israel did.” [WSJ]

The Inevitable War: In The Times of Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi posits that the military confrontation between Israel and Iran was an inevitable byproduct of Tehran’s intransigence over its nuclear program. “Israel’s strike on Iran is the culmination of the war that began on October 7. Hamas’s massacre of Israelis was not an expression of an oppressed people revolting against occupation, as much of the world believes; it was the latest phase of the radical Islamist war against Israel’s existence. What began on October 7 was the Israeli-Iranian war. For the last 18 months, we have been fighting Iran’s proxies. Now, finally and inevitably, we have taken the war to its source.” [TOI]

The Coup Plotters: The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi talks to Iranian insiders in the Islamic Republic about covert conversations about potential regime change in Tehran. “Among the details they shared with me are that former President Hassan Rouhani, who is not involved in the discussions, is being considered for a key role on the leadership committee, and that some of the military officials involved have been in regular contact with their counterparts from a major Gulf country, seeking buy-in for changing Iran’s trajectory and the composition of its leadership. ‘Ours is just one idea,’ one person involved in conversations told me. ‘Tehran is now full of such plots. They are also talking to Europeans about the future of Iran. Everybody knows Khamenei’s days are numbered. Even if he stays in office, he won’t have actual power.’” [TheAtlantic]

Civilizational Struggle: The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman considers the global forces at play following the U.S. bombing of three of Iran’s nuclear sites. “To my mind, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the sole aim of wiping its democracy off the map and absorbing it into Russia, and the attacks on Israel in 2023 by Hamas and Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, were manifestations of a global struggle between the forces of inclusion and the forces of resistance. That is a struggle between countries and leaders who see the world and their nations benefiting from more trade, more cooperation against global threats and more decent, if not democratic, governance — versus regimes whose leaders thrive on resisting those trends because conflict enables them to keep their people down, their armies strong and their thieving of their treasuries easy.” [NYTimes]

The FBI is ramping up its surveillance of Hezbollah-linked “sleeper cells” operating in the U.S., amid broader concerns that the Iran-backed group could attack domestic targets…

President Donald Trump’s campaign operation launched Kentucky MAGA, a super PAC targeting Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), as it looks to find a challenger to the Kentucky Republican, who has frequently voted against measures supporting Israel and combating antisemitism…

The Trump administration officially terminated the majority of Voice of America’s staff, including a number of employees from the network’s Persian-language service who were briefly reinstated last week…

Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel told CNN he’s mulling a 2028 presidential bid, saying he believes he has “something I think I can offer” but has not made a decision about launching a bid, Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports…

A new Emerson/Pix11/The Hill poll found New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani beating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary; in the survey, Mamdani bests Cuomo 52%-48% in the eighth round…

One day after former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was released from the immigration detention center where he had been held for three months, the anti-Israel activist appeared at a rally in New York City organized by a group accused of ties to the Iranian regime protesting the U.S.’ weekend airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

U.S. Capitol Police announced that 36-year-old Feras Hamdan was arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated menacing for an altercation between himself and Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), in which Miller said Hamdan ran him off the road and threatened to kill him and his family members. Hamdan reportedly surrendered to police…

Eitan Fischberger reveals in his Substack that a Twitter account of supposed AIPAC lobbyist Jay Sullivan was created using a fake name and AI as part of a disinformation campaign against Jews…

The New York Times interviews Barbra Streisand about her penchant for duets ahead of the release of her upcoming album, “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two”…

The IDF recovered the bodies of three hostages — Ofra Keidar, Jonathan Samerano and Shay Levinson – from the Gaza Strip; all three had been killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and their bodies brought to Gaza…

AFP interviews former Israeli American hostage Keith Siegel about the torture and abuse he suffered and witnessed while in Hamas captivity…

The Associated Press reports on what are suspected to be Iranian AI chatbots responding to calls from abroad that were diverted by Iranian phone companies…

New York City architect and author Nathan Silver, who chronicled the history of the city’s since-demolished buildings, died at 89…

The Great Nosh Picnic, a new Jewish food festival, premiered in New York on Sunday with collaborations from some of the city’s top chefs, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Actress and comedian, best known for playing Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on CBS’ sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” Melissa Rauch turns 45…

Professor emeritus of medicine and health care policy at Harvard, he was previously president of Brandeis University and Massachusetts General Hospital, Samuel O. Thier, M.D. turns 88… Real estate developer and co-founder of Tishman Speyer, Jerry Speyer turns 85… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Clarence Thomas turns 77… Senior advisor at Eurasia Group and author of 23 books on foreign affairs, global politics and travel, Robert D. Kaplan turns 73… Novelist and journalist, Roy Hoffman turns 72… Los Angeles-based socialite, restaurateur and breast cancer fundraiser, a 2008 Lifetime Television movie starring Renée Zellweger portrayed her cancer fighting efforts, Lilly Tartikoff Karatz turns 72… Klezmer expert, violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer and playwright, Yale Strom turns 68… Senior director of health policy at the National Consumers League until 2024, Robin Strongin… President of the Harrington Discovery Institute at Case Western Reserve, Dr. Jonathan Solomon Stamler turns 66… Sports memorabilia marketer, his firm sold all of the seats, signs and lockers from the old Yankee Stadium in 2009, Brandon Steiner turns 66… Member of the Pennsylvania State Senate until 2020, now president of Cannabis GPO, Daylin Leach turns 64… Editorial director of Ben Yehuda Press, Lawrence Yudelson… Former teacher for 19 years at Golda Och Academy in West Orange, N.J., Stephanie Z. Bonder… Israeli-American professor, journalist and filmmaker, Boaz Dvir turns 58… Film and television actress, Selma Blair Beitner turns 53… U.S. special envoy for hostage response with the rank of ambassador, Adam Seth Boehler turns 52… EVP and general manager of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, Howie Roseman turns 50… President of D1 Capital Partners, he was deputy director of the White House National Economic Council in the Trump 45 administration, Jeremy Katz… Founder of Innovation Africa, Sivan Borowich-Ya’ari turns 47… Actress, singer and model, Marielle Jaffe turns 36… Operations manager at LimitlessCNC, Gila Bublick turns 36… Ethiopian-born Israeli model who won the title of Miss Israel in 2013, Yityish Aynaw turns 34… Senior director of major gifts at OneTable, Ely Benhamo… MBA candidate at Columbia Business School, Josh Lauder… T.C. Gross…

• The House of Representatives is set to vote this evening on two resolutions condemning antisemitism and the terrorist attack on a hostage march in Boulder, Colo. One resolution from Republicans, focused on Boulder, highlights immigration issues and denounces the slogan “Free Palestine,” while the other, which is bipartisan, links Sunday’s Colorado attack to a series of other recent violent antisemitic attacks. The first of the two is already attracting criticism from Democrats.
• The House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security subcommittee will hold a vote on its 2026 funding bill today. More below.
• New York City Mayor Eric Adams is holding a roundtable for Jewish media this morning.
• The Jewish Federations of North America is leading an LGBTQ+ Pride mission to Israel this week.

A QUICK WORD WITH MELISSA WEISS

The image of Greta Thunberg eyeing a turkey sandwich as she is taken into Israeli custody has been picked up across pro-Israel social media. And on the other side of the ideological spectrum, supporters of Thunberg, who is vegan, decried the “hostage-taking” of the Swedish climate activist and other participants on the boat that had been headed to Gaza before its interception overnight by Israel’s navy.

But the stunt — after all, the small vessel carrying Thunberg and the other activists could carry only a minimal amount of aid — has briefly taken global attention away from the legitimate efforts to distribute aid in Gaza, amid mounting distribution challenges following the launch of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation last month.

Distribution through the GHF was briefly paused last week following a series of incidents in and around distribution sites, including the shooting of some Gazans as they neared sites as instructed, and the rush on other facilities by crowds of Gazans. Additionally, the GHF said it was forced to close its distribution sites on Saturday due to threats from Hamas.

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

The Case for Israel: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg posits that recent antisemitic attacks targeting Jews over their support for Israel underscores the country’s founding purpose as a safe haven for Jews. “Although these assailants all attacked American Jews, they clearly perceived themselves as Zionism’s avengers. In reality, however, they have joined a long line of Zionism’s inadvertent advocates. As in Herzl’s time, the perpetrators of anti-Jewish acts do more than nearly anyone else to turn Jews who were once indifferent or even hostile to Israel’s fate into reluctant appreciators of its necessity. … Simply put, Israel exists as it does today because of the repeated choices made by societies to reject their Jews. Had these societies made different choices, Jews would still live in them, and Israel likely would not exist — certainly not in its present form.” [TheAtlantic]

Foreign Exchange Fee: In The New York Times, Princeton professor David Bell considers the benefits and pitfalls of maintaining current levels of foreign-student enrollment in American universities. “If we think of universities principally as generators of knowledge, expanding international enrollments clearly makes sense. By increasing the pool of applicants, it raises the quality of student bodies, thereby improving the level of intellectual exchange and facilitating better research and more significant discoveries. … A graduate of an elite private school in Greece or India may well have more in common with a graduate of Exeter or Horace Mann than with a working-class American from rural Alabama. Do we need to turn university economics departments into mini-Davoses in which future officials of the International Monetary Fund from different countries reinforce one another’s opinions about global trade?” [NYTimes]

he State Department informed Congress that it no longer plans to eliminate the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator, a Jerusalem-based office that works with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority; the office will now be consolidated into the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem…

Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced a resolution condemning the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colo., and calling for “continued vigilance and Federal resources to counter rising antisemitism, investigate hate crimes, and support targeted communities”…

Hickenlooper was among the hundreds of marchers who attended Sunday’s hostage walk in Boulder, the first to be held following the attack…

Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced a resolution honoring Sarah Milgrim, an Israeli Embassy employee and Kansan killed in the Capital Jewish Museum shooting…

A bipartisan resolution calling for the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza advanced through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday…

In audio leaked from a Democratic National Committee officers meeting that took place in mid-May, DNC Chair Ken Martin said he was not sure he wanted to continue in his position, amid a push to oust DNC Vice Chairs David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta; the move by Hogg’s super PAC to back primary challengers to incumbents spurred internal concerns over Hogg’s continued leadership role at the DNC…

New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism…

The Bobov sect, a major Hasidic voting bloc in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, is endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, a representative for the community confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Friday…

The mayor of San Diego and a number of the city’s Jewish organizations pulled out of the upcoming San Diego Pride over the selection of Kehlani, who has faced backlash for recent comments about Israel, as the celebration’s headline act; one of the singer’s recent music videos opens with the text, “long live the intifada”…

A Pride music festival in San Francisco announced that Kehlani, who was slated to headline the event, had departed the lineup… 

The New York Times spotlights the firing of a tenured Muhlenberg College professor over anti-Zionist social media posts, amid a broader crackdown on universities alleged to have mishandled campus antisemitism after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack…

Two U.S. Army veterans were found with a cache of stolen weapons and Nazi and white supremacist paraphernalia after they were arrested in connection with the assault of another soldier while attempting to steal additional combat equipment from a Washington state base…

Three Serbian nationals were charged with vandalizing Jewish sites in Paris, including the city’s Holocaust memorial, last weekend…

Iran claimed to have seized an “important treasury” of documents regarding an Israeli nuclear program, but did not provide evidence of the discovery…

Israel recovered the body of Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta in Gaza; Pinta was believed to have been killed in the early months of the war, after he was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he was working…

The IDF found the body of Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, weeks after he was believed to have been killed in an airstrike while hiding in a tunnel under the European Hospital…

The Australian government canceled the visa of Israeli American activist Hillel Fuld, citing the Department of Home Affairs’ concerns over the risk officials suggest Fuld, who had been slated to speak at Magen David Adom fundraising events in Sydney and Melbourne, poses to “the health, safety or good order” of Australians… 

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid is departing Walla News and will join Israel’s Channel 12 as the network’s Washington correspondent; Ravid will continue to report for Axios and appear on CNN as an analyst…

The Jewish Telegraph Agency’s Ben Sales is joining The Times of Israel as news editor…

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed hosted fellow UAE rulers and faith leaders last Friday on the occasion of Eid Al Adha, the Islamic festival that concludes its four-day celebration today. Among the faith leaders that greeted the UAE president was Rabbi Levi Duchman, the head of Chabad of the United Arab Emirates.

Former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, Walter Julius Levy turns 103… 

Journalist for 30 years at CBS who then became the founding director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, then a fellow at GWU, Marvin Kalb turns 95… Retired Israeli diplomat who served as ambassador to Italy and France and world chairman of Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, Aviezer “Avi” Pazner turns 88… Author of 12 books, activist, and founding editor of Ms. Magazine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin turns 86… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Maurice of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, Charles Saatchi turns 82… Diplomat and Shakespeare historian, Kenneth Adelman turns 79… Founder and chairman of Commonwealth Financial Network and chairman of Southworth Development, Joseph Deitch turns 75… Professional mediator and advice columnist, Wendy J. Belzberg… Israel’s former minister of defense and deputy prime minister, Benny Gantz turns 66… Canadian journalist, author, documentary film producer and television personality, Steven Hillel Paikin turns 65… Producer, director, playwright and screenwriter, Aaron Benjamin Sorkin turns 64… Former lead singer of the Israeli pop rock band Mashina, Yuval Banay turns 63… CEO of Jewish Women’s International, Meredith Jacobs… Managing director at Major, Lindsey & Africa, Craig Appelbaum… EVP of Jewish Funders Network, Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu… Screenwriter, director and producer, Hayden Schlossberg turns 47… Founder and CEO of Delve LLC, previously a Bush 43 White House Jewish liaison, Jeff Berkowitz… Co-founder of Swish Beverages, David Oliver Cohen turns 45… Jerusalem born Academy Award-winning actress, producer and director, Natalie Portman turns 44… Online producer, writer and director, Rafi Fine turns 42… Multimedia artist, Anna Marie Tendler turns 40… Composer and lyricist, in 2024 he became the 20th person to complete the EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards, Benj Pasek turns 40… Israeli tech entrepreneur, he is the founder and chairman of Israel Tech Challenge, Raphael Ouzan turns 38… Director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, her book, A Flower Traveled In My Blood, is being published next month, Haley Cohen Gilliland… Deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration, Jeff Solnet… Ice hockey player for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and best-selling author of children’s books, Zachary Martin Hyman turns 33… Founder and CEO of The Fine Companies, Daniel Fine… Emilia Levy…

• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is traveling to D.C. today and will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House tomorrow amid tensions between the two countries…
• U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Yehuda Kaploun, President Donald Trump’s nominee for antisemitism envoy, are among the speakers today at The Jerusalem Post’sconference in New York.
• The National Council of Jewish Women will honor Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Jennifer Klein, former director of the White House Gender Policy Council and now professor of professional practice at Columbia University, at a Washington Institute event this evening. 
• The annual ICSC real estate confab is underway at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
• The second and final day of ELNET’s International Policy Conference in Paris will be held today.
• The three-day Middle East Forum 2025 Policy Conference begins today in Washington. Keynote speakers include Daniel Pipes, Masih Alinejad and Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL).
• The World Jewish Congress is holding its 17th Plenary Assembly in Jerusalem today. Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented WJC President Ronald Lauder, who is up for reelection at the plenary, with a Presidential Medal of Honor. Read eJewishPhilanthropy’s report from the WJC gala here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

What does “total victory” in Gaza mean for Israel? It’s a question that’s been asked since the launch of the war against Hamas in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, mass terror attacks. 

The answer has generally been two-pronged: Bringing home the hostages and defeating Hamas, in that order for most of the public, but in the reverse for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and much of his government. The first goal is unambiguous, even quantitative, but the second has often seemed amorphous: Destroying its military capabilities? Wiping out its leadership? Killing everyone affiliated with Hamas, including those involved in its civil administration of Gaza?

The Israeli government may be getting closer to what it can call “defeating Hamas.” As Israeli analysts have repeatedly noted in the days since a recent IDF operation targeted Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Muhammad Sinwar, and spokesman Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, known as Abu Obeida, there aren’t any Hamas leaders left in Gaza that most Israelis can name.

Netanyahu’s office indicated an openness to ending the war in a statement about the ongoing talks in Doha, Qatar, to which the prime minister sent his negotiating team minus its leader, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is sitting shiva in Jerusalem for his mother, but has been involved remotely. 

The negotiators are “acting to exhaust every chance for a deal,” the Prime Minister’s Office said yesterday, “whether it is according to the Witkoff outline” — referring to the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including terrorists, as offered by Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff — “or in the framework of ending the war, which would include releasing all the hostages, exiling Hamas terrorists and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip.” 

Those have been Israel’s conditions for much of the war, which is why, when asked by Jewish Insider, Netanyahu’s spokesman, Omer Dostri, said that sentence was “nothing new.” Yet the Prime Minister’s Office was more reticent in the past to highlight the option of negotiating an end to the war. Mentioning the conditions at this time may indicate that the Israeli team in Doha sees that as a viable option, now that all that is left of Hamas’ leadership in Gaza is effectively anonymous middle management.

Until there’s a deal, Israel is continuing its policy of “negotiations under fire” to pressure Hamas, with the IDF announcing “extensive ground operations” in Gaza on Sunday, as planned for after President Donald Trump’s Middle East trip, which ended on Friday. The Israeli military’s latest maneuvers involve five divisions, amounting to tens of thousands of soldiers. The IDF killed what it said was a senior terrorist on Monday, apprehending his family; the military denied reports that the special ops mission was meant to rescue hostages.

At the same time, Israel announced it would let “a basic amount of food [into Gaza], to ensure that there will not be a starvation crisis,” 11 weeks after cutting off all humanitarian aid because Hamas was hoarding some of it and using it as a means to pocket money and survive. The policy change came “at the recommendation of the IDF,” the Prime Minister’s Office said, “and out of an operational need to allow for the expansion of intensive fighting to defeat Hamas … Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of [Operation] Gideon’s Chariots to defeat Hamas.” 

The shift also comes days after Trump talked about “a lot of people … starving” in Gaza, and, as Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media today, “senators I know as supporters of Israel … say ‘we’ll give you all the help you need to win the war … but there is one thing we cannot stand: We can’t get pictures of famine’” in Gaza.

The U.S. and Israel have been working on a mechanism to allow in aid without Hamas getting access to it. That system has yet to be put into place, though American security contractors who will reportedly be involved in distributing the aid arrived at Ben Gurion Airport yesterday. The Israeli Cabinet did not vote on allowing in food without a new distribution mechanism, and the response from ministers has been somewhat mixed, with Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir railing against it, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tried to reassure the public that aid would not end up in Hamas hands.

The Donald in the Desert: The New York Times’ Luke Broadwater and Jonathan Swan review President Donald Trump’s five-day trip to the Middle East last week: “If a Democratic president did what Mr. Trump has done — praising a former jihadist, welcoming Qatar’s friendship with Iran and accepting a “gift” of a $400 million airplane — Republicans would have been howling in protest and ordering up congressional investigations. What transpired, instead, was mostly an uncomfortable silence. A few Trump allies, like Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and the far-right activist Laura Loomer, made clear they did not like the plane gift, but contorted themselves to express their discomfort in ways that would be least likely to offend Mr. Trump.” [NYTimes]

Trump’s Gilded Age: The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser reviews Trump’s Middle East trip as a sign of his transactional approach to foreign policy. “Trump, as far as I’m concerned, is never more fully himself than when he’s in the gilded safe spaces of the Middle East — admiring the ‘perfecto’ marble in a royal palace, basking in the judgment-free approval of fellow-billionaires, commingling his family’s and the nation’s business to a remarkable degree. His foreign-policy doctrine is not Kissingerian or Charles Lindberghian; it is not a doctrine at all, in fact, but a way of life, defined by extreme transactionalism and self-interest above all else. The cursed airplane from Qatar is not just a symbol of Trumpism but also its substance.” [NewYorker]

The New Europe: In The National, Paul Salem, vice president for International Engagement at the Middle East Institute, considers how Trump’s Gulf tour could reshape geopolitics. “For Mr Trump to make the Gulf his first official foreign visit again in his second term also indicates that he sees the Gulf countries and economies as main geopolitical and geoeconomic players in many ways surpassing the states and economies of Western Europe. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE now appear to hold more influence with the US President than do some of the leaders of America’s traditional Nato allies.” [The National]

Biden, in Decline: The Atlantic’s Tyler Austin Harper previews Original Sin, the new book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson about former President Joe Biden’s mental decline in office. “Some incidents cataloged in Original Sin suggest that Biden may have been struggling to do the job even early in his term. Cabinet meetings were ‘terrible and at times uncomfortable,’ one Cabinet secretary told the authors. ‘And they were from the beginning.’ Biden relied on note cards and canned responses … As some high-ranking Democrats quoted anonymously in the book put it to Tapper and Thompson after Biden’s disastrous debate with Trump last June: ‘Just who the hell is running the country?’ At least one unnamed source close to the Biden administration was willing to provide the authors with an answer. ‘Five people were running the country,’ this insider said, seemingly referring to the president’s closest advisers. ‘And Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.’” [TheAtlantic]

Former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office said in a statement yesterday…

Vice President JD Vance decided against a visit to Israel Tuesday after the IDF expanded its military operations in Gaza, according to Axios. A Trump administration official said that the White House didn’t want to suggest it was endorsing the ground operation at a time when the U.S. is advocating for a ceasefire deal… 

The Trump administration is discussing a plan that would permanently relocate Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip to Libya, according to NBC News. The administration has discussed the proposal with Libya’s leadership…

Hamas’ main goal with its Oct. 7 attacks was to derail peace negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to documents Israel’s military found in a Gaza Strip tunnel. Hamas’ Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, reportedly believed that an “extraordinary act” was required to derail the talks, the Wall Street Journal reports… 

The body of Muhammad Sinwar, his brother’s successor in leading Hamas’ military operations, was reportedly found in a Khan Younis tunnel along with 10 aides…

While President Donald Trump touted pledges from the three Gulf state countries he visited as totaling as high as $4 trillion, The New York Times reports “much of that total comes in the form of long-term pledges that may or may not materialize and counts some deals that were already underway.”…

In an interview with NBC News, former Vice President Mike Pence said, “To have the president in Saudi Arabia questioning America’s global war on terror and describing it as nation building and interventionist, I thought was a disservice to generations of Americans who wore the uniform … particularly giving that speech in Saudi Arabia where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers hailed from” …

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told ABC News that Iranian nuclear enrichment is the Trump administration’s “one very, very clear red line.” He said, “We cannot have that. Because enrichment enables weaponization.” …

At the WJC gala on Sunday night, American Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee sought to assuage concerns of a growing disconnect between the United States and Israel, affirming the bond between the two countries and referring to Jerusalem as Washington’s only “true partner.” Meanwhile, newly appointed WJC Israel Region Chair Sylvan Adams spoke out against Qatar, which WJC President Ronald Lauder recently visited during Trump’s Middle East trip….

Catholic-Jewish dialogue is “very precious” and must continue, Pope Leo XIV said at an audience with leaders of other religions on Monday, according to Italian news wire ANSA, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

The CIA has appointed a popular and experienced Middle East station chief as its new deputy director for operations, overseeing global covert missions, the Financial Times reports…

The Mossad, in cooperation with a foreign intelligence service, recovered some 2,500 documents, photographs and personal items that had been kept in the Syrian archive of materials connected to legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen, the Israeli Prime Minster’s Office said yesterday…

The New York Times spotlights Project Esther, the Heritage Foundation’s aggressive playbook to deter antisemitism on college campuses, many elements of which have been embraced by the Trump White House… 

The Wall Street Journal interviews businessman and private equity investor Brad Jacobs, the chairman and CEO of QXO…

Bloomberg profiles attorney Marty Edelman, known as Abu Dhabi’s ‘Man in Manhattan,’ and his role in helping advance recent deals between the UAE and the U.S…

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani declined to support a resolution in the state Legislature recognizing Israel on the 77th anniversary of its founding. Several months earlier, he also declined to sign onto a separate resolution condemning the Holocaust. Both resolutions were overwhelmingly supported by Democrats in the state Assembly…

Israel’s Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack at the Nova festival, finished in second place at the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, winning the public vote for the competition for her song “New Day Will Rise”…

The 2025 AI Status Report, released last week by the Israel Innovation Authority, found that while Israel is a global leader in AI innovation, its public institutions are lagging behind but there is a plan in the works to bridge the gap…

The Wall Street Journal reports that Kanye West’s antisemitic song with the hook “Heil Hitler” is “going viral on social media” after being removed from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Popular podcast host Joe Rogan defended the song’s message…

The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in 2022, leaving the acclaimed author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison…

Iran has summoned the British charge d’affaires in Tehran after the arrest of seven Iranian nationals in the U.K. earlier this month as part of a counterterrorism operation; three of the suspects were charged last week with spying offences in connection with a plot to target journalists critical of the Islamic Republic…

Rebecca Rose is starting a new position as director of grants and regional events at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies…

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon and Eric Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation, attended the Celebrate Israel parade yesterday on Fifth Avenue in New York. 

Retired chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, now of counsel in the NYC office of Latham & Watkins, Jonathan Lippman turns 80… 

Retired senior counsel in the DC office of Blank Rome, Harvey Sherzer turns 81… Clinical psychologist, author, teacher, public speaker and ordained rabbi, Dennis G. Shulman turns 75… Former member of the California state Senate, she was also a member of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, Hannah-Beth Jackson turns 75… Israeli novelist and journalist, Edna Shemesh turns 72… Nurse and former member of the Wisconsin state Assembly, Sandra (Sandy) Pasch turns 71… Retired chief of the general staff of the IDF, now a member of the Knesset for the National Unity party, Gadi Eizenkot turns 65… Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, born in Milan, now chief rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar turns 61… Journalist, teacher and playwright, now an editor of Streetsblog NYC, Gersh Kuntzman turns 60… Born in Kyiv, he is a professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alex Eskin turns 60… Author of 28 novels that have sold over 40 million copies in 34 languages, four of which have been adapted into Lifetime Original Movies, Jodi Picoult turns 59… Business manager and spokesperson for NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, Estee Portnoy… Former CEO of Bend the Arc, Stosh Cotler turns 57… Israeli-born chef, owner of multiple NYC restaurants, she is a cookbook author and comedian, Einat Admony turns 54… Israeli actress and fashion designer, Dorit Bar Or turns 50… Canadian food writer and cookbook author, she is a judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” Gail Simmons turns 49… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party since 2019, Ofir Katz turns 45… Nonprofit manager and consultant, he is the program director of MyZuzah which aspires to place a kosher mezuzah on every Jewish home worldwide, Alex Shapero… Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic and is now pitching coach for the UC Davis Aggies, Zachary “Zack” James Thornton turns 37… Activist, advocacy educator, engagement strategist and TED speaker, Natalie Warne… Ice hockey forward currently playing for Sibir Novosibirsk (Russia) of the Kontinental Hockey League, Brendan Leipsic turns 31…