• With the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) funeral scheduled for tomorrow in Washington, attendees will begin making their way to the capital today. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off earlier today for Washington, where he’ll also meet with President Donald Trump tomorrow. More below.
• As tensions continue to simmer in the Middle East, Trump appeared to deescalate, halting strikes on Iranian targets over the weekend after nearly two weeks of nightly strikes. Speaking at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday, Trump said that he didn’t think that Iranian leaders were ready to make a deal. “They are talking to us right now. They’d love to make a deal. I don’t think they’re ready to. I don’t think it’s time yet, but I’m willing to listen,” Trump said at the dinner. Read more here.
• The recalibration comes amid reports of dwindling interceptor stockpiles, as well as pushback to continued engagement among military leaders. Axios reports that CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper had advocated for ending the U.S. bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that the effort had reached its maximum effectiveness.
• Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed that two drones were shot down over the Jordanian border this morning, but did not say where the drones originated.
• The Atlantic Council is hosting a virtual fireside chat with Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid in conversation with former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh kraushaar

For Democrats worried about the party’s left turn, the outcome of the presidential nominating calendar, which was approved by a Democratic National Committee panel on Friday, is something of a mixed bag. (For pro-Israel Democrats, the presence of Michigan taking center stage on the early schedule is already causing heartburn, per reporting from JI’s Matthew Kassel.)

In a boost for centrists, the nomination process is slated to lead with South Carolina, a Southern state that has long been a moderating force in the party’s presidential calendar, largely because of its sizable Black population.  

But as Jonathan Martin noted in Politico, South Carolina’s first-in-the-nation status carries some unintended consequences. The state, which has typically voted after Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary, often played the role of choosing the nominee after the field was winnowed down by the earlier states. South Carolina has picked the primary winners in the last two decades: Barack Obama (in 2008), Hillary Clinton (in 2016) and most notably Joe Biden (in 2020) when pundits counted the former vice president out after losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

With South Carolina being moved to the front of the line, the state will end up narrowing down the lineup of candidates rather than having the final say on a shortlist of candidates. The changed primary calendar also puts pressure on moderate candidates to make a strong showing right away: If a leading centrist such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro runs for president, South Carolina suddenly becomes much more of a pivotal state, with outreach to Black voters a necessity.

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

Ambassador’s Insight: In The Washington Post, Matthew Gould, who served as a British ambassador to Israel and a deputy ambassador to Iran, explains the decision-making processes of Iranian leaders. “First: Iranian leaders are focused single-mindedly on preserving their grip on power. They know that the overwhelming majority of Iranians despise them and that the people will not be forgiving if the regime is finally removed. … Second: Iran’s actions often have more to do with internal regime dynamics than with statecraft. Western governments tend to interpret Iranian actions as aimed at them. But often, they are aimed internally.” [WashPost]

Atomic Optics: In The Wall Street Journal, Matthew Kroenig and Henry Sokolski warn of the possible fallout from the U.S.-Saudi deal announced last week that could give Riyadh a civilian nuclear program. “Providing Saudi Arabia a pathway to build the capacity the U.S. Air Force is razing in Iran gives hypocrisy a bad name. It not only would make it more difficult to get Iran to restrict its own program, but also set a poor example and encourage other nuclear suppliers to misbehave. More important, it’s sure to spook Riyadh’s neighbors. … The U.S. got the United Arab Emirates to agree to forgo making nuclear fuel with the caveat that if Washington afforded any neighbor more-generous terms, the U.A.E. could renegotiate.” [WSJ]

Candidate Corner: The New Yorker’s David Remnick profiles Gadi Eisenkot as the former IDF chief of staff mounts a challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, positioning himself as the “anti-Bibi” candidate. “Eisenkot is selling himself as the humble soldier, a political novice untainted by corruption or duplicity. After forty-one years in the Israel Defense Forces, including a stint under Netanyahu as chief of the general staff, the military’s highest post, Eisenkot served in the Knesset from 2022 to 2025. During that brief tenure, he says, he discovered that ‘Israeli democracy is far more fragile than I had imagined.’” [NewYorker]

A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.

A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that eight in 10 Americans think the Iran war was more challenging for the Trump administration than it had anticipated…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Iran’s use of Kheibar Shekan missiles, which can be deployed more quickly than older weapons and some of which have advanced maneuvering features that have posed a challenge to interception efforts…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke by phone on Sunday with Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in a conversation that was reportedly initiated by Al Khalifa, who asked for the discussion to be made public…

Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov said he welcomed “steps by Israel” that “enable the deployment” of the U.S.-led International Stabilization Force in Gaza…

Unreleased footage from a documentary filmmaker who was chronicling Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) diplomatic endeavors showed the late senator expressing concerns over the involvement of White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Middle East efforts, with Graham saying the two were “just too conflicted”; the footage, from documentarian Alex Holder, also includes Graham comparing Trump and Netanyahu to President Franklin Roosevelt and U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill… 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told The Hill that he did not regret his previous support for former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who ended his campaign after a slew of allegations ranging from a tattoo of a Nazi symbol to the sexual assault of a former girlfriend…

Morris Katz, a close advisor to Platner who stood by him until the final days of his Senate race, is now adopting a more contrite tone as he looks back on what went wrong in the campaign. “The tattoo should have been enough,” Katz said in an interview on “The Ezra Klein Show,” referring to Platner’s tattoo of a Totenkopf, a symbol associated with the Nazi regime’s elite SS unit, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports…

The New York Times examines what it describes as the “dysfunction and debt” wracking the Democratic National Committee and the “fraying nerves” of its chairman, Ken Martin, as the party seeks to capitalize on a favorable national environment to make sizable gains in the midterm elections…

The Department of Justice opened applications for a new grant program providing funding for local law enforcement agencies to deploy on-duty officers to protect houses of worship; the application closes on Sept. 2. The Department of Justice is set to provide more than $7.7 million for the program, more than the minimum $5 million budgeted by Congress…

A circuit court ordered the release of Georgetown researcher Badar Khan Suri, who had been held by immigration officials, a day after a federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling ordering the release of Columbia University anti-Israel demonstrator Mohsen Mahdawi… 

In eJewishPhilanthopy, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg honors his good friend Harold Grinspoon on the occasion of the philanthropist’s 97th birthday…

In a Washington Post op-ed, Ashley Jackson, a daughter of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, reveals she converted to Judaism two years ago, a decision that was supported by her father…

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court who was suspended earlier this year over allegations that he’d sexually harassed a subordinate, was officially removed after 82 of the court’s 125 members voted on Friday to oust him from the role…

Authorities in Manchester, U.K., arrested two people who allegedly shot BB guns at Jewish pedestrians in what is being investigated as a religiously motivated crime…

Police in Canada are investigating attacks on two Jewish-owned bagel shops in Toronto on Sunday…

Brazilian politician Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of the country’s former president, secured the nomination of the country’s Liberal Party to challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Netanyahu sent a video expressing support for Bolsonaro during the party’s convention, which was held on Saturday…

The remains of Theodor Herzl’s grandparents will be moved from a Belgrade cemetery and reinterred at Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl…

The New York Times does a deep dive into efforts by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen to use the current geopolitical situation to obtain concessions from Saudi Arabia… 

The Wall Street Journal reviews Yitzhak Shalev’s 1964 novel The Gavriel Tirosh Affair, about a teacher in 1930s Mandatory Palestine who convinces his students to join a paramilitary group…

Japanese militant Kozo Okamoto, who served 12 years in an Israeli prison for taking part in a 1972 terror attack at Israel’s main airport in which 26 people were killed, died at 78 in Lebanon, which had granted him asylum…

Ida Schmertz, the founding director of Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics, died at 91…

French Jewish DJ Barbara Butch performed on Saturday during the Hameau Festival in Saint-Martin-du-Tertre, France, a week after her concert in Grenoble was disrupted by anti-Israel activists. She has since filed a complaint against the organizers of the demonstration that forced her offstage while performing in Grenoble.

Comedian, writer, producer and actor, Carol Leifer turns 70… 

Real estate developer who founded Aspen Square Management, he heads an eponymous foundation known for its flagship program PJ Library, Harold Grinspoon turns 97… Forensic pathologist known for his HBO show and his work investigating high-profile deaths, Michael M. Baden turns 92… Managing partner of Access Fund Management Company, he is a past president of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Harold Zlot… Former deputy secretary of defense and then CIA director in the Clinton administration, now a professor emeritus at MIT, John Mark Deutch turns 88… Steven M. Mizel turns 87… Artist and museum founder focused on Fusionism, Shalom Tomáš Neuman turns 79… Israeli author and television producer, he is best known for his documentaries of Israel’s intelligence agencies, Yarin Kimor turns 74… Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, Linda Feldmann… Former VP of global communications, marketing and public policy at Facebook, he previously held a similar position at Google, Elliot Schrage turns 66… U.S. Army colonel (retired), Jeffrey Brian Carra… Israeli television and radio personality, Erez Moshe Tal turns 65… Heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, now a film producer, Jean “Gigi” Pritzker turns 64… Former CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly, she is now the founder of Insight Eldercare, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld… Member of the European Parliament since 2009, Tamás Deutsch turns 60… Rabbi at Kesher Israel: The Georgetown Synagogue, Rabbi Hyim Shafner… Former national platform director for the Democratic National Committee, now a political consultant and recruiter, Andrew Grossman… Former chief of staff of the House Republican Conference, he is now the managing partner at Capitol Venture, LLC, Jeremy Deutsch… Head of marketing at Employee Navigator and winner on “Jeopardy!” in 2019, Aaron Lichtig… D.C. area political activist, Benjamin Rothenberg… SVP of communications at CBS News, Jeremy Adler…

• Tensions in the Middle East continue to rise following the deaths of four U.S. service members resulting from Iranian attacks targeting U.S. bases in Jordan and Iraq. As the White House considers a broader offensive against Iran, it is moving dozens of military refueling planes to Israel.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, told reporters before departing for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in the Philippines on Sunday that the U.S. was still open to diplomacy with Tehran. “We’ve tried multiple times with Iran, and we’ll continue to try. If that door opens, we’ll be happy to see it open,” Rubio said. “Their behavior has to change in order for ours to change.”
• Before departing for Manila, Rubio met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who is in Washington this week, where he’s slated to meet with President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
• Support is growing for former Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson to succeed Graham Platner as the Democratic Party’s nominee to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), with most of Jackson’s rivals dropping their bids ahead of the state party’s nominating convention set for Saturday. More below.
• Keir Starmer delivered his final address as U.K. prime minister today before formally submitting his resignation to King Charles III. Former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham then separately traveled to Buckingham Palace to meet with the king and accept his request to form a new government.
• In Israel, Yair Golan’s Democrats party is holding its primary today to determine its slate for the upcoming election.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

July was scheduled to offer a break from primary politics, but two seismic developments this month — the collapse of scandal-plagued Graham Platner’s campaign in Maine and the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — are forcing both parties to deal with messy internal conflicts as they choose replacements in these key races.

The outcome of the July 25 Maine Democratic convention choosing an alternative candidate to run against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and the Aug. 11 special election primary to choose a GOP nominee for Graham’s seat are offering clarity on the ideological directions of the two parties as the November midterm elections approach.

Already, we’re seeing that Democrats want to nominate a candidate as ideologically similar to Platner as possible, with most of the convention delegates chosen this weekend gravitating towards former state Senate President Troy Jackson, an anti-Israel progressive who unsuccessfully ran for governor this year as a champion of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

As Maine counties completed the process of choosing delegates for the nominating convention, Jackson’s campaign expressed confidence that he rallied enough backers to secure a victory. Most of his leading rivals dropped out of the race on Sunday, indicating that the state party is clearly intent on pushing forward a candidate that shares Platner’s anti-establishment, left-wing worldview but without the personal baggage he brought to the table.

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

Swamp Creatures: In his Substack, Erick Erickson examines “self-dealing” among Trump administration officials who have personally financially benefited from their professional roles, despite President Donald Trump’s oft-repeated campaign pledge to “drain the swamp.” “It does not matter whether each arrangement is technically legal. The swamp was never a legal problem; it was a trust problem. When the party that promised to end influence-peddling instead perfects it — when access to the president can be bought with a memecoin and a black-tie ticket — the lesson every ambitious operator learns is that the spoils go to whoever holds power, and restraint is for suckers. That is the real cost.” [Substack]

Taking on Tehran Together: In the Arab News, former White House Middle East Envoy Jason Greenblatt posits that unified Gulf states — which over the last six months have all sustained attacks from Iran — can push back against the Islamic Republic’s malign behavior in the region. “The scale and consequences differed by country. The decision behind them did not. Six governments. One regime deciding, each time, that Gulf territory was a legitimate target. … The differing intensity of Iran’s attacks reflects Tehran’s country-by-country calibration of pressure. Iran weighs its own exposure, the relationships it still hopes to preserve, how much pressure it mistakenly believes it can place on Washington, and how much pressure it wants to place directly on each Gulf government.” [ArabNews]

The Future of Faith: In The Washington Post, David DeSteno considers how religiously engaged people are interacting with AI on issues of moral guidance. “As of yet, the data don’t show that people of faith are forsaking the moral teachings and advice of clergy in favor of that offered by AI; they’re utilizing both. But that might soon change. … According to Anthropic’s own research, its AI chatbot Claude just happens to be most sycophantic when it discusses spiritual themes, meaning that it could be especially persuasive while dispensing moral and religious advice.” [WashPost]

A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.

Joining President Donald Trump in his suite at MetLife Stadium for Spain’s 1-0 win over Argentina in Sunday’s World Cup final were Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, First Lady Melania Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Andrew Giuliani, Barron and Eric Trump and Robert Kraft…

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) rejected claims, including those made recently by Vice President JD Vance, of Israeli influence over Trump’s decision-making on Iran, calling it “a fool’s run to place blame on him supposedly being dictated by others”… 

Abdul El-Sayed, who is up against Stevens in next month’s Michigan Democratic Senate primary, deflected a question from CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday’s “State of the Union” about audio in which El-Sayed was heard telling staff there were “a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” over the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; in response, El-Sayed criticized the war with Iran and the recent deaths of U.S. service members…

Iran reportedly moved $6 billion in oil out of the country during the roughly four weeks that the Strait of Hormuz was open in accordance with the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran…

The Wall Street Journal looks at Iranian efforts to make Jordan a flashpoint in its war with the U.S., which stations thousands of soldiers at a base in the country — three of whom were killed in an Iranian ballistic missile attack last week…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told The New York Times he was in “an active conversation” with legal officials regarding the potential arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to travel to New York in September for the U.N. General Assembly; Mamdani had said during his campaign for mayor that he would order the arrest of Netanyahu should the Israeli leader travel to New York, despite doubts from experts over the legality of such a move…

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, who leads the Boca Raton Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation in South Florida, is urging members of his congregation to register as Democrats ahead of the upcoming Florida primary in order to help Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) fend off a far-left primary challenger, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin wrapped tefillin — reportedly for the first time — at Fanatics Fest in New York over the weekend…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross talks to Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, about the group’s engagement with education associations and unions on efforts to address antisemitism…

The Wall Street Journal profiles Emily Austin, a sports and pro-Israel influencer with deep ties to the Trump administration who leveraged her relationships in Washington to score a gig as a content creator for FIFA during the World Cup…

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced the nomination of Hungarian chess grandmaster Judit Polgar, who is Jewish, to serve as the country’s interim president…

An Israir plane slated to depart from London’s Luton Airport last week was damaged by an aircraft tug — the third such incident involving an Israir flight at that airport in the last year — prompting concerns that the airline is being targeted by ground workers…

The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into a $700 million effort by Israel to help improve its global public image, including a $45 million contract with Trump ally Brad Parscale, as well as through influencers and AI-generated texting campaigns…

Cisco is in advanced talks with Zafran Security to purchase the Israeli cybersecurity startup for between $150-200 million…

The Associated Press reports on how a conflict between the Bank of Israel and the Palestinian Monetary Authority as Israel caps the amount of shekels it takes back from the West Bank is causing cash surpluses in the territory…

Fortune compares and contrasts the power of the Israeli shekel and the Japanese yen as the former gains strength and the yen, once one of the world’s strongest currencies, drops in value…

NPR looks at efforts by Israeli paraglider Amnonn Hahn to help swifts during their migration to Israel for the spring nesting season as the global population of the birds faces a steep decline…

The New York Times spotlights the wedding of Pamela Soberman and Rabbi Beni Summers, who met at a Jewish singing retreat in upstate New York…

Simone Kanter, who previously worked for Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), is joining Tusk Strategies as a vice president in the group’s public affairs practice…

Israeli actor and singer Shoshik Shani died at 91…

Shoshana Bryen, the senior policy director at the Jewish Policy Center, died last week…

U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Peter Lamelas participated in an event on Saturday marking the 32nd anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Actor and comedian, Joey Bragg turns 30… 

Retired U.S. senator (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski turns 90… Professor emeritus of mathematics at Penn State University, Paul Baum turns 90… Retired president of the National Endowment for Democracy, Carl Gershman turns 83… Long-time Israeli diplomat, he served as Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Yoram Ben-Zeev turns 82… Former commissioner on the Civil Rights Commission, assistant secretary of HUD in the Clinton administration, presently vice chair of the Bank of San Francisco, Roberta Achtenberg turns 76… Senior U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts, Judge Patti B. Saris turns 75… New York Times weekly columnist and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Thomas Loren Friedman turns 73… Molecular geneticist at NYC-based Rockefeller University and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Jeffrey M. Friedman turns 72… Broadcast and digital media consultant, Farrell Meisel… Professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Barbara Risman turns 70… Past president of the Women’s Department at the Jewish Federation of Detroit, she is the mother of fashion designers Matthew and Alex, Marcie Hermelin Orley… Head of a women-led political network for the U.S.-Israel relationship, also a mahjong instructor, Linleigh Ayn Richker… Public policy expert and author, Jane S. Hoffman turns 62… Former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, she is a brigadier general in the IDF (res.), Nira Shpak turns 60… Member of Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party, Yitzhak Ze’ev Pindros turns 55… Attorney, Jack Achiezer Guggenheim… SVP, Washington bureau chief and political director of CNN, where he oversees the political coverage across all of CNN’s platforms, David Marc Chalian turns 53… Author of World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, he is a staff writer at The Atlantic, Franklin Foer turns 52… Miami-based EVP at AIPAC, David Fox… Singer who came on the scene as a finalist on the fifth season of “American Idol,” Efraym Elliott Yamin turns 48… Assistant commissioner in the Community Affairs Bureau at the NYPD, Fred Kreizman… Co-founder and managing partner of the communications and branding firm of Main+Rose, Beth Doane… Co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive Indivisible movement, Ezra Levin turns 41… Former MLB player, he was a shortstop for Team Israel in 2023, Ty Kelly turns 38… Comedian and former regular player on “Saturday Night Live,” Chloe Fineman turns 38… Software engineer at Home Chef, Ashley Abramowicz Gibbs… Anesthesiologist, Dr. Sheila Ganjian Navi… VP of business development and operations at Thyme Care, Etan Raskas… Principal at Blackstone, Jonathan Tamir Alden… Intellectual property attorney at Ballard Spahr, Goldie Fields…

• Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi arrives in Washington today, where he is slated to meet this week with President Donald Trump and other senior administration officials. The trip comes as Washington has sought to pressure Baghdad to crack down on Iranian militias operating in the country, and as the U.S. and Iran continued to trade fire over the weekend, with the U.S. striking Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz overnight after Iran hit a Cyprus-flagged container ship, prompting Iran to fire barrages of drones and missiles at Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
• Current and former government officials and policy wonks are arriving in Aspen, Colo., today ahead of the start of the Aspen Security Forum tomorrow. Will you be in Aspen? Say hello to JI’s Marc Rod, who will be covering the forum this week.
• Israelis will go to the polls in new elections on Oct. 27, MK Ofir Katz, the head of the Knesset’s House Committee, announced on Sunday. Katz’s announcement kicks off the official countdown to elections, even as candidates have for months been campaigning as the date has remained uncertain.
• The House Rules Committee is meeting today to discuss the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent and has been opposed by Orthodox Jewish groups. The committee is also set to discuss legislation about State Department funding when it meets at 4 p.m.
• The Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Greg Stanton (R-AZ), author Dara Horn and the Philos Project’s Luke Moon are among those slated to speak today at the National Coalition Against Antisemitism & Hate Conference, hosted by the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council at the National Press Club.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S EMILY JACOBS

Following the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was 71, this weekend, tributes poured in from lawmakers, administration officials and Jewish organizations, while Republicans and Democrats alike predicted Graham would be remembered as a legendary American political figure known for his ability to take political risks and find common ground in unexpected places.

Morgan Ortagus, the former deputy presidential envoy for Middle East peace in the second Trump administration and one of Graham’s closest confidantes in Washington, spoke to the senator on Saturday afternoon, hours before paramedics were called to his Capitol Hill home after he experienced an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. 

“He was extremely jazzed up in our last conversation,” Ortagus told JI. “He had just gotten off the phone with the president, and he was super excited about the Russia sanctions bill and the president deciding to go back into Iran. He could not have been happier when I spoke to him last night. He was in the best mood and in a great place. He spoke about how he felt like he was doing consequential work.”

“Nobody was expecting this. That’s for sure. Not even Lindsey was, or he wouldn’t have been running for another term,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who has had close relationships with both Graham and President Donald Trump, said of the senator’s sudden passing. “When a person cuts as wide a swath as Lindsey cuts, it is shocking. It will take some time to process the reality of it. It should really hit on Monday when we show up for work.”

“He was not afraid to be critical and he was never uncritical of friends. He believed that friends owe it to each other to try to enable them to do better,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. “He had a vision, which was in effect the normalization of relationships throughout the Middle East, an extension of the Abraham Accords. He pursued it relentlessly.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) credited Graham with doing “a masterful job of pulling” senators from across the ideological spectrum “in the same direction” in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, swiftly organizing a bipartisan congressional delegation alongside former Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as he sought to salvage his long-standing efforts to achieve Saudi-Israeli normalization. 

Read the full obituary here, with additional reflections from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Fetterman (D-PA), former CIA Director David Petraeus and Sander Gerber here.

AWOL on Antisemitism: In The Hill, Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), the co-chairs of the Senate’s antisemitism task force, call on Congress to pass the Jewish American Security Act. “Every single attack represents a violation of Americans’ freedom to safely practice their religion. Failing to confront the moral rot of antisemitism in our country is an abdication of our responsibility to uphold this fundamental right. We cannot continue to allow discrimination and violence to go unchecked. Yet despite the disturbing rise in antisemitism, not a single piece of federal legislation focused solely and directly on combating it has been passed into law since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.” [TheHill]

Lindsey’s Legacy: In The Atlantic, Mark Leibovich reflects on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) death, looking at how the South Carolina Republican navigated the Beltway bubble, local politics and his relationship with President Donald Trump. “It is perfectly on the nose that Graham’s departure would occur just a few hours before he was supposed to appear on Meet the Press. It would have been his 64th appearance on America’s longest-running public-affairs program. In the Meet the Press greenroom there used to be a prominent photo of Graham yapping away alongside his Senate sidekick, John McCain. McCain, for his part, appeared 73 times on Meet the Press, more than any other guest in history — something McCain was especially proud of. In early 2019, a few months after McCain died, Graham joked to me that his main goal in his remaining time on God’s green Earth (or God’s greenroom) was to beat McCain’s record. He never will.” [TheAtlantic]

White House Inc.: Tablet’s Armin Rosen spotlights the overlap between business and personal dealings among members of the Trump administration, using as an example Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany who serves as a senior advisor to the president on Middle East and African affairs despite his business interests in Africa. “The blurring boundaries between individual personalities and the basic functioning of the American government are characteristic of the second Trump administration, where jobs at the top of the system have been turned into prizes given out to allies and loyalists deemed worthy of having a shot at 10-figure prosperity. … But the result of this new ethos is that the pursuits of personal and public interest now bleed into one another with desensitizing frequency.” [Tablet]

A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.

In The Atlantic, former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, now the head of the country’s opposition, reflects on what he has learned about the American ethos during his time traveling the country, finding that “America is the place where the individual precedes the tribe and the story precedes history,” and as a place where loneliness “is not a glitch in the system; it is the raw material from which the system was built”…

Politico looks at how Vice President JD Vance’s rhetoric on Israel is alienating some Jewish Republican donors…

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been hospitalized and has not made any public statements since a fall that he said left him “briefly unconscious” last month, released a photo of himself amid speculation over the extent of his illness, saying that he developed pneumonia while recovering from the fall…

The Washington State Democratic Party is facing criticism from Jewish communal leaders over a change to its party platform that linked rising antisemitism in part to the actions of the Israeli government…

The New York Times looks at the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America in smaller cities in upstate New York as the group seeks to extend its footprint around the state…

Graham Platner officially withdrew his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Maine, clearing the way for the Maine Democratic Party to replace him on the November ballot…

The Anti-Defamation League took out a full-page ad in the Maine Sunday Telegram, declaring of Platner, “The tattoo should have been enough” and warning that those who “traffic in antisemitism” often are associated with other “misconduct”; ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told JI, “At this pivotal moment, antisemitism is not only being normalized in our politics, it is at risk of becoming mainstreamed across society. When conspiracy theories, Nazi-linked symbols, ties to extremists or hatred toward Jews are excused or minimized, leaders cannot look away”…

PEN America President Dinaw Mengestu resigned after seven months in the role, following the organization’s publication of an article describing the harassment and isolation faced by Jewish and Israeli writers in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and ensuing war in Gaza; Mengestu said that the decision was in part because of the group’s opposition to cultural boycotts by pro-Palestinian activists…

The Atlantic explores efforts by the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to learn the truth about their parents, who were executed in 1953 after being convicted of spying for the Soviet Union…

The U.K.’s Home Office announced it will spend £250 million ($335 million) over the next three years to increase security and policing at Jewish institutions…

The Australian royal commission of inquiry into antisemitism heard from students and faculty about the antisemitism they experienced at universities in the country that predated the Oct. 7 attacks…

Australia’s education minister announced an overhaul of the country’s education standards that will now require universities to adopt a definition of antisemitism and develop transparent processes for reporting incidents of racism…

Politico does a deep dive into efforts by Norway, led by a former national team star player-turned-activist, to oust Israel from FIFA…

European foreign ministers gathered in Brussels today to discuss a potential ban on the importing of goods from West Bank settlements…

Deutsche Welle spotlights efforts by Dennis Baum, the Jewish heir to the Simson automobile manufacturing empire, to fight back against the use of Simson vehicles in political materials distributed by the far-right Alternative for Germany party…

Counterterrorism officials in France are investigating after a military-grade weapon was discovered in a vehicle in a heavily Jewish neighborhood in the north of Paris…

The Qatar Investment Authority, which owns a 10% stake in Volkswagen AG, blocked a deal between the German automaker and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems that would have seen Volkswagen produce vehicles supporting the Iron Dome missile-defense system….

Bloomberg looks at the challenges posed to global financial institutions by the growing rift between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia that “has the potential to upend global investment flows”…

Former Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who oversaw the Gulf state’s transition into an era of massive growth that also saw Doha deepen ties with Iran, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and establish Al Jazeera, died at 74; The New York Times’ obituary of Sheikh Hamad included a photo of the former emir with senior Hamas officials…

Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Charles Dreyfus, a grandson of Alfred Dreyfus, on Sunday inaugurated a statue of the military captain, who was the target of the antisemitic campaign known as the Dreyfus Affair. The Paris ceremony marking Dreyfus’ 1906 exoneration was held on the country’s first national day dedicated to the recognition of his innocence.

Speaking at the ceremony, Macron acknowledged that “the old demons of antisemitism have never completely disappeared from our country.”

Television writer, David X. Cohen turns 60…

Scottsdale, Ariz., resident, retired teacher, Howie K. Kipnes… Actor whose films have grossed more than $10 billion, his maternal grandmother was Anna Lifschutz, a Jewish immigrant from Minsk, Harrison Ford turns 84… Ridgefield, Conn., resident, Louis Panzer… Lecturer on the federal budget process following 37 years at various federal agencies, Johnny Cahn… Co-host of “Pardon the Interruption” on ESPN since 2001, Anthony Irwin “Tony” Kornheiser turns 78… Actor, best known for her role as Frenchy in “Grease,” Edith “Didi” Conn turns 75… Author of crime and suspense novels, he is also a conservative commentator, Andrew Klavan turns 72… Guide and educator at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Rabbi Dr. Eric Marshall Lankin… Senior manager of regulatory and legislative affairs at PJM Interconnection, Stuart Widom… Country music artist, Victoria Lynn Shaw turns 64… Television executive and producer, she was the president of HBO’s network’s entertainment division until 2008 and was responsible for commissioning “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and other hit shows, Carolyn Strauss turns 63… Film director and screenwriter, Shari Springer Berman turns 63… Author and journalist, Katie Roiphe turns 58… Chief legal officer and chief policy officer at HackerOne, Ilona Cohen… Owner of the D.C. area franchises of SafeSplash Swim Schools, Jennifer Rebecca Goodman Lilintahl… Founder of Omanut Collective, Sarah Persitz… Director of major gifts for the Southeast region at American Friends of Magen David Adom, Yishai Mizrahi… Creator, writer and producer of the TV show “Casual,” which ran from 2015 to 2018, Alexander “Zander” Sutton Lehmann turns 39… Former CEO at Art of Air Events and Entertainment, Ariana Gradow… Managing director at BDT & MSD Partners, Nicholas Avery Newburger… Managing partner at Surround Ventures, Jared Kash… Television and film actor, Wyatt Jess Oleff (family name was Olefsky) turns 23… Technology investor and executive, Eric A. Kohlmann… Reporter at Punchbowl News, Max Cohen… 

• World leaders — including President Donald Trump — are traveling to Turkey today ahead of the start of the NATO Ankara Summit tomorrow.
• A number of Israeli officials are reportedly expected to travel to the U.S. in the coming weeks for meetings with their American counterparts amid floundering U.S.-Iran talks. Trump told Axios that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked for a meeting, which could take place soon after Trump returns from Turkey, while i24News reports that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is expected to meet next week in Washington with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• Funeral proceedings for former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that began over the weekend continued today with the slain leader’s funeral. Three of Khamenei’s sons have been seen at the ceremonies, though Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father following an Israeli strike on the first day of the war, has yet to make a public appearance.
• Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley retreat is taking place this week in Idaho. Those expected to attend this year include David Ellison, David Zaslav, Barry Diller, Bob Iger, Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Karp, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Bari Weiss, Jared Kushner and Josh Kushner.
• The Christians United For Israel Summit continues today in Washington, with its annual Night to Honor Israel dinner scheduled for tonight.
• In Jerusalem, the National Library of Israel is marking the U.S.’ semiquincentennial with an evening event focused on “Celebrating America at 250.”
• Startup Nation Central founder Wendy Singer will moderate a conversation between Rabbi Abi Dauber Sterne, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and B’nai Jeshurun Senior Rabbi Felicia Sol.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Sunday, narrowing the race to a contest between Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official.

McMorrow suspended her campaign without endorsing either of her rivals, saying only that “whoever wins this primary on August 4th will have my full support.” 

Recent polling has shown a relatively close race between the moderate Stevens and far-left El-Sayed, with El-Sayed leading in several surveys. With McMorrow generally claiming around 10% of the vote in polls, her withdrawal could shift dynamics in the race.

At the same time, mail-in ballots in the state have already been dispatched — with McMorrow’s name still on them.

The end of McMorrow’s campaign marks a significant fall for the up-and-coming state senator, who posted strong performances in early polls but has seen flagging support and enthusiasm in recent months. Her voting base will likely end up divided among both candidates, and both are making efforts to attract her supporters.

McMorrow had sought to carve out a middle ground between Stevens and El-Sayed, running as a somewhat progressive anti-establishment candidate but claiming a more pragmatic lane than El-Sayed, who some Democrats worry will not be electable in a general election against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the expected GOP nominee. The race offers the biggest test yet of the progressive, anti-Israel movement’s ability to win in a critical swing state.

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

Battle Plan vs. the DSA: In The Wall Street Journal, Mark Penn and Andrew Stein suggest how Democrats can counter the Democratic Socialists of America’s rising influence in the party. “Political-action committees and advocacy groups that have focused on federal races have to realize that the DSA initially focuses on low-turnout local races and nonprofit boards as easy targets. Once in power, its members degrade law enforcement with policies that encourage street vagrancy, drug abuse and higher taxes, fueling more voter anger, which they exploit at election time. Moderate PACs and other groups need a battle plan for every campaign from district attorney to Congress, city council to state legislature.” [WSJ]

Singled Out in San Francisco: In the San Francisco Standard, Eric Kingsbury reflects on a recent incident in which California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is Jewish, was filmed being heckled as he was forced by demonstrators to leave a transgender march last month. “Connie Chan, his opponent in the congressional race, holds the same positions on Gaza and Israel that Wiener has publicly endorsed, yet she faced no such harassment and marched in peace. If it’s not his record, why is Wiener singled out? It’s because he’s Jewish. And because of that, nothing he can ever do or say will be enough. He will always be held to a different standard. That is antisemitism.” [SFStandard]

The Erdogan Loophole: In Foreign Policy, Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, observes the response by Western leaders to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s jailing of political opponents and gutting of the country’s main opposition party. “This is odd, especially given how much time and attention leading Democrats and Republicans have spent on human rights in China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Cuba, North Korea, and especially Israel.” [ForeignPolicy]

The Wall Street Journal reports that NASA administrator Jared Isaacman superseded FAA objections to flying vintage Northrop F-5 Tiger II jets in the America 250 air show in Washington over the weekend; Isaacman, whose company owns three planes that were part of the group, said guidelines for planes participating in the flyover differed from rules regarding civilian aircraft that fall under FAA regulations…

Ahead of the start of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, tomorrow, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, called for a “23-state solution” in which all Arab countries, including a newly formed Palestinian state, establish “full diplomatic relations” with Israel…

Seven anti-Israel demonstrators arrested during a 2024 protest that shut down traffic on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge were convicted of misdemeanors tied to the incident; the judge overseeing the case declared a mistrial on felony conspiracy charges when jurors were unable to reach a verdict…

The board of the Committee to Protect Journalists voted 17-1 to uphold its existing definition of a journalist that includes members of media groups affiliated with militant organizations “provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect”…

Eyal Shani will open a Los Angeles outpost of his Malka restaurant this summer at the boutique hotel SIXTY Beverly Hills, a year and a half after opening a Miami branch of the popular Tel Aviv eatery, which also has a location in New York…

U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner’s America 250 celebration in Paris — which concluded on Friday before Shabbat — included a fully kosher spread (including kosher wines) and a performance by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli… 

The New York Times spotlights the challenges facing Jewish museums across Europe amid the explosion of antisemitism that followed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and ensuing war in Gaza…

A Meta executive denied to Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism that the company’s changes to its content moderation rules led to increased instances of antisemitism on its platforms…

Israel’s central bank is expected to cut interest rates to 3.50% from 3.75%, citing the shekel’s strength and inflation expectations…

An American man studying at a seminary in Israel was charged with spying on behalf of Iran in exchange for $1,400 in cryptocurrency; the yeshiva student allegedly took photos of sites and carried out assigned tasks as instructed by a foreign agent operating on behalf of Tehran… 

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Gadi Eisenkot as the former IDF chief of staff, who is making his first bid as a party leader, rises in the polls against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev gave the first Israeli confirmation that the country deployed an Iron Dome battery to the United Arab Emirates during the recent war with Iran; the deployment was previously reported by Axios and also confirmed by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee…

The Israeli government voted unanimously to appoint Ruth Cohen Dar — who serves as nonresident ambassador to Slovenia and Malta — to be Jerusalem’s first permanent envoy in Slovenia, following Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s announcement that Israel will open an embassy in the country…

The Israeli Cabinet rejected a Supreme Court decision striking down the government’s creation of an alternative television regulating body as it works to block the sale of Channel 13 to a group led by Assaf Rappaport, a Netanyahu critic…

Judah Gribetz, a longtime New York political aide who played a key role in restituting $1.25 billion to Holocaust survivors and later served as president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, died at 97…

Geneticist Stanley Gartler, whose work advanced research into the origins and growth of cancerous tumors, died at 102…

Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Former Israeli hostages Sasha Trufanov and Sapir Cohen, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, were married on Sunday outside of Netanya. The couple walked down the aisle to Idan Raichel’s “Mi’Ma’amakim” — “Out of the Depths.”

Those in attendance included former hostages Arbel Yehud, Ariel Cunio, Shani Goren, Moran Stella Yanai, Rom Braslavsky, Eitan Horn and Daniel Aloni, as well as Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who had previously said he wouldn’t attend any weddings until all of the hostages had been released.

Founder of Tumblr, which he sold to Yahoo in 2013 for $1.1 billion, David Karp turns 40… 

Chairman of NYC-based GFP Real Estate, Jeffrey Robert Gural turns 84… 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009, George W. Bush turns 80… Former member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party, Yitzhak Levy turns 79… Lobbyist and former president of AIPAC, Marshall Aaron Brachman… Journalist, pundit and author, known for writing the blog “Kausfiles,” Robert Michael “Mickey” Kaus turns 75… Israeli cryptographer, he is a co-inventor of the RSA algorithm and one of the inventors of differential cryptanalysis, Adi Shamir turns 74… Sole member of the Knesset for the Noam party, Avigdor “Avi” Maoz turns 70… Founder of Kehilas Pnei Menachem, a breakaway in 2019 from the Ger Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Shaul Alter turns 69… Professor of Bible at JTS and former senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, Benjamin D. Sommer turns 62… Partner at SKDK, she served as a board member of Jewish Foundation for Group Homes (now known as Makom), Jill Zuckman… CEO of Holocaust Museum LA, Beth Kean… Widow of Beau Biden, she is the board chair of the Beau Biden Foundation, Hallie Olivere Biden turns 53… Stand-up comedian, writer and actor, Mark Moshe Kasher turns 47… British actor, Louisa Clein turns 47… Former chief of staff on the Hill, now CoS at Blue Frontier, Shira Siegel… Israeli freestyle wrestler, she was born on the day her parents made aliyah, Ilana Kratysh turns 36… Postdoctoral research fellow at Emory University, Josh Lipson… Jeannie Gerzon…

• We’re keeping a close eye on the situation in the Gulf, following Iran’s targeting of commercial vessels last week and retaliatory U.S. strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Earlier today, Iranian state media published comments from President Masoud Pezeshkian calling the agreement with the U.S. — which will include the unfreezing of some $6 billion in Iranian funds — “a great victory for the Iranian people.”
• It’s the final day of campaigning ahead of Colorado’s primaries on Tuesday. More below on the top races we’re watching.
• Elsewhere in Colorado, the Aspen Ideas Festival continues today. This afternoon, Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will sit for a conversation about the role of government in the cryptocurrency market, followed by a conversation between Kim Ghattas, Karim Sadjadpour and Mark Dubowitz about Iran.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

As tensions run high in the Gulf following exchanges of fire between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend, a vastly different security situation is taking shape in Lebanon, with the Trump administration’s top officials — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — taking responsibility for the respective outcomes.

Vance, who led last week’s negotiations with Iran in Switzerland, said upon his departure from the talks that a “good foundation” had been established between the countries. But that foundation displayed its first cracks just three days later, when Iranian drones fired on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the U.S. to strike Iranian military infrastructure.

The vice president’s tone changed by the weekend, when he said that if Iran had “disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence.” The Iranians skipped technical talks slated for Sunday, saying that the U.S. had not fulfilled the condition of the MOU that would release billions in frozen funds.

Now, officials say that the U.S. and Iranian delegations have agreed to hold fire and will meet in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday to discuss the status of the Strait of Hormuz.

In Washington, officials are meanwhile celebrating the signing of a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon that would see Israel scale back its presence in southern Lebanon, creating two “pilot zones” for the Lebanese Armed Forces to administer.

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

Perks for Pakistan: The Financial Times’ Humza Jilani spotlights Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir’s efforts to position Islamabad to financially benefit from a deal between the U.S. and Iran. “The larger hope is to ensure the country remains sufficiently relevant to its key partners in the U.S. and the Gulf to guarantee steady support and wean the country off a mountain of external debt, analysts and officials say. The relationship with the Trump administration helped position ‘Pakistan as a long-term stakeholder in West Asian security and stability, and provides a major opportunity to reap the economic dividends that will come with the role,’ said Kamran Bokhari, senior resident fellow with the Middle East Policy Council in Washington.” [FT]

Lesson From Louisiana: In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Kovacs, the former editor of New Orleans’ Times-Picayune, contrasts Democrats’ embrace of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, whose tattoo of a Nazi totenkopf has drawn widespread scrutiny, with Republicans’ rejection of former KKK leader David Duke, the party’s candidate in Louisiana’s 1991 gubernatorial runoff. “Republicans gave up the Louisiana governorship, but they achieved something more important: David Duke faded from the scene, though he kept running for office until 2016, when he finished seventh in a U.S. Senate jungle primary. … Democrats may wish they had followed the GOP’s 1991 example. Mr. Platner could win, but Republicans and their media supporters will make [Sens. Bernie] Sanders and [Chuck] Schumer — and their party’s presidential nominees — wear that tattoo for years.” [WSJ]

Slip, Sliding Away: The New York Times’ David Halbfinger talks to Israeli officials and analysts about Washington’s slipping support for the country following the latest wave of Democratic Socialists of America primary wins. “[Asaf] Zamir, the Tel Aviv deputy mayor, said, ‘I’m waking up and hearing that we’re “genocidal” and “apartheid.” I’m a left wing, two-state, pro-peace Israeli, but I’m not blind or crazy,’ he added. ‘I know what the situation in Israel is, and we’re not those things we’re being called. And yet, more and more Americans are buying into and voting on those grounds. That troubles me.’” [NYTimes]

Bondi and Beyond: In The New Yorker, Oscar Schwartz looks at how last year’s terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney ignited a political debate in Australia that goes beyond the events at Bondi Beach. “In the immediate fallout of the mass shooting, Australia’s political discourse was dominated by two topics, gun control and antisemitism, with some casting the issues in oppositional terms. … The political backlash to the shooting at Bondi can be seen as a product of fear stoked by the attack, of course, but beneath that a deeper anxiety about the transformations occurring in Australian society can be detected.” [NewYorker]

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to express support for Israel as a Jewish state in an interview with ABC News aired Sunday, saying, “Any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can’t tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else”…

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz posted a photo from Saturday’s Argentina-Jordan World Cup match alongside his wife, former Homeland Security Advisor Julia Nesheiwat — whose parents immigrated from Jordan — and the Jordanian royal family, writing, “Only in America!”…

The Washington Post does a deep dive into the “extraordinary feud” between leading Senate Republicans and Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for policy; the Post also reports that Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is continuing to block the nominations of Colby acolytes Alex Velez-Green and Austin Dahmer…

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) raised concerns about Qatar‘s relationship with Iran and role as an intermediary in U.S.-Iran talks, telling “Fox News Sunday” that Doha is “not our friend”…

Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced a resolution requesting information on Israel’s human rights practices in its campaign in Lebanon and whether Israel has used U.S.-provided equipment in such activities…

Sens. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced a bill to expand the BARD program, which supports joint U.S.-Israel agricultural cooperation, to support mid-stage research…

U.C. Berkeley announced the planned launch of the Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy, a nonpartisan institute named after the former House speaker that will focus on civic engagement…

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it is conducting a review of its database of journalists killed during the Israel-Hamas war after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad posted obituaries for combatants who had been listed by CPJ as journalists in Gaza…

Montgomery County, Md., Councilmember Will Jawondo on Friday declared victory in the race for county executive, having secured 40% of the tallied vote; County Councilmember Andrew Friedson, who had 34% of the vote, conceded on Sunday…

The New York Times Magazine profiles comic Robby Hoffman about the “Hacks” star’s religious upbringing in Crown Heights and career trajectory…

The head of Venezuela’s largest Ashkenazi congregation said that three members of the country’s 5,000-strong Jewish community were confirmed to have been killed in the dual earthquakes that rocked the country last week…

Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market and H-E-B will begin selling products from plant-based meat company Chunk Foods as the Israeli company, founded by Amos Golan, continues its U.S. expansion…

More than two dozen people were killed in clashes along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border after Pakistani forces launched strikes and a ground operation it said targeted militant hideouts; Afghan officials said women and children were killed and injured in the attack…

Israel‘s government unanimously voted on Sunday to recognize the Armenian Genocide, a move expected to deepen already strained ties with Turkey, which rejects the genocide label. The vote came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that Zionism is a “genocidal, occupying, expansionist ideology” that “threatens everyone”…

The Israeli government approved a NIS 100 million ($33.4 million) budget, which will be matched by philanthropic donations, to support Jewish day school education in the United States and Canada through the Jewish Federations of North America, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

The Financial Times spotlights U.S. efforts to modernize the production of its military arsenal and shift from expensive and time-intensive weapons to artillery that can be quickly mass-produced… 

The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are reportedly using the recent calm in the region to conduct missile tests in preparation for potential future conflict with Israel…

The U.K.’s Times reports that Qatar provided all-expenses-paid trips to the World Cup for 1,000 “fake” fans to support the Gulf team at its matches…

The Jewish War Veterans Department of Michigan, alongside the leaders of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., held a ceremony on Sunday honoring the first responders to the March terror attack at the synagogue by a Hezbollah sympathizer.

Screenwriter, director and producer, he has won nine Emmy Awards for his work on AMC’s “Mad Men” and HBO’s “The Sopranos,” Matthew Hoffman Weiner turns 61…

Baltimore-area gastroenterologist, he is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Marshall S. Bedine, M.D…. Chairman of Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise ship operator (includes Carnival, Cunard, Holland America and others), and owner of the NBA’s Miami Heat, Micky Arison turns 77… Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk in Jerusalem, Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Soloveitchik turns 77… Former assistant surgeon general of the U.S. and deputy assistant secretary of HHS for women’s health, Susan Jane Blumenthal, M.D. turns 74… Former SVP and counsel at Columbus, Ohio-based L Brands for almost 30 years, now a consultant, Bruce A. Soll… CEO of two firms including Aliya Marketing Group, Joshua Karlin… Israeli actor, screenwriter, playwright and film director, Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari turns 66… Founder and president of Medallion Financial Corp., Andrew Murstein turns 62… Senior rabbi of Toronto’s Beth Tzedec Congregation, Rabbi Steven C. Wernick turns 59… Theater, film and television screenwriter, his credits include the 2017 film “Wonder Woman,” Allan Heinberg turns 59… Israeli political consultant and former chief of staff to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ari Harow turns 53… Consultant, facilitator, trainer and coach, Nanette Rochelle Fridman… Rabbi of The Young Israel of Bal Harbour (Fla.), Gidon Moskovitz… Film and television director and writer, she is known for writing and directing the films “Obvious Child” and “Landline,” Gillian Robespierre turns 48… Former member of the U.K. Parliament for the Labour party, she is now a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Ruth Smeeth turns 47… Israeli actor and model, Yehuda Levi turns 47… President and dean of Phoenix-based Valley Beit Midrash and author of 30 books, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz… Partner at FGS Global, Andrew Duberstein… Pitcher for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he then played in the Mexican League, Charles Irvin “Bubby” Rossman turns 34… Campaign finance consultant, who has raised money for Hillary Clinton and the DNC, David Wolf… Steven Kohn… Sara Sansone… Fred Gruber…

• In Washington, we’re expecting fresh votes this week on Iran war powers resolutions in both the House and the Senate. The House is also expected to hold a war powers vote, introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), to block U.S. involvement — including support for Israel — in Lebanon. Read more here.
• The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will meet today at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. Speakers include the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL), Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Kat Cammack (R-FL).
• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is hosting a Shavuot celebration today at Gracie Mansion, days after drawing the ire of Jewish communal leaders in the city for posting a video, featuring a translator of Bosnian descent whom the mayor referred to as a “New Yorker and a Nakba survivor.” More below.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is campaigning today with Republican Ed Gallrein, the challenger to anti-Israel Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), in the run-up to Tuesday’s closely watched primary in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District. Hegseth and Gallrein are scheduled to appear together at an America First Works event in Hebron, Ky., at 1 p.m. ET.
• The International Smart Mobility Summit kicks off today in Tel Aviv. Postponed from March due to the war with Iran, the event featured live televised remarks from Elon Musk, who had planned to come to the conference prior to its postponement. “My hat is off to Israel for just how much incredible innovation … I’d say innovation per capita, Israel must be No. 1 by far in the world,” Musk told the gathering. Read more about Musk’s remarks here.
• Ambassador Daniel Meron, Israel’s envoy to the U.N. in Geneva, is slated to speak today at the World Health Organization’s annual assembly, where he’ll call for reform of the WHO’s system for tracking attacks on health in conflict zones. Meron’s address comes days after the release of a report by Israel’s Center for Medical Integrity that found that the WHO’s surveillance system has hampered efforts to provide assistance to health workers in conflict zones.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

For the last two weeks, a resumption of hostilities with Iran seemed unlikely, with the U.S. uninterested in sparking renewed fighting against the Islamic Republic in advance of President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping — whose country is a key trade partner of Iran. 

But with the president back in Washington, the administration appears to be reopening military options — even as Iran continues to drag out tensions by offering what U.S. officials have said were unacceptable proposals to end the war. That extends to Congress, where Democrats on both sides of Capitol Hill are expected to introduce new war powers resolutions this week in an attempt to constrain the administration’s actions in the Middle East.

Trump told Axios on Sunday that “the clock is ticking” for Iran and the U.S. to reach an agreement to end the war. After rejecting Iran’s previous response to a U.S. proposal, Trump said that Tehran has to get to “where we want them to be,” or else “they are going to get hit much harder.” 

A decision on whether to return to active fighting could come as soon as Tuesday, when Trump is set to hold a Situation Room meeting to discuss options. After returning from Beijing, the president met on Sunday with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

In Israel, preparations are being made for a possible return to war. Channel 12 quoted a senior Israeli official on Friday saying that the country is “preparing for days to weeks” of renewed fighting.

Even as the tenuous ceasefire has held, the United Arab Emirates — which during the active hostilities took the brunt of Iran’s attacks — has continued to face drone attacks. Emirati officials are investigating a fire near Abu Dhabi’s Barakah Nuclear Power Plant that broke out on Sunday after a drone entered the UAE from its western border and struck a generator near the facility.

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

Hakeem’s Highest Hurdle: The New Yorker’s Jason Zengerle looks at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-NY) challenging path to retake the House. “Ironically, one of the few issues that Jeffries is identified with is the very topic that now most threatens to divide the Democratic Party. From his earliest days in politics, Jeffries has been a strong supporter of Israel, taking his first trip there when he was in the State Assembly and visiting five more times with AIPAC as a member of Congress… For most of Jeffries’s career, his pro-Israel position was in line with mainstream Democratic sentiment… last summer, he skipped the annual trip to Israel for first-term House Democrats, which is sponsored by AIPAC; two years earlier, he’d helped lead it.” [NewYorker]

Kristof Crisis: Puck News’ Dylan Byers looks at the debate in The New York Times’ newsroom over columnist Nicholas Kristof’s recent opinion piece alleging sadistic human rights violations targeting Palestinian prisoners in Israel. “Nevertheless, many Times journalists told me they remain suspicious of Nick’s sourcing for the most incendiary allegations, skeptical that those sources would have cleared the standards of the newsroom rather than Opinion, and mildly miffed at the Pulitzer-eager columnist for bringing scrutiny on the paper in a piece that should have been in their jurisdiction. Above all else, many seemed exasperated by what they viewed as another instance of the Times brand being undercut by the actions of another department that, they feel, is not held to the same standards.” [Puck]

Overwhelming Force: In The Wall Street Journal, Seth Cropsey considers how the U.S. should approach renewed warfare against Iran. “Mr. Trump has a narrow window in which to end this crisis favorably, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and ensure an economic rebound while securing American interests and prestige. But that requires deploying the full spectrum of American power. … Mr. Trump’s objective shouldn’t be to bluff the Iranians out. Instead it should be to demonstrate that if push comes to shove, the U.S. will commit to an overwhelming confrontation that breaks the Iranian state economically and politically.” [WSJ]

Dumont’s Bet: Bloomberg’s Randall Williams and Christopher Beam spotlight Las Vegas Sands CEO Patrick Dumont, the son-in-law of Dr. Miriam Adelson who, with the Adelson family, purchased a 73% stake in the Dallas Mavericks from Marc Cuban in 2023, and who is seeking to turn Dallas into a sports and gambling hub. “Dumont, who lives in Las Vegas with his wife and seven children, says he’s not a gambler. On the other hand, thanks to his Sands job, “technically I’m on the other side of every single bet.” When it comes to achieving his vision in Texas, he has the money, the connections and the will. All he needs is local buy-in. And, of course, a bit of luck.” [Bloomberg]

Holding Bibi Back: In Air Mail, Yossi Melman profiles Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom he describes as the “thorn” in the side of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Critics liken [Netanyahu] to Recep Erdoğan, the president of Turkey; Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s outgoing prime minister; and other populist world leaders. Over his many years in power, they argue, he has sought to dominate the media, weaken law enforcement, and bend the judiciary to political ends. Standing in his way is Baharav-Miara, whose dual role is unusual by international standards. As law professor Yaniv Roznai explains, Israel’s attorney general serves both as the government’s head prosecutor and its legal adviser.” [AirMail]

Pictures at a Roundup: In The New York Times, Jean-Marc Dreyfus reflects on the discovery of dozens of photographs of roundups of Parisian Jews during World War II that were taken to be used as Nazi propaganda and are newly on display at the city’s Holocaust memorial. “They remind us that the past is never entirely buried, and that images can unexpectedly return to challenge the void of memory and representation. They function today not as propaganda, the purpose for which they were originally produced, but as fragments of truth — painful, incomplete and indispensable — that allow us to better understand the way the roundup was organized and conducted and also to get a glimpse of the victims’ shock, fear and pain.” [NYTimes]

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack met on Sunday with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Riyadh…

The New York Times reports on a second Israeli military outpost in the Iraqi desert that was used during combat against Iran, shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported on the existence of an initial base… 

The IDF killed Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the most senior remaining Hamas commander in the enclave, in a Friday strike, according to a joint statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the hotly contested Michigan Senate Democratic primary… 

Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced a resolution, “recognizing, from Chicago to Palestine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Puerto Rico, that the pain, violence, and oppression the global majority experiences are interconnected, acknowledges that the future must be self-determined, and affirms our humanity and dignity through a renewed mandate for human rights.” The resolution calls for a grab bag of far-left academic and policy priorities, ranging from  defunding the Department of Defense to ending “carceral punishment”…

Federal authorities have charged an Iran-backed militia commander with plotting to attack Jewish sites in New York City and Los Angeles, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Federal prosecutors in Washington will seek the death penalty against the Illinois man accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum last May…

The Yeshiva World does a deep dive into the White House’s celebration of Shabbat over the weekend, coinciding with Rededicate 250 celebrations that took place over the weekend…

The Rededicate 250 events included an hours-long Christian prayer rally on the National Mall, which included remarks from Rabbi Meir Soloveichik…

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who has often criticized the evolution of his party, announced the launch of an eponymous leadership Institute at Maryland’s Washington College aimed at fixing what he called a “broken” two-party system after vowing not to seek elected office again…

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who will face the winner of next week’s GOP Senate primary in Texas in November, said he will not campaign with Maureen Galindo, a Democratic House candidate who has leaned heavily into antisemitic conspiracy theories as she mounts her campaign for the state’s 35th Congressional District…

The New York Times spotlights the New York state Assembly race for the seat being vacated by Micah Lasher as he mounts a congressional bid; the race pits Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay against public defender Eli Northrup, with the Times noting that both candidates have “cited their faith as drivers of their political ambitions, pointing to Judaism’s teachings and their own unique backgrounds”…

Jewish groups in the U.K., including Community Security Trust and the Jewish Leadership Council, are calling on the government to bar far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has events scheduled in London next month, from entering the country over his past antisemitic rhetoric…

The U.K. group Parents Against Antisemitism released a report detailing how Jewish students are “routinely bullied” by classmates, describing incidents including praise for Adolf Hitler, threats of violence and Nazi graffiti on school buildings…

Authorities in London arrested 20 people at a pair of dueling rallies on Saturday, one organized by far-right figure Tommy Robinson, and the other organized by far-left activists that included anti-Israel elements…

The New York Times looks at how the war with Iran and Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz have collectively dealt a severe economic blow to Qatar, which since February has been unable to move gas, the Gulf nation’s primary export, out of the country…

The Financial Times spotlights the role of Islamist forces bolstering the Sudanese Armed Forces as the U.S., Israel and the United Arab Emirates prioritize ending the “residual Iranian influence and weapons flows” to the African nation…

Somaliland’s ambassador to Israel, Mohamed Hagi, presented his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday…

Israel is moving forward with plans to create a museum, IDF enlistment office and offices for the defense ministry on the site that was previously home to the east Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which was banned by Israel last year…

Computer science researcher Peter Neumann died at 93…

Israeli singer Noam Bettan, performing “Michelle,” finished second behind Bulgaria at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night in Vienna. Bettan amassed 123 points from the juries from participating countries, and an additional 220 in the televote, but still fell short of Bulgarian singer Dara’s “Bangaranga,” which garnered 516 votes.

Pioneer of the corporate investigations industry, he is now chairman and co-founder of K2 Integrity and Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Jules B. Kroll turns 85…

Leader and rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger since 1996, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter turns 87… Best-selling author of nine spy thriller novels, he has served in both the U.S. and the Israeli armies, Andrew Gary Kaplan turns 85… Widow of Bernard “Bernie” Madoff, Ruth Madoff turns 85… Retired New York Times columnist and editorial writer, he was the NYT’s Jerusalem correspondent for four years in the early 1990s, Clyde Haberman turns 81… President of Everest Management and trustee of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Gary Kopff turns 81… Los Angeles-based attorney, board member of American Friends of Nishmat, past president of Westwood Village Synagogue, Linda Goldenberg Mayman… Longtime Washington correspondent for Newsweek, now writing for SpyTalk, Jonathan Broder turns 78… Longest-serving member of the Maryland General Assembly, starting in 1983, Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg turns 76… Chair of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a former IDF major general and leading activist for the disability community, Doron Almog turns 75… Senior advisor at Moelis & Company, a former IDF major general, then CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Shlomo Yanai turns 74… Director of nutrition and hospitality at Philadelphia’s Temple University Hospital, Nancy Baumann… Attorney in Atlanta, he was the director of congregational engagement at the Union for Reform Judaism for nine years, Alan Kitey… Film producer and CEO of Miramax, Jonathan Glickman turns 57… Venture capitalist and author of a book on business principles derived from the Book of Genesis, Michael A. Eisenberg turns 55… CEO at Waze from 2009 to 2021, Noam Bardin… VP for communications strategy at Strategic Marketing Innovations (SMI), Bryan Bender turns 54… Former head of development at NYC charter school system Uncommon Schools, Sarah Danzig… Author of Substack-based newsletter and blog “Slow Boring,” he was a co-founder of Vox, Matthew Yglesias turns 45… Founder of London-based Tech With Intention, Eliza Krigman… Staffer for the Senate Armed Services Committee, Eric Trager… Founder of Satori Global Media, Joshua Lederman… Former acting under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, then a member of the National Archives Public Interest Declassification Board, Ezra Asa Cohen turns 40… Tech entrepreneur in the AI and gaming space, Dan Garon… Co-founder of Rebel (formerly known as Rebelmail), then acquired by Salesforce, Joe Teplow… Managing associate in the D.C. office of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Lauren DePinto Bomberger… Journalist and podcast producer, Netanel “Tani” Levitt… Director of strategic partnerships at Anduril Industries, Sofia Rose Gross Haft… Five-time member of the U.S. Women’s National Gymnastics Team, now a business manager in the office of the CIO at Citadel, Samantha “Sami” Shapiro turns 33… Chief development officer at TAMID Group, Rachel Philipson Marsh… 

• The White House rejected Iran’s latest response to the U.S.-proposed peace plan given to negotiators earlier this month, with President Donald Trump calling Tehran’s response “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.” The latest rejection comes days before Trump is set to travel to China to meet with President Xi Jinping — a trip that was initially postponed due to the Iran war.
• Jewish California, formerly the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, is kicking off its annual two-day Capitol Summit today in Sacramento. Speakers at the gathering include former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff (who will be making his first advocacy address in the state since departing Washington) and Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman. 
• The World Jewish Congress is convening in Geneva as the group marks its 90th anniversary. Read more about the conference from eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross here.
• The 30th Annual Webby Awards will take place tonight in Manhattan. “Borrowed Spotlight,” the exhibit that paired A-list celebrities with Holocaust survivors, will be honored for its photography and design. Read our interview with “Borrowed Spotlight” creator Bryce Thompson here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

A mentor. A friend. A compass. A “professional’s professional.”

Those were just some of the descriptors that friends and former colleagues of Abe Foxman used as they reflected on the life and legacy of the longtime former head of the Anti-Defamation League following his death yesterday at age 86.

Foxman was born to Polish Jewish parents in present-day Belarus in 1940. As a toddler, his parents placed him in the care of his Catholic nanny, who had him baptized and raised him in the church. After being reunited with his parents at the end of World War II (following a legal battle in which his nanny attempted to keep custody of Foxman), the family moved into a displaced persons camp in Austria. In 1950, when he was 10 years old, the family immigrated to the U.S. 

His early childhood experiences shaped the trajectory of his life. Foxman joined the ADL in 1965 as a legal assistant, becoming the organization’s national director in 1987, a post he held until his retirement in 2015. He built the ADL into a $60 million organization with more than two dozen offices around the country. 

As the head of the ADL and in his retirement, Foxman was one of the nation’s foremost authorities on antisemitism. He met with presidents and popes, college students and celebrities — and everyone in between. He maintained close relationships over the years with those who had fallen under his tutelage.

“He was invaluable to me as a resource all those years, and he had a lot to offer,” Jay Kaiman, the president of the Marcus Foundation who was hired by Foxman to be the ADL’s Southeast regional director in 1996, told JI.

In 1987, Foxman was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board, an honor that Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden would also bestow upon him. In a 2022 conversation with JI, Foxman said he had recently learned that he was the only Holocaust survivor to sit on the board. Many others, he said, were the children and grandchildren of survivors. But he was the only one to experience the horrors of Nazi Europe firsthand.

Deborah Lipstadt, the former State Department envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told JI that Foxman “bridged that gap” — linking the devastating realities of the Holocaust to rising antisemitism in the present.

Read Foxman’s obituary in full here.

Giving Hate a Pass: In The New York Times, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) warns that the Democratic Party has developed a double standard on antisemitism, citing its embrace of far-left antisemites and leftward shift on Israel. “I’ve spoken to congressional colleagues who have privately told me that many things [Hasan] Piker has said are disgusting. Yet they’ll say nothing about it in public, even as they rightly rush to condemn President Trump for his unending barrage of offensive comments and social media posts. … Democrats have justly denounced the Trump administration for its broadsides — in some cases, threats — toward some of America’s closest allies. But many increasingly excuse, or join, feverish denunciations of Israel, our longstanding, democratic and strategic ally.” [NYTimes]

Habit-Forming: In The Wall Street Journal, former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) reflects on the good habits that can be adopted amid what he calls a “civilization-warping crisis of institutional decline,” naming among the good habits the institution of “tech Sabbaths” to disconnect from the internet. “Character, whether of an individual or of a nation, is molded by habits and by time. This republic requires men and women to do long-form deliberation, serious thinking, honest humility and daily striving. What good is it to gain the whole world if we forfeit the souls that we’re supposed to form? We can’t expect to remain free without being virtuous, we can’t be bold without being rooted, we can’t be great without aiming first to be good.” [WSJ]

No Layup for Silver: The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta looks at the challenges facing NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as the league enters “a moment of institutional crisis” amid a series of betting and corruption scandals. “The quality of the product has diminished. Narratives surrounding the league are prevailingly negative. Things once taken for granted — commercial satisfaction, cultural prestige, national relevance — no longer seem guaranteed. Peacetime is a thing of the past; for the foreseeable future, the commissioner will be at war — with fans, with media critics, with players and coaches, with the game itself.” [TheAtlantic]

In response to an op-ed by Saudi Ambassador to Washington Turki al-Faisal that alleged that Israel attempted to ignite a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, analyst Hussain Abdul-Hussain slammed al-Faisal and Riyadh’s “cowardice and abandoning of responsibility” over its decision not to respond to Iran’s attacks across the Middle East…

The FBI said that a man who was wearing a T-shirt with the flag of Iran when he killed three people outside an Austin, Texas, bar in early March had acted alone and without foreign influence, but “admired” slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been killed the previous day…

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced a bill to ban certain federal funding to schools that operate branch campuses in Iran, Turkey, Qatar and other adversary states, a companion to legislation introduced recently in the House…

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) introduced a bill to prohibit U.S. exports of oil and gasoline until hostilities with Iran cease, in a bid to lower energy prices spiking as a result of the war…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed to Jewish leaders on Thursday that she will opt into a new federal education tax initiative, a move promoted by community advocates to help fund Jewish day schools and yeshivas, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Jewish Journal published the commencement address that former Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro had been slated to deliver at Georgetown University Law Center’s graduation ceremony; Schapiro withdrew as the school’s commencement speaker following backlash from anti-Israel student activists…

Despite being banned from campus, UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter is actively lobbying candidates to influence upcoming student government elections, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned… 

A former Cornell student convicted of making threats against the school’s Jewish community in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks was sentenced to 21 months in prison; a lawyer for Patrick Dai said the posts were a “misguided attempt to highlight Hamas’ genocidal beliefs and garner support for Israel”…

Artist Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus” sketch, which had been owned by German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, who died in Nazi Europe in 1940, will go on display today at New York’s Jewish Museum after its transport from Jerusalem was delayed by the Iran war…

The New York Post covers Jeffrey Katzenberg’s exclusive gathering of CEOs in Montecito, Calif., that took place last week…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the “golden age of bagels” as restaurants across the country put their own spins on the classic Ashkenazi Jewish breakfast carb…

The New York Times reports on a decades-old screenplay written by Larry David that has found new life after being purchased by a fan on eBay and published online in full…

Authorities in north London charged a British man with religiously aggravated assault in an attack on three members of the Enfield Jewish community over the weekend… 

The family of a deceased Palestinian man in the West Bank was forced by Israeli settlers to exhume and rebury the man after the settlers claimed the cemetery was too close to a newly established settlement; the family had been granted a permit for the burial by Israeli officials and coordinated with Israeli security forces, who did not intervene in the forced exhumation…

ZoomInfo announced plans to close its R&D center in Israel and lay off some 300 employees; the decision comes five years after the software company was acquired by Chorus.ai for $575 million…

Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi was transferred to a hospital in Tehran and had her sentence suspended after collapsing last week in prison…

The Wall Street Journal profiles Iraqi banking tycoon and Prime Minister-designate Ali Al Zaidi, the preferred candidate of President Donald Trump whose bank had in 2024 been penalized for its ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke on Sunday at a rally against antisemitism in London organized by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jenni Frazer reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Mirvis gave the opening address at the rally, which also included speeches from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and senior Reform U.K. Party official Richard Tice.

Filmmaker and podcast host, Dan Trachtenberg turns 45…

Israeli optical and kinetic artist and sculptor, he was just awarded the Israel Prize, Yaacov Agam turns 98… Sociologist and author of numerous books, magazines and website columns on the subject of love, relationships and intimacy, Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D. turns 81… Israeli social activist focused on issues of women’s and human rights, Iris Stern Levi turns 73… Treasurer and receiver-general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Deborah Beth Goldberg turns 72… Past president and then chairman of AIPAC, Morton Zvi Fridman, MD turns 68… Copy chief at Random House until 2023 and the author of Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer turns 68… Brian Mullen… Howard M. Pollack… CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, William Albert “Bill” Ackman turns 60… Former senior fellow and a Middle East analyst at the Hudson Institute, now a consultant, Michael Pregent turns 58… Member of the California state Senate since 2016, now running for Congress, Scott Wiener turns 56… Co-founder and president of Omaha Productions, which he started with Peyton Manning, Jamie Horowitz… Deputy chief of staff in the Office of the President at Carnegie Mellon University, Pamela Eichenbaum… Senior cost analyst at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Michael Jeremy Alexander… PR and brand manager for overseas resource development at Leket Israel, Shira Woolf… Founder and CEO of the digital asset technology company Architect Financial Technologies, Brett Harrison turns 38… Staff writer at Time magazine, Olivia B. Waxman… Supervisor of commerce strategy at Zenith, James Frichner… Israeli actress, she appeared in “Shtisel,” “Unorthodox” and “Captain America: Brave New World,” Shira Haas turns 31… Paralympic track and field athlete, he is also a motivational speaker and disability rights advocate, Ezra Frech turns 21… 

• We’re keeping an eye on the launch of the U.S.’ “Project Freedom” effort — announced by President Donald Trump on Sunday — to guide vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has since warned the U.S. Navy against entering the waterway. The U.S. military denied a claim earlier today that Iran hit an American warship trying to enter the strait. More below.
• The Milken Institute Global Conference kicked off yesterday in Los Angeles and runs through Wednesday. More below on what to expect at this year’s summit. JI’s Gabby Deutch is on the ground covering the Milken conference — drop her a line if you’re there, too.
• In Washington, U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers is slated to meet this morning with Lior Haiat, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ deputy director-general for North America.
• Tonight in New York, The Jewish Center is hosting a candidate roundtable with Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, two of the candidates vying to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in New York’s 12th Congressional District.
• Lag B’Omer begins tonight. In Israel, police are preparing for potential unrest in the vicinity of Mt. Meron, a Hasidic pilgrimage site where thousands have gathered annually for the holiday. Law enforcement scaled back the celebrations out of concern that the site, in northern Israel, could become a target for Hezbollah.
• The Pulitzer Prize Board will announce the winners of the 2026 prizes at 3 p.m. ET.
• A bevy of high-profile guests are slated to attend tonight’s Met Gala, with attendees dressed according to this year’s theme, “Costume Art.” This year marks the first that Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are serving as cosponsors and lead chairs of the annual event.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

A who’s who of global decision-makers is gathering today at the iconic Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles for this year’s annual Milken Institute Global Conference. Investors, philanthropists and business executives from around the world will hobnob with pro athletes, movie stars and politicians. 

The four-day convening is billed as a way for global leaders to address some of the world’s biggest challenges. According to event organizers, this year’s conference is focused on building “a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future” in the face of “recent disruption and innovation.” In other words: What are the most powerful innovators in the world going to do about artificial intelligence?

AI is shaping up to be the buzzword at Milken, just like it is everywhere else right now. Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan will each be talking on Monday about developing a competitive workforce. Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Mark Warner (D-VA) will speak on a panel with Alphabet President Ruth Porat and Meta President Dina Powell McCormick about disruptions to the American workforce. Perhaps the most anticipated speaker of the day is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. 

A closed-door session today about ties between Silicon Valley, Washington and the Middle East features UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, Israeli-born Silicon Valley investor Elad Gil, Abu Dhabi department of health chair Mansoor Ibrahim Al Mansoori and Jacob Helberg, the U.S. under secretary of state for economic affairs. 

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

Dem Reset on Israel: In The Bulwark, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro posits that the Democratic Party’s relationship with Israel has hit the “feeding-frenzy stage” and suggests considerations for the party to weigh as it moves leftward on Israel. “How will Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis respond to the end of U.S. assistance to Israel? Will it make them less likely to pursue their dreams of Israel’s destruction? Or will they feel emboldened? … Would Arab and Muslim countries considering normalizing relations with Israel be more or less likely to do so if they see the United States pull away? Would Gulf nations still see the United States as their primary security partner as we distance ourselves from Israel?” [TheBulwark]

MBZ Zigs: The Financial Times’ Andrew England looks at how United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed is steering the Gulf nation as the region sits at a crossroads that will determine its future. “For MBZ, it is a pivotal moment — a conflict he had long prepared for, but also a test of who among his nation’s traditional allies could be relied upon in a crisis. And the UAE has made clear it believes some have been found wanting. The state has openly criticised what it perceives to be the tepid response of Arab and Muslim partners. … But the war gave it the impetus to act on a threat it had previously only dangled, deepening a festering rift with Riyadh, fuelled by economic competition and conflicting visions of how to manage the region’s crises.” [FT]

The Unity Test: In The Jerusalem Post, William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, considers the challenges facing the American Jewish community. “Institutions were built to sustain a broader communal fabric: federations, schools, synagogues, community centers, and civic organizations grounded in the idea that Jewish continuity is a collective responsibility. That instinct toward unity now faces a real test. … Fragmentation carries risk, especially under external pressure. The strength of American Jewish life depends on the ability to hold differences within a framework of mutual obligation: to argue, even sharply, without losing sight of a shared inheritance and a common future.” [JPost]

Pod Squad: Air Mail’s Alyson Krueger spotlights the use of the “pod” as an alternative to a traditional receiving line during King Charles III’s recent visit to Washington. “A political pod featured Speaker Mike Johnson, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Nancy Pelosi, and Stephen Miller — a seemingly flammable grouping. But John McCarthy, a Democratic strategist and former Biden White House aide, who was also in the pod, saw diplomatic promise in the 25 minutes its members spent waiting as a group. ‘There are not a lot of scenarios where leaders who are Democrats and Republicans are getting together in D.C. right now,’ he says. He thought it created a useful shared experience. ‘You met the King together! Next time you need something across the aisle, you have this interesting life experience that you can draw upon.’” [AirMail]

National Security Action, the foreign policy group founded by former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Obama administration senior official Ben Rhodes — both of whom remain on the board — has tapped Maher Bitar, the former NSA official who had faced criticism from GOP lawmakers for his alleged “clear bias against and disregard for Israel,” to lead the organization as it wades into the 2028 primaries…

Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, a likely Democratic presidential candidate, on Friday signaled his backing for Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has drawn scrutiny over his far-left views and decades-old Nazi tattoo that he recently covered up, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports…

The newly formed Jewish Federation of Annapolis & the Chesapeake is pushing back after Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman repeatedly declined to include funding for security grants requested by Jewish institutions in his proposed budget, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were spotted on Saturday night at the Amex x Carbone Beach pop-up in Miami Beach, Fla., chatting with Carbone owner Jeff Zalaznick, on the sidelines of the Miami Grand Prix… 

Israeli model Yael Shelbia and Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll, who have been rumored to be dating since last year, made their F1 debut as a couple at the Miami Grand Prix, where Stroll was racing, on Sunday…

New York magazine profiles wine importer and distributor Victor Schwartz, the lead plaintiff challenging the Trump administration’s tariffs, who scored a 6-3 Supreme Court victory last fall…

Ryan Cohen’s GameStop made an offer to purchase eBay for $56 billion, with the goal of turning the online reseller into an Amazon competitor…

Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff clashed with students whom he said were engaging in “harassment and intimidation” following an on-campus event on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; several students surrounded Kotlikoff’s car as he was trying to leave the parking lot and he was filmed backing into a student while another claimed he ran over his foot, but no injuries were reported…

The Washington Post spotlights JoJo and Yoni Kalin, a married couple that witnessed the killings last year of two Israeli Embassy staffers at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, and looks at how they have responded in different ways to the rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment…

A historic Nantucket, Mass., lifesaving station purchased by the island’s Jewish community is set to become Nantucket’s first synagogue in more than four decades…

Australia’s royal commission into the December attack at a Hanukkah party at Sydney’s Bondi Beach held its first public hearing, with members of the city’s Jewish community testifying about their experiences with antisemitism; among those testifying was Sheina Gutnick, whose father was killed in the attack and who warned of the “real-world consequences of hatred”…

The man suspected of stabbing two Jewish men in the London suburb of Golders Green last week was charged with two counts of attempted murder, as well as a weapons charge; Essa Suleiman was also hit with a third charge of attempted murder, for an attack that took place in another part of the city earlier in the day…

A British court found a Kuwaiti asylum-seeker guilty of weapons charges and preparing to conduct a terrorist attack, a year after the man was apprehended outside the Israeli Embassy in London with knives…

Robert Shrimsley, the executive editor of the Financial Times, warns that British Jews are “being forced to live a more fearful and smaller Jewish life” amid ongoing attacks on Jewish communities around the country…

Israel Hayom interviews Morgan Ortagus, who departed the Trump administration earlier this year after working on the White House’s Lebanon portfolio…

The family of journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012, said there is new information indicating that Tice is potentially alive and in the hands of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

Pakistan said it assisted in the transfer of 22 Iranians whose ship was seized by the U.S. Navy last month, as a “confidence-building measure” between Washington and Tehran…

The New York Times looks at how China is attempting to benefit from any outcome in the U.S.-Iran conflict, both by encouraging Tehran to come to the negotiating table and providing commercial support to the Islamic Republic in the event of a resumption of hostilities, while also preparing for a summit in mid-May between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping…

The Wall Street Journal profiles Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani, who was released from Iran’s death row last year after facing corruption charges and now helps the Islamic Republic evade sanctions through cryptocurrency networks…

Marc Rod, JI’s senior congressional correspondent, and Olivia Truesdale-Rod, program manager for Former Members of Congress, married on Friday at Meridian House in Washington, D.C., with JI’s D.C. team in attendance. Rabbi Aaron Miller of Washington Hebrew Congregation officiated…

Nick Stewart is departing his role as managing director of advocacy at FDD Action and joining the Trump administration, working in the office of White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff…

Psychologist and Holocaust survivor Edith Eger, who as a teenager in Auschwitz was forced to dance for Dr. Josef Mengele — and who recounts those experiences in her books — died at 99…

The Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center hosted the opening on Friday of an exhibit titled “Plates of Hope and Color” that included 180 original works created by Israeli artists, musicians and “lone soldiers” from around the world with no family in Israel.

Medalist in the women’s halfpipe event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, Arielle Townsend Gold turns 30…

Former chairman and CEO of American International Group, once the largest insurance company in history, then chairman and CEO of the Starr Companies, Maurice Raymond “Hank” Greenberg turns 101… Executive director of the Texas A&M Hillel for 30 years, now a security consultant for the tourism industry, Peter E. Tarlow turns 80… U.S. special envoy for climate change in the Obama administration, now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Todd D. Stern turns 75… Trustee of the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, Lee Sherman… Partner at NYC-based Mintz & Gold, he was EVP and general counsel for both the Las Vegas Sands and News Corporation, Lawrence “Lon” A. Jacobs… Northern Virginia-based portrait artist, Ilisa G. Calderon… CEO at Gigawatt Global, Yosef Israel Abramowitz turns 62… Member of the House of Representatives (D-VT), Rebecca A. “Becca” Balint turns 58… Triathlete, she has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and is a winner of international ironman competitions, Joanna Sue Zeiger turns 56… Director of congregational education at NYC’s Park Avenue Synagogue, Bradley Solmsen… Former Florida state senator and state attorney for Palm Beach County from 2013 to 2025, Dave Aronberg turns 55… Chair and director at NYC’s Department of City Planning until last month, Daniel Garodnick… Mechal Wakslak… Executive advisor at Veterans Community Project, he served as the secretary of state of Missouri, Jason Kander turns 45… Chief operating officer at Repair the World, Jessica Chait… Tech entrepreneur, best known as a co-founder of both Vine and HQ Trivia, Rus Yusupov turns 42… SVP at BerlinRosen, Allison Fran Bormel… Chief development officer at Ramah Darom, previously with Americans for Ben-Gurion University and AIPAC, Rebecca Leibowitz Wasserstrom… Script writer at Disney, Steven A. Rosenberg… Adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, Shana Mansbach… Manager of public policy and external affairs at Meta / Facebook, Sasha Altschuler… Actor best known for voicing the title character of the animated film “Finding Nemo,” Alexander Gould turns 32… Partner in the client services group at Signum Global Advisors, Elliot Miller… Finance lead at Shopify, Olivia Breuer… 

• King Charles III and Queen Camilla land in Washington today for their first state visit to the U.S. since assuming the throne. They’ll arrive to a city reeling from this weekend’s attempted attack on Trump administration officials at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. More below from JI’s Marc Rod, who was attending the event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.
• The king and queen will be welcomed by President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, and will have afternoon tea before attending a White House garden party.
• Trump is expected to convene a Situation Room meeting — sans King Charles — on Iran as the countries remain at an impasse amid stalled talks. The meeting comes days after plans for White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to go to Islamabad for a second round of talks were scrapped, with Trump telling Fox News on Sunday, “If they want to talk, they can come to us or they can call us.” Tehran has reportedly offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war without resolving its disputes with Washington over the future of the Iranian nuclear program.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is in Moscow today, where he is slated to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog is in Kazakhstan today, where he is slated to meet with President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev.
• Israel Tech Week kicks off today in Miami. Speakers include Daniel Flesch, Phil Goldfeder and Gabe Groisman.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night began normally enough — a bustle of reporters, administration officials and members of Congress among other A-listers streaming from the packed lobby of the Washington Hilton down into the basement ballroom.

White House Correspondents’ Association President Weija Jiang, a CBS News White House reporter, finished her introductory remarks, and the thousands of guests packed into the ballroom tucked into their salads.

Then, a loud, shattering bang rang out from the other side of the ballroom. Initially, I didn’t think anything of it — I thought someone had dropped a large tray of food (as President Donald Trump said later, he thought the same thing).

Videos and other accounts of the evening indicate that someone from the security staff shouted from the front of the room that guests should get down. I didn’t hear it. My first indication that something was wrong was when I started seeing other guests ducking under the tables and security officers drawing their guns.

I tried to duck under the tablecloth, but no luck — another occupant of the table was already underneath, and there was no room. My heart pounding, I was forced to do my best to stay low — but I was in the backmost row of tables, right by a door, sitting directly in the aisle.

If a shooter came into the ballroom from behind me, I was a sitting duck. I was completely helpless and exposed.

Two thoughts ran through my head. The main one: I’m getting married in six days. I can’t die now. The second: I can’t believe this is happening to me again. (For those readers who are newer to Jewish Insider — I was also on scene for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.)

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

Riyadh’s Reluctance: Foreign Policy’s Steven Cook considers why Saudi Arabia is not playing a more central role in the U.S. and Israeli conflict with Iran. “This is not to suggest that Saudi Arabia should get into the fight, but it is revealing that a country that billed itself as a rising power and the most important country in the Middle East is betwixt and between when its neighborhood is burning down. The Saudis clearly have interests at stake, but rather than taking action, they have been issuing strongly worded statements while others, including their adversaries, are shaping the region. It seems that Riyadh would be better off taking concrete steps to protect its interests. What is the saying about it’s better to be at the table than be the meal?” [FP]

Feeding Israel to the Left: In his Substack “The Abrahamic Metacritique,” Hussein Aboubakr Mansour raises concerns about the willingness of Democratic leaders to shift leftward on issues related to Israel amid pressure from the activist left. “The establishment’s reasoning is basic strategic calculation: the left will not relent on Israel; a civil war inside the party over the Jewish state would destroy the coalition; therefore, the rational move is to concede this issue, preserve party unity, and proceed with the moderate agenda on everything else: affordability, climate, migration, AI, etc. Feed this one thing to the beast, and the beast will be satisfied. It is an intelligent calculation, a genius one, really, but it is also a catastrophic one, because it rests on a complete misapprehension of what is being conceded and to whom.” [AbrahamicMetacritique]

Battle Royal: For Fox News, presidential historian Tevi Troy does a deep dive into the history of visits to the U.S. from U.K. royals. “When [Queen Elizabeth II] visited Eisenhower in 1957, she helped smooth over tensions that had emerged between Britain and the U.S. as a result of the Suez Crisis. … And now, as King Charles embarks on his first visit to the U.S. in President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. and Britain are in the midst of a disagreement over the war with Iran. Charles is not a political ruler, but perhaps his visit, like his mother’s in 1957, can smooth over tensions and help maintain the special relationship America has long had with the United Kingdom.” [FoxNews]

Axios reports that during the active conflict with Iran in March, Israel sent the United Arab Emirates an Iron Dome battery, interceptors and several dozen IDF troops to operate the missile-defense system; a senior Emirati official told Axios, “We are not going to forget it,” while a second official said, “It was a real eye-opening moment. To see who our real friends are”…

A new memo from the State Department acknowledges that the U.S.’ decision to launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran came — at least in part — at Israel’s request, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports… 

An 11-year-old Israeli girl who was critically wounded in an Iranian cluster bomb attack on her home in Bnei Brak earlier this month died of her injuries…

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Tucker Carlson suggested that he was given advance notice of the joint U.S.-Israel operation targeting Iran in late February, saying he received a text message at 10 p.m. ET on Feb. 27 — hours before the start of the operation — that read, “We’re going”; Carlson did not say who sent the message, acknowledging only that it was not President Donald Trump or Vice President JD Vance…

The WSJ notes that at the last meeting between Trump and Carlson, the president displayed a letter from evangelical leader Franklin Graham calling Carlson an antisemite…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on a Chinese oil refinery and more than three dozen shipping firms and vessels tied to Iran’s oil export industry…

The New York Times examines the Trump administration’s “haphazard” approach to sanctions on Russia and Iran as Moscow and Tehran leverage their oil reserves amid a volatile market…

The Financial Times looks at the United Arab Emirates’ recent request that Pakistan repay $3.5 billion in loans, citing Islamabad’s deepening ties with Saudi Arabia and what the UAE “considers Pakistan’s meek response to Iranian attacks on the Gulf”…

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed’s son-in-law Mohammed bin Hamad Al Nahyan and EDGE Group CEO Faisal Al Bannai — both of whom advise MBZ — visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., and made a swing through the U.S. to meet with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Jared Kushner, investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and defense firm Anduril, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports…

Talks between the U.S. and Israel on the next 10-year memorandum of understanding are expected to begin next month, and will include Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, the director-general of Israel’s Defense Ministry, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter representing Israel and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and State Department senior advisor Michael Needham…

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) dropped his opposition to Kevin Warsh’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve, clearing the way for Warsh to assume the role when Jerome Powell’s term ends next month…

A federal judge in Texas halted the deportations of six family members of an Egyptian man who firebombed demonstrators, killing an elderly woman, at a Boulder, Colo., march last year raising awareness about the Israeli hostages in captivity in Gaza…

Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner announced on Friday the launch of Thrive Eternal, a capital holding company that will acquire a minority, non-controlling stake in the San Francisco Giants as its first major partnership, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports…

The New York Times interviews Hollywood agent Michael Glantz, who went viral after being filmed eating his burrata salad at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday as other guests around him ducked for cover…

Counterterrorism authorities investigating a string of antisemitic attacks in London arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of preparing to carry out terrorist acts; more than two dozen people have been arrested in connection with attacks against the country’s Jewish community since late March…

The Telegraph goes behind the scenes of the Met Police’s effort to track down arsonists targeting synagogues in the London area…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected to push for a mediated resolution to reach a plea deal in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, bucking pressure from the White House to pardon the prime minister…

Israel’s Cabinet signed off on the nomination of Michael Lotam to be the country’s first ambassador to Somaliland, four months after Jerusalem recognized the sovereignty of the East African nation…

The Cabinet also approved the appointment of former Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely to serve as the head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate within the Prime Minister’s Office, which has been vacant for more than two years…

Israel launched a wide-scale, multimillion-dollar campaign – led by former Trump administration official Brad Parscale — to create pro-Israel web content that would be picked up by AI platforms…

Cardiologist Eugene Braunwald, who as a child fled Nazi Europe and went on to reshape how modern medicine approaches heart attacks, died at 96…

Diplomat Lionel Rosenblatt, whose experiences living in Haifa, Israel, as a child inspired him to join the U.S. Foreign Service and later lead Refugees International, died at 82…

Stars of the upcoming Keshet 12 series “Unconditional” attended the world premiere screening of the drama, about a mother-daughter pair stranded in Russia, ahead of its broadcast tonight, at the Cinematheque in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Showrunner, director, screenwriter and producer, Brian Koppelman turns 60…

Financial executive, he retired in 2014 as head of marketing for money manager Van Eck Global, Harvey Hirsch turns 85… Nonprofit executive who has managed the 92nd Street Y, the Robin Hood Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy turns 81… U.S. senator (R-WV), Jim Justice turns 75… Physician and a former NASA astronaut, she is a veteran of three shuttle flights with more than 686 hours in space, Ellen Louise Shulman Baker, M.D., M.P.H. turns 73… Director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority until 2020, he was previously a member of Knesset and deputy director of the Shin Bet, Yisrael Hasson turns 71… VP at Covington Fabric & Design, Donald Rifkin… Biologist and professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, he won the 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine, Andrew Zachary Fire turns 67… Co-founder of Casamigos Tequila and owner of restaurants, bars and lounges worldwide, Rande Gerber turns 64… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui party, Yigal Yasinov turns 60… CEO of ZAM Asset Management, Elliot Mayerhoff… Founder and CEO of NYC-based Gotham Ghostwriters, he served as a senior advisor for Sen. Joseph Lieberman in his vice presidential and presidential campaigns, Daniel Gerstein turns 59… Israeli actor, entertainer and television host, Yitzhak “Aki” Avni turns 59… Attorney and journalist, she is a contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick turns 59… Author, political analyst and nationally syndicated op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank turns 58… U.S. senator (D-NJ) since 2013, he was previously the mayor of Newark, Cory Booker turns 57… Israeli television and radio journalist and former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home party, Yinon Magal turns 57… Professor of science writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Seth Mnookin turns 54… Cinematographer and director, Rachel Morrison turns 48… Identical twin brothers, between the two of them they won 11 Israeli championships in the triathlon between 2001 and 2012, Dan and Ran Alterman both turn 46… Israeli screenwriter and producer, she has written numerous advertisements and screenplays, Savion Einstein turns 44… VP of AIPAC’s mid-Atlantic region, Leah Berry… Television and film actress, Ariel Geltman “Ari” Graynor turns 43… Basketball coach, analyst and writer, Benjamin Falk turns 38… Senior creative director at Trilogy Interactive, Jessica Ruby… Head of climate data at Watershed, Jonathan H. Glidden… Research fellow at Emory University law school, David Jonathan Benger… Entrepreneurial investor, Noah Swartz turns 33… Medical resident at UCLA Health, Amir Kashfi… 

• Vice President JD Vance is expected to return to Islamabad, Pakistan, this week for a second round of talks with senior Iranian officials amid conflicting reports over the status of the talks, with Iran saying it has not yet decided whether it will send representatives to the negotiations.
• Meanwhile, Tehran threatened retaliation this morning for the U.S.’ weekend attack on and seizure of an Iranian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman that had attempted to evade the Navy’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
• Argentine President Javier Milei is in Israel today after arriving over the weekend ahead of events around Israel’s Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, the country’s back-to-back commemorations of Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror, and its Independence Day. Yesterday, Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the Isaac Accords between the two countries. Read more about the initiative here.
• Israel will hold official Yom HaZikaron events at the Western Wall this evening and at Mt. Herzl, the country’s military cemetery, tomorrow morning.
• In Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will speak this morning at a State Department ceremony unveiling the portrait of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Events in recent days may well be marking a tipping point in the decline of the Democratic Party — at least when it comes to its treatment of Jews, on top of its growing hostility toward Israel.

The weekend ended with the news that Michigan Democratic delegates, at their statewide convention Sunday, nominated a Hezbollah supporter, Amir Makled, to the University of Michigan Board of Regents, choosing to oust a Jewish member, Jordan Acker, whose home and car were repeatedly vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and his family threatened.

Acker’s offenses? He backed efforts to hold anti-Israel campus protesters at the University of Michigan accountable for assaulting police and engaging in intimidation of Jewish students, among other instances of student misconduct. He declined to support efforts to divest university funds from Israel, along with other members of the Board of Regents, as a radical faction of students had demanded. 

Acker’s non-Jewish Democratic ticketmate, Paul Brown, who also supported discipline against anti-Israel students, wasn’t targeted and was renominated for election. But the Democratic delegates ousted Acker in exchange for Makled, who has posted on social media with comments praising Hezbollah’s leaders and retweeted antisemitic messages from the conspiracy-theorizing influencer Candace Owens. 

The results mark a new low for Michigan Democrats. Also over the weekend, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told CNN that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas. Read more here.

In the same interview, El-Sayed also said that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) should replace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the Democratic leader in the upper chamber, citing Schumer’s continued support for U.S. aid to Israel. Van Hollen is among the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate. 

Michigan is a closely watched bellwether of the direction of the Democratic Party, and the latest developments underscore that a more radical faction of the party appears to be growing. This, in the state where dozens of Jewish preschoolers were nearly killed in a terrorist attack last month by a Hezbollah sympathizer who targeted the state’s largest synagogue.

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

Dumb and Dumber: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg explores the expanding platforms of influencers and public figures who are uneducated on the issues about which they speak and unchallenged by interviewers. “Talking with Piker about a political coalition to save American democracy without discussing his affinity for China’s rulers is like teaming up with Carlson without interrogating his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin — or with Donald Trump without examining his outlook toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And yet, only the debate over the latter tends to happen, such that Israel crowds out all other considerations, including extremely consequential beliefs that can end up going unchallenged.” [TheAtlantic]

It’s All Relative: In The Washington Post, the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka raises concerns about the presence of relatives of officials from American adversaries who are living in the U.S., amid an effort to deport some of those family members. “The U.S. is littered with other nepo babies, wives and cousins — what the Iranians and Arabs call aghazadeh and the Russians call mazhor — enjoying the privileges of living in the land of the free, often made possible by the ill-gotten gains of the fam back home. It’s little wonder why they came. … It turns out the easiest route is through higher education, with some institutions explaining outright how F-1 student visa holders can transfer to permanent status upon graduating.” [WashPost]

Dropping the Trump Name: The New York Times’ Eric Lipton spotlights an effort by the wealthy Khayyat family in Syria to influence U.S. foreign policy in Syria through the Trump family’s business dealings. “Such a mixing of personal and diplomatic affairs has long been the norm in Middle Eastern nations, where a small set of players have historically run, and profited from, their dominant role in society. But it has become the way Washington operates in Mr. Trump’s second term, too. … [A friend of Mohamad Al-Khayyat, Syrian American businessman Tarek] Naemo, who is based in Florida and runs an investment firm that he said had done deals with partners including the Qatari Investment Authority, began with his wife to court at least a dozen members of Congress, starting with Speaker Mike Johnson.” [NYTimes]

President Donald Trump nominated Under Secretary of Agriculture Luke Lindberg to serve as the next head of the World Food Program, following Cindy McCain’s announced departure from the role over health issues…

The New York Times looks at divisions within the conservative campus movement in the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September, finding that members of some campus chapters and breakaway groups are split “over support for Israel, the showcasing of conspiracy theorists and who is rightfully American,” as well as disagreements over the war against Iran…

Buckley Carlson, the son of Tucker Carlson, departed his role as deputy press secretary to Vice President JD Vance to start his own consulting firm…

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was spotted with Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris as the 76ers took on the Boston Celtics in Massachusetts over the weekend…

Authorities in Los Angeles arrested an Iranian woman with permanent U.S. residency status accused of brokering sales of Iranian weapons to the Sudanese Armed Forces for use in the African country’s yearslong civil war…

A George Washington University alumna is suing the school and her former employer, Ernst & Young, as well as a number of GWU officials, alleging that she faced retaliation and discrimination in the wake of an address she delivered at one of the school’s 2025 commencement ceremonies; her remarks calling for GWU to divest from Israel deviated from those approved by the school…

Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University graduate student who was detained for more than a month by immigration officials for co-authoring an op-ed critical of Israel, is returning to Turkey, having completed her Ph.D. studies at the Boston-area school…

The New York Times reviews When We See You Again, Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s account, which will be released tomorrow, of her life before and after the 2024 death of her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, at the hands of his Hamas captors…

Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, with the backing of more than 80 Jewish groups, is calling on the federal government in Ottawa to increase funding to address “rising security demands” as the country sees a sharp increase in antisemitism…

A French peacekeeper was killed and three others members of UNIFIL, the U.N.’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, were injured in what France and UNIFIL said was a Hezbollah attack; French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government was sidelined from recent U.S.-brokered talks between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington, called on Beirut to “immediately arrest those responsible and assume their responsibilities alongside UNIFIL”…

An appeals court in France ruled than an Algerian-born nanny who worked for a French Jewish family was not acting out of antisemitism when she poisoned family members, despite having told police, “Because they have money and power, I should never have worked for a Jewish woman; she only brought me trouble”; the woman was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, less than if she was found to have been motivated by antisemitism…

Kanye West’s upcoming concert in Poland, which was slated to take place in June, was called off by organizers, one of whom cited “formal and legal reasons,” weeks after West’s planned concerts in France and the U.K. were also cancelled amid public outcries over his past antisemitic comments… 

Helen Mirren, Skylar Astin and Liev Schreiber were among more than 1,000 signatories to an open letter organized by Creative Community for Peace in support of Israel’s continued participation in the Eurovision Song Contest…

U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis decried the “sustained campaign of violence and intimidation” targeting British Jews amid a series of attacks on Jewish communities around the country…

Mirvis’ statement came shortly before the arrest of two teenagers in connection with an arson attack that caused minor damage to London’s Kenton United Synagogue; British authorities are investigating whether the recent spate of attacks targeting Jewish sites in the country is linked to Iran…

A British court rejected an effort by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians to issue a summons for a dual U.K.-Israeli citizen who traveled to Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, to rejoin his unit as a reservist in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attacks the day prior…

Sixteen Arab and Muslim countries — including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, but excluding Abraham Accords signatories the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain — signed onto a Qatar-led statement condemning Israel for appointing former Israeli Ambassador to Kenya Michael Lotem as the country’s first ambassador to Somaliland, four months after Jerusalem recognized the African state…

The New York Times explores the impact of the war in Iran on Qatar and other U.S.-allied Gulf nations, finding Doha [t]rapped between their chief ally and their neighbor” and now being “forced to rethink their security strategies”…

The UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation said that 90% of the sites struck in the Gulf nation by Iran over the course of the recent conflict were civilian infrastructure; Reem Al Hashimy said that approximately 2,800 missiles and drones launched by Iran had hit targets in the UAE…

The governor of the UAE’s central bank, who met last week in Washington with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, introduced the possibility of working with Washington to create a currency-swap line as a potential financial backstop should the Gulf state face further economic challenges…

Iran said it executed two people alleged to have collaborated with Israel’s Mossad…

The IDF released a map showing the Lebanese territory under its control as it fights against Hezbollah in the southern part of the country…

IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the military was conducting an investigation following the surfacing of a photo in which an IDF soldier is pictured desecrating a statue of Jesus in the southern Lebanese Christian village; Israeli Prime Minister condemned the incident, saying he “was stunned and saddened” and that Israel “express[es] regret for the incident and for any hurt this has caused to believers in Lebanon and around the world”…

Senior Hamas officials confirmed to The New York Times that the terror group was willing to relinquish some of its weapons to the Palestinian administrative committee operating under the Trump administration’s Board of Peace…

Israeli Olympic silver medalist Raz Hershko won gold in her weight class at the European Judo Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia…

Yizhar Hess, vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, hosted a reading on Sunday of Israel’s Declaration of Independence at the egalitarian section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Hess was joined by members of the Sydney Jewish community as well as former Israeli hostage Shoshan Haran.

Israeli model, swimwear designer and social media star, Neta Alchimister turns 32… 

Stanford University professor and 2020 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, Paul Robert Milgrom turns 78… Chairman of the media networks division of Activision Blizzard, he previously held high-ranking roles at NFL Network, ESPN and ABC, Steve Bornstein turns 74… Philadelphia-based development professional, currently at AJC after a long career for a number of organizations, Andrew Demchick turns 70… Immigrants rights activist and professor at Salem State University, she is the eldest daughter of Noam Chomsky, Aviva Chomsky turns 69… Television and radio host, syndicated columnist and political commentator, Steve Malzberg turns 67… Past president and executive director of the D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, now at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, Marc Rotenberg turns 66… Author, journalist and former co-host of “The Femsplainers Podcast,” Danielle Crittenden Frum turns 63… Semi-professional race car driver and restaurateur, he was previously CEO, president and chairman of the Trust Company of New Jersey, Alan Wilzig turns 61… Television producer and game show host, known professionally as J.D. Roth, James David Weinroth turns 58… Israeli jazz bassist, composer, singer and arranger, Avishai Cohen turns 56… British film director, Sarah Gavron turns 56… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of four Jewish Republican congressmen, Randy Fine (R-FL) turns 52… VP of government and public affairs at Cleveland-based GBX Group, a historic real estate development firm, Seth Foster Unger… Deputy associate administrator at the General Services Administration, Michael C. Frohlich… Chief philanthropy and leadership officer at the World Jewish Congress, Elliott G. Mendes… President and CEO at the Los Angeles-based Skirball Cultural Center, Jessie Kornberg turns 44… Former general manager of Bird in Israel, he is a nephew of Israel’s past president Reuven Rivlin, Yaniv Rivlin… ESPN sportscaster and former Fox Sports and NFL Network personality, Peter Schrager turns 44… New York-based national security and human rights lawyer, Irina Tsukerman… Co-founder of The Free Press and its head of strategy, Nellie Bowles turns 38… PM breaking news editor at CNN Politics, Kyle Feldscher… Policy advisor and counsel to U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Zachary L. Baum… Systems engineer at Google X, Joseph Gettinger turns 38… Facilitator, coach and workshop organizer, Daniela Kate Plattner… Research analyst at the U.S. Department of State during the Biden administration, David Mariutto… VP at Cedar Capital Partners, Alex Berman… CEO of Social Lite Creative and news anchor on ILTV, Emily K. Schrader… Israeli scientist, engineer and artificial intelligence researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Maor Farid turns 34… Working on advertising platforms at Apple, McKenna Klein… Senior associate at LvlUp Ventures, Andrew J. Hirsh… R&B, soul, pop singer and teen actress, at 13 she was the runner-up on the second season of “The X Factor,” Carly Rose Sonenclar turns 27… Diane Kahan… 

• We’re continuing to monitor a potential escalation in the Middle East after the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen launched several ballistic missiles at Israel over the weekend, marking the terror group’s entry into the latest conflict.
• More than 2,000 U.S. servicemembers are en route to the region as part of a mass Pentagon deployment. Yesterday, President Donald Trump said he wanted to “take the oil in Iran” — a move that would involve the seizure of Kharg Island. Before returning to Washington, the president told reporters on Air Force One that Tehran had agreed to allow 20 cargo ships carrying oil to transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
• Authorities in Haifa are responding to a fire at the Bazan oil refinery — the second time the site has been damaged since the start of the war a month ago — following a series of attacks this morning by both Hezbollah and Iran. Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry said that there was no risk of hazardous leaks at the site.
• Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is in Berlin today, where he’ll meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before traveling on to the U.K., where he’ll meet tomorrow with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London. Al-Sharaa’s trip to Germany marks the first time in 25 years that a Syrian leader has visited the country.
• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is slated to give remarks at Knitting Factory founder and music impresario Michael Dorf’s 33rd Annual Downtown Seder tonight at City Winery in Manhattan, with all proceeds from the event going to the Seeds of Peace nonprofit. Others in the lineup tonight include former CNN commentator Don Lemon, singer David Broza and comedian Modi.
• Ahead of the start of Passover on Wednesday evening, Jewish Insider wine columnist Yitz Applbaum is out with his recommendations for this year’s Seders. Read more here.