• 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.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A useful rule of thumb to live by: Social media isn’t real life. 

But one of the challenges in the brave new world of media is that extremist influencers can often create the perception of influence simply by dominating so much of the online discourse. 

Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has been the subject of favorable media profiles despite a laundry list of antisemitic and terror-justifying rhetoric, is a case study in how traditional journalists normalize extremists — and how politicians conclude there’s a marketplace for radical views in the electoral marketplace, even when it’s typically a mirage. 

In part because Democrats have been desperate to find anti-establishment voices that claim to speak for young men, Piker is seen as a popular, edgy podcaster by liberal leaders in both media and politics. (Nevermind the fact that Piker gets only about 36,000 viewers on a typical stream — about 1/25th of the typical nighttime audience of MS NOW, as The Atlantic’s David Frum pointed out.) 

The New Yorker invited Piker to speak at its annual festival, treating the antisemitic streamer as just another one of the many thought leaders in attendance. Leading progressives, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), joined him at rallies and on his show.

And a handful of leading Democratic presidential contenders — most notably California Gov. Gavin Newsom — expressed interest in going on his show. 

This, despite the fact Piker has justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, forcefully denied some of the terror group’s atrocities, has called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11. 

Any one of those comments on their own would have typically disqualified anyone from playing a part in our political discourse. Yet in the wave of glowing profiles, Piker’s antisemitism and anti-Americanism didn’t even merit a mention. 

It wasn’t until March 19, when Lily Cohen, a press advisor from the Third Way center-left think tank, took the initiative to co-write a column for The Wall Street Journal calling out Piker’s antisemitism without any caveats. The decision to call out the crazy — when few in the press or politics had the courage to do so — was a moment that proved that one principled voice in defense of normalcy can break the mirage of those who believe there’s a political marketplace for this garbage. 

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

The Hawks’ Blind Spot: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait raises concerns about the possibility that a negative outcome in the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran could further boost the ascendent far-right isolationist wing of the GOP. “Trump’s populist allies have learned that their most poisonous ideas have a potent audience. Figures such as [Tucker] Carlson, [Nick] Fuentes, and the far-right influencer Candace Owens have developed mass followings by supplying the forbidden fruits of anti-Semitic paranoia that the old establishment withheld. They have tapped into a deep desire to blame Israel and a Jewish cabal for the world’s problems. If Trump is seen as having failed because of a war fought alongside Israel that was urged on him by the hawks, Carlson’s case against the Republican elite will become trivially simple.” [TheAtlantic]

The Alt-War: In The Washington Post, University of Pittsburgh professor Jennifer Murtazashvili, who moved to Israel as a Fulbright scholar in January, observes how online propaganda has altered the way in which the war in the Middle East is being understood by broad swaths of the West. “We are living through the first alt-war: a conflict in which the war fought online and the war fought in reality have diverged so completely that they might as well be happening on different planets. … The liberal internationalist left and the isolationist right — two camps that have agreed on almost nothing for decades — have suddenly found themselves in lockstep, racing to declare the war a failure before it had barely begun. … Together they are the most powerful engine of the alt-war.” [WashPost]

From Karachi to Palm Beach: Bloomberg’s Faseeh Mangi profiles Bilal Bin Saqib, the Pakistani cryptocurrency expert and “key player” in Karachi’s efforts to build fiscal ties with the U.S. “Last month, Saqib posted a selfie with Zachary Witkoff and other company executives at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. That came around the same time that Pakistan reached an agreement with the US to revamp the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, a deal negotiated by Steve Witkoff. … Starting in March of last year, he was appointed to a series of positions in quick succession: The finance minister’s chief adviser on crypto, chief executive officer of the Pakistan Crypto Council, special assistant to the prime minister on blockchain and crypto. Finally he ended up as chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.” [Bloomberg]

The U.S. is reportedly making preparations for a weekslong ground operation in Iran that would likely fall short of a full-scale invasion but would consist of smaller raids conducted by special forces…

Separately, the White House is mulling a plan to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran that would include troops on the ground…

The Wall Street Journal looks at Pakistan’s effort to position itself as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran; over the weekend, Karachi hosted foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt to discuss efforts to deescalate tensions in the Middle East…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in the Middle East over the weekend, said that Ukrainian intelligence revealed that Russia took photos of a U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia on three separate occasions shortly before three soldiers were injured in an Iranian attack on the base; the finding comes as, The Wall Street Journal reports, Moscow steps up its backing for Iran in part “to salvage what’s left of its shrinking web of partnerships”…

The Financial Times reports that Iran is increasingly relying on its “resistance economy” that functions through domestic production and sanctions evasion in an effort to stave off economic collapse, as The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into Tehran’s “tentacled ecosystem that controls more than half of the economy” and keeps the regime afloat…

The White House issued a statement honoring Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., honoring the “life, legacy, and vision of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson,” the late Lubavitcher Rebbe…

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced a resolution to block certain arms sales to the United Arab Emirates…

Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Van Hollen, Welch and Sanders introduced a bill that would require the affirmative consent of Congress for any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia…

Every Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee wrote to the committee’s chairman requesting a public briefing on the Iran war, saying they are “deeply troubled by the lack of transparency” from the administration…

The Democratic National Committee is expected to vote next month on a resolution opposing outside “corporate-backed independent expenditures” that explicitly criticizes AIPAC and its affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC… 

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, signed into law legislation formally adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, becoming the 37th state to do so…

Politico published, and then removed, a cartoon with antisemitic imagery that included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an outsized nose and members of Congress wearing bloodied Jewish prayer shawls…

The cartoon was published a day before Politico reported on the “frustrations and anger” with the U.S. war in Iran that “were on full display” among young male MAGA adherents at last week’s CPAC conference, despite a straw poll at the Dallas confab that found overwhelming support for both the Trump administration and the U.S. involvement in the war…

The Wall Street Journal looks at San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s effort to address the city’s anticipated budget shortfall of $900 million through private contributions and the creation of the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation to raise funds to revitalize the area…

The Information reports on last week’s JPMorgan Chase’s Tech100 gathering in Montana, where attendees included White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared and Josh Kushner, Michael Dell and Dario Amodei…

Apollo Global Management is planning to open a second U.S. headquarters, with Austin, Texas, South Florida and Nashville reportedly among the shortlisted cities; Apollo plans to make the “bulk” of its future hires from the area it selects for the second HQ…

Barry Diller purchased an $11 million duplex penthouse frequented by President John F. Kennedy at New York’s Carlyle Hotel; Diller purchased the property from Karen Pritzker, who with her husband paid $12.5 million for it in 2007…

Nursing home owner Daryl Hagler sold off five properties in Brooklyn and Queens for $332 million, months after a report from New Jersey’s state comptroller found that Hagler and his business partner owed $124 million to the government for redirecting Medicaid funding and understaffing two N.J. nursing homes…

A New Jersey man was charged with plotting an attack on Within Our Lifetime founder and anti-Israel activist Nerdeen Kiswani…

The University of Florida chapter of College Republicans is suing the school for forcing the group’s disbandment after the circulation of an image of a member doing a Nazi salute, citing its First Amendment rights…

Semafor spotlights the work of the New York Post’s “runners” — reporters without a specific beat who are dispatched to cover all manner of stories — by shadowing Reuven Fenton, “one of eight siblings, three of whom are rabbis” and “one of a number of people with arguably the oldest job in American journalism, and perhaps one of the only ones that will survive AI”…

Yeah that’s Kosher released the 2026 edition of its annual guide to kosher ballpark eating…

The U.K.’s Liberal Democrats suspended the mayor of Bath after he shared social media posts calling a recent arson attack on Hatzola ambulances in London’s heavily Jewish Golders Green suburb an Israeli false flag operation…

A day after Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and three other senior Latin Patriarchate officials were denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Israel Police announced an agreement that will allow Catholic Church officials access to the site; the accord came after intervention from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called for Pizzaballa to be granted “full and immediate access” to the church…

The IDF withdrew the Netsah Yisrael battalion from the West Bank following a weekend confrontation between reservist soldiers and a CNN crew in which reporter Jeremy Diamond alleged his cameraman was put in a chokehold by one of the soldiers…

The Atlantic spotlights the Kurdish Peshmerga forces along the Iran-Iraq border that are preparing for possible military action in Iran…

Politico Executive Vice President Jonathan Greenberger was named the publication’s new editor-in-chief; Greenberger, who was previously the Washington bureau chief at ABC News, will assume the new role in May…

Dr. Kurt Gitter, who as a baby fled Nazi Europe with his family and would go on to become a pioneer in the field of eye surgery, as well as an avid collector of Japanese art, died at 89…

Dr. Judith Rapoport, whose work brought widespread awareness to obsessive-compulsive disorder, died at 92…

IDF Sgt. Moshe Itzhak HaCohen Katz, a U.S.-born IDF soldier from New Haven, Conn., who was killed in combat in Lebanon on Friday, was buried on Sunday in Jerusalem.

Actress, director, producer and ballerina, Juliet Landau turns 61..

Partner of Rose Associates, a real-estate firm in the NYC area, Elihu Rose turns 93… Professor of international trade at Harvard and winner of the Israel Prize in 1991, Elhanan Helpman turns 80… Cherry Hill, N.J. resident, Zelda Greenberg… Film and television director, Michael Stephen Lehmann turns 69… Comedian, actor, television personality, screenwriter, author and musician, Paul Reiser turns 69… Host of Public Radio Exchange’s “The World,” Marco Werman turns 65… District attorney of Philadelphia since 2017, Larry Krasner turns 65… U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria under Presidents Obama and Trump, he is a past president of the American Foreign Service Association, Eric Seth Rubin turns 65… Actor best known for his role as Steve Sanders on the television series “Beverly Hills, 90210,” Ian Ziering turns 62… Owner and founder of D.C.-area’s Ark Contracting (what else can you call your company if your name is Noah), Noah Blumberg…  U.S. special representative for international negotiations in the first Trump administration, now at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jason Dov Greenblatt turns 59… Regional director in the Washington office at AJC: Global Jewish Advocacy, Alan Ronkin… Associate dean of students at Bard College, she helped 350 people escape Afghanistan amidst the U.S. withdrawal, Danna Harman… Tel Aviv-born actress, she appears on television and film in both Israel and the U.S., Mili Avital turns 54… Mexican-American chef, she won a James Beard Award for her PBS television series “Pati’s Mexican Table,” Patricia “Pati” Jinich turns 54… Financial services professional, he was formerly treasurer of Oakland County, Mich., Andy Meisner turns 53… Iranian-born LA-based retired actress, best known for her roles in “Crash” and the “Saw” franchise, also as the mother of the inspirational amputee Ezra Frech, Bahar Soomekh turns 51… Communications consultant, Gabriela Schneider… Jerusalem-born documentary photographer for the Associated Press, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2007, Oded Balilty turns 47… Detroit-area Jewish leader and founder at Multifaith Life, Alicia Chandler… Best-selling author of The Oracle of Stamboul and The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Michael David Lukas turns 47… Former senior advisor to then-Ambassador David Friedman at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, he is now a diplomatic advisor to the Board of Peace, Aryeh Lightstone turns 46… Chief program officer at Jewish Democratic Council of America, Robert J. Saferstein… Founder and editor-in-chief at Standard & Works, Zach Silber… Senior reporter at The Huffington Post, Jessica Schulberg… Third baseman for MLB’s Chicago Cubs, he was the MVP of the 2018 MLB All-Star Game, Alex Bregman turns 32… Associate at Arnold & Porter, she is a granddaughter of the late Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Leora Einleger…

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to deliver remarks at 9 a.m. ET at a flag-raising ceremony at the State Department commemorating hostages and wrongful detainees.
• House Republicans are holding their annual policy retreat in Doral, Fla., with President Donald Trump slated to address the gathering at 5 p.m. ET. Also slated to speak at the retreat are Ben Shapiro and CNN’s Scott Jennings.
• EU Council President Antonio Costa and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are holding a call today with Middle East leaders to discuss the ongoing war in the region.
• Team Israel faces off against the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic at noon ET today in Miami. The Israeli team, which lost 11-3 on Saturday against Venezuela, came back to beat Nicaragua 5-0 on Sunday.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

Recent days have offered a tale of two New York public officials’ wives and a revealing look at inconsistent standards from some mainstream media outlets on how they scrutinize the families of elected officials depending on the political viewpoints expressed.

The first was a New York Times story focused on the pro-Israel social media posts of Rep. Dan Goldman’s (D-NY) wife. Under the headline “Congressman Faces Questions About Wife’s Social Media Stances on Israel,” the Times wrote of the instances — believed to be 10 in all — that Corinne Goldman, who served as treasurer on her husband’s campaign, liked posts related to the Israel-Hamas war in the weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, including one comparing “Jews for Palestine” to “Chickens for KFC.” 

Days later, Jewish Insider uncovered the social media activity of Rama Duwaji, the Syrian-American wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in the days after the attacks. That activity included liking posts that unambiguously celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks — as they were underway — and included still images from the attacks, in which more than 1,200 were killed and 251 taken hostage.

In his first public statement addressing JI’s reporting, Mamdani said his wife — who less than a month ago was the subject of a cover profile and photo shoot for The Cut — was a “private person.” 

It was a response that was unsatisfactory to some. Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, responded to Mamdani’s statement by rhetorically asking, “But Jessica Tisch has to apologize when her brother says something?” — referring to the NYPD commissioner’s recent apology over her brother’s assertion that Mamdani was an “enemy of the Jewish people.”

The Times, which covered Mamdani’s response, changed its headline on the story at least twice after publication, from “Mamdani Says His Wife’s Views on Gaza Are No One’s Business,” to “Mamdani Defends Wife Amid Criticism of her Support for Palestinian Cause,” before eventually landing on “After Social Media Scrutiny, Mamdani Says His Wife Is a ‘Private Person.’”

In response to the second headline, Tel Aviv-based research analyst Daniel Paul Rubenstein wrote on X that he “did not expect to see the New York Times refer to the October 7 Massacre as an expression of the ‘Palestinian Cause’ – but here we are.”

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

• Vice President JD Vance is traveling to Armenia today as part of a two-country trip that will also include a stop in Azerbaijan later this week, in a last-minute trip first reported yesterday. Vance will not be in Washington during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, slated for Wednesday.
• Former Israeli hostage and musician Alon Ohel will play a one-night concert in Tel Aviv this evening. In videos shared by his loved ones during his more than two years in captivity, Ohel deftly played the piano, drawing widespread praise for his talent. He’ll be performing alongside a number of high-profile Israeli musicians, including Idan Amedi and Eviatar Banai for the performance, titled “Alon Ohel, Playing for Life.”
• The Religious Liberty Commission is holding its fifth hearing on issues related to antisemitism today at the Museum of the Bible. Speakers at the gathering, which begins this morning and runs through the mid-afternoon, include the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, former Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl and former U.S. Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.
  Prince William is making his first official visit to Saudi Arabia this week. The trip comes as Riyadh hosts the World Defense Show, and as the U.K. works to establish Saudi Arabia as a partner in its next-generation Tempest fighter aircraft program.
• Somali Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi is also in Riyadh, where earlier in the day he inked a new defense cooperation agreement with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman. The Saudi official had met with Jewish leaders in Washington last month, during which he reiterated Riyadh’s opposition to Israel’s recent recognition of Somaliland.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to fly to Washington for a Wednesday White House meeting amid increasing concern in Jerusalem that the U.S. and Iran are headed towards a nuclear deal that does not meet Israel’s immediate security need — to drastically limit Iran’s ballistic missile program.

After the first round of indirect negotiations in Oman on Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that talks had been “very good” and that “Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly.” 

Asked about Iran’s demand that the talks only be about nuclear weapons, Trump said, “That would be acceptable. One thing, right up front, no nuclear weapons. … They weren’t willing to do that [last year]; now they are willing to do much more.” That message contrasted with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks from last week, that “in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles, that includes the sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region, that includes the nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people.”

Netanyahu announced the urgent meeting with Trump, less than two months after they last met at Mar-a-Lago, with a statement that said: “The Prime Minister believes any negotiations must include limitations on ballistic missiles and a halting of the support for the Iranian axis.”

For Israel, while the Iranian nuclear program may be the biggest threat, Operation Midnight Hammer did enough damage that the ballistic missiles are the more urgent concern, one that Iran has been threatening to use against Israel if the U.S. launches an attack. 

Though Israel destroyed hundreds of missiles, launchers and production sites during the 12-Day war last June, most of Iran’s missiles remained intact. The prime minister presented the president with evidence during their December meeting that Iran has been working to rebuild its ballistic missile program and air defenses with help from China and Russia.

Any deal that does not include significant limitations on the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles will be woefully inadequate from Israel’s perspective. Plus, as Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday, Israel wants a deal that addresses Iran’s sponsorship of terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed skepticism that the negotiations would bring about an acceptable agreement and noted the legal requirement to bring any such deal before Congress, writing on X: “I hope it can meet our national security objectives and the needs of the people of Iran through diplomacy. Given Iran’s behavior regarding deals, it could be a tough sell. However, I am open-minded, understanding [that] any agreement with the Islamic Republic and the United States must come to Congress for review and a vote.” 

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

• The annual Web Summit conference kicked off on Sunday in Doha, Qatar. Earlier today, Issam Hijazi, the founder of new social media app UpScrolled, took the main stage, from which he boasted that the app “[doesn’t] have to rely on Zionist money, or Silicon Valley money.” Read more on Hijazi’s remarks from JI’s Lahav Harkov here.
• Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal is in Washington today for meetings with senior U.S. officials, two months after a previously planned trip was scrapped at the 11th hour over a statement put out by the military criticizing Israel.
• Following last week’s decision by the European Union to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group, Iran summoned EU ambassadors stationed in the country over the designation. The move comes shortly after Iran’s parliament speaker said that the country considers the militaries of all EU member states to be terrorist groups.
• LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff is hosting his annual MediaSlopes gathering in Park City, Utah, ahead of the 10th Annual Silicon Slopes Summit, which kicks off Wednesday.
• Pedestrian transit resumed at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt today, 10 months after it was closed following the collapse of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Pro-Israel candidates and organizations showcased healthy financial hauls over the final three months of 2025, according to newly released fundraising reports. The strong totals were headlined by AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC, which ended last year with an imposing $95.8 million on hand (up significantly from $40.7 million last cycle at this time), after raising $61.6 million in the final six months of 2025.

In many of the closely watched Democratic primaries pitting pro-Israel candidates against anti-Israel antagonists, both sides posted strong fundraising figures.

In Michigan’s hotly contested Senate race, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) raised $2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and banked $3.05 million at the end of the year. Stevens, a stalwart ally of the state’s Jewish community, narrowly outraised physician Abdul El-Sayed ($1.8 million raised), who has made hostility to Israel central to his campaign, and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow ($1.7 million), who has tagged Israel’s war against Hamas as a genocide.

Stevens also has significantly more cash on hand ($3 million), aided by her time spent raising money in the House. Both McMorrow and El-Sayed have just under $2 million cash on hand.

In Illinois’ closely watched open 8th District race, former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) showcased her fundraising skills to comfortably lead the crowded primary field, bringing in $772,000 in the fourth quarter. Bean, a pro-Israel moderate during her last stint in Congress, nearly doubled the fundraising haul of Junaid Ahmed, a leading anti-Israel challenger, who brought in $360,000. 

In the race to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), pro-Israel state Sen. Laura Fine raised an impressive $1.2 million — three times her fundraising total in the previous quarter — and banked $1.4 million. Her haul outdistanced her two anti-Israel rivals: Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss (who raised $659,000 and banked $1.37 million) and social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh (who raised $1.1 million, but spent $1.4 million, leaving her with $811,000 cash on hand). 

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

‘Loose’ Nukes: In The Wall Street Journal, David Albright and Andrea Stricker address concerns about the fate of Iran’s stockpile of nuclear material should regime change occur in the Islamic Republic. “These ‘loose’ assets risk falling into the hands of rogue actors, militias or nonstate groups. They also pose severe hazards to people in the region through accidental release or abandonment. The international community, led by the U.S. and Europe, with Russian and Chinese buy-in, must develop contingency plans to prevent this. … Risks to nuclear and radioactive materials during state collapse aren’t new, and effective prevention depends on proactive planning. Disaster following the collapse of the Soviet Union was averted largely by quick actions of the U.S. government, working in cooperation with former Soviet states.” [WSJ]

Red Sea Signal: In his Substack “The Abrahamic Metacritique,” Hussein Aboubakr Mansour considers the role of the Red Sea corridor in the political shifts underway across the Middle East. “If the Saudi pivot is a strategy, the Red Sea littoral is its primary theater of application; if the Abraham Accords represented a vision of an integrated regional order anchored in normalization and infrastructure interdependence, the Red Sea is where that vision encounters the structural obstacles to its realization. … What appeared as discrete events — Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, the Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) military offensive across southern Yemen, Saudi airstrikes on Emirati weapons shipments, Somalia’s abrogation of all agreements with the UAE — are, as a matter of fact, moves within a single interconnected contest, each triggering countermoves across nominally separate theaters.” [AbrahamicMetacritique]

President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh, the son-in-law of philanthropist Ronald Lauder, to be chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve on Friday, elevating an outspoken critic of the Fed’s current leadership who has recently indicated support for Trump’s broad goals of lowering interest rates, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…

The U.S. would prefer a negotiated agreement with Iran to dismantle its nuclear program, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview that aired on Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday night, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, alleged on Friday that the Trump administration sidestepped standard congressional review procedures to fast-track a $6 billion arms sale to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Gregory Bovino, the head of U.S. Border Patrol, reportedly made antisemitic comments about Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, who was unavailable to work on Shabbat, during a recent phone call with federal prosecutors; read JI’s October 2025 interview with Rosen, during which he said he was motivated to take the position because of the “rapid escalation of violent antisemitism”…

Former Harris County, Texas, Attorney Christian Menefee won the special election in the state’s 18th Congressional District to succeed Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX), who died last year; Menefee runoff victory over former Houston City Councilmember Amanda Edwards further shrinks House Republicans’ majority, 218-214…

The California Department of Education found that the Oakland Unified School District engaged in antisemitic discrimination in multiple instances since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and called for the Bay Area district to take corrective measures, including training for faculty and students regarding antisemitism awareness…

In the 46th annual State of World Jewry address at the 92NY in Manhattan, The New York Times‘ Bret Stephens said that the effort to fight antisemitism, “which consumes tens of millions of dollars every year in Jewish philanthropy, is a well-meaning but mostly wasted effort,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports for eJewishPhilanthropy…

The New York Times profiles Forward senior political reporter Jacob Kornbluh, the “London-born former professional lox-slinger” who is “ubiquitous on the forever-circuit of Jewish politics” as he covers New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani…

Israeli basketball sensation and Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija has been selected as a Western Conference reserve for the NBA All-Star Game, becoming the first Israeli-born player to earn an appearance in the league’s marquee midseason showcase, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

Gal Hirsch, who who was appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to coordinate the government’s hostage-release efforts, said that the Biden administration’s pressure on Israel during hostage negotiations was “screwing up the negotiations” and “giving [Oct. 7 mastermind and former Hamas head Yahya] Sinwar exactly what he wants”…

Israel is halting the Gaza operations of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) over the group’s refusal to provide the names of its Palestinian staffers for vetting for possible links to terror groups; MSF slammed the decision, saying it was a “pretext to obstruct humanitarian assistance”…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the Gen Z protesters who have taken to the streets of Iran in recent weeks during the country’s widespread protests…

Iranian screenwriter Mehdi Mahmoudian, who co-wrote Oscar nominee “It Was Just An Accident,” was arrested for signing onto a letter criticizing the Iranian government for its recent crackdowns on protesters in the country…

Emirates is preparing to restart flights to and from Israel in the coming months after a two-year pause following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza…

United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed canceled a planned trip to Japan this week amid elevated tensions between the U.S. and Iran, citing “domestic circumstances”…

The Wall Street Journal reports on a $500 million investment deal between a UAE-linked investment fund and the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, that will give the Emirati firm a 49% stake in World Liberty; meanwhile The New Yorker’s David Kirkpatrick does a deep dive into the Trump family’s finances and recent business dealings, finding the family had made $4 billion since Trump’s second inauguration by leveraging the power of the White Hosue…

The New York Times covers a clandestine Egyptian military base in the country’s west that is being used to aid in drone warfare in neighboring Sudan, where Cairo is carrying out strikes targeting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battling the country’s military…

Philanthropist and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark addressed the Jewish Community Relations Council-New York’s annual Congressional Breakfast on Sunday in New York. Speakers at this year’s breakfast included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

Actress and comedian, Lori Beth Denberg turns 50… 

Chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia, Barry Diller turns 84… Mayor of Irvine, Calif., Larry Agran (family name was Agranowsky) turns 81… Host of the Food Network program “Barefoot Contessa”, Ina Rosenberg Garten turns 78… Actor, comedian and singer, Brent Spiner turns 77… Journalist, novelist and author, Michael Zelig Castleman turns 76… U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) turns 74… “Washington Secrets” columnist at the Washington Examiner, Paul Bedard… Science fiction publisher and author, Selina A. Rosen turns 66… Rabbi at the Pacific Jewish Center (the Shul On The Beach) in Venice, Calif., he is also a practicing attorney, Shalom Rubanowitz… Sportscaster who currently does play-by-play for the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, Kenny Albert turns 58… Movie and theater actress and screenwriter, Jennifer Westfeldt turns 56… Tony Award-winning actress, Marissa Jaret Winokur turns 53… Board-certified ophthalmologist, she is married to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and sits on the board of the Kennedy Center, Dr. Dana Blumberg… Basketball coach for many Israeli teams over more than 20 years, Dan Shamir turns 51… Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose stage name is Mayer Hawthorne, Andrew Mayer Cohen turns 47… Assistant professor at Clemson University, Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, Ph.D. … Senior staff writer at GovCIO Media and Research, Ross Gianfortune… U.S. senator (R-AL), Katie Boyd Britt turns 44… Television and radio host, David Pakman turns 42… Deputy special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism during the last three years of the Biden administration, Aaron Keyak… Actress and musician, Zosia Russell Mamet turns 38… Former Team Israel baseball catcher, he is now director of business development at a hospital in Las Vegas, Nicholas Jay “Nick” Rickles turns 36… Avi Katz…

• Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day tomorrow, Meta, UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress are convening a discussion at the U.N. today in New York focused on the role that technology can play in Holocaust preservation efforts.
• Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is hosting the second annual International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. Speakers at the two-day confab include Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, the Department of Justice’s Leo Terrell, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut.
• Elsewhere in Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will host the annual lecture of the Jabotinsky Institute at the President’s Residence tonight, delivered this year by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
• The IDF, acting on new information from Hamas, is conducting an operation in northern Gaza to locate the remains of Ran Gvili, who was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
• The Saudi Real Estate Future Forum kicks off today in Riyadh. Former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are slated to speak, as is far-right commentator Tucker Carlson.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Anti-Israel and antisemitic messages from Saudi regime mouthpieces and state-sanctioned media have increased in recent weeks, as Riyadh has pivoted away from a more moderate posture to an alignment with Islamist forces, such as Qatar and Turkey.

Over the weekend, prominent Saudi columnist Dr. Ahmed bin Othman Al-Tuwaijri wrote an article in a Saudi news site attacking the United Arab Emirates, with whom Saudi Arabia has been at odds in recent weeks, as “an Israeli Trojan horse in the Arab world … in betrayal of God, His Messenger and the entire nation.” He also wrote that “Israel is on a path to a rapid downfall and the umma [community of Muslims] will remain, God willing.” The column, published after weeks of anti-Israel and antisemitic messaging from Saudi-backed channels, sparked an uproar from Western voices, including the Anti-Defamation League, which condemned “the increasing frequency and volume of prominent Saudi voices … using openly antisemitic dog whistles.”

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said on the “Ask A Jew” podcast earlier this month that the Trump administration needs “to have a serious talk with” the Saudis. “I’m ringing the alarm; I’m breaking the glass,” he said. “I’m saying, listen, these guys are changing.”

In the past, “you only got these crazy terrorist clerics, the al-Qaida types … would be inciting against the Jews,” Abdul-Hussain said. “But this week, the [Saudi] state-owned media was inciting against the Zionist plan to partition the region and to divide the region. This is very new.” 

One possible reason for the turn in Saudi messaging is that Riyadh is “very afraid of Israel,” Edy Cohen, a research fellow at the Israel Center for Grand Strategy, told Jewish Insider, noting that it views recent Israeli actions as going against Saudi interests.

Cohen noted that “the Saudis and the Qataris led a campaign for Trump not to strike Iran. …[The Saudi leadership] heard [exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi] said the new Iran will normalize relations with Israel, and this drove the leadership crazy. Imagine Iran and Israel together … It’s their biggest nightmare.” Riyadh and Jerusalem are also at odds on Syria and Somaliland.

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

• As Congress returns this week, we’ll be keeping an eye on the Hill’s response to the ongoing wave of protests across Iran, the ripple effects of the Trump administration’s arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the emerging rift among the U.S.’ Gulf allies. 
• Following the winter break, lawmakers’ top priority now will be finalizing a deal on government funding before the end-of-month deadline. It’s looking less likely that we’ll see a repeat of last year’s extended government shutdown. There are still plenty of areas to be negotiated between the two chambers, including security grant funding, United Nations funding and funding levels for U.S.-Israel cooperative programs.
• We’re keeping an eye on the ongoing protests in Iran. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One last night, President Donald Trump reiterated his recent comments that the U.S. would intervene if Iranian officials were to kill protesters, having said on his Truth Social site on Friday that “If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.” 
• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is scheduled to make his first appearance in U.S. federal court at 12 p.m. ET today, where he will appear before Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old Orthodox Jewish federal judge.
• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who had been planning a 2026 reelection bid, is set to make an announcement regarding his political future this morning, a day after meeting with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The impromptu press conference comes as Walz’s administration faces criticism and an investigation into widespread fraud centered around the state’s Somali diaspora population.
• U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Syria envoy Tom Barrack is mediating talks in Paris today between senior Israeli and Syrian officials, aimed at reaching a security agreement between the countries.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

As protests continue to spread throughout Iran and the geopolitical repercussions of the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ripple across world capitals, the sentiment around the Middle East and in Washington is that renewed conflict with the Islamic Republic may well be on the horizon.

While smaller than previous nationwide protests in 2019 and 2022, the newest demonstrations come as Iran is facing economic instability, crushing international sanctions and record droughts. The protests that have spread across the country in recent days are the first major demonstrations since the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, with an assist from the U.S., last June that damaged the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and further destabilized Iran.

The protests in Iran were already gaining steam at the time a Delta Force team apprehended Maduro and his wife on Saturday and brought them to the U.S. to stand trial on drug trafficking charges. But the Trump administration’s decision to send elite forces into Caracas and forcibly remove Maduro signals to Tehran — as well as Moscow and Beijing — that Washington is taking a tougher approach to regimes it sees as destabilizing and threatening to U.S. interests.

The world is watching this geopolitical high-wire act with wariness. In Israel, officials are closely monitoring the instability in Iran, concerned that the regime in Tehran could move to strike Israel in an effort to consolidate domestic support and quell the protests; Israel could also see a window of opportunity to strike Iran at a weak moment, either of which could reignite warfare between Jerusalem and Tehran.

It was less than a week ago that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and discussed the threat posed by Iran’s ballistic missile program.

In his weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday, Netanyahu addressed Iran in the context of his Palm Beach meeting last week, saying that Israel “reiterated our joint position of zero enrichment on one hand, and the need to remove the 400 kilograms of enriched material from Iran and oversee the sites with tight and genuine supervision.” 

Noting that his sit-down with Trump was taking place as anti-government protests broke out in Iran, Netanyahu added, “The Government of Israel, the State of Israel, and my policy, we identify with the struggle of the Iranian people, with their aspirations for freedom, liberty, and justice. It is very possible that we are standing at the moment when the Iranian people are taking their fate into their own hands.”

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

American Muscle: Politico’s Sophia Cai, Felicia Schwartz, Dasha Burns and Eric Bazail-Eimil posit that the Trump administration is taking a more hawkish approach to foreign policy in its second term. “The Saturday morning raid is a brazen escalation of U.S. involvement in a foreign country that landed the same weekend Trump publicly threatened to defend Iranian demonstrators against their own government. It serves as a fitting coda to Trump’s first year back in power, one marked by dramatically more involvement in foreign conflicts than candidate Trump or first-term Trump predicted. … Still, the move against [Nicolás] Maduro would have been almost unimaginable during Trump’s first term and during the heat of the 2024 campaign, when Trump adopted the views of restrainers who were skeptical of unconditional aid to Ukraine and spoke of the need to stop engaging in ‘forever wars.’” [Politico]

The Ties That Bind: In The Wall Street Journal, Armin Rosen observes the relationship between Somaliland and Israel, the latter of which was the first country to recognize Hargeisa’s independence last month. “Across 1,600 miles of distance, there is a surprisingly deep kinship between Hargeisa and Jerusalem. … Both countries see themselves as global outsiders waging a long campaign for legitimacy and respect. Israeli citizens and products are still banned in dozens of Muslim countries. As an unrecognized state, Somaliland lacks access to the Swift system for clearing international financial transactions, and its government is effectively blocked from borrowing meaningful amounts of money. Like Israel, a poor, war-ravaged and diplomatically isolated desert outpost during its first decades of existence, Somaliland has to find its way without much help.” [WSJ]

The New York Post interviews New York City Councilmember Julie Menin about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Menin, who is Jewish, is expected to become city council speaker; Menin said she called Mamdani shortly after his revocation of Israel- and antisemitism-related executive orders to express her concern over the moves…

Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate James Fishback is facing resurgent allegations that he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor who worked at his nonprofit organization in 2022; Fishback called the allegations “completely false”…

Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch interviews Zvi Hershcovich, the Philadelphia-based Chabad rabbi running a digital clubhouse for Jewish hockey fanatics…

The Chabad house in Kathmandu, Nepal, is temporarily closed following a dispute with the building’s landlord; Rabbi Chezki Lifshitz and Rebbetzin Chani Lifshitz are looking for a new site for the Chabad house, which is a popular site for Israeli and Jewish trekkers and gained fame for hosting the largest Passover Seder in the world…

The New York Times reports on efforts to repatriate items that had belonged to Holocaust victims to their descendants…

A new report from the Israel Advanced Technology Industries Association found that more than half of the companies surveyed saw an increase in requests from employees to relocate outside of Israel…

Einav Zangauker, who gained prominence in Israel for her advocacy on behalf of her son, Matan, who was a hostage in Gaza, announced Matan’s engagement to Ilana Gritzewsky; Zangauker was released from Hamas captivity in October 2025, while Gritzewsky, who was also taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, was freed in November 2023…

Former Israeli hostage Romi Gonen recounted multiple incidents of sexual assault during the 471 days she spent in Hamas captivity in Gaza, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12…

The BBC reached a five-figure settlement with an Israeli family from the Gaza envelope whose home a BBC reporting team filmed from without permission in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…

Egypt and Qatar inked an agreement that will see Doha sending gas to Cairo as Egypt works to diversify its national gas imports… 

Swiss officials identified the bodies of Israeli teenager Charlotte Needham and Jewish sisters Alicia and Diana Gunst, who died in a fire at a Swiss ski resort on New Year’s Eve…

Singer Este Haim married tech entrepreneur Jonathan Levin in a New Year’s Eve wedding in Los Angeles…

eJewishPhilanthropy talks to friends and colleagues of philanthropist Morris Kahn, who died last week at 95…

Former Orthodox Union head Rabbi Julius Berman, who previously served as chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and chair of the board at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, died at 80… Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of Anne Frank, died at 96… Holocaust survivor Edward Gastfriend, who was instrumental in the creation of Philadelphia’s Holocaust Memorial Plaza, died at 100… Record executive and political activist Howie Klein died at 77 (read Phil Klein’s obituary for his father in the National Review here)… Journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, the daughter of Amb. Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, died at 35… Former Rep. Dick Zimmer (R-NJ) died at 81… Richard Pollak, the founder and editor of More magazine, died at 91… Piano virtuoso Gary Graffman died at 87… Longtime Upper East Side veterinarian Lewis Berman, whose clientele included the pets of numerous celebrities and high-profile figures, died at 90…

Israel’s Noa Szollos finished 28th in the Women’s Slalom race in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, at the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2025-2026, earning Israel’s first-ever World Cup points in alpine skiing.

Tennis player ranked No. 1 in Israel for most of 2022, Yshai Oliel turns 26..

Author of 10 books including Mitzvah Man and collections of short fiction including Minyan: Ten Interwoven Stories, John Jacob Clayton turns 91… Sports journalist, author and former ombudsman for ESPN, Robert Lipsyte turns 88… NBA superfan who attends over 100 basketball games nationally each season, James F. Goldstein turns 86… Former member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party, Eliyahu Gabai turns 83… Former Philadelphia mayor for eight years, and then another eight years as Pennsylvania’s governor, currently a special counsel at Ballard Spahr, Ed Rendell turns 82… Retired attorney from Latham & Watkins, Paul Israel Meyer… San Diego-based attorney, she served as a member of Congress and as chief of staff for former California Gov. Gray Davis, Lynn Alice Schenk turns 81… Former attorney general of the U.K, now London co-managing partner and chair of the European and Asian litigation practice at Debevoise & Plimpton, Lord Peter Goldsmith turns 76… CEO of Legacy Interactive / Legacy Games, Ariella Lehrer, Ph.D…. Founder and principal of DC-based Mager & Associates, a boutique public policy and advocacy consulting firm, Mimi Mager… Retired chairman of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeYisrael), Daniel “Danny” Atar turns 68… Journalist John F. Solomon turns 59… Actress and television personality, she is best known for her nine seasons on “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” Heather Paige Kent Dubrow turns 57… Partner of both the law firm Galper & Goldberg PLLC and the PR firm Trident GMG, Joshua P. Galper… Professional poker player with more than $29 million of winnings, including $10 million at the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship, Michael Mizrachi turns 45… NYC-based saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, Oded Tzur turns 42… Founder and creative director of Alsall Studio, a social media and web design firm, Alexandra Lauren Sall… 

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the rest of What You Should Know here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author, actress and comedian, Fran Lebowitz turns 75…

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

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

A QUICK WORD WITH MELISSA WEISS AND TAMARA ZIEVE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read ‘What You Should Know’ here.