Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday proposed an amendment to Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) war powers resolution, which would block the U.S. from taking further military action against Iran, commending President Donald Trump for a “successful mission” in damaging the regime’s nuclear program. 

Cruz introduced the amendment in anticipation of a vote later this week on the resolution, which would curtail the president’s ability to take any additional action targeting Iran without congressional approval. The amendment, if adopted, would attach language to the resolution celebrating the very actions it seeks to block.

“Members of the United States Armed Forces and intelligence community, and all those involved in the planning and successful execution of Operation Midnight Hammer on June 21, 2025, including President Donald J. Trump, should be commended for their efforts in a successful mission,” the amendment reads.

The Texas senator offered an identical amendment praising the president’s actions when Kaine introduced a war powers act in 2020 in response to Trump’s decision to assassinate Quds Force head Gen. Qassem Soleimani. That amendment, which said that those involved in the operation “should be commended for their efforts in a successful mission,” passed 64-34. 

“The Senate routinely passes this language to applaud presidents for operations like these, which make all Americans immeasurably safer. We came together to congratulate President Obama for liquidating Osama bin Laden, and the Senate voted to applaud President Trump for doing the same to Soleimani. I intend to ensure we do the same for this weekend’s crucial operation, which eliminated the existential threat to America of a nuclear-armed Iran,” Cruz told Jewish Insider in a statement. 

Kaine told reporters on Monday that his resolution was likely to come up for a vote on Thursday or Friday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) finds himself in an awkward bind: The self-dubbed “Shomer Yisrael” — “guardian of the people of Israel” — is now the “Shomer of the Democratic Party” — guardian of a caucus that has drifted increasingly leftward, especially when it comes to its support for Israel and aggressive action to deter Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

When he had the opportunity earlier this month to take a clean shot at President Donald Trump for not being tough enough against Iran — over reports the administration was working on a deal allowing Iran to maintain enrichment — he played to his history of hawkishness on Iran, taunting Trump for “folding” and “let[ting] Iran get away with everything,” facing backlash from some on the left in the process. 

But when Trump made the decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites last weekend, Schumer sided against a handful of pro-Israel stalwarts in his party and leading Jewish communal organizations, who praised the move as advancing peace in the region. Instead, he joined the majority of congressional Democrats, who blasted the administration for not seeking congressional authorization. 

“No president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy,” Schumer said Saturday. “Confronting Iran’s ruthless campaign of terror, nuclear ambitions, and regional aggression demands strength, resolve, and strategic clarity. The danger of wider, longer, and more devastating war has now dramatically increased.”

Schumer’s turnaround is raising eyebrows among Jewish and pro-Israel leaders, and his focus on congressional procedure is frustrating some in the pro-Israel community who wanted to see him support Trump’s efforts to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.

“If your argument is leading with a technicality over war powers, you know you’re losing the broader debate,” a former Biden administration official told JI. “This wasn’t an open-ended military campaign — these were limited U.S. airstrikes. Every president in modern times has done it this way for limited airstrikes, and this isn’t any different.”

“I would like it to be that whoever does the right thing, no matter who they are or how much you otherwise dislike them, that at least certain truths can be recognized by everyone,” Democratic Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch said. “One of those being that Iran’s nuclear program needed to stop. … We all need to take a step back and acknowledge that Trump did a good thing, even if we can’t stand him otherwise.”

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan wrote on X, “When President Trump strikes Iran’s nuclear sites to stop a regime openly calling for Israel’s destruction (and responsible for the [murder] of many many Americans), Schumer’s only reaction is… complaining about congressional procedure? Seriously, Chuck? Don’t you have anything positive to say about removing an existential threat from Israel and the free world?”

Democratic Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch, who has been outspoken in criticizing members of her own party over lukewarm support for, or criticism of, Israel, said that Schumer’s position would appear to be one of “blind partisanship,” if he hadn’t expressed the same criticisms of Democratic presidents’ own unilateral military actions.

“I would like it to be that whoever does the right thing, no matter who they are or how much you otherwise dislike them, that at least certain truths can be recognized by everyone,” Panitch said. “One of those being that Iran’s nuclear program needed to stop. … We all need to take a step back and acknowledge that Trump did a good thing, even if we can’t stand him otherwise.”

Panitch was the only Democrat in the Georgia House to join a letter with Republicans backing the Iran strikes.

Schumer’s spokesperson, Angelo Roefaro, told JI, “Senator Schumer has long said Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and he voted against his own party when he didn’t think President Obama’s Iran deal went far enough.” 

“He’s also long said that the executive branch cannot ignore the role of Congress when it comes to taking military action(s), yet that is exactly what is happening right now, and that is unacceptable when the stakes are so high and when key questions, including how the administration will prevent Iran in the long-term from obtaining a nuclear weapon, remain unanswered,” Roefaro continued.

“He has got tremendous pressures facing him,” Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic consultant told JI. “There are people in New York who would want him to be much more vociferous in support of the attack on Iran … but his party isn’t in that place.”

Publicly, Schumer has also been critical of the administration for failing to brief him and other lawmakers to show the necessity of the strikes, or that they accomplished the administration’s intended goal. He’s suggested that’s a sign that the strikes were not successful, as one leaked intelligence report has indicated.

“This last-minute postponement is outrageous, evasive, and derelict. Senators deserve full transparency, and the administration has a legal obligation to inform Congress precisely about what is happening. What is the administration so afraid of?” Schumer said in a new statement Tuesday. “Such obstruction undermines the very principles of accountability and oversight that safeguard our democracy.”

One analyst argued that Schumer’s position as Democratic leader places him in a politically difficult bind.

“He has got tremendous pressures facing him,” Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic consultant told JI. “There are people in New York who would want him to be much more vociferous in support of the attack on Iran … but his party isn’t in that place.”

He argued that Schumer, as the leader of a minority party, needs to focus on attracting younger voters back to the party, and in protecting the coalition he does have — both groups that largely oppose the strikes.

Sheinkopf also said Schumer’s stance is “absolutely a product of internal caucus politics. … The minority party’s job is to be on the other side of the president and the leadership, and that’s what they’re doing. So it should not be surprising, and Sen. Schumer’s positioning should not be surprising at all.”

Schumer’s comments over the weekend echo the stance he took in 2020 on potential military action against Iran, when he backed similar legislation following the strike that killed Quds Force head Gen. Qassem Soleimani. He also backed a bill that would withhold funding for war with Iran.

“Congress, unequivocally, must hold the president accountable and assert our authority over matters of war and peace,” Schumer said at the time, remarks to which Schumer’s office referred JI. He also criticized the administration for failing to provide “a clear picture … about our strategy in the region.”

Schumer has said he regretted his vote to authorize the Iraq War and has pushed, including during the Biden administration, for repeal of the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force undergirding the war on terrorism, arguing that Congress needed to reassert war powers and prevent another inadvertent war in the Middle East.

But he didn’t publicly offer the same direct and pointed opposition to strikes undertaken by previous Democratic administrations without congressional authorization in places such as Libya and Yemen.

Schumer’s office also referred JI to his past opposition to Iran’s nuclear program and opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as well as his support for the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which requires the administration to submit for congressional review any nuclear agreement with Iran.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he would allow China to continue to purchase oil from Iran, though a senior White House official denied there had been any change in policy or that sanctions would be lifted.

Trump’s comments appeared to many observers to be a reversal of his own administration’s actions just months ago and in contravention of congressionally approved sanctions designed to cut off the Iran-China oil trade, one of Iran’s most critical sources of funding.  

Trump’s comments drove concern among supporters of the sanctions and Iran analysts, who believe that loosening sanctions on Iran now will help it gather funding to rebuild its nuclear program.

“China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday morning, following the implementation of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. “Hopefully they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also. It was my Great Honor to make this happen!”

Congress last year passed two separate bills with broad bipartisan support, the SHIP (Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum) Act and the Iran China Energy Sanctions Act, which were specifically designed to choke off the oil trade between Iran and China. A third bill, the Enhanced Iran Sanctions Act, to place additional sanctions on the trade, has been advancing in the House with strong bipartisan support.

Trump’s announcement appears to mark a striking turnaround from his commitment to “maximum pressure” on Iran. Just months ago, the administration imposed sanctions on Chinese “teapot” refineries for importing Iranian oil for the first time, with the goal of pressuring Iran. 

“The President is committed to drive Iran’s illicit oil exports, including to China, to zero,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in April. “All sanctions will be fully enforced under the Trump Administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran.”

A senior White House official told JI on Tuesday that “The President was simply calling attention to the fact that, because of his decisive actions to obliterate Iran’s nuclear facilities and broker a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz will not be impacted, which would have been devastating for China.”

The official continued, “The President continues to call on China and all countries to import our state-of-the-art oil rather than import Iranian oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.”

“China is the main consumer of Iranian oil. Enabling China to continue purchasing Iranian oil violates existing sanctions and will allow Iran to rebuild its capabilities, including its nuclear program,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), the lead Democratic sponsor of the Iran China Energy Sanctions Act, told Jewish Insider. 

“With the regime now significantly weakened, we must continue applying maximum pressure and cut off its sources of funding. Doing so will help protect America, our military and diplomatic assets, and our allies around the world.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the lead sponsor of both bills, did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s announcement is also driving concern from Iran analysts.

“China purchasing oil from Iran allows it to rearm, refinance and rebuild making future conflict with Israel more likely. It also gives Tehran resources to rebuild its nuclear program,” Jason Brodsky, the policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran, warned. “Also if your goal is zero enrichment in Iran, allowing China to flood Iran with resources makes that goal harder to achieve.”

Brodsky added: “The calculus behind getting China to curtail its purchases of Iranian oil is to achieve zero enrichment in Iran, which has been the president’s longstanding and rightful position.”

“If ever there was a time for more maximum pressure, it would be in a post-strike scenario to contain or roll back the Islamic Republic and prevent China and Russia from helping it ‘build back better,’” Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. 

Ben Taleblu also noted the sanctions “[undermine] the spirit and letter” of the administration’s executive order and national security memorandum on oil sanctions, while FDD’s CEO Mark Dubowitz highlighted that the trade “violate[s] U.S. sanctions — passed by Congress on a bipartisan basis.”

AIPAC, which urged lawmakers to support the SHIP Act, said in a statement, “We must continue to apply maximum pressure on Iran to ensure that it cannot rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.”

This story was updated at 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday to include comments from a White House spokesperson.

When Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter agreed last week to a major interview with Iran International, the biggest independent Iranian news outlet in the world, the geopolitical status of the region looked very different than it did when Leiter sat down with anchor Fardad Farahzad on Tuesday morning at the National Press Club in Washington. 

What was billed as a candid conversation with Leiter, where he would answer questions directly from Iranians curious about Israel’s approach to military strikes in Iran, turned into a newsy postmortem on the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which had shakily come to a close just hours earlier with a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump and the Qataris. 

Leiter touted Israel’s military victories but did not offer a full endorsement of the ceasefire — and asked whether he was surprised by Trump’s announcement on Tuesday night, he demurred: “I came to Washington on Jan. 27, and there hasn’t been one day where I haven’t been surprised,” Leiter quipped.

“I think we saw it coming, because we accomplished the vast majority of our goals, our military goals, and that’s diminishing to the point of elimination the path to a nuclear bomb and proliferation of ballistic missiles,” said Leiter. 

In 12 days, Israel had “decimated [Iran’s] capacity to inflict tremendous damage on Israel,” Leiter continued. When pressed by Farahzad whether that meant Israel had eliminated Iran’s nuclear program, Leiter’s message was less straightforward.

“Eliminated is a big word. Obliterated is a big word. We can’t get into … what, exactly, ‘obliterated’ means,” said Leiter. (Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that “obliteration is an accurate word.”) 

While the details of how thoroughly Israel had damaged Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs are still somewhat uncertain, the fact that Israel had achieved great military success in Iran in less than two weeks was not disputed. 

Instead, much of the conversation featured Leiter grappling with the limits of Israel’s capabilities in Iran. As barbaric and evil as Israel finds Iran’s regime, Leiter reiterated that regime change is not on the table for Israel. 

“There are few things that unite Israelis, but change in Iran is one of them,” said Leiter. “We want regime change. We’re certainly going to support it in every way we can. But militarily? No. War cannot bring regime change. It doesn’t work.” 

Farahzad read questions that had been sent in by Iranian viewers and called on several Iranians in the audience. Almost every one of them asked some version of the same question: Now that there is a ceasefire, Iranians are afraid of what will come next for them. The mullahs remain in power, weakened and wounded. What will they do to the people of Iran? How can the U.S. and Israel leave the Iranian people on their own and walk away? 

“Please help assuage the people of Iran’s mindset that the world leaders are saying stuff from both sides of their mouths, but they’re not taking into consideration that if the mullahs are left in power, it will do much more damage to the people of Iran,” one audience member pleaded with Leiter.

He acknowledged the precarity of this moment for the Iranian people, and their frustration at Israel’s inability to help them reach the outcome that many of them want. Instead, Leiter said he hoped Israel’s brief incursion into Iran, helped by the U.S., could spur Iranians who want a change in their country’s leadership to overcome their fears and bring about that change. 

“I don’t think I have an answer that’s fully going to satisfy you,” said Leiter. “The bandwidth in the United States right now for anything that even smacks of regime change — very small bandwidth. The ability for Israel to act [by] itself for regime change is extremely limited. What we are doing is, I think, advancing the cause of liberty to a great degree. In our efforts to secure ourselves, we are moving the region into a greater effort of liberty. It takes time.” 

Leiter presented a vision of a forward-looking Middle East, where the arc of history bends toward justice for the Iranian people, even if that arc is not a straight line.

“Based on history, I think we are moving towards an era of greater freedom, of greater people sovereignty. I think that that’s been helped, facilitated, by what we’ve done,” said Leiter. “We’re not in the position to make a long-term strategy for another country. Our long-term strategy is to stay alive.” 

Iranians now worry that they may be left paying a price for Israel’s victory, as the country’s hard-line rulers lash out. Leiter acknowledged that, but countered that it is not only Israel who can help the Iranian people. He called for Europe to step up.

“We’re not the only democracy in the world. Why is it that the chancellor of Germany says Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us? We’re a tiny, little country. Where’s Germany? Where’s England? England has a huge stake,” said Leiter. “Are we the world’s policeman? Please. I would say to the chancellor of Germany, ‘You’re absolutely right. We’re doing the dirty work for the world, but it’s about time that you helped us.’ And if they did, it would be a lot easier for the people of Iran.”

The interview will air several times this week on primetime in Iran, and to Iranian diasporas around the world. 

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command who is nominated to be the next CENTCOM head, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday that the United States is prepared for the possibility that Iran will attempt to place mines in the Strait of Hormuz to close off the strategic waterway.

The Iranian parliament approved a move earlier this week to close the strait, but that decision would be dependent on the approval of the Iranian leadership, and it’s not clear whether the ceasefire between Israel and Iran might hold off such a move. Around a third of the world’s oil supply passes through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf and several Gulf states to the Arabian Sea.

The incoming CENTCOM leader, who previously led naval forces in CENTCOM and the Fifth Fleet based out of Bahrain, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. “has sufficient capacity and capability to handle the threat” of mining the Strait of Hormuz, and that it is keeping a close eye on Iranian movements that would signal such an operation is occurring.

“It would certainly be important for us to watch what they’re doing and attempt to both anticipate and then react faster than the threat,” Cooper said. “It’s a significant threat. It’s a known threat, and one that we’re watching.”

Cooper acknowledged that the potential shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz would have “significant” impacts on U.S. operations in the Middle East. He said it would be a “complex problem,” given that Iran has stockpiles of thousands of mines, and noted that “historically in mine warfare, nothing happens quickly,” saying the operation would be a matter of “weeks and months, not days.”

Cooper said that U.S. and Israeli strikes, and particularly Israel’s successes against Iran and its proxies, have weakened and degraded Iran significantly, but added that Iran remains the primary destabilizing agent in the region and a sponsor of global terrorism.

“They possess considerable tactical capability, one element of which we saw yesterday,” Cooper said, referring to Iranian missile barrages at U.S. bases in Qatar and Iraq. “We’ve got to be in a three point stance, ready to go every single day. “

Pressed repeatedly by Democrats on whether the U.S. is planning for a ground invasion or for regime change in Iran, Cooper declined to discuss specifics in public, stating that his role is and would be to provide options to the administration’s civilian leadership and to prepare for various potential scenarios.

Cooper added that “deterring Iran and its proxies … is a critical element of our national security,” noting as well that some of the Iranian-aligned militia groups in the region, as well as the Houthis, remain an active threat. He highlighted that Iranian proxies have attacked Americans around 500 times in the past 20 months.

Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former director of operations for CENTCOM, who was testifying alongside Cooper, said that “the Houthis are likely to be a persistent problem that we’ll be dealing with in the future a few times again.”

Cooper said it might take several months for normal commercial trade to resume through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait after the U.S.-Houthi ceasefire agreement was reached last month.

Cooper said that the U.S. is prepared for a range of scenarios should the Houthis break the ceasefire. He also warned that the Yemeni terrorist group is “extremely well supplied by the Iranians” and is increasingly entrenching underground.

He added that, learning from Hamas, Iran and other groups in the region, U.S. adversaries entrenching underground is likely to be a growing problem in the future. He highlighted the work of Israel and U.S.-Israeli collaborative efforts to counter this threat.

Cooper emphasized concerns about the growing cooperation between U.S. adversaries such a Iran, China, Russia and North Korea. He expressed particular frustration about the flow, through Iran, of weapons components from China to the Houthis, and China’s longstanding failure to take action against the Houthis.

The vice admiral emphasized that the U.S.’ efforts in Syria going forward will be led by diplomacy and appear to be headed in a positive direction, but added that the U.S. must remain vigilant and active to focus on the ongoing threat from ISIS.

“Stability in Syria can translate into security in the United States,” Cooper said. “And here’s how those dots connect. ISIS thrives in chaos. If the government of Syria, now seven months into their existence, can help suppress that ISIS threat, along with the U.S. forces in the region, that stability helps create our own security. I’m optimistic for the future.”

He argued that now is not the time for the U.S. to be pulling back from the Middle East, and that any drawdown of troops from Syria — which the Trump administration has pursued — should be based on conditions on the ground, emphasizing that the U.S. remains the leader of the international coalition to combat ISIS.

Cooper said that the Abraham Accords and Israel’s incorporation into Central Command “presents extraordinary opportunities to advance security and enhance deterrence” in the region, and that he would continue to work on those relationships — a priority for the outgoing CENTCOM leader, Gen. Erik Kurilla.

For decades, former Israeli politician and Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky has championed the cause of freedom from oppressive regimes. Dissidents across the world have found inspiration in his books and sought his advice and support.

Iranians seeking to topple the totalitarian mullahs’ regime are no different.

Soon after Israel began its strikes on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear, weapons production and military sites, Sharansky, who has been in contact with Iranian dissidents, expressed hope that the war would increase pressure on the regime from within Iran, leading to its downfall.

That hope has been reflected in statements by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the operation, though after the interview, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he favors stability over regime change.

Sharansky spoke with Jewish Insider on Tuesday about the prospects of the Iranian people rising up against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even after a shaky ceasefire had been declared between Israel and Iran.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Jewish Insider: What did this war between Israel and Iran mean for the possibility of regime change in Iran?

Natan Sharansky: It’s difficult to speak now, because we don’t know what kind of [ceasefire] agreement it is, whether it is the type with Hezbollah, the type that prevents Iran from rebuilding their ballistic missiles.

What is important is that the regime has been very weakened in the eyes of its own people. 

A regime like Iran needs control not only over practical matters, it needs a way to keep its people under control, and the only control they had is through fear. The moment the level of fear goes down, or the empire looks weak, or some serious event causes people to doubt it, the regime can fall apart very quickly.

If some people cross the line of fear and go to the streets and resist, [the regime] can fall in a few days, as it did in Eastern Europe or in Tahrir Square in Egypt.

[On Monday], I thought we were very close. The fact that Israel was destroying the symbols of the regime, one after the other — the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] headquarters, the Interior Ministry that controlled people’s movement — meant the regime was being weakened in the eyes of its own people.

JI: Do you really think the mullahs’ regime is so close to collapse?

NS: In a totalitarian society, there are three kinds of people. There are those who are with the regime; there are the dissidents, the very few who speak out; and the majority, the double-thinkers, who don’t believe in the regime, don’t want the regime, but are afraid to speak out.

Iran was unique among the dictatorial countries in the Middle East [in] that it had a very developed civil society. There were women’s organizations, students, trade unions organized against the regime.

I can tell you that in the estimation of many dissidents when we had a meeting 15 years ago in Prague, we chose Iran as the most likely candidate for a revolution.

In 2009, you had the beginning of a revolution, but [former President Barack] Obama decided engagement with the regime was more important than changing the regime, so the regime was strong enough to destroy [the opposition].

Now, not only is the regime weaker in the eyes of the people, but it was exposed as a paper tiger so quickly and it lost all symbols of power.

JI: The public conversation in the U.S. has been very nervous about the prospect of regime change.

NS: This debate about whether they should change the regime or not — it’s like whether to attack [the nuclear facility in] Fordow or not. You don’t change the regime by throwing another bomb. 

The regime can be changed by people on the inside, if they stop being afraid. If a small group stops being afraid and goes to the streets, it’s very risky. If many people think it’s possible and millions stop being afraid, that’s the end of the regime.

[French President Emmanuel] Macron said yesterday that he was angry and that the Iranian people should decide, not the Americans. He’s right that it’s for the people to decide, but the people have been controlled by fear for many years.

We don’t have to physically change the regime; we have to help the people see the regime is weak. At the moment we have the Nachshons [the first Israelite to enter the Red Sea before it was split in the Exodus story]. This is how it happened in many other places, like in Romania. The moment they go out and show they are not afraid, the regime will be finished in two or three days. 

I think we are now very close to this.

JI: Do you think statements about regime change from Israeli leaders and President Trump helped?

NS: The leaders of the free world need to show their real attitude toward the dictatorship and their support for the people. Especially the Americans and Europeans. That was the failure in 2009. All that was needed was for leaders to say, “We are with you,” but they said the opposite, that they want engagement.

Today it is the opposite. It is the clear position of the free world that in heart and spirit they are with the people of Iran who want to be free. It doesn’t mean we’re saying we will change the regime — we cannot do that, it would just mean continuing the war. It does not mean trying to turn Iran into a colony.

[The purpose of the war is] for them not to continue to blackmail [Israel] and make our lives miserable as they tried to do for many years, but we should be interested in the Iranian people seeing that the regime is weak and the sympathy of the world is on their side.

Israel mostly behaved very cleverly and toed a thin line to make it clear that we are not fighting with the civilians, we are damaging the regime and the image of the regime in Iran as much as possible. I think that even if some ministers did not understand that is the aim, Israel’s leaders did this well.

JI: What do you think was the impact of the bombing of the gate to the notorious Evin Prison, where dissidents are held and tortured?

NS: It was the right thing to do, but maybe it would have been wiser to do it two to three days later, when the authorities lost control of the streets and the prisoners could run away. Is it legitimate to help political prisoners run away? Of course it is legitimate. But it’s a good thing to do when the regime starts losing control.

JI: Does the ceasefire make regime change more or less likely?

NS: We have to see the conditions of the ceasefire, and whether it will help the regime restore the sense that they are strong. It’s clear that the regime is much weaker internationally and the nuclear threat that was so big and looming above us for decades is now [lessened]. Whether this regime is weakened from the inside, we have to see.

JI: As someone in contact with dissident movements, what are you hearing about the movement in Iran?

NS: A lot of dissidents in America and in London and inside Iran are really mobilizing.

I was told yesterday that the price of a Starlink internet receiver rose from $400 to $2,800 in a few days. That means that while, officially, the internet is blocked, people want to be in contact. They want to coordinate and smuggle more and more of this equipment. That’s one parameter from which you see that people feel the moment is coming.

I would like to see this, but we don’t know exactly what is happening.

I think that the moment Hezbollah fell, the [Iranian] regime felt it was in danger. They executed hundreds of people. Iran probably leads the world in executions, but in recent months they accelerated and almost doubled them. They’re very rational; this is how they control people. It’s important to them that people are scared. Even if the attack by Israel was a surprise, Iran was prepared for it in terms of how to control the people.

What happened in the last 12 days is that people could see how weak the regime is. There is a very close connection between the regime’s level of control of the people and how it looks. A dictator who looks weak cannot survive. That is why we are very close.

JI: What are dissidents currently doing against the regime?

NS: There are many different groups of dissidents. There are those representing different aspects of human rights and groups who speak for the Kurds, Azeris, Balochis — only half of the population of Iran are Persians. It’s always like this when facing a totalitarian regime. You have groups with different interests and the secret police plays off of this. 

That’s OK. The important thing is whether, at this critical moment of revolution, they can speak in one voice. That is a process that is happening these days. Those in America, those in London and in some other European countries and those who are in the field — their interconnection is growing with every minute. That is why I mentioned Starlink; it’s very important because the authorities tried to break the internet communications between the people. 

The only thing that is working is state propaganda, which is why it is so important that Israel struck the centers of official propaganda.

Many channels of contact are being established these days, which is very important. Some leaders are taking initiative. It’s important that different groups succeed in uniting for at least a short period of time and speak in one voice. It seems to me that inroads are being made, and from what I hear, very intensely.

President Donald Trump blasted Israel on Tuesday morning after it said it would respond to Iranian violations of the ceasefire, telling reporters, “I’m not happy with Iran, but I’m really not happy with Israel.”

“We have two countries that have been fighting for so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,” he continued, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before taking off to attend the NATO summit at The Hague, Netherlands. 

The IDF intercepted two missiles from Iran at about 10:30 a.m. Israel time, just hours after the ceasefire announced by Trump on Monday night came into effect. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he “instructed the IDF to respond forcefully to the violation of the ceasefire by Iran with powerful strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.”

Asked about Iran’s violation of the ceasefire, Trump said, “They violated it but Israel violated it, too. Israel, as soon as we made the deal, came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. … I’m not happy with Iran, either, but I’m really not happy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land. I’m not happy about that.”

“These guys gotta calm down, it’s ridiculous,” he added later.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday, “The ceasefire was set for 7 a.m. At 3 a.m., Israel forcefully struck at the heart of Tehran, damaging regime targets and eliminating hundreds of Basij militants and Iranian security forces. Shortly before the ceasefire went into effect, Iran sent a barrage of missiles, one of which took the lives of four of our civilians in Beersheba. At 7:00 the ceasefire went into effect. At 7:06 Iran sent one missile to Israeli territory and at 10:25, two additional missiles. The missiles were intercepted or fell in open areas with none injured and no damage.”

Shortly after he made his comments, Trump posted to Truth Social, “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”

Jerusalem sought clarifications from the Trump administration after his Truth Social post, an Israeli official told Jewish Insider, as the president had previously reassured Israel it could respond to Iranian violations of the ceasefire.

A senior Israeli official told Axios’ Barak Ravid that Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and told him not to respond to Iran. Netanyahu reportedly told the president he could not cancel the strike and needed to give some kind of response to Iran’s violation of the ceasefire, and it was ultimately decided Israel would significantly scale back its attack and strike only one target. 

The PMO confirmed the Israeli Air Force destroyed a radar system near Tehran as its response.

“Following a conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the PMO continued, “Israel avoided conducting further strikes. In their conversation, President Trump expressed his great appreciation for Israel, which reached all of its goals in the war. The president also expressed his confidence in the stability of the ceasefire.”

After the conversation, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!” and then wrote, “IRAN WILL NEVER REBUILD THEIR NUCLEAR FACILITIES!”

Jewish Insider’s senior political correspondent Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.

Good Tuesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Iran’s violation of a ceasefire with Israel hours after it went into effect, and speak to GOP lawmakers about their perspectives on the ceasefire. We interview experts about the state of Iran’s nuclear program following Israeli and American strikes against its facilities and cover efforts by House and Senate Democrats to bring forward votes on war powers resolutions that aim to constrain the administration from taking any further military action against Iran. We also report on how Jewish and pro-Israel activists are responding to the ascent of Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, Rep. Carlos Gimenez and Yotam Polizer.

What We’re Watching

• All eyes are on the New York City Democratic mayoral primary to see if former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will prevail over Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, though because of ranked-choice voting, complete results may not be known for several days. Downballot, we’re keeping an eye on the city comptroller’s race, which pits Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine against City Councilmember Justin Brannan. More below.
• President Donald Trump is heading to The Hague, Netherlands, today for the NATO summit, where the war with Iran is likely to be a top agenda item for discussion.
• Prior to his departure, and just before the Daily Kickoff was published, Trump told reporters, Israel and Iran “don’t know what the F*** they’re doing,” and said, “I’m not happy with Israel.” he also wrote on Truth Social, “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”
• Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter is speaking today at a televised town hall hosted by Iran International and American Abroad Media.
• In Washington this morning, the House Appropriations Committee is holding a markup on the Homeland Security bill for 2026. We’ll be keeping an eye on how much is allocated for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
• Later today, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are slated to hold classified briefings with House and Senate lawmakers on the Israel-Iran war.
• At 2 p.m. ET, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on “America’s Battle Against Antisemitic Terror.” 
• Tonight at the Capitol, the Embassy of Spain and Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) are hosting the World Jewish Congress and the American Sephardi Federation for an event on “The Golden Age of the Jews of Al-Andalus.”

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S matthew kassel

It’s not an overstatement to suggest that the future direction of the Democratic Party could well be decided tonight in New York City, where a far-left, anti-Israel assemblyman from Queens, Zohran Mamdani, has a shot to win the Democratic nomination against presumed favorite, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Most public and internal campaign polls show Cuomo ahead, but a new Emerson College poll released Monday showed Mamdani in the lead for the first time, sending shockwaves through the New York City Jewish community — and beyond.

The notion that a candidate who pointedly declined to condemn “globalize the intifada” rhetoric in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world could be running competitively would have been unthinkable not long ago.

For a party desperately seeking to moderate in the aftermath of brutal defeats in 2024, the prospect of having a socialist mayor for the next four years in the largest city in the country would be an undeniable setback, threatening to reverberate beyond Gotham’s borders.

Mamdani’s rise has particularly fueled anxiety among Jewish leaders — as his hostile views toward Israel have hardly dented his standing in the race. Even if he doesn’t win the nomination, Jewish Democrats uncomfortable with his anti-Israel rhetoric and alleged insensitivity to rising antisemitism fear his surging campaign could end up causing them to rethink their long-standing affiliation with the Democratic Party.

One prominent New York-based Democratic strategist told JI he expected some Jews to relocate to Florida or Texas if Mamdani becomes mayor.

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

ISRAEL-IRAN WAR, DAY 12

Iran violates ceasefire with Israel within hours

Iran violated a ceasefire with Israel hours after it began on Tuesday, with Israel vowing “powerful strikes” in response, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. The IDF intercepted two missiles from Iran at about 10:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. Despite residents of northern Israel reporting interceptions, Iran denied firing the missiles.

Retaliation order: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he “instructed the IDF to respond forcefully to the violation of the ceasefire by Iran with powerful strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.” Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, said that “in light of the severe violation of the ceasefire carried out by the Iranian regime, we will respond with force.” A senior Israeli diplomatic source said that “Iran violated the ceasefire — and it will pay.” In the hours before the ceasefire was meant to go into effect at 7 a.m., Iran launched 20 missiles in a series of barrages at Israel, killing four in a direct hit on a building in Beersheba. 

Read the full story here.

Outfoxed: When Fox News anchor Bret Baier scored a primetime interview with Vice President JD Vance for Monday evening, he likely hoped that Vance would have news to share with him. Instead, Baier was the one to break the news to Vance that President Donald Trump had brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, which Trump announced in a post on Truth Social moments before Vance went on air, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

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republican response

GOP lawmakers: Trump ceasefire a sign of ‘peace through strength’

Republicans publicly lauded President Donald Trump’s ceasefire between Israel and Iran as an example of his “peace through strength” approach to foreign policy, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report. “This is a war that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform, alluding to criticism that he was dragging the U.S. into another prolonged Middle East conflict. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters on Monday evening that the news of a ceasefire was “incredible,” saying, “This is what peace through strength looks like.”

Victory lap: Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told JI that he’s “very much pleased” by the news. Pressed on whether he’s concerned that the deal could give Iran breathing room to rebuild its nuclear program, Kennedy said, “There’s this rule when you practice law, when you’ve won for the judge, you shut up. OK? You don’t keep talking. It’s a ceasefire. We won. We ought to take our victory.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he viewed the ceasefire as a “very good development.” He told reporters, “I think the question now is how do we get to a place where we can get to a deterrence posture, a containment posture for Iran for the long haul, that will keep them in their box, keep Iran in their box, but will also allow us, the United States, to draw down our troop and military presence in the region.”

Still wary: Some national security-focused House Democrats highlighted the risks of Trump’s actions if they did not successfully eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. “If you take this shot, you have to land it, and it’s a very hard shot to land,” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) told JI, arguing that the situation highlighted the need for Congress to assert a role in war-making authorities. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, emphasized that the success of the strikes is very uncertain at this point, and that he would be “most worried about an Iran that goes silent right now.” He said, “If Iran goes silent right now, what are they doing? Are they actually developing something?”

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Jim Banks (R-IN), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Katie Britt (R-AL), James Lankford (R-OK), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Dana Stroul.

Earlier Monday: Iran launched several missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports.

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WEAPON QUESTION

Will Iran’s nuclear program survive the U.S. and Israeli strikes?

According to President Donald Trump, Iran’s nuclear program is finito. “Obliteration is an accurate term!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “Monumental damage was done to all nuclear sites in Iran.” He said on Monday that the three sites hit by U.S. strikes on Sunday morning “were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the U.S. “took out” Iran’s nuclear program over the weekend. Nuclear experts aren’t as confident. What, exactly, remains of Iran’s nuclear program — which, just weeks ago, Israeli officials said was on the precipice of being able to produce a nuclear weapon — remains an open question, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Uncertainty lingers: Experts agree that the combination of Israel’s strikes that began a week and a half ago, aided by the U.S. military’s intervention on Sunday, has done significant damage to Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But uncertainty lingers about the status of the enriched uranium that had been housed at Fordow, the major Iranian nuclear facility hidden under a mountain that the U.S. struck with bunker-buster bombs this weekend. Reports suggest Tehran may have removed the nuclear materials from Fordow and hidden them elsewhere in Iran. “I think that we can assume that damage was done, but it’s going to take a long time, and we may never know entirely the extent of the damage,” said Tressa Guenov, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who dealt with international security affairs at the Pentagon in the Biden administration. Iran’s claim that it moved the uranium “could be real, or it could be a strategy to keep things ambiguous,” she added. 

Read the full story here.

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DEM DRIVE

Democratic efforts to block Trump war powers to continue despite Iran ceasefire

House and Senate Democrats are pushing ahead with efforts to bring forward votes this week in the House and Senate on resolutions that aim to constrain the administration from taking any further military action against Iran in spite of the surprise ceasefire between the U.S. and Israel and Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Though Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) said they’re pulling back on efforts to pass a bipartisan war powers resolution, a group of top House Democrats introduced an alternative measure, which aims to address concerns that Massie’s resolution would have blocked U.S. support for Israel’s defense.

Democrats’ positioning: Democratic staffers told JI that Democrats have largely unified publicly against the administration’s strikes on Iran — even some who support them privately — due to a perception that the move was a political weak point for Trump, concerns about being recorded as backing the strikes if they prompted another protracted regional war and a deep level of distrust with the Trump administration and its failure to present Congress with information about the strikes. 

Read the full story here.

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SCOOP

Georgetown University ‘appalled’ by department chair’s call for Iran to strike U.S. base

Georgetown University’s administration said it was “appalled” after a prominent faculty member called for Iran to conduct a “symbolic strike” on a U.S. military base in a social media post on Sunday. “We are reviewing this matter to see if further action is warranted,” a spokesperson for the university told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen on Monday, noting that the administration is “appalled” by the since-deleted tweet by Jonathan Brown, a tenured professor and chair of the university’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service, who has a history of spreading anti-Israel vitriol.

What he wrote: On Sunday, one day after the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, Brown tweeted: “I’m not an expert, but I assume Iran could still get a bomb easily. I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on a base, then everyone stops.” 

And then: Brown, who is the son-in-law of convicted terror supporter Sami Al-Arian and has gone on several X tirades since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks slamming Israel, deleted his tweet on Monday. “I deleted my previous tweet because a lot of people were interpreting it as a call for violence,” Brown wrote. “That’s not what I intended. I have two immediate family members in the US military who’ve served abroad and wouldn’t want any harm to befall American soldiers… or anyone!” 

Read the full story here.

Off base: As Iran targeted Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the U.S. airstrikes against the Iranian nuclear program, Tucker Carlson claimed on his podcast that the air base, “that they [Qatar] don’t need at all,” exists to protect Israel and Qatar is hosting it “to be nice,” Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports.

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MAMDANI MOMENTUM

Mamdani’s ascent in NYC mayoral primary alarms Jewish voters

As the closely watched Democratic primary for mayor of New York City wraps up today, many Jewish and pro-Israel activists are now confronting a mounting sense of alarm that Zohran Mamdani, a far-left assemblyman from Queens, could win the nomination, propelling a fierce critic of Israel to the general election — and, potentially, Gracie Mansion. In a city home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, Mamdani’s rise has fueled anxiety among Jewish leaders — particularly as his hostile positions toward Israel have hardly dented his standing in a competitive race that has narrowed to a two-person matchup. Even if Mamdani does not win, Jewish Democrats uncomfortable with his strident criticism of Israel and alleged insensitivity to rising antisemitism fear that his surging campaign could end up alienating Jewish voters who have long called the party home, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

If he wins: “The Jewish community is going to face a real shock if Mamdani gets the nomination,” Mitchell Moss, an urban policy professor at New York University who is backing Cuomo, said in an interview with JI on Monday. “A lot of people have come to realize that anti-Israel sentiment has metastasized into antisemitism.” Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic strategist, predicted a Mamdani victory could end up pushing “more Jews nationally into the Republican column” and said Orthodox Jews might choose to relocate to South Florida and New Jersey. “Whether he wins or loses,” Sheinkopf said, the contours of the race have sent a concerning message that he characterized as “Jews don’t matter.”

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

The Donald Doctrine: In The Atlantic, Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg considers President Donald Trump’s legacy in the Middle East. “Until the arrival of Donald Trump, no American president believed that the Iranian threat should be ended — to borrow from the language of the campus anti-Israel movement — by any means necessary. Trump may yet be remembered as a hypocrite who promised a clean American exit from the Middle East but found his presidency — like those of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan before him — hopelessly trapped in Iranian quicksand… But he could also be remembered as the president who averted a second Holocaust.” [TheAtlantic]

The Fall of Tehran?: In The Free Press, Eli Lake considers the implications of regime change in Iran. “This kind of talk has gone out of favor in Washington in recent years. The fall of dictatorships in Libya and Iraq led to confessional sectarian war. The fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt led briefly to a Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo before a military coup. But in Iran, a country that has experienced democratic uprisings five times since 2017, it now seems like a real possibility. … At the heart of the present uncertainty is a paradox. On the one hand, the Iranian regime is wobbling. On the other, the organic Iranian opposition has been targeted with ruthless lethality by security services that have proven efficient in targeting dissidents. Since 2009 and the Green Movement against the stolen presidential election that year, internal opposition leaders have been killed, exiled, or jailed.” [FreePress]

Falling on Deaf Ears: Commentary’s Seth Mandel looks at the support for tyrannical regimes by some Western progressives, even as dissidents from those regimes advocate otherwise. “Iranian actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi has issued a heartfelt plea to the Western protest class that I fear will fall on deaf ears. Just as the Palestinians who have made it out of Gaza and can speak freely tried, in vain, to convince the anti-Zionist demonstrators to not lionize Hamas, so are Iranian democracy activists learning about the Western fascination and identification with tyrannical regimes. … If the Iranians are ever freed from the occupying force in Tehran, it will be against the wishes of the Western activist class, which is fully invested in the status quo of tyranny anywhere it can be found. And they will almost certainly not be dissuaded by those who actually have to live under those regimes.” [Commentary]

Word on the Street

The New York Times examines how Iranian officials have reacted to the strikes against their nuclear and military facilities, from insisting on normalcy to projecting false strength to cautioning restraint…

The Wall Street Journal looks at Russia’s reluctance to acquiesce to Iranian requests for assistance in its strikes against Israel and the U.S.…

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities — but before Iran attacked U.S. bases and President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire — found that only 36% of respondents (13% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans) said they supported the strikes, while 45% opposed them… 

Retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts, a Democrat, announced his campaign to run against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Monday with a video calling out Trump’s “chaos” as well as a lack of leadership in the Democratic Party and its failure to learn from the 2024 election… 

The British government announced plans to sanction the anti-Israel activist group Palestine Action following incidents in which members of the group broke into a British air base and damaged military planes and vandalized one of Trump’s golf courses in Scotland…

The 21 members of the House Jewish Caucus — all Democrats — pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a letter sent on Tuesday expressing concerns about Kingsley Wilson, the recently promoted Pentagon press secretary with a history of antisemitic and otherwise controversial comments, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod scoops…

Top Senate leaders introduced a bipartisan resolution on Monday condemning the recent antisemitic attacks in Washington and Boulder, Colo., Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Democrat Jeff Grazyel, a former Morris Township mayor, announced plans to run for Rep. Mikie Sherrill‘s (D-NJ) congressional seat if she wins the New Jersey governor’s race. Grazyel is extensively involved in his local Jewish community, including as a member of the local Jewish Community Relations Council and Jewish federation and his synagogue board…

Former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is joining the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law as a distinguished visiting professor…

A New Jersey Assembly committee voted to table a proposed bill that would have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher interviews Yotam Polizer, the CEO of IsraAid, on the organization’s pivot from providing humanitarian aid abroad to focusing domestically on Israelis in need in the aftermath of Oct. 7 and the Iranian missile attacks…

The New York Times interviews former talk show host Maury Povich, who launched a podcast earlier this year after hosting more than 30 seasons of his eponymous show…

The New York Times reviews the new documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” about the actress’ rise to stardom and representation of the deaf community in Hollywood…

Cosmochemist Edward Anders, who as a child survived the Holocaust and in his retirement wrote a book about the Jews from his Latvian town who did not, died at 98…

Pic of the Day

U.K. Foreign Minister David Lammy (left) met with former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi in London on Monday. Sharabi’s wife and two daughters, who were murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, were British nationals.

Birthdays

Film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and cinematographer, Todd Strauss-Schulson turns 45…

Ruth Weinstein… Activist investor, he is a co-founder of Trian Fund Management, Nelson Peltz turns 83… Professor emeritus in the College of Business at San Francisco State University, Sam S. Gill turns 83… Former chairman and CEO of New York Life Insurance Company, Seymour “Sy” Sternberg turns 82… Professor of Jewish philosophy at American Jewish University and founding dean of its rabbinical program, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff turns 82… Founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat, Rabbi Avraham Haim Yosef (Avi) Weiss turns 81… Former secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, he is an author and professor at UC Berkeley, Robert Reich turns 79… Former member of Knesset and former chief of staff of the IDF, Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon turns 75… Early childhood specialist at Columbus City Schools and Columbus School for Girls in Columbus, Ohio, Carol Glassman… EVP at Edelman until earlier this year, he is the author of a book on the Saatchi & Saatchi ad firm, Kevin Goldman… Circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Sandra Segal Ikuta turns 71… President and CEO of public relations firm Steinreich Communications, Stanley Steinreich… U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Florida, Beth Francine Bloom turns 63… President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum turns 63… Former principal of Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne, Australia, Rabbi James Kennard turns 61… The first on-air talent of the NFL Network when it debuted in 2003, he has become the face of the network ever since, Rich Eisen turns 56… Israeli businesswoman and owner of the soccer team, Hapoel Beer Sheva, Alona Barkat turns 56… Author and columnist, he is the managing editor at Shtetl, Shulem Deen turns 51… Singer and songwriter known professionally as Ariel Pink, Ariel Marcus Rosenberg turns 47… Director of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, Matthew Continetti turns 44… Digital marketing manager at Guardian Pharmacy Services, Brett Rosner… VP of Houston-based RIDA Development, Steven C. Mitzner… 2015 contestant on “Jeopardy!” who earned $413,612 by winning 13 consecutive episodes, Matthew Barnett “Matt” Jackson turns 33… Actress and singer, Elizabeth Greer “Beanie” Feldstein turns 32… Director of legislative fiscal affairs at the Rockland County (N.Y.) legislature, Moshe Gruber… College basketball player for the Harvard Crimson until 2022, then a graduate transfer player at NYU until 2024, Spencer Freedman turns 27… Lois Charles…

Iran violated a ceasefire with Israel hours after it began on Tuesday, with Israel vowing “powerful strikes” in response.

The IDF intercepted two missiles from Iran at about 10:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. Despite residents of northern Israel reporting interceptions, Iran denied firing the missiles.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he “instructed the IDF to respond forcefully to the violation of the ceasefire by Iran with powerful strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.” IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that “in light of the severe violation of the ceasefire carried out by the Iranian regime, we will respond with force.” A senior Israeli diplomatic source said that “Iran violated the ceasefire — and it will pay.” 

In the hours before the ceasefire was meant to go into effect at 7 a.m., Iran launched 20 missiles in a series of barrages at Israel, killing four in a direct hit on a building in Beersheba. 

Ahead of the deadly strike, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent mixed messages, first posting on X that “there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire … However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards.” Less than 20 minutes later, Araghchi implied on X that a ceasefire had gone into effect: “The military operations of our powerful Armed Forces to punish Israel for its aggression continued until the very last minute, at 4am.” 

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly struck Beersheba since the war began 12 days ago, damaging buildings in the Soroka Medical Center, Microsoft offices and residences in the southern Israel city. The regime said it was aiming at an IDF research center in the city’s HiTech Park. 

President Donald Trump announced a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” on Truth Social on Monday evening, saying that each “side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL … This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!” 

According to the president, Iran was supposed to have stopped firing at Israel at 7 a.m. local time, and Israel would stop 12 hours later. 

At about 8 a.m. Israel time, Trump added: “THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!” 

Netanyahu and Trump spoke about the ceasefire overnight, while an American team that included Vice President JD Vance talked to Tehran, Reuters reported. Israel’s condition for the ceasefire was that Iran stop launching attacks, which they reportedly agreed to at the time. Qatar also took part in the negotiations. 

The Israeli government released a statement on Tuesday morning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported to the Security Cabinet that “Israel has achieved all of the objectives of Operation Rising Lion, and much more. Israel has removed a double existential threat — on both the nuclear issue and regarding ballistic missiles. The IDF also achieved complete air superiority in the skies over Tehran, struck a severe blow to the military leadership and destroyed dozens of Iran’s main regime targets.”

“In Operation Rising Lion, the State of Israel made great historic achievements and placed itself in the first rank of the world’s major powers,” the government stated. “This is a great success for the people of Israel and its fighters, who removed two existential threats to our country, and ensured the eternity of Israel.”

Israel also “thank[ed] President Trump and the U.S. for their defensive support and for their participation in removing the Iranian nuclear threat.”

The ceasefire was reached “in full coordination with President Trump,” the statement reads, but “Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire.”

IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin also said in a briefing on Tuesday morning that “the IDF has fully met all the objectives defined in Operation Rising Lion.”

“The Chief of the General Staff instructed the IDF to maintain a high level of alert and readiness to deliver a powerful response to any violation of the ceasefire,” he added.

In addition, Israel’s Home Front Command maintained its restrictions on Israelis, including the continued closure of schools and non-essential businesses.

The Israeli government statement also said that the IDF killed hundreds of militants from the Basij, “the terrorist regime’s instrument of repression,” and killed a senior nuclear scientist, named Mohammad Reza Sadighi, according to Iranian reports.

Defrin said that on Monday night and early Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force “struck dozens of military targets in Tehran … deploying more than one hundred munitions.” The targets included the headquarters of SPND, where weapons systems and nuclear technology were developed, as well as military manufacturing infrastructure. The IAF also eliminated eight missile launchers that were ready to fire at Israel.

According to President Donald Trump, Iran’s nuclear program is finito. 

“Obliteration is an accurate term!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “Monumental damage was done to all nuclear sites in Iran.” He said on Monday that the three sites hit by U.S. strikes on Sunday morning “were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the U.S. “took out” Iran’s nuclear program over the weekend.

Nuclear experts aren’t as confident. What, exactly, remains of Iran’s nuclear program — which, just weeks ago, Israeli officials said was on the precipice of being able to produce a nuclear weapon — remains an open question. (A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.) 

Experts agree that the combination of Israel’s strikes that began a week and a half ago, aided by the U.S. military’s intervention on Sunday, has done significant damage to Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But uncertainty lingers about the status of the enriched uranium that had been housed at Fordow, the major Iranian nuclear facility hidden under a mountain that the U.S. struck with bunker-buster bombs this weekend. 

Reports suggest Tehran may have removed the nuclear materials from Fordow and hidden them elsewhere in Iran. 

“I think that we can assume that damage was done, but it’s going to take a long time, and we may never know entirely the extent of the damage,” said Tressa Guenov, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who dealt with international security affairs at the Pentagon in the Biden administration. Iran’s claim that it moved the uranium “could be real, or it could be a strategy to keep things ambiguous,” she added. 

David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector, told The Free Press that “any highly enriched uranium at Fordow was likely gone before the attack.” 

Even with the possibility that the enriched uranium was moved from Fordow, experts agreed that Iran’s nuclear program has been left reeling by the Israeli and American military actions.

“Israelis believe that they dealt together with the U.S. … a really serious blow to the Iranian nuclear program, took it back by, some say, two years,” Michael Herzog, who until January was Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., said on Monday. But, he cautioned, it’s “premature to make that assessment.” Elliott Abrams, a longtime Republican foreign policy advisor who served as Trump’s special representative for Iran in Trump’s first term, said Iran is “now years away” from being able to make a nuclear weapon. 

And the extent of the damage goes beyond just the nuclear program. 

“Iran is losing its nuclear weapons option, and we have applied military force to ensure that,” said Dennis Ross, a former State Department official who worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations. “You have a military that has been decapitated. You have a Revolutionary Guard that has been decapitated. You have people in both those leaderships that have been basically together for the last 30 years. They’re not so easy to replace. You have a leadership that doesn’t know who it can trust. You have a leadership that is completely in hiding.” 

Even if Iran’s nuclear weapons program was set back several years, that is not the same thing as obliterating its ability to create a nuclear weapon, as Trump claimed. Vice President JD Vance repeated that statement several times in a Monday night interview on Fox News, where he discussed the newly announced ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran and asserted that Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated.” 

But fully dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons program might not even be a realistic goal.

“We know that no military operation on its own will completely eliminate the Iranian nuclear program,” Dana Stroul, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who oversaw Middle East policy at the Pentagon in the Biden administration, said earlier Monday.

During the war, Israeli officials hinted that they want to see regime change in Iran. Yet by announcing the ceasefire on Monday night, the Trump administration underscored that the goal of its military operation was to set back Iran’s nuclear program, and not target Iran’s leadership. 

“Absent a revolution in Iran that brings in a friendlier regime, where you could verify the moth-balling of [nuclear] sites and this dismantlement of the program, I don’t think you could ever say for certain that the program is over,” Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Jewish Insider on Monday. 

Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday evening that, once the fighting ceases, “the War will be considered, ENDED,” and that both sides “will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL.” He did not share whether either side had to abide by any particular demands, or whether the agreement would mark a return to the negotiating table. 

House and Senate Democrats are pushing ahead with efforts to bring forward votes this week in both chambers on resolutions that aim to constrain the administration from taking any further military action against Iran in spite of President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Trump’s diplomatic breakthrough is creating some political awkwardness for Democrats who had insisted the president would escalate the war, but many are still likely to support the resolutions, which reflect their dissatisfaction with the president’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities without congressional authorization. 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the lead sponsor of one war powers resolution in the House, said he no longer plans to force a vote on it, explaining, “if we’re not engaged in hostilities, I think it’s a moot point.” He said he had told House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that he would not attempt to bring the resolution to the floor.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Massie’s lead co-sponsor, said, “The anti-war advocacy of the left and right broke through. I am glad cooler heads prevailed and Trump seems committed to stopping this war. I spoke with Rep. Massie this evening and we are taking a wait and see approach about whether a vote will be needed now on our War Powers Resolution.”

But a group of senior House Democrats introduced a separate resolution on Monday evening, which they are expected to continue to advance.

The U.S. strike, Massie’s resolution and broader questions about the situation in Iran have been causing heartburn for many House Democrats, particularly supporters of Israel, Democratic staff sources told Jewish Insider earlier Tuesday.

Democratic staffers not authorized to speak publicly explained that, behind the scenes, the largely unified public Democratic opposition to the strikes has been driven by several factors, including the perceived lack of political support for the strikes, concerns about an escalating war and frustration with the Trump administration.

“I think a lot of members support the strike privately but see this as a politically vulnerable issue for [Trump],” one Democratic staffer said.

Another staffer said that Democrats are afraid of echoes of the Iraq war: If the U.S. ends up in a full-scale, protracted, politically unpopular war with Iran, they don’t want to be on record as having supported it.

And, the staffer said, there’s a deep level of distrust for the Trump administration, which acted largely unilaterally in the strikes, did not make efforts to keep congressional leaders informed about the strikes and hasn’t yet presented any evidence to Congress of the need for the strikes or their success.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who worked with other top Democrats on an alternative war powers resolution, said the resolution effort should continue “if United States forces remain engaged.”

Himes, along with Reps. Greg Meeks (D-NY) and Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrats on the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, introduced their own war powers resolution Monday evening, after the ceasefire was announced.

Whether that resolution will come to the floor remains an open question. The House speaker was reportedly working on a procedural plan that would strip the Massie resolution of its privileged status, sidestepping a vote on the House floor, and could potentially use the same tactic to defuse the new Democratic resolution.

On the Senate side, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said he also plans to push forward with his efforts, and said that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is working with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to facilitate a vote.

“Whether or not a ceasefire between Israel and Iran comes to fruition — and I hope it does — I will move forward to force a vote on my resolution to require Congress to debate and vote on whether or not the United States should engage in a war with Iran,” Kaine said in a statement to JI. “Americans don’t want matters of war and peace, bombing and ceasefire, to rest upon the daily whims of any one person.” 

“That’s why the Framers of our Constitution decided that war should only be declared following a public debate and congressional vote,” Kaine continued. “Congress must affirm its commitment to that principle and send a clear message: no more endless wars.”

Other Democrats agreed that a war powers resolution should still receive a vote in spite of the ceasefire.

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told JI, “At the end of the day, I think that a war powers resolution makes good sense to vote on and for Congress to finally reassert what is in black-and-white letters in the Constitution, which is that only Congress and the consent of the American people can start a war.”

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a former Army intelligence officer, argued that the uncertainty of the situation necessitated that Congress step in.

“It’s a very volatile situation, which, to me, makes it even more urgent that we make clear and reassert what the Constitution of the United States says, which is that it is the Congress that has the authority to declare war or authorize the use of [force],” Ryan told JI.

He added that it “should be concerning to every American that multiple days after doing — not even a preemptive strike — a preventive strike, there’s still no legal justification, there’s still no clarity about the effectiveness.”

A memo sent by Trump to the Senate cited presidential foreign relations authorities enshrined in the U.S. constitution as the legal backing for the strike.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), among the few House Democrats who supported the strikes, told JI that he wants to see Congress reclaim its power but that the administration also has the ability to take defensive action without consulting Congress. He said that the war powers resolution push is likely no longer relevant if the ceasefire continues.

“Based on the ceasefire that was announced, it if holds, it appears that the issue in this current climate is moot, but overall, still important,” Moskowitz said. “[The war powers resolution] is no longer relevant to this particular purpose. It would be more of a general ‘us reasserting our authority as Congress.’”

Kaine told reporters earlier in the day that his resolution in the Senate would come up for a vote on Thursday or Friday.

Kaine said that the vote was “fluid” but he expected to see Republican support, and that he expected nearly all Democrats, with the exception of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), to support it.

“I think the fluidity and change is something that I think warrants — this is why you get a congressional discussion, because these things can escalate,” Kaine said. “They can move in ways that are hard to predict, and that’s why a discussion and a vote is a good idea.”

He said that, “my colleagues on the Democratic side, regardless of whatever they feel about Iran, [believe] wars without Congress, wars that bypass us, are a bad idea.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) confirmed he planned to support the resolution as well, arguing that the Constitution is clear that war powers are vested in Congress and that his position on the issue has been consistent across administrations.

“There have always been people who argue the president can do whatever he wants,” Paul said. “The problem is, that’s a recipe for chronic intervention. It’s a recipe for endless war.”

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a pro-Israel Democrat, also said he supported the resolution.

Ahead of the ceasefire, some specific concerns with the wording of the Massie resolution had split Democrats, one Democratic staffer said. That prompted the separate resolution from Meeks, Himes and Smith. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) claimed at a press conference on Monday that he hadn’t reviewed the Massie resolution yet, indicating that he would not be supporting it. 

A Democratic staffer explained that there were fairly widespread concerns that Massie’s resolution could block the U.S. from continuing to support Israel’s defense.

The Democrat-led resolution includes a specific exception allowing the U.S. to defend itself or any ally or partner from “imminent attack,” whereas Massie’s resolution only allowed for continued defense of the United States and intelligence sharing with allies. The Democrats leading the resolution emphasized in a statement that it would allow U.S. forces defending Israel to continue their activities.

“What we’re trying to get clarity on is to ensure that there’s no ambiguity or doubt about our ability to fully support the defense of Israel and the Israeli people, that we can continue … intelligence sharing and information sharing, cyber,” Ryan said earlier, of the Massie resolution. “There are key dimensions where we have to continue to be very closely aligned.”

“My concern is less about the language of the resolution and more about who introduced it, frankly,” Ryan continued. Massie has a history of comments that colleagues on both sides of the aisle have condemned as antisemitic.

Jeffries, at his press conference, largely focused on the fact that the Trump administration had failed to inform Congress about the strikes in the normal manner and had still not provided a proper justification for the strikes or accounted for Iran’s nuclear material.

He also argued that the administration’s claims to have destroyed Iran’s nuclear program completely couldn’t be trusted.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a former House majority leader and perhaps the most prominent Democratic supporter of the strikes, told JI that his support for the strikes was consistent with unilateral action taken by administrations dating back to President Bill Clinton. 

He added that it would be “hypocritical” not to support the strikes now, when administrations have said for decades that they will not permit a nuclear Iran, and said that the recent International Atomic Energy Agency report showed that Iran was “too close” to a nuclear weapon and “stopping them was the right thing to do.”

Hoyer also noted that Congress moves more slowly than the executive branch and that a slow public debate over a potential strike in Congress over strikes would have “incentivized [Iran] to move ahead as quickly as possible.”

He said that as a general matter, however, he believes that it is important for Congress to be able to put a check on the administration’s ability to go to war, though he said that the decision to strike Iran was a long time coming.

Fetterman, the only Senate Democrat who has announced he plans to oppose the war powers resolution, blasted some colleagues who have called the strikes unconstitutional. He said he would have opposed the Kaine resolution before the strikes.

He noted that previous Democratic administrations had conducted similar “one-off” strikes and argued that congressional approval would only be needed if the U.S. was going to start a broader, protracted war.

Fetterman also blasted Democrats for joining Massie’s effort calling him, “that weirdo from Kentucky.”

Among Republicans, Massie’s resolution may have seen some additional support from a handful of isolationist Republicans, but likely not many. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the Republican who, alongside Massie, has been most outspoken against the U.S. strike, told Punchbowl News she would not support the effort.

But she also said she wanted to push to cut off U.S. aid to Israel, and has previously condemned Israel’s military action against Iran. 

Republicans are publicly lauding President Donald Trump’s ceasefire between Israel and Iran as an example of his “peace through strength” approach to foreign policy.

Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a “complete and total ceasefire” that will bring an end to the war. “This is a war that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform, alluding to criticism that he was dragging the U.S. into another prolonged Middle East conflict. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters on Monday evening that the news of a ceasefire was “incredible,” saying, “This is what peace through strength looks like.”

“This is what real leadership yields, and we’re certainly grateful for the decisive leadership of President Trump,” Johnson said, adding that he would expect “that Iran will bring an end to their nuclear enrichment program and that there will be a lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Jewish Insider that he’s “very much pleased” by the news. 

Pressed on whether he’s concerned that the deal could give Iran breathing room to rebuild its nuclear program, Kennedy said, “There’s this rule when you practice law, when you’ve won for the judge, you shut up. OK? You don’t keep talking. It’s a ceasefire. We won. We ought to take our victory.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he viewed the ceasefire as a “very good development.”

“I think the question now is how do we get to a place where we can get to a deterrence posture, a containment posture for Iran for the long haul, that will keep them in their box, keep Iran in their box, but will also allow us, the United States, to draw down our troop and military presence in the region,” Hawley told reporters. 

Asked about his initial concerns about the potential consequences of an offensive strike on Iran’s nuclear program, Hawley replied, “If he can get a ceasefire out of it, listen, I support the president and want him to succeed, so this is good progress.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) praised the president for having the discipline to execute the mission of degrading Iran’s nuclear program without pulling the U.S. into a broader war.

“There are a lot of voices out there, here in permanent Washington, that wanted more engagement [in the conflict]. And President Trump, I think he had that restraint and that instinct to do what needed to be done to bring about peace,” Schmitt said during a Fox News appearance.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) wrote on X that the president “accomplished peace through strength” with the announcement of a deal. “If this ceasefire is upheld by both Iran and Israel, it will bring a successful conclusion to this 12 Day War and a major victory for President Trump. This demonstrates how critical it is to have a state of the art and well-funded military, as well as a President who recognizes the art of the deal,” Rounds wrote. 

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) wrote in a lengthy thread on X that, “President Trump has long understood that the American people never supported ‘forever wars’ with unclear goals and no clear metrics for success. But at the same time, President Trump understands that when it comes to setting a red line, he will actually follow through and enforce it, sending a clear message that our enemies in Beijing and elsewhere should heed.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) praised Trump for carrying out this weekend’s operation without embroiling the U.S. in a deeper conflict. 

“President Trump has always been clear: the era of Forever Wars abroad is over. He was able to DECIMATE the Iranian nuclear program without boots on the ground, any dead Americans or a new regime change war. He’s 100% right that it’s time to push for peace,” Moreno posted on X.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) described the deal as “historic” and hailed Trump as “The President of Peace!”

“President Trump’s restoring peace through strength. It’s good for America and for the world. Let’s continue to pray for the president, our service members and for a lasting peace,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) wrote on X. 

“Our great nation and the world is a better and safer place because of President Trump’s bold leadership. … He took decisive action to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program to bring peace,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a member of House leadership, said in a statement. “President Trump told our allies and adversaries we would always put America First and achieve peace through strength.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), one of the few congressional Democrats who supported the strikes, suggested that the ceasefire puts to rest fears that many had expressed about a protracted war in the Middle East.

“Now there’s a ceasefire … so the fear of an un-ending war apparently is not there, in part I think because Iran thinks we’re serious,” Hoyer continued. “I’ve always hoped that we were prepared to follow up on our rhetoric that [a nuclear Iran] was an unacceptable alternative, which I think Trump has done.”

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a co-chair of the House Jewish Caucus, said on X that he hoped “this announced ceasefire truly brings an end to the war. A diplomatic path to reversing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and permanently dismantling Iran’s nuclear development programs is preferable to war.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the other Jewish Caucus co-chair, said he welcomed “the news of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. The violence has cost too many innocent lives and inflicted too much destruction on innocent civilians” and that he hoped the deal would put the region on a path to a durable peace.

Other national security-focused House Democrats highlighted the risks of Trump’s actions if they did not successfully eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.

“If you take this shot, you have to land it, and it’s a very hard shot to land,” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) told JI when news of the ceasefire emerged, arguing that the situation highlighted the need for Congress to assert a role in war-making authorities.

“Taking the shot and not landing it is incredibly dangerous and risky because now the risk to break out — there’s no reason for them to hold back, whereas before we at least had some sense that there was an effective deterrent,” Ryan continued. “They have every reason to race to break out now.”

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, emphasized that the success of the strikes is very uncertain at this point, and that he would be “most worried about an Iran that goes silent right now.”

“If Iran goes silent right now, what are they doing? Are they actually developing something?

Dana Stroul, the research director for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, told JI that declaring a ceasefire before the full impact of U.S. strikes over the weekend had been determined could be risky.

“The major risk of declaring the ceasefire now without verifying the damage to Iranian capabilities is that it leaves intact enough of the program or the stockpile of enriched uranium — secure within Iran — providing the regime a path to rebuild at some point in the future,” Stroul said.

“After staking U.S. credibility on eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, hopefully President Trump can explain to the international community and Israel that a ceasefire at this time opens the door to urgent diplomacy that ends Iran’s threats and sets the region on a more stable trajectory,” Stroul continued. “What we don’t know right now is what kind of regime we face on the other side of Israeli and American military strikes. Is the regime ready to make the necessary concessions?”

Trump’s announcement of a deal came hours after Iran’s missile attack on U.S. bases in Qatar and Iraq. Despite their later praise for the ceasefire, the Iranian attack initially prompted some Republicans to call for an aggressive American response, while others in the party argued that they should be viewed as a sign of Tehran’s willingness to avoid escalating the conflict. 

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was of the view that the attack was a sign of the regime’s understanding of its weaknesses.

“My view, based on totally open source news, is that this was a face-saving move on the part of the Iranian regime. They felt they had to retaliate as a matter of honor, but they wanted to make sure the response was not escalatory,” Wicker told JI. 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said he saw Iran’s response as an admission from the regime that it lacks the military capacity to be able to escalate the conflict. The Pennsylvania senator noted that he has been saying since last year that “Iran can’t fight for s***” while dismissing claims that the regime had the capacity to create broader, long-term conflict against the West.

“If you can’t defend your own airspace, you don’t have anything left. … Israeli air supremacy is everything, but they [Iran] can’t defend their own airspace. They can’t defend anything, and so they definitely can’t project s***,” Fetterman told JI in an interview on Monday. 

“Right now, it’s not an escalation. … I don’t see it like that. I think it was a different shade of a white flag. I’m not surprised by this. In fact, I honestly expected they would do something. You know, they have to do some things for their domestic audience,” he continued.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued that the attack served as evidence of the regime’s weakened state following the U.S. and Israel’s military operations.

“This weekend, President Trump took decisive action to fully disable the regime’s main nuclear facilities. The regime is weak, flailing, and lashing out dangerously. If harm comes to an American as a result of their continued violence, I have full confidence that President Trump will again respond decisively,” Cruz said in a statement.

When Fox News anchor Bret Baier scored a primetime interview with Vice President J.D. Vance for Monday evening, he likely hoped that Vance would have news to share with him. Instead, Baier was the one to break the news to Vance that President Donald Trump had brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, which Trump announced in a post on Truth Social moments before Vance went on air. 

“That’s good news that the president was able to get that across the finish line,” Vance told Baier, noting that he was aware those conversations were happening as he left the White House to head to the Fox News studio.  

“I knew that he was working the phones as I was on the way over here, so I knew exactly what we were going to do,” Vance said on “Special Report,” after acknowledging that the statement Trump posted on Truth Social was different from a draft that Vance had viewed hours earlier. 

“And look, I love that about this presidency and this administration, because he’s always working. He doesn’t say, you know, ‘The vice president’s going to do an interview, so I’m going to stop doing anything.’ He says, you know, ‘We’re going to do the American people’s business.’” 

Trump said on Monday night that Israel and Iran had agreed to bring what he called the “12 day war” to an end, with the promise that both sides “will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL.” He did not say if there would be any binding promises on either side. 

Before Iran fired missiles at an American military base in Qatar on Monday, Iran telegraphed to the U.S. that it planned to attack in a symbolic measure. That message was delivered through an intermediary, but Vance said the U.S. would welcome direct dialogue with Iran “about how we move this thing forward.” 

Vance has advocated for a more restrained approach to U.S. intervention abroad, including with respect to Iran. But on Fox News, he telegraphed his support for Trump’s actions, which he said “obliterated the Iranian nuclear program.” 

“The president has been very clear, and I’ve always agreed with the president, that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” said Vance. “You try to run the diplomatic process as much as you possibly can. When the president decided that wasn’t going to work, he took the action that he had to take. Now we’re in a new phase. That action was successful.”

Vance deflected when asked if he knew where all of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was located, amid reports that the Iranians had removed a large quantity of uranium enriched to 60% from the underground Fordow site ahead of the U.S. strikes on the compound this weekend.

“I think that’s actually not the question before us. The question before us is, Can Iran enrich the uranium to a weapons-grade level, and can they convert that fuel to a nuclear weapon?” Vance responded. “We know that they cannot build a nuclear weapon.”

He reiterated that the U.S. “destroyed” their “ability to enrich uranium,” calling it a “mission success” in Trump’s goal to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Vance warned that the U.S. military stands in the way of Iran following through on its goal of building a nuclear weapon.

“If Iran is desperate to build a nuclear weapon in the future, then they’re going to have to deal with a very, very powerful American military,” said Vance.

Vance said that the U.S. military’s mission is not regime change, and that Trump’s Sunday post expressing support for regime change was a message to the Iranian people to make a choice about it, which is “between the Iranian people and the regime.” 

“What the president is saying very clearly, Bret, is, if the Iranian people want to do something about their own leadership, that’s up to the Iranian people. What the American national security interest is here is very simple: It’s to destroy the nuclear program. That’s what we’ve done, and now that the 12-day war appears to be effectively over, we have an opportunity, I think, to restart a real peace process,” said Vance.

As Iran targeted Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the U.S. airstrikes against the Iranian nuclear program, Tucker Carlson claimed on his podcast that the air base exists to protect Israel.

“That base exists to protect Israel, by the way. I know we’re constantly, Bari Weiss is constantly attacking Qatar,” the conservative commentator said, referring to the founder and editor of The Free Press. “Qatar has done more to protect Israel. But anyway, hosting this base that they don’t need at all, it’s the richest country in the world. They’re doing it to be nice.”

According to a joint statement issued by the U.S. and Qatar in 2020, Al Udeid base supports joint operations aimed at maritime security and other regional security concerns. 

As U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters, Al Udeid has also played a critical role in nearly every U.S. operation within the Middle East and North Africa since 2009. These operations include the 2021 Afghanistan pullout, combat missions countering the Islamic State, and air missions within Iraq.

President Donald Trump recently visited the base during his tour through the Middle East and spoke to American personnel stationed there. During the speech he mentioned several new arms sales to Qatar and praised the base. “Qatar will also be investing $10 billion to support this massive base in the coming years,” Trump said. “There is no place like it, they say.”

Iran launched several missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Monday. Majed Al Ansari, spokesperson for the ministry, affirmed that “Qatar’s air defenses successfully thwarted the attack and intercepted the Iranian missiles.” 

Qatar “consider[s] this a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar, its airspace, international law, and the United Nations Charter. We affirm that Qatar reserves the right to respond directly in a manner equivalent with the nature and scale of this brazen aggression, in line with international law,” Al Ansari said.

The Ain al-Assad base housing U.S. troops in Iraq was also targeted, an Iraqi security official told the Associated Press.

Three Iranian officials familiar with the plans told The New York Times that Iran gave advance notice to Qatar that attacks were coming.

Qatari authorities had previously grounded all air traffic and the U.S. Embassy in Doha had issued a warning to Americans in the country to shelter in place in anticipation of an Iranian retaliation to U.S. strikes on its nuclear program.

“As part of the State of Qatar’s commitment to the safety of its citizens, residents, and visitors, the competent authorities announce the temporary suspension of air traffic in the country’s airspace,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a written statement. “This is part of a set of precautionary measures taken based on developments in the region.”

Al Udeid Air Base, one of the targets of Iran’s strike, serves as U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters and hosts over 10,000 American personnel. The U.S. evacuated its aircraft from the base in the week prior to the strikes on Iran.

A Reuters report on Sunday quoted a senior U.S. official saying that Iran would likely attempt to strike U.S. assets in the region within one or two days.

According to a White House official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were monitoring developments from the Situation Room. President Donald Trump was scheduled to receive a briefing at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Georgetown University administration said it was “appalled” after a prominent faculty member called for Iran to conduct a “symbolic strike” on a U.S. military base in a social media post on Sunday.  

“We are reviewing this matter to see if further action is warranted,” a spokesperson for the university told Jewish Insider on Monday, noting that the administration is “appalled” by the since-deleted tweet by Jonathan Brown, a tenured professor and chair of the university’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Alwaleed bin Talal chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service, who has a history of spreading anti-Israel vitriol.  

On Sunday, one day after the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, Brown tweeted: “I’m not an expert, but I assume Iran could still get a bomb easily. I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on a base, then everyone stops.” 

Brown, who is the son-in-law of convicted terror supporter Sami Al-Arian and has gone on several X tirades since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks slamming Israel — including calling the country “insanely racist”  — deleted his tweet on Monday, claiming that it was misinterpreted. 

“I deleted my previous tweet because a lot of people were interpreting it as a call for violence,” Brown wrote. “That’s not what I intended. I have two immediate family members in the US military who’ve served abroad and wouldn’t want any harm to befall American soldiers… or anyone!” 

The condemnation of Brown’s post comes as the House Education and Workforce Committee has called on Georgetown’s interim president, Robert Groves, to testify on July 9 about its handling of campus antisemitism. The funding Georgetown has received from Qatar, in connection with its Qatar campus, has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of Oct. 7. 

At a time when some elite universities are acquiescing to the Trump administration’s demands to crack down on antisemitic activity on campus, Georgetown has pushed back. In March, for example, the administration issued statements supportive of Badar Khan Suri, a university professor and postdoctoral scholar who was detained by federal authorities. 

Despite President Donald Trump posting on Truth Social on Sunday suggesting that he sought regime change in Iran, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed his remarks when speaking to reporters on Monday morning.

“The president was just raising a question that I think many around the world are asking,” Leavitt said. “If the Iranian regime refuses to give up their nuclear program or engage in talks, we just took out their nuclear program on Saturday night, as you all know. But if they refuse to engage in diplomacy moving forward, why shouldn’t the Iranian people rise up against this brutal terrorist regime? That’s the question the President raised last night.”

Trump posted earlier, “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change?”

His comments were at odds with other senior administration officials who have insisted that the U.S. strikes were solely intended to disable the Iranian nuclear program and that Trump still remained focused on securing a diplomatic solution. 

“We do not want regime change,” Vice President JD Vance said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “We do not want to protract this or build this out anymore than it’s already been built out. We want to end their nuclear program and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here.”

Leavitt insisted to reporters that the U.S. was successful in completely destroying the Iranian nuclear program, despite signs that the fortified nuclear site of Fordow was severely damaged, but not completely destroyed. In the days prior to the strike, satellite imagery also showed trucks stationed at Fordow, leading some analysts to speculate that Iran evacuated some of its uranium stockpile.

Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Capitol Hill is responding to the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend and report on this morning’s Israeli strikes on Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. We talk to nuclear proliferation experts about Iran’s lesser-known underground nuclear site, Pickaxe Mountain, which is deeper than Fordow, and cover the Supreme Court ruling allowing American families of victims of Palestinian terror to sue the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rahm Emanuel, Barbra Streisand and Keith Siegel.

What We’re Watching

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

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

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

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

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

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

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

IRAN-ISRAEL WAR, DAY 11

IAF bombs Evin Prison as Iranian missile barrage damages ‘strategic infrastructure’ in southern Israel

Israel on Monday bombed the gates of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison and conducted follow-up strikes near the Fordow nuclear facility a day after it was bombed by the U.S., Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Evin has been a symbol of the regime’s oppression for decades. The Tehran prison is where the regime has incarcerated activists, protesters, journalists, dual nationals and others, and used torture methods including beatings, solitary confinement and sexual abuse. Iran expert Ben Sabti told JI last week that Iranians have called on Israel to strike prisons so that dissident leaders held inside could escape and push for the toppling of the regime. 

Additional targets: The strike on the prison was one of several by Israeli fighter jets, targeting “bodies of government oppression in the heart of Tehran,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday morning. The military struck the headquarters of the Basij, the regime’s internal enforcement arm, which has been instrumental in enforcing Islamic law and suppressing protest, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ internal security command center, the Alborz Corps, responsible for security and regime stability in the Tehran district, and a clock in the city’s Palestine Square counting down to Israel’s destruction by 2040.

Read the full story here.

Crystal ball: Iran is unlikely to initiate attacks against the U.S. after the American strike on Islamic Republic nuclear sites, but it will continue to launch missiles at Israel, experts told JI on Sunday.

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PROGRESS REPORT

U.S. did ‘extremely severe damage’ to Iranian nuclear sites, but extent of destruction unknown

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday that the U.S. operation in Iran overnight had hit all of its planned targets and that initial assessments showed that the strikes had inflicted extensive damage on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But Caine said that a full assessment of whether the Iranian nuclear program had been fully destroyed would take more time, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Unknown details: “Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said. Pressed on whether Iran retains any nuclear capability, Caine said that a full assessment “is still pending, and it would be way too early for me to comment on what may be there.” Secretary of Defense Hegseth added that the U.S. believes it “achieved the destruction of capabilities” at the Fordow nuclear facility, which he described as the “primary target.”

Read the full story here.

Vance’s view: Vice President JD Vance emphasized that the United States is “not at war with Iran” but instead “at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday.

MAGA’s mood: The Washington Post looks at how supporters of President Donald Trump are viewing the weekend strikes.

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DEMOCRATIC DEBATE

Jeffries, Schumer criticize Trump for striking Iranian nuclear facilities without congressional authorization

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized President Donald Trump for carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities without congressional authorization, a voice of opposition that was echoed by many leading Democrats on Capitol Hill, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

In opposition: Jeffries said in a statement less than two hours after Trump announced the strikes that Trump “misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East.” Schumer, in a similarly critical statement, said that “no president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy” and said he would be urging all lawmakers to support war powers legislation to block further military action against Iran, and called for an immediate vote.

Read the full story here.

Steny signs off: Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a former House majority leader, backed the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

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HEARD OF PICKAXE?

Pickaxe Mountain: Iran’s lesser-known underground nuclear facility

Among the Iranian nuclear facilities the U.S. reportedly targeted in the Sunday morning attack was the Pickaxe Mountain Facility. Iran has not acknowledged the site’s development or construction and it has retained a lower public profile, with the Institute for Science and International Security first discovering its existence in 2023. The facility, just south of the Natanz nuclear facility and buried roughly 330 feet below the mountain itself, was particularly concerning to experts due to its depth, which is between 30 to 70 feet deeper than Fordow. This is said to exceed the striking depth of the most powerful bunker-busting weapons in the U.S. arsenal, Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports.

Another space: Recent Iranian announcements stating the government planned to open a new facility heightened fears that Iran could take the site online in the near future, according to Andrea Stricker, the deputy director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “There’s concern that Iran was creating the floor space for another secret enrichment facility,” Stricker told JI. “And so when the [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors passed a resolution finding Iran in noncompliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty a couple of weeks ago, the Iranians threatened to build another or to open another enrichment facility, and people immediately feared that this would be the site of it.”

Read the full story here.

Containment: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday dismissed claims that President Donald Trump’s decision to help Israel take out Iran’s nuclear program would lead to a wider war requiring U.S. troops, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Graham made the comments after being asked about the military implications of the strikes during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The South Carolina senator told anchor Kristen Welker that while he does not see U.S. servicemembers being sent to Iran, he believed Israel would target the regime itself.

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MIDEAST MANEUVERS

Arab states concerned about spillover from Israel-Iran war, but recognize Iranian threat, lawmakers say

Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Don Bacon (R-NE) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), who traveled to the Middle East last week on a trip sponsored by the Atlantic Council’s N7 Initiative and the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Friday that Arab leaders expressed to them concern about a potential broadening of the conflict between Israel and Iran, even as they acknowledged the threat posed by Iran and its nuclear program.

Reporting back: “We heard quite a bit about their concerns with respect to a nuclear-armed Iran that would be an existential threat to every one of those countries,” Schneider said, “but also a desire to de-escalate what’s happening because they rightly see [that] every day the war goes on is another day for an unintended consequence or an inadvertent escalation that could directly involve any of the Gulf countries.” Schneider noted that the countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, have publicly strongly condemned Israel’s attacks but he said that the lawmakers heard a more nuanced message and stronger opposition to Iran’s nuclear program in private. “While they’re not going to celebrate what Israel is doing, certainly they are not going to cry over Israel’s success in handling Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.

Read the full story here.

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CASE CLOSED

Supreme Court rules unanimously to allow terror victims to sue Palestinian Authority

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the victims of Palestinian terrorist groups on Friday in a case regarding the constitutionality of a U.S. law allowing lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization in American courts over payments to terrorists and their families through the “pay-for-slay” program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Long battle: The Supreme Court victory in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization is a hard-fought win for the families, and comes following a decades-long series of efforts by American terror victims and their families to sue the Palestinian groups. Previously, the 2nd Circuit had repeatedly ruled that legislation passed by Congress to assert U.S. jurisdiction over the PLO and PA, designed to allow victims to sue the groups, was unconstitutional.

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

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

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

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

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

Word on the Street

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pic of the Day

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

Birthdays

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

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

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

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

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

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

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who earlier this month recorded a video taunting Trump for “folding” against Iran, criticized the president for carrying out the strikes without congressional authority. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), one of the strongest pro-Israel stalwarts in the Democratic Party, likewise withheld support for striking Iran’s nuclear facilities while also reiterating her view that Iran should never be able to obtain a nuclear weapon. Like Schumer, she called on more congressional involvement.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), another strong pro-Israel ally running as the moderate Democrat in a Michigan Senate primary, sounded wary about the U.S. decision to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities. “The last thing our country needs is to be involved in another foreign war,” she said, echoing rhetoric from more progressive voices in the party.

To be sure, there have been a handful of Democrats sounding like the pro-Israel lawmakers that once dominated the party. Just look at the comments from Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ),  Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL),  Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), all of whom described the all-too-urgent threat that a nuclear Iran posed to Israel and the world.

As one pro-Israel Democrat put it to JI: There were notably more Democrats putting out statements cheering anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil being released from immigration detention than those expressing solidarity with Israel in its time of great need.

The debate over dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions has been a fraught one within the Democratic Party, ever since former President Barack Obama cut a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 that many pro-Israel leaders found too accommodating towards the Islamic Republic. There were very messy internal divisions in the party back then as well.

But with public support for Israel among Democratic voters waning, according to recent polling, it looks like it’s getting harder for even sympathetic Democrats to vocally support the position, as Landsman did, that preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is a step towards peace. It’s possible to quibble with the administration’s lack of legislative outreach while also acknowledging the positive end result.

On national security, this is becoming a moment of truth for the Democratic Party at large, which is trying to moderate its record to win back power in Washington, but still is beholden to its activist base. The fact that Zohran Mamdani, a radical anti-Israel candidate defending the slogan “globalize the intifada” is running as competitively as he is in tomorrow’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary, is a sign of where the party could be headed without more mainstream leaders speaking out.

Israel on Monday bombed the gates of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, where the regime holds and tortures dissidents, and conducted follow-up strikes near the Fordow nuclear facility a day after it was bombed by the U.S.

Evin has been a symbol of the regime’s oppression for decades. The Tehran prison is where the regime has incarcerated activists, protesters, journalists, dual nationals and others, and used torture methods including beatings, solitary confinement and sexual abuse. Iran expert Ben Sabti told Jewish Insider last week that Iranians have called on Israel to strike prisons so that dissident leaders held inside could escape and push for the toppling of the regime. 

The strike on the prison was one of several by Israeli fighter jets, targeting “bodies of government oppression in the heart of Tehran,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday morning. The military struck the headquarters of the Basij, the regime’s internal enforcement arm, which has been instrumental in enforcing Islamic law and suppressing protest; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ internal security command center; the Alborz Corps, responsible for security and regime stability in the Tehran district; and a clock in the city’s Palestine Square counting down to Israel’s destruction by 2040.

“These command centers have significant military effect and additionally they impact the regime’s ability to impose control. Striking these military targets harms the Iranian regime’s military capabilities,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office stated.

Israel also conducted follow-up strikes on the access routes to the Fordow nuclear facility on Monday, the IDF confirmed. The strikes came a day after the U.S. struck the complex, which is under a mountain, with bunker-buster bombs.

The full extent of the damage done to the site, as well as facilities in Natanz and Isfahan, remained unclear after the strike by U.S. bombers early Sunday morning.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. did “monumental” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities – “Obliteration is an accurate term!” he wrote on his Truth Social site — amid reports that the sites had been severely damaged but not destroyed. 

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday that “to the best of my knowledge,” the U.S. strikes “succeeded in fully stopping the Iranian nuclear project, certainly at this point.” 

International Atomic Energy Agency Secretary-General Rafael Grossi said that the bombing likely caused “very significant damage” to Fordow but that “no one — including the IAEA — is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage.” 

An Israeli government source told JI that the full extent of the damage was still being assessed as of Monday morning, but that Natanz and most of Iran’s estimated 400 kg of highly enriched uranium held at Isfahan were destroyed, and little of the uranium was moved to other locations before the strike. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel was very close to reaching the main goal of its operation in Iran: rolling back the nuclear and ballistic missile threats to Israel.

“When we reach our goals in Iran, the war will end,” he said in a press conference on Sunday. “We will not be dragged into a war of attrition.”

An Israeli official told Ynet that “if Khamenei stops shooting and says he wants to end the event, we will accept it … We want to end the event soon, this week, but whether it happens depends on Khamenei. If he shoots nonstop, we will have to respond.” 

The IDF told JI on Monday that about 50% of Iran’s missile launchers have been destroyed.

Yossi Mansharov, an Iran expert at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, explained that it’s more important “to focus on the launchers that Iran retains, because without launchers, the missiles are useless.”

“This is a historic achievement for Israel, which will require Iran to check its defenses after the war,” Mansharov added. “The regime was caught unprepared for a war when it comes to defense and that has been very costly, as you can see from Israel’s extraordinary achievements.”

Still, Mansharov added, “Israel will also have to do an extensive examination to understand how it can improve its interceptions of deadly missiles.” (The writer is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute.)

Iran hit an electrical facility in southern Israel with a ballistic missile on Monday morning. The Israel Electric Corporation said a “strategic infrastructure facility” was damaged near the city of Ashdod, causing power outages. 

The Islamic Republic launched some seven missiles on Monday morning, in four separate barrages, sending Israelis across the country into bomb shelters for over half an hour. Iran also shot one missile into Israel overnight, which was intercepted. No injuries were reported. 

As of Monday, Iran had shot about 500 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel since the start of Operation Rising Lion this month, according to the Israeli government. 

The IDF continued its strikes on Iran overnight and on Monday morning, including on missile launchers in Kermanshah and Tehran, fighter jets and six military airports in western, eastern and central Iran, and the Parchin military base, where experiments related to nuclear weapons have been conducted.

IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing on Monday that the Israeli strikes are conducted “with an emphasis on the [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps command centers and all elements of the threat to Israel … Every base from which we identify [missile] launches is attacked and damaged.”

Iranian media reported that the Islamic Republic shot down an Israeli drone.

Trump spoke out in favor of changing the regime in Iran, even as senior officials in Washington and Israel have said that is not one of the goals of the operation.

“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???MIGA!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

Netanyahu would not rule out killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei when asked about it last week, and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei should remember “the fate of the dictator of the neighboring country,” Saddam Hussein.

Iran continued to threaten revenge on the U.S. for its recent strikes. A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned in a video in English that “Mr. Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it … The fighters of Islam will respond to the crime with powerful and targeted attacks that will lead to unexpected consequences.” 

Three House members who traveled to the Middle East last week told Jewish Insider on Friday that Arab leaders expressed to them concern about a potential broadening of the conflict between Israel and Iran, even as they acknowledged the threat posed by Iran and its nuclear program.

The trip, sponsored by the Atlantic Council’s N7 Initiative and the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation, took Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Zach Nunn (R-IA) to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain immediately following Israel’s initial attacks on Iran. A stop in Israel was initially planned, but ultimately became infeasible due to the evolving war between Israel and Iran.

The initial goal of the trip was to discuss the Abraham Accords and their potential expansion.

The lawmakers said that the Arab leaders they met with were concerned that the war between Iran and Israel would expand and escalate, and their countries would be caught in the crossfire — particularly the UAE and Bahrain, given the presence of American bases in their countries. The conversations took place before the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday night.

“We heard quite a bit about their concerns with respect to a nuclear-armed Iran that would be an existential threat to every one of those countries,” Schneider said, “but also a desire to deescalate what’s happening because they rightly see [that] every day the war goes on is another day for an unintended consequence or an inadvertent escalation that could directly involve any of the Gulf countries.”

Schneider noted that the countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, have publicly condemned Israel’s attacks, but he said that in private conversations, the lawmakers heard a more nuanced message and stronger opposition to Iran’s nuclear program.

“While they’re not going to celebrate what Israel is doing, certainly they are not going to cry over Israel’s success in handling Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.

Panetta said that the Arab leaders also clearly understood why Israel had taken the action that it had.

“The leadership of the countries we met with, they understand how disruptive, how much of a destabilizing force, the regime of Iran is to the region of the Middle East,” Panetta said, adding that the pushback they heard against the conflict was not as strong as he anticipated.

Bacon also said that the Emirati and Bahraini leaders were clear about the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, but preferred a diplomatic solution to the problem. 

Bacon said the Saudis “held their cards much more tightly.”

“They were much more worried about Israel initiating this and they focused more on Gaza than anything else,” Bacon said. “In the end, if you pushed them, they would acknowledge Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, but their public face was much more critical of Israel than the other countries.”

Panetta said Saudi leaders did not discuss whether they’d be willing to use their own forces to intercept attacks from Iran on Israel, as they did during Iran’s April 2024 attack on Israel.

Privately, Bacon said, Arab leaders were in “awe of what Israel’s been able to do” in its operations inside Iran and knew “that only Israel could pull something off like this.” Bacon said he also sensed relief from those countries that Israel was addressing the threat from Iran.

The lawmakers indicated that the normalization process between Saudi Arabia and Israel had been dealt setbacks by and since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. They said that the Saudis are demanding concrete progress toward a two-state solution before moving forward on normalization.

Schneider said that the Saudi deputy foreign minister indicated that “there has to be an irreversible path to a Palestinian state. It doesn’t have a timeline, it’s not saying a state tomorrow. I think there was recognition that that pathway and progress towards it must not be seen as a reward for Hamas and its actions on Oct. 7 and otherwise.”

“There needs to be hope and a pathway for the Palestinians for the Saudis to move forward,” Schneider continued.

Panetta noted that he had met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Oct. 6, 2023, and left with “great hope” for normalization, but that two subsequent meetings with Saudi leadership made clear that, “the Palestinian issue is definitely something that needs to be addressed prior to normalization.”

Bacon said he challenged Saudi leaders on the issue of who in the Palestinian Authority would be willing to live and coexist peacefully with Israel as the leaders of a Palestinian state, “and I didn’t hear a good answer back.”

Schneider said that there was “no love for Hamas in any of our conversations,” and that Arab leaders recognized the issues within the PA and the need for a true partner for peace with Israel.

Panetta argued that, if the Saudis want to see a two-state solution develop, “it’s incumbent upon them to be involved in these types of discussions. And what that entails is obviously something that’s going to continue to develop during the hopefully diplomatic negotiations that we must continue to have.”

Bacon added that his impression was that if Iran were “defeated significantly” by Israel, it would increase the opportunities in the longer term for the expansion of the Abraham Accords.

In spite of the regional tensions the war in Gaza has produced, the lawmakers said that Emirati and Bahraini leaders highlighted the benefits they have experienced from the Abraham Accords as they relate to Gaza, including regular access and communication to the senior levels of the Israeli government and, in the case of the UAE, easier access to provide aid to Gaza.

Bacon added that the leaders of those countries expressed “no weakening” of their commitments to the agreements, and instead focused on the benefits.

Schneider said that the Arab leaders are eager to pursue an economically prosperous future, and are focused on ensuring that Iran and other malign actors cannot disrupt that.

Bacon said that the group had hoped to continue on to Israel, the final stop on their original itinerary, by driving in from Jordan, but that plan was blocked by House Ethics Committee staff, who are responsible for oversight of privately sponsored congressional travel.

Panetta also noted that the State Department and Department of Defense did not support the prospect of the lawmakers traveling to Israel in the midst of the conflict.

Schneider said that there was “never any hesitation” from the group’s members about going forward with the trip, which left a day after Israel launched its attacks, before the scope and nature of Iran’s retaliation was clear.

“Over the course of the days, it became clear that Israel was vastly overperforming expectations and Iran was vastly underperforming expectations and so the dynamic changed every day, but what I can say is, we spent our last two days in UAE — life was normal,” Schneider said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday dismissed claims that President Donald Trump’s decision to help Israel take out Iran’s nuclear program would lead to a wider war requiring U.S. troops.

Graham made the comments after being asked about the military implications of the strikes during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The South Carolina senator told anchor Kristen Welker that while he does not see U.S. servicemembers being sent to Iran, he believed Israel would target the regime itself. 

“I don’t think I’ll see boots on the ground in our future, but I do see Israel not stopping. Israel’s not going to live this way anymore. They’re not going to be subject to missile attacks every day and every night, living in bunkers. They’re going to go after the heart of this regime. They’re going to take it down, one of two ways, make it change or replace it,” Graham said.

Asked to respond to critics who have argued that engaging militarily against Iran would lead to another conflict similar to the war in Iraq, Graham praised Trump’s decision to authorize the Iranian operation.

“It was necessary. It was bold. It was brilliant. Hats off to the president. In May of 2022, Iran had 95 pounds of highly enriched uranium to make a handful of bombs. By May of 2025, they had 900 pounds. Sixty percent enriched uranium has no commercial purpose. They have one peaceful reactor, actually, in Iran. They haven’t used one gram of their enrichment program to run that reactor. They get their fuel from Russia for civilian purposes. They had 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium to make more than a dozen bombs,” Graham said.

“This was the right call at the right time. It stopped their program from advancing even further. Iran with a nuclear weapon is an existential threat to the Sstate of Israel. The country is in the hands of religious Nazis. They want to kill all the Jews. And they’re coming after us. And they were set back. And to Steve Bannon and all those people, Iran is different. Nuclear weapons in the hands of the Ayatollah is a nightmare for the world,” he added.

Graham revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone call with him earlier Sunday morning that the Iranian attack on Soroka Hospital in Beersheba last week marked a turning point in the conflict. 

“If I were Israel, I would have done it a long time ago. They’ve been held back, in many ways. What would be the right response, if America had a ballistic missile fired into our country and killed our citizens? We would wipe the offender off the map,” Graham said.

“After the hospital attack – and they were so lucky not to lose a lot of people – Israel made a decision. This regime is going to change in one of two ways: they’re going to change their behavior, which I doubt, the regime itself, or the people are going to replace the regime. They have less capability today than they did yesterday, but they’re still religious Nazis,” he added.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a former House majority leader, backed the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, a position that puts him at odds with many other Democrats in Congress, including current Democratic leadership.

“The U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan yesterday was essential to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon,” Hoyer, the longtime former No. 2 House Democrat, said in a statement released on Sunday.

He said that Iranian leaders had made clear they were not going to comply with U.S. demands to dismantle their nuclear program and had been censured by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Israel believed that Iran was on the verge of achieving its goal and struck Iranian nuclear sites,” Hoyer said. “Yesterday, the United States did the same, bombing Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. That was in keeping with our stated position against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

The operation, he said, “helped counter” the Iranian nuclear threat, “but America must continue working to close Iran’s path to nuclear weapons permanently.”

Hoyer characterized the strikes as a “limited, one-time operation.” Many other Democrats have raised concerns that the operation violated congressional war powers.

“These strikes were designed to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, but neither the U.S., nor Israel, nor any other nation wants to go to war with the Iranian people, or Iran itself,” he continued.

Hoyer has long been among the most steadfast pro-Israel Democrats in Congress.

At the same time, Hoyer argued that “the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran became this dire because the Trump Administration chose to back out” of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

A handful of other pro-Israel congressional Democrats have come out largely in support of the strike since it took place.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) described the raid as “critical and decisive action to protect America, and freedom and democracy at home and around the world.”

“The destruction of Iran’s nuclear program is essential to ultimate peace in the Middle East,” Gottheimer continued. “This is not a Democratic or Republican issue — dealing with the Iranian threat is central to America’s national security.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) was one of the first Democrats to support the strike against Iran Friday night. “The world can achieve peace in the Middle East, or it can accept a rogue nuclear weapons program—but it cannot have both.

The decisive destruction of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant prevents the dangerous spread of nuclear weapons in the world’s most combustible region.  No one truly committed to nuclear nonproliferation should mourn the fall of Fordow,” Torres wrote on X.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said “this was the correct move” by Trump and said he’s “grateful for and salute the finest military in the world.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said, “Today, the President made what appears to be a targeted strike to defend the U.S., Israel, and allies throughout the region and the world” and that he’s hopeful that Iran “no longer has the capabilities to continue its nuclear program.”

He said Iran must now commit to negotiations and make a deal. But he also warned against continued military action without congressional approval.

“I am also a firm believer in congressional authority & oversight. Any offensive action must come to Congress for a vote,” Moskowitz said. “I hope this is contained, but we are living in unprecedented times—and it’s critical our leaders work on a bipartisan basis to protect our nation.”

Vice President JD Vance emphasized  that the United States is “not at war with Iran” but instead “at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday.

Vance also denied that the U.S. is seeking regime change in Iran but is instead seeking peace with a non-nuclear Iran. He said it’s up to Israel whether it wants to take its own action to kill Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Our expectation is we’re going to learn a lot about what the Iranians want to do, how they want to proceed over the next 24 hours,” the vice president said. “The president has said he wants, now, to engage in a diplomatic process. But if the Iranians are not going to play ball here, they didn’t leave as many options as it pertains to last night, and they won’t leave as many options in the future.”

He said that if Iran continues its nuclear program, continues to fund international terrorism and attacks U.S. forces, “it will be met with overwhelming force,” but it has the opportunity to rejoin the international community if it changes course.

“What would make sense is for them to come to the negotiating table, to actually give up their nuclear weapons program over the long term,” he reiterated. “And, again, if they’re willing to do that, they’re going to find a willing partner in the United States of America.”

He said the U.S. only took action after it became clear Iran was “stonewalling” in talks and was not serious about negotiations, instead using them as a tactic to build out their nuclear program. “Diplomacy never was given a real chance by the Iranians,” Vance said.

He said that Iran had “stopped negotiating in good faith” and that was “the real catalyst” for the U.S. strikes. Vance said the administration came to the conclusion that talks were stagnant in mid-May.

Vance added that the U.S. had a “limited window” in which to strike Fordow, and that such an operation may not have been feasible in six months.

Asked about the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the international oil trade, Vance said that such a decision would be “suicidal” for Iran. The Iranian parliament voted Sunday to close the waterway, but that decision will have to be approved by others in the regime.

“Their entire economy runs through the Strait of Hormuz. If they want to destroy their own economy and cause disruptions in the world, I think that would be their decision,” Vance said. “But why would they do that? I don’t think it makes any sense.”

Vance, who has been aligned with the “restrainer” foreign policy camp within the GOP wary of American military interventions, defended Trump’s actions from those critical that the strikes could lead the U.S. to get enmeshed in a protracted conflict in the Middle East once again. 

”The difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives. So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing,” Vance said.

He said the U.S. has “no interest in boots on the ground.”

Vance emphasized on ABC News’ “This Week” that allowing Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon would not have generated peace in the Middle East.

“We can achieve peace much more fully than if we sort of sit on our hands and hope that somehow, if the Iranians get a nuclear weapon, they’re going to be more peaceful,” the vice president said. “That is a stupid approach, and the president rejected it.”

Vance asserted on “Meet the Press” that the raid had “substantially delayed” the regime’s ability to build nuclear weapons by “many, many years.”

“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran, but we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon, and that was the goal of this attack,” Vance said. The vice president’s comments match an initial assessment provided by Pentagon leaders Sunday morning.

Vance added on “This Week” that the U.S. will have to “work in the coming weeks to ensure” that Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium are addressed.

“One of the things that we’re going to have conversations with the Iranians about. But what we know is they no longer have the capacity to turn that stockpile of highly enriched uranium to weapons grade uranium, and that was really the goal here,” Vance said, emphasizing that Iran’s enrichment capacity was the primary U.S. target.

“We’re now going to have a serious conversation about how to get rid of Iran’s nuclear weapons program permanently, meaning they have to choose not to have a nuclear weapons program, and they have to give this thing up,” Vance continued.

With congressional Democrats, and a small group of Republicans, denouncing the strikes as lacking the proper congressional authorization, Vance argued on “Meet the Press” that the president has the authority to “act to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

“The idea that this was outside of presidential authority, I think any real serious legal person would tell you that’s not true,” Vance said.

Asked about previous U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon, Vance said, “There’s of course an open question about whether they were weeks away, whether they were months away. But they were way too close to a nuclear weapon for the comfort of the president of the United States, which is why he took this action.”

He said that the final decision had been made based on American, not Israeli, intelligence, and that U.S. intelligence concluded Iran was not interested in serious negotiations.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday morning that the U.S. operation in Iran overnight had hit all of its planned targets and that initial assessments showed that the strikes had inflicted extensive damage on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But Caine said that a full assessment of whether the Iranian nuclear program had been fully destroyed would take more time.

Speaking alongside Caine at a Pentagon press briefing, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth emphasized that the strike was limited and strictly targeted at Iran’s nuclear program and was not designed to prompt regime change. He added that the U.S. continues to seek peace with Iran.

“Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said. Pressed on whether Iran retains any nuclear capability, Caine said that a full assessment “is still pending, and it would be way too early for me to comment on what may be there.”

Hegseth added that the U.S. believes it “achieved the destruction of capabilities” at the Fordow nuclear facility, which he described as the “primary target.”

The operation, dubbed Midnight Hammer, involved seven B2 stealth bombers which dropped a total of 14 bunker-buster bombs on Fordow and Natanz, accompanied by more than two dozen cruise missiles fired at Esfahan. Officials described Fordow as the primary U.S. target. 

More than 100 other aircraft were involved in support capacities, and Caine said that Iran did not fire a single shot at U.S. forces or even deploy its fighter jets during the operation.

Plans for the strike were kept to a limited number of officials, and the U.S. conducted a deception effort to disguise its preparations. Caine said that Israeli operations over the past week had helped pave the way for the U.S. strike but Israel was not directly involved in the overnight operation.

Hegseth said that congressional leaders were notified about the strike after U.S. aircraft had left Iranian airspace.

He stressed that the strike “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people” and reiterated that Trump continues to seek peace with the Iranian regime.

“The United States does not seek war,” Hegseth said. “But let me be clear: We will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened. Iran should listen to the president of the United States and know that he means it every word.”

He emphasized that the operation was “most certainly not open-ended” but that the U.S. would “respond if necessary.”

Hegseth said the U.S. had sent public and private messages to Iran to ask its leaders to come to negotiations.

“They understand precisely what the American position is, precisely what steps they can take to allow for peace, and we hope they do so,” he continued.

Asked about whether U.S. assessments or intelligence about the status of Iran’s nuclear weaponization effort had changed since March, when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon, Hegseth did not specifically contradict Gabbard.

“I would just simply say that the president has made it very clear he’s looked at all of this, all of the intelligence, all of the information, and come to the conclusion that the Iranian nuclear program is a threat, and was willing to take this precision operation to neutralize that threat in order to advance American national interests,” Hegseth said.

Caine said that U.S. forces throughout the region had stepped up measures to protect U.S. forces from retaliation.

“Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice. We will defend ourselves. The safety of our service members and civilians remains our highest priority,” Caine said.

Among the Iranian nuclear facilities the U.S. reportedly targeted in Sunday morning’s attack was the Pickaxe Mountain Facility. Iran has not acknowledged the site’s development or construction and it has retained a lower public profile, with the Institute for Science and International Security first discovering its existence in 2023. 

The facility, just south of the Natanz nuclear facility and buried roughly 330 feet below the mountain itself, was particularly concerning to experts due to its depth, which is between 30 to 70 feet deeper than Fordow. This is said to exceed the striking depth of the most powerful bunker-busting weapons in the U.S. arsenal.

Recent Iranian announcements stating the government planned to open a new facility heightened fears that Iran could take the site online in the near future, according to Andrea Stricker, the deputy director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“There’s concern that Iran was creating the floor space for another secret enrichment facility,” Stricker told Jewish Insider. “And so when the [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors passed a resolution finding Iran in non-compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty a couple of weeks ago, the Iranians threatened to build another or to open another enrichment facility, and people immediately feared that this would be the site of it.”

An additional concern over the potential opening of Pickaxe Mountain was that Iran had previously refused to give notice of new nuclear facilities, as required by agreements Iran had signed with the IAEA. According to Stricker, this meant that Iran might begin operations at the plant without notifying the international community, which may have been a factor in Israel’s decision to launch its current operation against Iranian nuclear and military facilities.

Iran is unlikely to initiate attacks against the U.S. after the American strike on Islamic Republic nuclear sites, but it will continue to launch missiles at Israel, experts told Jewish Insider on Sunday.

Hours after the U.S. bombed nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in Iran, Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI that he doesn’t “identify a great desire — to say the least — of the Iranians to escalate with the U.S. … If they have a sharp reaction, it could drag in the Americans, who said that the matter is finished for them after they strike Iran. The U.S. has capabilities that could threaten the survival of the regime.”

Zimmt said it was likely that the Iranians would have a “symbolic reaction,” possibly targeting a U.S. military base in the region but with advance warning, similar to their response to the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

“We shouldn’t underestimate Iran’s capabilities — their missiles are a big concern — but those who think we’re on the verge of World War III and that all the American bases will burn need to understand that the central goal of the Iranian regime is to survive, so I don’t think they’ll do that in the foreseeable future,” Zimmt added.

However, he said, hours after Iran shot 25 missiles at Israel on Sunday morning, causing damage in central Israel and Haifa, “Israel is another story. I think [Iran will] continue what they’re doing in Israel.” 

Oded Ailam, a former senior official in Israel’s defense establishment and a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JI that Iran may choose not to escalate with the U.S. and instead “take out their anger on Israel with an increase in ballistic missiles,” but he said an Iranian attack on U.S. military targets in the region was still possible.

“The Iranians probably have not decided yet. It can go either way,” he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that “we were in negotiations with the U.S. when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the U.S. decided to blow up that diplomacy. What conclusion would you draw?” 

Ailam said that while, in the short term, Iran was unlikely to return to the negotiating table “as a matter of national pride, it would look like a total defeat,” they would probably reenter talks farther down the line.

“I don’t know when it will happen, but I think the Iranians will very cautiously try to reach out to the Americans to negotiate and say they want to try to salvage some uranium enrichment for civilian needs,” he said.

Zimmt, however, said it was “clear that they won’t go back to negotiations.” 

“The more significant thing in the weeks and days ahead is what they do in the nuclear arena,” he said. “Do they announce that they’re quitting the [Non-Proliferation Treaty]? In the end, I think their decision is connected to the question to which we don’t have an answer: what capabilities they still have.”

The lesson that Iran likely learned from the past week and a half, Zimmt posited, is that “being on the verge of having a nuclear weapon is not enough. They need to have a nuclear weapon. I’m not sure they can do it, though.”

“If, theoretically, they can use a few hundred centrifuges that remain and a few hundred kilos of uranium and try to break out [to weapons-grade enrichment] in a hidden place, they may consider it. I doubt they’ll do it now, when Israeli planes are flying over their heads, but I assume they would wait some time and reconsider their nuclear strategy,” Zimmt explained.

Initial satellite photos published by the Associated Press showed damage to the entrances of the nuclear facility in Fordow, which is under a mountain, as well as damage to the mountain itself. David Albright, president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, wrote on X that the photos appear to show that the bombs were dropped on a ventilation shaft into Fordow’s underground halls. 

Ailam said that “the damage is very extensive.” According to his analysis, the attacks “neutralized” Iran’s ability to use its 400-kg stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity and turn it into weapons-grade (90% enriched) uranium. 

“They don’t have the capability because they don’t have the centrifuges anymore,” he said. “It’s not terminal; if we want to ensure the nuclear weapons program is totally destroyed, we need to strike the 400 kg or reach an agreement in which it is removed from Iran, but this has significantly damaged the Iranians’ ability to rapidly reach military-grade enrichment.”

U.S. intelligence agencies said that the stockpile, held at the Isfahan facility, was harmed, but Israel has not yet released a similar assessment, Ailam said.

However, Zimmt said that it is harder to know the extent of the damage to the nuclear program without more extensive satellite photos of the nuclear sites.

“The Iranians are trying to present a picture that it was not significantly damaged, but there really is not much to rely on yet other than IDF reports,” he said.

IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Sunday that the Israeli army “has more targets. We are prepared for the campaign to continue and must prepare for any developments.”

Ailam said that Israel “did not entirely meet [its] goals. It was mostly Israel, but with the help of the U.S., we partially removed the immediate threat from the nuclear program and the massive ballistic system and [Iran’s] ability to manufacture 300 ballistic missiles a day. That was an existential threat to Israel.” 

“But we are not at the point where we can say we removed all the threats and finished the whole bank of targets. It’s a huge country,” he added.

Zimmt said that the U.S. strike on Fordow was “the cherry on top” of Israel’s war against Iran, and that it’s time to wind down.

“Of course we can continue. We can always try to further degrade the nuclear program, but … as long as the goal was, foremost, to severely damage the nuclear program, the goal was — if not already achieved — it’s very close … I think the time has come to think of how to end this, even if it’s unilateral. If they attack, we can react, but we need to aim to finish in the coming days,” Zimmt said.

As for talk about regime change, Zimmt said it would be “impossible” through airstrikes. 

Ailam said that every major attack on Iran creates “cracks in the regime’s wall and stability, and reveals this regime to be an empty vessel.” However, he said that there are not powerful enough forces within Iran that have risen up against the regime yet. “When it will happen is hard to say, but the more [the regime] suffers blows, the closer it gets.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Donald Trump for his “bold decision” to strike three Iranian nuclear facilities located deep underground on Saturday.

Netanyahu made the comments in a video address posted shortly after Trump announced the completion of the operation targeting Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan, three nuclear sites that are deeply entrenched underground. 

“Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history. In Operation Rising Lion, Israel has done truly amazing things, but in tonight’s action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed. It has done what no other country on Earth could do. History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime, the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Netanyahu said. 

The Israeli prime minister argued that Trump’s “leadership today has created a pivot of history that can help lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace.”

“President Trump and I often say ‘peace through strength.’ First comes strength, then comes peace. And tonight, President Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength. President Trump, I thank you, the people of Israel thank you, the forces of civilization thank you,” Netanyahu added.

Trump’s decision to carry out the strikes came just over a week after Israel began its military operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and before the end of the two-week period that the Trump administration had provided for a decision on potential strikes. The decision also came as analysts and lawmakers on Capitol Hill warned that Israel lacked the capacity to destroy deeply entrenched nuclear facilities and would need the U.S. to get involved.

The president said on Saturday that the U.S. dropped six bunker-busting bombs on Fordow and launched a total of 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. submarines at Natanz and Esfahan. He said that all three facilities were destroyed completely.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized President Donald Trump for carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities without congressional authorization, a voice of opposition that was echoed by many leading Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Jeffries said in a statement less than two hours after Trump announced the strikes that Trump “misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East.”

He said that the Trump administration must explain to the country why it carried out the strikes and brief Congress.

“Donald Trump shoulders complete and total responsibility for any adverse consequences that flow from his unilateral military action,” Jeffries continued.

Schumer, in a similarly critical statement, said that “no president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy” and said he would be urging all lawmakers to support war powers legislation to block further military action against Iran, and called for an immediate vote.

He said Trump must explain his actions to the American people.

“Confronting Iran’s ruthless campaign of terror, nuclear ambitions, and regional aggression demands strength, resolve, and strategic clarity,” Schumer said. “The danger of wider, longer, and more devastating war has now dramatically increased.”

Senior congressional Democrats were largely left out of the loop about the strikes before they occurred, while Republican leaders have said they were briefed.

Administration officials traditionally brief “Gang of Eight” officials — the top Republican and Democrat in each chamber and the chairs and ranking members of the Intelligence Committees — before carrying out major sensitive operations.

Sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider that Jeffries received a notification after the operation was likely already underway, but had not been fully briefed, and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was not briefed prior to the strikes.

Sources familiar with the situation told JI that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) were briefed before the strikes.

Johnson pushed back on claims that the administration had illegally sidestepped Congress, saying, “Leaders in Congress were aware of the urgency of this situation and the Commander-in-Chief evaluated that the imminent danger outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act.”

“The President fully respects the Article I power of Congress, and tonight’s necessary, limited, and targeted strike follows the history and tradition of similar military actions under presidents of both parties,” Johnson continued.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) called Jeffries’ statement “an embarrassment,” saying Trump had prevented Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Many Democrats in both chambers have gone further than Jeffries in their responses, explicitly describing the strikes as unconstitutional.

“The power to declare war resides solely with Congress. Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to attack Iran is unauthorized and unconstitutional,” Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the House minority whip, said. “In doing so, the President has exposed our military and diplomatic personnel in the region to the risk of further escalation. The American people, our men and women in uniform, and their families deserve answers.”

Some Democrats have also raised the prospect of impeaching Trump over the action. 

“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said. “He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

Several pro-Israel Democrats, like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) have fully backed the strike.

“We don’t yet know what this means for the regime’s nuclear work or ambitions, but it absolutely means that the regime has been further weakened — which is good for those who want peace,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said.

“It’s time for the Iranian regime to agree to the removal of all enriched uranium, comprehensive, around-the-clock inspections, and the full dismantling of their terror armies from Hamas to Hezbollah and the Houthis. That will end this conflict, and put the entire region on the path to a real and sustainable peace.”

“Iran is a terrorist nation, and we must do everything we can to stop it from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) said. “Debates will now ensue about presidential authority and the President working with Congress. The President should work with Congress, especially those of us who recognize how important it is to finally stop Iran.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said that Iran should immediately end its nuclear program and stop funding terrorism, but also called for Congress to repeal the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force “so that the American public can get an open & thorough debate on war-making.”

Jewish Insider Congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed to this report

President Donald Trump announced Saturday evening that the U.S. had carried out military strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites earlier Saturday.

“We have completed our very successful attack on three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump announced on Truth Social. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.”

The three sites, particularly Fordow, are deeply entrenched underground, and analysts believe that Israel lacked the capacity to destroy the Fordow site on its own. Fox News host Sean Hannity said that Trump told him that the U.S. had dropped six bunker-busting bombs on Fordow and launched a total of 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. submarines at Natanz and Esfahan. He said that all three facilities were destroyed completely.

The strikes come before the end of the two-week period that the Trump administration had provided for a decision on potential strikes. 

In brief remarks from the White House, Trump said that the strikes were a “spectacular military success” and that the sites had been “completely and totally obliterated.”

Trump threatened further military action if Iran does not agree to make peace, warning Tehran that there are many other targets the U.S. can still hit “in a matter of minutes.” 

“If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier,” Trump said. “This cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.”

He also highlighted Iran’s four-decade history of attacks against U.S. personnel.

“I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump continued. “We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.”

Dana Stroul, the research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East under the Biden administration, told Jewish Insider that the “failed talks in Europe on Friday likely convinced [Trump] that diplomacy, at least in the short term, was futile.”

“The threat of a conventional war with the United States is what Iran’s leaders presumably fear most,” Stroul said. “For the past week of Israel’s operations, the Iranians have only responded with ballistic missiles and drones aimed at Israel. The real risk now is that Iranian leadership expands the scope of their retaliation, including aiming missiles at the U.S. and its partners, militia attacks on US forces, and potentially the targeting of energy infrastructure throughout the Middle East.”

She said that the “most pressing strategic question is whether US strikes make negotiations with the Iranian regime more or less likely, and whether Iran’s leaders are now more convinced of their need for a nuclear weapon or are finally willing to make concessions.”

Andrea Stricker, the deputy director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that further operations of some kind will likely be necessary to eliminate stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in tunnels at Esfahan.

She said that could entail more strikes, or a U.S. or Israeli commando operation to recover the nuclear material.

So far, the strikes are being supported by most congressional Republicans, while most Democrats are opposed, with many saying that the action was unconstitutional given that Congress did not authorize it.

“The regime in Iran, which has committed itself to bringing ‘death to America’ and wiping Israel off the map, has rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace. The mullahs’ misguided pursuit of nuclear weapons must be stopped,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said. “As we take action tonight to ensure a nuclear weapon remains out of reach for Iran, I stand with President Trump and pray for the American troops and personnel in harm’s way.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the strikes “should serve as a clear reminder to our adversaries and allies that President Trump means what he says.”

“The President gave Iran’s leader every opportunity to make a deal, but Iran refused to commit to a nuclear disarmament agreement,” Johnson continued. “The President’s decisive action prevents the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, which chants “Death to America,” from obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet. This is America First policy in action.”

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: ”This war is Israel’s war not our war, but Israel is one of our strongest allies and is disarming Iran for the good of the world,” adding that the strike would “put an end to [Iran’s] ambitions” of destroying Israel and killing all Jews and could only have been carried out by the United States.

“This is not the start of a forever war. There will not be American boots on the ground in Iran,” Risch added, pushing back on concerns that anti-interventionists on both sides of the aisle have raised about a potential strike. “This was a precise, limited strike, which was necessary and by all accounts was very successful. As President Trump has stated, now is the time for peace.”

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also praised Trump’s decision and said, “We now have very serious choices ahead to provide security for our citizens and our allies and stability for the middle-east.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), one of the most pro-Israel congressional Democrats, said “this was the correct move” by Trump and said he’s “grateful for and salute the finest military in the world.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), another outspoken Israel supporter, said, “The world can achieve peace in the Middle East, or it can accept a rogue nuclear weapons program—but it cannot have both.”

“The decisive destruction of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant prevents the dangerous spread of nuclear weapons in the world’s most combustible region,” Torres continued. “No one truly committed to nuclear nonproliferation should mourn the fall of Fordow.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who was championing legislation in the House aiming to block U.S. military action against Iran, condemned the strike as unconstitutional in a X post which was re-shared by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), another isolationist House Republican, similarly questioned the strike’s constitutionality.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who is leading the Senate version of Massie’s resolution, asserted that the American people are “overwhelmingly opposed” to the prospect of war with Iran and suggested that the strikes were not necessary to set back Iran’s nuclear program.

“What made Trump recklessly decide to rush and bomb today?” Kaine continued. “Horrible judgment. I will push for all Senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Trump had “dramatically increased” the risk of war in the Middle East and endangered U.S. troops.

“President Trump misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization … and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East,” Jeffries said, adding that the administration must explain its decision to the country and brief Congress.

“Donald Trump shoulders complete and total responsibility for any adverse consequences that flow from his unilateral military action,” Jeffries continued.

Several House Democrats called for Congress to immediately return to Washington to vote on Massie’s resolution.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the strikes were a “clear violation of the Constitution” and that it is “impossible to know at this stage whether this operation accomplished its objectives.”

“We also don’t know if this will lead to further escalation in the region and attacks against our forces, events that could easily pull us even deeper into a war in the Middle East,” Himes said.

Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) called the strikes “an unambiguous impeachable offense.”

Former U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, speaking to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Thursday night, said he sees “a flashing yellow light” when it comes to a potential U.S. strike on the underground Iranian nuclear site at Fordow.

Emanuel, who is eyeing a 2028 presidential run, said he would not support a U.S. strike on Fordow until Israel’s military options had “run its course” and the U.S. had exhausted diplomatic options, within a limited time frame.

Reaching back to his time as a senior advisor to President Bill Clinton, he explained Clinton’s decision not to strike North Korea’s nuclear program in 1994. Clinton’s national security team, Emanuel explained, was saying “basically — bomb North Korea. President Carter, having gone there [to North Korea on a private diplomatic mission], messed it up and messed up that opportunity. And now you have a nuclear North Korea.” It was a decision, Emanuel said, that in some ways “haunted” him.

Despite this, Emanuel argued for prioritizing a diplomatic solution over using military force to ensure that the U.S. preserves its options in responding to Iran. He explained he believes the Trump administration — given Iran’s isolation — still has room for negotiating a deal that improves on the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“Russia has been kicked out of Syria. The rest of the world now sees that, when the chips are down, Russia, China and North Korea are nowhere to be found near Iran. You’re on your own,” Emanuel said. “And there’s a play here that this Axis of Resistance has been found to be very thin gruel.” 

In addition to Iran’s diplomatic isolation, Emanuel argued that two of Israel’s greatest concerns with the JCPOA — Iran’s terror proxy activity and ballistic missile capacity — have now been largely nullified as a result of Israel’s post-Oct. 7 military successes.

In the interview, Emanuel also confirmed he’s “evaluating” the possibility of a presidential run. “I have been there, I have something I think I can offer, but I haven’t made that decision.”

Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Iran’s second ballistic missile strike on Beersheba in as many days, and cover CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s suggestion that Iran is like a football team nearing the 1-yard line in its quest for a nuclear weapon. We report on a Democratic primary between a DSA candidate and a more moderate challenger in South Brooklyn, and talk to Rep. Randy Fine, the newest Jewish member of Congress. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Max Miller, Josh Kesselman and Edan Alexander.

For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Persian Jews in the U.S. watch Israeli strikes on Iran and dare to hope; How a Mediterranean vacation destination for Israelis turned into a displaced persons hub; and Leonard Lauder, who supercharged his family’s cosmetics firm and became an arts patron, dies at 92. Print the latest edition here.

What We’re Watching

• President Donald Trump is convening the National Security Council at 11 a.m. as senior U.S. officials mull American involvement in what has been to date a conflict between Israel and Iran.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meeting for nuclear talks today in Geneva with his counterparts from France, Germany and the U.K. The European delegation is also set to meet with the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.
• The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Anna Borshchevskaya, Michael Knights, Farzin Nadimi and Assaf Orion are headlining a virtual event this afternoon focused on the Israel-Iran war.
• The Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting a briefing on the Israel-Iran war with Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Adam Smith (D-WA) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
• Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter is appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S melissa weiss

On Thursday, NBC News reported a claim from Iran’s Ministry of Health that “over 2,500 injured people were treated in public and university hospitals, with 1,600 discharged and about 500 still hospitalized.” Earlier this week, CBS News reported 224 Iranians were dead from Israeli airstrikes, also attributed to Iran’s Ministry of Health.

There is no free press in Iran, and journalists have been arrested and imprisoned simply for practicing journalism in the Islamic Republic. There is no real way to verify the Iranian Health Ministry’s numbers, and so many journalists report them, unscrupulously.

In a fast-paced, constantly evolving news environment, accuracy is paramount. The ability to try to authenticate a statistic by attributing it to an official government source, while knowing that the source is unreliable, can serve as the basis for an inaccurate narrative with wide-ranging effects.

An ABC News report from earlier this week on violence near humanitarian aid distribution sites in Gaza leads with the headline “More than 30 killed at controversial foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza: Health officials,” giving an air of legitimacy to the claim — even though a reader would have to move down to the story before learning that those health officials came from the “Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.” And nowhere in the story does ABC News note that the Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The inclination to publish talking points and statistics from terror groups and regimes incentivizes a playbook for malign actors — from Iran to the Houthis to Hamas — to provide misleading casualty figures for the media to carry that lack the intricacies and nuances necessary in such reporting.

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

ISRAEL-IRAN WAR, DAY 8

Iran strikes Beersheba again as Trump defers strike decision for up to two weeks

An Iranian missile struck Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, for the second consecutive day on Friday, hours after President Donald Trump said he would decide in the next two weeks whether to join Israel in striking the Islamic Republic, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. The IDF unsuccessfully attempted to intercept the surface-to-surface missile from Iran, which injured seven and left a crater at the blast site and damage to buildings in the area of Beersheba’s HiTech Park. One of the sites reportedly damaged is Microsoft’s office in Beersheba, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed worked in “close collaboration with the Israeli military” and was “part of the system supporting aggression, not merely a civilian entity.” 

Trump’s timeline: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump would take up to two weeks to decide if the U.S. will join Israel’s operation against Iran. Key components of Iran’s nuclear program are in a facility in Fordow built under a mountain, and experts said Israel does not have the capability to destroy it from the air, while the U.S. has Massive Ordinance Penetrators and B-2 heavy stealth bombers, which are thought to be have the capacity to destroy it. “I have a message directly from the president, and I quote, ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,'” the press secretary said at a White House briefing.

Read the full story here.

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THE RED ZONE

Ratcliffe: Iran’s at the nuclear goal line — and wants to score

CIA Director John Ratcliffe has told colleagues behind closed doors he believes Iran is actively working toward building a nuclear weapon, comparing the claim that Tehran isn’t working on building a nuclear weapon to the idea that football players at the 1-yard line would not attempt to score a touchdown, per CBS News, citing an unnamed U.S. official, Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports.

Background: Ratcliffe’s reported comments function as a rebuke of other U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran is not actively developing a nuclear weapon, in spite of its accelerating efforts to amass stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in violation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments and construction of ballistic missiles with which a nuclear weapon could be launched.

Read the full story here.

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language choices

In apparent shift, CNN describes Arab-Israeli towns as Palestinian

After an Iranian ballistic missile struck a home in the northern Israeli city of Tamra, killing a woman, her two daughters and her sister-in-law, news outlets faced an additional challenge beyond the sober responsibility of covering a tragic loss: choosing what language to use to describe these women and their ethnic identity, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

Media matters: Tamra is an Arab town, with a history dating back hundreds of years. When Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited on Wednesday, he talked about the “shared society of Jews and Arabs” in Israel that “believe in our common life together,” and described the victims as “Muslim women.” Most news reports — in major international outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — referred to Tamra as either an “Arab-Israeli city” or an “Arab town in Israel.” CNN, however, chose a different word for Tamra, a city that is firmly inside Israel’s original 1948 borders: Palestinian. “Iranian strikes expose bomb shelter shortage for Palestinian towns inside Israel,” read one headline from this week. The accompanying article described Tamra’s residents as “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Another story called Tamra a “Palestinian-Israeli town.” 

Label politics: “There’s a growing trend going on in the past, I want to say 10, maybe 20, years, of people who are saying, ‘We are going to reclaim our identity as Palestinians, and we’re not going to be ashamed to call ourselves Palestinians,’” said Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who is completing a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She counts herself among that trend: She didn’t use the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” to describe herself until her late 20s, after she studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. 

Read the full story here.

More from CNN: In a segment about Tucker Carlson published yesterday, one of the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan described Carlson as “a frequent supporter of Israel,” and stated that “U.S. intelligence suggests that Iran is years away from a nuclear bomb.”

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ROAD RAGE

Rep. Max Miller says he was run off the road, threatened by pro-Palestinian activist

Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), one of four Jewish Republicans in the House, said on Thursday that his car was run off the road by a pro-Palestinian activist who threatened his and his family’s lives, earlier in the day, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What happened: Miller said in the video that on his way to work in his district on Thursday morning, an “unhinged, deranged man” leaned on his car horn and ran Miller off the road “when he couldn’t get my attention, to show me a Palestinian flag, not to mention ‘death to Israel, death to me’ — that he wanted to kill me — and my family.” He explained in the X post that the man threw a Palestinian flag out of his car before driving off and threatened his life and his family’s lives. Miller did not specify what the individual said. Miller said that he had reported the incident to local and U.S. Capitol Police, and that the individual had been identified and would face consequences.

Read the full story here.

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COUNCIL CLASH

With Ling Ye, pro-Israel activists see opportunity to unseat DSA-backed Alexa Avilés in City Council primary in South Brooklyn

In recent years, Jewish and pro-Israel activists in New York City have been successful in defending favored incumbents while boosting candidates in open-seat local races. But they have struggled to go on the offensive against far-left Israel critics on the City Council aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, which has gained prominence in some districts. Now, however, some Jewish community activists and pro-Israel strategists are expressing optimism that a competitive City Council election in southern Brooklyn could be their best pick-up opportunity in next week’s citywide primaries, delivering a possible upset that has so far proved elusive at the local level, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

The players: In one of the city’s most hotly contested local races, Alexa Avilés, a two-term councilmember backed by the DSA, is facing a formidable challenge from Ling Ye, a moderate former congressional staffer making her first bid for elective office with a focus largely on public safety. The race is playing out in a redrawn district that now includes more moderate constituents in Dyker Heights who are likely less receptive to reelecting a socialist, strategists say, fueling hopes among allies of Ye eager to pick off an incumbent whose hostility to Israel while in office has rankled Jewish leaders.

Read the full story here.

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A FINE MISSION

Rep. Randy Fine says he’s on Capitol Hill to be a leader against antisemitism

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) believes that he was sent to Congress, at least in part, to take a leading role in fighting for the Jewish community against antisemitism. Fine, during a lengthy interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in his congressional office earlier this month, said he sees himself as having a mostly unique ability among House members to help tackle the rise of antisemitism nationwide, as one of only four Jewish Republicans in the lower chamber. 

It’s personal: “I think I can play that role. I’m willing to do it. Certainly happy to share the spotlight with the other three [Jewish Republicans] if they wish to do it, but, but this is deeply personal to me,” Fine said. “This affects my children and so I understand it better than others.” Fine added, “This must be why [I’m in Congress]. This is what He wants me to do. … I think this is one of the reasons that I am here, to solve this problem, much like we did in Florida.”

Read the full interview here.

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Worthy Reads

Battle of Wills: The Atlantic’s Eliot Cohen considers the implications of Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program. “Israel’s current campaign is built around two realities often missed by so-called realists: first, that the Iranian government is determined to acquire nuclear weapons and cannot be deterred, bought off, or persuaded to do otherwise, and second, that Israel reasonably believes itself to be facing an existential threat. …  It takes a particular kind of idiocy or bad faith to disregard the speeches, propaganda, and shouts of ‘death to Israel.’ The Israeli lesson learned from the previous century — and, indeed, the Jewish one learned over a much longer span of time — is that if someone says they want to exterminate you, they mean it.” [TheAtlantic]

The Case for a U.S. Attack: In The Free Press, Niall Ferguson and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posit that the U.S. should help Israel destroy the Fordow nuclear facility in order to “shorten the war, prevent wider escalation, and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability” posed by Iran. “A nuclear-armed Iran would pose more than a threat to the Israeli people and their state. Its missiles could reach Gulf capitals and Europe. Those missiles could allow Iran to sponsor terror and wage conventional war with impunity. The result would be a nuclear arms race in the Gulf. By destroying Fordow, President Trump would create a new equilibrium in the Middle East and reestablish American leadership. The strike would focus solely on eliminating Iran’s nuclear arms program, but it should be accompanied by a clear message: If Iran attempts to target the United States or its Gulf allies, it will risk the elimination of its regime.” [FreePress]

Back to Begin: In The Wall Street Journal, Amit Segal considers how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has employed the “Begin Doctrine” established four decades ago that seeks to keep bad actors from acquiring nuclear weapons. “Persuading the Trump administration to support the attack was a historic diplomatic success. The ayatollahs spread their tentacles throughout the Middle East, but now Iran stands completely vulnerable. If only the free world had adopted its own Begin doctrine against countries like North Korea and Pakistan, so that a dictator’s temper tantrum couldn’t lead to nuclear winter. At least Israel has become the world’s bomb squad, a stroke of good fortune for which we can thank Menachem Begin.” [WSJ]

Word on the Street

The FBI is increasing its surveillance of Iran-backed operatives and suspected sleeper cells in the U.S….

U.S. carriers including United and American Airlines are suspending service to parts of the Middle East, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, amid heightened tensions in the region around the Israel-Iran war…

Bloomberg reports on the surprise of Arab states by the timing and speed of Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities last week; one Gulf official told the publication that it was “beneficial for his own country and the wider region to see Iran’s nuclear program set back or destroyed.” Satellite imagery indicates that Iran has made a concerted push to export oil since the eruption last week or war with Israel…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the rising financial cost of the Israel-Iran war, finding that the costs of interceptors alone can cost Israel hundreds of millions of dollars a day…

Iran is reportedly using Israeli home-camera systems to spy inside Israel and obtain better information about its missile targets…

The Washington Post spotlights Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) as the trio seek to lead the Democratic Party into the next generation; the Post describes the three as “centrist women with national security backgrounds who helped retake the House in 2018 and this year hope to steer their beleaguered party back toward winning”…

Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American citizen who was held hostage in Gaza for more than 580 days, returned on Thursday to his family’s home in Tenafly, N.J….

Josh Kesselman, the founder of the Raw rolling paper company, purchased the cannabis magazine High Times this week for $3.5 million…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the behind-the-scenes efforts that go into planning luxury weddings, ahead of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s upcoming nuptials; luxury event planner Ruth Minkowitz, whose Elite Kosher Events company works with clients in Italy, told the WSJ, “Food, plates, material, everything, it all goes by boat … You need a lot more personnel, just to schlep.” 

Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were killed in a terror attack in the West Bank in 2023, announced his engagement to Aliza Teplitsky…

Pic of the Day

A view of the Khatib family home yesterday in the northern Israeli village of Tamra that was destroyed in an Iranian missile strike, killing four women inside. During a solidarity visit to the family, Jewish Agency Chair Doron Almog said he hoped to connect the Arab town to a Jewish community in the United States, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross from Tamra. “We have come here to be in pain together with the Khatib family. We are in pain with you,” Almog said, speaking at a mourning gathering with the family. “There is great pain and loss here. And from that pain, I want us to cultivate partnership, to cultivate love, to cultivate hope.”

Birthdays

Writer, director and film producer, he is a two-time Israeli Academy Award winner and the founder of Hey Jude Productions, Dani Menkin turns 55 on Sunday… 

FRIDAY: Weston, Fla., resident, Harold Kurte turns 96… Former member of Knesset for the Ratz party, Ran Cohen turns 88… Owner of Schulman Small Business Services in Atlanta, Alan Schulman… Detroit-based pawnbroker, reality TV star, author and speaker, Leslie “Les” Gold turns 75… Chef, baker and author of eight books, she popularized sourdough and artisan breads in the U.S., Nancy Silverton turns 71… Host of “Bully Pulpit from Booksmart Studios,” Bob Garfield turns 70… Former assistant managing editor for politics at NBC News, now an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and FIU, Gregg Birnbaum… Federation leader, co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty) and of Riverstone Communities (it owns and operates over 80 manufactured housing communities in 12 states), James Bellinson… EVP of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Moshe Hauer turns 60… Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, N.J., Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky turns 60… Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, writer and producer of 20 films, Boaz Yakin turns 59… Senior legal affairs reporter at Politico, Josh Gerstein… Governor of Pennsylvania, Joshua David Shapiro turns 52… U.S. senator (R-MI), Eric Stephen Schmitt turns 50… Singer, songwriter and hazzan, he is a co-founder of the band Moshav, Yehuda Solomon turns 48… Senior program director of civic initiatives at The Teagle Foundation, Tamara Mann Tweel, Ph.D…. Israeli author of crime and thriller books, Mike Omer turns 46… Journalist, blogger and EMT in NYC, Maggie Shnayerson turns 44… EVP of Moxie Strategies, Pearl Gabel… French-Israeli singer and songwriter, Amir Haddad turns 41… Deputy communications director in the Trump 45 White House, now head of external affairs at Standard Industries, Josh Raffel… Jennifer Bernstein… Photographer, producer and digital strategist, she is a supervising producer at HardPin, Sara Pearl Kenigsberg… Writer, director, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster and mental health advocate, Allison Beth Raskin turns 36… Team captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, John DiBartolomeo turns 34… Chief campus officer at Hillel Ontario, Beverley Shimansky… Director of advocacy initiatives at The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Jaime Reich… 

SATURDAY: Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Marjorie Margolies turns 83… Investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in the Bush 43 administration, Charles L. Glazer turns 82… Philanthropist, she is vice-chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Ingeborg Hanna Rennert… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Charles of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, appointed to the House of Lords in 1996, Baron Maurice Saatchi turns 79… U.K. cabinet minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind turns 79… Retired creditors rights attorney in the Chicago area, David Stephen Miller… Retired managing editor and writer at The Washington Post for 33 years, now chief editor at The Reis Group, Peter Perl… Member of the Knesset since 2013 for the Yesh Atid party, Mickey Levy turns 74… Susan Gutman… CEO of Amir Development Company in Beverly Hills, Keenan L. Wolens… Punk rock singer and songwriter, known as the Gangsta Rabbi, Steve Lieberman turns 67… Washington Institute distinguished fellow and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, David Makovsky turns 65… Chief communications officer at Minerva University until last month, he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, David L. Marcus… Co-founder and executive editor of Axios, Mike Allen turns 61… National education policy reporter for The Washington Post, Laura Meckler… Founder and leader of Beautifully Jewish, Tanya Rebecca Singer… Actor, singer and entrepreneur known for his work on Broadway, television, film and concerts, Aaron Scott Lazar turns 49… Journalist and author, Abigail Krauser Shrier turns 47… Public affairs consultant based in Manhattan, Sam Nunberg turns 44… Co-founder and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science platform acquired by Google in 2017, Anthony Goldbloom turns 42… Former member of the Knesset where she was the first-ever Druze woman, she then became a Jewish Agency shlicha to Washington, Gadeer Kamal Mreeh turns 41… Communications executive at Netflix, she was previously a communications officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jacqueline (Jackie) Berkowitz… Chief of staff to the chairman and CEO at Saban Capital Group, Amitai Raziel… Award-winning Israeli classical pianist, Boris Giltburg turns 41… Executive director at Hunter Hillel, Merav Fine Braun… Editor for the global programming team at CNN, Madeleine Morgenstern… Singer-songwriter known as Jeryko, Yaniv Hoffman turns 34… Singer-songwriter and actor, known by his mononym Max, Maxwell George Schneider turns 33…

SUNDAY: A leading securities, corporate and M&A attorney, he is a founding partner of the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Martin Lipton turns 94… D.C.-based VP of Israel Aerospace Industries from 1969 until 2017, Marvin Klemow turns 88… Jerusalem-born 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, she is the director of a research center at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Ada Yonath turns 86… Retired U.K. judge, who chaired high-profile hearings on ethics in the media, prompted by the 2011 News of the World phone hacking affair, Sir Brian Henry Leveson turns 82… Winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics, he is a professor at Brown University, J. Michael Kosterlitz turns 82… Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court until 2014, she was previously the Israeli State Prosecutor for eight years, Edna Arbel turns 81… U.S. senator (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren turns 76… Member of the California State Assembly until 2022, now a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Richard Hershel Bloom turns 72… Partner at Shibolet & Co., one of Israel’s largest corporate law firms, Yoram Raved turns 69… AIPAC director for Greater Washington, Deborah Adler… Chair of the kindergarten and pre-K division of Bowman Ashe Elementary in Miami, Fla., Cynthia Rosenbluth Huss… Past president of the UJA-Federation of New York, Alisa Robbins Doctoroff… U.S. senator (D-CA), Adam Schiff turns 65… Former member of the Knesset for the Hatnuah and Zionist Union parties, Robert Tiviaev turns 64… Creator of the Android operating system which he sold to Google, Andy Rubin turns 63… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, now serving as deputy prime minister and minister of justice, Yariv Gideon Levin turns 56… SVP at Red Banyan PR, Kelcey Kintner… Program director at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Rafi Rone… The Economist‘s Israel correspondent and author of a biography of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer turns 52… Israeli jazz vocalist and composer, Julia Feldman turns 46… COO of TR Capital Management, Ahron Rosenthal… Retired MLB second baseman, he played for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics and managed the team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Ian Kinsler turns 43… Russian-Israeli Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Russia’s largest social network VK[dot]com and Selectel network centers, Lev Binzumovich Leviev turns 41… Baltimore-based endodontist, Jeffrey H. Gardyn, DDS… Israeli Muay Thai kick boxing champion, Ilya Grad turns 38… Israeli-born basketball player with 11 NBA seasons, Omri Casspi turns 37… Former outfielder for Team Israel in the 2016 World Baseball Classic qualifier round, now a real estate investor based in Nashville, Rhett Wiseman turns 31…

On Thursday, NBC News reported a claim from Iran’s Ministry of Health that “over 2,500 injured people were treated in public and university hospitals, with 1,600 discharged and about 500 still hospitalized.” Earlier this week, CBS News reported 224 Iranians were dead from Israeli airstrikes, also attributed to Iran’s Ministry of Health.

There is no free press in Iran, and journalists have been arrested and imprisoned simply for practicing journalism in the Islamic Republic. There is no real way to verify the Iranian Health Ministry’s numbers, and so many journalists report them, unscrupulously.

In a fast-paced, constantly evolving news environment, accuracy is paramount. The ability to try to authenticate a statistic by attributing it to an official government source, while knowing that the source is unreliable, can serve as the basis for an inaccurate narrative with wide-ranging effects.

Take, for example, the Al-Alhi Hospital incident in October 2023, when the most widely read Western media outlets reported on an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital, later confirmed to have been a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket. In the aftermath of the hospital incident — which many outlets, including The New York Times, had to walk back — Jordanian King Abdullah II canceled an in-person summit with President Joe Biden in Amman, potentially altering the course of the conflict.

“Israel strikes Iranian state TV, warns people to evacuate Tehran after accusing Iran of targeting civilians,” was a CBS News headline on Monday evening. Hours prior, an Iranian ballistic missile salvo targeted dozens of locations across the country — with one missile landing in the heart of a residential area of Tel Aviv. 

Further missing in reports of fatalities in the region is the identity of those killed. Take, for example, an Israeli attack in December on the port of Hodeidah and Sana’a airport in Yemen, both utilized by the Houthis. “At least four people were killed and 21 others injured in the attack,” according to the New York Times report on the strike, filed by journalists in Israel and the United Arab Emirates who cited Yemeni state-run media and the country’s Ministry of Health. 

Why were those people at a Houthi port known for serving as a point of transfer for Iranian weapons? Were those who were killed Houthi officials? Were they engaged in activity that posed an active and immediate threat to Israelis? The reader will never know anything beyond that the numbers provided by the Houthi-run Health Ministry in Yemen “could not be independently verified.”

It’s a regular occurrence in Israel-related reporting, where reports on West Bank clashes fail to mention when those killed are members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad or one of the many armed militant groups operating in the territory. 

More than 20 months after Hamas terrorists tore through southern Israel, raping, burning and killing people and destroying obstacles in their way, foreign reporters in the region continue to use casualty figures from the terror group’s Gaza Ministry of Health, noting only that the group doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Concerns over the reliance on the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry were so severe that American legislators passed — on a bipartisan basis — an amendment to last year’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations bill barring the State Department from using the health ministry’s statistics. Read our report here.

An ABC News report from earlier this week on violence near humanitarian aid distribution sites in Gaza leads with the headline “More than 30 killed at controversial foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza: Health officials,” giving an air of legitimacy to the claim — even though a reader would have to move down to the story before learning that those health officials came from the “Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.” And nowhere in the story does ABC News note that the Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The inclination to publish talking points and statistics from terror groups and regimes incentivizes a playbook for malign actors — from Iran to the Houthis and Hamas — to provide misleading casualty figures for the media to carry that lack the intricacies and nuances necessary in such reporting.

And in this new media reality, misinformation and malign actors — already benefiting from  sympathetic media organizations — thrive. 

An Iranian missile struck Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, for the second consecutive day on Friday, hours after President Donald Trump said he would decide in the next two weeks whether to join Israel in striking the Islamic Republic.

The IDF unsuccessfully attempted to intercept the surface-to-surface missile from Iran, which injured seven and left a crater at the blast site and damage to buildings in the area of Beersheba’s HiTech Park.

One of the sites reportedly damaged was Microsoft’s office in Beersheba, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed worked in “close collaboration with the Israeli military” and was “part of the system supporting aggression, not merely a civilian entity.” 

Beersheba Mayor Rubik Danilovich said, “There is extensive damage, but people acted according to Home Front Command instructions” — to enter safe rooms and shelters — “and saved themselves. Our challenge is to collect the residents and find them solutions. We prepared for this.” 

Some of the residents wounded by the blast were evacuated to Soroka Medical Center, the hospital in the city where an entire wing was destroyed by a missile a day prior. That wing was older and, unlike other areas of the hospital complex, not reinforced to protect from attacks.

Hours before the strike on Beersheba, the IDF shot down an Iranian drone near the Dead Sea. 

But in most parts of the country, Israelis had their first quiet night in a week, with no sirens interrupting the sleep of residents of central or northern Israel. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that President Trump would take up to two weeks to decide if the U.S. will join Israel’s operation against Iran. Key components of Iran’s nuclear program are in a facility in Fordow built under a mountain, and experts said Israel does not have the capability to destroy it from the air, while the U.S. has Massive Ordinance Penetrators and B-2 heavy stealth bombers, which are thought to be have the capacity to destroy it.

“I have a message directly from the president, and I quote, ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,'” she said at a White House briefing.

“He’s been very clear,” Leavitt stated. “Iran went for 60 days when he gave them that 60-day warning without coming to the table. On day 61, Israel took action against Iran. And as I just told you from the president directly, he will make a decision within two weeks.”

Israel struck the Lavizan area of Tehran late Thursday night. Earlier this week, opposition news outlet Iran International reported that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was underground with his family in Lavizan. 

In the early hours of Friday morning, the IDF struck Rasht, a town near the Caspian Sea in northern Iran, and the location of a technological park. The IDF sent residents an evacuation notice before the strike, saying that it plans to “attack military infrastructure” in the area.

Over 60 IAF aircraft attacked dozens of targets in Iran overnight, including “an essential component for nuclear weapons,” IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said in his daily briefing on Friday. 

Defrin said that Iran had planned a larger attack on Beersheba on Friday morning but Israel thwarted that plan, destroying three primed launchers. “Prior to launch, we detected the deployment of three launchers that were ready to fire, as seen on the screen, and we neutralized them,” Defrin said.

Israeli aircraft  struck production sites for missiles and missile components, as well as radar installations and a weapons research and development center in Tehran, the IDF Spokesperson’s office said.

Asked about reports that the IDF is running low on interceptors, Defrin explained that the more missile launchers Israel strikes in Iran, the fewer interceptors it will need in Israel.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Thursday that Israel caused severe damage to Iran’s heavy water reactor in Khondab, used for research. IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said he did not expect any radiological consequences. 

After an Iranian ballistic missile struck a home in the northern Israeli city of Tamra, killing a woman, her two daughters and her sister-in-law, news outlets faced an additional challenge beyond the sober responsibility of covering a tragic loss: choosing what language to use to describe these women and their ethnic identity. 

Tamra is an Arab town, with a history dating back hundreds of years. When Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited on Wednesday, he talked about the “shared society of Jews and Arabs” in Israel that “believe in our common life together,” and described the victims as “Muslim women.” Most news reports — in major international outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — referred to Tamra as either an “Arab-Israeli city” or an “Arab town in Israel.” 

CNN, however, chose a different word for Tamra, a city that is firmly inside Israel’s original 1948 borders: Palestinian. 

“Iranian strikes expose bomb shelter shortage for Palestinian towns inside Israel,” read one headline from this week. The accompanying article described Tamra’s residents as “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Another story called Tamra a “Palestinian-Israeli town.” 

The descriptor is sure to confuse some readers. If advocates for a two-state solution talk about separate Israeli and Palestinian states, how can there be a Palestinian town within Israel? 

The use of the word is not a statement about the town being under Palestinian sovereignty or the jurisdiction of a Palestinian governing authority. The word is used to describe the national identity of the people who live there, similar to describing Americans of Chinese ancestry as Chinese Americans — only much more complicated, because of the recent politics of the war in Gaza and nearly eight decades of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Anwar Mhajne, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, who grew up in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in Israel, told Jewish Insider that using the term “Palestinian” to describe her identity and the place where she grew up can serve as an educational opportunity for people from outside the region who don’t know the history of her community, which dates back several hundred years.

“If I’m talking to outsiders who don’t understand the history of the region, I would say, ‘It’s a historically Palestinian town inside of Israel,’” Mhajne said. “Then I have to tell them the whole story of how that happened. The reason why I do this is because I have people ask me, ‘Wait, you’re not Jewish, so how are you in Israel?’” 

CNN’s use of the word “Palestinian” to describe the Arab-Israeli residents of Tamra reflects a broader linguistic shift that has been happening over the years among Israel’s Arab citizens, who account for about 20% of Israel’s population. A spokesperson for CNN did not respond to a question about whether the language reflected a change to the network’s style guide, but the recent language appears to be a shift for the news network, which even earlier this year used the term “Arab Israelis” in its reporting. 

“There’s a growing trend going on in the past, I want to say 10, maybe 20, years, of people who are saying, ‘We are going to reclaim our identity as Palestinians, and we’re not going to be ashamed to call ourselves Palestinians,’” said Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who is completing a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She counts herself among that trend: She didn’t use the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” to describe herself until her late 20s, after she studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. 

Abu Fraiha grew up in a Jewish city in Israel and she trained at Israeli institutions. She was working at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba — the hospital that was hit by an Iranian missile on Thursday — during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, when she helped treat hundreds of people injured that day. She likes the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” because it encompasses two parts of her identity that are both important, although she is not a stickler about the language; she previously served as health policy director at the Task Force for Health Promotion and Equity in the Arab Society at the Israeli Ministry of Health, an official government entity.

“First, yes, I’m Israeli. I was born and raised there. Hebrew is my first language. I love the Israeli culture,” Abu Fraiha explained. “I’m fully Israeli. And then at the same time, my history, my narrative, my national connection, is to the Palestinian people.” 

Mhajne, too, identifies with the Israeli part of her identity. It’s the passport she holds. She is the product of an Israeli education, and earned her bachelor’s degree at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. But that is not the full story of who she is. 

“I do hold both close, dearly, and I think they’re very important to hold onto. Historically, culturally, in a lot of ways, we are Palestinian, and we share that story. It’s our ancestors’ stories. These towns and us, we’ve been there for a long time, even before Israel was a state.”

Among Israel’s Jewish population, the language has not caught on widely, although it has growing cachet among Israeli Jews on the political left. Israel’s government formally uses the term “Arab-Israeli” to describe this part of the population, and that is the language generally used in English, too. 

Shayna Weiss, senior associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis, said the rhetorical matter can be “quite confusing” for her undergraduate students, so she usually discusses it at the beginning of each course she teaches about Israeli society.

“I generally use the term ‘Israeli Palestinian’ ‘Palestinian citizens of Israel,’ but there are also instances where some people have said they see themselves as Israeli Arab, like certain pop stars, that sort of thing. And if I know that’s what they think about themselves, that’s the term I try and use,” Weiss told JI. 

The death of the women and girls in Tamra has brought to the surface a rhetorical debate that has been bubbling up for years. Ultimately, Mhajne argued, what matters is not the words used to describe them — but that they were human beings. 

“It bugs me, honestly, sometimes when people fight over ‘Arab’ and ‘Palestinian,’” she said. “They’re someone’s wife and daughters.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe has told colleagues behind closed doors he believes Iran is actively working toward building a nuclear weapon, comparing the claim that Tehran isn’t working on building a nuclear weapon to the idea that football players at the 1-yard line would not attempt to score a touchdown, per CBS News, citing an unnamed U.S. official.

His reported comments function as a rebuke of U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran is not actively developing a nuclear weapon, in spite of its accelerating efforts to amass stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in violation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments and construction of ballistic missiles with which a nuclear weapon could be launched.

Testimony from the intelligence community to the House and Senate intelligence committees has downplayed the risk of Tehran developing a weapon. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified as recently as March that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has not given orders to weaponize Iran’s nuclear technology, and Iranian researchers had yet to restart their research on a delivery system, consistent with assessments from prior administrations.

Ratcliffe’s testimony comes after President Donald Trump publicly disagreed with Gabbard’s testimony. U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials have similarly disputed Gabbard’s assessment. Ratcliffe’s assessment coincides with reports that Trump has already tentatively approved a U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

Ratcliffe is reportedly one of a small inner circle of advisers whom Trump is consulting as he mulls U.S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, from which Gabbard has been excluded.

Good Thursday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the early morning Iranian strikes that hit Israel’s Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Tel Aviv’s Diamond District and the city of Holon, and cover President Donald Trump’s comments on potential U.S. military involvement against Iran’s nuclear program. We cover Sen. Ted Cruz’s recent interview with Tucker Carlson and report on former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pushback against Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the “globalize the intifada” slogan. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alex Wong, Morgan Ortagus and Haim.

What We’re Watching

• President Donald Trump will hold an intelligence briefing in the Situation Room this morning. The meeting comes days after the president reportedly approved a plan to attack Iran. Trump has so far held off on issuing the final order to move forward on the attack plan, in order to give Tehran the opportunity to abandon its nuclear program diplomatically. 
• We’re also keeping an eye on U.S. military movements in the region, signaling U.S. military preparation for possible strikes on Iran — including whether those movements will include planes capable of carrying the bunker-buster bombs believed necessary to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Lahav harkov

Israelis woke to sirens this morning — a routine occurrence over the past week — but were shocked to learn that Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center, one of the country’s major hospitals, had been among the sites hit in the most recent barrage of ballistic missiles from Iran. In addition to Soroka, there were direct hits in the Tel Aviv area that wounded 89, including three seriously.

The missile struck the hospital’s old surgical building, severely damaging it and causing what a Soroka spokesperson described as “extensive damage in various areas” of the hospital complex. The surgical building had been recently evacuated in light of the war, and patients and staff had been moved to areas with reinforced walls. Injuries from the strike were light, hospital representatives said.

Soroka is the largest hospital in the Negev, such that the strike left a large swath of Israel without a functioning major medical center. Other hospitals in the area, including Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, prepared to take in patients from buildings that were damaged. Magen David Adom provided four intensive care buses, able to transport a total of 23 ICU patients and 50 lightly injured casualties.

Early Thursday, the IDF struck an inactive nuclear reactor near Arak in Iran after sending warnings to civilians in the area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the strike included “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.” The IDF also gave details of strikes on the active nuclear site in Natanz, which “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.” 

In addition, 40 IAF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, including factories manufacturing ballistic missile and air-defense components, as well as air-defense batteries, surface-to-surface missile storage sites, radar systems and other targets.

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

close to the vest

Trump on U.S. striking Iran: ‘I may do it, I may not do it’

There is a chance the U.S. will join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday, adding that “nobody knows” yet what he will decide, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

What he said: “I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump said in his first public comments about Iran after an hour-long Situation Room briefing on Tuesday. He said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “keep going.” Trump added, “So far he’s doing a good job.” He acknowledged that some of his supporters “are a little bit unhappy” about his posture toward Iran, but added that there are “some people that are very happy.” Trump further threw his support behind Israel’s actions: “All I’m doing is saying you can’t have a nuclear weapon. I’m trying to do it nicely, and then on Day 61, I said, let’s go,” he said. 

Read the full story here.

Disowned: “My supporters don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon. … Very simple: If they think it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me,” Trump said in response to a question in the Oval Office later in the day about the foreign policy debates between hawks and isolationists in the GOP base, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “The problem is they get themselves into a thing: They don’t want them to have nuclear, but then they say, ‘Well, we don’t want to fight.’ Well, you’re going to have to make a choice because it’s possible that you’re going to have to fight for them not to have nuclear.”

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FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Hegseth defends Kingsley Wilson amid questioning about antisemitic record

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth offered a strident defense of Kingsley Wilson, the recently promoted Pentagon press secretary with a history of espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, under questioning at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

No hesitation: “I’ve worked directly with her, she does a fantastic job, and any suggestion that I or her or others are party to antisemitism is a mischaracterization attempting to win political points,” Hegseth said in a heated exchange with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who co-chairs the Senate antisemitism task force. “Senator, you’re attempting to win political points on the backs of mischaracterizing the statements of a member of my department and I’m not going to stand for that,” Hegseth continued. Rosen shot back that his answer made clear Hegseth was not serious about fighting antisemitism.

Read the full story here.

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TC VS TC

The key moments from the testy Tucker Carlson-Ted Cruz showdown

Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast published on Wednesday devolved into a shouting match at times between the two GOP heavyweights, with insults and charges of ignorance and antisemitism dominating the two-hour conversation between one of the Republican Party’s biggest pro-Israel champions and one of the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Increasingly tense: The interview was relatively civil for the first hour, but began to devolve when Carlson and Cruz started debating the benefits of the U.S. relationship with Israel and the merits of Israel and the United States allegedly spying on one another. Carlson pressed Cruz to say that allies spying on one another was wrong, which Cruz responded to by asking why Carlson and others had an “obsession with Israel” while ignoring similar behavior from other allies. Carlson rejected that he was “obsessed with Israel.” 

Read the full story here.

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TRANSITION

Morgan Ortagus joins U.S. mission to the U.N. after NSC shake-up

Morgan Ortagus, who joined the Trump administration as Steve Witkoff’s deputy Middle East special envoy, has now moved to a position at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. A State Department directory lists Ortagus as a senior policy advisor at the mission to the U.N., according to a screenshot obtained by JI. 

Background: Ortagus left Witkoff’s office after a widespread purge of Israel and Iran officials at the National Security Council. Ortagus is close with Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor who is now his pick to serve as ambassador to the UN. 

Read the full story here.

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SEEKING STRATEGY

Top Senate Democrats caution Trump against potential U.S. Iran strikes

Asserting that President Donald Trump “owes Congress and the American people a strategy for U.S. engagement” in the Middle East, top Senate Democrats cautioned in a statement on Wednesday afternoon against potential U.S. strikes on Iran and argued that the president would need congressional authorization to conduct such an operation, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Why it matters: The signatories to the statement include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrats on several key Senate committees and subcommittees. The statement suggests that a direct U.S. military intervention in Iran would see little support among Senate Democrats. “We are deeply concerned about a lack of preparation, strategy, and clearly defined objectives, and the enormous risk to Americans and civilians in the region,” the senators said.

Read the full story here.

Elsewhere on the Hill: Meanwhile, a group of 10 House Republicans led by Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Ann Wagner (R-MO) wrote to Trump on Wednesday with a very different message: “We fully support future efforts to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program and, if necessary, take decisive action to protect American lives and interests, as is within your powers as Commander-in-Chief.” They also reiterated that no deal with Iran can allow Iran to continue enriching uranium. “Above all, we are in full support of the red line you have set with Iran to prevent them from regaining their power and influence in the region via proxy groups or a nuclear weapon.”

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Cuomo denounces Mamdani for defending calls to ‘globalize the intifada’

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke out against Zohran Mamdani, his top rival in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, for defending calls to “globalize the intifada” in a widely criticized podcast appearance this week, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Cuomo’s criticism: “Yesterday when Zohran Mamdani was asked a direct question about what he thought of the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ he dismissed it as ‘language that is subject to interpretation,’” Cuomo said in a social media post on Wednesday. “That is not only wrong — it is dangerous. At a time when we are seeing antisemitism on the rise and in fact witnessing once again violence against Jews resulting in their deaths in Washington, D.C., or their burning in Denver (sic) — we know all too well that words matter. They fuel hate. They fuel murder.”

Read the full story here.

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Iranian ballistic missiles struck Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel and sites in the Tel Aviv area on Thursday morning, wounding 89, including three seriously.

A missile struck the hospital’s old surgical building, severely damaging it and causing what a Soroka spokesperson described as “extensive damage in various areas” of the hospital complex. The surgical building had been recently evacuated in light of the war, and patients and staff had been moved to areas with reinforced walls. Injuries from the strike were light, hospital representatives said.

Soroka is the largest hospital in the Negev, such that the strike left a large swath of Israel without a functioning major medical center. Other hospitals in the area, including Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, prepared to take in patients from buildings that were damaged. Magen David Adom provided four intensive care buses, able to transport a total of 23 ICU patients and 50 lightly injured casualties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote that “The Iranian regime fired a ballistic missile at a hospital. The Iranian Regime deliberately targets civilians. The Iranian regime is committing war crimes. The Iranian regime has no red lines.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that “Iran’s terrorist dictators shot missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and the civilian population in the center of the country. We will make the dictators in Tehran pay the full price.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the price would be to destabilize the Islamic Republic’s regime.

“The prime minister and I instructed the IDF to increase the force of the attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against governmental targets in Tehran to remove the threats to the State of Israel and undermine the Ayatollahs’ regime,” he stated.

Iranian news agency IRNA claimed that the target of the strike was an IDF intelligence outpost in Beersheba’s HiTech Park, which is over a mile away from the hospital. A television channel tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the missile was aimed at a “military hospital” in response to strikes on “civilian hospitals” in Gaza.

In the same 30-missile barrage, Iranian missiles struck a school in Holon. No children were present, because schools have been closed across Israel since Friday, but three elderly residents of adjacent buildings were wounded in serious condition, in addition to 62 others with minor to moderate injuries.

Another missile struck near the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange, abutting Tel Aviv, causing minor injuries to 21 people and damage to 20 buildings in the neighborhood, which includes some of Israel’s tallest buildings.

Shrapnel struck Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s biggest hospital, also in Ramat Gan.

Overnight, the IDF intercepted several drones launched by Iran at Israel towards central and northern Israel. 

Jordanian authorities reported that an Iranian drone fell in a shopping center north of Amman, damaging a car and a bus station. Syrian media reported that an Iranian drone was shot down over the country.

The IDF struck an inactive nuclear reactor near Arak in Iran early Thursday after sending warnings to civilians in the area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the strike included “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.”

“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.

The IDF also gave details of strikes on the active nuclear site in Natanz, which “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.” 

In addition, 40 IAF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, including factories manufacturing ballistic missile and air-defense components, as well as air-defense batteries, surface-to-surface missile storage sites, radar systems and other targets.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir sent a letter of encouragement to IDF soldiers and commanders on Thursday, saying that they are “writing a new chapter in history for the State of Israel and the entire Middle East.”

”Thanks to a decisive and impressive surprise opening strike, we have achieved tremendous goals: We eliminated the regime’s command echelons, delivered a deep blow to the capabilities used for the Iranian nuclear program, identified and struck missile launchers, and we are continuing and increasing the strength of our operations as necessary,” Zamir wrote.

Iranian news reported that the country’s military shot down a second Israeli Hermes Drome. The IDF confirmed that Iran downed the first UAV a day earlier.

Israel’s Home Front Command loosened restrictions on Israelis on Wednesdays, allowing people to return to workplaces with safe rooms and for up to 30 people to attend synagogue at a time. Schools and kindergartens remained closed.

A poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 70% of Israelis support the campaign launched against Iran last week, while 10% support the campaign but think the timing is wrong and 13.5% oppose it. Among Israeli Jews, 82% support the strikes, whereas only 11% of Israeli Arabs do, according to the poll. Jewish Israelis across the political spectrum support the operation: 57% of those who self-identify as left-wing, 75% of centrists and 90% on the right.

Though in past polls, most Jewish Israelis did not think Israel should strike Iran without help from the U.S., this week 69% thought it was the right decision. In addition, 68% of Jewish Israelis thought that Netanyahu’s motivation behind launching the operation against Iran was security-related, while 68% of Arab Israelis thought it was political.

The poll was conducted this Sunday-Tuesday among 594 Israelis, with a 3.61% margin of error.

Asserting that President Donald Trump “owes Congress and the American people a strategy for U.S. engagement” in the Middle East, top Senate Democrats on Wednesday cautioned against potential U.S. strikes on Iran and argued that the president would need congressional authorization to conduct such an operation.

The signatories to the statement include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrats on several key Senate committees and subcommittees. The statement suggests that a direct U.S. military intervention in Iran would see little support among Senate Democrats.

Trump has indicated that he is considering carrying out strikes inside Iran but has yet to make a final decision.

“​​Intensifying military actions between Israel and Iran represent a dangerous escalation that risks igniting a broader regional war,” the statement reads. “As President Trump reportedly considers expanding U.S. engagement in the war, we are deeply concerned about a lack of preparation, strategy, and clearly defined objectives, and the enormous risk to Americans and civilians in the region.”

The lawmakers said they are “alarmed by the Trump administration’s failure to provide answers to fundamental questions” and demanded that the president seek authorization from Congress “if he is considering taking the country to war.” 

“Congress has not provided authorization for military action against Iran – we will not rubberstamp military intervention that puts the United States at risk,” the Democrats said. “Our foremost duty is to safeguard American citizens wherever they reside and to protect our troops serving on the front lines. The United States cannot sleepwalk into a third war in as many decades. Congress has a critical role to play in this moment.” 

Legislation has been introduced in the Senate to bar military action against Iran, which could come up for a vote as soon as next week.

“[Trump] owes Congress and the American people a strategy for U.S. engagement in the region. We need a clear, detailed plan outlining the goals, risks, cost, and timeline for any proposed mission, as well as how he will ensure the safe evacuation of Americans in harm’s way all across the region,” they continued. “We demand immediate, detailed answers on these and other urgent matters to determine the way forward.

At the same time, the statement describes Iran as a threat to the U.S. and its allies that “must not be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon.” 

“The United States stands firm in our support for the continued defense of Israel, our partner and ally,” they said. “Our commitment to Israel remains ironclad and we urge the administration to defend Israel against the barrage of Iranian airstrikes, including through the provision of additional air defense capabilities.”

Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast published on Wednesday devolved into a shouting match at times between the two GOP heavyweights, with insults and charges of ignorance and antisemitism dominating the two-hour conversation between one of the Republican Party’s biggest pro-Israel champions and one of the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

The interview was relatively civil for the first hour, but began to devolve when Carlson and Cruz started debating the benefits of the U.S. relationship with Israel and the merits of Israel and the United States allegedly spying on one another. 

Carlson pressed Cruz to say that allies spying on one another was wrong, which Cruz responded to by asking why Carlson and others had an “obsession with Israel” while ignoring similar behavior from other allies. Carlson rejected that he was “obsessed with Israel” before noting that he has never taken money from AIPAC, which he referred to as “the Israel lobby.” 

The conversation started to become more animated as the two could not find common ground on the role and purpose of AIPAC, with Carlson insisting that the organization, which is made up of U.S. citizens advocating for the U.S.-Israel relationship, needed to be registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act — an argument sometimes used as an antisemitic dog whistle accusing Jewish supporters of Israel of dual loyalty — and Cruz vehemently disagreeing. 

The interview grew more tense after Cruz accused Carlson of having an “obsession with Israel” and asked why he was so focused on asking, “What about the Jews? What about the Jews?” without being critical of other foreign governments.

“Oh, I’m an antisemite now?” Carlson replied wryly. 

“You’re asking, ‘Why are the Jews controlling our foreign policy?” Cruz told Carlson after the latter said he had accused him of antisemitism in a “sleazy feline way.”

Cruz told Carlson to give him “another reason why the obsession is Israel,” to which Carlson responded: “I am in no sense obsessed with Israel. We are on the brink of war with Iran, and so these are valid questions.”

“You asked me why I’m obsessed with Israel three minutes after telling me that when you first ran for Congress, you elucidated one of your main goals, which is to defend Israel. I’m the one who’s obsessed with Israel,” Carlson said, adding, “Shame on you for conflating” Jews and Israel.

“Israel and Jews have nothing to do with each other?” Cruz asked after Carlson claimed there was not a correlation.

Carlson said he was “totally opposed” to Iran’s desire to kill all Jews and Americans, which Cruz replied to by saying: “Except you don’t want to do anything about it.” 

The two then sparred over Carlson’s focus on Israel’s influence on U.S. foreign policy, with Cruz claiming Carlson was placing too much emphasis on the Jewish state while ignoring the malign influence of other governments. 

“I don’t even like talking about Israel. I never do because it’s not worth being called antisemites from AIPAC recipients,” Carlson said. “But now we are on the verge of joining a war and I just want to be clear about why we’re doing this.”

Carlson stated that anyone who criticized Israel’s actions were “instantly called an antisemite for asking questions” and said Israel was “the only government that no one will ever criticize.” Cruz said he rejected that assertion, pointing to statements from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a progressive House lawmaker and frequent critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Carlson scoffed at Cruz’s Tlaib reference, explaining that he was referring to the consequences for “Republicans that I would vote for, including you.” 

Regarding Iran, the two sparred over the regime’s apparent efforts to assassinate Trump, which Carlson denied had occurred.

“I voted for Donald Trump. I campaigned for Donald Trump. He’s our president, and we’re on the cusp of a war. So if there’s evidence that Iran paid a hitman to kill Donald Trump and is currently doing that, where is that? What are you even talking about? I’ve never heard that before. Where’s the evidence? Who are these people? Why haven’t they been arrested? Why are we not at war with Iran?” Carlson asked.

The Justice Department, in November 2024, did, in fact, indict multiple individuals in connection to the assassination plot, arresting two individuals involved in the scheme in the United States and issuing a warrant for a third, described as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps asset.

The plot had been extensively reported upon, both at the time and in the months since. Cruz criticized Carlson for his suspicions about the plot.

The former Fox host asked Cruz shortly after to explain why he’d be proud to say that he came to Washington with the goal of being the most pro-Israel member of Congress, to which Cruz responded by citing his Christian faith, after which the two sparred about Christian scripture. 

The senator subsequently argued that he does not solely cite his faith as his reason for supporting Israel in his professional capacity, telling Carlson that he had championed the Jewish state because of his belief that Israel is our best ally in the Middle East. 

“I think the most acute national security threat facing America right now is the threat of a nuclear Iran. I think China is the biggest long-term threat, but acute in the near term is a nuclear Iran. And I think Israel is doing a massive favor to America right now by trying to take out Iran’s nuclear capacity,” he continued, later adding, “You want to ask: how does supporting Israel benefit us? Right now, this tiny little country the size of the state of New Jersey is fighting our enemies for us and taking out their top military leadership and trying to take out their nuclear capacity. That makes America much safer.”

Returning to the subject of Cruz’s faith, the Texas senator said that his support for Israel was also rooted in his Christian faith, citing the biblical phrase: “Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.”

Carlson mocked the fact that Cruz’s faith informed his pro-Israel views, and asked specifically the biblical citation. After Cruz acknowledged he didn’t know the exact verse, the podcast host then incorrectly answered his own question, mistakenly saying it was in Genesis.  (The verse is from Numbers 24:9.)

The interview again devolved into chaos after Cruz acknowledged that upon sharp questioning that he did not know the exact population size of Iran, prompting both men to question what the other knew, if anything, about the country. Carlson accused Cruz of being dismissive of the consequences of the military actions he was calling for, while Cruz accused Carlson of adopting the foreign policy platform of progressive Democrats. 

The first 60 minutes of the interview, which was released on Wednesday, was largely civil with Carlson asking Cruz to explain his support for Israel’s operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and regime change in Tehran.

The Texas senator argued that his recent comments in favor of toppling Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were not an endorsement of a U.S. military invasion of Iran but rather of the idea of a democratic Iran. 

The two initially agreed that it would be better for the U.S. without an Iranian regime that aspires to destroy Western civilization and that they were frustrated by the interventionist versus isolationist binary that has increasingly characterized Republican foreign policy.

“For a long time, people have perceived two different poles of Republican foreign policy. There have been interventionists, and those have been people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham George W. Bush, and there have been isolationists, and the most prominent of those have been Ron Paul and Rand Paul and there are others. People perceive those are the two choices, you’ve got to be one of the other. I’ve always thought both were wrong. I don’t agree with either one,” Cruz said.

“For whatever it’s worth, I agree with you. I don’t know who set up that binary, but there are lots of choices, actually,” Carlson responded. Carlson is seen by many, however, as one of the leading figures of the isolationist wing.

The two men described themselves as non-interventionist hawks, with each saying they believed in the principle that the “central touchpoint for U.S. foreign policy and for any question of military intervention should be the vital national security interests of the United States” before disagreeing on whether the situation in Middle East qualified as such. 

Jewish Insider’s senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday rebuked Republican isolationists who have argued it’s not necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, dismissing them as not being his true supporters.

“My supporters are for me. My supporters are America First and Make America Great Again,” Trump said from the Oval Office, in response to a question about the foreign policy debates between hawks and isolationists in the GOP base. “My supporters don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon. … Very simple: If they think it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me.”

The president said he believes Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it had one.

“I don’t want to get involved either, but I’ve been saying for 20 years, maybe longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “I’ve been saying it for a long time, and I think they were a few weeks away from having one.”

He highlighted apparent logical inconsistencies in isolationists’ position on the issue.

“The problem is they get themselves into a thing: They don’t want them to have nuclear, but then they say, ‘Well, we don’t want to fight,’” Trump said. “Well, you’re going to have to make a choice because it’s possible that you’re going to have to fight for them not to have nuclear.”

Trump softened some of his previous criticism of Tucker Carlson, a prominent voice in isolationist circles whom the president had rebuked earlier this week for railing against U.S. support for Israel. He said that Carlson had called him to apologize.

Trump said he’d pressed Carlson on whether he would accept a nuclear-armed Iran, and said that Carlson “sort of didn’t like that. I said, ‘Well, if it’s OK with you, then you and I do have a difference,’ but it’s really not OK with him.”

“Therefore, you may have to fight and maybe it’ll end, and maybe it’ll end very quickly, but there’s no way that you can allow — whether you have to fight or not — you can have Iran to have a nuclear weapon, because the entire world will blow up,” Trump continued.

Trump said he planned to hold a meeting in the Situation Room on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the situation in the Middle East, but said he would delay a decision on striking Iran as long as possible.

“I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due,” he said. “With war, things change. It can go from one extreme to the other. War is very bad. There was no reason for this to be a war.”

The president said that the United States is the only country with the capabilities to destroy the deeply buried Fordow nuclear facility, but reiterated that he had not yet made the decision to do so.

Trump said that the success of Israel’s operations on their first night of bombing raids last week had made him more willing to consider possible U.S. involvement and strikes.

He also sent somewhat mixed messages on whether he’s open to continued talks with Iran.

“I had a great deal for them. They should have made that deal. Sixty days we talked about it, and in the end they decided not to do it. And now they wish they did it, and they want to meet,” Trump said. “It’s a little late to meet, but they want to meet and they want to come to the White House … so we’ll see. I may do that. It’s a shame, it could have been done the easy way.”

He said that he’s seeking “total complete victory” over Iran, in which it cannot have nuclear weapons.

“Iran was very close to signing what would have been a very good agreement for them and maybe that could still happen, I guess,” he said, adding that Iranian negotiators’ interest in visiting the White House is “a big statement, but it’s very late.”

Trump also noted that it may be difficult for Iranian negotiators to actually leave the country to visit the White House for negotiations.

The latest comments appeared somewhat less aggressive than Trump’s warnings the previous day that the U.S. could assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump today was largely noncommittal on the issue of regime change in Iran saying, “Sure, anything could happen. That? That could happen.”

There is a chance the U.S. will join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday, adding that “nobody knows” yet what he will decide.

“I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump said in his first public comments about Iran after an hour-long Situation Room briefing on Tuesday. 

He said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “keep going.” 

“So far he’s doing a good job,” Trump added. 

He acknowledged that some of his supporters “are a little bit unhappy” about his posture toward Iran, but added that there are “some people that are very happy.” Trump further threw his support behind Israel’s actions: “All I’m doing is saying you can’t have a nuclear weapon. I’m trying to do it nicely, and then on day 61, I said, let’s go,” he said. 

The president said that Iran has contacted the White House to talk about resuming negotiations. But Trump suggested the time for negotiations may have passed.

“Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate. And I said, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction?’” Trump said. “Why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country.”

Trump used the word “we” to describe the destruction of Iran’s air defense systems, without elaborating on the role the U.S. has played in assisting Israel. “We’ve totally captured the air,” Trump said Wednesday, following a post on Truth Social on Tuesday with similar language. 

In another Tuesday Truth Social post, Trump called for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.” He explained to the reporters, “That means I’ve had it. OK? I’ve had it. I give up. No more. Then we go blow up all the nuclear stuff that’s all over the place there,” said Trump. 

He offered stridently critical comments about the Islamic Republic. 

“For 40 years they’ve been saying, ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’ death to anybody else that they didn’t like. They were bullies,” Trump said of the Iranian regime. “They were schoolyard bullies, and now they’re not bullies anymore, but we’ll see what happens. Look, nothing’s finished until it’s finished.” 

Trump warned again that Tehran cannot be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon — and intimated that Iran poses a direct threat to the United States.

“Is there anybody here that said it would be OK to have to have a hostile — very zealous, really — but to have a hostile country have a nuclear weapon that could destroy 25 miles, but much more than that, could destroy other nations, just by the breeze blowing the dust?” Trump asked. “That dust blows to other nations and they get decimated. This is just not a threat you can have. And we’ve been threatened by Iran for many years.”

At the end of the press conference, a reporter asked Trump for a message for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Good luck,” Trump said. When asked when his patience will run out, Trump responded simply: “It’s already run out.”

Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we continue to report on the latest developments in the war between Israel and Iran, including President Donald Trump’s call for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” and the potential for U.S. involvement in strikes targeting the Fordow nuclear facility. We also highlight stories of stranded Israelis attempting to enter the country and stranded tourists attempting to exit it, and report on NYC mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada.” Also in today’s Daily Kickoff, Sen. Josh Hawley, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and David Zaslav.

What We’re Watching

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning on the Pentagon’s 2026 fiscal year budget.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will appear in a new interview with Tucker Carlson, slated to be released later today. Clips released ahead of the full interview show clashes between the Texas Republican and conservative commentator, whose policy positions on Iran and Israel are increasingly at odds with the Trump administration.
• The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is holding a memorial event tonight for Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

While the last two months have been an exercise in diplomacy for Trump administration officials, who have crisscrossed the Middle East and Europe in an attempt to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, the last 24 hours have seen a sharp pivot from President Donald Trump to a more hard-line approach to Tehran.

“UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” the president posted on his Truth Social site on Tuesday afternoon, understood to be a message to Iran after more than five days of Israeli attacks meant to degrade Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure. Iranian reprisals that have paralyzed Israel, but resulted in damage that has fallen far short of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s threats. (Khamenei responded on Wednesday that “the Iranian nation will not surrender.”)

Trump’s latest comments underscore his shift away from the isolationist elements of the GOP that have dominated his administration since a purge of more traditional foreign policy-minded Republicans, including former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. As The New York Times’ Ross Douthat wrote on Tuesday, Trump’s isolationist supporters “imagined that personnel was policy, that the realists and would-be restrainers in Trump’s orbit would have a decisive influence. That was clearly a mistake, and the lesson here is that Trump decides and no one else.”

On Capitol Hill, while Republicans appear publicly split on the level of involvement that the U.S. should have in the conflict — from working with Israel to destroy the Fordow nuclear facility to forcing Iran’s hand in diplomatic talks — JI’s conversations with legislators indicate a different approach behind the scenes. One senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal conference dynamics estimated that nearly the entire GOP conference is privately united on the issue of the U.S. supporting Israel in bombing the Fordow facility if Israel needs such support. Read more from JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod here.

“I think the president has struck the right position,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI, “which is supportive of Israel’s right of self-defense, which is what this really is, and supporting them publicly while they defend themselves. I think that’s the right position to stick on.” Read more of Hawley’s comments here.

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

ISRAEL-IRAN WAR, DAY 6

Over 50 Israeli warplanes strike in Tehran area overnight

Israel struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran early Wednesday, after successfully intercepting more than two dozen missiles launched by Iran toward Israel in the preceding hours. Over 50 Israeli Air Force jets flew to Iran, where they struck a facility in which centrifuges were manufactured to expand and accelerate uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. “The Iranian regime is enriching uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear power for civilian use does not require enrichment at these levels,” the IDF said.

Military update: The IDF also said it struck several weapons manufacturing facilities, including one used “to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel.” Another facility that the IDF struck manufactured components for anti-aircraft missiles. Effie Defrin, the chief military spokesman, said on Wednesday that the IDF “attacked five Iranian combat helicopters that tried to harm our aircraft.” Defrin added, “There is Iranian resistance, but we control the air [over Iran] and will continue to control it. We are deepening our damage to surface missiles and acting in every place from which the Iranians shoot missiles at Israel.”

Read the full story here.

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FORDOW FACTOR

Israeli national security advisor: Iran operation will not end without strike on Fordow nuclear facility

Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site is a key target in the current operation against the Islamic Republic, Israel’s national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Tuesday. “This operation will not conclude without a strike on the Fordow nuclear facility,” Hanegbi told Israel’s Channel 12 News. The Fordow facility is home to thousands of centrifuges, crucial to Iran’s weapons-grade uranium enrichment program, and is located 295 feet underground beneath a mountain. Israel is thought to have neither the munitions nor the aircraft to destroy it from the air, while the U.S. does, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. 

American angle: Washington, however, has yet to make clear if it will take part in the offensive on Iran, though it has shot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel in the last few days. Hanegbi said that he does not believe the Trump administration has made a decision on the matter yet. Hanegbi denied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked the U.S. to join Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites: “We didn’t ask and we won’t ask. We will leave it to the Americans to make such dramatic decisions about their own security. We think only they can decide.”

Read the full story here.

Decisive decision: A decision by Trump on whether or not to join Israel’s strikes against Iran could make the difference between the full destruction of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and a more drawn-out war with a less conclusive end, Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher in the Iran and the Shi’ite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI’s Lahav Harkov on Tuesday.

Word of warning: Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) cautioned on Tuesday that bombing Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility would leave significant enriched uranium buried underground. “I’m a little confused on all the conversation about dropping a bunker buster on a mountain that’s filled with enriched uranium, and how that solves the problem. If you’re going to try to get enriched uranium out of the country, dropping a big bunker buster on it may disable the centrifuges in [Fordow], but you still have 900 pounds of enriched uranium sitting there,” Lankford told JI’s Marc Rod.

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UNIQUE OFFERING

Is this the way Israel can compete with checkbook diplomacy?

Midway through June, the Middle East looks very different than it did when President Donald Trump traveled to the region just last month. Trump was feted by Gulf monarchs, as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates sought to make their mark on a business-savvy president by touting hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and trade deals. Now, with Israeli strikes on Iran entering their sixth day, the best way to get Trump’s attention in the region — at least for the moment — is no longer financial prowess. It is firepower, according to at least one observer, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Expert view: “I think what you saw over the last few days is Israel’s alternative model to checkbook diplomacy,” author and podcast host Dan Senor said in a Saturday episode of “The Prof G Pod,” hosted by NYU professor Scott Galloway. “Israel has its own way of competing, because what Israel is demonstrating is, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to be the country that personally has sheikhs and emirs who can write checks for billions and trillions of dollars into the American economy,’” Senor said. “‘But we are the most capable ally in the world, and you, the United States, are going to get more out of this relationship than you give.’”

Read the full story here.

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REVERSE EXODUS

Let my people leave — by land or by sea

Until flights out of Israel begin, Americans stuck there are passing along any information they can find — in WhatsApp threads, Facebook groups and private messages — to get themselves and their loved ones home. The details are hard to verify. The costs range from expensive to astronomical, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Moment of truth: When Home Front Command alerts woke Sam Heller at 3 a.m. on Friday, informing the nation that Israel had launched a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he quickly booked the first flight out to Paris from Ben Gurion Airport. “I went straight to the airport, and they locked the doors to Ben Gurion, and they stopped letting people in,” Heller told JI on Tuesday, safely back home in Cleveland. “They’re like, ‘We’re closing our airspace indefinitely. Your flight’s been canceled. All flights are canceled. You can’t get out.’”

At all costs: One graphic shared widely on WhatsApp advertises an emergency evacuation flight from Israel to New York, promising a Wednesday afternoon departure to Eilat and a bus transfer to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, followed by a charter flight to Milan, Italy, and then a connection to JFK Airport in New York — “lavish meals included” and “security escorted” — for $2,200 a person. According to the travel company’s website, though, it was already sold out by the time the graphic circulated. Another message advertised a chartered flight from Aqaba, Jordan — near Eilat — to Paris, for $3,000 a person. Abraham Tours, a travel company best known for its hostels in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, advertised a cross-border transfer to Amman, Jordan, for $438. 

Read the full story here. 

Pressure push: A bipartisan group of 45 House members led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Wesley Bell (D-MO) wrote to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urging officials to act promptly to facilitate evacuations of American citizens from Israel, or at least provide them with additional information on efforts to allow for such evacuations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

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GILDED CAGE

How a Mediterranean vacation destination for Israelis turned into a displaced persons hub

An American couple who were en route to Israel to celebrate their wedding but had their flight diverted. Two Israeli single mothers on holiday looking for a quick refresh, now stranded. A group of injured Israel Defense Forces soldiers on a healing retreat. These are some of the nearly 2,500 Jewish people that Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, the chief rabbi of Cyprus, and his wife, Shaindel, unexpectedly found themselves hosting for Shabbat last Friday after at least 32 flights from the United States and Europe were diverted to the island in the Mediterranean amid Israel’s preemptive military campaign against Iran, which was launched early Friday morning, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Old Faithful: Shabbat at Chabad “was amazing, a crazy experience,” said Tzvi Berg, a Jerusalem resident who was flying home from a wedding in New York on Thursday night when — just moments away from landing in Tel Aviv — his flight was rerouted to Larnaca, a port city in Cyprus. But as Shabbat ended — with Israeli airspace still shuttered as Iranian missiles continued to strike in Tel Aviv and elsewhere — “the challenge began again,” Raskin said. And those in need are knocking on Chabad’s door looking for food and accommodations, as many Jews do in moments of crisis around the world.

Read the full story here.

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CHANT CONTROVERSY

Zohran Mamdani says ‘globalize the intifada’ is expression of Palestinian rights

Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate in next Tuesday’s New York City mayoral primary, refused to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” during a new podcast interview with The Bulwark released on Tuesday, arguing the phrase is an expression of Palestinian rights. In an exchange about antisemitic rhetoric on the left, Mamdani was asked by podcast host Tim Miller to share his thoughts on the phrase, which has been invoked at anti-Israel demonstrations and criticized as an anti-Jewish call to violence, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

What he said: “To me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” said Mamdani, a far-left assemblyman from Queens who has long been an outspoken critic of Israel. “And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” he said, apparently referring to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. He added that, “as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning.”

Read the full story here.

Surveys say: Two new polls — from the Marist Institute for Public Opinion and the Manhattan Institute — show former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo leading New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in next week’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York City. The Marist poll has Cuomo ultimately prevailing over Mamdani in the seventh round of ranked-choice voting, 55-45, while the Manhattan Institute poll has Cuomo beating Mamdani 56-44 in 10 rounds.

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Worthy Reads

From Hands-Off to Hands-On: The New York Times looks at how President Donald Trump’s approach to the Israel-Iran war shifted as the war has unfolded. “When he woke on Friday morning, his favorite TV channel, Fox News, was broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius. And Mr. Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself. In phone calls with reporters, Mr. Trump began hinting that he had played a bigger behind-the-scenes role in the war than people realized. Privately, he told some confidants that he was now leaning toward a more serious escalation: going along with Israel’s earlier request that the United States deliver powerful bunker-busting bombs to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordo[w].” [NYTimes]

Axis of Illiberality: In The Washington Post, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and a former member of Knesset, considers the role of China, Russia and North Korea alongside Iran in advancing antisemitism around the world. “While ‘intersectionality’ once was intended to advance the foundational principles of life and liberty, it can now be applied to a contemporary target: authoritarian and illiberal regimes’ efforts to tear apart those very foundations. The declared intention is destroying liberal democracies. … There are many ties that bind Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Oil, arms and food bring them together; stoking global antisemitism is a useful tool in a divide-and-conquer strategy. These regimes pursue their agendas in ways that may outwardly vary, but they share a common goal: the West’s downfall. They all recognize that the liberal principles of democracies and the international rules-based order can be exploited to sow fear, despair and distrust.” [WashPost]

Word on the Street

President Donald Trump, traveling back to Washington from the G7 in Canada, dismissed a public assessment by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made earlier this year that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; Politico looks at the “widening gap” between Trump and Gabbard as the two clash on Middle East policy issues…

A new bipartisan resolution introduced by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) and 14 co-sponsors on Tuesday praises Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities and condemns Iran’s retaliatory missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

An Army general who served as the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate was removed from the joint staff amid an investigation into his social media posts, which included a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies” and allegations that American pro-Israel activists are prioritizing “support for Israel over our actual foreign interests”…

Tablet interviews the Institute for Science and International Security’s David Albright, a former International Atomic Energy Agency inspector, about the state of the Iranian nuclear program and Israeli capabilities to target the Fordow facility without U.S. assistance…

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) said he would consider a bid for the House seat held by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) if Sherrill prevails in the November gubernatorial election…

Colorado’s two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, wrote to Senate leaders on Tuesday calling for funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to be increased to as much as $500 million following the antisemitic attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; they also urged lawmakers to ensure that the funding can be used to “pay permanent security guards and other critical personnel”…

Oracle announced a new program, Oracle Defense Ecosystem, to help smaller vendors sell technology to the Pentagon, including artificial intelligence; participating vendors will be able to utilize Oracle’s office space and expertise with the Defense Department’s procurement system, as well as receive a discount for Palantir’s cloud and AI services…

Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting CEO David Zaslav’s pay when the company divides in two next year, though it will provide him with extra stock options that will pay out if the company hits share-price targets, in order to better tie pay to performance…

A Bay Area man is facing federal hate crimes charges for his participation in what the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office called an “antisemitic group beating” of two people, one of whom was Jewish; a physical confrontation escalated after members of the group reportedly shouted “free Palestine” and “f–k the Jews”…

A Maryland man was charged with allegedly sending numerous threats to Jewish organizations in Pennsylvania over a period of more than a year, from April 2024 to May 2025…

The Birmingham City Council became the first in the U.K. to recognize the Jewish identity of residents when collecting demographic data…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Israel was doing the “dirty work” of striking Iran “for all of us”…

A new poll from the Council for a Secure America found overwhelming support (79%) among the Israeli public for Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities…

The Wall Street Journal speaks with Israeli entrepreneurs about how the war between Israel and Iran is impacting Israeli startups — destroying homes and offices, calling up reservists, canceling conferences, halting business travel and affecting productivity…

The U.S. withdrew troops from two bases in northeastern Syria, amid concerns from U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces in the region that the vacuum could provide an opening for extremist groups…

Turkey is ramping up its production of medium- and long-range missiles amid the escalation between Israel and Iran…

Pic of the Day

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) met on Tuesday with Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, the first time the two have met for a security briefing in more than a month.

Birthdays

Music mogul, Scott Samuel “Scooter” Braun turns 44…

Chicago-based attorney, he is the only ordained rabbi to have served as an alderman on the Chicago City Council, Solomon Gutstein turns 91… Former Washington Post editor and reporter, Fred Barbash turns 80… Retired IT management advisor at Next Stage, Steven Shlomo Nezer… Croatian entrepreneur, he was previously the minister of economy, labour and entrepreneurship in the Croatian government, Davor Stern turns 78… Rabbi at Or Hamidbar in Palm Springs, Calif., he previously led congregations in Israel and Stockholm, Rabbi David James Lazar turns 68… Rebecca Diamond… Best-selling author and journalist, she was editor-in-chief of USA Today, Joanne Lipman turns 64… Retired professor of English at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Helene Meyers… Executive of the William Pears Group, a large UK real estate firm founded by his father and grandfather, Sir Trevor Steven Pears (family name was Schleicher) turns 61… Vice chairman and president of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, she recently joined the board of Meta/Facebook, Dina Powell McCormick… White House senior aide during the Trump 45 administration, he is a principal of Cordish Companies, Reed Saunders Cordish turns 51… Film director and screenwriter, Jonathan A. Levine turns 49… Actor, comedian, satirist and writer, known professionally as Ben Gleib, Ben Nathan Gleiberman turns 47… Television producer and writer, Jeremy Bronson turns 45… Baseball pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, he is now the director of pitching development for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jeremy Bleich turns 38… Of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Esther Lifshitz… Israeli musician, producer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by his stage name Dennis Lloyd, Nir Tibor turns 32… Investor at Silver Point Capital, Jacob E. Best… Rachel Hazan…

While the last two months have been an exercise in diplomacy for Trump administration officials, who have crisscrossed the Middle East and Europe in an attempt to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, the last 24 hours have seen a sharp pivot from President Donald Trump to a more hard-line approach to Tehran.

“UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” the president posted on his Truth Social site on Tuesday afternoon, understood to be a message to Iran after more than five days of Israeli attacks meant to degrade Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure. Iranian reprisals have paralyzed Israel, but resulted in damage that has fallen far short of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s threats. Khamenei responded on Wednesday that “the Iranian nation will not surrender.”

The president’s post, made following his early departure from the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, but before his Situation Room sit-down with senior advisors, signaled Trump’s new approach to the regional conflict.

Trump’s latest comments underscore his shift away from the isolationist elements of the GOP that have dominated his administration since a purge of more traditional foreign policy-minded Republicans, including former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. As The New York Times’ Ross Douthat wrote on Tuesday, Trump’s isolationist supporters “imagined that personnel was policy, that the realists and would-be restrainers in Trump’s orbit would have a decisive influence. That was clearly a mistake, and the lesson here is that Trump decides and no one else.”

As the president’s position further crystalized — also Tuesday, he called Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei an “easy target,” but said the U.S. would not assassinate him, “at least not for now” — his post-G7 rhetoric trickled down to his inner circle.

Trump “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment,” Vice President JD Vance posted on X yesterday. “That decision ultimately belongs to the president. And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy. But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue. … Whatever he does, that is his focus.”

It’s a notable shift from Vance, too, who has been one of the most prominent opponents of preemptive military action in the Middle East. (Vance opposed U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen earlier this year.)

Journalist Eli Lake noted on Tuesday that Trump’s “inner circle deliberating on Iran policy is very small and has been fairly tight-lipped,” adding that those advising him on Iran include Vance, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Lake said, is “occasionally” part of the group, but was absent from recent Camp David conversations about Israel and Iran.

On Capitol Hill, while Republicans appear publicly split on the level of involvement that the U.S. should have in the conflict — from working with Israel to destroy the Fordow nuclear facility to forcing Iran’s hand in diplomatic talks — JI’s conversations with legislators indicate a different approach behind the scenes. One senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal conference dynamics estimated that nearly the entire GOP conference is privately united on the issue of the U.S. supporting Israel in bombing the Fordow facility if Israel needs such support. Read more from JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod here.

“I think the president has struck the right position,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI earlier this week, “which is supportive of Israel’s right of self-defense, which is what this really is, and supporting them publicly while they defend themselves. I think that’s the right position to stick on.” Read more of Hawley’s comments here.

Trump has “handled this situation very deftly,” Hawley added. “I think his message has been pretty clear, which is that Iran is not going to get a nuke. So they can either surrender their nuclear program peaceably, and he’s willing to [have] the United States facilitate that, or the Israelis are going to blow their program to smithereens. Right now they’re choosing the smithereens route.”

Israel struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran early Wednesday, after successfully intercepting more than two dozen missiles launched by Iran toward Israel in the preceding hours.

Over 50 Israeli Air Force jets flew to Iran, where they struck a facility in which centrifuges were manufactured to expand and accelerate uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.

”The Iranian regime is enriching uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear power for civilian use does not require enrichment at these levels,” the IDF said.

The IDF also said it struck several weapons manufacturing facilities, including one used “to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel.” Another facility that the IDF struck manufactured components for anti-aircraft missiles.

IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that the IDF “attacked five Iranian combat helicopters that tried to harm our aircraft.” 

“There is Iranian resistance, but we control the air [over Iran] and will continue to control it. We are deepening our damage to surface missiles and acting in every place from which the Iranians shoot missiles at Israel,” Defrin added.

Defrin said on Tuesday evening that, as a result of Israel’s air superiority in western Iran and the Tehran area, the Islamic Republic’s military efforts “have been pushed back into central Iran. They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “a tornado is passing over Tehran. Symbols of the regime are exploding and collapsing, from the broadcast authority and soon other targets, and masses of residents are fleeing. This is how dictatorships collapse.” 

Most of the projectiles fired from Iran toward northern and central Israel overnight were intercepted, and no injuries or fatalities were reported. 

In addition, Iran launched over 10 drones at the Galilee and the Golan on Wednesday morning, all of which the IDF intercepted.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Israel is running low on Arrow interceptors used to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles from Iran. Israel also uses the David’s Sling system against Iranian missiles. The Arrow is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. The U.S. has augmented Israel’s air defenses with its THAAD system, but is concerned about its own stock of interceptors. The IDF told the Journal that “it is prepared and ready to handle any scenario.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X that Iran “must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.” On his Persian X account, Khamenei evoked Khaybar, the site of a massacre of Jews by Muslims in the 7th century, along with an image of a man with a sword entering a burning castle. 

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it shot Fatah-1 hypersonic missiles at Israel, which move faster than the speed of sound and cannot be detected by missile defense systems. However, there is no evidence on the ground in Israel of that being the case. 

Iranian state media reported on Wednesday the interception of an Israeli drone near Isfahan, with footage of an aircraft that looks like an IAF Hermes 900. The IDF declined to comment. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote a letter updating the U.N. Security Council on Israel’s Operation Rising Lion against Iran. The operation is “aimed to neutralize the existential and imminent threat from Iran’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs” and “specifically targets military facilities and critical components of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, as well as key individuals involved in Iran’s efforts to achieve nuclear weapons.” 

Sa’ar noted the Islamic Republic’s “public threats to eliminate the State of Israel, in stark violation of the UN charter, and its continued attempts to achieve the means to accomplish this by rapidly developing military nuclear capabilities, as well as its ballistic missile program.” He pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency censured Iran in a recent Board of Governors decision for its non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Sa’ar’s letter came after two missives from Iran to the UNSC about Israel’s strikes on the country.

Also Wednesday, the first Israeli rescue flights arrived from Cyprus, meant to help some of the over 100,000 Israelis stuck abroad while Israel’s airspace is closed. Israel Airports Authority said that 2,800 Israelis were expected to return on Wednesday. Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa will be making further emergency flights to repatriate Israelis.

China’s foreign ministry said that it was telling citizens to leave Israel and Iran, and Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, said that the families of Russian diplomats left Israel via Egypt on Tuesday. 

Iran has launched about 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, hitting 40 impact sites since the beginning of the operation on Friday, according to the Israeli Government Press Office. There have been 24 fatalities and over 804 injured, eight of whom are in serious condition. About 3,800 people have been evacuated from their homes and 18,766 damage claims were submitted to the Israel Tax Authority.

Midway through June, the Middle East looks very different than it did when President Donald Trump traveled to the region just last month. 

Trump was feted by Gulf monarchs, as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates sought to make their mark on a business-savvy president by touting hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and trade deals. 

Israel was an afterthought on the trip; Trump didn’t even visit. Iran nuclear talks were happening, but nonproliferation and geopolitics were secondary discussion topics to Trump’s checkbook diplomacy. 

Israeli tech leaders at the time acknowledged that Israel cannot compete with the oil-rich Gulf states when it comes to investment dollars, and instead urged Israel to consider unique ways for the two countries to collaborate.

Now, with Israeli strikes on Iran entering their sixth day, the best way to get Trump’s attention in the region — at least for the moment — is no longer financial prowess. It’s firepower. 

“I think what you saw over the last few days is Israel’s alternative model to checkbook diplomacy,” author and podcast host Dan Senor said in a Saturday episode of “The Prof G Pod,” hosted by NYU professor Scott Galloway. 

“Israel has its own way of competing, because what Israel is demonstrating is, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to be the country that personally has sheikhs and emirs who can write checks for billions and trillions of dollars into the American economy,’” Senor said. “‘But we are the most capable ally in the world, and you, the United States, are going to get more out of this relationship than you give.’” 

Trump amped up his rhetoric against Iran on Tuesday, a clear escalation after his more restrained posture in the early days of Israel’s strikes on the Islamic Republic. 

“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” he wrote in a post on TruthSocial, blurring the lines between Israel and the U.S. “Our patience is wearing thin,” he wrote in another. “We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” Trump rounded out his posting spree with a straightforward message: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

An American couple who were en route to Israel to celebrate their wedding but had their flight diverted. Two Israeli single mothers on holiday looking for a quick refresh, now stranded. A group of injured Israel Defense Forces soldiers on a healing retreat. 

These are some of the nearly 2,500 Jewish people that Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, the chief rabbi of Cyprus, and his wife, Shaindel, unexpectedly found themselves hosting for Shabbat last Friday after at least 32 flights from the United States and Europe were diverted to the island in the Mediterranean amid Israel’s preemptive military campaign against Iran, which was launched early Friday morning. 

“Everybody in the community gave a hand with cooking and preparing,” Raskin, who has run the local Chabad center in the port city of Larnaca since 2003, told Jewish Insider. 

Shabbat at Chabad “was amazing, a crazy experience,” said Tzvi Berg, a Jerusalem resident who was flying home from a wedding in New York on Thursday night when — just moments away from landing in Tel Aviv — his flight was rerouted to Larnaca.

“When the pilot made the announcement, everyone went online and saw Israel was attacking Iran and instead of being upset, everybody was clapping,” Berg said. 

But as Shabbat ended — with Israeli airspace still shuttered as Iranian missiles continued to strike in Tel Aviv and elsewhere — “the challenge began again,” Raskin said. Hotels on the island are overwhelmed. Tourists have exhausted their vacation funds. People with chronic illness can’t access medications. 

And they are knocking on Chabad’s door looking for food and accommodations, as many Jews do in moments of crisis around the world. 

“We have a few challenges at the moment,” Raskin said. 

“People have started to lose patience. Parents want to get back to their kids,” said Berg, who on Tuesday traveled some 30 miles to the island’s other Chabad, located in the resort town of Ayia Napa, where he barbecued for the injured IDF soldiers.

The couple whose wedding is scheduled for Thursday remains hopeful they can still get to Israel via boat. 

One of the single mothers who came to Cyprus on vacation has two children with special needs in southern Israel facing constant missile fire. “There’s a lot of tears and crying that she can’t get back to her kids,” Raskin said.  

Still, Raskin said that most of those stranded are making “lemonade out of lemons” during their time on the picturesque island — which is a popular tourist destination for Israelis due to its proximity. 

“The majority of the people here trust in God, so you see happy faces,” Raskin said. “They’re saying, ‘OK, we’re here on holiday, we have a place to stay and food, we’re happy.’” 

Cypriot police said on Sunday that security measures would be increased for Israeli tourists following concerns that Iran or its proxies could attempt to target them abroad. 

Israel’s Transportation Ministry announced on Monday it would launch Operation Safe Return to bring close to 150,000 Israelis stuck abroad back home. According to the Israeli airline El Al, 60,000 Israelis registered for rescue flights to return them to Israel within the first 90 minutes of the registration site going live on Monday. 

Israeli carriers El Al, Arkia and Israir announced on Tuesday that they received permission from the Israeli government to organize repatriation flights to bring back Israelis stranded abroad. The first two flights from Larnaca, Cyprus, landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday morning. 

“People are doing crazy stuff to get back,” Berg said, adding that while he looks forward to reuniting with his wife and children, who have been hunkered down in Jerusalem, the people in Cyprus “have been very hospitable and accommodating. They love Israelis.” 

“I was here [on holiday] in the summer once, but this is a different experience,” said Berg.

Some Israelis, including Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer, who was stuck in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran, were able to return home over the weekend by flying to Greece and then to Cyprus, from which they took a boat to Israel. Others, including civilians, have charted private flights from Larnaca to Israel through Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 

But Raskin advises displaced Israelis who are safe in Europe to “stay where you are if you have good accommodations.”

“Don’t rush to Cyprus because it won’t get you to Israel any faster.” 

A bipartisan group of 45 House members wrote to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urging officials to act promptly to facilitate evacuations of American citizens from Israel, or at least provide them with additional information on efforts to allow for such evacuations.

They argued that communication from the administration to this point has been inadequate, leaving Americans without clear information or a path to leave Israel. They asked the administration to provide information to them by Wednesday that they can convey to their constituents.

“Americans in Israel are depending on our government for guidance and a pathway to safety,” the letter, obtained by Jewish Insider, reads. “All available options including evacuations by land routes and sea must be explored. At a minimum, American citizens in Israel deserve updates on the efforts underway to ensure their safe departure.”

The lawmakers criticized the State Department for failing to provide any additional information beyond directing them to enroll in the State Department’s travel registration and information program.

“We trust that you will honor our responsibility to protect the American people, no matter where they are in the world,” the lawmakers wrote. 

The letter was led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Wesley Bell (D-MO). The majority of the signatories were Democrats but two Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) — also signed on.

The U.S. embassy’s offices in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are set to be closed through at least Friday, the State Department announced.