Ahead of reported talks between the U.S. and Iran, Sen. Mike Rounds said the regime ‘would love to deceive us … I just don’t think we’re going to have much success’
Iranian Leader Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes remarks during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in northern Iran last year, in Tehran, Iran, on May 20, 2025.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleSeveral Republican senators expressed skepticism that the Iranian regime would negotiate in good faith with the United States on its nuclear program or on its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, as the administration pursues a diplomatic approach with Tehran following threats of military action.
Some, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — and the Saudi defense minister, behind closed doors — have warned that, if the U.S. fails to act after President Donald Trump promised Iranian protesters that “help is on its way,” it would be a blow to the U.S.’ credibility in the Middle East and would strengthen the Iranian regime.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) expressed skepticism that the Iranians would engage sincerely or willingly give up their nuclear program in talks with the U.S., reported to be taking place in Turkey on Friday.
“Wouldn’t that be great? It’d be great if they did. It’d be great if they got rid of their nuclear weapons,” Scott told JI. “Do I actually believe they’re going to negotiate in good faith? I don’t.”
Scott added that he was in favor of Trump taking action to support the protesters after promising to do so. “I think if you tell somebody you’re going to help them, you’ve got to help them,” the Florida senator said.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said he believes Trump “wants to avoid a war.”
“I hope he’s successful,” Rounds added, but said that he is not optimistic that a viable deal is achievable. “I, personally, am really discouraged. I don’t think Iran really wants to negotiate a deal that would stop them from doing their terrorist activities, supporting terrorism around the area, and I don’t think they really want to give up their nuclear ambitions — although they would love to deceive us,” Rounds said.
“I wish [Trump] the best. I think he’s right in trying to do [make a deal]. I think that’s what we should be trying to do, but I don’t, I just don’t think we’re going to have much success,” he added.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said, “You can’t trust anything the ayatollah says at all.”
“I don’t know what the details are, so it’s hard for me to say what I’d like to see in [an agreement],” Mullin continued. “We all know that a nuclear Iran can never happen, so that’s got to be part of it. What else happens there? I don’t know, but I still go back to the fact that you can’t trust anything that the ayatollah or this current regime says.”
Mullin disagreed that not striking Iran would be seen as a shift in U.S. policy, describing the administration’s current approach as an extension of the president’s “peace through strength” policy.
“People respect that the president will always strike, or ratchet that up, when the time is right. He always wants diplomacy first, but he’s willing to use the strength part if he has to get to that point,” Mullin said. “And I think that’s what the president has positioned himself to do, but he has multiple options … so hopefully we’ll have a positive outcome without anyone getting hurt.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that he’d want to see Iran surrender its enriched uranium, give up any future potential to obtain a nuclear weapon, stop funding terrorist groups and “start being a responsible member of a stable world order.”
He disputed the notion that a failure by the U.S. to launch strikes now would hurt the country’s credibility, arguing that any military strikes would be based on U.S. intelligence, which he does not have.
“It’s a lot more complicated. I mean, these folks are entitled to their opinion … obviously I hope the negotiations are successful,” Kennedy said. “Whether the president decides to go further is going to depend an awful lot on national and military intelligence, which I don’t have access to. We have the best spies in the world, and I don’t know what they’re telling the president, but it matters. So I can’t advise him if I don’t have the information from the intelligence community.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that any deal with the Iranians would need to include “a complete renunciation of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles that can reach Israel or our European allies.” He also said the regime’s crackdown on protesters would need to be “renounced.”
“They’re a country that continues to maintain ‘death to America, death to Israel.’ It is what it is,” Blumenthal said. “On a military front, there has to be a complete renunciation of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, and I think the brutal and inhumane tactics toward its own people have to be renounced.”
“I think we should do something, but it may not be a military strike,” he added. “There are a range of actions that we could take, [such as] to expand economic efforts and [implement] a stronger enforcement of sanctions. So between those, there are options.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who recently introduced a war powers resolution to block military action against Iran without congressional authorization, explained to JI that the resolution was a response to Trump’s comments about a potential attack and the current deployment of U.S. military assets to the Middle East.
Kaine said that the resolution would be eligible for consideration on the Senate floor next week, and that whether he calls it up will depend on how events develop and whether it will have the votes to pass.
“What really prompts me is when I think I can get the votes,” Kaine said. “Usually that means something beyond saber-rattling and it’s some kind of step, like in the international waters or Venezuela, we’re actually killing people — that clearly demonstrates we need to do this.”
Kaine also emphasized that the administration’s explanation for potential military action against Iran has shifted — citing both the protests and nuclear issue — and said he was concerned by a report last week that the administration may be considering some ground deployment of special forces into Iran.
“I’ve just got an awful lot of military families in Virginia who don’t want their kids to be in another war in the Middle East,” Kaine said.
The lawmakers said the groups have been ‘conspicuously silent’ after showing ‘no hesitation’ in condemning Israel
Kamran / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Kermanshah, Iran on January 8, 2026.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Jared Golden (D-ME) blasted a roster of progressive groups for their silence regarding the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on recent protests, following the organizations’ outspoken criticisms of Israel over the past two years.
In a letter sent on Monday addressed to the League of Conservation Voters, Democratic Socialists of America, Sierra Club, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Jewish Voice for Peace, Queers for Liberation, Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats, the lawmakers said that “as the Iranian regime guns down peaceful protesters, tortures dissidents, and shuts off the internet to hide its crimes, your voices are unfortunately and conspicuously silent.”
They said the groups had “shown no hesitation in loudly and unequivocally condemning our democratic ally Israel, after terrorists brutally raped, burned alive, decapitated, and murdered more than 1,200 people, including dozens of Americans.”
They called for the groups to speak out against the Iranian regime, in alignment with their own professed principles.
“The Iranian government is violently repressing its own people for demanding basic freedom and dignity. Silence in the face of such clear oppression is a failure to uphold the principles you claim to defend,” the letter continued. “If you claim to stand against oppression, your outrage cannot be selective.”
The secretary of state also said that it is unclear who would take over Iran if the supreme leader were removed from power
Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Venezuela, in Washington, DC, United States on January 28, 2026.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the Iranian regime is historically weak due to serious economic troubles, but also said that Tehran’s violent crackdown on protesters has appeared to have successfully quelled the demonstrations that have swept the country in recent weeks.
Rubio also said that it’s uncertain who would take over the country if the Iranian regime were to fall. He framed the buildup of U.S. forces in the region — a U.S. carrier strike group arrived in the area this week — as a largely defensive measure to protect U.S. troops and allies from an Iranian attack.
“That regime is probably weaker than it has ever been, and the core problem they face, unlike the protests you saw in the past on some other topics, is that they don’t have a way to address the core complaints of the protests, which is that their economy is in collapse,” Rubio told senators.
“The reason why their economy is in collapse is because they spend all their money and all their resources building weapons and sponsoring terrorist groups around the world instead of reinvesting it back into their society, and as a result have taken on massive global sanctions which have isolated their economy and their country.”
He said the Iranian demonstrators want those sanctions removed and the regime to begin addressing their interests, “and this regime is unwilling to do it.”
Asked who would take over in the event that the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was removed from power, Rubio said that it was uncertain but suggested that the U.S. would expect to work with someone from within the Iranian government, rather than an outside actor, mirroring the approach it has taken in Venezuela.
“I don’t think anyone can give you a simple answer as to what happens next in Iran if the supreme leader and the regime were to fall, other than the hope that there would be some ability to have somebody in their systems that you could work toward a similar transition” as in Venezuela, Rubio said.
“I would imagine it would be even far more complex than [Venezuela] because you’re talking about a regime that’s been in place for a very long time, so that’s going to require a lot of careful thinking, if that eventuality ever presents itself,” he continued.
Addressing the U.S. military buildup in the region, he noted that the 30-40,000 U.S. troops in the region are within range of Iran’s arsenal of thousands of drones and short-range ballistic missiles. He said that the U.S. needs a “baseline” of “force and power” in the region to defend against that threat, if Iran “at some point, as a result of something” decided to attack U.S. forces.
“The president always reserves the preemptive defensive option — in essence, if we have indications that, in fact, they’re going to attack our troops in the region,” he continued, in addition to security agreements to defend allies such as Israel “that require us to have a force posture in the region.”
“I think it’s wise and prudent to have a force posture in the region that could respond and, potentially — not necessarily what’s going to happen — preemptively prevent the attack” against U.S. forces or allies, Rubio added.
The secretary of state said, however, that the violent crackdown by regime officials on the protests, which he said has killed thousands of people, has been “effective and … it’s horrifying.”
Though he said the protests have now “ebbed,” he said he was confident that “they will spark up again in the future because this regime, unless they are willing to change, or leave, have no way of addressing the legitimate and consistent complaints of the people of Iran who deserve better.”
Asked by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) about the makeup of the Trump administration’s newly created Board of Peace — specifically why some close U.S. allies are not part of the group while U.S. adversaries are — and whether the body is intended to be a competitor to the United Nations, Rubio answered, “This is not a replacement for the U.N., but the U.N. has served very little purpose in the case of Gaza other than the food assistance, and so we think it’s critical to have something that’s in charge of that.”
Rubio noted that the Board of Peace was chartered through a U.N. resolution and said that the “primary and sole focus of that board right now is to administer Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the plan in Gaza.” He said that various countries have been invited to the board but some U.S. allies in Europe have declined to join or are waiting on parliamentary approval to do so.
Asked by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) whether the administration would be seeking congressional ratification or legislation to establish and join the Board of Peace, Rubio responded by again highlighting the U.N. Security Council’s support for and recognition of the board.
Rubio’s testimony came at a hearing focused primarily on the U.S. military operation in Venezuela in which former President Nicolás Maduro was arrested and U.S. policy toward Venezuela going forward.
He said that one of the Trump administration’s primary goals in conducting the operation was denying Iran, along with Russia and China, a foothold in the Western Hemisphere. He asserted that the success of the operation could help provide a deterrent to adversaries such as Iran, “because the U.S. is the only country in the world that could have done this operation.”
He also said that he does not anticipate further military action in Venezuela, but that the U.S. would act in case of a threat — offering as an example if Iran were to establish a drone factory in the country.
He further noted that Venezuela had been providing false passports to Iranian and Hezbollah operatives, which he described as deeply concerning.
During a heated back-and-forth with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Kaine referenced comments by acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez — who currently has Washington’s support — that the U.S. attack on Venezuela had “Zionist undertones.”
“What the hell did Delcy Rodriguez mean when she said this attack had Zionist undertones?” Kaine said. Rubio responded that he had “an idea what she meant” but Kaine pivoted and Rubio was not able to answer further.
Building on the lawmakers’ legislation from 2023, this year’s bill increases proposed funding for U.S.-Israel anti-drone cooperation to $100 million
ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images
A new Shahed-161 drone is displayed during an exhibition showcasing missile and drone achievements in Tehran on November 12, 2025.
A bipartisan pair of House lawmakers will reintroduce legislation on Wednesday to address the threat of killer drone strikes by the Iranian regime and other foreign adversaries through increased cooperation between the U.S. and Israel, Jewish Insider has learned.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) are the lead sponsors of the U.S.-Israel Anti-Killer Drone Act, which the duo first introduced together back in 2023. That bill proposed increasing annual funding caps for existing U.S.-Israel counter-drone programs from $40 million to $55 million.
This latest iteration of the legislation increases that annual funding cap to $100 million. It also now includes all unmanned drone systems rather than solely covering aerial drones. The updates to the legislation mirror the expansion of the existing U.S.-Israel counter-drone program to address various types of drones — not only airborne ones — in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.
The joint counter-drone program is currently set to be funded at $75 million for 2026, based on the appropriations legislation introduced on Tuesday.
The Gottheimer-Garbarino bill states that it is the sense of Congress that the U.S. and Israel should continue to collaborate and expand their ongoing work in counter-drone technology, increases the proposed funding — though any actual funding allocations would have to be finalized separately — and directs the Department of Defense to report to Congress annually on the program.
The legislation comes as Israeli leaders look to shift the future of U.S. aid to the Jewish state, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that he wants to wind down direct U.S. financial support in the next decade.
Analysts and experts have predicted that the next U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, and the future of U.S. aid and cooperation with Israel, could focus more heavily on these sorts of jointly funded cooperative programs, which are appropriated through the Department of Defense and aim to benefit both countries, rather than direct financial assistance to Israel.
The bill’s text runs through a litany of incidents of Iranian and Iranian proxy drone attacks and attempted attacks on Israeli and U.S. targets throughout the region; the expansion and advancement of Iran’s drone production capacity; and Iran’s provision of drones to Russia.
Both Gottheimer and Garbarino cited the Iranian drone threat as reason for promoting the legislation back in 2023.
“Iran’s arsenal of killer drones has only grown in recent years, and attacks across the Middle East have killed and wounded Americans — showing once again why the threat of terrorism remains so pervasive,” Gottheimer said at the time. “We continue to see Iran-backed terrorist groups target innocent civilians which is why we must take concrete action to counter their deadly drone capabilities.”
“Time and again, the Iranian regime has used unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to continue its destabilizing behavior, threatening not only the broader Middle East region, but also American troops, interests, and our greatest ally in the region, Israel,” Garbarino said.
Plus, how Jewish Venezuelans are viewing Maduro's ouster
(Iranian state TV via AP)
This frame grab from a video released Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows cars driving past burning vehicles during a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran.
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the growing pressure facing the Iranian regime as the protests sweeping the Islamic Republic expand into all of the country’s 31 provinces, and talk to legislators about President Donald Trump’s threats to Tehran over its crackdown on the demonstrations. We report on New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s successful effort to kill a resolution that would have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, and talk to Venezuelan Jews living in South Florida about the Trump administration’s arrest of Nicolás Maduro. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Steny Hoyer, Steven Spielberg and Massad Boulos.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
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: U.S. lawmakers weigh in on fears of Saudi Arabia accommodating Islamists; New York Jewish leaders hope Menin will serve as check against Mamdani; and Why Israel recognized Somaliland — and what the rest of the world might do next. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump is meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this morning, followed by a lunch between the president and Vice President JD Vance. Trump will meet in the afternoon with oil and gas executives to discuss the situation in Venezuela.
- Jacob Helberg, the undersecretary of state for economic affairs, is traveling to the Middle East through next weekend. He’s slated to meet with senior officials in Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE, he’ll lead the U.S. delegation to the U.S.-UAE Economic Policy Dialogue.
- We’re continuing to monitor the situation in Iran, where protests escalated last night as the regime cut off internet and international phone calls, limiting the amount of information that could leave the Islamic Republic. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a video address that Trump’s hands were “stained with the blood of Iranians” for having voiced support for the protesters.
- Ongoing current events coincide with the long-delayed release of the third season of the Israeli series “Tehran,” which drops today on Apple TV in the U.S.
- Tomorrow, Rabbi David Wolpe will sit in conversation with the Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt at Los Angeles’ Sinai Temple, where Wolpe is the Max Webb Rabbi Emeritus.
- Awards season kicks off on Sunday night with the Golden Globes. Up for Best Motion Picture and Best Screenplay is “Marty Supreme,” based on the life of table tennis player Martin Reisman (with star Timothée Chalamet nominated for Best Actor). “It Was Just An Accident,” a thriller by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (who also received nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay), and “The Voice Of Hind Rajab,” about a young Palestinian girl who died during the Israel-Hamas war, are both nominated for Best Film in a non-English language. Adam Brody was nominated for Best Actor for his starring role in the TV show “Nobody Wants This,” and Jason Isaacs was nominated for his “White Lotus” performance in the Best Supporting Actor category. Comics Sarah Silverman and Brett Goldstein are both nominated for their stand-up specials.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW SHEA
The United States, Israel and their regional allies are watching closely as sustained unrest in Iran puts renewed pressure on the regime at a moment of economic strain, international isolation and lingering fallout from the 12-day war with Israel last June.
Recent demonstrations have spread across all 31 of Iran’s provinces, fueled by public anger over a collapsing economy, inflation exceeding 40% and aggressive crackdowns by security forces. Economic pressure — intensified by costly proxy wars and United Nations sanctions — have sent Iran’s currency into a sharp decline.
Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said the regime’s “unwillingness to be responsive to its people’s basic demands and rights,” is also a factor. Adding that Tehran has a “clear preference to spend the country’s resources on military projects like its proxies, missiles and nuclear program instead of its citizens’ well-being.”
More than 400 demonstrations took place this week alone, with at least 743 recorded over the past month, according to a tracker from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The death toll has reached at least 38, with more than 2,200 arrests reported. The demonstrations are the largest since April 2025 and among the most sustained since late 2022 as videos continue to circulate online of Iranians flooding the streets, burning regime flags and lighting fire to statues of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ruhe said that uprisings by the Iranian people against the regime are not uncommon. “In 2009 it was political corruption, when the regime clearly stole the presidential election to get [former President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad reelected,” he said. “In 2017-18 it was economic and foreign policy issues, for instance Iranians being killed in the Syrian civil war and the regime’s lavish spending on its proxies instead of at home. In 2022 it was social and cultural issues, namely hijab enforcement.”
But experts say what is unfolding now could be more significant than protests of the past, expressing to Jewish Insider that recent developments could pose an unprecedented challenge to a regime already under strain.
PROTEST PRESSURE
GOP senators back Trump’s threat to Iranian regime over protest crackdown
Multiple Senate Republicans voiced support for President Donald Trump’s threat that the U.S. would intervene directly should the Iranian regime crack down on the escalating protests across Iran — crackdowns that appear to have already begun, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
What they’re saying: “President Trump has been very clear: If the ayatollah harms the protesters, the consequences would be catastrophically painful,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told JI. “The regime should understand that the president is deadly serious and will enjoy strong support in Congress.” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) told JI that “what the president said … [is] one of the things that we can do to help protect the Iranians who are protesting.” Other senators spoke more broadly about offering U.S. support for the protesters without addressing direct intervention, with one noting that lawmakers haven’t discussed in detail at this point potential measures to respond.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Fetterman (D-PA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), James Lankford (R-OK), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Andy Kim (D-NJ).
Strike support: Fetterman said on Thursday that he would support the U.S. striking Iran’s nuclear facilities again to prevent Tehran from rebuilding its nuclear program — if the regime is found to be making strides toward restoring sites damaged by U.S. and Israeli strikes last year, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
VENEZUELAN VIEWS
After years in exile, Venezuelan Jews celebrate the fall of Maduro
When Valerie Stramwasser woke up on Saturday, Jan. 3, she glanced at her phone and saw hundreds of WhatsApp messages. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, something happened.’ I first thought that it was something in the family, and then I opened up and I hear, ‘We’re free.’ We’re free. It happened,” Stramwasser told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch on Thursday. “Literally tears of joy.” Stramwasser, 37, lives in Hollywood, Fla., with her husband and two children, but she grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. She was forced to flee the country as a teenager after a failed kidnapping attempt against her.
Miami move: Stramwasser is one of hundreds of thousands of those Venezuelans who now call Florida home, including several thousand Venezuelan Jews who have developed outposts of their once-strong Caracas community centers in Miami. “Growing up there, it was a community of about 28,000 Jews that were living there. It was a vibrant community, a very successful and respected community,” said Paul Kruss, a city commissioner in Aventura, Fla., who also owns a popular local bagel shop. His mother, who was from Warsaw, Poland, moved to Caracas after surviving the Holocaust. “Now there’s maybe 4,500 that live there, which should tell you all you need to know about the kind of brain drain that they had. It wasn’t only the Jewish community that fled.”
BILL BLOCK
Gov. Phil Murphy killed New Jersey antisemitism legislation, sources say
A high-profile New Jersey bill adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism is not expected to pass in the current New Jersey Assembly session, four sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod. Two sources said that Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, opposed the legislation and was a key obstacle to its passage.
Behind the scenes: The two sources blamed Murphy, the outgoing governor, for its failure, alleging that he did not want to be forced to make a decision whether to sign it. One source familiar with the situation emphasized that the legislation had the support to pass, but that Democratic leaders were reluctant to move the bill forward to a full vote — concerned that support for the bill would place some Democratic members in danger of progressive primary challenges in the future. Another source said that there had been significant finger-pointing between Murphy, Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, with each blaming the others for the legislation’s failure to pass.
Meanwhile in Missouri: The Missouri state House is set to consider legislation adopting the IHRA definition in educational settings on Monday.
STORIED LEGACY
Rep. Hoyer’s retirement deprives Dems of leading pro-Israel stalwart
Democratic colleagues and leaders are lauding Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the longtime former No. 2 Democratic House leader, as a champion for Israel, and say that his retirement, announced Thursday, will deprive Democrats of one of the leading congressional advocates of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Time in Congress: Hoyer, 86, has served in Congress since 1981, and was the second-most senior House Democrat from 2007-2023. A prominent voice respected by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Hoyer has for years led AIPAC-linked American Israel Education Foundation’s trip to Israel for first-term Democrats. His retirement comes at a time of a sea change on Israel policy among Democratic lawmakers and the Democratic base.
NO COMMENT
Mamdani silent as pro-Hamas group protests near synagogue
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was silent regarding an anti-Israel protest in Queens on Thursday that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early in anticipation of the demonstration where protesters chanted “We support Hamas.” The radical group behind the protest, called Palestinian Assembly for Liberation [PAL]-Awda, wrote on social media Thursday afternoon that it would gather in the evening outside of an event held by CapitIL, a Jerusalem-based real estate agency, at the Modern Orthodox synagogue Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills. The post called it an “illegal event” promoting “blatant land theft and dispossession,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What happened: Dozens of masked, keffiyeh-clad demonstrators gathered across the street from the synagogue and chanted, “We support Hamas here,” “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the IDF” for more than two hours while banging on drums in the residential area in Queens’ heavily Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills. One protester held a ripped Israeli flag that was painted red to resemble blood. The protest was also promoted by Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
Bonus: Mamdani met earlier this week with Steven Spielberg in the film director’s Manhattan home, in what The New York Times reported was a “friendly get-to-know-you conversation” between the new mayor and Spielberg, who became a New York resident the day of the inauguration.
HARGEISA HOPES
Somaliland’s top diplomat in Washington hopes for Jewish support in bid for additional recognition
Since Israel became the first state to formally recognize Somaliland as an independent nation last month, Bashir Goth, Somaliland’s top diplomat in Washington, was granted the opening he has been seeking since he began his posting in 2018: a chance to try to convince the United States to follow suit and recognize the independence of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia that has governed itself for 35 years. “Our friends will be more active now, more vigorous, more encouraged by the Israeli recognition,” Goth told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch in an interview on Wednesday.
Seizing the moment: Goth is hoping to capitalize on the rare occurrence of Somaliland being in the news, in part by attempting to rally American Jews to his cause. “We always built very strong relations and engagements with Jewish organizations in Washington, D.C., and they are more active now, more than any time before,” said Goth. “I think they will also be very, very helpful in pushing this forward.”
Bonus: Speaking to The National, Massad Boulos, the Trump administration’s senior advisor on Arab and Africa affairs said, “Somaliland is not a new issue. … [Israel is] free to have peace relationships and these partnerships. The United States so far has not changed its position on Somalia. For now, our policy is ‘one Somalia.’ Things may evolve in the future, I cant speculate. We’re continuously looking into these things and assessing these things. But as of now our policy has not changed.”
Worthy Reads
Softer Touch on Protesters: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh posit that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian are taking a less hard-line approach to the protests sweeping the country. “The government hopes a softer touch will cause the marchers to be satisfied with making their point. If not, the emollients favored by [Parliament Speaker Mohammad] Qalibaf and Pezeshkian will likely give way to the severity favored by the supreme leader and encouraged by Mr. Trump’s provocative challenge. For at least a century, the Iranian public has sought meaningful political participation while central governments resisted. With the exception of the 1979 revolution, the regimes prevailed. But Iranians have never remained satisfied with national bargains in which they forfeit political rights for economic dividends or social emancipation.” [WSJ]
Clash in the Gulf: In Foreign Policy, Marc Lynch looks at the dynamics between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as the countries clash in a number of theaters, including Yemen and Somalia. “[After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks,] the UAE maintained its relations with Israel, positioning itself as the key Arab interlocutor for a post-Hamas Gaza and hoping to claim vindication for its strategy of tight alignment with Israel and Washington. Saudi Arabia, with a much more challenging domestic environment and its own ambitions for regional leadership, reverted to its traditional position of conditioning normalization with Israel on a credible path toward a Palestinian state. Unstated, but well understood, was that Riyadh never had any intention of joining an Abu Dhabi-led initiative. The crystallization of a divide between Saudi Arabia and the Emirati-Israeli alliance would force everyone in the region to take sides — something smaller states usually prefer to avoid. Most of the other Gulf states, such as Egypt, seem to be falling in line with Saudi Arabia. The competition could inflame civil wars, just as it did a decade earlier.” [FP]
Word on the Street
Five Senate Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN) and Rand Paul (R-KY) — voted with Democrats in favor of a war powers resolution limiting further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval…
Bloomberg reports on the White House’s exclusion of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from the planning of the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month due to Gabbard’s past opposition to U.S. military action in Venezuela…
Massad Boulos, the Trump administration’s senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, said that the U.S. will make an announcement about the Muslim Brotherhood in the coming days…
Politico looks at the wave of far-left Democrats critical of Israel who are who are mounting congressional bids, deepening divisions within the party and raising concerns that far-left candidates focused on Israel will drain campaign resources and damage eventual candidates’ efforts to win in the general election…
The Cooper Union settled a lawsuit brought forth by 10 Jewish students at the school who had been trapped in the New York university’s library for 20 minutes while anti-Israel students protested outside in an October 2023 incident …
Four former University of Rochester students pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging university property for their roles in posting “Wanted” posters accusing faculty and staff members of committing war crimes in Gaza; the students were expelled weeks after they were arrested…
New Jersey State Police are investigating an incident that took place on the New Jersey Turnpike on Wednesday in which a rock was thrown through a school bus window, fracturing the skull of an 8-year-old girl…
Approximately 30% of the workforce across the six locations of New York City eatery Breads Bakery is unionizing and making demands of the shop’s Israeli owners — including “a redistribution of profits, safer working conditions, more respect and an end to this company’s support of the genocide happening in Palestine”…
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a royal commission investigating antisemitism, following the terror attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach last month…
The board of the Adelaide Writers’ Week festival in Australia disinvited anti-Israel activist and writer Randa Abdel-Fattah, saying her participation in the event would “not be culturally sensitive” during what the board described as an “unprecedented time so soon after Bondi”; Abdel-Fattah’s disinvitation prompted the withdrawal of several participants who had been slated to speak at the festival…
Politico breaks down the significance of the U.S.-brokered meeting between senior Israeli and Syrian officials in Paris this week, during which the parties agreed to create communications channels to more effectively coordinate on security, diplomatic and commercial issues…
The United Arab Emirates ceased funding scholarships for citizens who plan to study in the U.K.; the cut comes amid frustration from Emirati officials over London’s refusal to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization…
A new report from TRM Labs found that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used two U.K.-based cryptocurrency exchanges to move approximately $1 billion over the last three years…
The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into a shadow fleet with ties to Russia, Iran, China and Venezuela that moves oil around the world in violation of international sanctions…
Pic of the Day
Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Syrian-born man who tackled and disarmed one of the two gunmen in the Bondi Beach terrorist attack in Sydney that killed 15 people, visited Capitol Hill on Thursday, his arm still in a sling after being shot twice.
“What I want to say for the whole world around everywhere, in America, Australia, England, everywhere in the world, we must stand by each other and stay united, and peace for everyone. That’s my message,” al-Ahmed told Jewish Insider in between meetings with officials including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Al-Ahmed was accompanied by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman (second from left), a Chabad leader in Sydney whose son-in-law was killed in the attack, and Rabbi Levi Shemtov (far left), the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch. Al-Ahmed and Ulman also met jointly with Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA).
Birthdays
Actor with a recurring role in “Sex and the City” and author of two books on his recovery from acute myeloid leukemia, Evan Handler turns 65 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Law professor at Georgetown University, Peter Edelman turns 88… Former member of the Swiss Federal Council and president of the Swiss Confederation in 1999, she is the first woman to ever hold this position, Ruth Dreifuss turns 86… Rabbi emeritus of Kehilath Israel Synagogue in Overland Park, Kan., Herbert Jay Mandl turns 81… Vice chairman of Gilbert Global Equity Partners, Steven Kotler… Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court reporter for The New York Times for 40 years, she is now a lecturer and senior research scholar at Yale Law School Linda Greenhouse turns 79… Retired MLB umpire, he worked in 3,392 major league games in his 26-year career, his family name was Sklarz, Al Clark turns 78… Presidential historian, spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, and university lecturer, Alvin S. Felzenberg turns 77… Composer, singer, radio show host, and author, he has released seven albums under the name “Country Yossi,” Yossi Toiv turns 77… Actress, singer and songwriter, she is the half-sister of Barbra Streisand, Roslyn Kind turns 75… Australian author of more than 40 books of children’s and young adult fiction, including a five-book series about a 10-year-old Jewish boy in Nazi-occupied Poland, Morris Gleitzman turns 73… Former governor of the Bank of Israel from 2013 to 2018, Karnit Flug turns 71… International president of the Rabbinical Assembly, he is the rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor, N.J., Rabbi Jay M. Kornsgold turns 61… Dean of the Bar-Ilan University law school, Michal Alberstein turns 57… Investment banker, Joel Darren Plasco turns 55… Justice of the High Court of Australia, James Joshua Edelman turns 52… Russian-born American novelist, journalist and literary translator, Keith A. Gessen turns 51… Filmmaker, she is the second lady of New York State, Lacey Schwartz Delgado turns 49… NFL insider and reporter for the NFL Network, Ian Rapoport turns 46… Chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance and founder of Skydance Media, David Ellison turns 43… Israeli actress and model, best known for her role as Nurit in “Fauda,” Rona-Lee Shimon turns 43… Director of development and community relations at Manhattan Day School, Allison Liebman Rubin… Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer at The New Yorker, Ben Taub turns 35… Enterprise account executive at Built, Madeline Peterson… Television and film actress, Nicola Anne Peltz Beckham turns 31…
SATURDAY: Physician and medical researcher, Bernard Salomon Lewinsky turns 83… Editor and publisher of Denver’s Intermountain Jewish News, historian and teacher of the Mussar movement, Rabbi Hillel Goldberg turns 80… President of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston for 30 years, now a professor at Brandeis, Barry Shrage turns 79… Former President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Baron David Edmond Neuberger turns 78… Musician, singer-songwriter and co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band Steely Dan, Donald Fagen turns 78… World-renowned Israeli cellist, he has over 50 recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon label with many top orchestras, Mischa Maisky turns 78… U.S. senator (R-MO) from 2011-2023, Roy Blunt turns 76… Long-time editor at Bantam Books, Simon & Schuster and Crown Publishers, Sydny Weinberg Miner… Retired executive director at Beta Alpha Psi, the international honor society for accounting students, Hadassah (Dassie) Baum… Founder and CEO at Los Angeles-based Quantifiable Media and Tel Aviv-based Accords Consulting, Rose Kemps… Fellow for Religious Freedom at the Forum, Richard Thomas Foltin… Professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, he taught his last class in December 2024, Jonathan D. Sarna turns 71… President and CEO of the Nellis Management Company and past president of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Mark A. Levitt turns 70… Majority owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, Joe Lacob turns 70… Member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party, Uri Maklev turns 69… U.S. senator (D-MD), Chris Van Hollen turns 67… Member of the U.K.’s House of Lords and advisor to the government on antisemitism, Baron John Mann turns 66… Theatrical producer, playwright and director, Ari Roth turns 65… Vice chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples, Beth Ellen Wolff… Author and journalist best known for his novels Gangster Nation, Gangsterland and Living Dead Girl, Tod Goldberg turns 55… Member of the Knesset for Likud, Galit Distel-Atbaryan turns 55… Film director and screenwriter, Joe Nussbaum turns 53… Caryn Beth Lazaroff Gold… Private equity executive and unofficial troubleshooter for the Trump administration, Jared Kushner turns 45… Communications manager for Ford Motor Company, Adam David Weissmann… Former spokesperson on terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Treasury, Morgan Aubrey Finkelstein… Israeli rapper, singer and songwriter, Michael Swissa turns 30… Andrew Tobin… Debbie Seiden…
SUNDAY: Psychologist and the author of 27 books, he lectures at NYU, Michael Eigen turns 90… Retired judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago, author of 40 books on jurisprudence and economics, Richard Posner turns 87… Violinist and music teacher, Shmuel Ashkenasi turns 85… Film, television and theater director, best known for his TV series “Full House” and “Family Matters” and his films “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Fat Albert,” Joel Zwick turns 84… Las Vegas resident, Stephen Norman Needleman… Economist and professor of banking at Columbia University, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Frederic Stanley “Rick” Mishkin turns 75… Noted gardener and florist, Lynn Blitzer… Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of experimental medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he is the author of five books, Dr. Jerome E. Groopman turns 74… Former member of the Canadian House of Commons, Susan Kadis turns 73… Former director general of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Avi Gil turns 71… CEO of Sense Education, an AI company, Seth Haberman turns 66… Attorney, author, speaker and activist, Brian Cuban turns 65… Partner at Magnolia Marketing LLC, Alan Franco… Rabbi at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT), Rabbi Daniel Korobkin turns 62… Former National Hockey League player for 12 seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks, Ronald “Ronnie” Stern turns 59… Actress, socialite and reality television personality, Kyle Richards Umansky turns 57… Defensive tackle in the Canadian Football League for 12 seasons, he is a co-owner at Vera’s Burger Shack based in Vancouver, B.C., Noah Cantor turns 55… Film, stage and television actress, Amanda Peet turns 54… Hockey coach, he is a former goaltender with the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes, he also played in six other leagues, Josh Tordjman turns 41… Member of the Knesset for the Democrats party, Naama Lazimi turns 40… Executive chef and restaurateur, Yehuda Sichel… VP and head of strategic partnerships at Penzer Family Office, Michal (Mickey) Penzer… French-American actress, Flora Cross turns 33… Director of football strategy and assistant quarterbacks coach for the Baltimore Ravens, Daniel Stern turns 32… Founder when she was just 12 years old of Nannies by Noa, Noa Mintz turns 25…
‘To the ayatollah: You need to understand, if you keep killing your people who are demanding a better life, Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham said
Kamran / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Kermanshah, Iran on January 8, 2026.
Multiple Senate Republicans voiced support for President Donald Trump’s threat that the U.S. would intervene directly should the Iranian regime escalate its crackdown on the protests sweeping Iran — which appears to have already begun.
Trump warned in a post on his Truth Social platform last Friday that if Iran shoots “and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
The president renewed that threat on Thursday on “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” saying, “If they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots, they have lots of riots. If they do it, we’re going to hit them very hard.” But on Fox News’s “Hannity,” he said that “for the most part” the regime has not engaged in mass killings of protesters.
Asked on Thursday about the possibility of the U.S. helping the Iranian protesters, Vice President JD Vance expressed his support for the protesters but said he’d defer to Trump on what actions they would take. He also said the U.S. remains open to a “real negotiation” with Iran on its nuclear program.
“I’ll let the president speak to what we’re going to do in the future, but we certainly stand with anybody across the world, including the Iranian people, who are advocating for their rights,” he added.
Trump’s threat has been largely well-received by GOP lawmakers, but lawmakers from both parties have expressed support for the protesters generally.
“To the people of Iran: We stand with you tonight,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News on Tuesday evening. “We stand for you taking back your country from the ayatollah, a religious Nazi who kills you and terrorizes the world,” he said, referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “We pray for you. We support you. Donald J. Trump is not Barack Obama. He has your back. … Help is on the way.”
“And to the ayatollah: You need to understand, if you keep killing your people who are demanding a better life, Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you. Change is coming to Iran. It’ll be the biggest change in the history of the Mideast to get rid of this Nazi regime.”
“President Trump has been very clear: If the ayatollah harms the protesters, the consequences would be catastrophically painful,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Jewish Insider. “The regime should understand that the president is deadly serious and will enjoy strong support in Congress.”
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) told JI that “what the president said … [is] one of the things that we can do to help protect the Iranians who are protesting.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told JI that the U.S. should act “in any possible way to support the Iranian protesters” and said he’d back any efforts in Congress to do so.
“That’s the real truth to power. They started to kill people there. Remember, they are now so desperate. They’re trying to offer people $7 a month. They’re that desperate,” Fetterman said. “How courageous those protesters are — and that’s a testament to the opportunities Israel and our strikes created — they inspire me. These are Iranian protesters. That is real courage and real — being willing to either get killed, beaten, tortured or disappeared, that’s what happens in true autocracies.”
Other senators spoke more broadly about offering U.S. support for the protesters without addressing direct intervention.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) noted that lawmakers haven’t engaged extensively about ways for Congress to support the protesters since returning from the holiday recess on Monday, but said it was important for them to express their support. “I’m open to any ideas. I think there’s been very little talk [among lawmakers] in specific terms,” Blumenthal told JI.
“We should speak out and support them in spirit,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t know how much we can do, practically speaking. I know the president has talked about some kind of measures if anyone is killed. I don’t know exactly what he has in mind, but we ought to be supporting the freedom fighters and brave protesters in any way we can.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said that the “biggest thing that we can do is actually have public officials speak out that our problem with Iran is not the people of Iran, it’s the Iranian regime. Our problem is the same problem the people of Iran have.”
“The regime oppresses them, prevents them from actually being [as] successful as they could be. The people of Iran [are] extremely well educated, extremely sharp people [and] could be a lot more prosperous than they are, but they’re trapped behind a regime that’s obsessed with terrorism, and so they’re holding back their entire country so they can fund Hezbollah,” Lankford said. “So people can’t get food, people can’t have a stable currency, because they want to fund terrorism. Until they have an ability to be able to pick new leaders that will actually represent their values, they’re stuck.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said it is “wonderful” to see the protests happening and that the U.S. “should support them diplomatically, technologically and in other ways, so that they can communicate.”
“But I think we should be very hesitant about expressing our willingness to use military force in yet another country for yet another reason,” Schiff added.
Other Democrats have also discouraged the use of U.S. military force in response to the protests.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said the U.S. should “continue to show attention” toward Iran, “making sure we’re not just losing track of everything because of Venezuela, and just continuing to show that we want to make sure that the regime doesn’t crack down brutally as they have in the past.”
“I think that that’s an important sign right now, as this is continuing on,” Kim continued.
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