• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are holding a press conference at 8 a.m. about the ongoing U.S. and Israeli military operations in Iran.
• Legislators on both sides of the Capitol could vote as soon as today on war powers resolutions. More below on an effort by a group of moderate House Democrats to push an alternative resolution that would give the Trump administration some leeway as it continues to strike Iran.
• In Iran, multiday funeral proceedings for assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that were slated to begin today have been postponed. Surviving senior Iranian clerics could announce a successor to Khamenei as soon as today, with his son Mojtaba Khamenei considered a likely contender. More below.
• The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is releasing its annual report this afternoon at an event on Capitol Hill.
• The Heritage Foundation is launching its 2026 “Index of U.S. Military Strength” at an event this morning at the think tank’s Washington headquarters. Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Reps. August Pfluger (R-TX), Pat Harrigan (R-TX) and Matt Van Epps (R-TN) are slated to give remarks, along with Heritage’s Rob Greenway and Victoria Coates.
• Reut USA’s “AJ2026: Launching a Decade of Renewal” kicks off today in Miami. Read more here.
• Author Izabella Tabarovsky is speaking tonight at a UJA-Federation of New York event about her latest book, Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A strong anti-incumbent mood is apparent in the electorate, based on primary results from North Carolina and Texas’ congressional primaries Tuesday night. Meanwhile, one sitting Democratic lawmaker who lost support from AIPAC is narrowly fending off a challenge from a virulently anti-Israel challenger who campaigned in the closing days of the primary against the Iran war. 

Big picture: There’s a deep skepticism of the political establishment throughout the country within both parties. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), a center-right hawk who was one of the stars of the 2018 GOP freshman class, badly lost to state Rep. Steve Toth, a right-wing challenger backed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is doing a bit better than public polls suggested, but still is only polling in the low 40s against MAGA-aligned Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that’s headed to a runoff.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), who has been enmeshed in scandal after his extramarital affair with a staffer, who later died by suicide, became public, is leading social media influencer Brandon Herrera, but is also only polling in the low-40s and will also be headed to a runoff. 

On the Democratic side, Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), who was boosted to office in 2022 with AIPAC support but has since grown more critical of Israel, is clinging to a one-point lead (49-48%) over Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, who would have become one of the most anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress if she was elected. Allam was backed by the far-left Justice Democrats and received support from a new super PAC attempting to elect anti-Israel lawmakers.

The Iran war may have played a key role in the primary. Foushee won the early vote by an eight-point margin, but Allam carried the Election Day vote by six points — after airing an ad blasting the war in Iran and baselessly accusing the United States of targeting civilians. 

And in a member-against-member Democratic primary in Texas, Rep. Al Green (D-TX), one of the most left-wing members of Congress who has been a reliable vote against Israel, is narrowly trailing newly elected Rep. Christian Menefee (D-TX), a more mainstream Democrat. Menefee looks like the favorite, but is short of the 50% necessary to avoid a runoff. 

Meanwhile, former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) is on track to reclaim his old suburban Dallas seat, unseating Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX) in the process. But he’s likely heading to a runoff as well. 

All told, pro-Israel Democrats can express a bit of relief toward Tuesday night’s primary results. Assuming Foushee holds on to victory, it blocks the path of a Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) prototype from getting elected to Congress. If Allam prevailed, she could have held that safely Democratic seat — and an anti-Israel platform — for many years.

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

Regional Realignment: In The Wall Street Journal, Shimon Refaeli, an advisor to former Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, posits that Iran’s attacks on Arab countries across the Middle East underscores the importance of a new regional order — proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024 — that brings together Israel and moderate Arab states. “A regional alliance could evolve from a mechanism to contain Iran into a broader framework for regional stabilization and deterrence. In this sense, the emerging alliance is an expression of a deeper structural change in the region: the convergence of moderate states around shared interests of stability, technology, air defense, trade routes and maritime security. The Iranian threat exposed the need for an integrated system. Even if the threat diminishes, that need won’t disappear. It will become the foundation for a long-term security architecture.” [WSJ]

Minority Rights: In The Washington Post, Aram Hessami argues that Iran’s ethnic minority groups — which comprise approximately half of the Islamic Republic’s population — are a key cog in any future Iranian government. “Even as Iranian minorities endured decades of discrimination at the hands of the theocratic regime, they built networks of civic engagement, political leadership and social organization that make them uniquely capable of contributing to a future state grounded in pluralism and citizenship. … Their organizational depth and their long history of fostering political associations and activism qualify them to defend against tyranny and help lay the foundation for democratic, pluralistic, lasting governance.” [WashPost]

Crying Over Khamenei: The Atlantic’s Gal Beckerman reflects on the emotional response of Iranians, both pro- and anti-regime, to the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “It would be easy to reduce these tears to simple expressions of either happiness or sadness. But if we recognize the deeper well they are drawn from, the implications for what happens next are much more troubling. You can’t just wipe away that feeling of rupture, or the decades of fear that preceded it. People become comfortable with the reality they know; they will mourn even an abusive father, and might require a lifetime to overcome the abuse. Even those who unreservedly despised him, but had no other leader, might not know what to look for in an alternative, or whether to trust a good steward if one comes along.” [TheAtlantic]

Facing concerns from Senate Republicans over her agency’s preparedness, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday defended the department’s ability to respond to potential Iranian sleeper-cell threats as the Department of Homeland Security remains unfunded and under a partial shutdown amid an escalating conflict with Tehran, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports… 

Axios reports on a Feb. 23 call between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which Israel shared intelligence indicating that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his top advisors would be meeting in a single location, prompting the strikes that would take place days later…

The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into the hour-by-hour U.S. and Israeli military moves that took down the top echelon of the regime…

Politico spotlights Iran’s Kharg Island, which houses the Islamic Republic’s most important oil facility, as Trump faces calls to seize the Persian Gulf island…

Talking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said that on three occasions, talks with Iran “opened up with the Iranian negotiators telling us they had the inalienable right to enrich all the nuclear fuel that they possessed,” with Witkoff and Jared Kushner responding “that the president feels we have the inalienable right to stop you dead in your tracks”…

Hannity told podcaster and former White House official Katie Miller that his former colleague, far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, is “not the person that I knew when he was at Fox”…

A new poll from Fox News found Americans split 50-50 on U.S. military action targeting Iran…

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who voiced support over the weekend for strikes against Iran, said that the U.S.- and Israeli-led war is “another example of the failure of the international order”… 

In an interview at Bloomberg Invest 2026, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan said that Iran was “a problem that needed to be dealt with, and if it were dealt with in other years, it would have been more difficult. And so the notion that it’s being dealt with today in some ways is reassuring, notwithstanding the current instability”…

Democratic lawmakers speaking at the Monday evening gala of J Street’s Washington conference argued that the joint U.S.-Israel operation that killed many top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would ultimately make Iranians, Israelis and the United States less safe, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

In an event to promote his upcoming book, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested that the U.S. may have to rethink its military aid to Israel, and said that it would be accurate to describe Israel as “sort of an apartheid state”…

The Jewish Agency for Israel is launching a new fund to provide direct and immediate grants to victims of Iranian attacks in Israel during the current conflict,eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

The Department of Homeland Security is opening an investigation into antisemitic comments allegedly made by Greg Bovino, the former head of U.S. Border Patrol, complaining about the inaccessibility of the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, who is Jewish, over Shabbat…

The King County Prosecutor’s Office in Washington state filed criminal trespass charges against nearly three dozen people accused of taking over a building on the University of Washington’s flagship campus last spring, but stopped short of charging them with vandalism despite the demonstrators having caused more than $1 million in damage to the building…

An X account believed to belong to the man who killed three people in Austin, Texas, over the weekend was found to contain numerous antisemitic and pro-Iranian regime posts…

Police in San Luis Obispo, Calif., are investigating an incident that took place outside the house of the California Polytechnic State University chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi in which a group of men yelled antisemitic slurs at members of the Jewish fraternity; the incident comes as the university faces congressional scrutiny over its handling of antisemitism on campus…

A Toronto synagogue was shot at Monday night, causing damage to the building’s exterior, according to police. Toronto Police Service said that there were several bullet holes in the front windows of Temple Emanu-El in North York; no injuries were reported, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

Team Israel played an exhibition game against the Miami Marlins ahead of the team’s first game in the World Baseball Classic this upcoming weekend…

The German Culture Ministry, which provides funding for the annual Berlinale, is creating a board of advisors to oversee the film festival’s executive director and instituting a code of conduct regarding antisemitism after incidents last year in which award winners used their speaking time to criticize Israel…

Geraldine Schottenstein, who with her husband, Jerome, was a major donor to Jewish causes in the Columbus, Ohio, area, including Jewish Columbus and the newly renamed Jerome and Geraldine Schottenstein Chabad House Student Center at The Ohio State University, died at 93…

American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad)’s Rabbi Levi Shemtov led a Megillah reading yesterday in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House for over 50 senior administration officials and staff.

British promoter of rock concerts, charity concerts and television broadcasts, Harvey Goldsmith turns 80…

Composer, conductor, author and music professor, Samuel Adler turns 98… Broadcast journalist and author, she is best known as a correspondent for the ABC news magazine “20/20” for almost 30 years, Lynn Sherr turns 84… Board member emeritus at New York City Center, Perry B. Granoff turns 83… North American representative of World ORT for 20 years, Harry Nadler… Screenwriter and director, she is the mother of actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal turns 80… Retired CEO of LCH Clearnet LLC, a clearinghouse affiliated with the London Stock Exchange, David A. Weisbrod… Former director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran turns 72… U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) turns 68… Founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, Eva Moskowitz turns 62… President of the New England Patriots, Jonathan A. Kraft turns 62… Manager of the Louvre’s restitution investigations of art looted from Jewish families during the Nazi and Vichy regimes, Emmanuelle Polack turns 61… U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) turns 58… Former member of both the New York City Council and state Assembly, now at the Brandeis Center, Rory I. Lancman turns 57… Evan L. Presser… Staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, Emily Bazelon… Chief of staff at Goldman Sachs, Russell Horwitz… First Jewish player to be selected in the top round of the NHL Draft (1998), Michael Henrich turns 46… Member of the Knesset for the New Hope party, Sharren Haskel turns 42… VP of public policy at the International Council of Shopping Centers, Abigail Goldstein “Abby” Jagoda… Brazilian entrepreneur and software engineer who co-founded Instagram in 2010, Michel “Mike” Krieger turns 40… Singer, music producer and composer, Aryeh Kunstler turns 40… Chief of staff for New York state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Victoria “Tori” Burhans Kelly… Israeli-born basketball player who played for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans, Gal Mekel turns 38… Model and actress, she was a lead Victoria’s Secret model, Erin Heatherton (born as Erin Heather Bubley) turns 37… Foreign policy advisor for U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL-22), Jennifer Miller… Ice hockey goaltender for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the American Hockey League, Yaniv Perets turns 26…

• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are back in Geneva for Omani-brokered talks with Iran. The meeting comes two days after Witkoff, speaking at AIPAC’s Congressional Summit in Washington, said that any future nuclear deal with Iran should last indefinitely — a departure from the Obama administration’s 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which included sunset clauses.
• President Donald Trump will receive an intelligence briefing at 11 a.m.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wraps up his two-day visit to Israel today. In a speech yesterday at the Knesset — which was also attended by former New York Mayor Eric Adams — Modi, who was the first Indian leader to address the Israeli body, pledged that “India stands with Israel firmly with full conviction in this moment and beyond.”
• In California, JCRC Bay Area, the Jewish Federation Los Angeles and JPAC are hosting the Jewish California 2026 Governor Candidate Forum at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. Speakers at the forum are set to include entrepreneur Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), political commentator Steve Hilton, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
• Jewish Alumni Strong is hosting a screening on Capitol Hill this afternoon of Duki Dror’s 2025 film “Unraveling UNRWA,” about the embattled U.N. organization. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A pair of new polls — one in a Democratic Senate primary in Maine and one in a Republican gubernatorial primary in Florida — should sound alarm bells about the political and ideological trajectory of Gen Z voters, and the younger generation’s creeping tolerance of antisemitism that transcends party ID.

While the top lines from the polls generated the most headlines, the more notable takeaway was just how different the preferences of Boomers and Gen Zers were — even among those affiliated with the same party. The younger voters gravitated toward the candidates with checkered (at best) records on antisemitism. 

James Fishback, a 31-year-old Republican investor who made a name for himself with incendiary social media posts attacking Israel and invoking antisemitic tropes, is barely winning a following among most Florida Republicans as he runs for governor. But among younger Republican voters, he appears to be building a growing base of support.

Graham Platner, an anti-establishment oyster farmer who for years had a skull-and-bones Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, a symbol adopted by a Nazi SS unit, is barely facing any backlash from Maine voters in his outsider Senate campaign. (He had the tattoo covered up during the campaign, amid widespread controversy.) Indeed, he may soon become the favorite to win the Senate seat in Maine, fueled by near-universal support among younger Democratic voters.

The polling underscores the dramatic generational disconnect.

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

The Brown-Bag Candidate: The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich interviews former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) as Brown aims to flip the seat that he — and Democrats — see as a possible pick-up in the midterms. “I asked Brown why he thought Democrats had lost so much credibility with blue-collar, lower- and middle-income citizens. In a historic flip of party identity, voters are now more likely to view Republicans as better attuned to the concerns of working-class people, whereas Democrats are more associated with affluent, college-educated elites. ‘From your perspective, what has that evolution been like over the years?’ I asked. Brown blew off my question. ‘I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it,’ he said. ‘This might surprise you.’ … But it is perhaps another element of Brown’s appeal that he tends not to get bogged down in hifalutin theories or sociology (his Yale degree notwithstanding). He prides himself on being an unglamorous advocate, who has earned enough trust with enough voters to defy Ohio’s Republican trend lines. At least until he didn’t.” [TheAtlantic]

Angst Over AIPAC: In The Times of Israel, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, the chair of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, raises concerns about recent pledges by candidates and elected officials not to take donations affiliated with AIPAC. “This approach feeds stereotypes about Jewish money and political influence that can lead to antisemitic targeting of Jews. No other community is similarly vilified for donating money to candidates who support their policy priorities, nor would it be tolerated. Most candidates have no problem accepting funds from special-interest groups or corporations who have a particular cause to promote, including those who overtly advocate for policies from which they will personally benefit. Perhaps the time has come to pay more attention to candidates who support certain oil-rich countries in the Middle East who have sought to buy influence and the source of their funding, rather than American Jews.” [TOI]

The NYPD declared before the New York City Council on Wednesday that it has “no objections” to Council Speaker Julie Menin’s proposal compelling the department to develop a policy for establishing “buffer zones” outside houses of worship during protests, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports…

Protests tied to the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America at an event on tax reform with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie included chants to “Tax the rich” that morphed into calls to “Tax the Israel” and at least one person shouting “Tax the Jews”; the X account for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office called the incident “[d]isgusting,” while former Obama administration advisor David Axelrod called it “really alarming. Echoes of another, very dark time”…

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating an incident in which a swastika was found at a recruit training facility in Cape May, N.J.; the incident comes months after the Coast Guard temporarily downgraded the image’s designation as a hate symbol…

Attorneys for rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, are appealing a lower court ruling that rejected his effort to squash a workplace discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee who alleged she was subject to antisemitism while an employee of West; attorneys for the rapper are arguing that West’s comments, which including describing himself as a “Nazi” and “Hitler,” are protected as artistic expression…

Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from teaching at the university following the release of documents that showed a close relationship between Summers, a former Treasury secretary, and Jeffrey Epstein… 

The U.K. is delaying a parliamentary vote on the decision to transfer the Chagos Islands, which houses the U.S.’ Diego Garcia military base that serves as a counterweight to Chinese influence in the region, to the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, following criticism of the deal by President Donald Trump…

The New York Times interviewed dozens of medical professionals in Iran about treating patients who were injured in the recent widespread protests and violently suppressed by the government…

KLM announced a “temporary” suspension of flights between Amsterdam and Israel, effective March 1…

Legislation that would amend Israel’s 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law and effectively criminalize egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem passed its first legislative reading, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem announced it will set up for one day later this week in Efrat, the first time the embassy will offer consular services in a West Bank settlement; an embassy spokesperson said the move did not reflect a change in U.S. policy toward the West Bank…

Right-wing Israeli activists staged a third protest in as many weeks outside the home of Lucy Aharish, stemming from comments the Israeli Arab news anchor made earlier this month criticizing the government’s lack of response to a recent uptick in violence in the Israeli Arab community…

The New York Times spotlights the growing popularity in Australia of the One Nation party and its leader, anti-immigration activist Pauline Hanson, amid shifting public attitudes in the country around immigration that spiked following the December 2025 terror attack at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration…

Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon is joining The George Washington University’s Program on Extremism as executive head of investigations…

Book publisher Ann Godoff, who led Random House before moving over to Penguin Press, died at 76…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was honored yesterday by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana with a medal for his “significant contributions to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet, Alana Newhouse turns 50… 

Professor emeritus of sociology and Jewish studies at Rutgers University, Chaim Isaac Waxman, Ph.D. turns 85… Businessman, art collector and political activist, he is the president of the World Jewish Congress since 2007, Ronald Lauder turns 82… Professor emeritus in the sociology and anthropology school of Tel Aviv University, Yehouda Shenhav turns 74… Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter in multiple musical genres, he has sold over 75 million records, Michael Bolton turns 73… Former member of the Knesset for the Labor Party, she is now president of Beit Berl College, Yael “Yuli” Tamir turns 72… Julie Levitt Applebaum… Member of the Knesset for over 30 years, he is the former Israeli national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi turns 69… Former U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, now a partner at Arnold & Porter, Paul J. Fishman turns 69… Professor of sociology and bioethics at Emory University, he is the older brother of Rabbi David Wolpe, Paul Root Wolpe turns 69… CEO and Chairman at Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, Jonathan Sporn, M.D. turns 68… U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) turns 68… Partner at Unfiltered Media, Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D…. Theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology, Abraham “Avi” Loeb turns 64… CEO at Rutgers University Hillel, Lisa Harris Glass… President of MLB’s Miami Marlins from 2002-2017, he was a contestant in the 28th season of “Survivor” in 2014, David P. Samson turns 58… Motivational speaker, focused on anti-bullying, Jon Pritikin turns 53… First violin and concertmaster (since she was 26) for the D.C.-based National Symphony Orchestra, Nurit Bar-Josef turns 51… Member of the House of Representatives (D-NY-10), he is an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune, Daniel Sachs Goldman turns 50… Entrepreneur, she launched “Student of Life, For Life” in 2020, Rebekah Victoria Paltrow Neumann turns 48… Special assistant to the president and director of Jewish engagement in the White House Faith Office, Martin J. Marks turns 45… Brett Michael Kaufman…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Ahead of the third round of U.S.-Iran negotiations taking place in Geneva tomorrow, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that President Donald Trump “has a number of other tools at his disposal” besides diplomacy to ensure “the craziest and worst regime in the world” does not obtain nuclear weapons, following on the president’s remarks during last night’s State of the Union calling Iran “the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror”…

In response to Trump’s comments, where he also said Iran was developing advanced ballistic missiles and had killed 32,000 protesters, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei tied Trump to the “law of propaganda coined by Nazi [chief propagandist] Joseph Goebbels.”

“This is now systematically used by the U.S. administration and the war profiteers encircling it, particularly the genocidal Israeli regime … Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baghaei wrote on X…

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading Iran negotiations alongside Jared Kushner, reportedly told AIPAC members at the group’s summit in Washington yesterday that any deal reached with Iran should not have a “sunset clause,” as the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was criticized for. 

“We start with the Iranians with the premise that there is no sunset provision. Whether we get a deal or not, our premise is: you have to behave for the rest of your lives,” Witkoff told the group, according to Axios. He said talks are currently focused only on the nuclear issue, but if they are successful, the administration would look to hold additional talks on Tehran’s missile program and support for terror proxies…

Satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press appear to show U.S. ships that typically dock in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet have moved out to sea. The 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships during the U.S. strikes in Iran last June…

Dutch airline KLM announced a suspension of flights between its hub in Amsterdam and Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport starting March 1 until further notice, saying in a statement that it is currently “not commercially or operationally feasible for KLM to operate flights to Tel Aviv.” It’s the first airline to pause flights amid the current unrest with Iran…

On the campaign trail, Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George vowed to reject the “Zionist lobby” in a questionnaire seeking the endorsement of the Metro D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports, a category that the DSA said includes AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel, Christians United for Israel and J Street.

Referencing her appearance at an event with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in December, Lewis George assured the DSA she “disagree[s] with the JCRC on a number of issues,” including its opposition to describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide and its “definition of antisemitism that criminalizes dissent, and their attacks on activists.” 

Ron Halber, CEO of the JCRC, told JI, “As far as I’m concerned, [the DSA’s questionnaire] is an antisemitic manifesto. They are making the price of their endorsement the social exclusion of Jews”…

Illinois state Sen. Laura Fine, a Democrat running for an open Illinois House seat, unapologetically championed her backing for Israel in a position paper obtained by JI’s Marc Rod, amid attacks from anti-Israel activists and groups over her support for the Jewish state and backing from pro-Israel supporters.

Fine described Israel in the paper as “more than just a strategic ally, it is a beacon of democracy in one of the world’s most volatile regions,” as she and some of her primary opponents, including Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and far-left activist Kat Abughazaleh, are set to participate in a televised debate tonight…

The U.S.-led Board of Peace released a video today laying out its vision for Gaza. The board’s goal by Year 3 is to fully rebuild the southern Gazan city of Rafah and have Gaza “connected to the world through an Abrahamic gateway, linking it with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and extending to India and Europe.” By the board’s 10th year, it said, Gaza will be “self-governed,” without specifying who will oversee the enclave and how Hamas will be removed from power… 

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana awarded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the newly established Medal of the Knesset, the highest honor of the body, after Modi’s address there today. His remarks were warmly received by members of Knesset and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also in the chamber…

Following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland’s independence in December, Jerusalem accepted the appointment of Mohamed Hagi as the first Somaliland ambassador to the Jewish state (and its first fully accredited ambassador anywhere in the world). Hagi “was a member of the inner circle of officials who promoted the establishment of relations between Israel and Somaliland,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, and vowed that a reciprocal Israeli ambassador “will soon be appointed”…

Former Harvard President Larry Summers will remain on leave from his teaching position at the Ivy League school for the duration of the academic year, at which point he will retire, Harvard announced today, after files released by the Department of Justice showed Summers maintained a relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after the financier had been convicted of prostitution involving a minor…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of Fox Nation’s new docudrama on King David, offering a dramatic reenactment of the biblical coming-of-age story of the Jewish leader.

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will hold discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.

California Jewish groups including the JCRC Bay Area, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and Jewish California, which rebranded today from its previous name of JPAC, are hosting a forum for candidates running for governor, as Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his term limit. Participating candidates include former presidential contender Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, all of whom are Democrats, as well as Republican commentator Steve Hilton. 

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel earlier today. He is set to speak at the Knesset this afternoon before having dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the King David hotel in Jerusalem.
  
• The New York City Council is holding a hearing today on the potential creation of a buffer zone around places of worship. Read our story about the proposed legislation here.
  
• Fox Chicago is hosting a debate for the leading Democrats running in IL-9, where outside spending linked to pro-Israel groups is increasingly playing a role in the lead-up to next month’s primary as state Sen. Laura Fine, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and far-left activist Kat Abughazaleh jockey for the nomination.
  
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog is in Ethiopia today for a one-day visit. While in Addis Ababa, Herzog met with President Taye Atske Selassie.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Donald Trump maintained his tough talk against Iran, reiterating that he will use force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, even though he’s willing to explore diplomatic options to resolve the standoff.  

Trump did not — as some online had predicted — make a grand televised announcement of United States strikes on Iran during the speech. Nor did he elaborate further on his plans for the growing U.S. military might in the region, or what specifically would trigger the U.S. to utilize that military power.

”They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump said about Iran. “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror — which they are by far — to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”

A number of moderate House Democrats — around a third of the Democrats in the chamber — as well as the majority of Republicans stood to applaud those comments from the president. Democrats remained largely passive through much of the rest of Trump’s nearly two-hour speech.

Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are set to resume in Geneva later this week.

Trump also insisted again that the U.S. had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program in its strikes last June, and had warned the regime in Tehran not to attempt to rebuild its weapons programs, including its nuclear program, but it has continued those efforts anyway.

“As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Trump said. “And no nation should ever doubt America’s resolve. We have the most powerful military on earth. … It’s really called ‘peace through strength’ and it’s been very, very effective.”

In addition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Trump highlighted the Islamic Republic’s manufacture of ballistic missiles, threatening U.S. allies, troops and potentially the U.S. homeland, and its sponsorship of terrorism.

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

AI in the Gulf: In Foreign Policy, Steven Cook examines the geopolitical calculus being made by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the Gulf nations increasingly lean into the AI space. “If they become critical partners with some of the United States’ biggest tech companies in artificial intelligence, it is a lock that the United States will guarantee their security. The folks in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha will not need formal U.S. security guarantees. AI is the mother of all insurance policies. … By making themselves essential in the U.S. effort to win the artificial intelligence competition, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar ensure that their own adversaries become Washington’s adversaries as well. No geopolitical competitor is going to mess with these countries so long as the United States has a vested interest in the preservation of their current leaders. It is good to be on Team America.” [FP]

Go Slow on Iran: In The Atlantic, Thomas Wright, who served as senior director for strategic planning in the Biden administration’s National Security Council, posits that the U.S. can slow-walk its decision on whether to move forward on a deal with Iran. “The United States does not need a comprehensive deal with Iran now. In fact, such an agreement could be counterproductive. The more ambitious the nuclear concessions demanded of Iran, the greater the economic relief required to secure them. A comprehensive nuclear deal that requires Iran to abandon enrichment entirely would almost certainly involve sweeping sanctions relief. That would unlock tens of billions of dollars, reopen global markets, and offer the regime a path out of isolation. Paradoxically, it could provide a lifeline just as internal pressures are mounting. A ‘zero enrichment’ deal could have the unintended effect of prolonging the very system it seeks to constrain.” [TheAtlantic]

Not Very Catholic of Them: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik, reflecting on his conversations at the recent convening of the newly created Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress, raises concerns about the rise in antisemitism among younger members of the Catholic Church. “The new antisemitism, Catholics I spoke with said, seemed to be a function of the new digital meme culture — fractured, algorithmic, always blurring the dotted line between the earnest and the faux-earnest. And it had a way, with all that content, all those words and unverifiable statements and carefully edited clips, of making the uninitiated feel as if they knew something, had been granted access to some eternal truth that had somehow eluded the older, wiser, more knowledgeable.”[FreePress]

The U.S. sent a deployment of a dozen advanced F-22 Raptor jets to Israel as part of the buildup of American aerial assets in the region; meanwhile, Iran is nearing a deal to purchase CM-302 anti-ship missiles from China…

Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and environment, told House lawmakers on Tuesday that the administration’s Pax Silica initiative could help pave a path toward normalization between Israel and Qatar, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

Somaliland’s U.S. mission praised the “warm welcome” its representative received this week at the AIPAC Congressional Summit in Washington…

Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced the Senate companion bill to the Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom and Accountability Act, which aims to disrupt the finances of the Iranian regime and its allies and expand internet access in Iran…

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) brought Paramount Skydance CEODavid Ellison as his guest to last night’s State of the Union address…

Warner Bros. Discovery said that Paramount’s new offer — $31 per share — to purchase the media company may best the offer made by Netflix, which had been in advanced talks to acquire Warner Bros. before Paramount made a hostile takeover bid for the company…

Dovid Efune, who with Axel Springer is attempting to purchase the Telegraph Media Group, sent a letter to RedBird, which is overseeing the sale, saying that his consortium would improve its initial offer…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher interviews outgoing B’nai B’rith International CEO Dan Mariaschin about his nearly four decades atop the Jewish organization…

AppleTV picked up the Israeli series “Unconditional” and will begin airing the thriller series in May…

Israeli actress Shira Haas has signed onto the film adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale; Haas will star alongside Elle and Dakota Fanning in the film, which follows a pair of sisters in German-occupied France during World War II…

Israeli web intelligence firm Nimble raised $47 million in a Series B financing round led by Norwest…

Israel reportedly warned Lebanon that the country would be hit hard if Hezbollah joins any Iranian military action targeting the Jewish state…

Politico spotlights Reza Pahlavi as the exiled Iranian crown prince works to elevate his profile and draw support for potential day-after leadership of Iran should the regime collapse…

Israeli singer Yishay Ribo postponed his U.S. tour shortly before he was set to depart Israel, telling ticketholders that the postponement was due to “the situation and the high level of alert in Israel”…

A University of Haifa student swimming off the coast of Israel discovered a centuries-old iron sword believed to date back to the Crusades… 

The Netherlands summoned the Iranian ambassador in Amsterdam over an incident involving the seizure of a Dutch diplomat’s luggage at Tehran’s airport last month…

The New York Times spotlights ADNOC and its managing director, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, as the United Arab Emirates’ national energy company seeks to expand beyond oil and into natural gas, chemicals and renewables…

Cheryl Stumbo, who was injured in a 2006 shooting at the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, died at 63…

Susan Leeman, a pioneer in the field of neuroendocrinology, died at 95…

Brothers and Team USA hockey players Jack Hughes (left) and Quinn Hughes, fresh off their gold-medal victory over Canada at the Olympics over the weekend, attended last night’s State of the Union address in Washington.

Actress best known for her roles in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and Fox’s “Boston Public,” Rashida Jones turns 50…

Former talk show host, Sally Jessy Raphael (born Sally Lowenthal) turns 91… Owner of both the MLB’s Chicago White Sox (since 1981) and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls (since 1985), Jerry M. Reinsdorf turns 90… Former president of the Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, EVP of the UJA-Federation of New York and first-ever CEO of United Jewish Communities, Stephen Solender turns 88… Science and medicine reporter for The New York Times and author of six books, Gina Bari Kolata turns 78… Former CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Steve Gutow turns 77… Jerusalem-based attorney and chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, Marc Zell turns 73… Former Israeli minister of foreign affairs and chief of the general staff of the IDF, Gabi Ashkenazi turns 72… Opinion columnist for The New York Times since 2016, after serving as the paper’s editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal turns 70… Former VP of communications at CNN, Barbara Levin… Policy editor at The Bulwark, Mona Charen Parker turns 69… CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo from 2015-2024, now a senior advisor there, Rob Goldberg… U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2021-2023, Thomas Richard Nides turns 65… Mayor of Burlington, Vt., from 2012-2024, Miro Weinberger turns 56… Founder of “News Not Noise,” she was previously the chief White House correspondent for CNN, Jessica Sage Yellin… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, she is now VP of product content engineering for Meta, Anne Elise Kornblut turns 53… Co-founder of Singapore-based Alchemist Travel, Lauren Raps… Comedian, actress and writer, Chelsea Joy Handler turns 51… Managing director of Covenant Wines in Berkeley, Calif., Sagie Kleinlerer… Former assistant director at San Francisco-based EUQINOM Gallery, Lyla Rose Holdstein… Founding partner of Parallel Capital and board chair of the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles, Guy Lipa… Actor best known for his role in Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle,” Justin Berfield turns 40… Born in Tel Aviv, raised in Arizona, now a business correspondent for CNN, Hadas Gold turns 38… 2013 U.S. national figure skating champion, now a VP at Franklin Templeton, Maxwell Theodore “Max” Aaron turns 34… Julie Goldman… Founder of Ramah in the Rockies and former chairman of National Jewish Health, David Engleberg…

• The Trump administration is convening its Board of Peace today in Washington. Among those attending the gathering are Argentine President Javier Milei, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Belarus Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. More below.
• Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut will deliver the inaugural “State of the Jewish Union” address at the organization’s Washington headquarters.
• The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is holding a daylong public briefing today on antisemitism on campus. Speakers include Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick, Louis D. Brandeis Center founder Kenneth Marcus, National Jewish Advocacy Center CEO Mark Goldfeder, law professor Eugene Volokh and The George Washington University Law School’s Matt Nosanchuk.
• The National Governors Association kicks off its annual Washington summit today.
• Minister of Economic Affairs at the Israel Embassy in Washington Noach Hacker is speaking at the Hudson Institute today, where he will sit with Hudson’s Mike Doran for a conversation about U.S.-Israel economic ties.
• French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are attending the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, that kicked off earlier today.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

High-level foreign officials, top diplomats and heads of state will gather in Washington today for the first in-person convening of the Trump administration’s Board of Peace — as U.S. military assets flow into the Middle East and President Donald Trump mulls a potentially weekslong sustained military campaign in Iran.

The gathering, ostensibly focused on the disarmament of Hamas and the establishment of a peace-aligned administration in the Gaza Strip, comes as the U.S. moves dozens of fighter jets and support aircraft to the region — reportedly the largest buildup in military air power since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It’s a split screen befitting the president — who said at his inauguration last year that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker,” and who has claimed success in negotiating an end to numerous conflicts, as well as the release of the remaining Israeli hostages from Gaza last year — even as the U.S. has used force to enact political change, such as in Venezuela.

But a U.S. operation in Iran would differ significantly from what took place in Venezuela last month. In the place of ousted President Nicolás Maduro is Delcy Rodríguez, the former vice president who is now working with the Trump administration. No such natural successor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei exists. Behind the supreme leader is a laundry list of equally — if not more — radical hard-liners eager to take the ailing Khamenei’s place. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah of Iran, who has spent most of his life living in exile, has sought to return to Iran to usher the Islamic Republic into a new democratic era — but does not appear to have the on-the-ground support as well as enough legitimacy among Iran’s vast diaspora community. 

The Trump administration continues to signal publicly that it wants to find a diplomatic resolution to the situation in Iran, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying as much at yesterday’s press briefing. 

But the White House is continuing to move forward with preparations for a military confrontation, which could include anything from targeted strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities to a move toward regime change. Trump met on Wednesday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to discuss options for Iran.

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

School of Hope: The New York Times’ David Halbfinger and Bilal Shbair spotlight the Academies of Hope network of private schools operating in Gaza, the brainchild of a Palestinian American doctor that is primarily funded by Jewish donors, which provides peace-focused education for 9,000 Palestinian students across five campuses. “Operating schools in any war zone is hard enough, and schools across the enclave are struggling to rebuild. But Dr. Hasan has compounded his challenges. He revamped a much-criticized national curriculum and worked to keep Hamas from endangering his schools. He also verifies that none of his staff have ties to militant groups, a charge Israel has leveled against the United Nations agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza and some international aid groups.” [NYTimes]

Poison PEN: In Tablet, Ari Ingel, executive director of the Creative Community for Peace, raises concerns about PEN America’s commitment to free speech, weeks after the literary organization walked back its condemnation of the cancellation of an event by an Israeli comedian. “The pattern has been consistent: They listen, offer no meaningful response, and then double down on a hostile anti-Zionist and anti-Israel posture. In doing so, PEN America has helped legitimize antisemitic discrimination at a moment when antisemitism in the United States is at historic levels. This is not an isolated failure of judgment, but a structural rot in the organization, one that reflects leadership choices, institutional culture, and a governing board that has failed to intervene.” [Tablet]

Sports Talk: The Hollywood Reporter’s Steven Zeitchik reflects on the recent sports successes of Israeli NBA star Deni Avdija and Israel’s first Olympic bobsled team, juxtaposed with the pushback they’ve faced from Israel critics. “But the sight of a Jew excelling in sports is even more than a bit of representational inspiration. So much of antisemitism, historic and resurgent, is bound up with demeaning Jews as genetically inferior — at the top line with Hitler and those infamous Olympics 90 years ago but also much more casually, in easy jokes and schoolyard assumptions, in the implication that genetic makeup makes Jews less athletic.” [HollywoodReporter]

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and the Israel Airports Authority disputed Tucker Carlson‘s claim that he was detained and interrogated by Ben Gurion Airport security while at the airport for an interview with the ambassador; the IAA said that “Carlson and his party were politely asked a few routine questions, in accordance with standard procedures applied to many travelers” and that the questioning took place “in a separate room within the VIP lounge solely to protect their privacy and to avoid conducting such a discussion in public”…

Democratic Majority for Israel’s PAC announced its endorsement of 11 congressional candidates, including Cait Conley in NY-17, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti in PA-8, Janelle Stelson in PA-10, and former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) in VA-2; the group also announced it is backing Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller in IL-2 and former Rep. Melissa Bean in IL-8, but is staying out of the contentious IL-9 Democratic primary, where AIPAC’s super PAC is backing state Sen. Laura Fine…

A Tennessee man who saved more than 200 Jewish soldiers under his command at a Nazi POW camp in Germany will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by the White House for his efforts; Roddie Edmonds, who was taken captive during the Battle of the Bulge, famously refused to identify Jewish troops when asked by the camp’s commandant, saying, “We are all Jews here”…

An effort to expel Israel from the International Federation of Social Workers failed on Wednesday in a closed-door Zoom meeting; a second vote, on suspending Israel, also failed, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…

American, Israeli and African officials gathered with little fanfare but big plans on Wednesday, coming together in Rwanda for the trilateral Kigali Security Summit on issues including technology, innovation and national security, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports…

MS NOW inked an agreement with Crooked Media that will create a new weekly show, titled “Crooked on MS NOW,” that will compile content from the podcast and media company’s shows, including “Pod Save America” and “Pod Save the World”… 

Bari Weiss withdrew from the University of California, Los Angeles’ upcoming annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, reportedly citing security concerns…

Chicago and DePaul University police are investigating an incident that occurred at a cafe in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood in which students from three Chicago-area schools said they were harassed while at a meetup for Jewish students at the Olive & Oak Cafe near DePaul’s campus…

An Australian man who pleaded guilty to publicly inciting hatred for antisemitic remarks he made last month at a Sydney rally against immigration was sentenced to a year in jail, with the chance for parole in October…

The U.S. is withdrawing its remaining 1,000 troops from Syria, with plans for the U.S.’ decade-long presence to fully end over the next two months…

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz attended a Security Council meeting on Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, during which he defended President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, a day ahead of the board’s gathering.

Actor who played the young autistic Jacob “Jake” Bohm in the Fox TV series “Touch,” later portraying a young Bruce Wayne in another Fox series “Gotham,” David Mazouz turns 25…

2004 Nobel Prize laureate in physics, he is a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, David Jonathan Gross turns 85… Former chairman of the board and CEO of Sony Corporation, chairman of the board of trustees of the American Film Institute, Sir Howard Stringer turns 84… Retired co-founder of integrated digital marketing agency Hawkeye / Mosaic, now known as Publicis Hawkeye, Sharon Edelman… President of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology from 2009 until 2019, Peretz Lavie turns 77… Founder and president of the eponymous Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, she is on the boards of the NFL’s NY Giants, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Aspen Institute, Laurie M. Tisch… and also the birthday of her first cousin once removed, co-founder and CEO of Atria (a private medical institute in NYC), Alan Tisch… Managing partner of Encino, Calif.-based Hager Pacific Properties, Adam Tuvia Milstein turns 74… Former Goldman Sachs partner and then a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, he now serves on various corporate and nonprofit boards, Barry L. Zubrow turns 73… International CEO of Taglit Birthright Israel since 2008, Gidi Mark turns 70… Novelist, essayist and short story writer, he was a winner of a 2005 MacArthur genius fellowship, Jonathan Allen Lethem turns 62… Retired U.S. district court judge, he was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (1993-1994) alongside future justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, Gary Scott Feinerman turns 61… SVP of government relations at Las Vegas Sands Corp., Andy Abboud… Co-founder of the band Phish where he is the lead drummer and frequent songwriter, Jon Fishman turns 61… Communications director for 27 years for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), now a consultant, Kevin D. Bishop… Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel turns 55… Canadian media personality, conservative political activist, writer and broadcaster, Ezra Levant turns 54… Partner at InfraStrategies and senior fellow at the UCLA Institute for Transportation Studies, Joshua Levi Schank, Ph.D…. Founder of The New York Times‘ “DealBook” and co-creator of Showtime’s “Billions,” Andrew Ross Sorkin turns 49… Hollywood writer and producer, best known for “The Newsroom” (2012) and “Quantico” (2015), Gideon Yago turns 48… Jewish rapper, part of the alternative hip hop group Darshan, better known by his stage name Eprhyme (pronounced “E-Prime”), Eden Daniel Pearlstein turns 46… Writer of the “In the Know” gossip column for The Hill newspaper in Washington, where she covers Congress, D.C.’s social scene, celebrities and politics, Judy Kurtz Altscher… Founder of a Middle East NGO, Regional Organization for Peace, Economics & Security (ROPES), Ben Birnbaum… Former MLB pitcher for the Phillies (2011-2012), he now runs Big League Advance, a company that invests in minor league players in exchange for a percentage of their future MLB earnings, Michael Schwimer turns 40… Samantha Zalaznick… Tight end for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, he played college football at Harvard, Anthony Firkser turns 31… Daniel Blum…

• The second round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks are taking place today in Geneva, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi, whose country hosted the first round of talks earlier this month, again mediating between the American team, led by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and the Iran team, led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Witkoff and Kushner are also participating in Russia-Ukraine talks later today in Geneva.
• The latest round of talks comes a day after Araghchi met in Geneva with International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, and as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps begins military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz.
• Representatives from members of the Trump administration’s Board of Peace are arriving in Washington this week ahead of a meeting of member states slated for Thursday. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will be representing Israel at the gathering. Over the weekend, Indonesia announced it would contribute thousands of troops to the international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip. 
• The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is holding its annual mission to Israel.
• Israel’s Olympic bobsled team, led by AJ Edelman, continues trials today, after coming in last place at Monday’s first round.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

Taking the stage at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, two prominent progressive lawmakers rumored to be eyeing presidential runs in 2028, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), used the opportunity to bash Israel.

Criticism of Israel isn’t new for either lawmaker, but taking place on one of the most prominent foreign policy stages in the world, their remarks are a sign of the anti-Israel current that continues to course through the Democratic Party, particularly on its left flank.

Ocasio-Cortez, calling for the U.S. to condition aid to Israel, repeated accusations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

“The United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to laws that require suspension of aid to military units engaged in war crimes. “And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza. And I think that we have thousands of women and children dead … that was completely avoidable.”

Adding insult to injury for some observers, Ocasio-Cortez leveled the accusations in Munich, the site of Adolf Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch, which ultimately catalyzed his rise to power.

Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance at the conference was a foreign policy test for the congresswoman — one she ended up struggling to pass. Despite studying under the tutelage of Matt Duss, a former foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), she faced accusations that she remains unprepared to tackle global issues, accentuated by her stumbling response when asked whether the U.S. should come to the defense of Taiwan if it was attacked by China. (The New York Times headline: “Ocasio-Cortez Offers a Working Class Vision in Munich, with Some Stumbles”)

At the end of the weekend, Ocasio-Cortez griped that her gaffes and perceived presidential ambitions overshadowed the message she intended to deliver, denying that the trip had anything to do with a potential presidential run. Several congressional allies jumped in to back up Ocasio-Cortez.

Murphy, in a separate session, also continued the theme of Democrats’ Israel-bashing. He questioned the reality of the ceasefire in Gaza, emphasizing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement while not mentioning Hamas’ continued violations.

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

• President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet at the White House at 11 a.m., following Netanyahu’s meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 9 a.m. at Blair House. More below.
• Vice President JD Vance is wrapping up his two-country trip to Armenia and Azerbaijan in Baku. Traveling with the vice president are Aryeh Lightstone, a key player in the Trump administration’s effort to negotiate a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan last year, and Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment.
• American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch is speaking at New York’s Temple Emanu-El tonight to discuss the organization’s annual report on antisemitism in America, which was released yesterday.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will sit down with President Donald Trump at 11 a.m. today at the White House for a meeting largely focused on Iran that, in a twist of fate, coincides with the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 

The meeting — their seventh since Trump resumed office — comes amid a tense political backdrop, with the White House outwardly signaling it prefers diplomacy with Tehran while moving military assets to the Middle East. As recently as yesterday, Trump teased the possibility of sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region.

Joining Netanyahu on the trip is Roman Goffman, the military secretary to the prime minister who was nominated to be head of the Mossad; Gil Reich, the acting head of Israel’s National Security Council; and Israeli-American venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg, who is working with Jerusalem on the Gaza portfolio. Reich and Goffman are among the Israeli officials, including Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Military Intelligence chief Shlomi Binder, who have taken on portions of former Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer’s portfolio. 

Netanyahu, Goffman, Leiter and Reich met last night at the Blair House with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who updated the Israeli officials on last Friday’s negotiations with Iran, ahead of this morning’s White House meeting.

But what began more than a month ago as White House concern over Iran’s violent crackdowns on protesters — recall Trump’s message to Iranians that “help is on its way” — has morphed into nuclear talks that appear to leave out Tehran’s domestic situation.

Despite the ongoing crackdown, which mollified protests and left tens of thousands dead, video circulating on social media and messaging apps believed to be from last night featured some residents of Tehran taking to their balconies to chant, “death to Khamenei,” “death to the dictator” and “death to Islamic Republic” ahead of today’s anniversary of the fall of the shah. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who spent the weekend golfing with Trump in Florida, posted on X last night, “To the brave people of Iran: President Trump has always heard your cries and demands for justice. The regime has proven yet again it’s incapable of real change. If this regime continues the course they are on, then I believe President Trump’s statement that help is on the way is becoming more real by the day.”

Vice President JD Vance, who is traveling to Armenia and Azerbaijan this week, said today that “if the Iranian people want to overthrow the regime, that’s up to the Iranian people. What we’re focused on right now is the fact that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, spent Tuesday in Oman for high-level meetings about the next round of talks with the U.S. Larijani’s meetings included a sit-down with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaid, who served as the mediator for last week’s talks in Muscat. Iranian state media reported after the meeting that al-Busaid “handed over a letter” to Larijani, but did not elaborate on the letter’s contents or who it was from.

As Netanyahu departed for Washington yesterday, he emphasized that the negotiations with Iran would be the priority. “I will present to the president our outlook regarding the principles of these negotiations — the essential principles which, in my opinion, are important not only to Israel, but to everyone around the world who wants peace and security in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said.

For Israel, one of those essential principles is significantly limiting Iran’s ballistic missile program. After today’s meeting, it should become clearer whether Trump and Netanyahu are on the same page.

Oil Change: Former Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Karen Elliott House, reflects on her recent trip to Saudi Arabia and the challenges facing Riyadh as it scales back its Vision 2030 plans. “These are tough times for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Some of his grandiose projects are being scrapped as unworkable and unaffordable with oil prices around $65 a barrel. The risk of a U.S. war with Iran puts all his other big developments — and the oil that funds them — at risk of retaliation. And the death of his elderly, infirm father, King Salman, could soon bring succession issues to the fore. … The kingdom seems confused about what it wants. Officials are disquieted by Mr. Trump’s on-again-off-again threats to strike Iran. The Saudi defense minister recently warned in Washington that a failure to strike would ‘embolden’ the Iranian regime. Yet his government insists it wants no strike.” [WSJ] 

Ukraine’s Iron Dome: The Atlantic’s Simon Shuster spotlights Ukraine’s Sunray missile-defense system that employs laser technology. “The Ukrainian response has been a race to build a bootstrapped version of the Iron Dome, Israel’s short-range air-defense system, which is thought to be the most effective in the world. (Lockheed Martin is now at work on a comparable system for the United States, which President Trump has dubbed the ‘Golden Dome.’) But the task of shooting projectiles out of the sky — or, as ballistic-missile defense is often described, ‘hitting a bullet with a bullet’ — has bedeviled engineers at least since the invention of ballistic missiles during World War II. Even in the case of Israel, which has nearly 30 times less territory than Ukraine, the construction of an effective air-defense shield took about four years. A single battery of Iron Dome interceptors cost as much as $100 million in 2012.” [TheAtlantic]

The Unfavorables: In the Liberal Patriot, John Halpin examines why world leaders tend to have low favorability numbers. “A few themes do emerge to help explain why so many leaders are unpopular. One, they are polarizing figures who split electorates. [President Donald] Trump and Turkey’s [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan most come to mind here; their supporters really like them, and their opponents fervently despise them. Two, they are viewed by voters as either corrupt (like South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa) or as out-of-touch elites failing to bring about changes that many voters demanded (like [French President Emmanuel] Macron or {U.K. Prime Minister Keir] Starmer). Three, they are not addressing voters’ long-standing economic concerns that have been mounting for decades.” [LiberalPatriot]

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on the Hezbollah-linked gold exchange company Jood SARL and a series of business entities tied to the Lebanese terror group and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

A draft plan for the rehabilitation of Gaza viewed by The New York Times would allow Hamas to keep some small arms even as it would be required to relinquish weapons that are capable of striking Israel…

A group of eight leading Senate Democrats released a statement on Tuesday evening urging President Donald Trump to “clearly reinforce the opposition of the U.S. government to Israeli government actions that set the conditions for irreversible annexation” of the West Bank when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House today, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

House members on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about the new Syrian government’s recent moves against minority groups, particularly the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in some cases questioning whether Damascus is complying with lawmakers’ expectations after the Caesar Act sanctions on Syria were lifted, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Republican lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee urged their Democratic colleagues on Tuesday to work with them on legislation to update the Internal Revenue Service’s 990 forms used by tax-exempt organizations to include disclosures for donations from foreign actors, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

Columbia University is considering expanding and refocusing how its Middle Eastern studies department teaches about Israel, the provost’s regional review committee announced in a set of recommendations this week, marking a pivot in a field and at a school that have come under immense scrutiny from the federal government and Jewish leaders following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Noah Pollak, a senior advisor at the Department of Education, offered a series of recommendations, including broader cultural changes and vigorous disciplinary action, on how universities can and should reform to better address antisemitism on campus, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) officially launched her reelection bid in what is expected to be her toughest reelection campaign to date in a state considered by Democrats to be a potential flip in the midterms…

Analilia Mejia, the presumptive winner of the special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, said she wouldn’t commit to voting for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) if she is in Congress in January 2027 for the next House leadership vote…

Neighbors of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are suing him over his family’s moves to make security upgrades to their property following an arson attack directed at the governor’s mansion last year…

A synagogue in Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti on Tuesday. A swastika, the word “genocide” and the phrase “AZAB,” an acronym standing for “All Zionists Are Bastards,” were spray-painted on street signs and banners outside of Shaare Tefila, a Conservative congregation in Olney, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Candle Media sold a majority stake in ATTN: back to co-founders Matthew Segal and Jarrett Moreno, after previously acquiring the startup in 2022 for $150 million; investors in the acquisition include former Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone and Andell Holdings Chair Andrew Hauptman…

Paramount is making additional offers to Warner Bros. Discovery in its hostile takeover bid, including paying the $2.8 billion fee Warner Bros would owe Netflix if it were to terminate its agreement in favor of moving forward with Paramount; the offer comes as activist investor Ancora Holdings, which has an approximately $200 million stake in Warner Bros., is expected to oppose the Netflix sale…

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman is planning to grow his foundation to become one of the 10 largest foundations in the country; last month, his foundation hired a new executive director, and plans to continue to prioritize education, culture and medical advancements as it scales up its work…

Former General Atlantic President and co-chair Anton Levy is launching Layer Global, an investment firm focused on investing in early-stage startups…

Venezuela is shipping crude oil to Israel for the first time in nearly six years, just over a month after the arrest of then-President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces…

The New York Times looks at efforts in Syria to cater to Jewish visitors as the country increasingly opens up to tourists, as some members of the Syrian Jewish diaspora seek to reclaim property that had belonged to them decades ago…

Jonah Kaplan was tapped as a correspondent by CBS News, joining the network from WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, where he was an investigative reporter…

Holocaust survivor Gabor Boritt, who after coming to the U.S. as a refugee became one of the country’s preeminent scholars on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, died at 86…

Newly announced National Council of Jewish Women CEO Jody Rabhan was on Capitol Hill yesterday, giving challah to Jewish legislators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, ahead of the organization’s annual Shabbat focused on reproductive rights.

Tight end on the NFL’s Carolina Panthers for four seasons ending in 2006, Mike Seidman turns 45…

Journalist, writer, political commentator and author of a Passover Haggadah co-written with his late wife Cokie Roberts, Steven V. Roberts turns 83… NYC-based gastroenterologist, he is a past president of American Friends of Likud, Julio Messer, M.D. turns 74… Governor of Florida from 1999-2007, John Ellis “Jeb” Bush turns 73… Former Knesset member for the Jewish Home, Likud and Ahi parties, Eliyahu Michael “Eli” Ben-Dahan turns 72… ProPublica’s editor-in-chief since 2013, he was previously at The New York Times for 18 years, Stephen Engelberg turns 68… Victorville, Calif., resident, Tricia Roth… Hospice and palliative care physician, Gary E. Applebaum, MD… Retired consultant, Alan Vorchheimer… U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) turns 64… Admin and special project coordinator for Jewish Renewal programs at JDC, Debbie Halali… Founder and president of RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, Scott Berkowitz… Governor of Hawaii, one of three current Jewish governors that are named Josh, Joshua B. Green turns 56… Managing principal at Baltimore-based real estate firm, Quest Management Group, Jason Reitberger turns 52… Elected as a member of the Broward County (Florida) School Board in the months following the death of her daughter at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Lori Alhadeff turns 51… Director and executive producer of the broadcast team at Salesforce, Rob Hendin… Ilana Ozernoy… Executive at City Winery, he was also a pitcher for Team Israel in qualifying for the 2020 Olympics, Shlomo Lipetz turns 47… Executive director of Merkos 302 at Chabad World Headquarters, Mendy Kotlarsky turns 44… Republican strategist and president of Somm Consulting, Evan Siegfried… Administrator of NASA since December 2025, Jared Taylor Isaacman turns 43… Senior relationship manager at Bank of America’s Transformative Healthcare Group, David B. Stern… Senior program director at TELUS Digital, Michelle Zar Beecher… Manager of account management at FiscalNote, Rachel Kosberg… Assistant general manager for MLB’s Baltimore Orioles, Eve Rosenbaum turns 36… M&A partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Alix Simnock… Senior associate attorney at EarthJustice and author of two books on origami, Scott Wasserman Stern… and his twin brother, SVP at Fight Agency, Eric Wasserman Stern, both turn 33… Forward deployed engineer at a stealth startup, CY “Joy” Neuberger Twersky… and her masterchef brother, exactly one year younger, Yisroel Neuberger…

• We’re waiting for the official results of the special election Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, where far-left activist Analilia Mejia is leading former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who had been targeted by AIPAC’s super PAC in a $2 million ad blitz in the weeks leading up to the election, by several hundred votes. More below.
• Indirect talks between senior U.S. and Iranian officials, mediated by Oman, began in Muscat this morning local time. White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are leading the talks from the U.S. side.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi and said that Iran would defend itself against what he described as the U.S.’ “excessive demands or adventurism.” Al-Busaidi then met with Witkoff and Kushner. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said in an X post, “The consultations focused on preparing the appropriate circumstances for resuming the diplomatic and technical negotiations by ensuring the importance of these negotiations, in light of the parties’ determination to ensure their success in achieving sustainable security and stability.”
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog is set to travel to Australia on Sunday for a four-day visit to Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra at the invitation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

The results in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District last night may not make national headlines, but should be sending a shock wave across Democratic campaigns and pro-Israel institutions. 

Analilia Mejia, the far-left, Bernie Sanders-endorsed activist, narrowly led in a crowded field of Democratic candidates in a primary election for an affluent, moderate-minded district, despite long odds.  

With most votes counted, Mejia leads former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who was considered the favorite, 29-28%. Former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, favored by pro-Israel groups and endorsed by Democratic Majority for Israel, finished in third place, winning just 17% of the vote.

Mejia’s apparent primary victory is another sign that the socialist wing of the Democratic Party — as exemplified by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s out-of-nowhere success across the Hudson River — is ascendant. Mejia was the only candidate to call Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza a “genocide” and condemned Israel just days after Oct. 7 without making a mention of Hamas’ terror attack against the Jewish state.

As early as Oct. 10, before the Israeli invasion of Gaza began, Mejia said: “Every fiber of my being is horrified beyond words at what is furthering in Gaza.” 

The fact that a candidate as far to the left as Mejia could prevail in one of the most affluent, suburban districts in the country speaks volumes about the state of the party. This is a district, based in Morris County, filled with Wall Street bankers, venture capitalists and other wealthy white-collar workers that was a reliably Republican area not long ago.

Mejia is also beating the party machine-backed candidate, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, on his home turf — an unprecedented dynamic for an underdog with next-to-no institutional support.

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

Backlash Building: The Wall Street Journal’s Margherita Stancati and Benoit Faucon report on a second wave of anger across Iran toward the regime in Tehran. “Mourning families are shouting antiregime slogans at funerals and memorials. Students are refusing to sing patriotic songs at school. Medical workers are publicly condemning the arrests of colleagues who treated people injured in the protests. And groups of local activists are openly calling for the fall of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The shows of defiance — sometimes loud and risky, other times quiet and personal — come as Iranians reckon with the full extent of January’s violence and the government that ordered it. And they are cropping up even as the regime has carried out waves of arrests targeting protesters and their sympathizers, from relatives to medical workers to civil-rights activists.” [WSJ]

Attention to Detentions: In The Washington Post, Pedro Pizano, the director of the John McCain Freedom for Political Prisoners Initiative, and New America’s Sarah Moriarty, whose father, Bob Levinson, has been held hostage longer than any American in history, call on the Trump administration to utilize an executive order signed last year to designate Iran, Russia and Afghanistan as State Sponsors of Wrongful Detention in an effort to deter the taking of American hostages in those countries. “Authoritarian regimes across the world have made state hostage-taking a routine tactic. Innocent Americans are arrested to extract concessions from the U.S. government, to offer authoritarian governments a point of leverage or to incentivize prisoner swaps. … Americans traveling, working or reporting abroad deserve a proactive response to hostage-taking. They deserve a policy that makes their safety nonnegotiable. The SSWD designation is a significant step toward that goal. Whether it realizes its potential depends entirely on if Washington decides to make it count.” [WashPost]

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday condemned a pro-Hamas rally that took place in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square last weekend. “Hamas is a violent terrorist organization whose stated goal is the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. Support for Hamas and the antisemitism the group foments has no place in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro spokesperson Will Simons told JI, adding, “The governor will continue to call out all forms of antisemitism and hate”…

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced on Thursday that he’s launching an investigation into New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, prompted by the mayor’s rescission last month of executive orders from the prior administration related to Israel and antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report…

A bipartisan group of 82 House lawmakers wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday, urging her to roll back new conditions placed on applications for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program amid rising antisemitic attacks, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Puck looks at the backlash that Sephora is facing for its continued support for beauty influencer Huda Kattan, despite her recent social media activity in which she appeared to support the Iranian government, weeks after she posted conspiracy theories blaming Israel for the 9/11 attacks and both World Wars…

The New York Times spotlights former Washington Post reporter Martin Weil, who was among the hundreds of staffers laid off earlier this week after having worked on the Post’s local news desk for more than 60 years… 

A North Carolina man was sentenced to five years in prison for sending antisemitic threats to a Macon, Ga., rabbi and Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch…

The MetroWest Jewish Day School in Framingham, Mass., is slated to close at the end of this academic year after more than 20 years; administrators from the school, which serves the Boston area, said the decision to close was a financial one…

The New York Times interviews Olympic athlete AJ Edelman, the captain of Israel’s first-ever bobsled team, about his efforts to build and finance a team to represent the Jewish state in bobsledding at the Winter Games in Milan, while the Associated Press profiles what the team has dubbed as its “Shul Runnings” bid…

The news editor of the Australia Broadcasting Corporation instructed staffers who cover issues that could come under the remit of the country’s antisemitism commission not to use disappearing messages on communications apps following the implementation of a disposal freeze order from the National Archives of Australia…

Israel announced plans to build a new international airport in the northern Negev, near the Ziklag archeological site…

Iranian state media reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two oil tankers carrying “smuggled fuel” that were transiting through the Gulf…

Ted Berger, the former head of the New York Foundation for the Arts, died at 85…

American Jewish Committee leaders met on Wednesday with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, United Arab Emirates deputy prime minister and foreign minister, in Abu Dhabi.

Pictured (from left): Reva Gorelick, deputy director of AJC Abu Dhabi; Huda Raphael Sievers; AJC Abu Dhabi Director Ambassador (ret) Marc J. Sievers; al-Nahyan; Jason Isaacson, AJC chief policy and political affairs officer; and Benjamin Rogers, director of Middle East and North Africa initiatives and deputy director at AJC’s Center for a New Middle East.

Boston attorney, author and podcast host, his 2013 book on Jews and baseball was turned into the 2016 play “Swing, Schmendrick, Swing,” Larry Ruttman turns 95 on Sunday…

FRIDAY: Israeli pediatric endocrinologist, winner of the 2009 Israel Prize, in 1966 he described the type of dwarfism later called Laron syndrome in his name, Dr. Zvi Laron turns 99… Advertising entrepreneur and founder of Global Water Resources, William Levine turns 94… Member of the New Jersey Senate for 17 years including 10 years as majority leader, Loretta Weinberg turns 91.. Rosalyn Kaplan… Cantor of Congregation Hugat Haverim in Glendale, Calif., Harvey Lee Block… Syndicated columnist for The Washington Post for 43 years (ending in 2019), he had worked at the Post since 1968, Richard Martin Cohen turns 85… Actor, best known for his role in the 172 episodes of the television series “L.A. Law,” Michael Tucker turns 81… Pulitzer Prize-winning author and vice chairman of S&P Global, Daniel Yergin turns 79… Professor at McGill University since 1975, Yitzchak M. “Irv” Binik turns 77… Louisiana commissioner of administration for eight years, after serving as lieutenant governor of Louisiana for the prior six years, Jay Dardenne turns 72… Professor concurrently at both Harvard and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Michael Pollan turns 71… Past chair of the board of UJA-Federation of New York and a part owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, David Lewis Moore… Los Angeles attorney specializing in criminal and civil appeals, Paul Kujawsky… President of Brown University since 2012, Christina Hull Paxson turns 66… Former longtime foreign correspondent for NPR in many capitals including Jerusalem, author of the New York Times bestseller The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner turns 63… Special events producer at Ballas Bloom Creative, Jacquelyn Ballas Bloom… NFL long snapper for 18 seasons between 1994-2011, David Aaron Binn turns 54… Television and film actress, writer and producer, best known for her role as Pepper in the FX series “American Horror Story,” Naomi Grossman turns 51… Rabbi and author of eight books, Danya Ruttenberg turns 51… Former tenured professor at MIT, she is the co-trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation with her husband, Bill Ackman, Neri Oxman turns 50… Israeli-French singer-songwriter whose hit single “New Soul” was used by Apple in a 2008 advertising campaign for its MacBook Air, Yael Naim turns 48… Equestrian show jumper who competes for Israel, Danielle “Dani” Goldstein-Waldman turns 41… Vice president for national political campaigns and strategy at AIPAC, Stephen Knable… Investigative journalist, his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and many other outlets, he is also a data science manager at EDO, Steven I. Weiss… Deputy director of foreign affairs at the Israeli Ministry of Health, Adam Cutler… Member of the Australian parliament, Joshua Solomon Burns turns 39… Corporate procurement director for IKO North America, Yadin Koschitzky…

SATURDAY: Director of training for the Bulfinch Group, a financial planning firm based in Needham, Mass., Michel R. Scheinmann turns 78… Rabbi emeritus of Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto, Baruch Frydman-Kohl turns 75… U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) turns 74… Majority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, Robyn Gabel turns 73… PFAS practice group leader at Sundance Consultants and part time instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, Rick Wice… American businessman and investor arrested in Bolivia in July 2011 and held for 18 months without charges, freed through public outcry and the efforts of Sean Penn, Jacob Ostreicher turns 67… Actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his “Saturday Night Live” “TV Funhouse” cartoon shorts, Robert Smigel turns 66… President of The Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, Dr. David L. Reich turns 66… Baseball columnist for the New York Post and a baseball insider for MLB Network, Jon Heyman turns 65… Director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2020 to 2023, Alon Ushpiz turns 60… Former professional hockey player who played in 418 regular and post-season games in the NHL spanning 13 seasons, Mike Hartman turns 59… Rabbi at Beth Chai Congregation in Bethesda, Md. and author of nine Jewish children’s books and teen novels, Deborah Bodin Cohen… Principal consultant at Saxon Strategies, Jennifer Diamond Haber… Author of 24 fiction and non-fiction books, some of which have been made into feature films, Ben Mezrich turns 57… Executive director of the UJA and JCRC-NY’s Community Security Initiative, Mitch Silber turns 56… Israeli actor, model and musician, he played Yonatan Netanyahu in the 2018 film “Entebbe,” Angel Bonanni turns 54… Executive director of the Aviv Foundation (Chani and Steve Laufer), Adam Simon… SVP at Material+, Jonathan Weiss… Chassidic singer and recording artist, Shloime Daskal turns 47… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Mark Ifraimov turns 45… MLB pitcher from 2005 until 2017, he played for the Rangers, Cubs, Orioles, Astros, Blue Jays and Reds, he is now an angel investor in the San Francisco area, Scott Feldman turns 43… Professional basketball player in Germany, Italy and Israel, he is now a VP at Lightspeed Venture Partners in Menlo Park, California, Dan Grunfeld turns 42… NFL player for six seasons until 2015, he is now the safeties coach for the Washington Huskies, Taylor Mays turns 38… Senior director of advancement field services for Hillel International, Rachael Fenton… David Israel… Michael Harris…

SUNDAY: Winner of 25 Emmy Awards as a broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor of ABC’s Nightline from its inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005, Ted Koppel turns 86… Stage, television and film actor, stand-up comedian and singer, Robert Klein turns 84… Chair of the Morris A. Hazan Family Foundation, Lovee Arum turns 82… Therapist and life coach based in Wake County, N.C., Sheila Kay… Columbus, Ohio-born attorney and president of Schottenstein Legal Services, James Mark Schottenstein turns 79… Former CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York (Albany), now an executive coach and nonprofit consultant in Venice, Florida, Rodney Margolis… Village justice in Red Hook, N.Y., Judge Jonah Triebwasser turns 76… CEO of NYC-based Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, owner of more than 12 million square feet of office space and design centers, he also produces films and owns theatres, Charles S. Cohen turns 74… Active private investor and business operator, he is on the board of Tel Aviv University, Marc Lauren Abramowitz turns 73… President of NYC-based BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, he is a past chair of the board of UJA-Federation of New York, Robert S. Kapito turns 69… Chief rabbi of the IDF, Brig. Gen. Eyal Moshe Karim turns 69… Senior director of synagogue affiliations and operations for United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Barry S. Mael… Chair of the board of trustees of the Hudson Institute, Sarah May Stern… British businessman and former longtime chairman of the Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, Daniel Levy turns 64… Former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home and New Right parties, Shulamit “Shuli” Mualem-Rafaeli turns 61… Chairman of Andell Inc., a private investment firm and family office he controls with his wife, Ellen Bronfman Hauptman, Andrew Hauptman turns 57… Chess grandmaster, then derivatives trader, now a retirement planner, Ilya Mark Gurevich turns 54… Attorney, rabbi and New Jersey political consultant, Benjamin G. Kelsen… Popular Israeli musician, singer and songwriter, Eviatar Banai turns 53… Actor and filmmaker, Seth Benjamin Green turns 52… Member of the Knesset for the Labor party until 2021, he is now director-general of the Israeli office of the UJA-Federation of New York, Itzik Shmuli turns 46… Founder of DC-based JTR Strategies, she is the former head of aviation and international affairs at USDOT under President Barack Obama, Jenny Thalheimer Rosenberg… Senior advisor in the office of the Inspector General at USAID, Adam Kaplan… Partner at Sidley Austin, he was previously chief of staff to then-Attorney General Bill Barr, William Ranney Levi… Retired professional ice hockey center for five NHL teams, now a real estate executive, Trevor Smith turns 41… Synchronized swimmer on behalf of Israel at the three Olympic games: 2004 (Athens), 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London), Inna Yoffe turns 38… Yale Law School graduate, she clerked for Judge Marsha S. Berzon on the 9th Circuit and is now a senior attorney at Public Justice, Alexandra Brodsky… Vice president of policy and government affairs for AIPAC, Celia Glassman… Canadian jazz-pop singer-songwriter, who performed at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Nicole “Nikki” Rachel Yanofsky turns 32… Pitcher for Team Israel in the 2020 Olympics as well as the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Jake Layton Fishman turns 31… Associate attorney in the NYC office of Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach, Samantha Grosinger… Director of global brand and marketing at Olami, Michal Nordmann…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wrote to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani today voicing “serious concerns” about Mamdani’s “rescission of executive orders related to antisemitism and boycotts of Israel.” 

Cassidy said the New York City Department of Education’s $2.2 billion in federal funding could be rescinded “contingent on compliance with federal civil rights laws and applicable executive orders designed to protect students”…

New York City councilmembers on both sides of the aisle denounced a new working group established by employees of the city’s Department of Health on “global oppression,” Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports, which a presenter at its first meeting on Tuesday acknowledged was “really developed in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

City Council Speaker Julie Menin called for a probe into the working group at DOH, which operates under Mamdani’s administration, telling the New York Post, “Our health care officials should be fighting infectious diseases and addressing skyrocketing health care costs instead of spending public time debating geopolitics”…

Moshe Davis, the former executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism in New York City, told The Free Press upon being ousted from the role by Mamdani, “I don’t think the priority of the administration has been to combat antisemitism.”

Davis, who was a political appointee of former Mayor Eric Adams, said a Mamdani staffer told him they were “looking to go in a different direction” in replacing him with Phylisa Wisdom, a progressive Jewish activist. “Look, I’m a loud, proud Jewish person with a kippah on my head, a proud Zionist. This administration maybe felt that was too much for them,” Davis said. He noted that his requests to meet with the mayor and the memos he produced on rising antisemitism in the city had gone ignored…

Mamdani officially endorsed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in an anticipated move, boosting her reelection prospects while also dealing a blow to her lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, who is running to oust Hochul from her left…

Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) and businessman Nate Morris, two of the leading Republican candidates for Kentucky’s Senate seat, today endorsed Ed Gallrein, the GOP challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the leading Republican critics of Israel in Congress, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

“Ed will never side with AOC or the radical-left against President Trump. He is exactly the kind of conservative warrior we need in Congress, and I’m proud to endorse him,” Barr said in a statement, referencing Massie’s pattern of breaking with various elements of Trump’s agenda, which has included voting against support for Israel.

The endorsements came amid an ongoing series of attacks by Trump on Massie, which included calling Massie a “moron” in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning, as well as attacks on Truth Social this week targeting Massie’s wife…

Daniel Flesch, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation who led the drafting of the organization’s Project Esther report on combating left-wing antisemitism, has parted ways with the conservative think tank, according to Heritage’s website.

Flesch had raised the alarm on right-wing antisemitism after Heritage President Kevin Roberts released a video defending Tucker Carlson for hosting neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes on his podcast, telling the Young Jewish Conservatives in December that, “Now, in some ways, the call is coming from inside the house.” Flesch had also been Heritage’s point person for the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a coalition of conservative groups that disaffiliated from the think tank after the incident…

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed today that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling to Oman for negotiations with Iran tomorrow, saying at a press conference this afternoon that the president is “standing by for an update from them.”

“The president has obviously been quite clear in his demands of the Iranian regime — zero nuclear capability is something he’s been very explicit about and he wants to see if a deal can be struck. And while these negotiations are taking place, I would remind the Iranian regime that the president has many options at his disposal aside from diplomacy as the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world,” Leavitt added…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers at a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that U.S.-Israel coordination is “as high and as close as possible” ahead of the nuclear talks tomorrow, Israeli media reports, but that he still doesn’t know if President Donald Trump will choose to take military action…

Middle East countries that were originally meant to participate in the talks, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, the UAE and Pakistan, drafted a potential agreement for the U.S. and Iran, including a nonaggression pact, diplomats told The Times of Israel…

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf today, Iranian state media reported, days after attempting to stop and board a U.S.-flagged oil tanker. Reports did not provide the country of origin of the tankers seized today…

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed frustration with the Lebanese government’s stance toward Hezbollah amid struggling disarmament efforts, describing on X a meeting he’d had with Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. “I asked him point blank if he believes Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. He said, ‘No, not in the context of Lebanon.’ With that, I ended the meeting.”

“They have been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both Republican and Democrat administrations since 1997 — for good reason. As long as this attitude exists from the Lebanese Armed Forces, I don’t think we have a reliable partner in them,” Graham continued. The U.S. has provided over $3 billion to shore up the LAF in the last 20 years, including $230 million approved by the Trump administration as recently as October…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for whether AIPAC’s active role in the New Jersey 11th Congressional District Democratic primary — opposing former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) — paid off. Polls in the district close at 8 p.m.  

We’ll be watching for readouts from the meeting between White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, advisor Jared Kushner and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman at 10 a.m. local time tomorrow, including whether issues beyond Tehran’s nuclear program are discussed.

We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!

• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are wrapping up two days of meetings in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, focused on the Russia-Ukraine war, and will likely depart to Oman ahead of talks with Iran tomorrow. The White House had threatened to walk away from the meeting, initially planned for Turkey, over a series of last-minute Iranian demands, including the change of venue and limiting the scope to Tehran’s nuclear program. The talks, which are viewed in Israel with deep skepticism, are for now back on following the urging of some Arab states for Washington to remain at the table. More below.
• Israel’s Security Cabinet is convening today at 4 p.m. local time.
• It’s primary day in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. Voters are heading to the polls today to cast their ballots to choose the successor to fill now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House seat. AIPAC’s super PAC United Democracy Project has spent upwards of $2 million in the district on ads targeting former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) following his leftward shift on foreign policy. More below.
• The Hudson Institute is hosting a sit-down this afternoon with State Department antisemitism envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.
• Civic Spirit and the The Jewish Education Project are hosting a daylong summit today in New York focused on civic education in Jewish day schools and American Jewish identity.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

It didn’t take long – just over two hours, to be precise – between the news of the apparent collapse of talks between the U.S. and Iran and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s announcement on X that they were back on: “Nuclear talks with the United States are scheduled to be held in Muscat on about 10 am Friday.” Anonymous American sources then confirmed to various media that negotiations were set to take place, after leaders of Arab and Muslim countries urged the Trump administration to give them a chance, despite Iran’s prevarications.

Still, Araghchi’s statement alludes to one of the major reasons that the talks were, briefly, called off: Are they only “nuclear talks” or are they about a range of malign behavior by the Islamic Republic? 

The Iranian answer to that question is clear, but the Trump administration sent mixed messages.

President Donald Trump’s interview yesterday with NBC provides few clues. The president expressed support for the protesters against the Iranian regime, saying “we’ve had their back.” 

Yet, in a bit of revisionist history, Trump portrayed his recent threats to Iran as being solely about the nuclear file: “They were thinking of starting a new [nuclear] site in a different part of the country. We found out about it and said, ‘you do that, we’re going to do very bad things to you,'” Trump said. He didn’t mention ballistic missiles in the interview.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, specified that “as far as the topics [of negotiations] and what the agenda needs to be, I think that in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles, that includes the sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region, that includes the nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people.”

“Beyond that,” Rubio said, “the president retains a number of options as to how to respond to [the violent crackdown on protesters] and future events.”

Vice President JD Vance told Megyn Kelly that stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was the main concern: “In a perfect world, would I love it if a bunch of freedom-loving Iranians… had a government that was much more friendly to the United States of America? Would that be a good thing? Absolutely.”

“But fundamentally,” he added, “the president has been focused …  on this question of ensuring that they don’t get a nuclear weapon. .. I feel 100% confident that even if the Iranians were rushing toward a nuclear weapon, they couldn’t get one during the Trump administration. But we’re not thinking about the next three years; we’re thinking about the next 30 years.”

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

Decision Time: The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen weighs the risks of President Donald Trump backing away from action on Iran. “There are risks to military action in Iran, just as there were risks to the military action in Venezuela. We take the success of the Venezuelan operation for granted today, but it could easily have gone sideways: A helicopter could have crashed, Americans could have been killed, and U.S. forces could have failed to achieve their objective. Deposing the Maduro regime by force was a bold and courageous decision. And deposing the Iranian regime by force will require similar presidential courage. Though a weakened Iran cannot stop the U.S. military, it could inflict damage on both the United States and Israel. In Venezuela, Trump concluded that the risks of inaction outweighed the risks of action. That is doubly true for Iran.” [WashPost]

For Whom the Toll Tolls: In The New York Times, Scott Anderson considers what the range in death tolls from Iran’s recent crackdown says about Tehran’s treatment of protesters. “In conventional wars, combatants often minimize their own casualty figures while exaggerating those of their enemy to bolster morale and suggest victory is close. In internal insurrections like what we have witnessed in Iran, this formula tends to be reversed, with the state lowballing casualty numbers — no government wants to be seen as indiscriminately slaughtering its citizens — and dissidents raising them to provoke outrage. The current Iranian regime has the dubious distinction of having traveled both sides of the street. … Whatever the final number proves to be, it may have carried out one of the worst state-sanctioned massacres of unarmed civilians anywhere in nearly a half century in order to survive.” [NYTimes]

After Charlie Kirk: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg reflects on how the death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk has “destabilized the entire Trump coalition,” calling Kirk “a pivotal person” who had held the movement together. “In doing so, the killer helped unshackle dark forces — chief among them anti-Semitism — that now threaten to overtake the conservative movement. … On one level, this conflict is about Jews and Israel. But on another, this debate is downstream from something much bigger: a power struggle over who will define and control the MAGA movement once Trump is gone. By painting rivals as tools of the Jews, hard-right influencers such as Carlson and Bannon hope to delegitimize the competition not by besting their ideas, but by slurring their loyalties and identity.” [TheAtlantic]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced on Tuesday that he had drafted legislation designating the Polisario Front, the militant group that claims sovereignty over parts of the Western Sahara, as a foreign terrorist organization and will formally introduce it “if there’s no change in their behavior,”Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports….

Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) introduced the Internet Reach and Access Now (IRAN) Act, requiring the administration to implement, and periodically update, a strategy to promote internet access for Iranian civilians…

A small group of lawmakers received a redacted copy of a classified whistleblower complaint made against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; an investigation into the complaint had for months been stalled over the DNI’s refusal to share the information with Congress…

Federal prosecutors filed four additional terrorism-related charges against the Chicago man accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last year…

The World Jewish Congress’ Menachem Rosensaft is calling on the Alliance for Downtown New York, which maintains hundreds of commemorative markers on the sidewalks of Manhattan’s Lower Broadway, not to replace the marker honoring former French Prime Minister and Nazi collaborator Pierre Laval, which had been damaged and become a tripping hazard before its temporary removal…

PEN America walked back its condemnation of protests targeting an Israeli comedian whose Los Angeles shows were canceled; PEN America had previously condemned the “profound violation of free expression” the protests had caused Guy Hochman, but said in a follow-up statement days later that it “decided to withdraw this statement” and “remain[s] committed to open and respectful dialogue about the divisions that arise in the course of defending free expression”…

Less than half of Israelis support joining an American strike on Iran if Israel is not directly attacked, a poll from the Israel Democracy Institute found this week, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

The Washington Post laid off a third of its newsroom staff, including its entire Middle East bureau, some staffers from which had faced criticism for repeated instances of biased, sloppy and inaccurate reporting…

The New York Times’ culture critic reflects on the state of “Jewish comedy” amid increasing antisemitism and a more polarized political climate, especially on issues related to Israel…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher spotlights the PRECEDE Foundation’s efforts to educate the Ashkenazi community about potentially lifesaving early detection for pancreatic cancer, which Ashkenazi Jews are significantly predisposed to… 

Jewish leaders in Manchester, England, are warning Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to “focus on soccer” following comments he made about “the genocide in Palestine”; “We have repeatedly asked for prominent individuals to be mindful about the words they use given how Jewish people have had to endure attacks across the globe,” a statement by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester read…

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is eliminating the federal positions of antisemitism envoy and Islamophobia envoy, replacing both roles with a newly created advisory council to combat hate…

Australia is preparing a system to “grade” universities on their handling of a range of issues relating to antisemitism as part of a broader plan from the office of Canberra’s antisemitism envoy that was fast-tracked following the terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December… 

The brother of Shin Bet head David Zini and two others were indicted on charges of trafficking cigarettes into the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war against Hamas…

First Lady Melania Trump welcomed freed Israeli hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel to the White House on Wednesday, one year after Aviva met the first lady for the first time and pleaded for help securing her husband’s release, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Team USA ice dancer from 2014-2019, now a clinical research coordinator associate at Stanford Medicine, Eliana Gropman turns 25…

Former member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and the United Torah Judaism alliance, Shmuel “Shmelka” Halpert turns 87… Former member of the Virginia Senate for 44 years, Richard Lawrence “Dick” Saslaw turns 86… Director, screenwriter and producer of movies and television, Michael Kenneth Mann turns 83… Outfielder from 1965-1974 for the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves, later in his career he served in the Astros’ front office, Norm Miller turns 80… Israeli engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, he holds more than 800 patents and applications, and is a founding partner of Rainbow Medical, an operational investment company, Yossi Gross turns 79… Actor, singer, voice actor, puppeteer and comedian, best known as the voice of Jafar in Disney’s “Aladdin” franchise, Jonathan Freeman turns 76… Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, he wrote a 2015 essay entitled “The Making of a Libertarian, Contrarian, Nonobservant, but Self-Identified Jew,” Randy E. Barnett turns 74… Founder and CEO of a company representing 200 hotels globally, he is the owner of Luxe Hotels, Efrem Harkham turns 70… Board chair of Jewish leadership organization M2 and a member of the board of governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Linda Adler Hurwitz… Ellen Braun… Movie, television and stage actress, writer, producer and director, Jennifer Jason Leigh (family name was Morozoff) turns 64… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom of Napa Valley, Niles Elliot Goldstein… Former member of the New York state Assembly, now a New York City Council member, Harvey David Epstein turns 59… Canadian environmental activist, Tzeporah Berman turns 57… Educator, writer, columnist, lecturer, public speaker and pro-Israel activist, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki… Baltimore-area sommelier, he curates kosher food and wine events and researches synagogue history, Dr. Kenneth S. Friedman turns 53… Member of the New York City Council from 2014-2021, now a NYC attorney, Benjamin Kallos turns 45… President and COO of American Signature, the parent company of Value City Furniture, Jonathan Schottenstein turns 44… Israeli swimmer, she competed in the 2000 Olympics, Adi Maia Bichman turns 43… CEO at the American Journalism Project, Sarabeth Berman… Partner for political and strategic communications at Number 10 Strategies, he was previously a senior advisor to Ambassador Ron Dermer, Joshua Hantman… Olympic sprinter, born in Los Angeles and now an Israeli citizen, specializing in the 400-meter dash, Donald Sanford turns 39… Actor and singer, best known for his work in musical theater, Alex Brightman turns 39… Director of communications and intergovernmental affairs at NYC’s Correctional Health Services, Nicole A. Levy… Israeli golfer who is an LPGA Tour member, Laetitia Beck turns 34… 

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

After weeks of rising tensions, the U.S. and Iran are back on the diplomatic track: White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Istanbul, Turkey, on Friday, Axios reports, possibly alongside Jared Kushner and the foreign ministers of several countries including Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

What exactly will be up for discussion in the first meeting between the U.S. and Iran since the 12-day war last June is unclear — Iranian officials have said only nuclear activity is on the table, while the U.S. has traditionally maintained support for a comprehensive deal covering nuclear, missile and terror activity…

Before the dialogue in Turkey, Witkoff is slated to stop in Israel tomorrow to consult with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, and hold meetings in the UAE and Qatar…

The parties are still covering all their bases: The U.S. and Israeli navies conducted a joint “routine maritime exercise” in the Red Sea today, after CENTCOM warned Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday to “avoid escalatory behavior at sea”…

Back in Washington, the White House tapped Drop Site News, a publication founded in 2024 to offer reporting explicitly hostile to Israel over the war in Gaza and the U.S. response to it, for the press corps’ new media seat on Sunday, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Drop Site has credulously interviewed several Hamas leaders, vigorously denied claims that Hamas terrorists raped anyone during the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and supported the Iranian regime during the anti-government protests last month. Its inclusion among the outlets in Sunday’s press rotation (when no press briefing was held, so its reporter did not get the opportunity to ask a question) was a marked contrast to the mostly right-wing outlets that are usually selected…

And on the campaign trail, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) came out today in support of Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the closely fought Democratic primary to replace her, joining fellow progressives Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in supporting Flanagan over the more moderate Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN). The endorsement comes days after fundraising reports for the final quarter of 2025 showed Craig raised double what Flanagan brought in ($2 million and $1 million, respectively)…

In New York City, Comptroller Mark Levine endorsed Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in his primary against former Comptroller Brad Lander. Lander, challenging Goldman from the left on issues including his support for Israel, is endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, further highlighting divisions between Levine and the mayor as the two have sparred over issues including city investment in Israel bonds…

Jacobin profiles Diana Moreno, the democratic socialist running to fill Mamdani’s Queens seat in the state Assembly on a platform highlighting her progressive credentials as an organizer and immigrant. 

“Moreno, wearing a keffiyeh, is featured in Mamdani’s launch video, pushing a stroller carrying her newborn son, saying ‘I want to raise my kid in New York.’ ‘I got pregnant one month after the genocide in Gaza started. My relationship to motherhood cannot be divorced from witnessing the world dehumanize children in Palestine,’” she said…

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, Councilmember Julie Won filed paperwork today to join the competitive race to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY). All three candidates for the highly progressive district — which include Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who has the backing of Mamdani and the DSA, and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who has been endorsed by Velázquez — have made comments critical of Israel. 

On the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, Won expressed hope for a ceasefire and return of the hostages, mourning the 1,200 people “brutally killed” by Hamas in Israel and the “over 40,000 brutally killed in Palestine,” a figure Israel disputed at the time. 

When a campaign last summer opposing a neighborhood development plan in her district invoked antisemitic rhetoric, Won denounced the move while maintaining her support for the “free Palestine” movement, saying in a statement, “It’s extremely alarming to me that someone would go so low to co-opt a movement of free Palestine for their own purpose — to incite anger and potentially violence … It’s shameful to compare Long Island City to Gaza — where people are literally losing their lives, land and starving to death — to this rezoning and blaming it on a local Jewish landlord who isn’t even part of the rezoning”…

Former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), who switched his candidacy from running for the open Texas Senate seat to its 33rd Congressional District, endorsed Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) for the Senate over his former primary rival, state Sen. James Talarico. Allred alleged that Talarico had called him a “mediocre Black man” and took aim at Talarico’s platform as a devout Christian: “You are not saving religion for the Democratic Party or the left,” Allred said…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for the view from Washington on the continued possibility of U.S. strikes on Iran, even as diplomatic efforts unfold.

We’ll be watching for indications out of White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s meetings in Israel on where the parties stand on engaging with Tehran.

It will be a busy day on the Hill, amid ongoing efforts to end the partial government shutdown: The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on U.S. policy towards Lebanon and “obstacles to dismantling Hezbollah’s grip on power” with testimony from several Washington Institute experts; the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the Nazis’ use of Swiss banks; the Helsinki Commission will hold a hearing on Russia’s influence in post-Assad Syria; and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on terrorism in North Africa. 

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington will host its Maryland advocacy day with Gov. Wes Moore as keynote speaker.

The World Governments Summit will kick off in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with speakers including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, Israeli philanthropist and Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua and several other world leaders.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning about the Trump administration’s actions in and plans for Venezuela following the arrest of former President Nicolás Maduro.
• In the afternoon, Rubio will meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the State Department. The meeting between Rubio and Machado comes as Reuters reports that U.S. intelligence is questioning whether the country’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, will acquiesce to the Trump administration’s demands that Caracas cut ties with U.S. adversaries.
• In Washington tonight, the Kennedy Center is holding a one-day showing of “October 7: In Their Own Words,” a play whose script comes from testimonies of survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. Read our interview with playwrights Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney here.
• New York City’s Center for Jewish History is hosting a panel discussion this evening about contemporary antisemitism, related to the The Routledge History of Antisemitism, featuring the book’s co-editor, Mark Weitzman, and contributors Susannah Heschel and Maurice Samuels.
• The Jewish Federation Los Angeles will remove the yellow ribbon that was painted on the side of its building — the largest such display in the country, according to the organization — this afternoon in recognition of the return of all 255 hostages to Israel this week.
• In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding talks today with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a day after the Syrian leader spoke by phone with President Donald Trump, who praised Damascus’ efforts to take control over Kurdish-held areas of the country.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

A major chapter has ended in the war that began when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with the burial of Ran Gvili, the final hostage whose remains were returned earlier this week from Gaza and buried today in his southern Israel hometown of Meitar.

Yet thousands of Israelis continue to be called up for reserve duty and the final aim of the Gaza war — disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza — has yet to be achieved. 

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, President Donald Trump said that “many countries say we really want to” disarm Hamas, and his advisor Jared Kushner presented the administration’s plan for the next steps in Gaza, which include the destruction of “heavy weapons, tunnels, military infrastructure, weapons production facilities and munitions” in Gaza in the next 100 days. Under the plan, only members of the police appointed by the Palestinian technocratic committee would be able to hold weapons, but Hamas is reportedly seeking to have 10,000 of its members, whom Israel regards as terrorists, remain in the police force. 

At the same time, Kushner’s slide deck was much more focused on the “New Gaza,” complete with Dubai-esque futuristic skyscrapers, than it was on the details of how to get Hamas to give up its weapons. “There is no Plan B,” Kushner said regarding Gaza’s future.

In Jerusalem and in Washington, officials expressed skepticism about the prospect of Hamas voluntarily relinquishing its weapons, and whether the International Stabilization Force described in the Gaza ceasefire deal will be up to the task of confiscating those weapons.They view Israeli military action in the Hamas-controlled half of Gaza as the likely scenario.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who sits on the Security Cabinet, told Kan Bet radio that while Israel is heaving “a great sign of relief with the return of the hero Ran Gvili … the central thing in stage two [of the Gaza ceasefire] is disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza.” 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called in a post on X for Trump to “allow Israel to finish the job,” saying that “as to Hamas, nothing has changed. … They don’t seek peace. They only seek destruction. … This has gone on too long.”

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