• While Washington is quiet during the August recess, the campaign season is kicking into high gear — both for the few remaining states to hold their primaries, and for general ballot candidates who have less than three months before Election Day.
• In Nassau County, N.Y., President Donald Trump will campaign today with N.Y. GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.
• In Florida, where voters will cast their primary ballots on Tuesday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is campaigning on behalf of several left-wing candidates, including Elijah Manley and Oliver Larkin. Manley and Larkin are respectively challenging Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), two of Congress’ most pro-Israel lawmakers, following a redistricting that has scrambled both lawmakers’ districts. Tlaib is set to participate in several events today, including a rally this evening that was relocated after the initial venue canceled the event amid pushback from area residents.
• On Sunday, voters in California’s 14th Congressional District will head to the polls for the special election to replace Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). More below.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

A quarter century ago, when the late Sen. Joe Lieberman was tapped by Al Gore, the Democratic nominee for president, to be his running mate on the 2000 ticket, the question around many a Shabbat table was, “Is he too Jewish to be in the White House?”

There’s a different question being asked, largely in Democratic circles, of today’s potential Jewish presidential candidates: “Is he the ‘right’ kind of Jewish candidate to be president?” — a question that is almost entirely centered around a candidate’s position on Israel and how openly he identifies with his religious faith. 

A long list of Jewish candidates are considering a presidential campaign or are being touted as credible contenders, ranging from moderates including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to progressives such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and those who straddle the ideological divide, like Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA).

In both 2026 and 2028, the debate over Israel is on the ballot: Congressional primaries are pitting pro-Israel candidates against those who don’t acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and already a clear divide is emerging in the prospective 2028 presidential field over the issues of the U.S.-Israel relationship and dealing with rising antisemitism. 

Even in races where Israel policy is not front-and-center, invoking AIPAC has become something of a catch-all slur for progressives attacking the role of outside money in Democratic primaries. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 hopeful, proudly proclaimed in February that he’d never taken AIPAC money — which of course he hasn’t, given that AIPAC and its affiliated super PAC historically focus on federal, not state, races. 

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

Pray or Prey?: In The Wall Street Journal, Moshe Davis, who served as the inaugural executive director of the New York Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism under former Mayor Eric Adams, makes the argument for the federal Right to Worship Act, which he helped to craft. “While existing laws cover harassment and obstruction, they don’t reach the organized disruption that actually makes Americans feel afraid to enter their houses of worship. Courts have repeatedly upheld buffer-zone protections for funerals, polling sites and other places where people deserve to be left in peace; a law addressing disruptive behavior at houses of worship is on solid constitutional ground.” [WSJ]

No Deal is a Good Deal: The Washington Post’s editorial board argues that a policy of containment vis-a-vis Iran is a better approach than making a deal with the Islamic Republic. “The U.S. should adapt its blockade to be more sustainable, lowering the number of ships conducting direct interdictions while sanctioning anyone who buys Iranian oil that gets through. The regime’s frozen assets should also stay frozen. And Iran’s proxies should be relentlessly suppressed in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. Crucially, Trump needs to keep the threat of significant escalation on the table, especially if Iran takes even the smallest step toward reconstituting its nuclear program.” [WashPost]

How DSA Does It: The New York Times’ Charles Homan does a deep dive into the Democratic Socialists of America’s resurgence, as the group seeks to reshape the Democratic Party. “Offline communities built around shared interests — the sort once found in bowling alleys, all-ages punk-rock venues, church basements or radical bookstores — are rare now, and D.S.A. chapters fill this role. They offer not just a different politics but a different model for what participating in politics means. Chapter operations are heavily D.I.Y. affairs, which adds a giddy unreality to their victories, as if a group of college friends started a record label in their dorm room and somehow ended up using it to unseat an eight-term congressman.” [NYTimes]

Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

White House advisor Jared Kushner is expected to travel to Israel next week with Board of Peace High Representative Nickolay Mladenov, where the two will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials to discuss the Hamas disarmament deal; Kushner is also expected to travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators…

Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that the U.S.’ primary goal in the war with Iran is to “keep oil and gasoline cheap for Americans,” while “goal No. 2 is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon”…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the Trump administration planned to apply economic tactics “that have never been seen on Iran,” as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that the U.S.’ naval blockade of Iran would remain in place “indefinitely”…

CENTCOM announced a new effort to establish the “first-ever multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force,” including consulting with and inviting regional partners to join, that will work to utilize unmanned, one-way attack drones “from above, on, and below the sea” in the Middle East…

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) penned a letter to Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao raising concerns about the deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been on extended deployment in the Middle East; Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a former Marine, said he was seeking an oversight visit to the vessel for a bipartisan Senate delegation…

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is preparing to send the USS George Washington from the South China Sea to the region to relieve the Lincoln; the move will leave a U.S. void in the Pacific, where Beijing has positioned a carrier…

The United Arab Emirates condemned what it said was a “hostile Iranian attack” targeting two boats linked to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company as the vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz…

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran program, warned on Thursday of potential Iranian escalation — military or otherwise — in the run-up to the midterms, with the goal of disrupting the elections, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Semafor looks at the U.S.’ stalled sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey as Ankara remains in possession of the S-400 Russian air-defense system, the offloading of which is a requirement to move forward with the F-35 sale… 

Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), facing a runoff special election to be the GOP nominee for her late brother’s Senate seat, announced she is co-sponsoring several bills in support of the Jewish community and the U.S.-Israel relationship, including the Jewish American Security Act, the U.S.-Israel FUTURES Act, a bill on Iran sanctions and a bill on Iranian human rights and internet access…

Politico profiles Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) as the former Democratic National Committee chair faces a challenging reelection campaign — fighting headwinds from both local activists and the Congressional Black Caucus as she runs in a historically Black district following Florida’s GOP-led redistricting effort…

Former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is slated to headline a Labor Day rally for the Hancock County Maine Democrats next month, his first public appearance since dropping out of the race last month after he was accused of sexual assault by a former romantic partner; a state party official said the event was not a sanctioned party event but hosted by the local activist groups Hancock County Activists and Acadia Action Peacemakers…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Hasan Piker’s rising popularity on the far left, despite concerns from moderate Democrats that the antisemitic streamer’s brand of progressivism will taint the party in the midterms…

J Street Action Fund, the super PAC affiliated with the progressive Israel advocacy group, on Thursday spent $108,000 on digital advertisements to boost progressive California state Sen. Aisha Wahab in the special election in California’s 14th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The California state Legislature is considering a bill to require state agencies to include “Jewish” as an ethnicity option on all forms that collect demographic data; the move would make California the first state to officially consider Judaism as more than a religion for identification purposes…

The National Council for Jewish Women is rolling out a new strategic plan, in which local chapters who want to maintain their affiliation with the group need to align with the national organization’s shift away from community service to focus more on advocacy, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Jay Deitcher reports… 

An Illinois man who attacked two Jewish students at DePaul University in November 2024 pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime and was sentenced to 600 days in jail; a second assailant who pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges was sentenced to two years’ probation… 

Tel Aviv University has removed the name of the Sackler family from its Faculty of Exact Sciences, the final department on its campus that was still named for the family tied to the U.S. opioid crisis, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Justin Hayet reports…

Tamar Rothstein is now communications director for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY)…

Former Air Force Secretary James Roche, a member of the advisory board of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a board member of the Friends of the Jewish Chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy, died at 86…

Former South Dakota lawmaker and philanthropist Stan Adelstein died at 94…

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

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Charley Winery Romi 2021:

This week I marked one of the in-between birthdays. My plan had been to go about my business and let the day pass quietly, like any other. But as the morning wore on, birthday wishes began arriving from friends scattered across the world, and nearly every one carried the same question: What amazing bottle of wine will you crack open tonight to celebrate? Something in me shifted. I wanted a bottle new to me, something vibrant, something I would remember. My hand reached for the Charley Winery Romi, grown in the Judean Hills.

The Romi is a blend of cabernet sauvignon and petite sirah. The petite came out of the gate crashing into my front palate in a way I will not soon forget: bold, brash and utterly alive. The cabernet followed on the mid-palate with a beautiful infusion of berry, and the finish gathered the two into a genuinely serene moment, the kind of quiet that only a great glass of wine, in the right hour, can bring. The Romi is mevushal, and it would grace any simcha. Serve it with a rich risotto. It will hold beautifully for at least five years.

Purchase a bottle here.

Former hostage Omer Shem Tov, who spent 505 days in Hamas captivity, escorted his sister Dana down the aisle at her wedding to Daniel Saportas on Thursday.

Filmmaker and producer, she is the executive director of DOC NYC, a major documentary film festival in NYC, Raphaela Neihausen turns 50 on Friday… 

FRIDAY: Social media influencer, she appears regularly on both Instagram and TikTok, Dorothy Katz Wiggins turns 101… American-born British novelist, biographer, journalist and Oscar-winning screenwriter, Frederic Michael Raphael turns 95… Former attorney general of New Jersey and chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, David Samson turns 87… President of the Hampton Synagogue until 2024 and former board member of the UJA-Federation of New York, Carol Levin… Historian and VP of alumni relations for MLB’s New York Mets, the press box at Citi Field is named in his honor, Jay Edward Horwitz turns 81… Member of the New York State Assembly since 2005, Charles D. Lavine turns 79… Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Ester R. Fuchs turns 75… Professor of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, Henry Brem, M.D. turns 74… U.S. district court judge in South Carolina, he is the co-author of a book on the early Jews of Columbia, S.C., Judge Richard Mark Gergel turns 72… Turkish-born economist and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Dani Rodrik turns 69… U.S. senator (R-TN) since 2021, Bill Hagerty turns 67… Home fragrance and décor guru, Harry Slatkin turns 66… Lecturer at Purdue University, Martin J. Sweet turns 56… Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes as a journalist, Adam Goldman turns 53… VP at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, he was an AIPAC and Republican Jewish Coalition staffer who ran for Congress in 2018, Jeremy Scott Wynes… Professional tennis player for 15 years, primarily a doubles specialist, now an assistant athletic director, Scott Lipsky turns 45… Personal counsel to President Donald Trump, Boris Epshteyn turns 44… Ukrainian-born actor, she moved to Los Angeles at age 7 and has appeared in dozens of films, Mila Kunis turns 43… Opinion editor at eJewishPhilanthropy, Rachel Kohn turns 42… Internet entrepreneur and former CTO at Facebook, he is the co-founder and CEO of Quora, Adam D’Angelo turns 42… President of Anthropic, sister of the CEO, Daniela Lily Amodei turns 39… Retired lacrosse player, he played for ten seasons in Major League Lacrosse and for Team Israel in 2018, Maxwell “Max” Oren Seibald turns 39… Managing director at Marcus & Associates Executive Recruiters, Jacob Lefkowitz… Member of Knesset for Otzma Yehudit, he serves as the minister for the development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, Yitzhak Shimon Wasserlauf turns 34… Ryan Smith… Dylan Cooper… Tim Carney… 

SATURDAY: Philadelphia resident, Irvin Farber… Retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Stephen Breyer turns 88… Former CFO of The Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg turns 79… Founder and chairman of the Executive Committee of Limmud FSU, he has also served as treasurer of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Chesler turns 77… Professor emeritus of Jewish education and leadership development at Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Samuel K. Joseph turns 76… Economist, CPA, investment advisor and founding member of wealth advisor RVW Wealth LLC, Selwyn Gerber… Colorado resident, he is an artist and avid mountain biker, William Crary “Bill” Weidman… Chairman of Benj. E. Sherman & Sons, he is the immediate past chair of Israel Policy Forum, David A. Sherman turns 66… Orthopedic and trauma surgeon in Rome, Dr. Dario Perugia turns 64… Co-founding rabbi of Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs, Ga., Rabbi Mario Karpuj… Emmy Award-winning actor, she played Grace Adler on the 11-season sitcom “Will & Grace,” Debra Messing turns 58… Immediate past board chair of Holocaust Museum Houston, Elyse Spector Kalmans turns 57… Chief development officer for the Birthright Israel Foundation, Margot Ettlinger… U.S. senator (D-PA) since 2023, John Fetterman turns 57… Co-CEO and chairman of the entertainment production company Propagate, Benjamin Noah Silverman turns 56… Associate justice of the California Supreme Court since 2019, Joshua Paul Groban turns 53… Member of the House of Representatives (D-VA) for four years ending in 2023, Elaine Goodman Luria turns 51… Real estate and business law attorney in the Baltimore law firm of Rosen Neuberger Lehmann, Meir Neuberger… Senior director at Teva Pharmaceuticals, he was an international model for Armani and appeared in the Israeli versions of “The Amazing Race” and “Dancing with the Stars,” Raz Meirman-Baruch turns 49… National college football reporter for ESPN, Adam Rittenberg turns 45… Chief of staff at Los Angeles-based Bedrock, Rachel Sterne Haot turns 43… Computer scientist at MIT and podcaster, he interviews notable figures from science, technology, sports and politics, Lex Fridman turns 43… Career counselor, Rachel Spekman… Member of the Alaska House of Representatives until 2023, now mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Grier Hayden Hopkins turns 43… Chief communications officer at AI-native cybersecurity company Tenzai, Yael Wissner-Levy… Contemporary jazz and classical recorder player, vocalist, composer and educator, Tali Rubinstein turns 42… Co-founder of Irenic Capital Management, Adam Jason Katz… Freelance designer, Talia Siegel… MLB pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in 2015 and 2016, he played for Team Israel in the 2020 Summer Olympics, he is now a VP at a private equity firm, Jon Moscot turns 35… VP of technology policy at Retail Industry Leaders Association, Justin Goldberger… Founder and managing partner at Ezra Venture Group, Ezra Mosseri… Joe Farry… David Summer… 

SUNDAY: Solicitor general of New York, Barbara Dale Underwood turns 82… Retired judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, she is currently of counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, Shira Ann Scheindlin turns 80… Sportscaster known as the “voice of the Dallas Cowboys,” Brad Sham turns 77… President and CEO of the Business Roundtable, he was previously the White House chief of staff in the Bush 43 administration, Josh Bolten turns 72… Secretary of the Maryland Department of Aging from 2015 to 2023, Rona E. Kramer turns 72… Gerald Platt… Media consultant, Sol Levine… Former commander of the Israeli Air Force and later CEO of El Al, Eliezer Shkedi turns 69… Shareholder in the Denver office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and an AIPAC board member, Steven C. Demby… Founder of Value Retail Plc and co-owner of the NHL’s New York Islanders, his sister is married to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Scott David Malkin turns 68… Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Associated Press, Martha Mendoza turns 60… Founder of Walk Swiftly Productions, she spent 17 years on-air at ESPN/ABC and CBS covering the Super Bowl, NBA playoffs and MLB playoffs, Bonnie Bernstein turns 56… Johannesburg, South Africa-born model, actor and singer-songwriter living in NYC, Caron Bernstein turns 56… Award-winning journalist, currently an opinion columnist for The New York Times, Michael Grunwald… Former lieutenant governor of Vermont, David E. Zuckerman turns 55… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Vladimir Beliak turns 53… Mayor of Ramat Gan, Israel, he served as a member of the Knesset and as Israel’s ambassador to the OECD, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, Carmel Shama-HaCohen turns 53… Board member of the Torah School of Greater Washington, Kami Troy… Senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group, Sarah Hofstetter… Co-founder and co-CEO of The Creative Counsel, South Africa’s largest advertising agency, Gil Oved turns 51… Political and public relations consultant based in Albuquerque, N.M., Jonathan Lipshutz… Producer with Reuters News Agency, Matthew J. Silverstein… Chief political analyst for “The Upshot” at The New York Times, Nathan David “Nate” Cohn turns 38… VP at BlackRock, Julian Olidort… Studio manager at Barre3 Bethesda and founder of Atom, LLC, Anna Dubinsky… Founder and CEO at Project Healthy Minds, Phillip Schermer… Argentine former professional tennis player, he has ranked as high as No. 8 in the world, Diego Schwartzman turns 34… Rachel Berman… Associate in the D.C. office of Eversheds Sutherland, Katherine Dolgenos O’Donnell… Member of AJR, an indie pop multi-instrumentalist trio, together with his two brothers, Jack Metzger turns 29… VP at Tier One Rankings, she was the executive assistant to the ambassador at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Galit Tassi Imbo… Director of public affairs at J Street, Cooper Boyar… Ellen Weissfeld… Marshall Cohen… Dave Jacobsen…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced today that his Office to Combat Antisemitism will be releasing a municipal plan to combat antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

The mayor marketed the plan as the “first-in-the-nation,” even as former Mayor Eric Adams already released a “blueprint” for combating antisemitism on his last day in office, which included the city adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism — a policy that Mamdani repealed on his first day.

The move comes days after Mamdani hosted a roundtable with rabbis in the city who asked the mayor to back off his attacks on Israel, a request that Mamdani did not reference or commit to addressing in his remarks…

The California state Legislature is considering a bill to require state agencies to include “Jewish” as an ethnicity option on all forms that collect demographic data. The move would make California the first state to officially consider Judaism as more than a religion for identification purposes…

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit yesterday brought by the Trump administration against Harvard University alleging that the school showed “deliberate indifference” to antisemitism on campus in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

The judge ruled that the few campus incidents cited by the administration were “too isolated and episodic” to find “any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day”…

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on X today that she had communicated her “concerns” to the University of Washington about its decision to cancel an appearance by far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, and encouraged student groups who “want to hear from Mr. Piker to work with the University to ensure they can proceed.”

Piker had earlier this week denounced Democrats who didn’t “speak out against this clear violation” of the First Amendment due to his “position as a prominent critic of Israel”…

Former Democratic Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner is expected to headline a Labor Day rally for the Hancock County Maine Democrats next month, his first public appearance since dropping out of the Senate race after he was accused of rape by a former romantic partner…

White House advisor Jared Kushner is planning a trip to Israel next week with Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials to discuss the Hamas disarmament deal, Axios reports…

CENTCOM announced today it is undertaking efforts to establish the “first-ever multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force,” including consulting with and inviting regional partners to join, that will work to utilize unmanned, one-way attack drones “from above, on, and below the sea” in the Middle East…

The U.S. has lost roughly a quarter of its fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones in the war with Iran, sources told The Washington Post, as the armed drones have been targeted by Tehran and its proxies in Yemen and Iraq…

The Pentagon is sending the USS George Washington aircraft carrier to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, as reports and lawmakers indicate that conditions aboard the ship are deteriorating after a record 200 days without a port call; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the concerns about the Abraham Lincoln today as “completely misrepresented”…

Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), facing a runoff special election to be the GOP nominee for her late brother’s Senate seat, announced she is co-sponsoring the Jewish American Security Act, the U.S.-Israel FUTURES Act, a bill on Iran sanctions and a bill on Iranian human rights and internet access…

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

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at how Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is avoiding contending with the anti-Israel turn of her preferred successor, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, in her race against state Sen. Scott Wiener.

President Donald Trump will appear with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the GOP candidate for New York governor, at an event on Long Island honoring law enforcement officials.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a member of the Squad, will appear at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., alongside anti-Israel progressives running against Jewish Democrats Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), as well as socialist Colorado Democratic congressional nominee Melat Kiros.

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

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

More than 100 House Democrats, about half of the caucus, voted in favorof Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) amendment to strip all U.S. aid to Israel out of the State Department appropriations bill this afternoon, including several leaders of the caucus such as Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the No. 2 House Democrat, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

While the amendment was overwhelmingly defeated, 314-104, the large segment of Democrats supporting the measure indicates a growing shift away from the party’s historic support for Israel…

Vice President JD Vance, in an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” released today, stated repeatedly that Israeli actors are engaged in a “very discreet, very well-funded” influence campaign to extend the war in Iran: “There are some people within their system we know beyond a shadow of a doubt who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely. Again, not towards any objective, but just indefinitely,” he alleged.

Vance also said that the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein “clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence” and to “elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center”…

The U.S., Israel and Lebanon, wrapping up talks in Rome this week, agreed on the structure and guidelines for implementing the two pilot zones the parties agreed to create in southern Lebanon, a State Department official said today, without specifying a timeline for the IDF’s withdrawal. The parties will now engage in expanded technical talks to implement the trilateral agreement reached in the last round of negotiations…

CENTCOM began another round of strikes against Iran this afternoon; coming after strikes earlier in the day, the pace of the operations appears to be gaining momentum. President Donald Trump is reportedly considering expanding U.S. military efforts to include more airstrikes, utilizing ground forces and targeting nuclear sites again, according to The Wall Street Journal…

Three senior U.S. officials connected to the Board of Peace, the Trump-led body created to resolve the conflict in Gaza, have been meeting with congressional offices this week to request $200 million for the International Stabilization Force, two people with knowledge of the meetings told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch. The meetings mark the first time that Board of Peace representatives have approached Congress with a funding request…

Ahead of today’s deadline, candidates have begun releasing their fundraising reports for the second quarter. In Georgia, where some in the Jewish community have felt torn between two less-than-ideal options in Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), Ossoff holds a commanding fundraising advantage: The senator reported raising$20 million this quarter with $42 million in the bank, while Collins raised $2.1 million, leaving him with $2.2 million in cash on hand…

Meanwhile, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed released his 2025 tax returns, which he is not legally obligated to do but was pressured to do by his opponent in the Democratic primary, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI). El-Sayed’s reported total income was over $680,000, nearly $300,000 of which was unspecified as to its source…

The anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC made an initial investment of $375,000 to boost El-Sayed in the race; El-Sayed has repeatedly railed against super PAC involvement in politics — particularly that of AIPAC’s United Democracy Project, which is spending heavily in favor of Stevens…

Rep. Hilary Scholten (D-MI), speaking to Semafor about electability concerns in the Democratic Party, criticized progressives who “prop up other candidates who have said really problematic things.” The moderate congresswoman added that El-Sayed, who has been criticized for comments about Stevens seen as misogynistic, “has a problematic record with women”…

A new Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvania voters found Gov. Josh Shapiro leading his Republican opponent in his reelection race by 13 points, 53-40%, with a 56% overall approval rating. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) had a 77% approval rating among Republicans, but only 19% among voters in his own party. Nearly half (49%) of voters said the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left, while 42% said the Republican Party has moved too far to the right…

Former White House senior official Brett McGurk is releasing a book, Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7 Hostages, on his role leading U.S. efforts under former President Joe Biden to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, due out on Oct. 6 to coincide with the third anniversary of the attacks…

The New York Times examines the role that Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel could play in the potential presidential run of his brother, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as politicians increasingly seek access to media as part of their campaigns; among those close to Ari Emanuel are the UFC’s Dana White, commentator Joe Rogan, pundit Stephen A. Smith as well as Elon Musk…

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

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at what this afternoon’s vote on Massie‘s amendment to cut all U.S. aid to Israel means for the future of Israel policy in the Democratic Party.

At least eight Democratic candidates vying to replace former nominee Graham Platner on the ballotfor U.S. Senate in Maine will take the debate stage tomorrow evening in their first chance to pitch themselves to voters, ahead of the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention later this month.

President Donald Trump will give an address to the nation in the evening, which he has said will largely focus on American election security.

The American Federation of Teachers’ annual convention will kick off in Washington. The second largest teachers’ union in the U.S., the AFT has previously featured anti-Israel resolutions at its gatherings.

The Aspen Security Forum continues with several panels on the Middle East, including speakers such as Akif Çağatay Kılıç, top advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister; Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT); Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee; Dan Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel; Rahm Emanuel; Anne Neuberger, former deputy national security advisor; and Salam Fayyad, former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Iranian leaders, as military hostilities escalate between Iran and the U.S.: “Do not count on there being calm if you attack us,” Netanyahu addressed Tehran, while speaking today at a conference in southern Israel. “Do not expect a repeat of what happened before, because there will be no repeat. … Any further attempt to harm us will be met with a different response — far more powerful”…

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump walked back his announcement that the U.S. would institute a 20% toll on all cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz, saying in a post on Truth Social that Middle East leaders had agreed to additional trade and investment deals with the U.S. to replace the fee…

CENTCOM announced it began launching an additional round of strikes against Iran this afternoon “to continue degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping” in the strait, and officially reinstated a blockade on Iranian ports. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched missile and drone attacks in retaliation against bases in Kuwait and Bahrain…

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said he would oppose an amendment led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to strip all aid to Israel out of the 2027 State Department appropriations bill, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. But Jeffries also argued for “urgent change” to the U.S.-Israel relationship, including suggesting that direct U.S. military aid to Israel should end when the current memorandum of understanding expires.

Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), on the other hand, said he plans to vote yes on Massie’s amendment, writing in a “Dear Colleague” letter that the “American people are crying out for an end to US tax dollars subsidizing Israel’s military”…

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced today that the U.S. will only be permitted to station 20 military refueling aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport, while the rest must be parked at Israeli Air Force bases, in order to facilitate commercial travel for Israelis over the summer…

U.N. official Ramiz Alakbarov accused Hamas forces of interfering at a humanitarian aid distribution site in Gaza, saying armed men had entered a warehouse and “endangered humanitarian personnel,” leading the organization to suspend its operations at the site. “These incidents are not isolated. They are completely unacceptable and reflect an increasingly dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence and obstruction,” Alakbarov said…

Trump asked Netanyahu in a phone call last week to pull IDF forces back from Syria and Lebanon, Axios reports; the Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu in turn emphasized Israel’s need for security zones along its borders…

The Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area issued a statement today on Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) recent encounter in the West Bank, where he claims he was detained by violent settlers as well as the IDF. The group said it has “conveyed our concerns to the Congressman in how he is representing the district and our community on foreign policy issues” and called on Khanna “to exercise the same urgency he has brought to criticizing Israel to address the hostile climate many Jewish Americans face every day”…

Pressed repeatedly by writers with the Hamas-sympathetic outlet Drop Site News to offer support for the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and Palestinians’ “right to kill Israeli soldiers,” Khanna said he is “not for violence in any way”…

Asked about legislation imposing sanctions on Russia that was championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Trump said in the Oval Office today that lawmakers “may be adding Iran to it … They may add Hezbollah, too.” He said there’s a “good chance” it will pass “in honor of Lindsey”…

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were spotted in the Senate chamber during the swearing-in this afternoon of Darline Graham Nordone to fill Graham’s seat…

The AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project super PAC sent direct mail to voters in Michigan highlighting far-left Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s refusal to condemn extreme rhetoric from antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and El-Sayed’s efforts to “rationalize” the attack on Michigan’s Temple Israel earlier this year…

Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil filed a civil rights lawsuit against Trump administration officials, the Heritage Foundation and pro-Israel groups Canary Mission and Betar, alleging they “sought to terrorize” him to “intimidate and silence the growing movement for Palestinian rights”…

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

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for an interview with Avi Loeb, the Israeli Harvard scientist leading Trump’s search for answers that may be out of this world.

Trump will headline the last day of Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit at the U.S. Army War College, with additional remarks from Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

The Aspen Security Forum in Colorado will feature fireside chats with former Navy Secretary John Phelan and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Also on tomorrow’s agenda: a live taping of the “What the Hell is Going On?” podcast hosted by the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka and Marc Thiessen, in conversation with former National Security Advisors Stephen Hadley and Robert O’Brien as well as Michèle Flournoy, former under secretary of defense for policy.

Jay Clayton will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for his confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence, after Trump abruptly canceled his hearing originally scheduled for last month.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) will speak at the Hudson Institute on the future of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East..

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump declared today that the U.S. will take control of the Strait of Hormuz and will institute a 20% fee on all cargo passing through the waterway “for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” Jewish Insider’s Christina Sher reports. The move comes after Trump and his administration insisted for months that no country is permitted to charge fees to transiting ships…

Trump also announced he is reinstating a blockade of Iranian ports, which was lifted when the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding last month. CENTCOM said the blockade will resume tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET and will be enforced “against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas.”

CENTCOM also revealed that it successfully deployed sea drones in combat operations for the first time yesterday, using the unmanned vessels to strike an Iranian submarine at the Bandar Abbas Naval Base…

Trump notified Congress on Friday that fighting with Iran officially resumed last week, further stoking tensions between the executive and legislative branches as lawmakers already approved a war powers resolution calling for an end to American operations in Iran.

Trump’s letter to congressional leadership said U.S. “ground forces are not involved in these strikes” — which he described as “limited, measured, planned, and executed in a manner designed to minimize civilian casualties” — and said he is acting “pursuant to [his] constitutional authority as Commander in Chief”…

The Mossad spent years grooming former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset to be installed as Iran’s leader after a post-Khamenei regime change, including paying for his housing and travel and arranging a meeting with then-Mossad chief David Barnea under cover of a climate conference in Budapest in 2024, American and Iranian officials told The New York Times.

As the Iran war broke out on Feb. 28, Mossad operatives rescued Ahmadinejad from an Israeli airstrike on his Tehran compound and took him to a safe house, but he balked and left — Ahmadinejad is now reportedly under house arrest by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

The Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing Yemen’s international airport today, with a spokesperson saying the action “will not go unanswered,” threatening a tenuous truce enacted several years ago between the terror group and the Saudis. A spokesperson for the internationally recognized Yemeni government, which is backed by Riyadh, said the Houthis subsequently fired ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia…

U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that the country designated the IRGC as a terror organization, with those found guilty of supporting the group facing up to 14 years in prison. The government also banned the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, which No. 10 Downing St. said was behind a number of attacks on British Jewish sites…

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced at a press conference this afternoon that he is appointing Darline Graham Nordone, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) sister, to serve out the rest of Graham’s term. Trump had voiced his support for Nordone, who shared an exceptionally close bond with her brother, as “a fabulous tribute to Lindsey.” Fox Newsreported that Nordone could be sworn in as soon as Wednesday…

The Trump administration plans to launch a major diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today, the latest move in the White House’s longtime battle against the international organization.

The push appears to be rooted in concerns that the ICC will seek to prosecute American servicemembers, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports. Such actions would not only be “a grave overreach of its purported authorities,” Rubio wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “it would mean the death of the U.S. as a sovereign and independent nation”…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed that he would maintain ties with Morris Katz, the controversial political operative behind Mamdani’s own victory as well as the imploded campaign of former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, JI’s Will Bredderman reports, despite calls from members of the Democratic Socialists of America to boycott the consultant’s services…

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a member of the Squad and a vocal detractor of Israel, endorsed far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed today, joining fellow Squad members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Summer Lee (D-PA) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL) in backing him less than a month before the primary…

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

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at the surging anti-Israel candidate in the Democratic primary for Michigan‘s swing 7th Congressional District.

The sixth round of talks between Israel and Lebanon are slated to begin tomorrow in Rome, despite Beirut’s reported threat not to attend if the IDF did not vacate two pilot zones in southern Lebanon before the discussions. Israeli media reported that this week’s talks will focus on the timeline for the withdrawal.

The Aspen Security Forum, the high-profile annual gathering of national security leaders, policymakers and foreign policy experts, begins tomorrow afternoon in Colorado. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will speak on a panel on the “state of the world.”

The two-day Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, hosted by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), will kick off at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., with a keynote address from Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.

Some House Republicans were invited to a dinner tomorrow night with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to Punchbowl News, as the Trump administration is seeking more than $67 billion for the Pentagon in its supplemental funding request.

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Appearing on CNN this morning, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said Jerusalem is “supportive of the position of the United States” regarding renewed strikes on Iran, and said Israel would “fly alongside U.S. aircraft” if called on to do so.

He added that Iran had violated its “only obligation” under the memorandum of understanding — to keep the Strait of Hormuz open — and that if the Iranians “persist in their malign intentions,” the war could resume “in full swing”…

Israeli military leaders are also hinting at potential Israeli involvement: At an Israeli Air Force graduation ceremony, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF is prepared to carry out independent strikes “to remove threats” in Iran. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, told the graduates that “new plans” are “on the drawing board” and that “major operations are still expected to lie ahead of us. Be prepared”…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with President Donald Trump today and was updated by the president “on American moves in the Gulf.” According to a statement from the PMO, Netanyahu again raised the issue of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s hostile rhetoric toward Israel…

The Wall Street Journal examines the “root of the dispute” over the Strait of Hormuz — the “poorly worded” fifth article in the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding that says Tehran will “make arrangements” to restore shipping in the waterway and then work with Oman on a plan to administer it going forward.

“Notably, the paragraph says nothing about the U.S. making arrangements for the safe passage of vessels, which Iran has seized on to attack ships that use a U.S.-coordinated route,” a U.S. official told the outlet…

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is in Israel and the West Bank this week while Congress is in recess, according to two individuals with knowledge of the trip. Khanna has not posted publicly about his visit, which is scheduled to conclude tonight, JI’s Melissa Weiss reports…

While wrapping up his trip, Khanna, who was one of Senate candidate Graham Platner’s most vociferous defenders until a rape allegation was made against the Maine Democrat earlier this week, told MS NOW that he’s endorsing former state Sen. Troy Jackson to take Platner’s place on the ballot. Jackson, who previously ran for governor, is a progressive seen as aligned with Platner…

But Platner’s potential replacements will have to wait a few more days: The candidate told campaign staff he intends to wait until the very last day — Monday — to officially file his paperwork to drop out of the race, Axios reports…

The Journal profiles Cheyenne Hunt, the progressive influencer and activist who played a key role in bringing to light the sexual assault and misconduct allegations that ultimately saw the ouster of Platner and the resignation of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA)…

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) withdrew as co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Spain Caucus due to what he called Madrid’s “escalating, hostile crusade” against Israel…

Andy Burnham, widely expected to become Britain’s next prime minister, told The Guardian that the response of his Labour party to Israel’s military actions in Gaza “has too often not been good enough” and that the U.K. has “got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government,” including sanctions and potentially banning trade in goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Burnham also said there is “increasing evidence” that Israel committed war crimes, though he did not use the word genocide, and said the determination should be left to international courts. His comments mark a shift to the left of Labour’s outgoing leader, Keir Starmer, who was slower than other European leaders to back a ceasefire and recognize Palestinian statehood…

Among those speaking at the closed-door Allen & Company retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, today were Jared Kushner, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) as well as Ken Griffin, the hedge fund manager and GOP megadonor.

Asked whether he would support Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the 2028 presidential election, Griffin said he’d be inclined to back Rubio…

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

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at Platner’s potential replacements, as a handful of Maine Democrats are already jockeying for the position less than 24 hours after Platner announced he intends to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate.

We’ll be watching to see if U.S. and Iranian strikes continue into the weekend, or if the current flare-up has run its course. Prior to the outbreak in hostilities, Saudi media had reported that talks between Washington and Iran would restart on July 11, after the dayslong funeral of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wraps up today. Trump said this morning that the Iranians had called and “want to make a deal so badly,” but it’s unclear whether the two sides intend to meet.

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

• President Donald Trump is back in Washington today following the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. The president, who traveled to Ankara earlier this week aboard the plane recently gifted to him by Qatar for use as a new Air Force One, told reporters before he departed that he would be traveling on one of the older aircraft, while the new plane will be flown to a U.S. airbase in the U.K. The change-up came amid questions about the plane’s security features, as well heightened concerns regarding Iran following the resumption of strikes between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic.
• Before departing Turkey, Trump reiterated his threat to Iran that he would “finish the job,” telling reporters that he was no longer sure if he was interested in a peace deal with Iran and was questioning if the country’s leadership was rational enough to work with. The comments came as the U.S. and Iran traded strikes in the region, with CENTCOM saying it struck approximately 90 new military targets across Iran on Wednesday night — including air-defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities and military logistics infrastructure. Iranian media reported additional explosions in the Bushehr province this morning. Read more here.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to meet at noon today at the White House with Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud.
• Elsewhere stateside, we’re keeping an eye on Maine Democrats as the party looks to pick a new candidate to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) following Graham Platner’s announcement last night that he was suspending his campaign after a former girlfriend accused him earlier this week of having raped her. More below.
• The Contemporary Antisemitism conference at the University of Haifa wraps up today with a keynote speech from philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Lévy.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S emily jacobs

Allies of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are launching a new political organization aimed at countering antisemitism within the Republican Party, Jewish Insider has learned, led by Arielle F. Klepach, a former assistant U.S. attorney and senior counsel for the National Jewish Advocacy Center.

The Front Line (TFL) will operate as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, meaning the group will not have to disclose its donors and can spend unlimited sums toward political activity, provided campaign finance is not its primary purpose and it does not contribute directly to campaigns. 

A source familiar with the matter told JI that those behind the organization, which Cruz is not directly involved with, raised several million dollars to fund the operation. Klepach will run the operation as executive director. 

“There has been a surge of antisemitism across America, which first engulfed the left and is now threatening the moral integrity and political unity of the conservative movement and the Republican Party,” Klepach said. “I am excited to lead The Front Line’s efforts to defeat right-wing antisemitism before it takes conservatives down the same path of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and pro-Sharia advocacy that has taken the left.”

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

Battlefield Blues: Bloomberg’s Max Hastings looks at the challenges facing the U.S. as other countries more quickly evolve their weapons production systems and increasingly rely on AI to quickly produce advanced weaponry. “Warfare, strategy and weapons systems are morphing at extraordinary speed. The US still possesses by far the most capable military. But its ability to dominate a battlefield, never mind an entire region, is under threat in a fashion that military men and women understand better than do many national leaders.” [Bloomberg]

F-35 Fears: In the Greek daily Ekathimerini, Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), the co-chairs of the Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance, warn of the risks to the alliance formed by Greece, Cyprus and Israel posed by the potential sale of advanced U.S. weaponry to Ankara. “Turkey’s expansive maritime claims, continued tensions in the Aegean, military overflights and provocations affecting Greece, Turkey’s continued occupation of Cyprus, and increasing demonization of Israel have contributed to instability at a time when the region has an opportunity to move in a different direction. … Advanced military capabilities should strengthen alliances and regional stability – not create uncertainty among the partners who have worked alongside the United States to build a more secure Eastern Mediterranean.” [Ekathimerini]

Forgetting ‘Never Forget’: The Wall Street Journal’s Bertrand Benoit observes that Germany is at an “inflection point” some eight decades after the Holocaust, as memory of the Shoah fades and both the far right and the far left are on the ascendance. “Can a democracy that was built on a sense of responsibility for the Holocaust survive without it? What does it mean for Europe if the country that set the modern standard for combating antisemitism across the continent chooses to move on at a time of rising Jew-hatred? And last, can a country that twice set the world ablaze — and is now engaged in the largest rearmament effort in decades as Russia threatens the continent — be trusted by neighbors if it abandons what has for eight decades served as its moral compass?” [WSJ]

In a change of tone, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Wednesday that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa deserves a chance to rebuild the war-torn country, arguing that his efforts to curb Iran’s influence in Syria should prompt Israel to reassess its approach to the new government, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

Axios looks at how the U.S.-Iran war has increasingly shifted to focus on the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that the White House “is preparing for what could become a multi-day or even multi-week exchange of fire”…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights how Jewish Democrats mulling 2028 presidential bids are navigating the party’s leftward shift on Israel…

The governing body of the Football Association of Ireland voted 75-32 to proceed with the national team’s upcoming matches against Israel, following calls for the FAI to boycott the games, slated to take place in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium…

The hate crimes unit of Montreal’s police department is investigating a series of attacks targeting members of the city’s Hasidic community last Friday night in which the attackers drove through a heavily Jewish neighborhood, shouting antisemitic slurs and throwing cans at people walking home from Shabbat services…

Australia’s antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, testifying before the government’s royal commission into antisemitism, called for the creation of an independent oversight committee to monitor the Australian public broadcaster’s compliance with its charter obligations; her comments came after numerous complaints over the broadcaster’s airing of falsities around the Israel-Hamas war and slowness to issue corrections…

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz pushed back against President Donald Trump’s suggestion this week that Israel would withdraw from Lebanon, saying, “We didn’t ask for anyone’s approval to enter Lebanon, and we don’t need approval to stay in Lebanon”…

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency downgraded its risk classification for Israel and the Gulf, opting against extending its high-risk conflict zone advisory for the region when the warning expired on Wednesday…

Attorney William Zabel, a prolific celebrity divorce lawyer who was instrumental in distributing some $2.2 billion to the victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, died at 89…

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

Agudath Israel held a meet-and-greet event with New York officials on Wednesday in Manhattan. The group presented Julie Menin and Mark Levine, respectively the speaker of the City Council and the city’s comptroller, with mezuzot.

Menin decried what she called the “shameful and unconscionable” crisis of antisemitic incidents in New York. She touted the council’s passage of buffer zone bills for religious institutions and schools, asking rhetorically, “What could be controversial about that?” to a crowd that included Jason Binderman, the deputy director for the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism — an apparent dig at Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who opposed the bills. 

Pictured from left: Assemblymember David Weprin, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse, Menin, Levine, Councilmember Chris Banks, Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, Rabbi Ephraim Gurell and state Sen. Lester Chang.

Co-founder of Netscape and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, he is celebrating his birthday at the Sun Valley conference, Marc Lowell Andreessen turns 55… 

Former Soviet refusenik, prisoner of conscience, human rights activist, author and translator, Iosif Begun turns 94… Constitutional law expert focused on the First Amendment and free speech, senior counsel at Cahill Gordon & Reindel where he has practiced since 1963, Floyd Abrams turns 90… Retired conductor and music director of symphony orchestras in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Rochester, N.Y., Baltimore and Zurich, David Zinman turns 90… Huntington Woods, Mich., resident, Robert Morris Rubin… Arizona resident, Howard Cohen… Play-by-play announcer for the MLB’s San Diego Padres from 1980 to 2020, Theodore “Ted” Leitner turns 79… Tikvah “Tiki” Stern Lyons… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Jacob of Atlanta, Rabbi Ilan D. Feldman turns 72… U.S. senator (R-SC) since 2003, Lindsey Graham turns 71… Author, motivational speaker and former stockbroker, his autobiographical memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, was adapted into a film and released in 2013, Jordan Ross Belfort turns 64… Mortgage professional and owner of D.C.’s Char Bar, Michael Alan Chelst… Public radio personality, former producer of “This American Life” and the host and executive producer of the “Serial” podcast, Sarah Koenig turns 57… Activist short seller, author and editor of the online investment newsletter Citron Research, Andrew Edward Left turns 56… Actor, tour guide, poet, speaker, philosopher and author, Timothy “Speed” Levitch turns 56… Host of The Free Press’ “Breaking History” podcast, Eli Jon Lake turns 54… Anchor and reporter for Fox Business Network, Lori Rothman turns 53… Member of the URJ North American board of trustees, Peter Webb… Co-founder and executive director of Nefesh B’Nefesh, Yehoshua Fass turns 53… Brigadier general (res.) in the IDF, he held many military leadership positions in digital transformation and computer science, Omer Dagan turns 50… Israeli documentary filmmaker, Guy Davidi turns 48… Retired poker player, now an options trader, she is the only woman to ever reach the No. 1 ranking on the Global Poker Index, Vanessa K. Selbst turns 42… Tony Award-winning theater, film and television actor, Brandon Uranowitz turns 40… Renewable energy and climate specialist, Samantha Hea Marks… Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Jake Kalish turns 35… Pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization through 2024, now a free agent, Kenny Rosenberg turns 31… Spokeswoman and communications specialist for foreign media in the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel, Shoshana Bedrosian turns 29…

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Jewish and Israeli aid and rescue organizations are preparing to send teams to Venezuela after the poverty-stricken South American country was hit by massive back-to-back earthquakes on Wednesday night, representatives of the groups told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. At least 164 people have been pronounced dead so far, and the number is expected to rise considerably as search efforts get underway, with some projections putting the death toll into the tens of thousands. Read more here.
• Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg is hosting the State Department’s two-day Pax Silica Summit at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Attendees include representatives from the signatory countries to the strategic initiative — which include Israel, Qatar, the UAE, India, Germany and the U.K., among others — and senior business executives. 
• On the Hill, acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules W. Hurst III will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing to be permanently appointed to the role — Hurst is likely to face questions about the Trump administration’s $88 billion supplemental funding request, largely to cover the cost of the Iran war, sent to Congress on Wednesday. 
• The House Committee on Education and Workforce will mark up the No Antisemitism in Education Act, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is slated to testify at an oversight hearing in the House Appropriations Committee.
• The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship‘s third annual conference wraps up in London today. Speakers at the summit, which focused on the future of Western civilization at the 250th anniversary of the United States, included House Speaker Mike Johnson; Energy Secretary Chris Wright; former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers; and Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner.
• The Texas Democratic State Convention begins today: The three-day event will feature remarks from Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. Activists are set to consider close to 20 resolutions critical of Israel.
• The annual Aspen Ideas Festival, which brings together leading figures from politics, business, media and academia, kicks off in Colorado with an opening session featuring Aspen Institute leaders and journalists Fareed Zakaria and David Brooks.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

There’s little doubt that socialism is on the march within the Democratic Party after the latest  primaries, with extreme candidates who would have been dismissed as nonviable prevailing in numerous congressional primaries and mayoral contests from coast to coast. 

Factor in the political resilience of far-left Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner despite numerous scandals and the momentum of anti-Israel Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a contested Michigan primary despite facing well-funded opposition, and there’s the potential of radicals toppling mainstream candidates well outside the deep-blue confines of major urban centers. 

Ultimately, that’s a major question looming for the Democratic Party’s future — and the health of our democracy. Is the rise of socialism primarily a product of urban angst and college-age naivete, or does it have staying power beyond the most-progressive precincts in the country?  Can left-wing candidates prevail in swing districts, far away from the urban progressive centers that make up its base? Or will they end up being more of a noisy but powerless faction in Congress?

Either way, socialist candidates have gone from a curiosity that rarely won any congressional seats to riding a Democratic Socialists of America-organized grassroots wave that now has to be reckoned with. You could count the number of Squad members on one hand when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) and her like-minded allies were first elected in 2018 and 2020. Now their representation is poised to double from its previous peak — and AOC now counts as downright pragmatic, compared to several of her soon-to-be-colleagues.

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

Radical Shift: Reason’s senior editor Robby Soave examines Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier’s record as she is set to become what he calls Congress’ “first campus radical.” “In 2019, when I published my first book, Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump, I predicted that the era’s campus protesters would not shed their radicalism when they graduated college and moved out into the so-called real world — rather, they would force the world to conform to their quixotic expectations. This would be particularly felt in the areas of American life most susceptible to their influence: education, media, entertainment, and eventually, politics. Now that day has finally arrived. Welcome, congresswoman.” [Reason]

The Socratic AI Method: The Economist examines the rise in philosophers being hired by AI firms. “Some of the lessons that philosophy can offer AI researchers are ancient. The Socratic method — as described by Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher — uses feigned ignorance and sequential questioning to clarify meanings, spot contradictions and reveal ramifications. Many current AI systems tend towards sycophancy. Models trained in the Socratic method, says Jörg Noller, an expert on philosophy and AI at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, are less keen on people-pleasing and more willing to pursue the truth.” [Economist]

House Majority Math: Joel Wanger, DMFI PAC’s chief political officer, breaks down the results from Tuesday night’s primary elections. “Here’s the thing about House Majority math, and it’s something I’ve said before: it isn’t won in New York City or San Francisco. It’s won in places like San Diego and South Texas — and that’s exactly where pro-Israel Democrats had some of their best nights this cycle, nominating strong general-election candidates in competitive seats. … The pattern I’ve tracked all cycle keeps repeating: pro-Israel Democrats win decisively when they take primary challenges seriously and early, build broad coalitions rather than narrow ones, and talk about the kitchen-table issues — affordability, economic anxiety — that are actually driving voters right now. Where that didn’t happen, races were close. Where it did, they weren’t.” [Substack]

No Socialist Takeover: The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer argues that the Democratic Party is not being taken over by democratic socialists as a unified national force, but rather is becoming more ideologically diverse and locally shaped. “The modern Democratic Party, by virtue of its class and ethnic diversity, has always been ideologically heterodox. An approach that works for a Zohran Mamdani or a Janeese Lewis George will not necessarily work for a James Talarico in Texas or a Mary Peltola in Alaska. Many people outside of the democratic socialists’ cities and districts will focus on whether the candidates’ stances on Israel and Palestinian rights reflect a shift within the party (and they do) and the fact that they differ from more centrist Democrats (also correct). But whether they succeed as leaders and politicians will depend on much more local concerns — matters such as jobs, public safety, and affordability.” [Atlantic]

Israeli and Lebanese officials have reportedly denied a claim by a State Department official, cited by Reuters, who said that Israel had withdrawn from some of the southern Lebanese territory it has held during its war against Hezbollah…

Saudi Arabia is planning to host reconciliation talks between Gulf countries and Iran, a diplomat with knowledge of the arrangements told Agence France Presse. The summit, aimed at mending ties between Gulf nations, Iran and possibly other regional neighbors in the aftermath of the war, will be independent of ongoing U.S.-Iran talks, the diplomat said…

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday; pictured sitting next to the secretary of state in a working lunch with MBZ was Michael Boulos, Trump’s son-in-law, whose father serves as a senior advisor to the president on the Middle East…

Bahraini National Security Advisor Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa met separately with Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Lindsey Graham(R-SC) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Rep. Brian Mast(R-FL) during a visit to Washington…

FBI Director Kash Patel hosted Qatari Interior Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani in Washington…

CENTCOM announced that the U.S. killed senior ISIS leader Ali Husayn al-‘Ulaywi in an airstrike in northwest Syria last Friday…

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced a resolution to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Americans and relief organizations involved in saving Jewish Holocaust refugees…

An intelligence report obtained by journalists from the Israeli public broadcaster Kan details how Qatar became a central channel of economic and military strength for Iran, helping it to circumvent sanctions after the 2018 cancellation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and also after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel…

A Kuwaiti air-defense officer shared a firsthand account of the opening moments of Iran’s missile and drone attacks on the Gulf country, describing at a conference in London the frantic five minutes as ballistic missiles filled the sky and the air-defense network scrambled to respond…

Vice President JD Vance and his allies are embracing his role as the public face of President Donald Trump’s Iran deal, Semafor reports, arguing that backing an end to the conflict distinguishes him from the GOP’s neoconservative wing and strengthens his standing with the MAGA base ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run…

The New York Times traces a generational and ideological shift on the American right toward viewing Iran as a pragmatic country the U.S. can learn to live with — a pivot led by Trump but driven by other factors that include younger Republicans’ war fatigue and waning support for Israel…

New Lines Magazine spotlights the unrest surrounding a resort project in Albania’s Vjosa-Narta protected area by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump that has sparked unprecedented mass protests in the country; the demonstrations have evolved from an environmental campaign to a broad expression of frustration with long-serving Prime Minister Edi Rama…

Ari Emanuel, TKO CEO and Mari Group founder, is in advanced talks to buy theater group ATG for $6 billion…

Morris Dancyger, a child survivor of Auschwitz who built a successful pharmacy and real estate career and co-founded the first modern art gallery in Calgary, Canada, died at 86…

Haredi demonstrators blocked major highways in Israel on Wednesday, causing massive traffic disruptions, in a nationwide protest against the imprisonment of yeshiva students who fail to comply with military draft orders.

Free agent center fielder, formerly in the San Francisco Giants organization, he was the 10th overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft, Hunter David Bishop turns 28…

Music publicist in the 1970s and 1980s for Prince, Billy Joel and Styx, later an author on human behavior, Howard Bloom turns 83… Founder and CEO of Bel Air Partners, a financial advisory firm for automotive retailers, Sheldon J. Sandler turns 82… Real estate developer in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Las Vegas and Miami and founder of The Continuum Company, Ian Bruce Eichner turns 81… Florida resident, Joseph C. Goldberg… Southern California-based mentor, coach and consultant for business executives through Vistage International, Gary Brennglass… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Sonia Sotomayor turns 72… Former member of the Knesset for the Meretz party, Michal Rozin turns 57… Founder and CEO of The Agency, a high-end real estate brokerage, Mauricio Umansky turns 56… Managing director of A-Street, an investment fund focused on seeding and scaling innovative K-12 student learning, Mora Segal… Senior media and PR specialist at Hadassah, Helen Chernikoff… Israeli philosopher, writer and publicist, he teaches at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Midreshet Lindenbaum, Rabbi Chaim Navon turns 53… Founder and director of The Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel, popularly known as the “Zoo Rabbi,” Natan Slifkin turns 51… Former fashion model and television presenter, Michele Merkin turns 51… Deputy director of government relations at Bread for the World, Zachary Silberman… President of Gratz College in Melrose Park, Pa., Zev Eleff turns 41… One-half of the husband-and-wife duo known for their YouTube channel h3h3Productions with more than 1.3 billion views, Ethan Edward Klein turns 41… Organizational change management specialist at CACI International, Isaac Snyder… VP of strategy at Saint Paul Commodities and co-founder of Veriflux, Daniel “Dani” Charles turns 39… Family Medicine Residency Faculty at Jefferson Einstein Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa., Avital Mintz-Morgenthau, MD… Senior reporter and writer covering the White House for CNN, Betsy Klein…

• Far-left, anti-Israel congressional candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept a trifecta of contested primaries Tuesday night. But pro-Israel stalwart Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) won renomination in a landslide with 72% of the vote, and state Assemblyman Micah Lasher, an ally of Israel who holds close relations with the Jewish community, won the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY). (Read  more below.) 
• Outside of the deep-blue city, Democrats turned to pro-Israel moderates in key races. State Del. Adrian Boafo, who was the recipient of millions of dollars of supportive ads from AIPAC’s super PAC, easily prevailed in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). (Read more below.) Military veteran Cait Conley, meanwhile, won comfortably in a crowded Democratic primary, and will face Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in a swing suburban New York City seat. And in Utah, former Rep. Ben McAdams (D-UT) easily defeated a challenger who campaigned on his anti-Israel bona fides.
• Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-MD) held off a well-funded challenge from former Rep. David Trone. Trone spent over $25 million of his own money on the race, but only won about 37% of the primary vote. And in Montgomery County, Md., progressive Councilmember Will Jawando is currently leading the more moderate Councilmember Andrew Friedson 41-33%in the Democratic primary for county executive with 70% of votes counted.
• President Donald Trump is expected to attend a GOP Senate luncheon as he remains at odds with his party over several legislative efforts. Later, he’ll hold a rally on the National Mall to kick off his 16-day Great American State Fair to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is slated to brief House Republicans as the Pentagon gears up for a contentious fight over an expected $80 billion supplemental funding request to replenish stockpiles and otherwise pay for the war in Iran, according to several reports. Read more here.
• The House Appropriations Committee is set to mark up the 2027 defense spending bill.
• Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) will speak in conversation with Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick as well as leaders from other religious groups, including the Union for Reform Judaism and Orthodox Union, about the Jewish American Security Act.
• Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro’s media site, The Daily Wire, is co-hosting alongside ad agency LSKR a day of programming at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the south of France, marking the company’s debut at the advertising industry’s premier annual gathering.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S WILL BREDDERMAN

It’s New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s party now — even if not everybody in the Big Apple feels invited.

The mayor’s candidates for Congress jumped out to early leads Tuesday night, with former City Comptroller Brad Lander comfortably defeating Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a stalwart opponent of President Donald Trump who nonetheless lost support from his party’s base over his lukewarm support for the new mayor and longstanding pro-Israel record. Lander won 66% of the vote to Goldman’s 34%, with 90% of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning. 

The shocks to the party establishment continued throughout the night, as Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez jumped to a commanding advantage over party favorite, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Valdez easily defeated Reynoso, 56%-36%, with 92% of the vote counted.

And the capstone on the night for Mamdani’s anti-Israel congressional trifecta came when networks announced the ouster of Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, against radical doctoral student and Columbia encampment leader Darializa Avila Chevalier, whose inflammatory X feed — and attendance at an anti-Israel rally the day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — did little to derail her candidacy. In a much tighter race, Avila Chevalier beat the incumbent, 49%-46%, with 88% of the vote counted. 

Signs of the ascendance of the far left within overwhelmingly Democratic big cities have been visible for months. Mamdani’s astounding mayoral victory in 2025 mobilized a slew of like-minded candidates to run for office — in New York City and beyond. In Philadelphia, DSA-endorsed candidate Chris Rabb won a Philadelphia-based congressional seat last month. Last week, DSA-backed Janeese Lewis George romped to victory in the race for mayor in the nation’s capital, and is on track to become the city’s next top executive. 

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

Thin Air: Navy and Army National Guard veteran Brynn Tannehill argues in The Atlantic that the U.S. and Israel’s strategy toward Iran was flawed from the outset because it ignored historical lessons and relied primarily on airpower to force either regime change or surrender. “The U.S. plan for attacking Iran was doomed from the start because it relied on airpower without the benefit of external factors that would have made an air campaign successful. There was no credible threat of mass ground invasion to overthrow the Iranian regime. It was either internal revolution or nothing. The U.S. was also unwilling to inflict the sort of mass casualties and suffering that might have caused Iran to decide that capitulation was less damaging than continued resistance.” [TheAtlantic]

The Burgeoning Question about Burnham: The Jewish Chronicle’s Angela Epstein considers whether Labor MP Andy Burnham’s potential premiership in Britain will be “good for the Jews.” “Look to how recently, when asked for his views on the baseless allegations of genocide in Gaza, Burnham declined to take a clear position. Arguing he was too far removed from the situation to make such a judgement. Why not state plainly that no court has upheld the genocide claim [against Israel]? … So the rap sheet is troubling. Factor in the wider perception of Burnham as a weathervane politician, with an impressive number of U-turns under his belt, and there is justifiable cause for concern for British Jewry.” [JewishChronicle]

The Witkoff-Kushner Show: Journalist and editor Tina Brown, in her Substack “Fresh Hell,” reviews New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s new book about the first year of President Donald Trump’s second administration. “Surprising to me in these pages is how well the odd couple of global diplomacy, the ever-sunny real estate deal man Steve Witkoff and Trump’s effete-looking son-in-law Jared Kushner, come across. After bringing home the Abraham Accords in the first term and wrangling Bibi and Hamas to a Gaza ceasefire in the second, it’s time to acknowledge that Kushner is a skilled, pragmatic closer and the garrulous Witkoff, dispatched round the world to end three wars at once, never stops trying.” [Substack]

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that inspectors would visit Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, after conflicting remarks on the matter by U.S. and Iranian officials. The parties’ agreement “says explicitly that the nuclear activities that are going to be carried out with the regards to the nuclear material facilities will be supervised by the IAEA — in all letters,” Grossi told reporters.…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke on the phone with senior Hamas official Basem Naim about the “latest developments” in the region, according to Iranian TV…

Victoria Coates, a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, she said in an X post on Wednesday, noting that they discussed “Lebanon, Europe, the future of Western Civilization, and, of course, Iran”…

A U.S. fighter jet pilot who was shot down over Iran and rescued in April told intelligence officials he witnessed Iranian drones flying in a single swarm formation, CNN reports, which would mark a significant advancement in Tehran’s drone technology…

The Washington Post examines how President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran has impacted his popularity in the United Arab Emirates…

Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate announced the formation of its inaugural advisory board, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, Dentons CEO Kate Barton, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports exclusively…

The House Rules Committee yesterday teed up amendment votes on the 2027 State Department funding bill on cutting $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel, cutting U.S. aid to Jordan, blocking funding for the United Nations and blocking funding for the Middle East Partnership for Peace initiative. The amendments are expected to come up for votes later this week…

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) reiterated her criticism of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and accused him and his supporters of antisemitism at an Orthodox Union event on Tuesday, JI’s Marc Rod reports. “Our support for Israel remains as strong as ever,” Collins said, to a standing ovation. “We must all stand with Israel. In my case, I learned that lesson at an early age”…

New York City’s First Lady Rama Duwaji posted an Instagram story Tuesday flashing an “I Voted” sticker and encouraging her followers to support the two congressional candidates endorsed by both her husband and the Democratic Socialists of America: Assemblymember Claire Valdez and doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier. The post excluded Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who alone among Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s candidates identifies as a Zionist, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…

A manifesto allegedly left by the gunman behind Monday’s rampage in Côte-des-Neiges, a heavily Jewish neighborhood in Montreal, repeatedly targeted Jews and Zionists, specifically identifying “influential Zionists” among his intended victims, according to a copy of the document published by Rebel News, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Jewish Democrats in Texas are gearing up for the state party’s convention, which starts Thursday, as delegates are set to consider nearly 20 resolutions condemning Israel…

Israeli officials are exploring listing Israel Aerospace Industries and defense manufacturer Rafael on U.S. stock exchanges rather than in Israel, where they may face more burdensome disclosure requirements, according to Bloomberg. The Israeli government is reportedly looking to sell up to a 30% stake in the companies, which manufacture the Arrow and Iron Dome missile-defense systems…

Around 50 career and political appointee intelligence officials have been removed from their roles at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence since Bill Pulte assumed the role of acting DNI last week, CBS reports, including six employees who were fired and 45 who were sent back to other agencies…

Top Senate Democrats sent a letter to Republican committee chairs on Tuesday calling for hearings into a $500 million deal that sold nearly half of World Liberty Financial — a crypto company founded by members of the Trump and Witkoff families — to a group led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security advisor, The Wall Street Journal reports…

Gen. Chris Donahue, the highly regarded commanding general of United States Army Europe and Africa who was seen as a rising star in the U.S. defense establishment, is expected to announce he is stepping down from his role in the coming days, adding to a growing list of senior military leaders who have departed or been pushed out during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s tenure…

Netanyahu on Wednesday completed his testimony, after 98 hearings over the past year and a half, in his ongoing corruption trial…

Israeli-born KISS co-founder and bassist Gene Simmons tells The Wall Street Journal about the impact his mother, who was a Holocaust survivor, had on his worldview…

Breaker Media reports that New York Times columnist Bret Stephens was briefly mistaken by security for an intruder as he arrived at Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger’s annual Catskills BBQ wearing a fedora, which is usually worn by Breaker Media’s reporter when he stakes out media gatherings…

The Wall Street Journal reports on how Larry Ellison quietly donated $45 million to a pro-Trump political nonprofit in 2024 — one of the largest single injections of capital that cycle — and how his private friendship with Trump has since paid dividends for both his tech company Oracle and his son David‘s growing media empire…

The New York Times spotlights the annual Great Nosh picnic that took place on Governors Island on Sunday, calling it “a kind of New York-centric Coachella for Jewish food and culture”…

“SportsCenter” anchor Linda Cohn, who presented more episodes of the ESPN show than anyone else in its history, is set to retire at the end of the month…

Longtime New Yorker staff writer Mark Singer, who specialized in profiles, died on Friday at 75…

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), (left), and Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Eric Burlison (R-MO) spoke at a launch event on Tuesday for the Abraham Accords Prosperity Group in Washington hosted by Sir Liam Fox (second from left), a former British minister. The group aims to promote investment and collaboration across the Abraham Accords countries.

Actor and singer, Elizabeth Greer “Beanie” Feldstein turns 33… 

Activist investor, he is a co-founder of Trian Partners, Nelson Peltz turns 84… Professor emeritus in the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University, Sam S. Gill turns 84… Former chairman and CEO of New York Life Insurance Company, Seymour “Sy” Sternberg turns 83… Professor of philosophy at American Jewish University and founding dean of its rabbinical program, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff turns 83… Founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, he is also the founder of Yeshivat Maharat for Orthodox women, Rabbi Avraham Haim Yosef (Avi) Weiss turns 82… Former secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, he is an author and professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, his newest book came out in 2025, Robert Reich turns 80… Former member of Knesset and former chief of staff of the IDF, Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon turns 76… Early childhood specialist at Columbus City Schools and Columbus School for Girls in Columbus, Ohio, Carol Glassman… Former EVP at Edelman, he is the author of a book on the Saatchi & Saatchi ad firm, Kevin Goldman… President and CEO of public relations firm Steinreich Communications, Stanley Steinreich… U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Florida, Beth Francine Bloom turns 64… Principal from 2007 to 2023 of Mount Scopus Memorial College located in Melbourne, Australia, Rabbi James Kennard turns 62… The first on-air talent of the NFL Network when it debuted in 2003, he has become the face of the network, which merged with ESPN in 2025, Rich Eisen turns 57… Israeli businesswoman and owner of the soccer team, Hapoel Beer Sheva, her brother-in-law is Israel’s minister of economy, Nir Barkat, Alona Barkat turns 57… Author and columnist, he is the managing editor at Shtetl, Shulem Deen turns 52… Singer and songwriter known professionally as Ariel Pink, Ariel Marcus Rosenberg turns 48… Film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and cinematographer, Todd Strauss-Schulson turns 46… Director of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, he is the son-in-law of political analyst and commentator Bill Kristol, Matthew Continetti turns 45… Digital marketing manager at Guardian Pharmacy Services, Brett Rosner… VP of Houston-based RIDA Development, a multi-national real estate development company, Steven C. Mitzner… A 2015 contestant on “Jeopardy!” who earned $413,612 by winning 13 consecutive episodes, he is a son of United States District Court Senior Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Matthew Barnett “Matt” Jackson turns 34… Director of legislative fiscal affairs at the Rockland County (N.Y.) legislature, Moshe Gruber… College basketball player for the Harvard Crimson until 2022, then a graduate transfer player at NYU until 2024, Spencer Freedman turns 28… Lois Charles…

• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday morning, bowing to pressure from within his Labour Party to step down. Newly elected Labour MP Andy Burnham, until recently the mayor of Greater Manchester, is the front-runner to succeed Starmer as prime minister and become the seventh person to hold the office in a decade. 
• Technical teams from the U.S. and Iran are continuing talks in Switzerland this week, after Vice President JD Vance, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner wrapped up “positive and constructive” talks with top Iranian negotiators on Sunday, according to a statement from mediating countries Qatar and Pakistan.
• The statement also said Washington and Tehran had agreed to create a “de-confliction cell” to end military operations in Lebanon, though it named neither Israel nor Hezbollah, who are not parties to the talks and who have continued to trade strikes despite agreeing to a ceasefire last week.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the discussions delivered “major progress,” including waivers for Iran to export oil and the release of “some frozen assets,” which the U.S. has not yet confirmed. 
• In Jerusalem, the Jerusalem News Syndicate’s policy summit continues into its second day, after an opening plenary on Sunday that included remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Monday’s program includes Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, Rafael Chairman Yuval Steinitz, Witkoff advisor Aryeh Lightstone and Netanyahu advisor Caroline Glick.
• In Washington, the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center is convening its second annual Attorneys Conference to discuss ways to use the legal system to combat antisemitism and protect religious liberty.
• The five-day Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicks off in the south of France.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

2026 has been the year of the democratic socialist, with numerous far-left, anti-Israel candidates winning mayoralties and congressional primaries in cities up and down the Northeast corridor, from New York to Washington, D.C. — and beyond. 

Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor who proved that radicalism can win hearts and minds among voters in deep-blue jurisdictions, is now trying to utilize valuable political capital by electing three like-minded congressional candidates in primaries in the Big Apple on Tuesday — backing two challengers running against well-funded incumbents, and a third against a well-established progressive borough president.

The outcomes of these three races will go a long way in determining whether Democratic Party voters still draw any red lines around candidates holding views and values that fall well outside the party mainstream. 

Let’s be clear: The main difference between the three candidates backed by most Democratic leaders and Mamdani’s favored challengers is the challengers’ hostility to Israel. 

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

The Folly of Trying to Bribe Tehran: In The Atlantic, Karim Sadjadpour posits that President Donald Trump is betting that Iran will respond to what he calls “bribery” in the form of critical economic concessions that fail to obtain meaningful concessions from Tehran. “The logic of Trump’s current gamble with Iran resembles his entreaties to the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during Trump’s first term: The president is offering reintegration as a reward for denuclearization. In Singapore, Trump famously tried to entice Kim with visions of turning North Korea’s missile-testing coastlines into prime real estate, marveling at the country’s ‘great beaches’ and envisioning ‘the best hotels in the world.’ But for revolutionary dictatorships such as North Korea and Iran, Western-backed luxury hotels, foreign tourists, and open capital flows aren’t a triumph — they are a Trojan horse that would erode their total information control and ideological legitimacy.” [TheAtlantic]

Sounds Familiar: The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley writes how Vice President JD Vance is echoing the far left in his recent hostile rhetoric against Israel: “Vance has been eager to take credit with [Tucker] Carlson and his acolytes for bringing the war to an end. His thinly veiled threat last week — echoed by Mr. Trump — to cut off military support for Israel after it responded to Hezbollah’s aggression is aimed at soothing the Carlson crowd’s criticism. Americans might observe, however, that the vice president sounded eerily like Mr. Biden in demanding that Israel show restraint in the face of hostility — and not too different from progressives who accuse Israel of war crimes.” [WSJ]

Climate Change: The Financial Times’ Kenza Bryan profiles Kaveh Madani, a Western-educated environmental scientist and former Iranian environmental official now living in exile after being branded a spy by the regime in Tehran. “Once he started his work as deputy of the environment ministry, Madani was quickly caught between a government that wanted to sell the idea of expatriate children of the revolution choosing to return to Iran, and a security establishment deeply suspicious of Iranians tainted with foreign ideas. … During his brief stint in government, Madani was compared by the IRGC to Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy who infiltrated elite Syrian political circles in the 1960s.” [FT]

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. is working with Qatar to release some $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran that would be directed to humanitarian efforts…

An explosion at Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas facility on Sunday night caused a fire that injured at least 54 people, while an additional 18 were missing. The site was damaged in an Iranian missile attack early in the war…

The New York Times spotlights the Bürgenstock Resort in Switzerland that has hosted the latest U.S.-Iran talks, owned by Katara Hospitality, a Qatari state-backed hospitality group that acquired it in 2007…

In Colombia’s presidential election, an initial vote count found that right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, narrowly defeated leftist challenger Iván Cepeda and will succeed President Gustavo Petro, who cut ties with Israel in 2024 over the war in Gaza…

Petro accused Israel of rigging the elections, posting on X that “software was compromised, and others entered data for polling stations and voting centers”…

The Wall Street Journal profiles Dan Moraff, the progressive strategist behind Maine Democrat Graham Platner’s Senate bid, whose rushed vetting process missed key issues about the candidate’s past…

Journalists visited an underground drone factory in a hilltop village in southern Lebanon from which Hezbollah launched unmanned aerial vehicles at Israel, in a tour organized by the Israeli military after it captured the tunnel, dug near the Israeli border and discovered 50 Iranian-made explosive UAVs…

Military technology company Anduril is considering launching operations in Israel, according to Calcalist…

Puck reports on Alphabet President Ruth Porat’s remarks at the Economic Club of New York last week, where she argued that AI will drive trillions of dollars in economic growth and accelerate scientific breakthroughs despite mounting concerns about job losses, energy demand and social disruption…

The Wall Street Journal examines the increase in hangings in Iran over the past three months as the war with the U.S. unfolded — at least 45 people have been executed by the regime this year for political reasons, according to human rights groups and Iranian state media…

A Washington Post investigation reports that outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was under the sway of her longtime guru Chris Butler throughout much of her political career… 

The New York Times spotlights the roles that the “Manhattan moms” of NY-12 congressional candidates Micah Lasher, Jack Schlossberg and Alex Bores are playing in their respective sons’ campaigns…

The International Criminal Court set a date next month to vote on the removal of its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who is facing sexual assault allegations from members of his staff…

Meanwhile, the U.K.’s Bar Standards Board suspended Khan, a British lawyer, following his suspension from the ICC earlier this month…

The Financial Times profiles Bob Iger’s second departure from Disney, examining how the architect of its modern empire transformed the company through landmark acquisitions and major investments in streaming, while leaving his successor, Josh D’Amaro, to navigate a rapidly changing media landscape…

Snackmaker Gerald Shreiber, who acquired a series of struggling food companies and turned such products as the SuperPretzel, Dippin’ Dots and ICEEs into household names, died on May 9, at 84…

Yaacov Agam, Israeli kinetic art pioneer whose motion-based sculptures and paintings earned him the Israel Prize and left a mark on public spaces from Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square to the Pompidou Center in Paris, died on Sunday at 98…

Chefs Mitchell Davis, Paul Carmichael, Ryan Bartlow and Naama Shefi, founder of the Great Nosh picnic, at the annual picnic on Sunday on Governors Island in New York City.

Retired MLB second baseman, he played for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics and managed the team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Ian Kinsler turns 44… 

A leading securities, corporate and M&A attorney, he is a founding partner of the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Martin Lipton turns 95… D.C.-based senior representative of Israel Aerospace Industries from 1969 to 2017, Marvin Klemow turns 89… Jerusalem-born 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, she is the director of a research center at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Ada Yonath turns 87… U.K. judge who chaired high-profile hearings on ethics in the media, currently serving as the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Sir Brian Henry Leveson turns 77… Winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics, he is a professor at Brown University, J. Michael Kosterlitz turns 83… Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court until 2014, she was previously the Israeli state prosecutor for eight years, Edna Arbel turns 82… U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) turns 77… Member of the California state Assembly until 2022, now a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Richard Hershel Bloom turns 73… Partner at Shibolet & Co., one of Israel’s largest corporate law firms, Yoram Raved turns 70… AIPAC director for Greater Washington, Deborah Adler… Chair of the kindergarten and pre-K division of Bowman Ashe/Doolin K-8 Academy in Miami, Fla., Cynthia Rosenbluth Huss… Past president of the UJA-Federation of New York, Alisa Robbins Doctoroff… U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) turns 66… Former member of the Knesset for the Hatnuah and Zionist Union parties, Robert Tiviaev turns 65… Creator of the Android operating system, which he sold to Google, Andy Rubin turns 64… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, now serving as deputy prime minister and minister of justice, Yariv Gideon Levin turns 57… SVP at Red Banyan PR, Kelcey Kintner… Writer, director and film producer, he is a two-time Israeli Academy Award winner and the founder of Hey Jude Productions, Dani Menkin turns 56… Program director at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Rafi Rone… Senior correspondent and columnist for Haaretz and author of a biography of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer turns 53… Israeli jazz vocalist and composer, Julia Feldman turns 47… COO of TR Capital Management, Ahron Rosenthal… Russian-Israeli Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Russia’s largest social network VK.com and the Selectel data network center, Lev Binzumovich Leviev turns 42… Baltimore-based endodontist, Jeffrey H. Gardyn, DDS… Israeli Muay Thai kick boxing champion, Ilya Grad turns 39… Israeli-born basketball player with 10 NBA seasons, Omri Casspi turns 38… Former outfielder for Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier round, now a real estate investor based in Nashville, Tenn., Rhett Wiseman turns 32…

• Four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack on an IDF tank in southern Lebanon overnight and five others injured in an additional attack in violation of the newly implemented memorandum of understanding, prompting dozens of retaliatory Israeli strikes in the area. The incident, which was the deadliest attack on Israeli troops by Hezbollah in months, came hours after Vice President JD Vance assailed Israeli government officials — one of whom, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, warned that the Iranian-backed group would exploit the diplomacy between Tehran and Washington to attack Israel — for their opposition to the deal. Read more here.
• The escalation comes as Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) circulate a resolution among lawmakers condemning Hezbollah for its “repeated violations of ceasefire agreements” through its attacks against Israel and calling for the terrorist group to be disarmed, Jewish Insider‘s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs have learned.
• Vance had been scheduled to travel today to Switzerland, where he was set to begin talks with Iran, following the signing this week of the MOU between the countries. But the trip was scrapped overnight, with a White House spokesperson saying that “the logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable.”
• Elsewhere in Washington, Bill Pulte, the Trump administration’s housing-finance regulator, takes over as interim director of national intelligence today, days after President Donald Trump postponed DNI nominee Jay Clayton’s confirmation hearing, drawing the ire of senators from both sides of the aisle concerned over Pulte’s potential access to classified documents.
• FII Priority Europe wraps up today in Rome. On the main stage yesterday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama blasted Iran for stoking protests in the Balkan nation tied to efforts by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to develop a new real estate project in the country. More below.
• In New York, the Jewish Food Society’s Great Nosh will take place on Sunday on Governors Island.
• The Jewish News Syndicate’s annual policy summit begins on Sunday in Jerusalem.
• Also Sunday, Orthodox Union Advocacy’s annual Attorneys Conference kicks off in Washington.
• We’ll also be keeping an eye on Colombia on Sunday, where far-right attorney Abelardo de la Espriella and far-left activist Iván Cepeda, backed by current President Gustavo Petro, will face off in a presidential runoff. De la Espriella, who has the endorsement of Trump, has also gotten support from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, with whom he met last year in Argentina. After the votes from the first round of voting were tallied, Sa’ar posted a photo of the two and congratulated de la Espriella.

A QUICK WORD WITH GILI COHEN

The long love affair between Israelis and President Donald Trump, on the rocks over the last few weeks as the U.S. and Iran hammered out an end to the war, appears to be over, with humiliations mounting for Jerusalem. “I call all the shots,” not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said earlier this month. More recently, the Israeli leader’s bombing campaign in Beirut was “vicious,” Trump said. And perhaps most humiliating of all, Trump suggested that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa could better take care of Hezbollah than the IDF.

The Israeli public — the spurned lover who once hailed the U.S. president with billboards hung in the center of Tel Aviv reading “Thank you God & Donald Trump” — is not taking it well. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog told JI, “President Trump, who has been a hero to many Israelis, is now openly criticized from within the Israeli government, including Netanyahu’s close circle.”

And this criticism is not only expressed behind closed doors. Channel 14, the popular right-wing outlet that promotes Netanyahu, has been criticizing Trump resolutely, with some of its anchors publicly cursing Vice President JD Vance and the president’s close advisors, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

It was not always this way. For most of the time since Trump reentered the White House in January 2025, he has been popular in Israel, with polls consistently showing high ratings for the American president. 

For Israelis, Trump is the one who brokered the hostage-release agreement with Hamas; Trump is the one who made the strikes in Iran and the bombing of the nuclear enrichment facilities in Fordow and Natanz a reality; and Trump is the one who established the Abraham Accords and is willing to expand them, giving Israelis the chance to sunbathe in the UAE, and perhaps in other countries in the Gulf in the near future. And although some won’t admit it, many Israelis also like his tendency to speak very bluntly, and crudely: a president born in Queens, full of Israeli chutzpah.

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

Getting Going in Gaza: In the Financial Times, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posits that the West should embrace the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza and the Board of Peace’s efforts in the enclave, arguing that they offer the most viable opportunity for progress. “The gleeful anticipation of failure is not just unhelpful. It is strategically self-defeating. The Board of Peace is an improbable vehicle, and the 20-point plan leaves many legitimate concerns unresolved. Governments will continue to disagree with important elements of both. But diplomacy rarely offers a choice between good options and bad ones. The international community cannot claim concern for Palestinian civilians while refusing to engage with the only mechanism currently capable of shifting conditions on the ground.” [FT]

Wrong on U.S. Aid: In The Free Press, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant clarifies the contours of U.S. military aid to Israel. “No matter where you fall on this issue, almost everyone seems to agree on the premise that American support for Israel is a donation, and that the only remaining question is how generous the benefactor should be. But that premise is wrong. It has been wrong for a long time. And because it is wrong, the debate built on top of it misrepresents to the American people what their money has actually been doing for the past half-century. … But U.S. aid to Israel is not charity. American dollars flow into American factories; American assistance frees Israeli capital for innovation; and American forces eventually receive Israeli-developed capabilities refined in real combat.” [FreePress]

Strait Jacket: In The New York Times, Ed Fishman warns that other countries will use Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a blueprint for exacting economic and military concessions of their own. “Even if the deal holds, Iran is poised to emerge from the war battered militarily and economically but strengthened strategically, the newly empowered gatekeeper of the world’s most important energy chokepoint. Other countries will take note — and seek their own chokepoints to exploit. … The irony is that Iran’s success at the Strait of Hormuz may set off a different kind of arms race — one in which every country searches for chokepoints to convert into money and power.” [NYTimes]

Wrong Turn for the Left: In The Atlantic, Adam Louis-Klein argues that anti-Zionism runs counter to progressive values. “How can it be that an ideology that has produced repeated acts of discrimination, dispossession, and violence now bears the mantle of progressivism in the West and has been normalized within the Democratic Party? Like Stalinism or the Khmer Rouge, anti-Zionism represents a wrong turn for the left. Anti-Zionism claims to be concerned with rights of minorities, opposition to racism, and universal justice. In truth, though, it has appropriated the language of anti-colonial liberation to justify oppression, transformed anti-racism into a racist accusation, and turned hatred of Israel into a global ritual.” [TheAtlantic]

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded rhetorically to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s comments that Israel should halt its attacks on Hezbollah by asking, “Does France get all its info from Hezbollah?” adding that “Ceasefire happens when Hezbollah stops shooting & killing”…

The New York Times spotlights the “last-minute scramble” that produced the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran; at one point last weekend, the Times reports, President Donald Trump “placed a call to a New York Times reporter to explain the deal, even as, he said, his ‘wonderful family’ was waiting for his birthday dinner to begin”…

Spotted at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Thursday: Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden; former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Tony Blinken, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff; Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, former U.S. Ambassadors to Israel Dan Shapiro, Jack Lew and Tom Nides; former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Karlie Kloss…

J Street is slated to host a virtual briefing for congressional staff on the Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding with Iran featuring former Biden administration special envoy for Iran Rob Malley, who was suspended from his State Department role amid an investigation over his handling of classified materials, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Associated Press projected Washington, D.C., Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, to win the city’s Democratic mayoral primary, shortly after former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie conceded…

A federal grand jury indicted a Florida man facing hate crime charges over a foiled plot to attack Jewish employees of a pro-Israel nonprofit organization…

Lion Raisins condemned the recent antisemitic and racist behavior by Bruce Lion, one of the company’s heirs, who was arrested last week on charges of making criminal threats targeting a neighbor in his Pacific Palisades, Calif., community who is a rabbi; Lion, who was charged with three felony hate crimes, faces up to nine years in prison if convicted…

The New York Times Magazine does a deep dive into the term “goyslop,” which was popularized as an antisemitic trope by the far right and has increasingly become part of the discourse among the Zoomer generation…

Police in Canada arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with a shooting in March targeting the U.S. consulate in Toronto…

The U.K. government is pledging £1 million to support the Jewish Museum London; U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the funding would go to sharing the “stories, the connections and the understanding that are the basis of a cohesive society and the future of our country”…

U.K. Labour party member Andy Burnham won a special parliamentary election, positioning the Greater Manchester mayor to mount a challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer…

The Koum Family Foundation donated $36 million to Los Angeles’ Milken Community School, one of the largest non-Orthodox Jewish day schools in the country, as part of a major capital campaign, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Shalev Hulio and Sebastian Kurz’s Israeli AI cybersecurity firm Dream, whose technology works to protect governments against cyberattacks, raised $260 million, at a $3 billion valuation, in a private round of funding…

Tens of thousands of people participated in this week’s annual pilgrimage to the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in Queens, N.Y., to mark the 32nd anniversary of his death yesterday.

Singer-songwriter known as Jeryko, Yaniv Hoffman turns 35 on Sunday… 

FRIDAY: Attorney, investment banker, film producer and former deputy mayor of NYC, Kenneth Lipper turns 85… Rabbi emeritus of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, N.J., Rabbi Bennett F. Miller… Historian of the Jews in Muslim lands in the modern era, he won the Israel Prize in 2025 for Jewish history, Yaron Tsur turns 78… Retired president and CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, he is now the president of American Jewish University, Jay Sanderson turns 69… Inna N. Zalevsky… Former director of communications for Kings Bay Y, Adrienne M. Knoll… Member of the European Jewish Parliament for Latvia, Valery Engel, Ph.D. turns 65… Physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Jessica Rosenberg Brown, MD… Co-founder of Centerview Partners, a boutique investment bank based in NYC, Blair Effron turns 64… Singer-songwriter, actor and television personality, she was a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18, Paula Abdul turns 64… Former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union party, in the 1990s she was an assistant legal advisor to then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin turns 56… Human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran, Marjan Keypour Greenblatt… Co-founder of nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water and biotechnology industries, Andrew T. Perlman turns 51… Consul general of Israel to the Southeastern United States, Eitan Weiss… Staff writer at The New Yorker, Isaac Chotiner… Director of affinities and major gifts at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Tslil Shtulsaft… Founder of JSwipe, a Jewish dating app created in 2014, David Austin Yarus… Retired rhythmic gymnast from Israel who competed in the 2008 (Beijing), 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio) Olympics, Neta Rivkin turns 35… VP at Jewish Federations of North America, Anna Langer… COO at Lightning Inspiration, Alex Jakubowski… Organization director at Senate Leadership Fund & One Nation, Cydney Couch… Singer, popular on video and streaming services, known as Skye for short, Daniel Skye turns 26… Vice president for education at the American Jewish Committee and director of its Center for Education Advocacy, Laura Shaw Frank…

SATURDAY: Weston, Fla., resident Harold Kurte turns 97… Former member of Knesset for the Meretz party, Ran Cohen turns 89… Owner of Schulman Small Business Services in Atlanta, Alan Schulman… Detroit-based pawnbroker, reality TV star, author and speaker, Leslie “Les” Gold turns 76… Chef, baker and author of eight books, she popularized sourdough and artisan breads in the U.S., Nancy Silverton turns 72… Writer of the “Bully Pulpit” Substack from Booksmart Studios, Bob Garfield turns 71… Former assistant managing editor for politics at NBC News, now an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and FIU, Gregg Birnbaum… Co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty) and owner of Riverstone Communities, James Bellinson… Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, N.J., Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky turns 61… Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, writer and producer of 20 films, Boaz Yakin turns 60… Senior legal affairs reporter at Politico, Josh Gerstein… Governor of Pennsylvania, one of three current Jewish governors that are named Josh, Joshua David Shapiro turns 53… U.S. Sen. Eric Stephen Schmitt (R-MO) turns 51… Singer, songwriter and hazzan, he is a co-founder of the band Moshav, Yehuda Solomon turns 49… Senior program director of civic initiatives at The Teagle Foundation, Tamara Mann Tweel, Ph.D…. Israeli author of crime and thriller books that have sold more than 2.5 million copies in more than 20 languages, Mike Omer turns 47… Journalist, blogger and EMT in NYC, formerly editor for Gawker and director of public relations for the Village Voice, Maggie Shnayerson turns 45… EVP of Moxie Strategies, Pearl Gabel… French-Israeli singer and songwriter, Amir Haddad turns 42… Deputy communications director in the Trump 45 White House, now head of corporate affairs at Standard Industries, Josh Raffel… Jennifer Bernstein… Photographer, producer and digital strategist, she is a supervising producer at HardPin, Sara Pearl Kenigsberg… Writer, director, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster and mental health advocate, Allison Beth Raskin turns 37… Team captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, John DiBartolomeo turns 35… Chief campus and culture officer at Hillel Ontario, Bev Shimansky Ades… Development Director at Ashkenaz Foundation, Jaime Reich…

SUNDAY: Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, she is the mother-in-law of Chelsea Clinton, Marjorie Margolies turns 84… Investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in the Bush 43 administration, Charles L. Glazer turns 83… Philanthropist, she is vice chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Ingeborg Hanna Rennert… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Charles of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi which became the largest in the world, appointed to the House of Lords in 1996, Baron Maurice Saatchi turns 80… U.K. Cabinet minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind turns 80… Retired creditors rights attorney in the Chicago area, David Stephen Miller… Retired senior editor and writer at The Washington Post for 33 years, now chief editor at The Reis Group, Peter Perl… Member of the Knesset since 2013 for the Yesh Atid party, Mickey Levy turns 75… Susan Gutman… CEO of Amir Development Company in Beverly Hills, he is a member of the national council of AIPAC, Keenan L. Wolens… Punk rock singer and songwriter, known as the Gangsta Rabbi, Steve Lieberman turns 68… Washington Institute director and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, David Makovsky turns 66… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, David L. Marcus… Co-founder and executive editor of Axios since 2016, Mike Allen turns 62… National education writer for The Washington Post, Laura Meckler… Founder and leader of Beautifully Jewish, Tanya Rebecca Singer… Actor, singer and entrepreneur, who now raises awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Aaron Scott Lazar turns 50… Yale Law School graduate, journalist and author, Abigail Krauser Shrier turns 48… Public affairs consultant based in Manhattan, Sam Nunberg turns 45… Co-founder and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science platform acquired by Google in 2017, Anthony Goldbloom turns 43… Former member of the Knesset where she was the first-ever Druze woman, she then became a Jewish Agency shlicha to Washington, Gadeer Kamal Mreeh turns 42… Head of Communications for Paramount+, Jacqueline (Jackie) Berkowitz… Chief of staff to the chairman and CEO at Saban Capital Group, Amitai Raziel… Award-winning Israeli classical pianist, Boris Giltburg turns 42… Executive director at Hunter Hillel, Merav Fine Braun… Editor for the global programming team at CNN, Madeleine Morgenstern… Singer-songwriter and actor, known by his mononym Max, Maxwell George Schneider turns 34…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

As the White House continues to promote the memorandum of understanding that will end the war with Iran and start negotiations between Washington and Tehran, Vice President JD Vance is out with a message that sounds strikingly familiar — at least to anyone who followed former President Barack Obama’s pitch on the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

“If you think this is a bad deal, what is your alternative?” Vance said in an interview this week with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. 

Obama used nearly identical phrasing at a 2015 White House press conference: “I’m hearing a lot of talking points being repeated about ‘this is a bad deal,’” he said. “What I haven’t heard is, what is your preferred alternative?”

Watch a side-by-side look at Vance and Obama here…

Vance also delivered a tough message to Israeli officials who have criticized the MOU, telling reporters on Thursday that Israel’s government should be careful not to alienate the only friend it has left: President Donald Trump, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports.

“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower. If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” said Vance…

Trump also had a word of caution for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, two days after he said Netanyahu was too “vicious” in his approach to fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Asked by a reporter for Israel’s Kan News if he will support Netanyahu in this year’s Israeli elections, Trump said he most likely would, but did not commit.

“I’ll have to look at who’s running, but I like Bibi very much. I would be most likely to endorse him,” said Trump. “He’s doing a very good job, he’s got to be a little bit more rational”…

United Against Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group that rallied opposition to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, said on Thursday that it “cannot endorse the MoU in its current form”…

AIPAC released a policy memo on Thursday that said the MOU “raises significant questions,” and called on Congress to “play a critical role in ensuring a final deal meets President Trump’s stated objectives for the war”…

In a Thursday speech at the FII Priority summit in Rome, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama blamed Iran for “ruthless” cyberattacks against the country, claiming that Tehran has sought to sow unrest about a preliminarily approved luxury development project in the country from Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

Janeese Lewis George defeated Kenyan McDuffie in the Democratic primary for mayor of Washington, D.C., with the Associated Press calling the race on Thursday afternoon. Democratic socialist Lewis George leads McDuffie 53% to 36%…

American Priorities, a super PAC created as a progressive counterweight to AIPAC, has received $250,000 from a tech executive whose firm is developing AI data centers in New York State — while boosting two democratic socialist House candidates who oppose efforts to expand data centers, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports…