• Technical delegations from the U.S. and Iran are meeting separately with Qatari and Pakistani mediators in Doha, but have no plans to meet directly. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that the focus of ‌the discussions is the release of Tehran’s frozen funds and the Strait of Hormuz, while President Donald Trump indicated on Monday that the negotiations would focus on Iran’s nuclear program.
• The Wall Street Journal reveals that after Saudi Arabia blocked U.S. military access needed for Project Freedom — Trump’s operation to crack open the Strait of Hormuz — and prompted the White House to threaten to withhold missile interceptors from the kingdom, the confrontation triggered a widening rift in the U.S.-Saudi relationship, with the U.S. now considering reducing its military footprint in the kingdom. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Gulf last week but skipped a visit to Saudi Arabia; the week before, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman declined an invitation to attend the G7 summit in France, reportedly in protest of the U.S.’ handling of the war with Iran.
• Some of the most prominent figures in U.S.-Israel diplomacy, Israeli national security and the American Jewish community are gathering at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, to help train a new generation of leaders confronting Israel’s evolving strategic challenges, as part of a pilot program that ends on Thursday. Among the faculty is former Ambassador Dennis Ross, the veteran Middle East negotiator who advised four U.S. presidents; Howard Kohr, the former longtime executive director of AIPAC; and Malcolm Hoenlein, who for decades served as executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Read more in eJewishPhilanthropy.
• The Herzliya Conference wraps up today in Israel: Among the many top national security and political officials speaking are former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid; former Israeli Ambassadors to the U.S. Danny Ayalon and Michael Herzog; former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro; EU Ambassador to Israel Michael Mann; Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot; Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman; Democrats party leader Yair Golan; Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas; and Nadav Tamir, executive director of J Street Israel.
• And the Aspen Ideas Festival concludes today in Colorado. Jeff Flake, the former U.S. senator and former U.S. ambassador to Turkey; the Atlantic Council’s Ian Brzezinski; and the Stimson Center’s Emma Ashford will speak on a panel about the “next chapter of the trans-Atlantic relationship.”

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Progressives in Colorado scored a number of key victories Tuesday night, including Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidate Melat Kiros’ defeat of Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) in the state’s 1st Congressional District.

The Colorado results suggest that, far from being contained to a few scattered congressional districts in New York City, the momentum for far-left, anti-Israel candidates is only growing within the Democratic Party, especially within urban population centers.

Kiros, a 29-year-old doctoral student, campaigned on her hostility to Israel and faced scrutiny when she declined to call the firebombing attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., antisemitic. DeGette, despite a long-standing progressive record in Congress, struggled to satisfy a critical mass of Democratic voters who preferred a more radical choice, especially when it came to opposing Israel.

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) survived a scare from a little-known socialist challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, but only won renomination with less than 60% of the Democratic vote. Even in the vote-rich Denver suburbs, the far-left challenger came within striking distance of the state’s well-known senator and former governor.

Former state Rep. Shannon Bird, a moderate championed by Democratic Majority for Israel, lost badly to state Rep. Manny Rutinel for the Democratic nomination in Colorado’s swing 8th District, currently held by Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO). With most votes counted, Rutinel holds a 28-point lead over Bird, 62-34%.

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

When the DSA Came for Lander: Park Avenue Synagogue Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove penned a letter dated two years from now, published in the New York Daily News, to New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, predicting that he will be ousted by a Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate in the next primary. “They told you it was never about being a Jew — only about being a Zionist — as if the two could be peeled apart, as if your Jewishness had nothing to do with the nation they demanded you disown. There’s an old teaching about the man who thinks he can ride the tiger and dismount whenever he likes. You didn’t tame the coalition you joined. You were, for one term, useful — until the moment it decided to disown you. You could renounce the policy, the lobby, even Zionism, but you could not renounce being a Jew.” [Daily News]

Drone Prone: Foreign Policy’s John Haltiwanger unpacks Israel’s “Hezbollah drone problem.” “After the fighting resumed in March, it wasn’t long before explosive drones were a leading cause of battlefield deaths for Israel in Lebanon. As a result, Netanyahu established a team of experts to address the issue and pledged to give the IDF an unlimited budget to address the Hezbollah drone threat. But there are no simple solutions. … In ancient Rome, gladiators used nets to entangle opponents before moving in for the kill. Today, Israeli troops are using the same primitive tool to defend against drones and intercept them before they reach their targets. The situation is indicative of how militaries have struggled to find countermeasures to drones and have been forced to adapt, particularly as the technology evolves at such a rapid pace.” [FP]

Separate But Equal: Hannah Rosenthal, former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism under the Obama administration, argues in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency against the proposal of combining the role of the antisemitism envoy with that of the special envoy on Holocaust issues. “The office of special envoy on antisemitism and the special envoy on the Holocaust are complementary, but not duplicative. The former works to address contemporary antisemitism, hate crimes, extremism and government policy around the world. The latter focuses on historical justice, restitution, remembrance, archives and Holocaust-era accountability. The United States deliberately created separate offices because both missions are full time responsibilities.” [JTA]

Jews Turning on Israel: Actor and Jewish commentator Jonah Platt argues in a post on X against the trope of the young, “self-hating” Jew in an essay on X. “It’s maddening. It’s dangerous. It’s irresponsible. It’s shameful. But it isn’t nefarious. It isn’t Jew-hatred, it isn’t self-hatred, and honestly, it isn’t that hard to understand. These are disconnected, uneducated people, surrounded by like-minded peers, all reinforcing one another in a disconnected, uneducated worldview — one they’re not especially invested in anyway, and focus on only because progressive society says they’re supposed to.” [X]

President Donald Trump is considering returning to a full-scale military conflict with Iran and has discussed the idea with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reports, but has decided to continue on the diplomatic track for now…

In an analysis of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that the Trump administration is “evidently not applying [the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act’s] requirements and restrictions to the MOU, apparently on the basis of an opinion from the Department of Justice,” but the White House and DOJ “have apparently not shared this surprising opinion, or its arguments, with either Congress or the public”…

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Monday that he did a “happy dance,” after Iran was knocked out of the FIFA World Cup, telling reporters that Iranian officials tried to bring into the U.S. individuals with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and that accommodating the team while protecting national security had demanded incomparable attention…

The Terrorist Financing Targeting Center — a coalition comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the U.S. — announced joint sanctions against five entities and 16 individuals tied to Hezbollah’s financial network…

Oman has submitted a proposal to the U.S. for Muscat and Tehran to collect service fees from shipping companies seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz, according to The New York Times. One of Iran’s deputy foreign ministers, Kazem Gharibabadi, said on Monday if Iran was unable to come to an arrangement with Oman it would move forward on its own…

A person close to the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC told CNN many of its contributors weren’t very politically active until New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign victory, which was the “moment that inspired them and brought them into the fold”…

Former Vice President Kamala Harris called Mamdani last week, and is holding lengthy, closed-door meetings with Palestinian activists in the run-up to a possible presidential campaign, Axios reports…

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, warned of the “tremendous danger and fear” for American Jews as they are being “dehumanized” and antisemitism is “becoming normalized”…

Phylisa Wisdom, the liberal activist appointed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as executive director of his Office to Combat Antisemitism, got a harsh reception at a Holocaust memorial event in Brooklyn on Sunday. Video from the event shows a small group of hecklers booing, calling Wisdom a “kapo” and shouting that she was supportive of Adolf Hitler, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…

Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed dismissed a question on CNN about the Democratic Party’s “embrace” of antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker as a “ridiculous way to think about politics”…

Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) who went on to found the center-left Searchlight Institute think tank, urged Democrats to “just say no to AIPAC,” arguing the pro-Israel organization has “evolved from a group to a ‘Group,’” in the pejorative sense…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited southern Lebanon on Tuesday for the first time since the U.S.-brokered security agreement was signed last Friday. Netanyahu told IDF troops, “We will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat is removed”…

“Pod Save America” co-host Jon Lovett said the harassment of California state Sen. Scott Wiener at a transgender pride march last week was “as pure antisemitism as you can see”…

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Daniel Grand, an Orthodox Jewish man from Ohio who was barred from holding Shabbat prayer meetings in his home without a “special use permit” and later faced harassment from city officials who encouraged neighbors to watch his home for signs of religious activity…

Haaretz tracks the carbon footprint of FIFA President Gianni Infantino as he has traveled between World Cup matches across North America on a Qatari private jet, racking up 47,337 kilometers (29,000 miles) from the tournament’s opening days through the first knockout match, after championing the body’s sustainability strategy…

Ellie Gottheimer and Larra Mullin, the children of Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, are releasing Shmoo & Ozzie Go to Washington today, a children’s book on bipartisanship. Proceeds from the book will go to support homeless children…

Mark Isakowitz, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA)’s chief of staff, is set to release a book in January about his personal journey following the loss of his father, who immigrated to America after surviving Auschwitz, and Isakowitz’s daily practice of reciting the mourner’s prayer at a synagogue in Washington, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports…

Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner tapped Carolin Hulshoff Pol to serve as CEO of Telegraph Media Group following the German media company’s completion of its £575 million acquisition of the British publisher, ending a three-year ownership transition…

Former Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Amikam Norkin is a leading candidate to head Anduril’s operations in Israel, as the American defense tech company explores a major expansion into the Israeli market, Calcalist reports…

The Iranian regime plans to take over St. Peter Evangelical Church, the oldest Protestant church in Iran, and evict the 20 families living there, The Free Press reports. The theocratic regime had thus far left it alone in fear of the U.S.’ retaliation, according to the outlet…

The Washington State Democratic Party adopted into its platform during its June convention an amendment blaming the “dramatic resurgence in antisemitism … in part [on] actions taken by the Israeli government,” Jewish News Syndicate reports…

Pentagon official Jason Olson has departed his position as the director of deradicalization for the Gaza Board of Peace, an official from the body told The Times of Israel, as the BoP is convening for discussions in Cyprus…

Tuesday marked the end of Steffen Seibert‘s four-year term as German ambassador to Israel. In a farewell social media video, he paid tribute to the country by listing 25 things he will miss. Seibert is succeeded by Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who most recently served as the German Ambassador to Moscow…

Judah Gribetz, who as a top aide to Gov. Hugh Carey helped negotiate New York City‘s rescue from financial collapse in the 1970s and later devised a distribution plan for $1.25 billion in restitution to Holocaust survivors in a landmark class-action suit against Swiss banks, died Friday at 97…

Comedian Judy Gold spoke at an event hosted by the Israeli Embassy in Washington, “A Zionist LGBTQ+ Celebration,” at Adas Israel Congregation on Tuesday — a night of solidarity in memory of Sarah Milgrim, the embassy staffer murdered alongside her partner, Yaron Lischinsky, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in May 2025. Milgrim spent her time at the embassy building bridges between Israel and marginalized communities, including D.C.’s LGBTQ+ Jewish community.

Television, film and theater actor, including early career roles in Yiddish theater, Michael Burstein turns 81…

Applied mathematician, statistician and physicist, professor emeritus at both MIT and Harvard, Herman Chernoff turns 103… Former U.S. assistant secretary of education and former research professor at NYU, Diane Silvers Ravitch turns 88… Nobel laureate in economics for 1997 and co-creator of the Black-Scholes model for valuing options and other derivatives, Myron Scholes turns 85… Noted British art dealer and founder of an eponymous London art gallery, Victoria Marion Miro turns 81… Born in a DP Camp to her Holocaust survivor parents, she was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Canadian Supreme Court, Rosalie Silberman Abella turns 80… Israeli-Russian businessman, with holdings in energy and international real estate development, Shalva Chigirinsky turns 77… Partner in the Encino, Calif.-based law firm of Nolan Heimann, Douglas E. Mirell… Campaign, communications and fundraising consultant, Robert Kaplan turns 69… Hall of Fame player and coach in the WNBA and now an NBA broadcaster, Nancy Lieberman turns 68… Attorney and longtime Democratic activist in Pittsburgh, he is a regional chair of the ADL, Steven D. Irwin turns 67… Senior columnist at The Forward and former CEO of the A-Mark Foundation, Rob Eshman… President emeritus of the Orthodox Union and a retired partner at Ropes & Gray, Mark “Moishe” Bane… Under secretary of state for political affairs during most of the Biden administration, Victoria Jane Nuland (family name was Nudelman) turns 65… Journalist, filmmaker and educator, he is the co-founder of Aish[dot]com, Shraga Simmons turns 65… Professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, Benjamin Brown turns 60… Member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2014, Marcus Bertram Simon turns 56… U.S. senator (R-IA), Joni Ernst turns 56… Screenwriter, producer and film director known for romantic comedy films, Marc Silverstein turns 55… Los Angeles resident, Adam B. Siegel… NASA astronaut, on her 2019 trip to the International Space Station she took novelty socks with Stars of David and menorahs, Jessica Meir turns 49… Co-founder of Edgeline Films, Elyse Steinberg… Hasidic musician mixing elements of dancehall, reggae, hip-hop and R&B, known by his stage name DeScribe, Shneur Hasofer turns 44…

• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Qatar to represent the U.S. in talks with Iran, as the status of the negotiations remains unclear. The technical talks on the memorandum of understanding meant to be taking place separately are also up in the air — Iran’s foreign ministry said an Iranian technical delegation will be in Doha this week but will not be meeting with American officials. More below.
• Representatives of President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace are meeting this week in Cyprus as they seek to advance plans for a committee of Palestinian technocrats to replace Hamas in governing the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reports. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sits on the Board of Peace’s executive board and has recently taken on a larger role in the organization, is set to participate in the “strategic workshop” being held from Tuesday to Thursday.
• Colorado voters will head to the polls in today’s Democratic primaries, where moderate candidates are fearing a far-left wave. More below.
• Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, will testify before the House Appropriations Committee where he is expected to address the White House’s $88 billion supplemental funding request for the war with Iran and FY2027 budget request.
• The Israeli Embassy in Washington will hold a “Zionist LGBTQ+ celebration” on the last day of Pride Month in memory of slain embassy staffer Sarah Milgrim’s allyship.
• In Israel, Reichman University’s Herzliya Conference kicks off, focusing this year on national security and national resilience. Israeli President Isaac Herzog will address the confab, as well as U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee; Amos Hochstein, who served as a Middle East envoy under former President Joe Biden; former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo; former Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi; journalist Barak Ravid; and Aliyah Minister Ofir Sofer.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Colorado is a state famous for its moderation, with its governor (Jared Polis) and two senators (Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper) among the most pragmatic figures in Democratic politics. So if a far-left, anti-Israel wave sweeps over the Democratic Party in tonight’s statewide primaries, it will be a true wake-up call for those downplaying the rise of the socialist left.

The biggest race we’re tracking — and the one where a Democratic incumbent looks most vulnerable — is the primary between longtime Rep. Diana DeGette, 68, an influential progressive who has left an imprint on major legislation in Congress, and Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated 29-year-old doctoral student Melat Kiros, whose deep-seated antagonism against Israel is a top focus of her campaign.  

Kiros is the latest example of how radical candidates running for office on their hostility toward Israel are also indulgent of the rising antisemitism around them. Her political awakening came after she was fired from the law firm Sidley Austin for writing a public letter denouncing the hundreds of law firms that signed a petition calling on law schools to do a better job addressing antisemitism on their campuses.

Kiros was angered that the law firms considered those calling for the elimination of Israel as antisemitic. In the last week, she also refused to call the firebombing of a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., antisemitic. Sense a pattern?

As JI’s Marc Rod reported, Kiros’ extreme views have done little to dent her support in a progressive Denver-area district that DeGette has easily held for the last three decades. In March, DeGette barely won the 30% of the vote from party activists necessary to qualify for the primary ballot — in what could be a foreshadowing of the primary results tonight.

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

• The U.S. and Iran continued to trade strikes overnight, with the U.S. targeting Iranian military infrastructure, including air-defense systems, radars and drone command-and-control units, while Iran fired at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. More below.
• Amid the ongoing exchanges of fire, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz is in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain this week, marking the first public visit by a senior U.S. official to the Middle East since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
• On Capitol Hill, the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense subcommittee is holding its markup of next fiscal year’s defense bill.
• Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Don Beyer (D-VA) will speak this evening at a Progressive Policy Institute event billed as “Working Toward a New Era of Patriotism and Democratic Renewal” at the National Press Club in Washington.
• The Center for a New American Security is holding a daylong summit on Congress’ role in national security. Those slated to speak include Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA), Don Bacon (R-NE) and Jason Crow (D-CO); former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. (ret.) CQ Brown and the Hudson Institute’s David Feith.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

The Likud party’s statement on Wednesday confirming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would stand on the ballot this fall put to bed long-swirling rumors that the prime minister was considering forgoing another run — potentially in exchange for the government dropping its legal case against him.

That speculation had deepened earlier in the week, when President Donald Trump publicly mused whether Netanyahu, whom Trump referred to as “a wartime prime minister,” might decide to exit politics. A survey released this week by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 61% of Israelis — including 57% of Jewish Israelis and 87% of Arab Israelis — think Netanyahu should refrain from seeking another term.

With Netanyahu ending speculation about his political future, the focus now turns to the candidates seeking to unseat him.

Gadi Eisenkot’s ascent — earlier this week, a Channel 12 poll found for the first time that more Israelis favored him over Netanyahu as prime minister — comes as the former IDF chief of staff, who lost a son and two nephews in the Hamas war, becomes increasingly critical of Netanyahu, in whose war cabinet Eisenkot sat. As Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal points out, Eisenkot “isn’t seen as aggressive toward anyone but Netanyahu.”

Meanwhile, former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have experienced little momentum after they announced their merger into the “Together” slate in April. 

The two made a risky bet in joining forces with many months to go before the election — one that can’t easily be undone. And while their broad coalition was successful in 2021, it’s unclear if Together’s tent is big enough for all the anti-Netanyahu voters — in a changed electorate post-Oct. 7 — whom Bennett and Lapid would need to pick up. 

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

Cootie Culture: In The Wall Street Journal, Joel Engel connects bullying he witnessed as a child to the modern-day rise in antisemitism. “Decades would pass before Charles R. again crossed my mind. Then came the grotesque violence of Oct. 7, 2023, and the firestorm of Jew hatred it ignited, which still shows no signs of containment. Now I can’t stop thinking about him. … Is there a more fitting metaphor — or more incisive explanation — for antisemitism than ‘Jews have the cooties’? None of the grandiloquent exegeses on antisemitism ever cuts to the heart of the matter the way ‘Jews have the cooties’ does. Some people in the ancient world decided Jews were infected, and their decree reached critical mass, then rolled over through the ages the way Charles’s cooties followed him to a new school.” [WSJ]

Whither Islam in America?: In Sapir, Reihan Salam observes the potential trajectories for Islam in America, amid the growing popularity of American Muslim activists who advocate for anti-Zionist and anti-American causes. “Together, the integration paradox and religious attrition explain something that might otherwise seem puzzling: why the most committed and articulate voices of Muslim anti-Americanism in the United States are not marginalized, dispossessed, under-assimilated newcomers. Rather, they are privileged, cosmopolitan, first- and second-generation insiders who lead largely secular lives. Consider [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and Hasan Piker, two hyper-assimilated American Muslims who have risen to prominence on the strength of their anti-Zionism, one through electoral politics, the other through a mass cultural platform that has made him one of the most followed political voices in the country.” [Sapir]

In an interview with CBS News, Vice President JD Vance said, when asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had gotten anything wrong, that the Israeli leader had “certainly gotten some things wrong,” but called Netanyahu “a good partner” who “aggressively asserts the interests of his country”… 

The Associated Press reports that the White House has held conversations with U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra about potentially serving as director of national intelligence, as Democratic senators stonewall the renewal of a key part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act over the administration’s tapping of Bill Pulte as interim DNI and refusal to swiftly nominate a permanent replacement….

The State Department has reportedly launched an investigation into Trita Parsi, a co-founder of the Quincy Institute, as federal officials mull whether to revoke the Iran-born activist’s green card…

Federal prosecutors indicted eight anti-Israel activists affiliated with the University of Michigan on Wednesday, accusing them of conspiring to run a campaign intimidating university officials seen as pro-Israel and vandalizing local Jewish organizations, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

A Zionist Organization of America delegation met with the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell during the group’s mission to Washington this week…

Despite his brush with Knicks guard Jose Alvarado during Game 3 of the NBA Finals earlier this week, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg returned to Madison Square Garden for last night’s Knicks comeback win over the San Antonio Spurs; Alex Soros was spotted two seats down from Bloomberg, who was flanked on his other side by actor (and MOT) Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner…

The British, Australian and Canadian governments jointly launched a $4 million fund aimed at supporting grassroots Israeli-Palestinian peace-building efforts…

The Czech Republic said it would block efforts in the EU to sanction Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, with Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka saying that sanctioning the far-right minister ahead of Israel’s elections later this year “would actually help” Ben-Gvir, whose actions and comments Macinka said “really goes beyond the pale,” among some voters…

Lily Cohen is departing her role as a press assistant at Third Way and joining the office of Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) as director of communications…

Tal Politis, Israel’s incoming defense attaché in Washington, who most recently served as Navy chief of staff, was promoted to vice admiral…

After the conclusion of Chabad-Lubavich’s Living Legacy Conference and Global Jewish Roundtable on Wednesday in Washington, a small delegation of attendees, which included shluchim and supporters of American Friends of Lubavitch-Chabad, met with Vice President JD Vance.

Hedge fund manager, he is the owner of MLB’s New York Mets, Steven A. Cohen turns 70…

Heir to the British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, minister in two British governments under Prime Ministers Major and Thatcher, Sir Timothy Alan Davan Sainsbury turns 94… Former executive director of NYC-based government watchdog Citizens Union and former NYC public advocate, Elisabeth A. “Betsy” Gotbaum turns 88… Chief spokesperson for AIPAC from 2012 to 2025, Marshall Wittmann turns 73… Columbus, Ohio-based retail mogul, CEO of American Eagle Outfitters, Value City Department Stores, DSW and others, sponsor of ArtScroll’s translation of the Babylonian Talmud, Jay Schottenstein turns 72… Member of Knesset for the Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party, Meir Porush turns 71… Past president and national board member of AIPAC, he is a senior advisor to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Lee “Rosy” Rosenberg… Former director of the Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin turns 70… Member of Knesset for the Shas party, Yoav Ben-Tzur turns 68… New Windsor, N.Y., attorney, Barry Wolf Friedman… Political and social justice activist, she served as Illinois state representative and as human rights commissioner, Lauren Beth Gash turns 66… Opinion columnist for The Washington Post until 2025, now writing on Substack, Jennifer Rubin turns 64… Partner in the D.C. office of worldwide consulting firm, Brunswick Group, Michael J. Schoenfeld… President of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami turns 64… Deputy director of the CIA in the Biden administration, he held the same role in the last two years of the Obama administration, David S. Cohen turns 63… U.S. attorney for Minnesota since October 2025, Daniel Noah Rosen turns 61… Associate dean and lecturer at George Washington University Law School, he previously served in the Biden administration, Matt Nosanchuk… Professor of Jewish thought at the University of Haifa, Josef Hillel “J.H.” Chajes turns 61… Founder of Shabbat[dot]com, he also serves as the national educational director for Olami Worldwide, Rabbi Benzion Zvi Klatzko… Dean of TheYeshiva[dot]net, he succeeded his father as editor-in-chief of the Yiddish weekly Algemeiner Journal, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak “YY” Jacobson turns 54… Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to 2019, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Scott Gottlieb turns 54… Budget director at the City Council of the District of Columbia, Jennifer Budoff… Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist, she participated in two seasons of the Israeli reality show “Me’usharot,” Nicol Raidman turns 40… Director of communications and programming at Academic Engagement Network, Raeefa Shams… Actor, performance artist and filmmaker, Shia LaBeouf turns 40… Retired figure skater who competed for Israel in the team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Aimee Buchanan turns 33… Olympic medalist in canoe slalom in London (2012), Rio (2016), Tokyo (2020) and Paris (2024), Jessica Esther “Jess” Fox turns 32… Israeli attorney and CEO of Dualis Social Venture Fund, Dana Naor…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

UJA-Federation of New York has tapped longtime Jewish educator Michael Kay as its next CEO, the country’s largest Jewish federation shared exclusively with Nira Dayanim for Jewish Insider, marking a generational change that signals the growing importance of day schools on the Jewish communal agenda.

Kay, 46, currently serves as head of school at The Leffell School in Westchester County, N.Y., and will step into his new role on Oct. 5, succeeding Eric Goldstein, 66, a former Wall Street lawyer who will step down after 12 years in the role…

President Donald Trump continued to hedge today on resuming military action in Iran while keeping open diplomatic options: “We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated,” he said of Iran while departing for his state visit to China. “So one way or the other, we win.”

Earlier in the day, Trump told the “Sid & Friends in the Morning” radio show that he’s anticipating Iran’s economic collapse due to the U.S. blockade of its ports. “It’s just a question of time, we don’t have to rush anything,” the president said…

Kuwait accused Iran of attempting to invade its Bubiyan Island today, claiming six members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps attacked soldiers on the strategic piece of Kuwaiti territory where the Gulf state, with assistance from China, is building a large port…

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed frustration with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing as they declined to comment on a report that Pakistan harbored Iranian military aircraft from U.S. strikes.

Asked, if the report were to be accurate, if the U.S. should reconsider Pakistan’s role as mediator between the U.S. and Iran, Hegseth and Caine said they “didn’t want to get in the middle of ongoing negotiations.” Graham replied, “Well I do! I want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I don’t trust Pakistan as far as I can throw them … No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere”…

Jay Hurst, the Pentagon’s comptroller, testified that the cost of the war has risen to $29 billion — up from the $25 billion figure the Pentagon cited just two weeks ago…

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem wrote in a letter to terror group operatives that a deal between the U.S. and Iran is “the strongest card” for “stopping [Israel’s] aggression” in Lebanon, while slamming the Lebanese government for engaging in direct talks with Jerusalem, the third round of which are slated to take place this week in Washington…

Asked at the Politico Security Summit in Washington if she still calls herself a Zionist, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said, “I believe in a Jewish State of Israel, yes. And that to me isn’t a radical thing to say and I always have. I can say that in the same breath that I criticize the military policy of Bibi Netanyahu.”

Slotkin said that “as someone who served three tours in Iraq” she has “concerns with the way the Israelis are organizing military policy right now. … What I can’t accept, though, is collective punishment that comes from saying, ‘well, I don’t like Bibi Netanyahu’s military policy so Jews in America’s synagogues should be attacked,’” she continued…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner he’s open to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to wind down U.S. aid to Israel over the next decade: The proposal “has been sort of a given, I think, in our foreign aid budget” for “a long time,” he said, “but if that’s how the Israeli leader feels about it — feels like they’re able to deal with their national security threats with their own resources — then I guess I would listen to what he has to say”…

Two weeks ahead of the Texas Senate Republican primary runoff, Thune said he “still [doesn’t] know where [Trump] is headed” in his intent to endorse either Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or Attorney General Ken Paxton, but “someone would clearly benefit from it.”

Cornyn, meanwhile, told reporters he doesn’t expect Trump to make an endorsement at all. “We can’t wait, and we’re not waiting. We’re getting prepared, and we are optimistic,” he said. (Still, in what may be a last-ditch effort to secure the president’s support, Cornyn introduced a bill yesterday to rename U.S. Route 287 as Interstate 47 in honor of Trump, the country’s 47th president)…

Politico cast doubt on Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s claim and campaign talking point that he is a practicing physician, finding that “there’s overwhelming evidence that he’s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor.”

While El-Sayed did attend prestigious medical schools and served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department, he was never granted a medical license in either Michigan or New York, where he says he has practiced, and appears not to have treated patients since his schooling days, despite claiming repeatedly in campaign pitches that he is a physician…

AIPAC denied accusations by El-Sayed and others that it is behind the Center for Democratic Priorities super PAC, a new group supporting Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary, and also noted it “isn’t funding any group’s efforts” in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, where critics have alleged the pro-Israel group is behind efforts to support candidate Ala Stanford…

Speaking on a webinar with other Washington-area Jewish leaders today, Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, excoriated the Democratic Socialists of America as an “evil” organization committed to driving Jews out of society, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

“I think they’re a fringe, radical, antisemitic organization,” Halber said, adding that the group wants to make Jews feel “isolated” and force them to “renounce Zionism” and their connection to Israel in order to participate in the political process…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his city budget proposal this afternoon, which includes $26 million annually for the Office to Prevent Hate Crimes, a significant increase from its current budget of around $3 million…

Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg hosted a lunch at the State Department with officials from Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well as Jordan to discuss technology supply chains and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor…

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

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for coverage of tonight’s forum of New York 12th Congressional District Democratic candidates moderated by JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington will host its belated Yom Ha’Atzmaut reception.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America’s conference in Washington continues, with speakers including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, diplomat Dennis Ross, The Washington Institute’s Dana Stroul and former national security officials Jake Sullivan, Jeremy Bash and Jon Finer.

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump sounded a pessimistic note today about the state of the ceasefire with Iran, telling reporters in the Oval Office it’s “unbelievably weak” and on “massive life support” while calling Iran’s proposal to end the war, which he rejected yesterday, a “piece of garbage.”

The president was set to meet this afternoon with his national security team to discuss next steps with Iran, including a potential return to military action and resumption of Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Axios.

A number of hawkish Republican lawmakers are encouraging the president to resume military operations, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI)…

The UAE has secretly carried out military attacks on Iran during the course of the war, The Wall Street Journal reports, after being on the receiving end of the majority of Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks. Abu Dhabi’s targets have included an Iranian oil refinery, struck in early April as Trump was announcing the ceasefire…

Graham called for a potential “complete reevaluation” of Pakistan’s role as mediator between the U.S. and Iran following a CBS News report that Islamabad had permitted Iran to shelter some of its military aircraft from U.S. strikes in Iran. “Given some of the prior statements by Pakistani defense officials towards Israel, I would not be shocked if this were true,” Graham said…

Democratic Majority for Israel PAC is mounting a six-figure mail campaign to boost Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia in his Democratic primary runoff against activist and conspiracy theorist Maureen Galindo. The campaign is slated to start tomorrow, exactly two weeks from primary day in Texas’ newly redrawn 35th Congressional District…

Axios spotlights the increasingly heated primary between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Navy veteran Ed Gallrein, who is backed by Trump. The race, scheduled for May 19, has already seen $25.6 million in outside spending — including an ad from a pro-Massie group featuring antisemitic tropes targeting Jewish GOP donor Paul Singer — making it the most expensive U.S. House primary in history…

The New York Times highlights Nebraska’s contentious Senate race, where several candidates have been accused of acting as “plants” intending to siphon votes for the other party (and one candidate isn’t intending to run for Senate at all), as Democrats largely line up behind independent Dan Osborn, realizing their party brand has been tainted in the Midwest…

A new poll by New Jersey congressional candidate Adam Hamawy, who has made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of his campaign, found him leading the crowded Democratic primary field for the 12th District with 19% of likely voters, up from a March poll by his campaign that found him winning just 5%. His surge coincided with a spending blitz by the anti-Israel super PAC American Priorities, which poured $1 million into pro-Hamawy ads in the district…

New York state Assemblymember Alex Bores released his first ad of the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District, highlighting his advocacy for AI regulation and involvement in workers’ rights as positioning him to take on Trump. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), citing Bores’ AI focus, endorsed the former Palantir employee today…

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht announced today that he is changing his party registration from Democrat to independent, citing increasing antisemitism in the Democratic Party. In his statement, Wecht said Democrats have changed since he served as vice chair of the state party 25 years ago: “Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” he said.

“Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party. I can no longer abide this. So, I won’t,” he wrote…

Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chickli prohibited anti-Israel influencer Tyler Oliveira from entering the country as he landed in Ben Gurion Airport today; Chikli told right-wing influencer Laura Loomer that Israel “has strong immigration policies, and if you come to Israel with the intent on inciting violence and hatred against Jewish people, you will not be allowed entry into our country.”

Oliveira has recently released videos purporting to expose welfare fraud among ultra-Orthodox communities in Kiryas Joel, N.Y., and Lakewood, N.J., widely denounced as antisemitic, which he discussed at length on Tucker Carlson’s podcast last week while again invoking antisemitic conspiracy theories…

Trump tapped Kari Lake, former far-right Arizona gubernatorial candidate and short-lived head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, as ambassador to Jamaica, seen as a step down for the one-time close Trump ally. He also named far-right Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano as ambassador to Slovakia…

Trump has invited several business leaders to join him on his trip later this week to China, including Elon Musk, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Citi’s Jane Fraser and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, among others…

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

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the race to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), where state Sen. Scott Wiener is testing whether progressive Jews can still win among the Democratic left.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine will testify before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee as well as the Senate Appropriations Committee for Pentagon budget hearings. Later, FBI Director Kash Patel is also scheduled to appear before Senate Appropriations for a separate budget hearing.

Politico will host its Security Summit in Washington — speakers at the confab will include exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi; former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA), Jim Himes (D-CT) and Mike Turner (R-OH).

Elsewhere in Washington, the Anti-Defamation League will hold a reception to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month.

In New York, the funeral for longtime ADL head and storied Jewish leader Abe Foxman, who died on Sunday at 86, will be held at Park Avenue Synagogue.

Democratic primary candidates for New York’s 12th Congressional District including Bores, George Conway and Micah Lasher will take part in a forum at West Side Institutional Synagogue moderated by JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.

Across the river, Democratic candidates seeking to unseat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District — including Rebecca Bennett, Michael Roth, Tina Shah and Brian Varela — will participate in a debate moderated by the New Jersey Globe.

Israeli singer Noam Bettan will represent the Jewish state in Vienna for the first semifinal of the international singing competition Eurovision; Israel’s participation in the contest has been marked by protests and boycotts of several European countries, as well as accusations of Israel’s meddling in voting processes that have been dismissed by Eurovision organizers.

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have lifted restrictions on the U.S.’ use of their military bases and airspace after a series of tense calls between President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The administration is now seeking to restart Project Freedom and assist commercial ships in transiting the Strait of Hormuz, an effort Trump said he paused on Tuesday at the request of Pakistan “and other countries.” The renewed effort could begin as soon as this week…

Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported several explosions along the country’s coast in recent hours; an American official told Axios and Fox News that the U.S. attacked Iranian targets in the area, but claimed it did not constitute a return to war…

Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI), who represents a Lansing-based swing district, introduced today the first authorization for use of military force (AUMF) that would limit the length and scope of U.S. military operations in Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. A group of Senate Republicans is working on a similar effort, amid concerns that the war could be a political liability for the GOP in the midterm elections.

Barrett claimed that U.S. operations in Iran “are ongoing,” despite the administration’s notification to Congress that they had concluded as of May 1; the proposed authorization would expire on July 30 and would ban “sustained ground combat operations,” seizing or holding any territory and “nation-building” operations in Iran…

The Trump administration issued sanctions against actors involved in exploiting Iraq’s oil sector to fund Iranian terror activities, including Iraqi Deputy Minister of Oil Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly…

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and her presumptive opponent, Democrat Graham Platner, released their first ads of the general election Senate race since Gov. Janet Mills dropped her Democratic primary bid. 

Collins’ ad highlights her work in restoring a Maine infrastructure project without addressing Platner, while Platner’s ad slams Collins for “selling us out” to the “Epstein class” and for supporting the Iran war (Collins is one of the only Republicans who has supported a war powers resolution to end U.S. operations in Iran)…

Our Revolution, an advocacy group spun off of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2016 presidential campaign, today endorsed New York state Assemblymember Alex Bores in the competitive Democratic primary for the state’s 12th Congressional District, JI’s Will Bredderman reports. 

Following Sanders, Our Revolution has aligned with student anti-Israel protesters and advocated against military aid to the Jewish state. Its endorsement of Bores emphasized the former Palantir employee’s signature issue — regulating artificial intelligence — and didn’t mention Israel policy…

A new Emerson College poll of likely Democratic primary voters in Massachusetts found Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) leading his challenger, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), 37-32%, ahead of the Sept. 1 primary. Nearly 30% of respondents, however, are still undecided if they want to support their incumbent senator or Moulton, 32 years Markey’s junior, who is positioning himself as a generational change.

Markey has been hostile to Israel and Jewish communal measures in Congress, particularly in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza; Moulton had been known as more moderate, but shifted to the left on Israel issues after announcing his Senate run, including denouncing his previous affiliation with AIPAC…

State Department officials confirmed to several outlets that Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh are expected to hold talks in Washington next Thursday and Friday to discuss the ongoing ceasefire, even as Israel and Hezbollah continued trading fire this week…

The federal Board of Immigration Appeals reopened deportation proceedings against Columbia University protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi, after a judge dropped the case in February. The Department of Homeland Security has characterized Mahdawi, who has not been charged with a crime, as a “ringleader” in anti-Israel protests at Columbia and claimed he admitted to being involved in and supporting terrorist violence…

Mohamed Soliman, the man accused of firebombing an Israeli hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., last June, was sentenced to life in prison today after pleading guilty to all 101 charges filed against him, including one count of murder for an 82-year-old victim who died of her wounds…

Religious leaders gathered at the White House this afternoon for an event marking the National Day of Prayer, including Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad); Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center; and Rabbi A.D. Motzen, national director of government affairs at Agudath Israel. Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Lee Zeldin, who is Jewish, was among those who delivered remarks…

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche yesterday requesting that the Justice Department launch an investigation into whether Georgetown University must register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, following a Washington Free Beacon report that the university agreed to consult the Qatari government on speakers and themes for its Islamophobia initiative, for which Qatar provided a grant…

The Israeli Health Ministry said there are currently no hantavirus patients in Israel, Hebrew media reported. One individual reportedly returned to Israel with a strain of hantavirus from Eastern Europe last year, but that strain, passed from rodents to humans, is a “different virus altogether” from the strain that spreads between humans that has been identified on a cruise ship en route to Spain, an infectious disease expert told The Times of Israel… 

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

Keep an eye out in eJewishPhilanthropy for an interview with Rabbi Mike Uram, incoming chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The Capital Jewish Museum in Washington is hosting an after-hours party this evening to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month.

UJA-Federation of New York will host a Shabbat dinner tomorrow for young Wall Street professionals.

The Altneu Synagogue in New York City will host its second annual gala on Sunday, including a performance and awards show.

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

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump continues to send mixed signals about the direction of the Iran war, writing this morning on Truth Social that, “assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to,” he will end the war as well as the blockade of Iranian ports. If Tehran does not agree (to what has apparently already been agreed to), “the bombing starts” at a “much higher level and intensity than it was before”…

Iran has struck over 200 U.S. military structures or pieces of equipment across the Middle East since the war began, according to a Washington Post analysis, including hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and radar, communications and air defense equipment…

White House official Seb Gorka announced while unveiling Trump’s U.S. counterterrorism strategy today that U.S. officials will meet with representatives from several foreign governments this week to ask for assistance in combating terrorism emanating from Iran and elsewhere, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

The strategy highlights the Muslim Brotherhood as “the root of all modern Islamist terrorism” and says the U.S. will turn increased attention to Africa, as “straggler” ISIS terrorists from Syria and Iran migrate there in search of “ungoverned space” to take over…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he held “a constructive meeting” in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, where Wang affirmed “Iran’s right to uphold national sovereignty and national dignity”…

The Board of Peace, whose leaders met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem yesterday, will not expect Israel to abide by the terms of the Gaza ceasefire if Hamas does not disarm, according to a document sent by Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov and advisor Aryeh Lightstone to the Palestinian technocratic committee governing Gaza, The Times of Israel reports. 

“Failure by Hamas to accept the framework within a reasonable timeframe … shall render such commitments null and void,” the officials wrote, saying Israel will not be expected to refrain from military action or ensure humanitarian aid reaches the enclave…

Lebanese media reported the third round of Lebanon-Israel ambassador-level talks will take place in Washington next week. 

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, meanwhile, called talk of a meeting directly between him and Netanyahu “premature,” despite Trump’s repeated claims that he was inviting the two leaders to the White House. “Lebanon is not seeking normalization with Israel, but rather peace,” Salam told reporters…

Belgium has indicted three mohels, Jewish religious authorities who conduct ritual circumcision, on criminal charges, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced. The men were initially arrested in a raid last year for practicing medicine without a license, sparking outcry from the Jewish community.

Sa’ar called the move a “scarlet letter on Belgian society” and said the country has joined a “short and short and shameful list … of countries that use criminal law to prosecute Jews for practicing Judaism.” U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White, who has also been outspoken on the issue, called it a “shameful stain on Belgium” that “is wrong and won’t be tolerated” by the U.S…

Israel will provide jet fuel to Germany, the Israeli energy ministry said, after Germany requested assistance in addressing its fuel shortage due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz…

Former Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro withdrew as Georgetown University Law Center’s commencement speaker after learning that several students had raised objections to his selection — due to pro-Israel opinion articles the Jewish academic had authored after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

The school replaced Schapiro with David Cole, a professor who criticized congressional hearings on campus antisemitism as a form of “McCarthyism” aimed at chilling free speech and defended “antisemitic advocacy” as a First Amendment right…

Meanwhile, Rutgers University’s School of Engineering has canceled a commencement speech by alum and entrepreneur Rami Elghandour after students raised concerns about his social media activity, which is dedicated overwhelmingly to criticism of Israel. 

Elghandour — who was an executive producer of the film “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about a young Palestinian girl who died during the Israel-Hamas war — has consistently accused Israel of genocide, apartheid and police brutality and torture of Palestinians, and repeatedly praised the professor who made an unsanctioned jab at Israel at the University of Michigan’s recent commencement ceremony…

Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-NY) political consulting firm was paid more than $72,000 by advocacy and political groups he controlled, Politico reports, in a scheme that watchdogs say is not illegal but raises conflict of interest concerns. 

And a hacker stole over $3,000 of campaign funds from Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)…

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN who pioneered the 24-hour news cycle, died at 87…

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

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at how New York Democrats are responding to yesterday’s threatening protest outside an Israeli real estate event at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.

President Donald Trump will host Brazilian President Lula da Silva at the White House for talks on economic and security issues, despite Trump’s at-times acrimonious relationship with the left-wing South American leader.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican following weeks of escalating attacks by Trump on the pontiff, including on Monday when Trump told Hugh Hewitt that the pope is “endangering a lot of Catholics” by being critical of the Iran war. Rubio is also set to meet on Friday with Italian officials including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whom Trump has also clashed with since the beginning of the war.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy will hold the keynote dinner of its annual Founders Conference — this year’s being focused on the Iran war — in Washington.

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted at a press conference this morning that the ceasefire with Iran is not over, despite repeated violations by both sides in recent days. “Ultimately, this is a separate and distinct project,” Hegseth said of the new U.S. mission to escort commercial shipping vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, “and we expected there would be some churn at the beginning.”

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said similarly that even though Iran has fired on commercial vessels nine times, seized two container ships and attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times since the ceasefire began, that is all “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations”…

Can there be a ceasefire without a war? Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed at his own press conference in the afternoon that Operation Epic Fury, as the Iran war was called, is finished, and the U.S. has moved onto Project Freedom in the strait, only hitting Iranian targets in response to attacks from Tehran.

President Donald Trump similarly downplayed the war effort, calling it a “skirmish” and telling reporters in the Oval Office that Iran still “wants to make a deal.” Meanwhile, Iran shot ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at the UAE for the second day in a row, the Emirati Defense Ministry said…

A majority of Israelis believe that ending the war with Iran under the current conditions would undermine the country’s security, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports: 64% of Jewish Israelis said ending the war in its current state is “only slightly or not at all aligned” with Israel’s security interests, in a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute. Nearly half of Arab Israelis (48.5%) said the same…

Incoming Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Omer Tischler, who assumed his role today, said at his handover ceremony that the IAF is “closely monitoring what is happening in Iran, and are prepared to take the entire Air Force eastward, if we are required to do so”…

Thirty House Democrats sent a letter to the Trump administration urging it to publicly acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons program, which neither Israeli nor U.S. officials have ever confirmed publicly. 

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), a vocal Israel critic, said the threat of nuclear warfare has escalated amid the Iran war: “The risks of miscalculation, escalation, and nuclear use in this environment are not theoretical,” they wrote. “Congress has a constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration’s planning and contingencies for such scenarios”…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov in Jerusalem today, along with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Board of Peace advisor Aryeh Lightstone, Netanyahu advisors Caroline Glick and Ophir Falk, venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg and tech entrepreneur Liran Tancman.

Mladenov said in a statement that the discussion was “positive and substantive” and the parties “reaffirmed our commitment to the full implementation” of the 20-point Gaza peace plan…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, convening an emergency summit with Jewish, business, education and government leaders at 10 Downing St., called for a whole-of-society approach to combating antisemitism as the country’s Jewish community has been repeatedly targeted by violent attacks.

Starmer said officials are investigating whether Iran is behind the recent events, announced universities will be required to produce reports on antisemitism on campus and called for the government’s Arts Council to “claw back” funding from organizations that engage in antisemitism…

Tonight, the radical PAL-Awda group is planning a protest outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan to disrupt a reported Israeli real estate event — Jewish New Yorkers will be watching to see how the protest is handled by city leaders as opposed to the group’s last demonstration outside the same synagogue in November, when protesters harassed attendees and chanted “death to the IDF” and “globalize the intifada.” 

Similar to his stance on November’s protest, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s spokesperson told far-left Drop Site News the mayor is “deeply opposed” to the real estate event, which he said is promoting settlements that are “illegal under international law and deeply tied to the ongoing displacement of Palestinians.” Still, Mamdani’s administration said it has “also been clear that we are committed to ensuring safe entry and exit from any house of worship.”

Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who is running for New York’s 12th Congressional District, condemned the planned protest, saying its purpose is “to create fear in the hearts of Jewish New Yorkers,” while expressing optimism that the NYPD will “make sure that a protest does not turn into a gauntlet of hate through which Jews must pass”…

New Jersey congressional candidate Adam Hamawy, a trauma surgeon who has made criticism of Israel central to his campaign, defended his yearslong relationship with the “Blind Sheikh,” who was convicted of terrorism for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing: Hamawy’s campaign told Politico that reporting on the candidate’s testimony in defense of Omar Abdel-Rahman at his trial are “guilt-by-association attacks on Muslim and Arab candidates”…

A new poll of the Texas GOP Senate runoff from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs found the race neck-and-neck just three weeks from Election Day: Attorney General Ken Paxton polled with a three-point lead over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), with 7% of likely runoff voters still undecided…

The Washingtonian released its list of Washington’s 500 most influential people of 2026, including: AIPAC’s Elliot Brandt, J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami, the Hudson Institute’s Michael Doran, the Center for International Policy’s Matt Duss, the Anti-Defamation League’s Aykan Erdemir, the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, Qatar lobbyist Jim Moran, the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi, the American Jewish Committee’s Julie Fishman Rayman, the Washington Institute’s Dennis Ross, New Jewish Narrative’s Hadar Susskind and SKDK’s Jill Zuckman…

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

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the latest front in the campus anti-Israel movement: student activists targeting Hillel, the world’s largest Jewish campus organization.

The Manhattan Institute will host its Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner, honoring former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), who is suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer, and Jeff Yass, founding partner of Susquehanna International Group.

The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue will host a Democratic candidate forum for New York’s 12th Congressional District featuring Alex Bores, Micah Lasher, Jack Schlossberg and George Conway.

• Following the failed U.S.-Iran talks over the weekend, CENTCOM’s blockade on maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will begin at 10 a.m. ET. Read more here.
• The announcement prompted a warning from Iran that ports in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman could potentially be targeted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The White House is reportedly considering resuming limited military strikes on Iran in tandem with the blockade in an effort to further pressure Tehran. More below.
• The Helsinki Commission is holding a briefing on Capitol Hill this afternoon focused on diplomacy with the Vatican. The briefing comes amid tensions between the White House and the Holy See following Pope Leo XIV’s comments on Saturday that the “delusion of omnipotence” was driving the war with Iran. In response, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social site on Sunday that the pontiff “is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” adding, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
• Semafor’s World Economy Summit kicks off today in Washington. Speakers today include Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rick Scott (R-FL), Peter Orszag and Anne Wojcicki.
• The family of former Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who died on Friday, will be sitting shiva this week in Riverdale, N.Y. Read our obituary for the longtime New York congressman below. 
• Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins at sunset. Communities in Israel and around the world will hold remembrance events. In Jerusalem, Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center will air a prerecorded state ceremony that will include speeches from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.
• The House will potentially hold several expulsion votes this week, following a San Francisco Chronicle report that Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) had sexually assaulted female staffers. The report prompted calls for the House to take action against Swalwell, who suspended his gubernatorial bid on Sunday following the report, and three other House members — Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Cory Mills (R-FL) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) — over allegations of misconduct.
• In Hungary, Péter Magyar’s center-right opposition Tisza party appears poised to secure a supermajority following Sunday’s elections. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has led the central European nation since 2010 — and who had the tacit backing of Netanyahu — conceded to Magyar on Sunday evening. Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid congratulated Magyar on his victory, saying that he hoped relations between Jerusalem and Budapest “will continue to deepen and strengthen” under Magyar’s leadership.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

As U.S. discourse about Israel has become increasingly polarized and the left has grown increasingly hostile to the Jewish state, support for Israel’s missile-defense systems that protect the lives of millions of civilians remained a popular bipartisan priority.

Even among many progressives who were otherwise critical of Israel, U.S. aid for systems such as Iron Dome remained a rare exception, with most praising the system as an important protection measure for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Emblematic of that fact: Just four House Democrats and two Republicans voted last year in favor of cutting $500 million in cooperative missile-defense funding that the U.S. provides to Israel annually.

But in the wake of the wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, that consensus appears to be shifting quickly on the left. A growing number of progressive candidates — along with J Street, the left-wing Israel advocacy group — are now racing to disavow all military support for Israel, including for defensive systems such as the Iron Dome.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), one of the most prominent progressive standard-bearers, has been a trendsetter on the issue. She said earlier this month that she would not support any funding for Israeli missile defense going forward, after previously vociferously defending her vote against last year’s amendment cutting missile defense as a clear and easy choice.

Her reversal on the issue came amid criticism and pressure from Democratic Socialistsof America members over that vote, as the far-left group debated whether to endorse her once more in her upcoming reelection bid.

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

Strait Talk: The Wall Street Journal’s Benoit Faucon does a deep dive into how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps maintains control over the Strait of Hormuz through underground pens, waterborne drones and other technology. “[Iran’s] regular navy operated Iran’s big battleships largely for prestige and occasional long-range deployments. The paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on the other hand, has its own extensive fleet of more nimble boats designed to control the crucial waterway with missiles, mines and harassment of commercial ships — and they are much harder to reach.” [WSJ]

Pressure Point: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius considers the implications of the failed U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, over the weekend and President Donald Trump’s threatened blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. “The blockade is a pressure tactic, to be sure, but not primarily a military one. Trump has no appetite for further armed conflict. He knows that the upsides are limited and the ‘tail risk,’ as financial traders like to say, is large. His aim instead is to put a severely battered Iran into an economic vise to see if its leaders will set a different course in a big, comprehensive deal.” [WashPost]

Hungary for Change: The Times of Israel’s Nava Frieberg looks at how Peter Magyar’s victory in Sunday’s elections in Hungary could affect Budapest’s support for Israel in the European Union. “But while Orban’s support has been politically significant, Hungary’s practical impact on EU policy has been more limited than often assumed, and a change in Hungarian leadership is unlikely to radically shift bilateral relations, experts say. … While Orban’s government has taken significant measures to support Israel in international forums, its ability to block EU moves against Israel has affected rhetoric more than policy, a European diplomat familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.” [TOI]

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam postponed his trip to the U.S., which was slated to begin yesterday, citing the security situation in Lebanon; the postponement comes ahead of a planned meeting this week in Washington between Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa…

The State Department revoked the green cards of three relatives of an Iranian regime official who served as a spokesperson for the militants who held American citizens captive during the 1979-1980 Iran hostage crisis… 

Two federal immigration judges who presided over the government’s failed efforts to deport college students Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi over their anti-Israel activism were fired by the Trump administration; Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, who were both appointed by the Biden administration and were nearing the end of their probationary periods, were fired as part of a broader dismissal of dozens of immigration judges…

The Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals rejected Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil’s attempt to dismiss his deportation case on Thursday, his lawyers said, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Clay Higgins (R-LA) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) introduced a bill to designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a terrorist group…

Rep. George Latimer (D-NY) introduced a bill to nullify the Trump administration’s oil sanctions relief for Iranian vessels…

Antisemitic conspiracy theorist Dan Bilzerian filed paperwork to challenge Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) in the Republican primary in Florida’s 6th Congressional District…

Politico explores the challenges facing the Democratic National Committee’s Middle East working group, days after the DNC’s rules committee rejected anti-Israel and anti-AIPAC resolutions at the group’s New Orleans gathering…

The Yale Political Union is slated to host antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker on campus on Tuesday for a debate titled “Resolved: End the American Empire,” according to the organization’s social media, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Town & Country spotlights the book events being hosted at former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Philanthropies headquarters, which has “become the place in New York to have a book party, one that regularly attracts power players simply by nature of the host”… 

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps’ business successes as the company and its leadership lean into social justice causes; the Journal notes that David Bronner, who serves as the company’s cosmic engagement officer, traveled to Israel and the West Bank last year and blasted the “military apartheid rule” in the enclave…

Police in San Francisco arrested a 20-year-old man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how upheaval among staff at the streaming startup Mubi over the company’s deal with Sequoia Capital — owing in part to Sequoia’s investments with startups that work with the IDF and the social media posts of Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire — resulted in a decline in subscriptions and an exodus of employees…

New York state Sen. Jack Martins, a pro-Israel Republican, announced he will not seek reelection to his Long Island seat…

Cisco is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity startup Astrix Security in a deal potentially worth $350 million…

Israel barred Spain from accessing the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat that is being used to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar saying that Madrid has “such a blatant anti-Israeli bias that it has lost any ability to serve as a useful actor in implementing” the ceasefire plan…

Days later, Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Francisca María Pedrós Carretero, Spain’s chargé d’affaires, after the Spanish town of El Burgo blew up an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of its annual Easter event…

Nine foreign carriers, including Etihad and Ethiopian Airlines, are set to resume service to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport this week…

The IDF announced it killed one of the Hamas terrorists who took hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel, Eliya Cohen and Or Levy from a roadside bomb shelter during the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks…

Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman was approved to be the next head of the Mossad; Gofman, the military secretary to Netanyahu, will assume the role on June 2…

New York Solidarity Network named Rachel Stortch, the COO of Fifth Avenue Synagogue and a former Missouri lawmaker, as its first CEO; NYSN Board Chair Gary Ginsberg called Stortch “a rare combination of electoral strategist and community builder”…

Fred Drasner, the former co-publisher of the New York Daily News, died at 83…

Singer Noga Erez on Saturday became the first Israeli artist to perform at the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Addressing the crowd during her set, Erez said, “I come from a very, very, very complex part of this planet, and to get us all here doing this was kind of like forces that I didn’t know that I had.” 

Longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and the bandleader for “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” Max Weinberg turns 75… 

Curator and then director of the Louvre until 2001, he is the son-in-law of the late Alain de Rothschild, Pierre Rosenberg turns 90… Geneticist and 1985 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, Michael Stuart Brown turns 85… Author and feminist leader, she is the former CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Gloria Feldt turns 84… Managing director at Tiedemann Advisors, he was previously a vice chair at Goldman Sachs and a high-ranking State Department official, Robert D. “Bob” Hormats turns 83… Retired member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA) after 10 terms, Susan Carol Alpert Davis turns 82… VP of the New Israel Fund, Paul Egerman… Actor who won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Vincent in the television series “Beauty and the Beast,” Ron Perlman turns 76… Partner in Uplands Real Estate Partners, Deborah Ratner Salzberg… Former member of the U.K. Parliament until 2005, she served as the U.K.’s first ever minister of state for asylum and immigration under then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, Barbara Margolis Roche turns 72… Co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund based in NYC, and a founding board member of the Robin Hood Foundation, Glenn Dubin turns 69… Author of six books and co-host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily global independent news hour, Amy Goodman turns 69… Art historian, philanthropist and author of the KosherLikeMe website, Liz Rueven… U.S. senator (D-PA) until last year, Bob Casey, Jr. turns 66… Former orthopedic surgeon, he was the Democratic nominee for the 2020 U.S. Senate election in Alaska, Alan Stuart Gross turns 64… President Donald Trump’s nominee for chair of the Federal Reserve, he was the youngest-ever Federal Reserve governor until 2011, Kevin Warsh turns 56… Lead vocalist and founding member of the rock group “Staind,” he has also enjoyed a successful solo career in country music, Aaron Lewis turns 54… CEO and executive director of D.C.-based Sixth & I, a center for arts, entertainment and ideas, Heather Moran… Staff writer at Tablet Magazine, Armin Rosen… Senior director of government relations at FDD Action, Alexandria Paolozzi… General partner at Overmatch Ventures, Morgan Hitzig… Senior consultant at Gray Ink, Lauren Epstein Schwartz… Sales executive at Sign Source NJ, Aharon Lipnitsky… Helene Cash…

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• The House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing this morning probing the rising influence of anti-Israel extremist groups as a threat to U.S. national security. Representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, Secure Community Network, American Jewish Committee and Heritage Foundation are slated to testify. Read more here.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will testify this morning before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Pentagon’s FY 2026 budget, the second of three hearings for Hegseth this week.
• The House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing this morning with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. In the afternoon, Bessent will appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss the Trump administration’s FY 2026 budget for the Treasury Department.
• The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary gala dinner tonight in New York City, where the organization will honor CNN commentator Van Jones.
• Elsewhere in New York, United Hatzalah is holding its annual gala. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is slated to address the gathering, which is chaired by Dr. Miriam Adelson.
• In Israel, a preliminary vote will be held today on a motion to dissolve the Knesset. More on this below.
• Also in Jerusalem, Argentine President Javier Milei will be awarded the Genesis Prize at the Knesset this evening.

A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) comfortably prevailed in New Jersey’s Democratic gubernatorial primary last night, translating strong fundraising and backing from numerous party leaders into a double-digit margin of victory in the six-candidate field. With most of the ballots tallied, Sherrill won just over one-third of the Democratic vote.

Sherrill, a pragmatic suburban lawmaker and military veteran, will face Republican former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli in the November general election. Boosted by President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Ciattarelli easily won the GOP nomination.

Sherrill continues the trend of moderate-minded candidates prevailing in recent Democratic primary fights. Three of her Democratic opponents ran to the congressman’s left, with left-wing Newark Mayor Ras Baraka even getting arrested at a federal immigration facility. That activist messaging didn’t end up winning him much traction in the race.

Baraka’s anti-Israel record and past praise of Louis Farrakhan concerned Jewish leaders, but he ultimately finished well behind Sherrill, in second place with 20% of the vote.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) ran to the center in the race, spent heavily and worked hard to win over the significant Jewish vote in the state, landing key endorsements from several Orthodox groups. But aside from handily winning his home county of Bergen, he struggled to make inroads in other parts of New Jersey, tallying 12% of the vote. (In Ocean County, where the congressman picked up a key endorsement of the Lakewood Vaad, he lagged in third place.)

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

Name the Oct. 7 Terrorists: In The Washington Post, Patrick Desbois, a Catholic priest whose Yahad-In Unum organization investigates mass killings, calls for the names of the perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack to be made public. “Every terrorist who has imprisoned, assaulted or killed a hostage has a name. An address. A job. A family. A life story that should be made public. Each murder, rape and kidnapping on or since Oct. 7 was a terrorist act, but it was also a crime. And while terrorists should be neutralized, crimes should be investigated. Otherwise, deniers will flourish because, without a criminal, there is no crime.” [WashPost]

Iran Deal Déjà Vu: The New York Times’ David Sanger and Farnaz Fassihi look at the similarities between the Obama administration negotiations with Iran that led to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and President Donald Trump’s efforts to reach a nuclear agreement with Tehran. “To Mr. Trump and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, the negotiations with Iran are a new experience, and Iran’s insistence that it will never surrender its ability to enrich uranium on its soil threatens to scuttle an agreement that the president only a few weeks ago confidently predicted was within reach. But it is almost exactly the same vexing dilemma that President Barack Obama faced a decade ago. Reluctantly, Mr. Obama and his aides concluded that the only pathway to an accord was allowing Iran to continue producing small amounts of nuclear fuel, keeping its nuclear centrifuges spinning and its scientists working.” [NYTimes]

President Donald Trump said that Iran has been acting “much more aggressive” in recent days, ahead of the next round of nuclear talks, slated to begin on Thursday…

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh threatened that Tehran could strike American bases in the region if nuclear talks fail and a military conflict with the U.S. arises…

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Bloomberg there is “no room for” a Palestinian state, “unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture,” suggesting that such a scenario was unlikely to happen “in our lifetime”; Huckabee also suggested that a Palestinian state could be created elsewhere in the Arab world, rather than in the West Bank…

The House Appropriations Committee‘s proposal for 2026 Defense funding suggests providing a total of $122.5 million for U.S.-Israel cooperative development programs, in addition to the regular $500 million for joint missile defense programs…

Ben Black, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports… 

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ahead of the city’s upcoming Democratic mayoral primary; Bloomberg praised Cuomo’s for having “governed as a pragmatist, focused on solving problems rather than engaging in ideological or partisan warfare”…

The majority Satmar faction in Brooklyn, which represents the largest Hasidic voting bloc in New York City, is backing Cuomo for mayor, lending what is likely to be a major boost to his campaign in the final days of the increasingly competitive Democratic primary, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation that would have prohibited educators in the state from, among other things, teaching or promoting antisemitism and advocating for antisemitic points of view…

A recently unsealed criminal complaint against a Pakistani national revealed that the man, who had been residing in Canada, had planned to carry out a “coordinated assault” on Jewish targets in New York City; Muhammad Shahzeb Khan was apprehended in September 2024, weeks before he planned to carry out an attack on the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack…

Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations that have engulfed San Francisco’s streets this week took an antisemitic turn on Monday night when a local Jewish-owned civic engagement hub and community space had its windows smashed and walls defaced with slurs including “Die Zio,” “The Only Good Settler is a Dead One,” “Death 2 Israel is a Promise” and “Intifada,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Leaders of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry are suing a Muslim cleric in Sydney, Australia, alleging he used dehumanizing language in his sermons that “denigrate[d] all Jewish people”…

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the U.K. jointly announced sanctions on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, saying the two members of Israel’s ruling coalition had repeatedly “incit[ed] violence against Palestinians”…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operations amid mounting distribution, logistical and leadership challeges…

Andreessen Horowitz is looking to recruit veterans of elite IDF units for its a16z speedrun accelerator program…

Calcalist reports on the draft agreement between the Jewish National Fund and Gary Barnett’s Extell Israel that would exchange JNF’s rights to some of its land in Jerusalem for some of Barnett’s high-profile properties in the city, and the larger debate over housing and urban renewal in the Israeli capital…

Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s six-year prison sentence and lifetime ban on holding political office; Kirchner is facing additional legal issues, including allegations that she conspired with Iran to hide its ties to the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) met with Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday in Jerusalem. Herzog presented Milei with a replica of a silver amulet that was discovered in the upper Hinnom Valley that contained a fragment of the Jewish “Priestly Blessing” prayer.

Columbus, Ohio-based retail mogul, chairman of American Eagle Outfitters, Value City Department Stores, DSW and others, sponsor of ArtScroll’s translation of the Babylonian Talmud, Jay Schottenstein turns 71… 

Heir to the British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, minister in two British governments under prime ministers Major and Thatcher, Sir Timothy Alan Davan Sainsbury turns 93… Executive director of NYC-based government watchdog Citizens Union, she was elected as NYC’s public advocate in 2001 and reelected in 2005, Elisabeth A. “Betsy” Gotbaum turns 87… Chief spokesperson for AIPAC since 2012, Marshall Wittmann turns 72… Member of the Knesset for the Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party, Meir Porush turns 70… Hedge fund manager and owner of MLB’s New York Mets, Steven A. Cohen turns 69… Past president and national board member of AIPAC, he is a senior advisor to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Lee “Rosy” Rosenberg… Former director of the Israeli Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin turns 69… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party, now serving as minister of labor, Yoav Ben-Tzur turns 67… New Windsor, N.Y., attorney, Barry Wolf Friedman… Political and social justice activist, she served as Illinois state representative and as human rights commissioner, Lauren Beth Gash turns 65… Opinion columnist for The Washington Post until earlier this year, now writing on Substack, Jennifer Rubin turns 63… Partner in the D.C. office of worldwide consulting firm, Brunswick Group, Michael J. Schoenfeld… President of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami turns 63… Deputy director of the CIA in the Biden administration, he held the same role in the last two years of the Obama administration, David S. Cohen turns 62… Deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education during the Biden administration, Matt Nosanchuk… Professor of Jewish thought at the University of Haifa, Josef Hillel “J.H.” Chajes turns 60… Founder of Shabbat[dot]com, he also serves as the national educational director for Olami Worldwide, Rabbi Benzion Zvi Klatzko… Dean of TheYeshiva[dot]net, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson turns 53… Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 until 2019, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Scott Gottlieb turns 53… Budget director at the City Council of the District of Columbia, Jennifer Budoff… Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist, she participated in two seasons of the Israeli reality show “Me’usharot,” Nicol Raidman turns 39… Director of communications and programming at Academic Engagement Network, Raeefa Shams… Actor, performance artist and filmmaker, Shia LaBeouf turns 39… Retired figure skater who competed for Israel in the team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Aimee Buchanan turns 32… Olympic medalist in canoe slalom in London, Rio, Tokyo and Paris, Jessica Esther “Jess” Fox turns 31… Israeli attorney and CEO of Dualis Social Venture Fund, Dana Naor…