Plus, will the Knesset dissolve today?
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La.,(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on CENTCOM head Gen. Erik Kurilla’s comments that the Trump administration has been presented with a military option to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, and spotlight Wayne Wall, who is now leading Middle East policy at the National Security Council. We cover last night’s Capitol Hill vigil for the Israeli Embassy staffers killed in a terror attack at the Capital Jewish Museum last month, and report on the Treasury Department’s levying of sanctions on charities and individuals with ties to Hamas and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Argentine President Javier Milei, Michael Bloomberg and Ben Black.
What We’re Watching
- 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.
What You Should Know
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.)
TEHRAN TACTICS
CENTCOM head: U.S. administration has been presented plans to attack Iran’s nuclear program
Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, said Tuesday under questioning from the House Armed Services Committee that he had provided “a wide range of options” to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump for carrying out U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program if negotiations with Tehran fail to achieve the dismantlement of its nuclear program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Houthi headache: Asked about the U.S. ceasefire with the Houthis, Kurilla and another Pentagon official said that the U.S. bombing campaign had achieved the goal Trump had set out of restoring freedom of navigation for U.S. ships through the Red Sea. While the ceasefire made no provisions to halt Houthi attacks on Israel, which have continued, Kurilla insisted that the U.S. is continuing to defend Israel through the operation of an American THAAD missile defense system in Israel and other efforts to intercept Houthi missiles and drones. He acknowledged that normal commercial traffic through the region has not yet resumed, but said that it would be a “lagging indicator” that would increase over time.
Scoop: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is set to introduce a resolution affirming that the only acceptable outcome of U.S. nuclear talks with Iran would be the total dismantlement of its enrichment program. Graham says he hopes to introduce the legislation on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs has learned.
going nuclear
DNI Tulsi Gabbard draws friendly fire from Republicans for video warning of nuclear war
With a cryptic video that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted on X on Tuesday morning, the Democratic-congresswoman-turned-America-First-advocate reignited simmering concerns about the unorthodox intelligence chief among both her longtime detractors and some Republicans who voted to confirm her earlier this year, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Emily Jacobs report. In the social media video, Gabbard describes a recent visit to Hiroshima, Japan, where she learned about the toll of the atomic bomb dropped on the city by American troops in 1945, which spurred a Japanese surrender and the end of World War II. She warned that the world faces another “nuclear holocaust” unless people “reject this path to nuclear war.”
Backlash: “She obviously needs to change her meds,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told JI of Gabbard. Kennedy, like all Republicans except Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), voted to confirm Gabbard in February. “I only saw a post that she did, which I thought was a very strange one since many people believe that, unfortunate though it was, the nuclear bomb that was dropped in World War II at Hiroshima actually saved a lot of lives, a lot of American lives,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told JI of Gabbard’s video.
Defense: Alexa Henning, Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, declined to say whether Gabbard was referring in the video to a specific nation or to specific people. “Acknowledging the past is critical to inform the future. President Trump has repeatedly stated in the past that he recognizes the immeasurable suffering, and annihilation can be caused by nuclear war, which is why he has been unequivocal that we all need to do everything possible to work towards peace,” Henning said in a statement. “DNI Gabbard supports President Trump’s clearly stated objectives of bringing about lasting peace and stability and preventing war.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
WAYNE’S WORLD
Little-known figure now leading Middle East policy at the National Security Council
Wayne Wall, an under-the-radar former military and intelligence official, is now the National Security Council’s senior director for the Middle East, a source familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod.
New face: Wall’s public record and online presence is minimal — a LinkedIn page matching his background appears to have recently been deleted, and his X account has no active posts. Searches indicate that he was, until earlier this year, active on the platform but has since deleted all of his posts and replies. Several conservative and pro-Israel leaders outside of government and on the Hill contacted about Wall said they were not familiar with him until rumors began to circulate about his appointment to the NSC, which was not announced publicly. The NSC has not responded to requests for comment about his appointment.
Rayburn roadblocks: Joel Rayburn, the Trump administration’s nominee to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, faces a difficult path to confirmation, with no Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee expected to support him, leaving the vote to move him to full Senate consideration deadlocked, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
REMEMBRANCE AND VIGILANCE
Mike Johnson: anti-Israel movement ‘puts a bounty on the heads’ of Jewish Americans
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sharply denounced the anti-Israel movement on Tuesday, describing it as making common cause with terrorists and putting “a bounty on the heads of peace-loving Jewish Americans,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “‘Free Palestine’ is the chant of a violent movement that has found common cause with Hamas,” Johnson said. “It’s a movement that has lost hold of the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between light and darkness … They proclaim that violence is righteous, that rape is justice and that murder is liberation. They have created a culture of lies that puts a bounty on the heads of peace-loving Jewish Americans.”
Bonus: Punchbowl News reports this morning that Johnson is slated to travel to Israel, arriving on June 22. Johnson will reportedly meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and address the Knesset in a rare Sunday session.
COALITION CRISIS
Knesset set to vote on toppling Netanyahu government
The Knesset is set to hold a preliminary vote today to trigger an early election — and crucial partners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition are threatening to support it. For the past week, Haredi parties have said they would vote in favor of legislation that would dissolve the Knesset and schedule an election for this fall. The parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, are threatening to jump ship because the coalition has not passed a law to continue the long-standing exemption for full-time yeshiva students from IDF conscription, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Scrambling for a solution: Without Shas and UTJ, Netanyahu’s coalition would be left with 50 members, far short of the 61-seat majority he needs to keep his government afloat. As such, Netanyahu and his allies have been frantically trying to negotiate a compromise that will keep the Haredi parties in the fold. Past laws exempting young Haredi men from military service have expired and a new one has not been passed, leading the High Court of Justice to order the government last year to actively conscript them.
Meanwhile: The IDF plans to send 54,000 draft notices in July to Haredim, who will be given conscription dates spread over the next year, the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, Brig.-Gen. Shay Tayeb, told a Knesset committee this morning. The IDF plans to stop allowing institutions to report that their students will not be enlisting and instead have individuals be responsible for their own response, which Tayeb said is meant to streamline enforcement against those who avoid the draft. In addition, the military plans to scale up its enforcement efforts, including greater cooperation with the civilian police to arrest draft-dodgers throughout the country as opposed to mostly at Ben Gurion Airport, currently the major site of enforcement.
terror tag
Treasury Department imposes sanctions on charities, individuals with Hamas connections
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Tuesday on several individuals and charities that the U.S. alleges are connected to the terrorist groups Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Treasury statement: “Today’s action underscores the importance of safeguarding the charitable sector from abuse by terrorists like Hamas and the PFLP, who continue to leverage sham charities as fronts for funding their terrorist and military operations,” Michael Faulkender, the department’s deputy secretary, said in a statement. “Treasury will continue to use all available tools to prevent Hamas, the PFLP, and other terrorist actors from exploiting the humanitarian situation in Gaza to fund their violent activities at the expense of their own people.” The sanctions will target “five individuals and five sham charities located abroad that are prominent financial supporters of Hamas’s Military Wing and its terrorist activities,” the Treasury Department said, as well as a separate fraudulent charity linked to the PFLP.
Worthy Reads
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]
Word on the Street
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…
Pic of the Day
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.
Birthdays
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…