• Todd Blanche will be sworn in as attorney general this afternoon, following last week’s 50-49 Senate vote to confirm him.
• We’re keeping an eye on the talks between Iran and Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, after the weekend yielded little progress toward reopening the waterway. President Donald Trump told Axios on Sunday that, despite Iran issuing new demands to the U.S. in order to reopen the strait, Washington is “only semi-negotiating with them” and is “low-keying it,” relying on Tehran’s economic crisis to bring it to an agreement.
• In Tehran, Mohsen Rezaei, the newly tapped head of the Islamic Republic’s national security body who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the 1980s and ’90s, issued new demands, including the end of efforts to target Iranian proxies in the region and the cessation of U.S. threats to Iran. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S mELISSA WEISS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Jerusalem “does not accept the 15-point document” agreed to last month by the U.S.-led Board of Peace and Hamas that would see the eventual disarmament of the terror group and withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip — a rare public break with the White House, which has touted the plan since it was announced.

In comments to his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel “would not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.”

The White House and Jerusalem have largely been in lockstep on issues related to Gaza. The rupture over Hamas’ disarmament is one of the more significant policy breaks between President Donald Trump and Netanyahu.

Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesperson who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that the mediating countries benefit from Hamas’ continued rule in the Gaza Strip and have no urgency to press for the terror group’s disarmament. 

That lack of seriousness, he added, makes it unlikely that Hamas will take the necessary steps to disarm. “It’s all a show, it’s a charade, a spectacle,” Conricus said. “The only way that Hamas really ceases to control the Gaza Strip is if all of their weapons are handed in — not stored, not temporarily safeguarded somewhere else, but actually handed in, and if that is verified. As long as we won’t see that happening, I don’t think that Israel is going to agree with any charade.”

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

The Takeover of the Democratic Party: In The Free Press, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) warns of the Democratic Socialists of America’s “hijacking” of the Democratic Party, and the refusal by many colleagues to stand up against the group’s growing influence. “What’s most worrisome is not just the ignorance underlying so much of the heated, abusive, and violent anti-Jewish sentiment. It’s also the cowardly amplification and kowtowing by the political class. As a Democratic member of Congress, I can attest that for a growing number of my colleagues, being anti-Israel has now become a nonnegotiable moral litmus test.” [FreePress]

Pat’s Politics: Politico’s Jason Beeferman spotlights Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a West Point graduate and former Army intelligence officer who has shifted leftward as the party has moved in the same direction. “Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Mamdani ally who trounced Goldman by harnessing voters’ anger with Israel’s war in Gaza, was invited to be one of Ryan’s five featured speakers at his campaign kickoff rally last month. ‘I’ve known Pat for 10 years, and I hate to say this,’ said one Democratic official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about their colleague. ‘But I couldn’t tell you a single thing that he genuinely, sincerely cares about or believes in, other than advancing his own political career.’” [Politico]

Failing Grade: The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle reflects on the American Association of University Professors’s decision last month to endorse Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s Democratic Senate primary. “Frankly, I’m not sure the AAUP’s endorsement even mattered. But to the extent it did, the net effect was probably a small boost for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers. The endorsement of El-Sayed will also send a message about the AAUP to legislators in other redder states, where races are often decided in the Republican primary and El-Sayed’s flavor of politics is poison.” [WashPost]

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

Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced the “Lebanon Sanctions, Stabilization and Support Act,” which sanctions those involved in supporting Hezbollah, provides funding for state-run infrastructure and civil services and expands aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces, conditioned on progress in countering Hezbollah…

The Senate on Friday passed a bill championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to sanction Russia and extend existing sanctions on Iran by an 86-11 vote, with a handful of mostly Democratic lawmakers objecting over new tariff powers granted in the bill…

Rep. Ed Case (D-HI), one of the most moderate Democrats in Congress, easily fended off a primary challenge from state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who had argued during the campaign that the state’s 1st District was in need of generational change…

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Israel was “not aligned with U.S. national security objectives,” noting, “I want there to be a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. I support Israel. I cannot support this government’s actions”…

James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, said he would not vote to send further military aid to an Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that aid beyond that should be conditioned on Israeli policies in Gaza and the West Bank, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Haverford College settled a lawsuit filed by a handful of students and the group Jews for Haverford over administrators’ handling of antisemitism on the Pennsylvania liberal arts campus…

The Information profiles Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, diving into his unorthodox leadership style and his tendency to rely on a small inner circle while ignoring outside advice — as the company approaches its IPO. Also detailed: Amodei’s South Florida meeting with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who had become friends with Amodei’s wife, Camilla Clark, about potential Anthropic funding (Kushner passed).…

Chabad of the Upper East Side and Park East Synagogue announced a new partnership that will see Chabad clergy, including longtime Rabbi Ben-Tzion Krasnianski, join the leadership of Park East alongside Rabbi Arthur Schneier…

The New Yorker reviews Wendy Wasserstein’s “An American Daughter,” a revival of which is now in previews at the Pershing Square Signature Center…

The Associated Press spotlights the Jews of Cochin, India, as the last remaining members of the community — the majority of which moved to Israel in the 20th century — work to preserve remnants of the past…

The Israeli government signed off on the redirection of approximately $333 million to the Ministry of Defense — including some $283 million from the Ministry of Economy — for urgent needs; the funds had originally been earmarked for Intel’s since-frozen expansion in Kiryat Gat…

The New York Times does a deep dive into Israeli and U.S. efforts to target Hezbollah’s funding sources and financial lifelines…

The Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco refinery amid increasing tensions between the Iran-backed group in Yemen and Riyadh; the Saudi Energy Ministry confirmed a fire at the site but did not say what caused it…

Apollo Global Management in recent months appointed partner Reed Rayman to lead its AI sector and develop relationships to help the firm land more large AI infrastructure financings, The Information reports…

The founders of Israeli AI startup Decart are in advanced talks to sell the company to a major international technology company for approximately $6 billion-$7 billion, Calcalist reports…

Noach Hacker is joining the Israel Democracy Institute as vice president of policy…

Bill Goichberg, the founder of the Continental Chess Association who grew the field of competitive chess, died at 83…

In the season finale of Larry David’s “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” former President Barack Obama joins David for a sketch about the infamous tan suit that stirred controversy during a 2014 press conference. Watch the seven-minute clip of David and Obama here.

Former director of the Jewish Museum of Vienna, she was a founder of the German-language magazine Nu devoted to Jewish politics and culture, Danielle Spera (middle) turns 69…

CEO at Royal Health Services in Beverly Hills, Calif., Robert N. Feldman… Professor emeritus of biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Shimon Schuldiner turns 80… NYC-based real estate developer, he is the founder and principal of Clipper Equity, David Bistricer turns 77… Former governor of the South African Reserve Bank, the first woman to hold that position, Gill Marcus turns 77… Conservative rabbi who served as executive director of the Interfaith Alliance, Rabbi Jack Moline turns 74… Retired co-leader of the securities litigation practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, he is the co-president of NYC’s Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, Joseph S. Allerhand… Certified registered nurse anesthetist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Edward Salkind… Author, media consultant and former film critic for The New York Post and The New York Daily News, Jami Bernard turns 70…  Former member of the California state Senate, Steven Mitchell Glazer turns 69… Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel and Rishon LeZion since 2024, Rabbi David Yosef turns 69… Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-MI), now a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Andy Levin turns 66… Professor of physics and astronomy at Tel Aviv University, Yaron Oz turns 62… Tech entrepreneur, he served as a Washington state senator until 2023, Reuven Michael Carlyle turns 61… Former member of the Florida state Senate, he authored a book about his time as one of the first employees of Yahoo, Jeremy Ring turns 56… Deputy attorney general of Israel, Sharon Afek turns 56… Regional chief technology officer in the South Texas office of Technologent, Jason P. Reyes… Senior director of development for the NYC-based Tikvah Fund, Eytan Sosnovich… Marketing and editorial consultant, Sophie Vershbow… SVP of commodities compliance at Citibank, Jacob Cohen…

• Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi arrives in Washington today, where he is slated to meet this week with President Donald Trump and other senior administration officials. The trip comes as Washington has sought to pressure Baghdad to crack down on Iranian militias operating in the country, and as the U.S. and Iran continued to trade fire over the weekend, with the U.S. striking Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz overnight after Iran hit a Cyprus-flagged container ship, prompting Iran to fire barrages of drones and missiles at Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
• Current and former government officials and policy wonks are arriving in Aspen, Colo., today ahead of the start of the Aspen Security Forum tomorrow. Will you be in Aspen? Say hello to JI’s Marc Rod, who will be covering the forum this week.
• Israelis will go to the polls in new elections on Oct. 27, MK Ofir Katz, the head of the Knesset’s House Committee, announced on Sunday. Katz’s announcement kicks off the official countdown to elections, even as candidates have for months been campaigning as the date has remained uncertain.
• The House Rules Committee is meeting today to discuss the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent and has been opposed by Orthodox Jewish groups. The committee is also set to discuss legislation about State Department funding when it meets at 4 p.m.
• The Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Greg Stanton (R-AZ), author Dara Horn and the Philos Project’s Luke Moon are among those slated to speak today at the National Coalition Against Antisemitism & Hate Conference, hosted by the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council at the National Press Club.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S EMILY JACOBS

Following the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was 71, this weekend, tributes poured in from lawmakers, administration officials and Jewish organizations, while Republicans and Democrats alike predicted Graham would be remembered as a legendary American political figure known for his ability to take political risks and find common ground in unexpected places.

Morgan Ortagus, the former deputy presidential envoy for Middle East peace in the second Trump administration and one of Graham’s closest confidantes in Washington, spoke to the senator on Saturday afternoon, hours before paramedics were called to his Capitol Hill home after he experienced an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. 

“He was extremely jazzed up in our last conversation,” Ortagus told JI. “He had just gotten off the phone with the president, and he was super excited about the Russia sanctions bill and the president deciding to go back into Iran. He could not have been happier when I spoke to him last night. He was in the best mood and in a great place. He spoke about how he felt like he was doing consequential work.”

“Nobody was expecting this. That’s for sure. Not even Lindsey was, or he wouldn’t have been running for another term,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who has had close relationships with both Graham and President Donald Trump, said of the senator’s sudden passing. “When a person cuts as wide a swath as Lindsey cuts, it is shocking. It will take some time to process the reality of it. It should really hit on Monday when we show up for work.”

“He was not afraid to be critical and he was never uncritical of friends. He believed that friends owe it to each other to try to enable them to do better,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. “He had a vision, which was in effect the normalization of relationships throughout the Middle East, an extension of the Abraham Accords. He pursued it relentlessly.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) credited Graham with doing “a masterful job of pulling” senators from across the ideological spectrum “in the same direction” in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, swiftly organizing a bipartisan congressional delegation alongside former Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as he sought to salvage his long-standing efforts to achieve Saudi-Israeli normalization. 

Read the full obituary here, with additional reflections from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Fetterman (D-PA), former CIA Director David Petraeus and Sander Gerber here.

AWOL on Antisemitism: In The Hill, Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), the co-chairs of the Senate’s antisemitism task force, call on Congress to pass the Jewish American Security Act. “Every single attack represents a violation of Americans’ freedom to safely practice their religion. Failing to confront the moral rot of antisemitism in our country is an abdication of our responsibility to uphold this fundamental right. We cannot continue to allow discrimination and violence to go unchecked. Yet despite the disturbing rise in antisemitism, not a single piece of federal legislation focused solely and directly on combating it has been passed into law since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.” [TheHill]

Lindsey’s Legacy: In The Atlantic, Mark Leibovich reflects on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) death, looking at how the South Carolina Republican navigated the Beltway bubble, local politics and his relationship with President Donald Trump. “It is perfectly on the nose that Graham’s departure would occur just a few hours before he was supposed to appear on Meet the Press. It would have been his 64th appearance on America’s longest-running public-affairs program. In the Meet the Press greenroom there used to be a prominent photo of Graham yapping away alongside his Senate sidekick, John McCain. McCain, for his part, appeared 73 times on Meet the Press, more than any other guest in history — something McCain was especially proud of. In early 2019, a few months after McCain died, Graham joked to me that his main goal in his remaining time on God’s green Earth (or God’s greenroom) was to beat McCain’s record. He never will.” [TheAtlantic]

White House Inc.: Tablet’s Armin Rosen spotlights the overlap between business and personal dealings among members of the Trump administration, using as an example Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany who serves as a senior advisor to the president on Middle East and African affairs despite his business interests in Africa. “The blurring boundaries between individual personalities and the basic functioning of the American government are characteristic of the second Trump administration, where jobs at the top of the system have been turned into prizes given out to allies and loyalists deemed worthy of having a shot at 10-figure prosperity. … But the result of this new ethos is that the pursuits of personal and public interest now bleed into one another with desensitizing frequency.” [Tablet]

A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.

In The Atlantic, former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, now the head of the country’s opposition, reflects on what he has learned about the American ethos during his time traveling the country, finding that “America is the place where the individual precedes the tribe and the story precedes history,” and as a place where loneliness “is not a glitch in the system; it is the raw material from which the system was built”…

Politico looks at how Vice President JD Vance’s rhetoric on Israel is alienating some Jewish Republican donors…

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been hospitalized and has not made any public statements since a fall that he said left him “briefly unconscious” last month, released a photo of himself amid speculation over the extent of his illness, saying that he developed pneumonia while recovering from the fall…

The Washington State Democratic Party is facing criticism from Jewish communal leaders over a change to its party platform that linked rising antisemitism in part to the actions of the Israeli government…

The New York Times looks at the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America in smaller cities in upstate New York as the group seeks to extend its footprint around the state…

Graham Platner officially withdrew his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Maine, clearing the way for the Maine Democratic Party to replace him on the November ballot…

The Anti-Defamation League took out a full-page ad in the Maine Sunday Telegram, declaring of Platner, “The tattoo should have been enough” and warning that those who “traffic in antisemitism” often are associated with other “misconduct”; ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told JI, “At this pivotal moment, antisemitism is not only being normalized in our politics, it is at risk of becoming mainstreamed across society. When conspiracy theories, Nazi-linked symbols, ties to extremists or hatred toward Jews are excused or minimized, leaders cannot look away”…

PEN America President Dinaw Mengestu resigned after seven months in the role, following the organization’s publication of an article describing the harassment and isolation faced by Jewish and Israeli writers in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and ensuing war in Gaza; Mengestu said that the decision was in part because of the group’s opposition to cultural boycotts by pro-Palestinian activists…

The Atlantic explores efforts by the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to learn the truth about their parents, who were executed in 1953 after being convicted of spying for the Soviet Union…

The U.K.’s Home Office announced it will spend £250 million ($335 million) over the next three years to increase security and policing at Jewish institutions…

The Australian royal commission of inquiry into antisemitism heard from students and faculty about the antisemitism they experienced at universities in the country that predated the Oct. 7 attacks…

Australia’s education minister announced an overhaul of the country’s education standards that will now require universities to adopt a definition of antisemitism and develop transparent processes for reporting incidents of racism…

Politico does a deep dive into efforts by Norway, led by a former national team star player-turned-activist, to oust Israel from FIFA…

European foreign ministers gathered in Brussels today to discuss a potential ban on the importing of goods from West Bank settlements…

Deutsche Welle spotlights efforts by Dennis Baum, the Jewish heir to the Simson automobile manufacturing empire, to fight back against the use of Simson vehicles in political materials distributed by the far-right Alternative for Germany party…

Counterterrorism officials in France are investigating after a military-grade weapon was discovered in a vehicle in a heavily Jewish neighborhood in the north of Paris…

The Qatar Investment Authority, which owns a 10% stake in Volkswagen AG, blocked a deal between the German automaker and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems that would have seen Volkswagen produce vehicles supporting the Iron Dome missile-defense system….

Bloomberg looks at the challenges posed to global financial institutions by the growing rift between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia that “has the potential to upend global investment flows”…

Former Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who oversaw the Gulf state’s transition into an era of massive growth that also saw Doha deepen ties with Iran, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and establish Al Jazeera, died at 74; The New York Times’ obituary of Sheikh Hamad included a photo of the former emir with senior Hamas officials…

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

French President Emmanuel Macron and Charles Dreyfus, a grandson of Alfred Dreyfus, on Sunday inaugurated a statue of the military captain, who was the target of the antisemitic campaign known as the Dreyfus Affair. The Paris ceremony marking Dreyfus’ 1906 exoneration was held on the country’s first national day dedicated to the recognition of his innocence.

Speaking at the ceremony, Macron acknowledged that “the old demons of antisemitism have never completely disappeared from our country.”

Television writer, David X. Cohen turns 60…

Scottsdale, Ariz., resident, retired teacher, Howie K. Kipnes… Actor whose films have grossed more than $10 billion, his maternal grandmother was Anna Lifschutz, a Jewish immigrant from Minsk, Harrison Ford turns 84… Ridgefield, Conn., resident, Louis Panzer… Lecturer on the federal budget process following 37 years at various federal agencies, Johnny Cahn… Co-host of “Pardon the Interruption” on ESPN since 2001, Anthony Irwin “Tony” Kornheiser turns 78… Actor, best known for her role as Frenchy in “Grease,” Edith “Didi” Conn turns 75… Author of crime and suspense novels, he is also a conservative commentator, Andrew Klavan turns 72… Guide and educator at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Rabbi Dr. Eric Marshall Lankin… Senior manager of regulatory and legislative affairs at PJM Interconnection, Stuart Widom… Country music artist, Victoria Lynn Shaw turns 64… Television executive and producer, she was the president of HBO’s network’s entertainment division until 2008 and was responsible for commissioning “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and other hit shows, Carolyn Strauss turns 63… Film director and screenwriter, Shari Springer Berman turns 63… Author and journalist, Katie Roiphe turns 58… Chief legal officer and chief policy officer at HackerOne, Ilona Cohen… Owner of the D.C. area franchises of SafeSplash Swim Schools, Jennifer Rebecca Goodman Lilintahl… Founder of Omanut Collective, Sarah Persitz… Director of major gifts for the Southeast region at American Friends of Magen David Adom, Yishai Mizrahi… Creator, writer and producer of the TV show “Casual,” which ran from 2015 to 2018, Alexander “Zander” Sutton Lehmann turns 39… Former CEO at Art of Air Events and Entertainment, Ariana Gradow… Managing director at BDT & MSD Partners, Nicholas Avery Newburger… Managing partner at Surround Ventures, Jared Kash… Television and film actor, Wyatt Jess Oleff (family name was Olefsky) turns 23… Technology investor and executive, Eric A. Kohlmann… Reporter at Punchbowl News, Max Cohen… 

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• We’re keeping an eye on the escalation in Israel’s north and in southern Lebanon as the IDF and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire. Efforts to reach a ceasefire over the weekend following an hours-long meeting on Friday between Israeli and Lebanese security officials fell short, with Hezbollah rejecting a proposal from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the Iran-backed group end its missile and drone attacks against Israel in exchange for Israel agreeing not to resume attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut. The escalation comes amid a deeper Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, and the IDF’s capture of the Crusader-era Beaufort Castle.
• On Capitol Hill,  the House is expected to vote on war powers resolutions on both Iran and Lebanon later this week, while the Senate is likely to vote on final passage of an Iran war powers resolution that cleared a procedural vote before the Memorial Day recess.
• The American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum continues today in Washington. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, author Dara Horn and historian Jonathan Sarna are slated to speak at this morning’s plenary, while JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar will address attendees this afternoon alongside Axios’ Barak Ravid and Kan’s Gili Cohen for a panel about the upcoming U.S. midterms and Israeli elections.
• The Israeli Embassy in Washington is holding a memorial this morning for slain staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were killed in a terror attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum last May.
• This afternoon, the Israeli Embassy in Washington will host an event with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the Isaac Accords Fund.
• In Israel, the Knesset is holding its first reading of a bill to dissolve the body and trigger elections. The Michigan Democratic Party’s Jewish, Black, senior and faith caucuses are jointly holding a debate this evening for the state’s open Senate seat. Democrats Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and physician Abdul El-Sayed are all expected to participate.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

The latest revelations that Graham Platner, the Democrats’ anti-establishment, far-left standard-bearer in the Maine Senate race, was sending sexually explicit texts to as many as a dozen women while he was married — an issue his wife raised to campaign staff as a potential liability — is another sign that the candidate’s extensive baggage may be too much for the party to handle. (As commentator Haviv Rettig Gur posted on X: “I’m starting to think that SS tattoo might have been a red flag.”)

Meanwhile, a New York Times interview, published over the weekend, with leading New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate Adam Hamawy about his past affiliations with Islamist extremists is going to raise more red flags for Democrats.   

Asked about his travels with Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who was connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy downplayed the spiritual leader’s jihadist sermons. “He wasn’t preaching death and destruction all the time,” Hamawy said. “He had certain views that he spoke in certain forums, but that’s not what he did every single day.”

With the calendar now turned to June, it’s yet another reminder that Democrats are on the verge of nominating some truly radical and damaged candidates for congressional office as a critical mass of primaries take place this month.

Many of the races are taking place in safely blue seats, so Democrats haven’t raised that much concern over candidates such as Hamawy, whose terror ties (including volunteer work for what was later revealed as an al-Qaida front group) at the very least, raise questions about suitability for public office.

But others, such as Platner, are running in battleground Senate seats where the stakes couldn’t be higher. In California and Montana, candidates are running in swing districts where the battle for the House majority will be fought. 

If May was the month that tested President Donald Trump’s power over the Republican Party (lesson: he’s still firmly in control of GOP voters), June will be the month that determines whether the Democratic Party is going to abandon its moderate moorings and nominate a roster of radicals.

The stakes couldn’t be higher — especially for Jewish Democrats, who have been among the leading voices alarmed by the rise of these candidates, who, not surprisingly, often hold virulently anti-Israel views and don’t have a problem mainlining antisemitic rhetoric. 

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

The Ties That Fray: Matthew Schmitz, the religion editor of The Washington Post’s opinions page, warns that “Democrats’ traditional Jewish alliance is fraying as never before” as anti-Zionist activism has crossed boundaries into antisemitism. “Antisemitism is rising on the left and the right, but its presence in the Democratic Party is particularly jarring. Jewish support for the Democratic Party was sealed during the New Deal era, when Jews rallied to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jonah Goldstein, a leader in New York’s Jewish community who made the mistake of running for mayor as a Republican in 1945, joked in Yiddish that Jews had three veltn, or worlds: di velt (this world), yene velt (the other world) and Roosevelt.” [WashPost]

Calling on Congress: In Fox News, Ruby Chen, whose son, Itay, was killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and his body held in captivity, calls on Congress to create a bipartisan committee to investigate the attacks, in which dozens of Americans were killed. “We are seeking justice, but not only for those who carried out the murders. Also for those who financed, enabled and armed them as well. … When Americans are killed in a war zone, Congress has a duty to determine what happened, why it happened and who bears responsibility. That duty does not disappear because geopolitics are complicated. It does not pause because allies may be implicated. American lives cannot be subject to selective accountability. For decades, the United States has operated on a clear standard: kidnapping and killing Americans must carry consequences.” [FoxNews]

MBS’ Brotherhood Two-Step: In Alhurra, Abdulaziz Alkhamis observes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s opposition to Muslim Brotherhood elements inside Saudi Arabia while backing Muslim Brotherhood offshoots in conflicts in the region and in Africa. “When the state wages war on the Brotherhood’s discourse at home while aligning with its affiliates abroad, it hands critics a potent argument: Why is political Islam considered a threat in Riyadh but a necessary partner in Yemen or Sudan? That question alone is enough to complicate Saudi Arabia’s new national narrative, weaken the rhetoric of the modern state, and create an opening for advocates of ‘reconciliation,’ ‘accommodation,’ and political reintegration.” [AlHurra]

Syria As the New Strait: In Foreign Policy, the Middle East Institute’s Charles Lister looks at Syria’s efforts to position itself as a “transformational corridor” and logistics hub in the region amid the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. “Syria could become one alternative overland artery in a network of new ones, spanning from the Gulf, to Egypt, to Jordan. This would be of enormous global significance — to regional states and Gulf energy producers, to customers in Europe, and, of course, for Syria itself. Iran’s shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz has also surged maritime shipping insurance rates, which, even if peace returns, are not expected to return to pre-conflict levels, thereby making overland transit structurally competitive.” [FP]

The U.S. struck several sites in Iran over the weekend after Iran downed an American MQ-1 drone, while Kuwait said early Monday that it was being targeted by missiles and drones that triggered sirens across the Gulf nation…

U.S. officials told The New York Times that American forces had helped some 70 vessels transit through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks as the key waterway remains largely closed amid stalled talks between Tehran and Washington…

The report comes days after President Donald Trump reportedly asked senior officials to make some changes to a draft ceasefire proposal with Iran, prompting a new back-and-forth with Tehran over the reworked items, which largely focus on Iran’s nuclear program…

The Financial Times spotlights Operation Jailbreak, a recent hackathon convened by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll during which defense firms and startups worked to build inter-operative weapons systems; FT reports that Driscoll wants to send some of the solutions from the hackathon to CENTCOM’s areas of operations in the Middle East within the next month to assist in countering Iranian drone threats…

The office of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said that the Syrian leader spoke by phone to Trump on Sunday about regional developments and the Syrian economy…

Reps. Jefferson Shreve (R-IN) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) introduced legislation to prohibit funding for UNIFIL, which has faced criticism for its inability to deter Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, after Oct. 1, 2027…

Reps. Danny Davis (D-IL), Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Jim Clyburn (D-SC) introduced legislation to establish a National Park honoring Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and the network of schools for Black students that he founded…

Politico reports that the New York chapter of the Working Families Party declined to endorse Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) in his reelection bid over his failure to support the Block the Bombs Act as the New York Democrat faces a primary challenge from democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier…

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, signed an executive order requiring the state’s public schools and universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in investigating complaints and directing the state’s Board of Education to provide educational materials about antisemitism, Israel and American Jewish history…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul formally signed the state’s buffer zone bill, which enacts a 50-foot security perimeter around religious institutions, into law on Sunday at the Met Council’s annual legislative breakfast…

PBS interviews the father of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky on the anniversary of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting in which Lischinsky and his partner were killed, about how he plans to honor his son’s legacy…

The Washington Post spotlights the “enduring mystery” of the post-World War II lives of Louis “Speedy” Weber and his wife, Frances, whose letters to each other while Louis was stationed in Europe during the war were recently digitized by the USO…

In The Wall Street Journal, Gil Troy reflects on the origins of anti-Zionism on the 81st anniversary of Iraq’s Farhud, the pogrom that marked a turning point for Iraqi Jews and initiated the mass exodus of the country’s Jewish community…

Far-left streamer Hasan Piker and Young Turks co-founder Cenk Uygur said they were both banned from the U.K. ahead of their scheduled upcoming appearances at London’s SXSW convening; Piker accused London of acting at “the behest of Israel,” while Uygur, who is Piker’s uncle, said the U.K.’s Home Office called him a “serious risk to the public order”…

Italian authorities canceled a Kanye West show scheduled for July in Emilia-Reggiano — as well as a concert by rapper Travis Scott slated for the following day — amid concerns from the country’s Jewish community over West’s past antisemitic rhetoric; West was previously slated to perform in the U.K., France, Switzerland and Poland at concerts that have since been canceled, with some countries revoking his entry visa…

Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal 4-3 in the UEFA Champions League match on Saturday night in Budapest, Hungary, the second year in a row the Qatar-owned team has won the league’s championship…

Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism in the country rejected an effort by the government to keep confidential official minutes from Cabinet meetings between 2020-2025 that pertain to the government’s budget for counterterrorism enforcement…

Far-right attorney Abelardo de la Espriella will face off against far-left activist Ivan Cepeda in Colombia’s presidential runoff next month after Sunday’s election in which no candidate reached the requisite 50%…

The Financial Times profiles Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, the son of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed who is being groomed to lead the Gulf nation…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of Shmuel Ben Ezra to serve as national security advisor and head of the country’s National Security Council; Ben Ezra, who oversaw the development of Israel’s Arrow 3 missile-defense system, will replace Gil Reich, who had been in the role in an acting capacity since October 2024 after Netanyahu fired Tzachi Hanegbi from the position…

Historian Ilan Shchori was named the senior vice president of B’nai B’rith International; Shchori, who is based in Tel Aviv, will also serve as the organization’s lead historian…

Longtime Newsday journalist Cara Trager died at 71…

Marion Miliband, a Holocaust survivor whose sons, David and Ed, went on to become leading figures in U.K. politics, died at 91…

Rabbi Andrew Baker, who is retiring as the American Jewish Committee’s director of international Jewish affairs after 47 years with the organization, was honored by AJC Board of Governors Chair Melanie Nelkin at last night’s plenary session at the AJC Global Forum in Washington.

Comedian, writer, actor, director and producer, Amy Schumer turns 45… 

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist and conductor, he has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard, Yehudi Wyner turns 97… Holocaust survivor as a child, he served as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel for 10 years and twice as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau turns 89… NYC-based attorney, author of two books regarding the history and operations of El Al, owner of 40,000-plus pieces of memorabilia related to El Al, Marvin G. Goldman turns 87… Grammy Award-winning classical pianist, Richard Goode turns 83… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Shimon Ohayon turns 81… Retired attorney in Berkeley, Calif., Thomas Andrew Seaton… Pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area, longtime AIPAC activist, Elliot Charles Lepler, MD… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui and the Hilonit Tzionit parties, Eti Livni turns 78… Founding editor of The American Interest, a bimonthly public policy magazine that is on hiatus since 2020, Adam M. Garfinkle turns 75… Former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News and co-author with Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler turns 71… Senior business editor at NPR for 25 years until his scathing review of liberal bias at the network in 2024, now a contributing editor at The Free Press, Uri Paul Berliner… Founding rabbi of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, N.Y., Rabbi Moshe Weinberger turns 69… Former IDF officer and now a London based political scientist and journalist, Ahron “Ronnie” Bregman turns 68… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party for 16 years ending in 2015, Amnon Cohen turns 66… Owner of MLB’s Athletics, his parents were the co-founders of Gap, Inc., he is a board member of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation, John J. Fisher turns 65… Poet, performance artist and essayist, Adeena Karasick turns 61… Founding editor and publisher of the Dayton Jewish Observer, Marshall J. Weiss… Television personality and matchmaker, Sigalit “Siggy” Flicker turns 59… Actor, voice actor and film director, Danielle Harris turns 49… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer, Spencer J. Ackerman turns 46… Partner in Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, Daniel Tannebaum… President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Yael Eckstein turns 42… Musician, songwriter, author, actor and blogger, Ari Seth Herstand turns 41… Former CEO of The Good Food Institute, Ilya Sheyman turns 40… Political reporter for NBC News until last year, now a newspaper editor in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald… Senior writer at Barron’s covering the Federal Reserve, Nicole Goodkind… Head of responsible AI policy at Palantir, Naomi S. Kadish… Executive business partner at Lyft, Isabel Keller… NYC-born Israeli pair skater, she competed for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hailey Esther Kops turns 24…

• King Charles III and Queen Camilla land in Washington today for their first state visit to the U.S. since assuming the throne. They’ll arrive to a city reeling from this weekend’s attempted attack on Trump administration officials at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. More below from JI’s Marc Rod, who was attending the event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.
• The king and queen will be welcomed by President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, and will have afternoon tea before attending a White House garden party.
• Trump is expected to convene a Situation Room meeting — sans King Charles — on Iran as the countries remain at an impasse amid stalled talks. The meeting comes days after plans for White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to go to Islamabad for a second round of talks were scrapped, with Trump telling Fox News on Sunday, “If they want to talk, they can come to us or they can call us.” Tehran has reportedly offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war without resolving its disputes with Washington over the future of the Iranian nuclear program.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is in Moscow today, where he is slated to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog is in Kazakhstan today, where he is slated to meet with President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev.
• Israel Tech Week kicks off today in Miami. Speakers include Daniel Flesch, Phil Goldfeder and Gabe Groisman.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night began normally enough — a bustle of reporters, administration officials and members of Congress among other A-listers streaming from the packed lobby of the Washington Hilton down into the basement ballroom.

White House Correspondents’ Association President Weija Jiang, a CBS News White House reporter, finished her introductory remarks, and the thousands of guests packed into the ballroom tucked into their salads.

Then, a loud, shattering bang rang out from the other side of the ballroom. Initially, I didn’t think anything of it — I thought someone had dropped a large tray of food (as President Donald Trump said later, he thought the same thing).

Videos and other accounts of the evening indicate that someone from the security staff shouted from the front of the room that guests should get down. I didn’t hear it. My first indication that something was wrong was when I started seeing other guests ducking under the tables and security officers drawing their guns.

I tried to duck under the tablecloth, but no luck — another occupant of the table was already underneath, and there was no room. My heart pounding, I was forced to do my best to stay low — but I was in the backmost row of tables, right by a door, sitting directly in the aisle.

If a shooter came into the ballroom from behind me, I was a sitting duck. I was completely helpless and exposed.

Two thoughts ran through my head. The main one: I’m getting married in six days. I can’t die now. The second: I can’t believe this is happening to me again. (For those readers who are newer to Jewish Insider — I was also on scene for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.)

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

Riyadh’s Reluctance: Foreign Policy’s Steven Cook considers why Saudi Arabia is not playing a more central role in the U.S. and Israeli conflict with Iran. “This is not to suggest that Saudi Arabia should get into the fight, but it is revealing that a country that billed itself as a rising power and the most important country in the Middle East is betwixt and between when its neighborhood is burning down. The Saudis clearly have interests at stake, but rather than taking action, they have been issuing strongly worded statements while others, including their adversaries, are shaping the region. It seems that Riyadh would be better off taking concrete steps to protect its interests. What is the saying about it’s better to be at the table than be the meal?” [FP]

Feeding Israel to the Left: In his Substack “The Abrahamic Metacritique,” Hussein Aboubakr Mansour raises concerns about the willingness of Democratic leaders to shift leftward on issues related to Israel amid pressure from the activist left. “The establishment’s reasoning is basic strategic calculation: the left will not relent on Israel; a civil war inside the party over the Jewish state would destroy the coalition; therefore, the rational move is to concede this issue, preserve party unity, and proceed with the moderate agenda on everything else: affordability, climate, migration, AI, etc. Feed this one thing to the beast, and the beast will be satisfied. It is an intelligent calculation, a genius one, really, but it is also a catastrophic one, because it rests on a complete misapprehension of what is being conceded and to whom.” [AbrahamicMetacritique]

Battle Royal: For Fox News, presidential historian Tevi Troy does a deep dive into the history of visits to the U.S. from U.K. royals. “When [Queen Elizabeth II] visited Eisenhower in 1957, she helped smooth over tensions that had emerged between Britain and the U.S. as a result of the Suez Crisis. … And now, as King Charles embarks on his first visit to the U.S. in President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. and Britain are in the midst of a disagreement over the war with Iran. Charles is not a political ruler, but perhaps his visit, like his mother’s in 1957, can smooth over tensions and help maintain the special relationship America has long had with the United Kingdom.” [FoxNews]

Axios reports that during the active conflict with Iran in March, Israel sent the United Arab Emirates an Iron Dome battery, interceptors and several dozen IDF troops to operate the missile-defense system; a senior Emirati official told Axios, “We are not going to forget it,” while a second official said, “It was a real eye-opening moment. To see who our real friends are”…

A new memo from the State Department acknowledges that the U.S.’ decision to launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran came — at least in part — at Israel’s request, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports… 

An 11-year-old Israeli girl who was critically wounded in an Iranian cluster bomb attack on her home in Bnei Brak earlier this month died of her injuries…

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Tucker Carlson suggested that he was given advance notice of the joint U.S.-Israel operation targeting Iran in late February, saying he received a text message at 10 p.m. ET on Feb. 27 — hours before the start of the operation — that read, “We’re going”; Carlson did not say who sent the message, acknowledging only that it was not President Donald Trump or Vice President JD Vance…

The WSJ notes that at the last meeting between Trump and Carlson, the president displayed a letter from evangelical leader Franklin Graham calling Carlson an antisemite…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on a Chinese oil refinery and more than three dozen shipping firms and vessels tied to Iran’s oil export industry…

The New York Times examines the Trump administration’s “haphazard” approach to sanctions on Russia and Iran as Moscow and Tehran leverage their oil reserves amid a volatile market…

The Financial Times looks at the United Arab Emirates’ recent request that Pakistan repay $3.5 billion in loans, citing Islamabad’s deepening ties with Saudi Arabia and what the UAE “considers Pakistan’s meek response to Iranian attacks on the Gulf”…

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed’s son-in-law Mohammed bin Hamad Al Nahyan and EDGE Group CEO Faisal Al Bannai — both of whom advise MBZ — visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., and made a swing through the U.S. to meet with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Jared Kushner, investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and defense firm Anduril, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports…

Talks between the U.S. and Israel on the next 10-year memorandum of understanding are expected to begin next month, and will include Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, the director-general of Israel’s Defense Ministry, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter representing Israel and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and State Department senior advisor Michael Needham…

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) dropped his opposition to Kevin Warsh’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve, clearing the way for Warsh to assume the role when Jerome Powell’s term ends next month…

A federal judge in Texas halted the deportations of six family members of an Egyptian man who firebombed demonstrators, killing an elderly woman, at a Boulder, Colo., march last year raising awareness about the Israeli hostages in captivity in Gaza…

Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner announced on Friday the launch of Thrive Eternal, a capital holding company that will acquire a minority, non-controlling stake in the San Francisco Giants as its first major partnership, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports…

The New York Times interviews Hollywood agent Michael Glantz, who went viral after being filmed eating his burrata salad at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday as other guests around him ducked for cover…

Counterterrorism authorities investigating a string of antisemitic attacks in London arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of preparing to carry out terrorist acts; more than two dozen people have been arrested in connection with attacks against the country’s Jewish community since late March…

The Telegraph goes behind the scenes of the Met Police’s effort to track down arsonists targeting synagogues in the London area…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected to push for a mediated resolution to reach a plea deal in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, bucking pressure from the White House to pardon the prime minister…

Israel’s Cabinet signed off on the nomination of Michael Lotam to be the country’s first ambassador to Somaliland, four months after Jerusalem recognized the sovereignty of the East African nation…

The Cabinet also approved the appointment of former Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely to serve as the head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate within the Prime Minister’s Office, which has been vacant for more than two years…

Israel launched a wide-scale, multimillion-dollar campaign – led by former Trump administration official Brad Parscale — to create pro-Israel web content that would be picked up by AI platforms…

Cardiologist Eugene Braunwald, who as a child fled Nazi Europe and went on to reshape how modern medicine approaches heart attacks, died at 96…

Diplomat Lionel Rosenblatt, whose experiences living in Haifa, Israel, as a child inspired him to join the U.S. Foreign Service and later lead Refugees International, died at 82…

Stars of the upcoming Keshet 12 series “Unconditional” attended the world premiere screening of the drama, about a mother-daughter pair stranded in Russia, ahead of its broadcast tonight, at the Cinematheque in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Showrunner, director, screenwriter and producer, Brian Koppelman turns 60…

Financial executive, he retired in 2014 as head of marketing for money manager Van Eck Global, Harvey Hirsch turns 85… Nonprofit executive who has managed the 92nd Street Y, the Robin Hood Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy turns 81… U.S. senator (R-WV), Jim Justice turns 75… Physician and a former NASA astronaut, she is a veteran of three shuttle flights with more than 686 hours in space, Ellen Louise Shulman Baker, M.D., M.P.H. turns 73… Director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority until 2020, he was previously a member of Knesset and deputy director of the Shin Bet, Yisrael Hasson turns 71… VP at Covington Fabric & Design, Donald Rifkin… Biologist and professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, he won the 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine, Andrew Zachary Fire turns 67… Co-founder of Casamigos Tequila and owner of restaurants, bars and lounges worldwide, Rande Gerber turns 64… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui party, Yigal Yasinov turns 60… CEO of ZAM Asset Management, Elliot Mayerhoff… Founder and CEO of NYC-based Gotham Ghostwriters, he served as a senior advisor for Sen. Joseph Lieberman in his vice presidential and presidential campaigns, Daniel Gerstein turns 59… Israeli actor, entertainer and television host, Yitzhak “Aki” Avni turns 59… Attorney and journalist, she is a contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick turns 59… Author, political analyst and nationally syndicated op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank turns 58… U.S. senator (D-NJ) since 2013, he was previously the mayor of Newark, Cory Booker turns 57… Israeli television and radio journalist and former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home party, Yinon Magal turns 57… Professor of science writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Seth Mnookin turns 54… Cinematographer and director, Rachel Morrison turns 48… Identical twin brothers, between the two of them they won 11 Israeli championships in the triathlon between 2001 and 2012, Dan and Ran Alterman both turn 46… Israeli screenwriter and producer, she has written numerous advertisements and screenplays, Savion Einstein turns 44… VP of AIPAC’s mid-Atlantic region, Leah Berry… Television and film actress, Ariel Geltman “Ari” Graynor turns 43… Basketball coach, analyst and writer, Benjamin Falk turns 38… Senior creative director at Trilogy Interactive, Jessica Ruby… Head of climate data at Watershed, Jonathan H. Glidden… Research fellow at Emory University law school, David Jonathan Benger… Entrepreneurial investor, Noah Swartz turns 33… Medical resident at UCLA Health, Amir Kashfi… 

• President Donald Trump will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. ET from the White House alongside senior military officials to discuss the weekend operation to rescue a U.S. servicemember whose plane was shot down in Iran. Yesterday, Trump warned that Iran’s power plants and bridges would be targeted on Tuesday over Iran’s continued blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. More below.
• Shortly after the press conference, Trump will deliver a Passover greeting toJewish leaders at the White House.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

As the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran extends into its sixth week, the next 36 hours may be some of the most pivotal, offering clarity as to whether an end is in sight — or whether an escalation is imminent.

On the table now, according to Axios, is a proposed two-phased ceasefire deal, lasting 45 days, that would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz and give negotiators two to three weeks to reach a broader agreement to end the war. As a signal that the U.S. is open to the agreement, President Donald Trump extended by 24 hours the deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait, setting a new deadline of Tuesday night ET.

The core issues remain: Tehran’s closure of the key waterway, and the fate of the country’s enriched uranium. But a deal between Washington and Tehran would include broader issues, including potential sanctions relief in exchange for Tehran’s promise that it will not pursue nuclear weapons. Iran has signaled that it will not reopen the Strait for a temporary ceasefire and is seeking a more permanent resolution.

The president paired threats with optimism, leaning into the current debate with a conflicting mix of tough talk — warning yesterday that strikes targeting Iran’s power plants and bridges would take place on Tuesday in the absence of a deal — and hopes of an 11th-hour diplomatic breakthrough. 

A diplomatic agreement would see a winding down of the war that would likely allow Iran to retain some of its ballistic missile capabilities — a compromise that is unlikely to sit well in Israel, which continues to face fire from Iranian forces. 

On the other hand, Trump’s threatened destruction of key Iranian infrastructure could further deteriorate conditions in the Islamic Republic, where a regime-imposed internet blackout has ensured minimal on-the-ground reporting on weeks of war. And as always, the president has one eye on the markets, which will open today after the holiday weekend.

The U.S. and Israel have already made serious strategic strides by killing dozens of members of Iran’s senior leadership and severely crippling Tehran’s nuclear program. The question now is whether that will be enough for Trump to declare victory in accordance with the rough timeline he’s given for U.S. operations in Iran — or whether the U.S. will double down on its military operations.

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

Well-Oiled Machine: The Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip looks at the Iran war’s impact on the U.S. economy. “[President Donald Trump’s] strategic motives aren’t that different: to deny a hostile power the means to dominate the region, and to protect Israel. Where Trump differs is in the economics. Past presidents believed that the free flow of oil was one of those global public goods that the U.S. was uniquely equipped, even obliged, to safeguard. … Trump’s revamping of the U.S. role in world security and trade now extends to oil. No longer does the U.S. see itself as the guarantor of international stability and norms, but rather as a self-interested actor using control of oil to enhance its own power.” [WSJ]

The Piker Problem: In MS Now, Michael Cohen cautions that far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has a history of making antisemitic and anti-American comments, is a “political distraction and potential liability” to Democrats as they seek to win back the Senate and House in the midterms. “Indeed, if the paragon of liberal politics — and the person who can attract young voters — is a guy who regularly makes antisemitic statements, blames America for 9/11 and can’t even endorse a Democratic presidential standard-bearer, perhaps the problem is not Piker’s critics, but rather those who feel they must defend him.” [MSNOW] 

Man, Oh Man: In The Conversation, Miriam Eve Mora, managing director of the University of Michigan’s Raoul Wallenberg Institute, does a deep dive into the prevalence of antisemitism in the “manosphere” movement. “Antisemitic rhetoric often portrayed Jewish men as feminine or fragile, and inherently different. Those beliefs extended into the most severe antisemitic tropes and beliefs. … Today’s manosphere not only builds on this legacy but also presents something new. Its embrace of antisemitic conspiracy theories allows men who see themselves as victims to explain multiple grievances at once without confronting their own shortcomings.” [TheConversation]

President Donald Trump is mulling promoting Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, to a more senior role following the ouster of Attorney General Pam Bondi last week…

Trump is also considering replacing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard over her defense of Joe Kent, who resigned last month as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center…

Immigration authorities in Los Angeles arrested the nieces of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major Gen. Qassem Soleimani; Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the women’s legal statuses were revoked and they would be deported to Iran…

The U.S. quietly expelled Iran’s deputy ambassador to the U.N. in December, one of several below-the-radar expulsions of diplomats from the Islamic Republic since the fall…

Argentina declared Mohsen Soltani Tehrani, Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Buenos Aires and the most senior Iranian diplomat in the South American country, persona non grata, giving him 48 hours to leave the country… 

The New York Times looks at the strategic importance of the string of islands under Iranian control in and around the Strait of Hormuz, as Trump considers whether or not to seize some of the islands…

Israeli rescue services said the bodies of four people — two octogenarians, a man in his 40s and a woman in her mid-30s — were recovered from the site of an Iranian missile strike in Haifa on Sunday…

A drone factory in Petah Tikva, Israel, was destroyed in an Iranian drone strike over the weekend…

Politico reports on changes made quietly by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum during the first year of Trump’s second term, including the removal of online resources about racism in the U.S. and the renaming of a workshop on the “Fragility of Democracy and the Rise of the Nazis” to “Before the Holocaust: German Society and the Nazi Rise to Power”…

NPR’s public editor addressed concerns that the broadcaster’s coverage of last month’s Michigan synagogue attack gave unfair weight to the Lebanon-based relatives of the synagogue attacker, finding that “voices from Temple Israel are absent. I couldn’t find any stories that quote rabbis, congregation members or the families of the children who had to flee the building … NPR or Michigan Public Radio pulled away from the story at Temple Israel too soon”…

Immigration officials detained Salah Sarsour, the head of Wisconsin’s largest mosque, claiming that the Palestinian man, who moved to the U.S. in 1993, lied on his green card application; Sarsour had been convicted by an Israeli court for throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of IDF soldiers… 

Trump made an appearance at the Passover program at the Trump National Doral Miami…

Citadel’s Ken Griffin, Pura Vida Miami CEO Omer Horev and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were in attendance at Inter Miami CF’s Nu Stadium debut in South Florida…

A judge in New York ruled that the holding company owned by David Nahmad must restitute an Amedeo Modigliani painting to the descendants of a French Jewish antiques dealer who owned the work before it was confiscated by the Nazis during World War II…

Pepsi announced it will withdraw its sponsorship of this summer’s Wireless Festival as organizers face backlash over the decision to tap Kanye West to headline the festival’s three nights…

Authorities in London arrested four men in connection with the arson attack last month that destroyed several Hatzola ambulances in the heavily Jewish suburb of Golders Green; three of the arrests were made last week, while a fourth suspect was arrested while attending a court hearing for the first three…

The International Criminal Court is moving forward with disciplinary proceedings against the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who is facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment; the first complaints about Khan’s behavior toward subordinates came weeks before he announced his intent to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant…

European Parliament Member Rima Hassan, a member of the far-left France Unbowed party, is facing charges in Paris that she glorified terrorism on social media after sharing a post about Kozo Okamoto, a Japanese national who took part in a 1972  terror attack at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in which 26 people, mostly Christian pilgrims, were killed…

Authorities in the Netherlands are investigating a small explosion outside a pro-Israel center run by a group called Christians for Israel in the city of Nijkerk…

The Wall Street Journal looks at Saudi Arabia’s efforts to scale down its ambitious Vision 2030 project amid budget shortfalls and ongoing political uncertainty in the region…

Former Washington Post Middle East editor Erin Cunningham was named the news director for the Associated Press’ Jerusalem bureau…

Rabbi David Wolpe is joining The Dispatch as a contributing writer…

Israeli writer and poet Tzruya ‘Suki’ Lahav, who briefly played violin with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, died at 74…

People participated in a communal Passover Seder on the first night of the holiday in an underground parking lot in Tel Aviv, Israel, that since the start of the war with Iran has served as a community bomb shelter.

Founder and chairman of Cognex Corporation, a provider of machine vision systems, he is a major donor to Technion, Robert J. Shillman turns 80…

Educator often considered the founder of the modern small schools movement, she was a winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship in 1987, Deborah Meier turns 95… Holocaust survivor, she moved to Israel in 1978, visual artist, textile designer and art teacher, Helen Berman turns 90… Professor emeritus of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, Mark Mordecai Green turns 89… Former head of MTV Documentary Films, she has won 32 individual Primetime Emmy Awards, Sheila Nevins turns 87… Academy Award-winning director of many famous films, Barry Levinson turns 84… Santa Monica, Calif.-based poet, critic and teacher, she earned her Ph.D. studying Jewish American literature, Nancy Shiffrin turns 82… Founder and CEO of Emmis Communications, he was the owner of the Seattle Mariners until 1992, Jeff Smulyan turns 79… Political activist, artist and author, she is best known for her speeches at the Republican National Conventions in 1992 and 1996, Mary Fisher turns 78… Former chair of the Federal Election Commission during the Obama administration, she is a lecturer at UC Berkeley Law School, Ann Ravel turns 77… Los Angeles-based playwright, performer and teacher of autobiographical storytelling, Stacie Chaiken turns 72… Senior advisor of the Nellis Corporation and co-chair of the Washington metropolitan area real estate division of AIPAC, Randall J. Levitt turns 72… Movie director, producer, writer and editor, winner of two Academy Awards for best documentary feature, Rob Epstein turns 71… Scholar of piyyut (ancient and medieval Hebrew poetry), head of the Fleischer Institute for the Study of Hebrew Poetry, Shulamit Elizur turns 71… Philanthropist Jeanie Schottenstein… Professor of constitutional law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, Michael J. Gerhardt turns 70… Senior political analyst for CNN and a former senior editor at The Atlantic, Ronald J. Brownstein turns 68… Director, screenwriter and producer of television comedies, Steven Levitan turns 64… Former teacher for 23 years at Congregation Tikvat Jacob in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Deborah Granow… Chair and CEO of the Motion Picture Association, he was previously the U.S. ambassador to France, Charles Hammerman Rivkin turns 64… Reporter for The New York Times covering the Justice Department, Glenn Thrush turns 59… Screenwriter, producer, actor, director, best known for creating the HBO television series “Entourage,” Douglas Reed “Doug” Ellin turns 58… Serial entrepreneur, he has built, operated and sold over $3.3 billion of internet media companies, Richard Rosenblatt turns 57… Israel’s consul general in New York from 2007-2010, now CEO of Israeli private equity fund Amelia Investments, Asaf Shariv turns 54… Founder and chief investment officer of Hong Kong-based Oasis Management Company, he serves on the board of the Ohel Leah Synagogue in Hong Kong, Seth Hillel Fischer… VP of strategic philanthropy and major gifts at the American Jewish Committee, Jay Haberman turns 52… Actor and filmmaker, he is best known for his role on the television series “Scrubs,” Zachary Israel “Zach” Braff turns 51… Teacher of classical mandolin at Bard College, Joseph Brent turns 50… Resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute since 2019, he is the founding editor of National Affairs, Yuval Levin turns 49… Co-founder and executive editor of Modern Loss and story editor for Chalkbeat, Gabrielle Birkner… Member of the Knesset for Likud since 2019, now serving as the minister of communications, Shlomo Karhi turns 44… Owner-chef of Ramen Hood in Los Angeles, he was the winner of the second season of “Top Chef,” Ilan Hall turns 44… Executive director of the Jack Miller Family Foundation, Jacob Millner… Head coach of the New York Institute of Technology Division II NCAA men’s basketball team, Evan Conti turns 33… Son of Campbell Brown and Dan Senor, Asher Liam Senor turns 17…

• Mahmoud Abbas, the 90-year-old longtime president of the Palestinian Authority, is in a hospital in Ramallah this morning. According to the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency Wafa, he is undergoing routine medical checkups. 
• We’re monitoring the situation in Iran where the death toll has risen in recent days as the regime ramps up its crackdown on the nationwide protests. President Donald Trump is set to be briefed tomorrow on options to respond to the escalation. More below.
• Trump is expected to announce the global leaders of the U.S.-backed Gaza Board of Peace this week. The first meeting of the board is set to take place later this month on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The board’s launch comes as Israel prepares plans for a potential ground operation in Gaza in response to Hamas’ refusal to disarm.
• Qatar is signing the U.S.-led Pax Silica declaration today, joining the effort to strengthen AI and semiconductor supply chains. The United Arab Emirates is set to sign onto the declaration later this week. Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Britain and Australia are already part of the coalition.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

As another election year gets underway, two liberal Jewish politicians offered a window last week into just how fraught the issue of Israel has become in some Democratic primaries — and how even pushing back against claims that Israel is committing genocide is inviting intraparty political backlash, at least in the deepest-blue parts of the country. 

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) faces a primary challenge from the left in Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. When Goldman formally launched his reelection campaign last week, he was asked by a reporter if he believes Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Goldman equivocated — a notable shift for a lawmaker who in February 2024 signed onto a letter calling claims of genocide in Gaza “false.” 

“I think there needs to be a serious investigation into what went on in Gaza during the war,” Goldman said. “What you call it is I think more of a legal matter, in my view, but what we all can agree on is that the destruction [in Gaza] was unconscionable and devastating and I am really grateful that it is over and the hostages are out and we can move forward.” (Lander, in contrast, has accused Israel of genocide.)

Across the country, in San Francisco, California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat running to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), was asked the same question at a candidate forum. His two primary opponents — Connie Chan, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — both raised placards that said “yes.” Wiener did not raise either the “yes” or “no” placard. 

Wiener followed up with a post on X claiming that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “demands more discussion and certainly more time,” which, after receiving blowback on social media, he subsequently deleted. He then backtracked completely: On Sunday afternoon, Wiener posted a video to social media stating that he’s “stopped short of calling [Israel’s actions in Gaza] a genocide, but I can’t anymore.”  

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

Iran on the Brink: In The Atlantic, Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Jack A. Goldstone, the author of Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction, weigh the likelihood that the Iranian regime will collapse imminently. “One of us, Jack, has written at length about the five specific conditions necessary for a revolution to succeed: a fiscal crisis, divided elites, a diverse oppositional coalition, a convincing narrative of resistance, and a favorable international environment. This winter, for the first time since 1979, Iran checks nearly all five boxes… The final and decisive catalyst for revolution is an international environment that helps sink the regime rather than bolster it. After North Korea, Iran may be the most strategically isolated country in the world. Over the past two years — since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which Ayatollah Khamenei alone among major world leaders openly endorsed — Iran’s regional proxies and global allies have been decimated or deposed.” [Atlantic]

Crackdown Crisis: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius posits that the Iranian regime’s protest crackdowns, which have occurred a number of times in recent years, have only served to delay an eventual effective uprising. “The Iranian regime is on a one-way street to disaster. A senior European diplomat in Tehran shared that assessment with me several years ago, and it remains true. Iran has powerful security tools, but they’re getting rusty. The regime couldn’t protect its proxies Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. And most important, Iran couldn’t shield itself from Israel’s systematic assault in June. … The wild card this year is whether the regime’s hard-liners have lost their edge. Like the Soviet Union during its last years, the security agencies may have lost their ideological commitment and discipline. They’ve watched helplessly as their proxy forces were crushed in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. And they’ve suffered the same scourge of inflation and economic stagnation as the rest of the nation. They’re not broken, but they appear more fragile than in the past.” [WashPost]

Read His Lips: In Semafor, Jason Greenblatt, who served as the White House Middle East envoy during the first Trump administration, posits that Iran should take seriously President Donald Trump’s warnings that the U.S. could back the protesters demonstrating against the regime if Tehran continues to use violence against them. “Trump has established a record of acting when he draws lines. He views the June conflict with Iran — short, focused, and devastating to its strategic military assets — as proof that decisive and limited force can restore balance rather than prolong instability. In his view, hesitation invites escalation. Clear consequences reduce it. Diplomacy is preferable, but diplomacy without credibility is meaningless. … What separates Trump from many of his predecessors is not an appetite for war, but a refusal to tolerate endless gray zones. His worldview is not anti-Iranian or anti-Venezuelan. It is anti-destabilization. That applies equally to nuclear brinkmanship in the Middle East and narco-state behavior in the Western Hemisphere that corrodes security at home and abroad.” [Semafor]

The Torture Chronicles: In The Atlantic, Russia-Israeli academic Elizabeth Tsurkov recounts her 902-day captivity in Iraq. “The interrogators kept threatening me with torture, but in those opening weeks, they refrained from acting on the threats — I assume on orders from higher up. Instead, because they were clearly untrained in conducting interrogations that did not involve torture, they fell back on interrogation methods they had probably seen in movies. To intimidate me, Maher would blow smoke in my face, but because he was using an e-cigarette, all I got was a gust of strawberry-smelling vape. It wasn’t quite the tough-guy routine he was after. Later, he tried the ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine on me but undermined the effect by playing both characters himself, on alternate days, which just made him seem deranged.” [Atlantic] 

President Donald Trump told The New York Times that neither the Republican Party nor the MAGA movement have space for antisemitism, saying that the GOP doesn’t “need” or “like” people who espouse antisemitism; the president also called himself “the least antisemitic person probably there is anywhere in the world”… 

Far-right commentator Tucker Carlson joined a lunch with Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday, later attending a meeting between the president and oil and gas executives regarding Venezuela…

Federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, over renovations made to the agency’s Washington headquarters; Powell released a video alleging that the investigation came as a result of his clashes with the Trump administration over interest rates…

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) denied the White House’s allegation that she had tipped Code Pink off to a lunch the president was having at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in September, where the far-left activist group confronted the president in a now-viral incident…

Steve Bannon is reportedly laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid in an effort to push an America First agenda during the primary season. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has appeared on Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, told Axios, “The Bannon campaign will merge the foreign policy of Rand Paul with the tax policy of Elizabeth Warren”…

Police in New Jersey arrested a man suspected of throwing a rock at a yeshiva school bus on the New Jersey Turnpike, injuring an 8-year-old girl; the man, Hernando Garciamorales, had been linked to a series of prior rock-throwing incidents…

Google co-founder Larry Page bought two Miami properties for $173.4 million, amid an influx of Silicon Valley execs to South Florida as California gears up for a referendum on a tax on billionaires… 

A U.K. medical tribunal cleared the rector of the University of Glasgow of misconduct allegations for social media posts and an op-ed in which he praised members of Hamas and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine…

Israel struck at least seven Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon on Sunday, days after the Lebanese Armed Forces claimed that the Iran-backed terror group had fully disarmed…

Israeli police detained Tzachi Braverman, the chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for questioning over allegations that he attempted to hinder an investigation into the leaking of a classified military document in 2024…

The Associated Press reports on an ethics debate inside Israel over Sara Netanyahu’s retouching of official government photos…

The U.S. conducted strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, weeks after an attack by an ISIS-aligned member of Syria’s security forces killed two U.S. servicemembers and a civilian interpreter…

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, met with Ben Black, CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, in Doha on Monday…

The Qatari prime minister also met with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg and discussed “the close strategic relations” between the two countries, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry…

A Bahraini court sentenced political activist Ebrahim Sharif to six months in prison and a fine over a recent interview in Lebanon in which Sharif criticized Arab states and said more support should be given to the Palestinians…

In The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, Taiwanese-American economist David Woo reflects on his marriage to Israeli architect Margalit Shinar, who is 40 years his senior… 

Jewish actors Timothée Chalamet and Seth Rogen took home awards at the Golden Globes — Chalamet for his role in the movie “Marty Supreme” and Rogen for his satire show “The Studio”…

Richard Hirschhaut is joining Jewish National Fund-USA as its national campaign director for the West Coast and Mountain states after six years as the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Los Angeles office…

Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism tapped Miriam Zivin as the advocacy group’s new board president, following a weekslong dispute between the organization’s founder and board, eJewishPhilanthropy’sJay Deitcher reports…

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) delivered the opening remarks at a Tzedek Association fundraising event in Deal, N.J….

Chabad of Westport hosted former hostage Eliya Cohen and survivor of the Nova music festival massacre Ziv Aboud, who recently got engaged and have been touring the U.S. in recent weeks, sharing their stories and working to fight misinformation…

Hessy Levinsons Taft, whose baby photo was used on the cover of the Sonne ins Haus pro-Nazi magazine as a depiction of the ideal Aryan infant by editors who did not know she was Jewish, died at 91…

Dr. Jerome Lowenstein, a physician who later became publisher of the Bellevue Literary Press, which published the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction, died at 92…

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (right) met with his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, in Jerusalem on Sunday, as part of a nine-day trip by the Japanese foreign minister that will also include visits to the West Bank, Qatar, the Philippines and India. According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Motegi explained during the meeting Japan’s position on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank and “stated that Japan will play a proactive role in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East, in improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza and in engaging in the early-recovery and reconstruction efforts.”

Author of over 40 books, most widely recognized for his crime fiction, Walter Ellis Mosley turns 74…

Real estate and casino magnate, he is a minority owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox, Neil Gary Bluhm turns 88… U.S.-born biochemist, he moved to Israel in 1973, winner of the Israel Prize (1999) and professor emeritus at Hebrew U, Howard “Chaim” Cedar turns 83… Stephen Moses… Israel-born jewelry designer, editor and businesswoman, she was the first lady of Iceland from 2003 until 2016, Dorrit Moussaieff turns 76… NYC-based psychiatrist and president of the Child Mind Institute, Harold S. Koplewicz, MD turns 73… Radio personality on Sirius XM, Howard Stern turns 72… British novelist and grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien (one of the latter’s two Jewish grandchildren), Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien turns 67… Senior director of philanthropic engagement at Jewish Funders Network, she was a consultant for DreamWorks on the film “The Prince of Egypt,” Tzivia Schwartz Getzug… Midday news anchor at Washington’s WTOP Radio, Debra Feinstein turns 64… Board member and former chair of Hillel International, she is also a board chair of Mem Global (f/k/a Moishe House), Tina Price… Member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Jon S. Cardin turns 56… Identical twin comedians and actors, Randy Sklar and Jason Sklar turn 54… Filmmaker known for parody films, Aaron Seltzer turns 52… First-ever woman to be an MLB coach, in 2024 she was a co-founder of a women’s pro baseball league, Justine Siegal Ph.D. turns 51… Rabbinical advisor of Shabtai, Shmully Hecht turns 51… Recording artist and musical entertainer, Yaakov Shwekey turns 49… Professional golfer, Rob Oppenheim turns 46… Two-time Olympian (2012 and 2016) in beach volleyball, now a chiropractor and performance coach, Josh Binstock turns 45… Founder of The Jewish Majority, Jonathan Schulman… Director of major gifts in the mid-Atlantic region for American Friends of Magen David Adom, Ira Gewanter… Executive director of the Hillel at Virginia Tech, Amanda Herring… VP of finance and operations at NYC-based Hornig Capital Partners, Daniel Silvermintz… Israeli tennis player, Lina Glushko turns 26…

• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are traveling to Moscow today ahead of their meeting tomorrow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Witkoff and Kushner, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, met yesterday in Miami with senior aides to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Pope Leo XIV is in Lebanon this week as part of his first international trip since becoming pontiff. He first traveled to Turkey last week, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the head of the country’s Jewish community.
• Israel Defense Tech Week kicked off this morning at Tel Aviv University. Senior Pentagon official Mike Dodd; Adm. (ret.) Mike Rogers, a former director of the National Security Agency; and Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire are among the two-day conference’s featured speakers.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Ireland has long been competing for the title of most anti-Israel country in the West, and in recent years, the local Jewish community has expressed fears that the country has become systemically antisemitic. Calls to boycott Israel have permeated the political mainstream; the Emerald Isle’s under 3,000 Jews face hostility in schools and workplaces, and physical harassment has increased in recent years. Pleas to the former president not to politicize International Holocaust Memorial Day by making it another occasion to accuse Israel of war crimes fell on deaf ears; Ireland has since elected a president who is even more stridently opposed to the Jewish state.

Yet, Irish Jews and supporters of Israel notched two victories on Sunday.

Ireland is pulling its “Occupied Territories Bill” to boycott Israeli products from the West Bank in light of a “changed political climate” as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported. The legislation faced legal challenges due to its violation of European Union trade rules, and, as several members of Congress pointed out, could run afoul of U.S. states’ laws penalizing those who boycott Israel and damage relations between Washington and Dublin. 

In addition, following an uproar started by the local Jewish community that went global, leading Israel’s leadership and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to sound the alarm, pressuring Ireland’s government, a proposal to remove sixth Israeli President Chaim Herzog’s name from a public park and replace it with a name related to Palestinians was taken off of Dublin City Council’s agenda.

Herzog, father of current Israeli President Isaac Herzog, was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin. He was Israeli ambassador to the U.N. — famously tearing up its “Zionism is racism” resolution — before serving as president in 1983-1993. The park in Dublin was named after Herzog in 1995, to coincide with the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem’s establishment. It is adjacent to Ireland’s only Jewish school and close to major Orthodox and Progressive synagogues.

The current President Herzog, his brother, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Graham and others spoke out, saying “Ireland, once home to a proud, thriving Jewish community, has become the scene of raging antisemitism.”

Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin chimed in soon after, expressing concern that the name change would be seen as antisemitic, and hours later, it was no longer on Dublin City Council’s agenda.

Read the rest of What You Should Know here.

Penny Wise: In The Washington Post, philanthropist and Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky considers the overlap in Jewish and American values as he reflects on the rise in global antisemitism. “My maternal grandfather — who fled pogroms in Lithuania and landed on the shores of northern Mexico, where he became a successful cattle rancher — taught his grandchildren about humility and resourcefulness. He used to say, in Spanish, ‘A man who is too arrogant to pick up a penny is not worth a penny.’ The idea harbored by some that picking up a penny is beneath them, and is disgusting in others, isn’t just bad for Jews. Its manifestation today seems to reflect a cultural crisis marked by economic anxiety, frustration and a growing rejection of the very values that have long been the foundation of the American Dream. The crisis has been marked by the emergence of a victim-oppressor mindset; those who feel left behind often believe that they have no agency, and it is all too easy to deflect responsibility onto convenient scapegoats — including those perennial targets, the Jews.” [WashPost]

Qatar Ready For Its Close-up: Variety’s Nick Vivarelli looks at the effort by Qatar to break into Hollywood amid the backdrop of last week’s Doha Film Festival, which kicked off featuring “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza. “‘We are building the foundations of a world class [film and TV] ecosystem with new infrastructure, production facilities and post-production capabilities supported by vast technology, and data analytics,’ said Hassan Al Thawadi, the Qatari lawyer who oversaw the 2022 World Cup. He is now leading The Qatar Film Committee, an official body that is part of the Media City Qatar hub tasked with driving growth of the country’s entertainment industry. But Al Thawadi made it clear that Hollywood should not be expecting any handouts from Qatar. ‘This agreement is about more than financing films,’ he said, after announcing the relatively modest pact with Neon that involves six to 10 feature films and shorts over a four-year period that Neon will co-finance and distribute. ‘It’s about creating a new platform for Arabic and regional storytelling, ensuring that stories from Qatar and the wider Arab world are seen, celebrated, and shared globally.’” [Variety]

Beyond Denominations: In Tablet, Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz argues that the post-Oct. 7 landscape provides an opportunity for the American Jewish community to find new ways of collaboration and partnership relating to Israel that go beyond the confines of denominations. “We should drop the focus on denominational labels and instead be willing to partner with anyone — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and everything in-between — who is a Zionist. Now that the crisis of war is behind us, how do we together foster a new, inspiring Jewish identity of Oct. 8? We can invite rabbis from other regions and other denominations into our communities to speak and to teach to build bonds. We can also work together and pool resources in programming efforts. More communities can work together to share the messages of Zionist thinkers and authors, artists and musicians. Pooling our resources and ideas can help bridge the American Jewish connection with our Israeli brothers and sisters.” [Tablet]

Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), a pro-Israel stalwart among House Democrats, will run for reelection in his redrawn 1st Congressional District, which under the new state congressional map was won by President Donald Trump by 11 points…

A federal judge ordered the University of Florida’s law school to reinstate a student who had authored a paper arguing that “Jews must be abolished by any means necessary”…

The New York Times interviews former Israeli hostage Segev Kalfon about the more than two years he spent in Hamas captivity in Gaza…

Actor Guy Pearce apologized for sharing antisemitic social media posts, including content that blamed Israel for the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk…

A tribunal affiliated with the U.K.’s National Health Service suspended for 15 months a British-Palestinian doctor who defended Hamas terrorists as “oppressed resistance fighters” and called Israelis “worse than Nazis”…

U.K. police arrested a man in connection with the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur in which two congregants were killed…

A Nazi soldier photographed executing a Jewish man in the Ukrainian town of Vinnitsa was identified using artificial intelligence decades after the image, whose subjects were unknown, gained notoriety during the trial of Adolf Eichmann…

Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said the low-cost European carrier plans to open a hub in Israel in early 2026…

Israeli drone manufacturer Heven AeroTech raised $100 million in a round of funding, led by IonQ, that values the company at more than $1 billion…

Iran said it would boycott the 2026 World Cup draw this week in Washington after the U.S. denied visas to members of the soccer team’s delegation…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met with his Turkish counterpart in Tehran over the weekend, announced a $1.6 billion joint project with Ankara to build a rail link connecting Asia and Europe…

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized an Eswatini-flagged ship carrying oil and more than a dozen crew members as it transited through the Persian Gulf; the incident occurred less than a month after the IRGC seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel that originated in the United Arab Emirates… 

The Wall Street Journal reports on Iran’s efforts to funnel money to Hezbollah through Dubai-based companies…

In The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek reflects on his own marriage and the vows and promises made in his ketubah…

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alexis Lewis, who is Jewish, married in a ceremony co-officiated by Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, a longtime friend of Booker, in Washington over the weekend…

Tony Award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, whose “Leopoldstadt” reflected his own life as an assimilated Englishman who did not learn of his family ties to the Holocaust until adulthood, died at 88… Israeli Maj. Gen. (res.) Dan Tolkowsky, who led the Israeli Air Force from 1953-1958 before going on to found the country’s first VC, died at 104… Tekserve co-founder David Lerner died at 72… Architect Robert A.M. Stern, who gained global acclaim for Manhattan’s 15 Central Park West, died at 86… Psychologist Paul Ekman, whose pioneering work on facial recognition was used by Hollywood animators and the FBI alike, died at 91…

Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, head of the Israel Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense Research & Development, spoke this morning at the International DefenseTech Summit at Tel Aviv University. 

Singer, actress, comedian and author, Bette Midler turns 80… 

Former CEO of Marvel Comics and chairman until 2023 of Disney’s Marvel Entertainment, Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter turns 83… Former EVP of Stuart Weitzman, Jane Weitzman… NYC-based real estate mogul, he owned the New York Post, served as chair of NYC’s MTA and is a noted car collector, Peter Kalikow turns 83… Executive producer of over 200 shows with more than 15,000 hours of television over a lengthy career, David E. Salzman turns 82… Comedian, actor and voice actor best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist,” Jonathan Katz turns 79… Former director of Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, he is now the director of Yashrut, Rabbi Daniel Landes turns 75… Former president of the American Jewish Committee and a board member at Israel Policy Forum, John M. Shapiro… British playwright, director and scriptwriter who has won many awards for his work on the stage, film and television, Stephen Poliakoff turns 73… U.S. senator (R-FL), Rick Scott turns 73… Newly appointed rabbi at Congregation Beth El of Windsor, Ontario, Rabbi Gordon Fuller… Former chair of the board of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Isaac “Ike” Fisher turns 69… U.S. District Court judge in Oregon, Judge Michael H. Simon turns 69… U.S. senator (D-MI), Gary Peters turns 67… CEO of Oracle Corporation until a few months ago, now vice chair of the board, she also joined the board of the recently merged Paramount Skydance, Safra A. Catz turns 64… Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Cambridge, Raymond E. Goldstein turns 64… Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur, David Seldin… CEO at My Pest Pros in Fairfax County (Virginia), Brett Lieberman… Emmy Award-winning stand-up comedian, actress, producer and writer, Sarah Silverman turns 55… Rabbi of Shaarei Tefillah Congregation in Toronto, Rafi Lipner turns 52… Editorial lead in policy communications on the global affairs team at OpenAI, he is the author of a book on military suicides, Yochi J. Dreazen turns 49… Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director, comedian, producer, writer and actor, Akiva Schaffer turns 48… Marketing and communications executive, Natalie Ravitz… Editor-in-chief at Jewish Insider, Josh Kraushaar… Writer and television producer, including for NBC’s primetime series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Evan Daniel Susser turns 40… English teacher at Jerusalem’s Inbar School, the first secular, girls-only middle-high school in Israel, Shira Sacks… Senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, David Milstein… Mexican musician influenced by Sephardic brass and klezmer styles, known by his mononym “Sotelúm,” Jorge Sotelo turns 36… Becky Weissman…

• The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is hosting a virtual event with former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on his vision for the future of Israel’s security and relationships around the world.
• The Anti-Defamation League is hosting its annual real estate reception in New York City. This year’s event will honor Feil Organization CFO Eric Lowenstein.
• Elsewhere in New York, Birthright Israel is holding its annual gala tonight. Actor Jonah Platt is slated to emcee the evening’s events, which will honor Lynn Schusterman. 
• In Israel, the annual Christian Media Summit kicked off last night in Jerusalem. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

LAS VEGAS — Until last week, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit was expected to be a triumphant gathering to celebrate President Donald Trump’s accomplishments in the Middle East, chief among them his administration’s recently brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Jewish Insider‘s Matthew Kassel reports.

That all changed after Tucker Carlson hosted the neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on his podcast for a sympathetic interview, provoking fierce backlash. By the time that Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, came to Carlson’s defense on Thursday, the RJC recognized its conference would require a thematic update to more forcefully emphasize the urgency of confronting rising antisemitism — and its enablers — within the GOP.

“If there was ever a time for the RJC, this is our time,” Norm Coleman, the organization’s national chairman, said in opening remarks on Friday. “We have been called to this moment to fight the scourge of antisemitism.”

But even as multiple speakers at the three-day summit held at the Venetian Resort — including congressional leaders, conservative activists and media personalities — alluded to antisemitism in their ranks, many talked in broad strokes, didn’t mention Carlson by name or downplayed the issue as confined to the fringes, despite Carlson and Fuentes each commanding a significant number of dedicated followers on the far right.

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

Roberts’ Rules of Disorder: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board weighs in on Heritage Foundation CEO Kevin Roberts’ response to recent antisemitic comments by far-right commentators Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. “Amid criticism on Friday, Mr. Roberts scrambled to list Mr. Fuentes’s odiousness, but his initial contribution was to join in the Jew-baiting. His video framed the issue not as antisemitism, but as Christian freedom of conscience in the face of a hostile attempt to impose loyalty to Israel on Americans. … If conservatives — and Republicans — don’t call out this poison in their own ranks before it corrupts more young minds, the right and America are entering dangerous territory.” [WSJ]

Boycotting The Times: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait reflects on a push by anti-Israel figures to refuse to submit future op-eds to The New York Times over the paper’s perceived bias toward Israel. “But the extent to which these writers object to the sword depends on who is wielding it. The letter’s demands come from a coalition of nine groups, three of which have declined to condemn Hamas for the October 7 attack, while six — the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the Palestine Solidarity Working Group, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Pal-Awda, and National Students for Justice in Palestine — rationalized or directly endorsed the massacre.” [TheAtlantic]

Fear of Mamdani: In the Jewish News Syndicate, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO  and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, raise concerns about New York City mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdami over what they describe as his demonstrated “hostility toward the concerns of the Jewish community and contempt for the broader public interest” ahead of tomorrow’s election. “What begins as a debate about policy too often becomes a campaign of hostility toward Jews. In this context, any candidate who fails to condemn terrorists who burned families alive, abducted civilians, and committed rape and other war crimes, as Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists did in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, forfeits the moral right to seek public office.” [JNS]

PA Still Key: In the National Interest, David Makovsky and Shira Efron posit that the Palestinian Authority Security Forces could serve as an “imperfect but plausible” option on the ground in postwar Gaza. “Despite their shortcomings, these forces have over three decades of experience in security coordination with the IDF in the West Bank. … The PA today is like a car without wheels: it cannot drive Gaza out of the post-October 7 morass. But wheels can be added — reforms that build credibility, training that professionalizes the PA’s security forces, and service delivery that tangibly improves daily life for suffering Gazans. With each milestone, the PA gains a larger role, international donors gain confidence, Israel gains a more stable frontier, Gazans gain a path out of limbo, and Palestinians everywhere regain agency that could help establish a political horizon.” [NationalInterest]

In a wide-ranging CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday night, President Donald Trump described the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as being “very solid”; Trump also said that the U.S. would be “involved” in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, two weeks after the president, speaking at the Knesset, called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu… 

Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would “act as necessary” if Lebanon does not move to fully disarm Hezbollah, amid concerns that the Iran-backed terror group is rearming in defiance of the ceasefire inked last year…

Amos Hochstein, who served as a senior official in the Biden administration overseeing the Lebanon portfolio, cautioned that Israel’s muscular approach to Hezbollah in Lebanon could be “counterproductive” and that Beirut is “in a really tough spot” as it works to shore up international support…

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said his U.S. counterpart, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, canceled a planned trip to Israel following Jerusalem’s decision to hit pause on a $35 billion gas agreement with Egypt that would be the biggest gas deal in Israel’s history…

Video from a May 2024 city council meeting in Hamtramck, Mich., that was recently viewed by local media showed Mayor Amer Ghalib, the Trump administration’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, voicing support for the council’s passage of a boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution targeting Israel; Ghalib told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he had not supported the resolution…

The Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., condemned and apologized for a Halloween float representing a local Catholic school that included a replica of the front gates of Auschwitz with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei”…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Palantir’s new “Meritocracy Fellowship” in which 22 high school graduates spend four months at the company in lieu of pursuing a traditional college track…

A spokesperson for Zohran Mamdani said that the New York City Democratic mayoral candidate, if elected, would reassess the partnership between the Roosevelt Island campus of Cornell University and Israel’s Technion…

Former U.K. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was ousted from the party’s leadership over a series of antisemitism incidents, phone-banked for Mamdani over the weekend…

A London bus driver was suspended after refusing to return a dropped bank card to a visibly Jewish man and hurling antisemitic insults at the passenger for an hour until police arrived…

A French court sentenced four Bulgarian men to prison terms ranging between two and four years over the vandalism last year of Paris’ Holocaust memorial…

The bodies of three Israelis were repatriated to Israel and identified overnight as dual American Israeli citizen Capt. Omer Neutra, Col. Asaf Hamami and Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel; the exchange came a day after Israeli forensics determined that three bodies given to Israel by Hamas on Friday evening did not belong to any of the remaining hostages…

Israel announced a series of tax benefits aimed at luring Israeli high-tech workers abroad back to the country amid an exodus that followed the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and ensuing war…

Canadian Israeli philanthropist Sylvan Adams committed $100 million to help rebuild the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, Israel, which sustained significant damage during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told attendees at the IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain over the weekend that Gulf countries should reverse course on their isolation of Iran and deepen diplomatic, economic and security cooperation with Tehran…

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Iran would rebuild its nuclear facilities with “greater strength,” while denying that the country is seeking nuclear weapons…

The New York Times published a belated obituary for World War II partisan fighter and poet Hannah Senesh as part of the paper’s “Overlooked No More” series; Senesh was executed at age 23 after being captured by the Nazis in 1944…

Dutch-Jewish resistance member Selma van de Perre, who forged and delivered documents and helped Jewish families seeking shelter, died at 103…

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem over the weekend with Aryeh Lightstone, who is serving as a senior advisor to White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; White House senior advisor Josh Gruenbaum and venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg, who is working with the U.S. team overseeing ceasefire efforts.

Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine, professor at Yale University, James Rothman turns 75…

Chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary where he also served as a professor of Jewish history, Ismar Schorsch, Ph.D. turns 90… Senior U.S. District Court judge in California, he is the younger brother of retired SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Charles Breyer turns 84… U.S. senator (D-HI), Mazie K. Hirono turns 78… Resident of Great Barrington, Mass., and a part-time researcher at UC Berkeley, Barbara Zheutlin… Rabbi emeritus at Temple Anshe Sholom in Olympia Fields, Ill., Paul Caplan turns 73… Actress, comedian, writer and television producer, best known for the long-running and award-winning television sitcom “Roseanne,” Roseanne Barr turns 73… Comedian, talk show host, political and sports commentator, Dennis Miller turns 72… Manuscript editor and lecturer, author of books on the stigma of childlessness and on the Balfour Declaration, Elliot Jager turns 71… Award-winning Israeli photographer whose works have appeared in galleries in many countries, Naomi Leshem turns 62… Regional director of development for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jeanne Epstein… Podcaster and clinical professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway turns 61… Co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, now CEO of Dreamhaven, Michael Morhaime turns 58… Entrepreneur-in-residence at Loeb Enterprises, he was previously co-chair of the board of the Yeshiva University Museum, Edward Stelzer… VP for federal affairs at CVS Health, she was the White House director of legislative affairs in the last year of the Obama administration, Amy Rosenbaum turns 54… Director of development for States United Democracy Center, Amie Kershner… Partner at political consulting firm GDA Wins, Gabby Adler… Agent at Creative Artists Agency, Rachel Elizabeth Adler… Actress who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for her role on “ABC’s General Hospital,” Julie Berman turns 42… Director of corporate responsibility, communications and engagement at Southern Company Gas, Robin Levy Gray… Senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities, Rowan Morris… General manager of NJ/NY Gotham FC, a women’s soccer team based in Harrison, N.J., Yael Averbuch West turns 39… Former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, he is a co-founder of D.C.-based Compass Coffee, Michael Haft turns 39… New York state senator, Michelle Hinchey turns 38… Deputy coordinator for global China affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Julian Baird Gewirtz turns 36… Recent MBA graduate at The Wharton School, Ben Kirshner turns 33… Marketing manager at American Express, Caroline Michelman turns 33… Founder and CEO of Noyse Publicity Management, Noy Assraf turns 30… Actress and model, Diana Silvers turns 28… Stu Rosenberg…

• Jared Kushner and White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff touched down earlier today in Israel, a day after the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas showed signs of possible collapse amid repeated Hamas violations and Israeli airstrikes in Rafah in response. More below.
• Vice President JD Vance is departing Washington later today for Israel, where he’ll join Witkoff and Kushner.
• Today is the official deadline for nine universities to accept a “compact” offered by the Trump administration that would give preferential access to federal funds to schools that accept the White House’s 10-point plan, which includes a number of commitments regarding employment and student demographics as well as pledging to prioritize ideological diversity. Five schools — MIT, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia and the University of Southern California — have already declined to accept the compact. Read more about the compact here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Last Friday, we laid out how American Jewry is facing a fork in the road in the aftermath of the Gaza war and release of hostages, and that the coming months will be crucial in assessing whether Jews will experience a renewed period of normalcy or whether the rising tide of anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism will continue unabated. 

There are a number of upcoming key elections that will test the power of the mainstream against extremist forces. Here are the developments we’ll be watching most closely:

Will Zohran Mamdani win a majority of the New York City vote, and how will he govern if elected as mayor? Right now, without any surge in funding and organization among anti-Mamdani forces in Gotham, it’s looking very likely that the far-left candidate will prevail. But polls still show him consistently under 50%, without gaining any real momentum since winning the Democratic primary. And half of the six most recent public polls in the race (as tracked by RealClearPolitics) show the anti-Mamdani candidates collectively winning more of the vote than the front-runner. This race doesn’t at all look like a mandate for the far left.

If Mamdani wins, the next big question is whether he’ll govern more pragmatically than his past record would suggest. Will he try to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City, as the candidate has consistently said he would do on the campaign trail? Will he threaten the tax-exempt status of Jewish groups because they support Israel? Will he reappoint Jessica Tisch, the effective NYPD chief, as a signal of his willingness to moderate?

He’s been wooing business leaders and working to spin reporters that he’s not as ideological as his political career suggests, but that may be more wishful thinking than anything based on a careful scrutiny of his comments and record.

Will Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) or Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) receive a serious primary challenge? Massie and Greene are the two members of the small but loud faction of the anti-Israel and increasingly antisemitic crowd among House Republicans. Not coincidentally, they also are the two Republicans that are most antagonistic toward President Donald Trump — from calling for a release of the government files on Jeffrey Epstein to, in Greene’s case, agreeing with some Democratic health care demands during the government shutdown. 

Massie looks more politically vulnerable, with Trump and his allies actively recruiting a challenger to run against him and releasing internal polling showing he can be defeated. Former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Kentucky Senate last year, looks like Trump’s favored candidate. But no one has yet announced a challenge, with the filing deadline less than three months away (Jan. 9). 

Greene looks safer, but her increasing Trump criticism could change that dynamic. The filing deadline in Georgia isn’t until March 2026.

How credible a threat will Graham Platner pose to Gov. Janet Mills in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary? Under normal political circumstances, an established two-term governor would hold a commanding advantage over an oyster farmer without any elective experience in a race for the Senate. That’s especially true given that the challenger has a long paper trail of comments calling himself a communist and embracing a laundry list of radical views.

Yet Platner has parlayed his rough-and-tumble biography and anti-establishment authenticity into media buzz, and raised an impressive $4 million for the race since announcing his candidacy over the summer. 

Mills, who is 77 and the favorite of Democratic Party leaders, starts out as the favorite to win the nomination. Platner has lately been facing scrutiny over his lengthy string of social media posts where he identified as a communist, called all police “bastards” and said rural Americans are racist and stupid, among other incendiary comments. He also downplayed concerns of sexual assault in the military in online forums.

Normally, those types of views and comments would be political career-enders. But in this anti-establishment, populist moment, it’s hard to be confident in assuming the traditional rules of politics apply. After all, Mamdani has weathered scrutiny of his own radical affiliations without suffering outsized political consequences.

In addition to holding down-the-line progressive views on the economy, Platner is also uniquely hostile to Israel, even to the point of releasing a digital attack ad against the pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC. Shortly after launching his campaign for the Senate, Platner labeled Israel’s war against Hamas a genocide. 

Mills, as governor, doesn’t have much of a foreign policy record but has spoken out against Israel boycott measures embraced by municipal leaders in Portland. But as the candidate representing more-mainstream Maine Democrats, it’s likely she will adopt a more-moderate posture when it comes to Middle East policy.

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

The Case Against Bolton: The Atlantic’s Shane Harris considers why the federal government’s legal effort against former National Security Advisor John Bolton is more likely than other cases against Trump administration critics to advance. “People I spoke with who are knowledgeable about the Bolton case — including what he allegedly did while serving in the White House in Trump’s first term, and internal deliberations over whether to charge him with mishandling classified information — say that indicting the former adviser was not an easy call. But the case, several said, is ‘righteous.’ Reading the charges, I’m inclined to agree that if its facts are accurate, the government has a strong argument. I’ve covered a lot of cases of mishandling classified information and documents. Some people who have faced charges like those Bolton does now are in prison.” [TheAtlantic]

The Dermer Difference: The Wall Street Journal’s Anat Peled profiles Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who has “played the role of Trump whisperer” in his role as a top advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Most Americans don’t know his name and he rarely speaks publicly in Israel. But he is one of the most influential American-born Israeli politicians in the nation’s history and has been key to maintaining U.S. support for the war and cutting a deal to end it largely on Israel’s terms. … Born and raised in Florida, Dermer speaks Trump’s language, say people who have worked with him. Netanyahu, in his 2022 memoir, recalled how Dermer used golf terminology when talking to Trump. ‘“Peace with the Emirates is a 5-foot putt. Peace with the Saudis is a 30-foot putt. And peace with the Palestinians is a hole-in-one through a brick wall,”’ Netanyahu recalled.” [WSJ]

Hamas to Blame: The Washington Post’s editorial board argues that Hamas “is to blame” for the ceasefire lapses that have occurred since last week. “Indeed, Hamas is so weak right now that it faces challenges to its control of Gaza and can likely cling to power only by massacring its Palestinian enemies, just as it did in 2007 following violent clashes with its political rival Fatah. Before the ink even dried on the latest ceasefire agreement, Hamas enforcers emerged from their underground dens, fresh-faced, well-fed and clad in clean uniforms. Hamas declared war on at least four Palestinian clans, several of which are thought to have been cooperating with Israel. Clips of Hamas commissars executing bound men in the middle of the street, or shooting suspected thieves in the legs, have circulated widely. … All revolutions eventually consume themselves. Unfortunately for the miserable Palestinians of Gaza, Hamas is not quite yet in its final death throes.” [WashPost]

Authorities in Louisiana arrested a Gazan man who federal officials said lied about his participation in terrorist activities on his visa application; an unsealed FBI complaint said that Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and led a group into Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks…

Saudi officials have discussed with U.S. officials the possibility of a defense pact similar to the one the White House recently inked with Qatar; Riyadh is pushing for the agreement to be finalized ahead of a scheduled visit to Washington next month by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman…

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump sent condolences to the Orthodox Union following the passing last week of OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer, calling him a “man of deep faith, wisdom and compassion whose life reflected an unwavering devotion to the Almighty, to his family, and to the Jewish community”…

Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was freed from federal prison on Friday, hours after Trump announced he was commuting the former legislator’s seven-year sentence for fraud…

Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, found that a documentary that aired on the BBC and featured a teenage boy in Gaza — but did not note that the boy was the son of Hamas’ deputy minister of agriculture — was “materially misleading”…

The president-elect of the Oxford Union was ousted in a no-confidence vote weeks after leaked texts revealed that he had celebrated the killing of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk…

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who earlier this month was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday; in a readout from their call, Machado said that Iran, a “key supporter of the Maduro regime in Venezuela” additionally “backs terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis” in an alignment that “underscores the global nature of the struggle between freedom and authoritarianism”…

A Pakistani national and weapons smuggler who was apprehended by the U.S. Navy in early 2014 was sentenced to 40 years in a federal prison for his role in transporting ballistic missile parts from Iran to the Houthis in Yemen…

The Houthis detained nearly two dozen U.N. employees, including 15 international staff, during a raid on a U.N. facility in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa…

Iran hanged a man convicted of transmitting information to the Mossad; the man’s execution on Israeli espionage charges is one of at least eight in the country since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran prompted a crackdown in the Islamic Republic…

Tehran said it was no longer bound by the constraints of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, following the agreement’s expiration on Saturday…

New Zealand announced on Friday the reimposition of sanctions on Iran over what it said were repeated violations of the 2015 nuclear deal, a day prior to the agreement’s expiration on Saturday…

Mourners grieved at a ceremony held at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday for Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese man who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and was killed in captivity in Gaza. Joshi’s remains, which were released by the terror group last week, were flown to Nepal for burial.

Music composer for many films, winner of six Grammys and an Emmy Award, Thomas Newman turns 70…

Economist who earned the nickname “Dr. Doom” during his tenure as the chief economist at Salomon Brothers, Henry Kaufman, Ph.D. turns 98… Former poet laureate of the U.S., he is a professor emeritus at Boston University, Robert Pinsky turns 85… Professor emerita at Ben-Gurion University, she is the daughter of former Israeli PM and President Shimon Peres, Tsvia Walden turns 79… One of two grand rebbes of Satmar, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum turns 78… Miami Beach-based real estate developer, Russell W. Galbut turns 73… Actress and director of film and television, Melanie Mayron turns 73… Former longtime House Budget Committee staff director, now an adjunct professorial lecturer at American University, Thomas Kahn… U.S. senator (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse turns 70… Managing director and partner at Beacon Pointe Advisors, Jordan Heller… Former rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Katamon area and a leading figure at the Israel Democracy Institute, Rabbi Binyamin (Benny) Lau turns 64… Russian TV and radio journalist, Vladimir Solovyov turns 62… 49th vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris turns 61… U.S. senator (D-HI), Brian Schatz… and his identical twin brother, the executive director of the University of Hawaii’s P-20 programs, Stephen Schatz, both turn 53… Israeli actress, Hilla Vidor turns 50… Classical violinist, she is a 2008 winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship, Leila Josefowicz turns 48… Film and television writer, David Caspe turns 47… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA-49), Mike Levin turns 47… Long Island regional director at AJC Global, Eric Post… Israeli-born actress, she was a recurring character on CBS’ “Seal Team,” Alona Tal turns 42… Fashion designer, best known for her eponymous line of women’s ready-to-wear, Misha Nonoo turns 38… Director of fundraising and events for the National Association of Realtors’ political action committee, Michael Clark… Partner in the NYC office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Evan G. Zuckerman… Twins from Ra’anana, Israel, and avid Jewish Insider readers, Avi and Rafi Granoff turn 21…

• Diplomats from around the world are en route to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, which officially begins tomorrow. 
• On the sidelines of the UNGA, France and Saudi Arabia are chairing a summit calling for a two-state solution. More below on diplomatic moves by Paris, Ottawa, Canberra and Lisbon to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.
• Also this morning, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and retired Gen. David Petraeus will take part in a fireside discussion on democracy, security and geopolitical risk at the Concordia Annual Summit.
• Eleven members of the Syrian Jewish community in New York attended a meeting with al-Sharaa last night.
• U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, who is serving as special envoy to Syria, and Counselor of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Morgan Ortagus will also participate in a discussion at the Concordia summit this afternoon on diplomacy and America’s role in the world. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S TAMARA ZIEVE AND LAHAV HARKOV

In a move that has sent ripples through diplomatic circles and sparked outrage in Jerusalem, multiple countries officially recognized a Palestinian state yesterday. The coordinated announcements by the U.K., Canada, Australia and Portugal, with more to come, mark a significant shift in the West’s posture — one that, while largely symbolic, underlines concerns about growing efforts to isolate Israel diplomatically.

“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognizes the State of Palestine,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

While Starmer said that the move toward a two-state solution “is not a reward for Hamas, because it means Hamas can have no future,” the terror group hailed it as “a gesture to the struggle, steadfastness and sacrifices of our people on the path to liberation and return.” 

In President Donald Trump’s meeting with Starmer last week, Trump described the statehood push as “one of our few disagreements.”

The chain of Palestinian statehood recognition is unlikely to bring any immediate changes on the ground. As U.K. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said yesterday in an interview with Sky News, “any decision to recognize a Palestinian state … does not make a Palestinian state happen overnight. That has to be part of a peace process, it has to be based on 1967 borders, it has to be based on a shared capital in Jerusalem.”

Israel and many of its supporters have slammed the move as rewarding terrorism, as the country continues its war against Hamas in Gaza, where 48 hostages kidnapped during the group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks remain in captivity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has “a clear message to the leaders who recognize a Palestinian state after the terrible massacre of Oct. 7: You are giving a massive prize to terror. … It will not happen. There will not be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.” Netanyahu hinted that Israel will increase settlement activity in response. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and several other coalition members went a step further by calling for annexation of the West Bank, which Saudi Arabia has reportedly said would have “major implications.” Read more on Netanyahu’s reaction and upcoming UNGA speech here.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) delivered a scathing assessment of the statehood development, writing on X: “80 years after the end of WWII, where over 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis for simply being Jewish, the so-called civilized world is rewarding modern day religious Nazis with an arbitrary Palestinian state designation,” pointing to the lack of defined borders, leadership, and security arrangements.

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