Plus, the man tapped to lead the Mossad
Avi Ohayon (GPO) / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes statements at Ben Gurion Airport ahead of his visit to Washington DC, where he will meet with US President Donald Trump in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 02, 2025.
Add JewishInsider on Google👋 Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview next week’s White House meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, and profile Israeli Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, who was recently announced as the next head of the Mossad. We look at efforts by former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom organization to hire former Heritage Foundation staffers as the think tank faces mass departures over its support for Tucker Carlson, and report on moves by members of the Holocaust Memorial Council to remove Sen. Bernie Sanders over his failure to attend board meetings and repeated claims about Gaza that run counter to the museum’s mission. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Larry Ellison, George Conway and Sen. Ted Cruz.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
Ed. note: This is the last Daily Kickoff of 2025. The next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday, Jan. 5. Sign up for our email alerts to continue to read our breaking news reporting through the new year.
What We’re Watching
- We’ll be reporting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, slated for next week. More below.
- New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in on Jan. 1. New York Attorney General Tish James will conduct the official swearing-in at midnight, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will perform the ceremonial swearing-in during the day.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV’S HARKOV
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Donald Trump next week, the Iranian threat will be at the top of the agenda. That’s a sentence that could have been written countless times in the past – but this time, after the degradation of Iran’s nuclear program, was supposed to be different.
We’re six months out from Operation Midnight Hammer, when the U.S. and Israel worked together to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, and the 11 days of Israeli airstrikes on Iran that preceded it.
But much of the public conversation following that 12-day war focused on the damage done to Iran’s nuclear program – which is likely significant, but still hard to measure precisely – and less on the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missiles and air defenses.
Israel destroyed hundreds of missiles, launchers and production sites, and boasted about its control of the airspace over Tehran a day into the war as testament to its military prowess. But Jerusalem is now deeply concerned that Tehran has managed to recoup, with help from China, much of its losses.
In that vein, Netanyahu and his team are preparing to brief Trump on Israel’s concerns that Iran is expanding its ballistic missile program.
WAITING FOR GOFMAN
Netanyahu’s nominee to lead Mossad is his close advisor and an IDF general who fought the system
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement earlier this month that his military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, would become head of the Mossad, came as a surprise to the public, as journalists and experts had been confident that current Mossad chief David Barnea’s deputy, known only as “A,” had the job in all but name. However, for those who know Gofman, his time in the IDF and his working relationship with Netanyahu, as well as the prime minister’s post-Oct. 7 predilection for bringing in outside candidates to take over defense institutions, Gofman was a natural choice, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Background: Gofman has a limited public profile as Netanyahu’s senior military advisor. But in Israel, his face is fairly familiar, as he can be seen walking behind Netanyahu into the Oval Office and other high-level meetings, even as military secretaries don’t make public statements. Gofman, 49, was born in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union, and immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 14. He was bullied in school and took up boxing to fight back, becoming the second-ranked young boxer in Israel in his weight category. He enlisted in the IDF Armored Corps in 1995 and has been in the military ever since, rising to the rank of Aluf, or major general.
CONSERVATIVE REALIGNMENT
Mike Pence’s think tank absorbs wave of Heritage departures
Tim Chapman, the president of former Vice President Mike Pence’s think tank, said on Monday that he expects his Advancing American Freedom organization to poach more staffers from the Heritage Foundation after announcing the hiring of 15 individuals from the embattled conservative organization, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
New recruits: Advancing American Freedom, founded by Pence in 2021 to advocate for classical conservative principles as President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement cemented its hold on parts of the Republican Party, announced on Monday that 15 Heritage staffers, including three senior officials from the think tank’s legal, economic and data teams, would be moving to AAF at the start of the new year. Chapman, who has been leading the recruitment effort, predicted more Heritage staffers would resign amid continuing frustration over Heritage President Kevin Roberts’ refusal to disavow Tucker Carlson for his platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.
SANDERS SCRUTINY
Trump-appointed Holocaust Museum board members pushing to oust Bernie Sanders
Several Trump appointees to the board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are pushing for the ouster of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), alleging that he has rarely attended meetings and that his accusations of genocide against Israel run directly counter to the museum’s mission, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: Jonathan Burkan, who was appointed to the council twice by President Donald Trump, said he’s never seen Sanders at any meetings of the council — which he said has not been the case for other lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans. “Everything that’s happened after Oct. 7, everything that has been going on with antisemitism, with the Holocaust — I do feel that if someone is a Jewish elected official, they should at least attend one meeting in over a 20 year period of time,” Burkan said. “They should find someone else besides Bernie just to be on the council.”
MILITARY MATTERS
Pentagon plan to reorganize military could undermine U.S.-Israel security, experts warn
Senior Pentagon officials are reportedly weighing a sweeping proposal to reorganize the U.S. military that would shift authorities and resources away from the Middle East, a move experts warn could undermine U.S.-Israel security cooperation and destabilize the region. The plan, driven by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, would reduce the number of U.S. combatant commands from 11 to eight, cut the number of four-star generals and consolidate regional commands into broader organizations. Most notably, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) — which oversees the Middle East and parts of South Asia — would be placed under a newly created U.S. International Command, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Regional ramifications: “If the reorganization happens, it will have detrimental effects on Israel and the wider region,” said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum. “The Middle East presents unique challenges stemming from Iranian efforts to upend the regional order and the importance of protecting sea lanes and trade routes. Treating the region as one component of a larger command risks harming U.S. goals.”
DAMASCUS DEALINGS
Trump’s Syria strategy tested amid resurgence of ISIS in Damascus
Following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, President Donald Trump has taken an unusually open approach toward Damascus, seeking to usher in a new era of stability and regional integration. But that strategy is beginning to face significant tests from jihadist elements embedded within Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s own military ranks, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Flagging concerns: “What my colleagues and I have been warning this entire year is that al-Sharaa was putting his jihadist allies into the new Syrian military without apparent measures to prevent bad things from happening,” said David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who added that those with jihadist beliefs were integrated in “large groups.” Those concerns were underscored earlier this month, when two U.S. soldiers and one civilian contractor were killed in Syria in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) — the first U.S. casualties in the country since Assad’s fall in December 2024.
Bonus: The New York Times reports on the Assad family’s “life of luxury and impunity” in Moscow, a year after Bashar al-Assad, his wife and children left Damascus for Russia.
CAMPUS BEAT
Professor who backed encampment selected for role on Northwestern presidential search committee
A Northwestern University professor who supported the anti-Israel encampment on the Evanston, Ill., campus and is married to the founder of the university’s chapter of Educators for Justice in Palestine was tapped to join a new presidential search committee, the school announced last week. Ian Hurd, a professor of political science and president of the faculty senate at Northwestern University, is listed on Northwestern’s website as an “expert on the Middle East.” As Faculty Senate president, Hurd has played an influential role in shaping faculty responses to campus protests, academic freedom disputes and university governance questions, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Raising eyebrows: Hurd’s appointment to the search committee drew criticism from some of the school’s Jewish alumni. “The antisemitic encampment at Northwestern occurred in April 2024, immediately before Ian Hurd was elevated into senior faculty leadership. At the time, Hurd was a leading figure in the Faculty Senate and publicly defended the administration’s response,” Michael Teplitsky, president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern and an alum of the school, told JI.
Worthy Reads
Banning the Brotherhood: In The Spectator, Ed Husain calls on the United Kingdom to follow the lead of the U.S. and other countries and ban the Muslim Brotherhood. “What does the Brotherhood’s growing influence mean for Britain’s Muslims? It results in women facing sharia court trials for divorce proceedings. Mosques must send coaches to marches in London or risk becoming outcasts. For the rest of the country it has meant greater communal separatism and multiple terror attacks. Britain’s Jews are afraid to walk the streets of their country, and MPs have been attacked by Islamist extremists. The resulting terror threat has been classed by the government as ‘substantial’, with 43,000 individuals on an MI5 watch list just five years ago. The Jenkins report warned a decade ago about the threat from the Brotherhood to Britain’s national security. That menace has now metastasised.” [TheSpectator]
What the Far Right Gets Wrong: In Compact, David Azerrad examines the rise of the “JQers” — far-right influencers who push the idea of the “Jewish Question” as a means of explaining societal ills. “The problems we face are so daunting, the odds so overwhelming, that it is easier to rail against the Jews than to undertake the Herculean task of revitalizing the dying nations of the West. The JQers simply don’t have the stomach to consider that, in fact, it may well be our fault. We Americans and Westerners are the ones who squandered our inheritance, defiled our countries, and replaced our populations. We elected — and re-elected — the leaders who launched reckless wars and embraced foolish policies. They were not hoodwinked by the Israel lobby, and they would not suddenly become prudent statesmen if all Jewish influence were expunged from our politics.” [Compact]
Bank Notes: Bloomberg’s Paul Davies looks at Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan’s efforts to redefine private credit through the creation of what Davies calls a “narrow” bank. “Apollo has ridden the boom in private markets over the past decade to command $908 billion in assets and become an increasingly significant lender to the US economy, along with a string of rivals and copycats. Banks, investors, regulators and politicians are — or ought to be — watching closely for emerging risks and benefits from the model Rowan has built. He needs to get his message about Athene’s version of private credit to all of these observers and to a media he has called confused and hysterical, but most of all to the armies of mom-and-pop annuity holders whose trust his business relies on.” [Bloomberg]
Word on the Street
A new report by the Anti-Defamation League highlights several members of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team who have used antisemitic tropes and justified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, among other issues the group flags as “deeply troubling” and that raise further questions about his vetting process, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…
The Trump administration is recalling senior career diplomats from 29 countries, all of whom were appointed during the Biden administration; the majority of those whose tenure is being ended are posted in Africa or the Pacific Islands…
Former Blackrock executive Mark Wiseman was named Canada’s next ambassador to the U.S….
Axios spotlights Steve Witkoff’s South Florida Shell Bay club, where the White House special envoy and Jared Kushner, and occasionally Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have hosted high-level diplomatic delegations to discuss issues ranging from the Israel-Gaza war to Ukraine…
NBC News reports on Witkoff and Rubio’s clashing approaches to the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine policy…
The Washington Post looks at Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) efforts to position himself as a traditional Republican on foreign policy issues ahead of the 2028 presidential election, as the Texas Republicans mulls another White House bid…
Attorney George Conway filed to run in the crowded Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District, where Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is not seeking reelection…
Larry Ellison is personally guaranteeing the $40.4 billion that Paramount, led by his son David Ellison, is putting forward in its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery…
A New York Times analysis of donors to Trump administration projects and priorities found that Dr. Miriam Adelson’s foundation pledged $25 million to the construction of a new White House ballroom; additional donors include Palantir and Lockheed Martin, which are both donating $10 million to the reconstruction effort…
Authorities in New York levied a hate crime charge against a man in connection with an attack in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood last week in which a Jewish man was stabbed; the assault was captured on camera and took place blocks from the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters…
The Washington Post looks at efforts by volunteers, aided by Jewish communal security organizations, to identify threats to Jewish groups and institutions…
Israel’s Cabinet approved the closure of Galei Tzahal, the army radio station, after 75 years of operation, as part of a broader government effort to exert control over Israeli media; Israeli press organizations plan to challenge the decision, which was also opposed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told leaders of the country’s settlement movement that “when the time comes,” Israel will reestablish settlements in the Gaza Strip, contradicting previous assertions by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights security lapses that have allowed Iranian hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in an effort to breach Israeli institutions and obtain and leak information…
Longtime Jewish public relations professional H. Glenn Rosenkrantz died at 64…
Swedish-born actress May Britt, who converted to Judaism before marrying Sammy Davis Jr., died at 91…Record producer Jerry Kasenetz, who with his business partner Jeffry Katz produced such songs as “Yummy Yummy Yummy” and “Little Bit O’ Soul,” died at 82…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday in Jerusalem with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Birthdays
Israeli-Spanish singer-songwriter of Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) music, Yasmin Levy turns 50…
Television producer, best known for his work on the 1980’s television series “Cagney & Lacey,” Barney Rosenzweig turns 88… Electrical engineer, who with Vint Cerf, invented the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental protocols at the heart of the Internet, Robert Elliot “Bob” Kahn turns 87… Emmy Award-winning actor, writer, director and producer, best known for his work on “The Simpsons”, he is still an active podcast host, Harry Shearer turns 82… Russian-born mathematician, living in France, Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov turns 82… U.S. district judge in the Southern District of New York, he has been on senior status since 2011, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan turns 81… Documentary filmmaker, she is best known for her films on businessman Julius Rosenwald and baseball players Hank Greenberg and Moe Berg, Aviva Kempner turns 79… Retired Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, Michael Moldaver turns 78… One of two Grand Rebbes of Satmar, Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum turns 74… Editor-at-large of The Bulwark, William “Bill” Kristol turns 73… Retired Israeli basketball player and coach, until 2006 she was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most points (108) ever scored in a women’s professional game, Orna Ostfeld turns 73… Dean at Indiana University’s School of Global and International Studies, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Poland in the Obama administration, Lee A. Feinstein turns 66… Software engineer at Goldman Sachs, Bill Pinsky… CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal turns 59… USAID acting mission director for the West Bank and Gaza until 2021, then mission director for Bosnia and Herzegovina until 2024, Courtney Chubb turns 56… Political technology entrepreneur and campaign finance attorney, Jonathan Eric Zucker turns 54… Israeli investor in natural resources including diamond and copper mining interests in Africa, Dan Gertler turns 52… Beverly Hills-based attorney and real estate agent, he is a supporter of pro-democracy groups in his native Iran, Pooya Dayanim… Attorney in Austin, she clerked for Justice Alito on the U.S. Supreme Court, Zina Linda Gelman Bash… VP of strategy and mergers at the Heritage Group, an Indiana-based multi-generational family portfolio of companies, Adam Milakofsky… Israeli singer, songwriter, musician and composer of the genre known as Mizrahi music, Dudu Aharon turns 41… COO at Israel Policy Forum, Snezhana Valdman Orlando turns 41… Liberal rabbi in the city of Dresden and founder of the Besht Yeshiva, Akiva Weingarten turns 41… Partner and chief investment officer at Gelt Venture Partners, he was an MLB infielder and played for Team Israel in 2012 and 2017, Joshua Blake Satin turns 41… Chief of staff for the U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco Charles Kushner, Gabriel Scheinmann… Founder and CEO at Stealth AI, he is also a lecturer and research scholar at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Emil Pitkin… Brand marketing manager at Metagenics, Lauren Kahn… Israeli fashion model, Shlomit Malka turns 32… Senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, Ilan Berman… Former account executive at Edelman, India Goodman… Tom Epstein…
Roman Gofman’s supporters tout him as an Israeli patriot and Oct. 7 hero; his detractors say he’s unfamiliar with the agency
Prime Minister's Spokesperson's Office
Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement earlier this month that his military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, would become head of the Mossad, came as a surprise to the public, as journalists and experts had been confident that current Mossad chief David Barnea’s deputy, known only as “A,” had the job in all but name.
However, for those who know Gofman, his time in the IDF and his working relationship with Netanyahu, as well as the prime minister’s post-Oct. 7 predilection for bringing in outside candidates to take over defense institutions, Gofman was a natural choice.
Netanyahu appeared on Sunday before the committee that will determine whether Gofman’s appointment is finalized, and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Gofman himself are expected to speak to the committee this week. Should the committee approve Gofman, he will enter the role in June.
Gofman has a limited public profile as Netanyahu’s senior military advisor. But in Israel, his face is fairly familiar, as he can be seen walking behind Netanyahu into the Oval Office and other high-level meetings, even as military secretaries don’t make public statements.
Gofman, 49, was born in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union, and immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 14. He was bullied in school and took up boxing to fight back, becoming the second-ranked young boxer in Israel in his weight category. He enlisted in the IDF Armored Corps in 1995 and has been in the military ever since, rising to the rank of Aluf, or major general.
In October 2022, Gofman was appointed commander of the National Center for Ground Training. A year later, when Hamas invaded southern Israel, Gofman drove from his home in Ashdod towards the Gaza border, without a bulletproof vest or a helmet. He took on Hamas terrorists at the Sha’ar HaNegev Junction, killing two and sustaining a severe wound to his knee, after which he found Israeli police officers nearby who took him to the hospital. In his first public remarks after the battle, he said: “We failed. … Now we’ll go forward and kill them all.”
Netanyahu chose Gofman as his military secretary in 2024, and he became one of the prime minister’s closest and most trusted advisors. As such, Gofman was a central figure in Israel’s decision to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute food to civilians in Gaza, among other high-level moves.
Netanyahu has sent Gofman on multiple trips to Moscow for discussions on security matters, following the fall of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and Gofman is said to have played a key role in shaping Israel’s policies relating to Syria since then.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, who knows Gofman well from their years in the IDF, told Jewish Insider that “Gofman did what no military secretary has done in history. … Thanks to Roman, [Netanyahu] made significant decisions in running the war and … circumvent[ed] a system that sometimes leaves out the prime minister.”
Gofman, Hacohen said, “has strategic vision. Syria came as a surprise, and he had a decisive role in the decision [for the IDF] to go in.”
Hacohen said that Gofman’s background, as an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, is an advantage: “He knows that America is not the whole world and there are other forces we need to talk to and understand in depth.”
Several of Gofman’s current and former colleagues spoke to JI about the new appointee on condition of anonymity. They painted a picture of a passionate Israeli patriot who is well-read and informed on military history and international affairs, while being pragmatic and able to translate that knowledge into an operational approach. They said that Gofman is creative and takes initiative, but is also a good listener, who is willing to accept criticism and alternatives to his own ideas.
In the prime minister’s announcement of Gofman’s appointment as head of the Mossad, Netanyahu called him “an officer of great merit,” and praised his “significant involvement in the seven theaters of the war,” – meaning Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran – as well as his work with all intelligence and security services, including the Mossad.
“Maj.-Gen. Gofman has demonstrated creativity, initiative, stratagem, deep recognition of the enemy, absolute discretion, and the safeguarding of secrets,” the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office reads. “These qualities, as well as his leadership and courage, were evident at the outbreak of the War of Redemption, when he rushed from his home and fought in person against Hamas terrorists in the Western Negev, where he was severely wounded.”
Following the announcement, critics of Netanyahu — mostly in the media, not in the Knesset — made the argument that Gofman does not have the experience in intelligence to head the Mossad.
Prominent left-wing activist and pundit Yariv Oppenheimer, a former leader of Peace Now, was one of many who argued that Gofman’s close relationship with Netanyahu made him suspect.
“I don’t know this general … but I care about the big picture, which is that Netanyahu is treating this country like it’s his personal property. He wants a Mossad chief who is loyal to him before the country,” Oppenheimer said on a panel on Israeli public broadcaster Kan. “This is an unnatural appointment, and when something is not natural, it raises questions.”
Hacohen rejected the argument that Gofman is “loyal to the king and not the kingdom. It’s nonsense, because the king is the kingdom. They go together.”
Historically, some of the Mossad’s best-known leaders came from outside the organization, including Meir Amit, Zvi Zamir and Meir Dagan, the latter of whom not only came from outside the Mossad, but was a leading figure in former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2001 election campaign. Hacohen noted that the “the best intelligence agency in the world, the MI6,” also often has leaders recruited from outside the organization.
Hacohen also argued that Gofman learned “unique and significant” things about Israel’s broader security picture as Netanyahu’s military secretary, including the role of the Mossad, and that the job of the head of the Mossad is to “connect people with micro-experience, while seeing the macro.”
Sources who worked with Gofman have cited his creativity and his willingness to stand up to his superiors and against conventional wisdom. Hacohen said that Gofman “challenged the system everywhere he went. … He had the ambition and desire to ask questions and do better.”
In 2019, Gofman argued for greater deployment of IDF ground forces in sensitive arenas, which, six years later, was one of the conclusions the IDF drew following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. His remarks were made at a conference of IDF officers with departing Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, now a Knesset member. In footage of his remarks, Herzi Halevi and Aharon Haliva, who served as IDF chief of staff and head of intelligence, respectively, on Oct. 7, can be seen in the audience.
“We are ready to fight, but there is one problem,” Gofman said at the time. “You are not using us. Over time a very problematic pattern has developed, which is essentially the avoidance of using ground forces. And still, in the current reality, we have a lot to offer in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria … Time after time, [the IDF tells] people we have more relevant tools [than ground troops].”
Gofman’s critics also cite an incident from his time as commander of the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Division, which is responsible for the front with Syria, that may be especially relevant in his new position as head of the Mossad, as it pertains to his treatment of spies.
Gofman authorized intelligence officers under his command to enlist then-17-year-old Ori Elmakayes, who was fluent in Arabic and ran a Telegram channel and other social media pages with news about the Arab world. The intelligence officers sent him classified information to publish online in an attempted influence operation, even though Gofman and the Bashan Division were not authorized to engage in psychological warfare.
Elmakayes was arrested by Israeli authorities in 2022 for publishing classified information and jailed for nearly two years, after which the indictment was dropped when the investigation found that the intelligence officers were working with Gofman’s approval.
After Gofman’s appointment as head of the Mossad was announced, Elmakayes posted on X that “Gofman abandoned me after initiating an operation in which I was used … Following his abandonment, I was falsely imprisoned … After he used me and ruined my life, Roman Gofman had no problem distancing himself from me despite knowing what I experienced. Such a person cannot be the head of the Mossad. If he abandoned me, what will stop him from abandoning Mossad agents if God forbid they get in trouble in different operations?”
The same year that he launched the influence operation with Elmakayes, Gofman wrote a paper for an IDF journal stating that commanders can act beyond their formal authority to enact the will of policymakers, citing the work of the contemporary Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
Another controversial paper by Gofman came to light after he was appointed Mossad chief: In 2019, he suggested in a paper for the IDF-run Israel National Defense College — where he received a master’s degree in political science and national security in cooperation with Haifa University — that, should Iran get too close to developing nuclear weapons, Israel should threaten to sell nuclear weapons to neighboring countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to balance the region.
Gofman leads an outwardly secular lifestyle, but after growing up in the Soviet Union, he sought an education in Judaism and Zionism as an adult.
Gofman told Ynet military reporter Yossi Yehoshua that when he was in the IDF officers’ course, Gofman realized he did not know Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” by heart. “I started to feel like I had no depth in the Zionist, Israeli subject, that there are a lot of things the soldiers could ask and I won’t know how to explain. … It shook me. I was going to be an IDF officer and I was missing so much. I was carrying this vacuum since my aliyah.”
During his undergraduate studies, Gofman also began studying at the Bnei David Pre-Military Academy in Eli, the flagship religious-Zionist institution, for a year of Torah study between completing high school and starting IDF service, many of whose alumni have climbed the IDF ranks.
“They accepted me as I was, without a kippah,” Gofman recalled. “I built a curriculum and came to study one day a week about Zionism, Israel, history, to explain to myself, first and foremost, who I am and what I am.”
“Only then did I suddenly feel that I have two feet on the ground, but a head in the sky. I know how to explain the Zionist idea,” he said.
A former colleague of Gofman said that he is “very well-connected to his roots, because he went through a personal process to connect to them. He knows how to make war, but he also knows what it’s for, the deeper ideology behind it.”
“To fight for Israel,” Hacohen said of Gofman’s search for meaning in his Judaism, “you need faith. We, in the Land of Israel, have many struggles. If those who came from the former Soviet Union were looking for a safe place, why would they come here? This is not just a place for fun or safety, it’s for the liberation of the Jewish people.”
Cohen told JI that he’s considering getting into politics but it’s ‘definitely not the time’ with Netanyahu still dominating the scene
Rami Zarnegar
Book cover/Yossi Cohen
Like any former Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen has long been a relatively elusive figure in Israeli public life. So his recent embrace of the spotlight has left Israeli politicos wondering whether he will run for prime minister in the next election.
While the name “Yossi Cohen” is so generic in Israel that one may think it’s an alias akin to “John Smith,” it is, in fact, the real name of the intelligence officer who was nicknamed “Callan” for his favorite British spy show, and “the model” for his dapper style and perfectly-gelled coif. He first received public attention as deputy Mossad chief known only as “Y,” and emerged from the shadows with his real name and face in 2013 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him national security advisor. Cohen was appointed head of the Mossad two years later, a job he retained for six years.
Cohen received attention for commanding ambitious Mossad operations, such as smuggling Iran’s nuclear archive to Israel, and for Netanyahu reportedly naming him as one of his possible heirs, but he rarely gave interviews — until now.
Cohen has been on a Hebrew media blitz ahead of Tuesday’s release of his new book, The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad and the Secret War, in Hebrew and English.
The book is a mix of memoir, in which he discusses becoming the first kippah-wearing graduate of the Mossad cadets’ course and his undercover missions, recruiting spies within Hezbollah and the Iranian nuclear program, as well as his rise to head the organization and lead major operations. It also includes commentary on recent events, including the failures of the defense establishment — and less so of politicians, in his description — on Oct. 7, 2023, the ongoing war and hostage negotiations. Cohen laments that things would have gone better if his advice in past years had been heeded.
It reads, in many ways, like the kind of book a politician would publish before a big run, to let potential voters get to know him — albeit with the much more exciting elements of spycraft.
Yet, in an interview with Jewish Insider last week at his office in a Tel Aviv high-rise, where Cohen’s day job is representing the Japanese investment holding company SoftBank in Israel, he dismissed the idea that his book was the first step in a political campaign.
“That was not the reason for me to write the book,” he said. “I started writing the book something like three years ago, much earlier. I decided to [publish the book] now, because I believe that now is the time … Since I started the book we had the judicial reform, the seventh of October, a war against Hezbollah and the Iranian events. Each of those chapters had to be updated.”
Still, Cohen added, “I can’t say that one day it will not serve my political goals if I will decide to go into politics.”
Thus far, Cohen has kept politics as an “if.” In the past, it was a “no,” he said, but now, he’s thinking about it.
“I am not entering any politics right now,” he clarified. “I stay uninvolved in this kind of politics because nothing is happening. The entire Israeli political system is a little bit stuck. I’m not assessing that any kind of election will happen before the end of next year, November 2026 as planned,” when the next Israeli elections are scheduled to occur.
Cohen said he does not have a team ready for a political campaign, and that all he is doing currently is promoting his book.
The former Mossad chief said that “I was always a Likudnik,” identifying with ideas of the party’s ideological forebear Ze’ev Jabotinsky, but “all options are open” as to whether he would join an existing party or start his own.
He would not join Likud in its current iteration unless it is “reshaped,” he said, in an apparent reference to the vocal populism from within the party’s ranks in the Knesset.
“I don’t want to criticize people personally … but it’s a different party today. It’s not the party that I grew up on. It’s so totally different.”
As to whether he would wait for Netanyahu to leave the political scene, Cohen said, “Definitely this is not the time. …Currently, I am staying in business, 100%.”
Cohen and Netanyahu have not spoken in over a year and a half, when several months into the war the former intelligence chief warned the prime minister that senior defense figures may try to manipulate investigations into the failure of Oct. 7 to exonerate themselves.
Despite the long disconnect, Cohen said that there is no rupture between them, because they had an excellent working relationship, but they were not personal friends. He noted that before the war they had not spoken for a long time; Netanyahu offered him the role of defense minister in late 2022, but Cohen could not legally take it because of a required cooling-off period between serving as a senior defense officer and entering politics.
Cohen has somewhat shielded Netanyahu from blame for the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks, referring in his book to the security establishment’s failure and asserting that “there is no one else to blame.”
He clarified in his interview with JI that “the political leadership always has responsibility” for events such as Oct. 7 and called for a state commission of inquiry to be established, something that Netanyahu has sought to avoid.
“We must make sure to investigate what has to be investigated,” Cohen said. “The intelligence level was poor. It was either not gathered properly or not interpreted properly, but the result was super poor. We didn’t give the State of Israel any alerts about a major attack. … We didn’t have any workable defense lines operating correctly at our borders.”
“There’s the Shin Bet and IDF intelligence who have to know these things, and since they didn’t, and they didn’t push back the enemy when it entered the State of Israel or counter the enemy before it entered Israel, that’s a failure. You don’t need an investigation to know that. Then, of course, I think that the government was responsible for everything that happened under its auspices,” he said.
Soon after Oct. 7, Netanyahu tasked Cohen with trying to find a way to get Palestinian civilians out of Gaza so Israel would be able to fight Hamas with fewer civilian casualties.
“The Mossad and I were trying to convince [Egypt] to let the Palestinians leave, even for a short time, only the civilians … without anything, no cellular, no electronics, no armaments, no physical threats, to the Egyptian side,” he recalled. “Take them into the Sinai Peninsula for six months, one year at a time, a million or a million and a half people. …That was the plan. It didn’t work because [Egyptian President Abdelfatah] Sisi and his consultants said it will cause a kind of revolution in Egypt because of the hatred of Hamas…and their [affiliation] with the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Nearly two years later, Cohen says “it’s hard to explain why … the world does not really embrace any Gazan immigrants. Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar even, or Egypt and Libya — a long list of Muslim countries — could say ‘I would take 50,000,’ ‘I would take 100,000,’ ‘Come live with us.’ No one said that, not even Muslim countries. Even if … they would all be sent back home.”
Cohen said the story demonstrates the lengths to which Israel went to protect Gazan civilians from the war.
“Israel does not mean to harm civilians,” he said. “We do not starve them, we do not fight a war against any of the civilians. We keep the international war laws very tightly. But now they’re in [Gaza] and we can’t do much. We try to help them, but it’s a war zone. What I was trying to do is send them away from a war zone.”
As to how the war in Gaza should end, “the best case scenario should be connected to a hostage deal. If there is a hostage deal today, Israel should take it,” he said, days before Israel attempted to strike Hamas leaders in Qatar, which has mediated the hostage and ceasefire talks.
While Cohen said he is not privy to the details of the talks, he said “if there is a deal that gets some of our hostages home and for this we have to pay a price of pausing our military action as we did in the past, I will be very much in favor.”
At the same time, he said “the State of Israel cannot afford to not complete the defeat of Hamas.”
Cohen said he did not have an answer as to who should administer Gaza after the war. He dismissed the control some Gazan families have of small areas, saying “it’s two and a half people … Someone has to take care of them, to supply them with … social services, health services.
He was, however, certain that the Palestinian Authority should not be involved, because it is not capable of managing Gaza. “We tried that,” he said, referring to Hamas deposing the PA in Gaza in 2006. He also noted that Israel has been protecting PA President Mahmoud Abbas: “We’re fighting for him and with him against Hamas in his territories.”
Cohen wrote in the book about his involvement in another element of the war in the past two years: the pager attack in which Israel detonated hundreds of beepers belonging to Hezbollah terrorist operatives in Lebanon.
“It started 25 or so years ago, when I was the head of a division in the Mossad,” he recounted. “We understood … there is something new that we can do, and that is selling to our enemies tampered, manipulated equipment. That is the family of the pagers and walkie-talkies.”
One of the early operations in that vein was the sale of a special calibrated table sold to Iran for use in its nuclear program, which later exploded, but the pager operation was the largest in magnitude. Other tampered equipment was used for surveillance or for tracking locations.
“These are things we learned to do 20 years ago,” he said. “Building up this kind of relationship with the buyers is something very hard to do because they check you … they go into everything, so you have to be real. The concept was invented, and now you see the results.”
Cohen said that the IDF and Mossad “did a beautiful job” in the 12-day war against Iran in June: “We prepared a lot of capabilities inside Iran to allow for that and it was operated correctly during the war.”
Israel must always be prepared for the next round against Iran, he added.
“We’re not sure that Iran will not go back and try to enrich uranium again,” he said. “They claim that they can rebuild their sites …They [the West] said the destruction was huge, and I believe the Western side on that. Nevertheless, if they [rebuild] and there is a threat coming from that direction, the only thing that I can suggest my government and the administration [do] is to attack it.”
Cohen frequently lamented in his book that the Israeli defense establishment is insufficiently aggressive and overly cautious.
The former Mossad chief said he felt that his “responsibility was to counter our enemies brutally. If I see terrorism, I have to counter it. If I see Iranian nuclear sites, I have to counter them. If I see someone anywhere, anyhow trying to plan something against the State of Israel, I have to counter it. And I did not always feel that this was the methodology being practiced in other bodies.”
By not nipping growing threats in the bud, Cohen argued, Israel allowed them to grow to a magnitude that it became too hesitant to act against.
The war in Iran, however, was an example of a positive change, Cohen said.
“I think that [Eyal] Zamir as [IDF] chief of staff is doing an amazing job,” he said. “He’s much more aggressive. He’s telling the government … ‘Yeah, there will be some missiles coming back to our side, but we can deal with it.’”
“Now, on the Iranian side, they know we can do it and we may do it again,” Cohen added.
Cohen has been deeply involved in Israel’s unofficial relations with Arab states, and said he is still optimistic that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will seek normalization with Israel, but only after the war ends.
“They cannot make a peace treaty with a country at war. It doesn’t work in the Muslim world. … He would be very cautious entering these kinds of negotiations right now, because people are saying about Israelis, ‘Look what they do to our brothers in Palestine.’ But the minute the whole war will be over, I expect that he will sign an agreement with us,” Cohen said.
As to the Saudi demand for concrete steps towards Palestinian statehood in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, Cohen said “a Palestinian state is something that is not realistic anymore,” again citing the PA’s inability to govern Gaza.
At the same time, Cohen opposed Israeli annexation of parts or all of the West Bank and said he finds it unlikely that the government will do it.
“Countries that have an agreement with us don’t want that to happen because it kills the idea of any future Palestinian negotiations and they can’t live with that,” he said.
Cohen posited that Israel will not annex parts of the West Bank because it “closes the door” on an eventual arrangement with the Palestinians.
“The reality is that since 1967, we haven’t annexed anything in the West Bank, right?” he said. “And why is that? … Because we want to leave a door open for negotiations with the Palestinians. That is why any government, even the right of [Menachem] Begin and Netanyahu, have not annexed anything in the West Bank.”
Cohen predicted that will continue to be the case for decades.
“I’m not sure how long it will take to create something better with the Palestinians that we see today, that will transform them into a friendly country and territory. They’re a deadly enemy, this is what we have, even in the West Bank. And on the other hand, this is territory that we cannot confiscate.”
“I think the status quo should be kept,” he added.
Early in the book, Cohen expressed his appreciation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him “a deeply strategic thinker and natural leader,” and in the interview last week, he stuck with that position, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia’s turn away from Israel and alliance with its enemies in recent years.
Cohen said that “many things that the State of Israel has done with Putin are unknown to the public. When I stated that, I based it on things that we have done with the Russian administration for many years, and Syria is an example,” referring to the deconfliction mechanism between Jerusalem and Moscow when the Russian Army was in Syria to prop up then-President Bashar al-Assad.
“The only mediators [between Israel and Syria] were the Russians, and what we saw happening was that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah terrorists were coming down to our borders,” Cohen recalled. “We didn’t want that, and we couldn’t speak to Hezbollah or to the IRGC. So the only one that was taking part in these negotiations was Putin, who eventually pushed [Iran-backed troops] back 40 kilometers. … We needed him to be on our side, and he was.”
Cohen also spoke of Russia finding and returning the body of IDF soldier Zachary Baumel, which had been missing in Syria since 1982.
“The operation that [Putin] conducted inside Syria … was amazing. I was there in the Russian Ministry of Defense in a ceremony where we got the body of an Israeli soldier to be brought back to a Jewish grave… I was in Moscow and Jerusalem on the same day. We had a ceremony late in the afternoon to bury him. I was involved in looking for his body my whole life, and here Russia did it for us. … That’s a big thing,” Cohen said.
Cohen also mentioned the criticism of Israel soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Israel cannot fight all wars. [The Biden administration] said we have to support Ukraine with more weapons. Come on. If you want to support Ukraine with more weapons, you’re welcome to do that. I mean, Israel has other interests in the region, like with Russia. [Israel is] a small country at the end of the day … and very vulnerable.”
When confronted with the idea that American audiences may not appreciate his praise of Putin, Cohen said “you don’t have to agree with everything Russia does, and they will conduct their own policies if you agree to it or not.”
Israel needs to “negotiate, engage with leaders on the other side, to make sure that good things happen,” Cohen said. “This is what I cherish, the way President [Donald] Trump conducts things with Russia, because disengagement with them will not make the war [in Ukraine] end just because you wish for it to end. … You have to know how to conduct your international relationships, and somehow you have to conduct them with your enemies … that are not in line with your values.”
Asked why he first wrote his book, together with a team, in English and then had it translated into Hebrew, Cohen said that the American audience is important to him because “America is the only friend we have” in Israel.
The book, he said, “is not only about me, it’s about the world and international relationships, and I thought America is the right place to [publish] that first.”
In addition, Cohen said he wanted to communicate to the Jewish communities in the U.S. and other countries “to tell them what the State of Israel is and how important the relationship with Jewish communities is to me. They are very dear to me. … I know there is a lot of work that’s missing recently with the Jewish communities in the U.S. and I want to be a positive player.”
Plus, pro-Israel lawmakers criticize Israel on Syria strikes
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A bipartisan group of pro-Israel lawmakers — Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) — released a statement today criticizing Israeli strikes in Syria overnight.
The lawmakers, who recently returned from Syria, said that the message they heard during their visit “was clear: Syria needs a chance to succeed and move past the violence and strife that consumed the country for over 14 years. Last night’s destabilizing strikes on Syria by Israel make that goal more difficult to achieve.”
“The Syrians are prepared to move forward with Israel to advance peace. It is unclear how long the door to this opportunity will remain open. We call on Israel to seize the moment and immediately cease hostilities,” the group said.
The statement is one of the most public signs yet of friction between even staunch supporters of Israel in Congress and the Israeli government over its approach to the new Syrian government, which has included repeated rounds of strikes on Syrian targets even amid diplomatic engagements. Many U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, are urging a more optimistic approach.
Syrian state media reported that the strikes also included a ground raid by the IDF near Damascus, which would be the first reported instance of an Israeli ground incursion so far into the country’s territory since the fall of the Assad regime. Syrian forces had reportedly recently uncovered surveillance equipment at a military base in the area…
The IDF also carried out strikes today on Houthi military targets in Sanaa, Yemen, after several Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel in recent days. Israeli media reported that the strikes, one of which targeted a gathering of top Houthi leaders, may have eliminated the terror group’s minister of defense and chief of staff…
Back in Washington, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer reportedly participated in President Donald Trump’s roundtable on Gaza at the White House yesterday, according to Axios, as he made a last-minute visit to the capital.
A source told the outlet that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Trump Mideast advisor Jared Kushner got the green light from the president to develop a post-war plan for Gaza, though few details were hashed out at the meeting.
Dermer reportedly stressed that Israel doesn’t want to occupy Gaza in the long term and wants to see alternative options for parties that could govern Gaza that are not Hamas. “Dermer’s message was: As long as our conditions are met, we will be flexible about everything else,” the source told Axios…
France, Germany and the U.K. sent a letter to members of the U.N. Security Council this morning announcing they are triggering snapback sanctions on Iran, as anticipated after recent diplomatic talks to roll back the Iranian nuclear program yielded little progress.
The move triggers a 30-day timeline before the sanctions go into effect, during which the European countries said they are open to continuing negotiations with Iran.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will work with the UNSC to “successfully complete” the reinstatement of sanctions. “At the same time,” he said, “the United States remains available for direct engagement with Iran … Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it.”
Iran has threatened previously to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if snapback sanctions were imposed, which could have wide-ranging consequences, including a potential regional nuclear arms race…
The UNSC was also busy today with a vote to extend the mandate of UNIFIL, the U.N.’s forces in southern Lebanon, whose mission was due to expire on Sunday. The body voted unanimously to extend the mandate one final time until Dec. 31, 2026, when UNIFIL will have one year to withdraw from Lebanon completely.
Dorothy Shea, acting U.S. representative to the U.N., said in a statement supporting the vote, “The United States notes that the first ‘I’ in UNIFIL stands for ‘Interim.’ The time has come for UNIFIL’s mission to end. This is the last time we will support an extension of UNIFIL”…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatened Norway and its officials with retaliatory tariffs and visa restrictions in response to the decision by Norges Bank Investment Management — the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund — to sell its stake in the American machinery company Caterpillar in response to the Israeli military’s use of its products against Palestinians.
“To those who run Norway’s sovereign wealth fund: if you cannot do business with Caterpillar because Israel uses their products, maybe it’s time you’re made aware that doing business or visiting America is a privilege, not a right,” Graham said on X…
Back in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain shared a joint statement after meeting in Jerusalem today, where they agreed that “every effort must be made to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the most vulnerable people where they are, and that humanitarian aid is provided exclusively to civilians”…
Meanwhile, the Boulder chapter of the group “Run for Their Lives,” which hosts weekly marches to advocate for the release of the hostages held in Gaza, announced it will no longer publicly advertise its walking route, after participants faced continued threats and harassment in the wake of a firebombing attack on one gathering several months ago.
In recent weeks, protesters have stalked and shouted slurs at participants, such as “genocidal c**t,” “racist” and “Nazi,” and have threatened organizers’ children, according to the Colorado Jewish Community Relations Council…
No industry is safe: The Wall Street Journal reports on the tech worker “revolt” over Gaza and how companies are responding, including moderating internal message boards by deleting content and closing discussion threads.
Anti-Israel activists have recently escalated their protests against Microsoft, setting up an encampment at the company’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters, occupying President Brad Smith’s office and rowing kayaks up to the waterfront homes of top executives (Microsoft has asked the FBI for help in tracking and combating these activities)…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for reporting on the obstacles Israel and the U.S. may face in negotiating a new memorandum of understanding as the current MOU nears its expiration in 2028.
On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will host a campaign event with Graham Platner, the anti-Israel Democrat challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), as Collins has been facing increasing antagonism from crowds at home.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Kickoff and the Daily Overtime on Tuesday. Shabbat shalom and happy Labor Day weekend!
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Plus, Minneapolis shooting echoes Tree of Life
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Ron Dermer speaks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer made a last-minute visit to Washington today, according to Israeli media, while President Donald Trump convened a meeting on a “comprehensive plan” for postwar Gaza, as Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News last night. It’s unclear if Dermer participated in the meeting himself.
Also in attendance at the White House were former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law and former Mideast advisor Jared Kushner, according to Axios, who have been working with Witkoff on the issue for several months…
Dermer canceled a meeting with World Food Program head Cindy McCain, who is in Israel for the first time since Oct. 7, as he headed to Washington. McCain did meet with IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and the head of COGAT, the IDF unit that facilitates humanitarian aid in Gaza. Recall that a whistleblower recently alleged that the WFP had rejected security coordination with the IDF, hampering aid distribution efforts in Gaza…
The alleged gunman who opened fire today on a Catholic school in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring at least 17 people, most of them students at the school, used a gun that had antisemitic and anti-Israel writings across it, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Unverified images of the alleged shooter’s gun, taken from a video posted to a YouTube account believed to be associated with the shooter, show scrawlings on the gun and related paraphernalia that say “6 million wasn’t enough,” “Burn Israel,” “Israel must fall” and “Destroy HIAS,” a reference to the Jewish refugee organization.
HIAS, which was also invoked by the Tree of Life synagogue shooter in Pittsburgh in 2018, told Jewish Insider that because of the organization’s focus, it is “sadly often the subject of hateful antisemitic conspiracy theories”…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is in Washington today as well, meeting this afternoon with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Foggy Bottom. Sa’ar said the two had “a productive meeting on mutual challenges and interests for both our nations” and discussed the Iranian nuclear threat in the aftermath of the U.S. and Israeli strikes in June, among other issues…
Rubio held a call with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the U.K. today, during which all of the officials “reiterated their commitment to ensuring that Iran never develops or obtains a nuclear weapon,” as the European nations gear up to trigger snapback sanctions at the U.N. Security Council in the coming days…
a16z Speedrun, a startup accelerator program backed by the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, is in Israel this week. Last night, the program convened a dinner of 20 budding startup founders from elite IDF units…
Hollywood heavyweights including Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix are joining the production team of “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a film about the killing of a six-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza in January 2024. Jonathan Glazer, who made headlines for using his Oscar acceptance speech last year to equate Israel’s actions in Gaza with the Holocaust, is a director of the project…
Variety spotlights a new film in production starring Jon Voight and directed by the controversial Bryan Singer, which a source described as set in the Middle East during the First Lebanon War. “It makes Israel look really bad and could be polarizing,” the source said…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on how security experts are viewing the threat of Iranian influence and attacks in the U.S. in the aftermath of disturbing revelations of Iranian attacks in Australia, and on how the replacement of Sergio Gor with Dan Scavino as head of the Presidential Personnel Office may impact national security personnel decisions in the administration.
Also tomorrow, the Atlantic Council will host an event in Washington on the “past, present, and future” of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, an initiative launched at the G20 Summit in 2023.
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Plus, the clock keeps ticking on snapback sanctions
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Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), speaks to members of the media during a news conference in Aurora, Illinois, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Shortly after members of the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution today introduced by DNC Chair Ken Martin that voiced support for humanitarian aid to Gaza and a two-state solution, called for the release of hostages and condemned Hamas, Martin announced he was withdrawing the measure and instead forming a task force to continue discussing the issue.
The surprise reversal came after a competing resolution that called for an arms embargo and suspension of U.S. aid to Israel was voted down. Upon huddling with the co-sponsors of the failed measure, Martin said at the meeting of the Resolutions Committee where the votes took place, “There is a divide in our party on this issue. This is a moment that calls for shared dialogue and calls for shared advocacy.”
“And that’s why I’ve decided today, at this moment, listening to the testimony and listening to people in our party, to withdraw my amendment resolution to allow us to move forward in a conversation on this as a party,” Martin continued. He said that he would “appoint a committee or a task force comprised of stakeholders on all sides of this to continue to have the conversation, to work through this, and bring solutions back to our party”…
Overseas, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and U.S. Syria envoy Tom Barrack, ending their visit to Damascus, traveled to Beirut today where they joined Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Along with diplomat Morgan Ortagus and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson, the delegation met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and head of the Lebanese Armed Forces Gen. Rodolph Haykal, with whom they discussed U.S. support of the LAF.
Barrack and Ortagus have been shuttling between Lebanon, Syria and Israel over the past several months in an effort to improve security relations in the region.
During a press conference the lawmakers held in Beirut, Graham announced his support for the United States signing a defense agreement with Lebanon, where the U.S. would commit to defending Lebanon militarily.
“How many nations have a defense agreement with the United States? … The number of nations that America is willing to go to war for is very few. Why do I mention Lebanon being in that group? You have one thing going for you that is very valuable to me. Religious diversity,” Graham said.
The South Carolina senator continued, “Christianity is under siege in the Mideast. Christians are being slaughtered and run out of all over the region, except here. So what I am going to tell my colleagues is, ‘Why don’t we invest in defending religious diversity in the Mideast? Why don’t we have a relationship with Lebanon where we would actually defend what you’re doing?’ I think it’s in America’s interest to defend religious diversity.”
Though it’s been discussed in Israeli and American administrations for decades, the U.S. does not have a mutual defense agreement with Israel, another Middle East country with a large Christian population and religious diversity…
Meanwhile, a meeting of the E3 — France, Germany and the U.K. — and Iran in Geneva today ended with reportedly little progress on scaling back the Iranian nuclear program, leaving the European countries to decide if they’ll follow through on a recent threat to reinstate snapback sanctions at the end of the month…
The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, announced it’s selling its shares of the U.S. machinery company Caterpillar over Israel’s use of its bulldozers, which the fund said had contributed to Palestinian suffering, as well as its shares in four Israeli banks, including the country’s two largest.
The fund has already liquidated its holdings in over a dozen Israeli companies and cut ties with Israeli hedge fund managers over concerns with the country’s war in Gaza and treatment of Palestinians…
On the Hill, leading Jewish organizations are set to send a letter to Senate leadership today urging the body to confirm the Trump administration’s nominees for special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, and international religious freedom ambassador, former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), Jewish Insider has learned. Schumer currently has a hold on dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reactions from Jewish Democrats on Martin’s decision to withdraw his resolution at the DNC and an interview with Democrat Maura Sullivan, the Marine veteran and former Defense Department official running to succeed Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH).
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference at the Prime minister's office in Jerusalem on August 10, 2025.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an IDF strike today on a Gaza hospital that reportedly killed 20 people, including at least four journalists, a “tragic mishap” that Israel “deeply regrets.”
“Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians,” Netanyahu said in his statement. “The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation. Our war is with Hamas terrorists.”
President Donald Trump, asked by reporters in the Oval Office this morning about the strike, said he was “not happy about it. I don’t want to see it.” Trump said at a press conference later he believes that in two to three weeks “you’re going to have … a pretty conclusive ending” to the war in Gaza…
Also turning up the pressure on Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said Sunday that the IDF has met its objectives in its war in Gaza, “including deeply damaging Hamas,” and “as a result of the military pressure, we created the conditions for the release of the hostages.”
Zamir reportedly advocated for Netanyahu to accept the deal that Hamas said it agreed to last week and reiterated his concern that the IDF’s impending takeover of Gaza City will imperil the lives of the remaining living hostages…
Lawmakers are making the most of their August recess with several in the Middle East this week.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem today, after several meetings with Qatari officials in Doha last week.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is in Lebanon today, where he visited a memorial at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut for fallen service members, including the 241 Americans killed in the bombing of U.S. Marine barracks by Hezbollah, under the direction of Iran, in 1983.
Meanwhile, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined U.S. Syria envoy Tom Barrack in Damascus, where they met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to “discuss a bright, unified, and stable future for Syria.”
Wilson and Shaheen also met with Syria’s minister of social affairs and labor, religious clerics and a leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces. Both lawmakers have led efforts in Congress to repeal congressional sanctions on Syria in order to aid reconstruction and stabilization…
Barrack also visited Israel on Sunday and met with Netanyahu, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to discuss security arrangements between Israel and Syria as well as Israel and Lebanon, according to Axios…
France requested to delay a U.N. Security Council vote on a French proposal to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon until Friday, due to disagreements with the U.S. — which holds veto power — over a sunset date for the extension.
The current French proposal would allow the force to remain in place indefinitely, while the Trump administration wants an extension of only one year before UNIFIL disbands and withdraws from Lebanon, sources confirmed to Jewish Insider. If no consensus is reached, France could request another delay until Aug. 31, when the current mandate expires…
On the domestic front, the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Dr. Donald Landry as interim president of the school, after Florida’s Board of Governors rejected Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, for the job.
Landry, a renowned physician and chair emeritus of Columbia University’s Department of Medicine, will replace current UF interim President Kent Fuchs, who said the process of choosing a new president had become “more challenging” after Ono’s rejection…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on how the University of Michigan is becoming an epicenter of anti-Israel activism to start the new school year, and Jewish groups’ response to European officials targeting Katharina von Schnurbein, the EU antisemitism coordinator, for her defense of Israel.
Tomorrow morning, the Democratic National Committee’s Resolution Committee is expected to take up two Israel-related resolutions, including an anti-Israel measure that calls for an arms embargo and a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel. The resolutions will then be brought to the general session on Wednesday. We’ll be paying close attention to how much support that anti-Israel resolution receives.
Also tomorrow, the Treasury Department will officially remove Syria from its sanctions list for the first time since 2005.
Added to our calendar for next week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is slated to appear at a rally with Graham Platner, a Democrat running against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who has emerged as a harsh critic of Israel during his nascent campaign.
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MAGA MEETS THE HOLY LAND
A trip to Israel becomes a wake-up call for MAGA influencers
One influencer on the delegation organized by Israel365 said he previously believed IDF soldiers were anti-Christian, but ‘they were just kind of like homies’
THE HOT CORNER
Game changer: Kevin Youkilis reflects on Judaism and antisemitism as an MLB all-star
A new web series launched by ADL and Maccabi USA explores ‘how sports can inspire dialogue and challenge antisemitism’
Plus, Texans do the electoral shuffle
MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands amid debris outside the Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba, after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran on June 19, 2025.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on “Triggernometry,” a conservative podcast based in the U.K., in an episode released yesterday, where he was pressed by co-hosts Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster about inflammatory comments made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich about settling Gaza and “things that sound like ethnic cleansing.”
Netanyahu dismissed the comments as democratic disagreements, saying, “In a parliamentary system, people are free to say, sometimes they say things they don’t quite mean. … To the extent that we have these conversations around the Security Cabinet, that is actually not being discussed by these people.”
Netanyahu distanced himself from his ministers who have advocated for reestablishing an Israeli civilian presence in Gaza, clarifying, “It’s not my policy. I don’t intend to build settlements or communities in Gaza, not Israeli ones.”
The prime minister disagreed that the comments from Smotrich may be exacerbating Israel’s “PR problem”: “They ask me, you know, ‘Your minister of finance says this, and what do you say?’ Well, I say I disagree with him, and I say that, you know, he’s entitled to say these things. That’s not ethnic cleansing. It’s a view, a legitimate view, which I happen to disagree with”…
And today, Netanyahu announced that he is working “to approve the plans that the IDF presented” to him and Defense Minister Israel Katz for the impending IDF takeover of Gaza City. “In parallel,” he said, “I have instructed to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war, on conditions that are acceptable for Israel.”
Netanyahu made no mention of the latest deal reportedly agreed to by Hamas, which only includes the release of some of the 50 remaining hostages…
Israel is also facing increased diplomatic ire over its actions in the West Bank, after Smotrich announced last week his approval of plans to build the E1 settlement, which were previously frozen for decades due in part to U.S. disapproval of its controversial location, which would make a contiguous Palestinian state nearly impossible.
Twenty-two countries, including the U.K., Australia, France and Japan, issued a statement today condemning the move as “unacceptable and a violation of international law,” and the U.K. Foreign Office summoned Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely in further protest.
Asked about the settlement approval, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the Associated Press that a two-state solution is not a “high priority” for the Trump administration and that there are too many unanswered questions about a potential Palestinian state…
On the campus beat, a New York Times report published yesterday on the hurdles international students are facing entering the U.S. this academic year opened with the line, “Many Iranians are not going to American universities this fall.”
The article, largely sympathetic to the plight of students attempting to enter the U.S., highlighted the revocation of more than 6,000 student visas by the State Department, the majority of which were due to breaking U.S. law and support for terrorism; Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement that the department would review visas of students who participated in disruptive campus anti-Israel protests; and new social media vetting of visa applicants, particularly “for expression of pro-Palestinian sentiment,” as barriers to international student enrollment…
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), on a visit to Doha, met today with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Ernst has previously led efforts to pressure Qatar into forcing Hamas to release the hostages held in Gaza…
In the Lone Star State, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a prominent member of the Freedom Caucus and a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), announced a bid for Texas attorney general today, seeking to replace Trump ally AG Ken Paxton, who himself is running for U.S. Senate against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in a highly competitive primary.
The Texas game of electoral musical chairs comes as the state is in the midst of a contentious mid-decade redistricting process, which will likely see its Legislature turn even deeper red.
One high-profile Democrat in the Texas Statehouse, James Talarico, was backed by Miriam Adelson’s Texas Sands PAC, Politico revealed today, despite Talarico’s public stance against GOP billionaires‘ influence in politics. The group was his largest donor last year and one of his largest ever…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, no stranger to scandal, is facing more electoral trouble of his own as he runs for reelection as an independent, facing off against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
Yesterday, reports alleged that Adams’ former advisor and current campaign volunteer, Winnie Greco, surreptitiously gave a reporter an envelope of cash, stashed inside a bag of potato chips. Today, the Manhattan district attorney unsealed four indictments against Adams’ former chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, accusing her of receiving more than $75,000 in bribes, and six other individuals, most of whom are associates or supporters of Adams…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for reporting on a trip of young MAGA influencers to Israel that changed hearts and minds and an interview with Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) on his reflections from his own recent trip to the Jewish state.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany will speak with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi by phone tomorrow, sources tell the Substack Diplomatic, to discuss their recent threat to reinstate snapback sanctions on Tehran if it does not sufficiently roll back its nuclear program by the end of this month.
An Iranian delegation will also travel to Vienna tomorrow to meet with the International Atomic Energy Agency, a week after IAEA Deputy Director General Massimo Aparo visited Iran in a bid to restart the agency’s cooperation with Tehran.
On Sunday, the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus will host its annual “Summer Simcha” event. Among the attendees will be state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Abdul El-Sayed and, appearing by video, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — all of whom are vying for Michigan’s open Senate seat. State Sen. Jeremy Moss, who’s looking to claim Stevens’ seat in the House, and University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker, who had his home and office vandalized by anti-Israel attackers, will be in attendance. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) will also appear by video.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Kickoff and the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
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MORAN’S MORASS
Qatar’s Washington lobbyist invokes old antisemitic tropes in push for influence
Former Rep. Jim Moran and his team have held dozens of meetings with members of Congress since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in 2023, mainly to talk about the Qatari role in the Middle East peace process
WEIRDING OUT
Susan Collins hits newly minted challenger over his anti-Israel rhetoric
Democrat Graham Platner entered the race accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza
Plus, Bibi faces coalition chaos
Gage Skidmore
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) speaking with attendees at the Moving America Forward Forum hosted by United for Infrastructure at the Student Union at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) rebuked antisemitic comments made by Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh’s campaign staff in a statement to Jewish Insider today, after initially declining to comment when JI unearthed the statements last week.
Klobuchar’s spokesperson said the senator “strongly and immediately condemned the Hamas terrorist attack, and condemns any statements to the contrary.” She called Fateh’s staffers’ comments “outrageous” and said they “have no place in our politics.”
Klobuchar reiterated her endorsement of Mayor Jacob Frey in the race; Frey’s other supporters, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and other state Democratic officials have thus far refrained from commenting on the situation…
Staying in the Midwest, protesters interrupted Rep. Wesley Bell’s (D-MO) first in-person town hall last night in St. Louis over Bell’s support for Israel, shouting over the congressman and getting into altercations with police.
In response to a question about “the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” Bell said, “Let’s talk about the word genocide, because we see that differently.” He repeatedly asked protesters to stop shouting and listen.
“There’s a lot of folks who don’t want to have the conversation,” Bell said. “They just want to spew what they think is important, but they don’t want to have an actual debate because these are tough issues. So, now we’re going to have the conversation — whether you like it or not”…
Meanwhile on the campaign trail, Politico reported this morning on Rep. Chris Pappas’ (D-NH) new competitor in the Democratic primary for New Hampshire’s open Senate seat, political activist Karishma Manzur.
Manzur said she would have supported recent resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — which the moderate Pappas said he would have opposed — seeking to block some arms sales to Israel, saying she “will be against any money to any country to kill people” and that the U.S. should take “concrete actions against the harrowing acts of torture of Palestinians” by the IDF …
President Donald Trump called in to Fox News host Mark Levin’s radio show yesterday and said that, at the time of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, he believed Iran “would have had nuclear weapons in a period of four weeks.”
“If we didn’t [strike Iran], they would probably by this time, just about this time, have a nuclear weapon and they would have used it,” the president said.
Trump also told Levin that the U.S. Air Force pilots who conducted the strikes told him that they and their predecessors had been practicing the flight to Iranian airspace for 22 years…
The New York Times published an analysis on the damage inflicted by U.S. strikes on the Iranian nuclear site Fordow based on the site’s structure and the munitions used…
The State Department responded today to a bipartisan congressional letter led by Pappas last month expressing lawmakers’ concerns that the administration was considering selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey in a reversal of U.S. policy, which currently bans the sale of the jets in light of Turkey’s purchase of an S-400 missile defense system from Russia.
Paul Guaglianone, senior bureau official in the department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs, wrote in a letter to Pappas that the “U.S. position on Turkey’s acquisition and continued possession of the Russian S-400 system has not changed, and the requirements for Turkey to acquire U.S. F-35 aircraft are well-known”…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also announced this morning that the U.S. is sanctioning four additional officials from the International Criminal Court, two judges and two prosecutors, in addition to the four judges sanctioned by the U.S. in June, over the ICC’s continued “efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute American and Israeli nationals”…
In Israel, coalition politics are heating up over a potential ceasefire and hostage-release agreement with Hamas, which reports indicate the terror group recently accepted but Israel has not yet responded to.
Israeli media reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told hostage families he would resign if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire, and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir is likely to do the same, as he did in January when Israel agreed to a previous ceasefire deal.
Meanwhile, opposition MK Benny Gantz, whose Blue and White-National Unity party is currently hemorrhaging in the polls, is reportedly considering rejoining Netanyahu’s coalition to help bolster support for a deal…
Back stateside, Israeli scholar and dance instructor Yael Nativ is suing the University of California, Berkeley, alleging that the university denied her a teaching position because she is Israeli. Nativ had previously taught at Berkeley and was encouraged to apply to teach another course.
When Nativ’s application was rejected shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, according to the suit, the dance department chair wrote to her, “My dept cannot host you for a class next fall. Things are very hot right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on Graham Platner, the oyster farmer turned Democratic challenger to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who called AIPAC “weird” in a recent interview.
Tomorrow afternoon, the American Jewish Committee will host a briefing on “Justice for Victims of Hamas’ Sexual Violence: The U.N. Blacklist and What Comes Next,” referring to the U.N.’s recent decision to “blacklist” Hamas as a group that uses sexual violence as a weapon of war.
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FOREIGN POLICY FEID
Seb Gorka slams Tucker Carlson as ‘Pat Buchanan in a new guise’
Trump’s senior director for counterterrorism: ‘I was worried by this neo-Buchanan isolationism, but I look at President Trump’s actions, they have no hold on him’
TRIP TALK
Rep. Laura Gillen returns from Israel doubly committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship
The New York Democrat told JI ‘the majority of people see the value and the special nature of our relationship with our ally Israel’
Plus, Loomer lashes out
Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 22, 2025.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, called Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-MD) decision to co-sponsor legislation severely restricting U.S. aid to Israel “extremely disappointing,” telling Jewish Insider today that he had a “very honest and frank conversation” with the congressman, whom he considers a friend.
Halber framed his concerns with Raskin, a prominent progressive Jewish lawmaker, within the broader trend of the Democratic Party moving away from its long-standing support for Israel. “It’s difficult when two-thirds of our community is voting for a political party whose base is hostile to Israel,” he remarked.
“Once the war comes to an end, the whole Jewish community is going to have to re-strategize,” Halber said.
The JCRC of Greater Washington CEO said he had asked Raskin to remove himself as a co-sponsor of the bill and instead issue a statement conveying his concerns with Israel’s war in Gaza. “If he doesn’t, we will be disappointed, but that’s his decision to make and he has to live with the ramifications of his decision”…
Speaking this morning at a briefing co-hosted by the American Jewish Congress and World Zionist Organization, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee sounded a cautious note on the current ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, as reports indicate the terror group has accepted a Qatari- and Egyptian-backed proposal.
“Whether or not [Hamas is] serious about bringing this to a close, all I can tell you is I hope so. But what’s happened before, even when they say they are thinking seriously about bringing this to a conclusion, making a deal, they always add one or more things that are completely unacceptable, bring those to the table, then it all starts over again,” Huckabee said.
Israel has yet to respond to the proposal and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing today that the U.S. “continues to discuss” it…
Huckabee and his wife, Janet, hosted U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner and his wife, Seryl, in Jerusalem tonight…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz met with Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, today to approve the IDF’s plans to take over Gaza City. Israeli officials said Gazans will have until Oct. 7 to evacuate the city, to coincide with the second anniversary of Hamas’ attacks, at which point the IDF offensive will begin. It remains to be seen if a ceasefire and hostage-release deal will be reached before then…
The Israeli government also voted today to approve a $9 billion increase to the country’s budget for the year, including $473 million for humanitarian aid for Gaza…
In other negotiation news, Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer is scheduled to meet this evening in Paris with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Syria envoy Tom Barrack to discuss security arrangements on the Israel-Syria border.
The meeting comes a day after Barrack, while visiting Beirut, said Israel needs to “comply with [an] equal handshake” to the Lebanese government’s commitment to disarm Hezbollah by fully withdrawing its troops from Lebanon…
Back stateside, the president of the American Association of University Professors said in a recent interview, “We believe strongly that no weapons should be sent to Israel, at all. Not defensive or offensive, nothing,” escalating the association’s adversarial stance against the Jewish state…
The New York Times chronicles the Trump administration’s attempts to wrest financial settlements from elite universities, including ongoing negotiations with Harvard and the University of California, Los Angeles, the latter of which may pay the administration upwards of $1 billion, according to a draft agreement…
Media mogul Shari Redstone told the Times that she decided to sell Paramount to Skydance in a recent $8 billion merger in part due to her frustrations over anti-Israel bias at CBS, particularly after the Oct. 7 attacks. “Once that happened, I wanted out,” Redstone said. “I wanted to support Israel, and address issues around antisemitism and racism”…
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) endorsed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in her reelection bid today, after initially exploring a run against her and criticizing her tenure…
The Free Press reports on growing frustration with Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur and informal advisor to President Donald Trump, inside the White House, with some officials speculating she may be paid or influenced by lobbying firms and business interests.
Loomer lashed out on X, telling Free Press reporter Gabe Kaminsky he should “contact your anonymous White House sources who are so horrified by ‘lobbyists’ and their intentions and ask them how they feel about their friendship with” Jeff Miller, a Republican strategist, board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition and Trump-appointed member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an interview with top New York Democrat Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) on her takeaways from a recent visit to Israel.
This evening, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a potential 2028 presidential contender, will speak at D.C.’s Politics & Prose on “the role of states in preserving and advancing U.S. democracy.”
Tomorrow, the historic Sinai Temple in Los Angeles will host a conversation with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, the director of the Realign for Palestine program at the Atlantic Council who was born and raised in Gaza. It’s the second event in a series the prominent Conservative synagogue has held about the war in Gaza for its congregants, the first of which was held last month with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation head Johnnie Moore. Read JI’s coverage of Moore’s conversation here.
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CALIFORNIA COMPETITION
Brad Sherman keeps a wary eye on younger primary opposition
Sherman, a stalwart pro-Israel Democrat, is facing several politically connected Democratic challengers in next year’s primary
CLARK’S CLARIFICATION
AIPAC stands by Katherine Clark as she walks back ‘genocide’ comment
AIPAC said its endorsement is ‘unchanged’ and based on the House minority whip’s ‘long-standing support for the U.S.-Israel relationship’
Plus, Santa Ono lands on his feet
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Then-Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) in Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill on June 9, 2022.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning, “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be. … Play to WIN, or don’t play at all!”
Hours later, reports indicated that Hamas had accepted a new ceasefire and hostage-release proposal from Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani and Egyptian officials in Cairo, after a meeting in Doha last week between Al Thani and Mossad Director David Barnea.
A source told Axios that the deal is “98% similar” to the latest U.S.-backed proposal initiated by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Though neither American nor Israeli officials have confirmed the news, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement this afternoon, “Like you, I hear the reports in the media, and from them you can be impressed by one thing — Hamas is under immense pressure“…
Meanwhile at home, the embrace of anti-Israel actors by the Democratic mainstream continues.
Over the weekend, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender from a swing state, told a local political outlet about New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, “It’s OK to say ‘I disagree with this, this, and this, but I agree with that.’ But the idea that we’re just gonna throw out people that are really bringing in new ideas to the fold, exciting people, just because they’re slightly to the right or to the left of us is dumb.”
It’s a notable marker, a pragmatic lawmaker with national aspirations calling Mamdani — a democratic socialist who has refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” — “slightly to the left” of the Democratic center.
And this morning, opinion writer Jerusalem Demsas, formerly of The Atlantic, announced the launch of her new liberal media company, The Argument. The publication will feature writings from center-left heavyweights including Derek Thompson and Matthew Yglesias and received funding from similarly aligned investors including Arnold Ventures and Open Philanthropy.
In her announcement video, Demsas said conservatives are “persecuting Americans for exercising their basic freedoms” over news clips covering anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil’s detention by the federal government.
The continued embrace of Khalil by Democratic thought leaders and influencers is significant as Khalil has continued to escalate his anti-Israel rhetoric, including in a recent appearance on “The Ezra Klein Show” podcast where he said about the Oct. 7 attacks that “we couldn’t avoid such a moment” and about Hamas’ killing of civilians that “we cannot go and ask Palestinians to be perfect victims”…
Former University of Michigan President Santa Ono announced today that he’s been appointed as the inaugural director of the Ellison Institute of Technology. Ono had been named president of the University of Florida but was rejected in an unprecedented move by the Florida Board of Governors, partially over concerns of his handling of antisemitism and an anti-Israel encampment at the Ann Arbor campus.
Now, Ono will report directly to Larry Ellison, the second wealthiest man in the world, who is the founder of the software company Oracle and a major donor to Jewish and Israeli causes…
The Association of American Geographers is set to consider a resolution on Oct. 3 to boycott Israeli academic institutions, the latest professional association to face calls from its members to do so…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an interview with Rev. Johnnie Moore, the head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, about the repeated death threats and vandalism he’s faced at his home, and a look at Rep. Brad Sherman’s (D-CA) primary challenge.
Tomorrow afternoon, the Hudson Institute will host a conversation with Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, on U.S. strategy on counterterrorism and its impacts on U.S. policy in the Middle East.
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BACKING THE BLOCK
Raskin backs bill severely restricting U.S. arms transfers to Israel
One of the most visible and well-known progressive Jewish lawmakers in Congress became a cosponsor of the ‘Block the Bombs Act’
CLARK’S BARK
No. 2 House Democrat describes war in Gaza as ‘genocide’
Rep. Katherine Clark is the highest-ranking Democrat to have used the term, even as only a small number of other lawmakers have done so
Plus, NY Dems continue to withhold Mamdani backing
GETTY IMAGES
Three people with backpacks on sidewalk in front of the campus administrative building on sunny day moving away.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Mossad Director David Barnea was in Doha today meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, which Israeli officials downplayed as being unrelated to a ceasefire and hostage-release deal.
However, with Israel’s expanded operations in Gaza not expected to begin for several weeks and a flurry of diplomatic meetings underway (the Qatari PM also met with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Ibiza last weekend), the negotiating parties likely view this time as a last-ditch opportunity to secure a deal…
Axios spotlights a trip of 15 young MAGA influencers to Israel, organized by the advocacy group Israel365, which describes itself as an “Orthodox Jewish institution that believes that Jews and Christians must respect one another,” and partially bankrolled by the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Even as Israel’s falling public approval in the U.S. is driven by Democrats and to a lesser extent independents, the story notes that the Israeli government “sees shifting attitudes among young Republicans as the more immediate threat”…
In the world of academia: Professors Jon Shields and Yuval Avnur share their findings from a new study on the diversity of thought in college syllabi in the Wall Street Journal.
Drawing on the Open Syllabus Project, which has a database of over 27 million syllabi, they find that Edward Said’s Orientalism — one of the preeminent anti-West and anti-Israel academic texts — is the 16th most assigned text in the database, featured in nearly 16,000 courses in universities around the world.
However, Shields and Avnur find that Orientalism is rarely assigned with any of its critiquing texts, including Sam Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and Bernard Lewis’ Islam and the West. At just 5% of syllabi, Huntington is assigned alongside Said the most commonly, and similar critics almost never.
The professors conclude with a warning to academics who are shaping the next generation of scholars and thinkers: “More of us should follow the minority of professors who teach the real controversy — not only the dominant texts but also work that is critical of them. … If we shut out the views of half or more of the population, we shouldn’t be surprised when the democratic process leads to the diminution of our subsidies and other privileges”…
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told Politico this morning that he won’t endorse New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani until he takes “concrete steps” to address concerns from Jewish New Yorkers around hate crimes.
Goldman said, “We’ve had a good conversation, and I am pleased in some respects with many of the things he said, and I’m interested to see how he moves forward, and what actions and concrete steps he takes to address the significant concerns of the 1.3 million Jews in New York City who are justifiably and understandably very afraid given the most recent hate crime statistics that came out”…
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is also still withholding his endorsement from Mamdani, declining to give CNBC a direct answer this morning on if he intends to support the Democratic nominee. He did say that in a “constructive and candid” conversation last month, Mamdani had asked him to help organize meetings with other members of the New York congressional delegation as well as working class communities that Jeffries represents, and that he had assisted Mamdani in doing so…
On the far left side of the American political spectrum, the Democratic Socialists of America adopted a resolution at their National Convention last weekend called “For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA,” which makes certain actions in support of Israel — including “making statements that ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ and making or endorsing statements or legislation equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism” — “expellable” offenses for DSA members.
The DSA did not ultimately debate a resolution censuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — one of the most vocal anti-Israel members of Congress — over her “tacit support for Zionism” at the convention…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for more reporting on the reaction to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s newly hostile posture towards Israel, which is alarming many mainstream Democrats about the direction their party is headed.
Tomorrow, we’ll be watching the summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin taking place in Alaska, which aims to end the war in Ukraine. The conflict, along with the war in Gaza, has plagued Trump since he took office as he’s been unable to fulfill his campaign promise of ending wars abroad.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
Stories You May Have Missed
ONLINE ARCHIVE
Omar Fateh’s staff defended Oct. 7, denied Israel’s right to exist
The Minneapolis mayoral candidate’s communications manager wrote on social media that Israel ‘must be dismantled’
FAMILY FEUD
DNC confronts anti-Israel push from party delegates
Jewish Democrats are pushing for defeat of a resolution calling for an arms embargo and advocating for a competing, pro-Israel resolution backed by the DNC chair
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