They said, however, it’s unlikely the rift with Tehran will engender any goodwill towards Israel
Mahmud HAMS / AFP via Getty Images
Motorists drive past a plume of smoke rising from a reported Iranian strike in the industrial district of Doha on March 1, 2026.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleIranian attacks on Qatar could prompt Doha to reassess its regional alignment and relationship with Tehran, experts said, though they expressed skepticism that the strikes would change Qatar’s antagonistic posture toward Israel, its funding of anti-Israel media or its harboring of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned groups.
Prior to the Iran war, Doha and Tehran maintained close and pragmatic diplomatic relations centered on economic cooperation. In the leadup to hostilities, Qatar aimed to balance its ties with Iran and the U.S., however the conflict has brought to light the difficulty of this balancing act.
Qatar has suffered severe damage to its civilian, energy and military infrastructure from Iranian strikes, launched as Tehran has targeted American allies in the region amid the war with the U.S. and Israel, including over $20 billion in lost revenue caused by a strike on Qatar’s liquified natural gas facility.
“Iran’s strikes have created real fissures,” said Natalie Ecanow, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “For example, Qatar expelled Iran’s military and security attachés and cracked down on IRGC cells within its borders. Notably, Qatar’s prime minister called Iran’s strikes ‘a big sense of betrayal,’ which is language typically reserved for friends or partners, not foes. That tells you something about Qatar’s mindset before the war.”
Kristan Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, told Jewish Insider that the rift will likely push Doha closer to other countries in the region with aligned interests.
“I think we will see Qatar working even more closely in concert with the new ‘Sunni’ regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia with Turkey, Pakistan and perhaps Egypt and other Arab players,” Diwan said. “While not identical, their interests align,” Diwan added, on Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. “Working together will increase their impact while lessening the burden on any one state.”
But Diwan said that while Doha may distance itself from Tehran, it should not be mistaken for a more favorable posture toward Israel. She said the emerging coalition “shares a belief that the current Israeli government represents a threat to regional stability.”
“Unlike the UAE, these countries are likely to take up positions confronting both Iran and Israel,” Diwan continued. “This will allow for a more accommodating posture on Muslim Brotherhood-aligned groups and perhaps even a recalibration of hostilities toward other radical movements such as the Houthis and Hezbollah.”
Other experts warned that Qatar’s significant financial losses during the war are unlikely to alter Doha’s ideological posture toward Israel or its funding of anti-Israel antagonism.
“Frankly it’s hard to imagine Qatar ever becoming less ideological or antagonistic toward Israel,” Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told JI. “Despite the Iran war’s economic toll, Doha still can afford to propagate anti-Israel, anti-Western extremism through Al Jazeera, the Muslim Brotherhood and other actors. And it still has every incentive to support Islamist groups and media to buttress its own credibility in the Arab and Muslim worlds.”
Additionally, Ruhe said there is little external pressure forcing Qatar to change course, pointing to the Trump administration’s favorable posture toward Doha.
“The war has not altered the Trump administration’s reliably favorable attitude toward Qatar,” Ruhe said. “Qatar’s relationship with Tehran is now severely damaged, but it can compensate through stronger ties with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, both of whom have been propagating anti-Israel rhetoric, and possibly Pakistan, too.”
But Ecanow said the prospect of a full break between Qatar and Iran remains complicated by geography and shared economic interests. Qatar’s wealth is tied to the world’s largest natural gas reservoir, which it shares with Iran.
“Qatar’s wealth flows from sitting on the world’s largest natural gas reservoir — one it shares with Iran. That ostensibly gives Doha an economic interest in the regime’s survival because a regime that’s down but not out poses little competition for Qatar’s liquefied natural gas exports. Regime change may not be an immediate U.S. objective, but this dynamic inherently puts Qatar’s interests at odds with those of the United States,” Ecanow said.
The South Carolina senator’s comments came after Tehran struck the UAE on Monday — the first such attack since the ceasefire took effect
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 30, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would support “big, strong and short” U.S. military action against Iran following Tehran’s latest strikes on the United Arab Emirates on Monday — the first such attack on the critical American ally since the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire took hold in early April.
On Monday, Iran launched 15 missiles and four drones at the UAE and targeted key infrastructure and maritime assets. Authorities in Fujairah reported a fire at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone after a suspected Iranian drone strike.
Additionally, the U.K. military’s Maritime Trade Operations Center said it received reports of a commercial vessel on fire off the UAE coast and warned nearby ships to keep a “safe distance.” The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned an Iranian drone attack on a tanker belonging to the state-owned ADNOC energy company as it attempted to pass the Strait of Hormuz as an “act of piracy.”
Graham, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and supporter of the war effort, said that Iran’s “attack against UAE’s vital infrastructure and continued attacks on international shipping … justifies a big, strong and short response to inflict further damage on Iran’s war machine” in a statement on X.
“A forceful response on behalf of our ally, UAE, will reinforce that America is back as a reliable ally, helping to further wash away the damage caused by the Biden administration on this front,” Graham continued. “The UAE has been a champion ally in this fight, doing everything that’s being asked of them and beyond. Iran’s recent brazen attack against the UAE tells me a lot about who’s in charge in Iran and the chance of a diplomatic solution any time soon.”
Trump has said the U.S. would help guide and protect commercial ships navigating the strait in what he called “Project Freedom,” telling Fox News on Monday that Iran will be “blown off the face of the earth” if it tries to interfere – while also writing on Truth Social that Iran has already done so.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz said on Monday that Washington is working with Bahrain and other Gulf allies to draft a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at “holding Iran to account” for its actions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Plus, Dems concerned over fraying Israel-Europe ties
Daniel Torok/The White House via Getty Images
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) sit in the Situation Room as they monitor the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, at the White House on June 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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President Donald Trump announced this afternoon, with the status of negotiations with Iran up in the air and the expiration of the ceasefire quickly approaching, that he is indefinitely extending the ceasefire at the request of Pakistani negotiators (despite having said, as recently as this morning, that he was not inclined to do so).
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured … we have been asked to hold our Attack … until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other”…
Talks were meant to begin shortly in Islamabad, but Vice President JD Vance’s trip was reportedly put on hold and he remains in Washington. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were all spotted arriving at the White House for meetings this afternoon.
Iran also had not committed to sending its own delegation — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire through its blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, calling it an “act of war. … Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying,” he wrote…
U.S. forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean that had been sanctioned for working with Iran which defense officials said was currently carrying Iranian oil, in a further escalation of the U.S. campaign against Tehran-aligned assets and actors outside of the Middle East.
The Treasury Department also announced sanctions on 14 individuals and entities in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for “their involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian regime”…
Six weeks after he was announced as Iran’s new supreme leader after the assassination of his father, Mojtaba Khamenei has still not been seen in public, raising speculation he is incapacitated from injuries sustained in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike or has been smuggled abroad…
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) endorsed Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) view that the U.S. should reconsider its funding for the Lebanese Armed Forces in light of its continued inaction to disarm Hezbollah, in addition to the Lebanese government’s failure to “follow through on long-promised economic reform. The era of complacency & unconditional bailouts must come to end,” Risch said…
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) clarified that his post calling it “awesome” that several Iranian oil tankers had bypassed the U.S. blockade — reporting that has been disputed as Iranian propaganda — was written as sarcasm. “[O]bviously Trump’s bungled mismanagement of this war is not ‘awesome.’ As I have said a million times here, it’s a disaster and he should end the war immediately,” Murphy wrote on X…
Democratic lawmakers are expressing concern over Israel’s fracturing relationship with key European allies, while experts say the shifting dynamics could carry longer-term economic and political risks for Jerusalem, even if Israel weathers threats to unwind largely symbolic defense agreements, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Among other recent moves, Spain and Ireland led a push today to suspend the EU’s association agreement with Israel. The initiative stalled as member states remained divided on the issue; still, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called the developments “deeply alarming.”
“NATO allies like Spain, France and Italy are turning their backs on Israel, a key democratic partner that is actively fighting on the front lines against Iran,” Gottheimer said. “Singling out Israel represents a double standard”…
The arsonist who pleaded guilty to attacking a North London synagogue on Saturday night was released on bail by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. The 17-year-old boy who threw a bottle containing accelerant through the window of Kenton United Synagogue must live and sleep at his home address and not enter any synagogue, the judge said. It was the third such attack on a Jewish institution in London within a week…
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) resigned from Congress this afternoon, half an hour before her House Ethics Committee sanctions hearing was due to begin. Having lost jurisdiction in the matter, the committee canceled the hearing…
The Board of Peace is reportedly in discussion with the UAE-owned DP World logistics company about managing supply chains and humanitarian aid in Gaza, including potentially building a new port and developing a free-trade zone, according to Financial Times, as part of the Trump administration’s vision of privatizing much of Gaza’s services and infrastructure…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at how Jewish Democrats in Michigan are making sense of their place in the party in the wake of a state convention where pro-Israel voices were shouted down and a pro-Hezbollah candidate won the party’s nomination for a statewide race.
The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing evaluating the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions.
A vote on the fifth Iran war powers resolution in the Senate, expected today, has been pushed to tomorrow.
92NY will host a discussion on the future of New York’s Jewish community with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and New York City Comptroller Mark Levine.
The New York City Council’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will hold its first hearing. The task force was established by Menin in January, shortly after her election, to make recommendations and work towards her five-point plan to combat antisemitism.
Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate will host a unity dinner in partnership with the NFL, Hillel International, United Negro College Fund and the Pittsburgh Steelers for Black and Jewish college students from the Pittsburgh area. The event will include a fireside chat featuring Kraft, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch.
Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie will hold a meet-and-greet with young Jewish professionals.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) will speak in conversation at Yeshiva University with its president, Rabbi Ari Berman, about her new book, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.
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Sue Altman accuses challenger in N.J. race of ‘cheerleading’ the ‘deaths of Israeli children’
Adam Hamawy said on Hasan Piker’s show that he does not support Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, arguing that it insulates Israel from the consequences of war
Plus, Israel-Lebanon talks to continue Thursday
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Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John. F Kennedy who is currently running for Congress, on Jan. 12, 2026 in New York City.
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Iranian officials have signaled they will attend talks with the U.S. in Islamabad, Pakistan, this week, with Vice President JD Vance, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to depart for the meeting tomorrow (despite President Donald Trump’s claim that they were already in transit this morning).
Negotiators are up against a running clock, as Trump said today that his two-week ceasefire with Iran will end “Wednesday evening Washington time” and it’s “highly unlikely that I’d extend it” if no deal is reached…
In a series of heated social media posts, Trump again denied that Israel dragged the U.S. into war with Iran: “[T]he results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” were his motivation, he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also boasted that the deal under negotiation will be “far better” than the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “If a Deal happens under ‘TRUMP,’ it will guarantee Peace, Security, and Safety, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for Europe, America, and everywhere else,” he wrote. Lashing out at the media, Trump insisted, “I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well,” claiming the U.S. blockade, “which we will not take off until there is a ‘DEAL,’ is absolutely destroying Iran”…
The State Department confirmed that the U.S. will host the second round of ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday, as the 10-day ceasefire between the two countries that began last Thursday, after the first round of talks, continues to hold…
Republican operatives and strategists are growing increasingly concerned that the GOP may lose the Senate in the midterm elections, several told Politico, as rising gas prices and unease around the war with Iran create a poor national environment for Trump’s party.
The New York Times’ Nate Cohn argues that Democrats have a “realistic chance” to flip the four seats they need to win back the chamber because “they’ve recruited unusually strong candidates in three states that supported Mr. Trump three times: North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska.”
“In all three states, the Democrats’ likely nominees are popular recent statewide office holders. They either won their last campaign or were highly competitive in losing re-election under less favorable political conditions. So far, the polls show those Democrats running well ahead of what one might otherwise expect,” Cohn writes…
Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg’s shifting views on Israel policy and decision to skip two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums are raising eyebrows in New York’s heavily Jewish 12th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
During a candidate forum at 92NY last week, for example, Schlossberg rejected continued U.S. funding for offensive weapons to Israel amid the war in Iran — even as he emphasized support for boosting the Iron Dome missile-defense system, which he described as a “critical” technology…
Minnesota’s Democratic Party is poised to endorse progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for U.S. Senate at its convention next month, Flanagan’s campaign said, after the lieutenant governor secured support from over 90% of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party local conventions held statewide. The party endorsement, however, will not determine the nominee, as Democratic voters are set to choose their candidate in the Aug. 11 primary election.
The campaign of Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), Flanagan’s primary opponent and the favorite of pro-Israel activists, called on the DFL last week to launch a formal investigation into a series of alleged instances of antisemitic activity among its delegates. One instance at a local convention last month reportedly saw an unnamed delegate argue that “we should nuke” Israel…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the growing feud between Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which “spilled out into public view on Thursday, when Driscoll described to lawmakers his fondness for the Army’s former top general, Randy George, whom Hegseth fired as the service’s chief of staff on April 2 while Driscoll was on vacation”…
A Washington Post investigation found that, since January 2025, neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes has made nearly $900,000 through paid messages on his livestreams from roughly 11,000 fans. His top 500 donors are responsible for almost half of that amount…
The UAE has asked the U.S. to consider offering it financial assistance amid the war with Iran, as the Gulf country has borne the brunt of Iran’s drone and missile strikes, taking a heavy toll on its oil, economic and tourism industries. Emirati officials raised the idea of a currency-swap line, which would allow Abu Dhabi inexpensive access to U.S. dollars…
European officials hosted two meetings on Gaza reconstruction today — one gathering, led by EU representative Kaja Kallas and Norway, centered on coordinating aid with the U.S.-led Board of Peace, where White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum requested international assistance in rebuilding the enclave. The other forum, led by Kallas and Belgium, focused on a two-state solution and was attended by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa…
In response to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s condemnation of an IDF soldier found to have desecrated a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon, Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, accused the IDF of committing war crimes.
“Lessons should also be drawn regarding the way they are being trained,” Sikorski wrote on X. “IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages”…
Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar affirmed that his country is bound by rules of the International Criminal Court to arrest those sought under its warrants, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Magyar said he intends to prevent Hungary from leaving the ICC, a move his predecessor, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, had initiated.
Responding to questions about Netanyahu’s claim that Magyar had invited him to the country for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising, Magyar responded, “Every leader is welcome to attend this important commemoration,” but “we have a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, and I’m sure [Netanyahu] knows this”…
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced this afternoon that he will step down from the helm of the tech giant and become its executive chairman in September. Succeeding Cook is John Ternus, head of the company’s hardware engineering…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for an interview with Rachel Goldberg-Polin on the release of her book, When We See You Again, which debuts tomorrow.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a nomination hearing for Kevin Warsh, son-in-law of Jewish philanthropist Ronald Lauder, to be chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Democrats intend to press Warsh on his personal fortune, which he has only partially disclosed thus far.
The House Ethics Committee will hold a public hearing to determine whether to apply sanctions to Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), after finding last month that she had committed serious ethics violations and campaign finance misconduct.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission will hold a hearing on Iran’s support for Russia amid its war with Ukraine.
The Senate Foreign Relation Committee’s subcommittee on Africa will hold a hearing on U.S. approaches to counterterrorism on the continent.
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Milei, Netanyahu launch ‘Isaac Accords’ to encourage Israel, Latin America engagement
An Israeli diplomatic source told JI that Ecuador and Paraguay are expected to join the Isaac Accords
MICHIGAN MOMENT
Michigan Dems nominate lawyer who praised Hezbollah for UMich regent over Jewish incumbent
Platner, in Reddit post on Hamas terrorist attack: ‘From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent’
Plus, Vance courts pro-Israel donors ahead of 2028
Adri Salido/Getty Images
The Lebanese capital is seen from a viewpoint after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that would commence at midnight local time on April 16, 2026 in Beirut, Lebanon.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced the start of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon to begin at 5 p.m. ET today, after he held phone calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Trump added that he will be inviting Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for “meaningful talks,” later telling reporters such a meeting could happen in the “next week or two.”
The text of the agreement released by the State Department indicates the ceasefire is a “gesture of goodwill” on Israel’s part “intended to enable good-faith negotiations” toward a permanent agreement. The temporary pause in hostilities could be extended if Lebanon “effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty” and prevent Hezbollah from carrying out attacks against Israel…
Trump again indicated further talks with Iran could take place this weekend and said the two sides are “very close to making a deal,” telling reporters this afternoon that Iran has already agreed to “give us back the nuclear dust,” referring to its highly enriched uranium.
Hours earlier, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned at a press briefing that U.S. forces are “maximally postured” to return to military operations against Iran if negotiations are unsuccessful, and will look to attack “infrastructure, power and energy”…
The House narrowly voted to block a Democratic resolution to force an end to the war in Iran by a vote of 214-213-1, with all but one of the four Democrats who opposed a similar effort in March changing their votes to support today’s measure, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Juan Vargas (D-CA) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who voted last month against a similar resolution, flipped their votes to support the war powers effort. But Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who is retiring at the end of his term, voted no again. On the Republican side, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who voted for the war powers resolution last time, switched his vote to “present.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only Republican who voted for the resolution…
Vice President JD Vance, the first vice president to serve simultaneously as finance chair of his party, is building donor relationships that may prove useful should he choose to run for president in 2028, The New York Times reports, including attempting to woo some pro-Israel donors who have otherwise been wary of his ties to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson.
Among others, Vance has developed relationships with Jewish philanthropists Miriam Adelson, whom he spent New Years Eve with at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and Paul Singer; has appeared as the guest of honor at a dinner hosted by Palantir and 8VC co-founder Joe Lonsdale; and has been featured at a Republican National Committee event hosted by tech executive Keith Rabois, who is married to Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg…
With less than six weeks to go until the Texas primary runoff election, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is defending his seat against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with a significantly larger war chest: As the first quarter of 2026 closed, Cornyn had more than $8 million in cash on hand (including a small donation from former President George W. Bush), while Paxton had $2.6 million in the bank. Whoever clinches the GOP nomination will face state Sen. James Talarico, who has nearly $10 million on hand…
Josef Palermo, who was the first curator of visual arts and special programming at the Kennedy Center until his dismissal last month, recounts his experience as Trump and the center’s then-President Richard Grenell initiated an overhaul of the building, a process Palermo describes as “cronyism, incompetence, and a series of bizarre moves.”
Palermo recounts an exhibition he organized commemorating the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in the building’s Israeli Lounge: “Speaking at the opening reception, Grenell warned the mostly Jewish audience that unless donors came forward to sponsor the space and pay for renovation costs, the lounge would be given away to a new donor. … Such a strong-armed fundraising pitch, at an event commemorating a pogrom, struck many of us in the room as inappropriate. I was mortified”…
Asked for his perspective on antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s reach on his platform, Twitch CEO Daniel Clancy said at the Semafor World Economy summit in Washington today that “one of the challenges is when you’re livestreaming you say a lot … you might say a lot of things that are over the top. … If you violate [community guidelines] then we take enforcement actions and we suspend you — it’s designed not to kick you off forever.”
“Whenever Hasan has stepped over the line, we’ve taken action … Folks will get worked up from both the right and the left on this because we have also conservative people that are saying certain things that some people don’t like. … In general, we think it is important for us to allow people to express themselves,” Clancy said…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a temperature check on support for Israel within the Democratic Party, in light of 85% of Democratic senators voting in favor of a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-led measure to block military sales to the Jewish state.
France and the U.K. will co-host a conference tomorrow focused on restoring freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, with leaders from several European, Asian and Gulf countries participating via video.
Michigan’s Democratic Party will hold its endorsement convention on Sunday, where party activists will nominate their two preferred candidates for the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents. The election has reignited the campus’ debate over Israel, as candidate and anti-Israel activist Amir Makled seeks to unseat Jewish regent Jordan Acker, who became the target of antisemitic vandalism and harassment in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. (The SEIU labor union recently pulled its endorsement of Makled over his past support of Hezbollah.)
National party leaders including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will appear at events in Detroit ahead of the convention.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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SCOOP
‘I dig it’: Graham Platner praised Hamas tactics in 2014 graphic video of killings of Israeli soldiers
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Plus, Senate Dems dominate 2026 fundraising
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference on committee assignments for the 118th U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A war powers resolution brought by Senate Democrats to force an end to the war in Iran was blocked by Republicans yet again this afternoon, the fourth failed attempt mounted by Senate Democrats since the war began in late February, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Nevertheless, top Senate Democrats have said they intend to continue forcing such votes weekly (they have nine more resolutions already filed) in the hopes that more Republicans will change their votes as the war drags on…
Texas state Sen. James Talarico announced he raised $27 million in the first quarter of 2026 in his run for U.S. Senate, a massive haul that his campaign claimed is the largest amount ever raised by a Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year. Democrats hope the funds will put Texas in play as Talarico seeks to challenge either Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are still locked in their own hotly contested primary.
The top Senate fundraisers behind Talarico this quarter were also Democrats: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) brought in $14 million — breaking the record for first-quarter fundraising in Georgia — former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper raised $13.8 million and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) raised $12.5 million…
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) said he raised $1.1 million in this year’s first quarter, bringing his total to $4.4 million raised — more than any other House incumbent or candidate in New Jersey this cycle, according to the New Jersey Globe — as he defends his swing seat from several well-funded Democratic challengers.
But even as he’s pulled in plenty of support, Kean has missed a month’s worth of votes on Capitol Hill due to an unspecified medical issue, with his staff declining to say when he will return…
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in an interview on the “Pod Save America” podcast praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with President Donald Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“I believe the thing that has been very fascinating, especially about Marjorie and Candace, is that … they’re saying, ‘This action is wrong,’ right? They’re saying, ‘I am done with you.’ We should give them credit for that, the fact that they’ve had this wake-up call to finally seeing this con man, this corrupt, chaotic man for what he is,” Omar said…
Sebastian Gorka, the White House senior director for counterterrorism and a deputy assistant to the president, is reportedly angling for the position of director of the National Counterterrorism Center, which was recently vacated by Joe Kent amid Kent’s opposition to the Iran war. Gorka has been a staunch defender of Trump and backed his war with Iran, as well as repeatedly praised Israel amid its war in Gaza…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Péter Magyar, the presumptive next prime minister of Hungary, for the first time today, calling the conversation “warm” and saying that Magyar indicated he will continue the close relationship the countries enjoyed under his predecessor, outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul defended her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship today, JI’s Will Bredderman reports, legislation that has drawn legal scrutiny over its creation of a new felony offense for violators.
“I believe I have the right to protect people’s constitutional right to free exercise of religion,” Hochul told reporters when asked if she had concerns that the legislation might provoke challenges on First Amendment grounds. “So if that means we test it in court, bring it on”…
After holding its final public hearing earlier this week, the White House Religious Liberty Commission is now preparing a set of recommendations to be presented to the president next month. Ambiguity and confusion about the commission’s mandate has left commissioners unsure if they’ll continue to meet — their first year on the panel was marred by the firing of one commissioner over her disruption of a hearing on antisemitism…
Progressive media organization More Perfect Union is launching More Perfect University, an effort aimed at college students to act as an alternative to the conservative Turning Point USA, with a focus on urging young people to share left-wing political and economic messaging through social media. Faiz Shakir, the head of More Perfect Union who is also chief political advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign, said he hopes to jump-start “an economic populist movement for the next generation”…
Duke University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter has been suspended as a student group and had its funding frozen after it posted virulently antisemitic imagery depicting Israel and the U.S. as pigs frothing at the mouth on its Instagram page, prompting student complaints to campus administration…
University of Michigan President-elect Kent Syverud announced today he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will no longer assume the presidency, leaving the future of the school’s leadership in question. Jewish leaders had praised Syverud’s appointment as a positive development for UM, which had seen rampant anti-Israel activity in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of a first-of-its-kind antisemitism conference taking place tomorrow at Harvard, created as an outcome of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school.
New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District will hold its special election for the remainder of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s congressional term, where progressive Analilia Mejia is expected to prevail against Republican Joe Hathaway.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold nomination hearings for John Breslow to be U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and Preston Wells to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, among others.
The Shalom Hartman Institute will host a discussion at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, on American Jewry ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a budget hearing on the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
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SCOOP
Zohran Mamdani’s video chief lauded Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar
The Oct. 7 mastermind died in ‘heroic’ style, according to Donald Borenstein, director of video for the Mamdani campaign and City Hall
DEM DIVIDES
Inside the DNC working group at the center of Democrats’ Israel fight
The question facing the Middle East working group’s members is whether they will actually be able to agree on anything — or if the group is simply a way to push the issue off until 2028
Plus, positive readouts from Israel-Lebanon talks in D.C.
Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni addresses the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. 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
U.S.-Iran talks could restart in the next two days, President Donald Trump told the New York Post. “[S]omething could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go [back to Islamabad, Pakistan]” rather than a different mediating country, he said in an interview today.
Trump also indicated he wasn’t happy with reports that his own negotiating team had offered Iran a 20-year pause on its ability to enrich uranium. “I’ve been saying they can’t have nuclear weapons, so I don’t like the 20 years,” he said…
CENTCOM announced that no ships made it past the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in its first 24 hours, and six merchant ships “complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around”…
Saudi Arabia is reportedly pressuring the U.S. to end the blockade, fearing retaliation and disruption to other trade routes. Iran has threatened to mobilize the Houthis in Yemen to close off the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which Riyadh utilizes to move its oil exports out of the Red Sea…
European countries are drafting a plan to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz after the war ends, possibly without the participation of the U.S. As part of this effort, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France and the U.K. will co-host a conference on Friday of “non-belligerent countries ready to contribute” to the “multilateral and purely defensive mission”…
The Treasury Department said it will not renew a waiver set to expire later this week that temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian oil — the waiver had drawn condemnation from some lawmakers who had worked to institute those sanctions…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized at the outset of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in Washington this morning that the talks are a “process” that will “take time,” and that the objective of today’s meeting was to “outline a framework upon which a permanent and lasting peace can be developed” and bring a “permanent end to Hezbollah’s influence” in the region.
The State Department said after the meeting, the highest-level talks between Jerusalem and Beirut in over 30 years, that the sides “agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue,” though it did not indicate when or where further talks may take place. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told reporters that the parties “discovered today that we’re on the same side of the equation. That’s the most positive thing we could have come away with”…
Italy is suspending its defense agreement with Israel, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said today, declining to renew the agreement “in consideration of the current situation.” Italy had grown critical of Israel’s war in Gaza and has been noncooperative in the war with Iran, reportedly not allowing U.S. aircraft to land at its bases.
Trump railed against Meloni, who has thus far been an ally of his, in an interview with an Italian outlet today, saying he’s “shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong,” and claiming she’s “no longer the same person” after she called the president’s attack on Pope Leo XIV yesterday “unacceptable.” “It’s her who’s unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance,” Trump said…
Hamas has rejected the U.S.-led Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal, according to the BBC. The parties seem to once again be at an impasse, as Hamas tells mediators it will not continue onto the second phase of the ceasefire until it feels Israel has complied completely with the first phase, while Israel says it will not move forward until there is progress on disarming Hamas…
The New York Times details a tense event held by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in his Hudson Valley-based swing district where the lawmaker was pressed by constituents demanding answers and accountability on the Iran war; it’s seen as a harbinger of the growing discontent some Republicans will have to contend with around the largely unpopular war in the lead-up to the midterms…
The Union for Reform Judaism released a statement yesterday voicing concern about “efforts to single out AIPAC as a particularly malign influence in campaign finance. … [T]he harsh language being used by some to denigrate and vilify AIPAC borders on — and in some cases crosses over into — antisemitism.”
“Until such time as [C]ongress reforms the nation’s broken campaign finance system overall — an effort we would enthusiastically welcome — to single out AIPAC’s activity will continue to raise questions of antisemitic motivation,” the organization wrote, in a sign of how the demonization of pro-Israel donors and groups is raising alarms across the Jewish political and religious spectrum…
California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a progressive Jewish legislator running to fill Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) seat, was accused at a campaign event earlier this week of taking $50,000 from AIPAC by a constituent citing the far-left group TrackAIPAC. “I just want to be clear, I’m not accepting any support from AIPAC,” Wiener responded. “There are people who are gonna list out all my Jewish donors and say that. I’m not taking any support from AIPAC and I support the Block the Bombs Act”…
The Michigan arm of the powerful SEIU labor union announced today that it had rescinded its endorsement of Amir Makled, a candidate for the University of Michigan board of regents, in light of Makled’s deleted social media posts praising the terrorist group Hezbollah, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Makled is a Dearborn attorney who represented an anti-Israel protester who was arrested during the 2024 anti-Israel encampments at UM’s flagship Ann Arbor campus. A Detroit News report found that Makled had deleted posts praising Hezbollah’s leaders and retweets of antisemitic messages from the far-right influencer Candace Owens, as he now seeks to unseat Jewish regent Jordan Acker…
The relationship between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin appears to be growing increasingly acrimonious as Menin publicly distances herself from some of the mayor’s policies, Politico reports, including apparently helping to plan a protest outside Mamdani’s speech marking his first 100 days in office…
France is exploring legal options to bar rapper Kanye West from entering the country to perform at a concert in Marseille in June, after he was similarly banned and prevented from performing in the U.K. earlier this month. “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism,” the city’s mayor, Benoit Payan, wrote on social media…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look into the work of the Democratic National Committee’s Middle East working group, established last summer, including how it’s approaching intraparty divides over Israel policy.
Two of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) three joint resolutions of disapproval seeking to halt $658.8 million in sales of munitions to Israel are expected to receive a vote in the Senate tomorrow. Sanders and other progressive Democrats have forced votes on similar efforts to block arms sales to Israel on three previous occasions since the war in Gaza began, with a majority of the Democratic caucus — 27 lawmakers — voting to block at least one arms sale in July of last year, a significant jump in support from similar efforts in November 2024 and April 2025.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told reporters Democrats will likely force a vote tomorrow on another Iran war powers resolution, the third such vote after the previous two failed largely along party lines.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on reforming the U.N. with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform Jeff Bartos.
The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan will host an antisemitism town hall with Senior Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
Israel’s Sheba Medical Center will unveil ARC Landing Boston, its first health care accelerator based in the U.S., at an event featuring Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.
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MINNESOTA MATTERS
Angie Craig calls on Minnesota Democrats to investigate antisemitism ahead of state party convention
Delegates are expected to take up divisive anti-Israel resolutions at the convention being held next month
HUNGARY FOR MORE
Analysts expect continued pro-Israel slant from new Hungarian government under Magyar
Economic ties and broader European alliances are likely to preserve the bilateral relationship, even as the expected prime minister-elect moves to rejoin the ICC and potentially pivot back towards the EU
Plus, Hasan Piker calls Hamas 'orphan children'
Jacquelyn Martin - Pool/Getty Images
Vice President JD Vance arrives for talks with Iranian officials on April 11, 2026 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz began this morning, with more than 15 American warships involved in the operation intended to pressure Iran into concessions after this weekend’s failed negotiations.
President Donald Trump said hours later that the U.S. was “called this morning by the right people, the appropriate people, and they want to work a deal.” Mediators including Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey are also reportedly attempting to revive talks between the parties…
One reported sticking point in the negotiations is a U.S. request that Iran agree not to enrich uranium for 20 years. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal was highly criticized for its sunset clauses, which lifted limits on activity including uranium enrichment after 15 years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked a similar timeframe at a Cabinet meeting today, saying he spoke with Vice President JD Vance yesterday who told him that the U.S. aims to ensure “there is no more enrichment in the coming years, and that could be in decades, no enrichment within Iran.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took issue with the timeline: “If this reporting is accurate, the idea that we would agree to a moratorium on enrichment rather than a ban on enrichment would be a mistake in my view. Would we agree to a moratorium for al Qaeda to enrich? No,” he wrote on X. “No enrichment means no enrichment”.…
Six additional Senate Democrats plan to file new war powers resolutions this week to halt the war in Iran, a move that would allow Democrats to continue forcing votes on the war for the foreseeable future, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Previously, a different group of six Democrats introduced similar resolutions, and Democrats have called up two of them thus far, with plans to call up a third this week. The latest group of lawmakers spans from staunch progressives and critics of Israel to generally more pro-Israel members, including Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Andy Kim (D-NJ)…
Citing an “increasingly sour national environment for Republicans,” the Cook Political Report shifted its ratings for four key Senate races in Democrats’ favor: The North Carolina and Georgia races now lean Democratic, the Ohio race is a toss-up and the Nebraska race is likely Republican, rather than solidly. Democrats would need to flip four seats to take back the chamber…
In another heated Senate race where Democrats hope to pick up a seat, former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) raised nearly $9 million in the first quarter of 2026, four times the amount her opponent, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), pulled in. The GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund has pledged to spend $15 million in the race, as polls show Peltola with a slight lead…
In an appearance on the “Pod Save America” podcast released yesterday, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker said he “stands by” his statement made in January that “Hamas is a thousand times better than a fascist settler-colonial apartheid state,” referring to Israel.
“I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time,” he said on the podcast, claiming Hamas is “entirely comprised … of orphan children that have had their parents killed by an apartheid state that has been dominating the lives of Palestinians for 80 years at this point. … Hamas’ tactics, which I oppose at times, or its like internal governance issues are secondary to this conversation”…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called for the federal government to “immediately” pull funding from Yale University over Yale Political Union’s decision to host Piker, who previously suggested that the senator should be killed. Piker is scheduled to speak on campus tomorrow for a debate titled “Resolved: End the American Empire.”
For Scott, Piker’s incendiary language is personal: the streamer was briefly suspended from Twitch last year after urging his followers to “kill Rick Scott.” “An elite private university that hosts an antisemite who says a Senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the U.S. deserved 9/11, shouldn’t get ONE CENT from taxpayers,” Scott wrote on X on Friday…
J Street is seeking to “set the record straight” after the group backed the growing calls among far-left lawmakers to end U.S. support for Israel’s missile-defense systems, including Iron Dome, despite its own criteria for its endorsees stating otherwise.
In a new FAQ, the group called Iron Dome “a critically important defense system” which it “supports and consistently lobbies for.” After the end of the Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel, which runs through Fiscal Year 2028, however, “financial subsidies to Israel should be rapidly and responsibly phased out. … Israel should pay for these systems”…
More Jews were killed in antisemitic incidents outside of Israel in 2025 than any year in the past three decades, according to a report from Tel Aviv University. Twenty Jews were killed last year in attacks in countries including Australia, the U.S. and the U.K., while the previous record was set in 1994 with the AMIA bombing, which killed 85 people in Buenos Aires, Argentina…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at a new poll assessing the partisan divide emerging among American Jews over pro-Israel political engagement.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will host a Yom HaShoah remembrance event at the Capitol, with a keynote address delivered by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Other speakers include several Holocaust survivors as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Lois Frankel (D-FL).
Amid the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group’s spring meetings being held in Washington this week, Jacob Helberg, under secretary of state for economic affairs, will speak at an event with the Atlantic Council about U.S. economic leadership in the Middle East, including utilization of the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, which has been floated as an alternative trade route to the volatile Strait of Hormuz.
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THE VIEW FROM ISRAEL
Israelis uncertain if Iran war made them safer after ceasefire brings combat to an inconclusive halt
After the ceasefire went into effect, there was a pervading feeling in Israel that the war with Iran was not complete, and the return to routine life may be short-lived
COMFORT FOOD
From trauma to table: An Israeli duo uses food therapy and song to foster connection
A traveling program called ‘Soul and Roll’ by singer Hananel Edri and Foodish CEO Merav Oren tells the Jewish story through an immersive culinary and musical experience
Plus, Joe Kent amplifies Iranian propaganda
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
President Donald Trump conducts a news conference in the White House briefing room about the war in Iran on Monday, April 6, 2026.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. 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
Amid reports that Iran has rejected the U.S.’ ceasefire framework, President Donald Trump told reporters Tehran has made its own “significant” proposal, though it is “not good enough.”
Asked if he may push the deadline again for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face increased U.S. military action — as he has already done three times — Trump said, “Highly unlikely. They’ve had plenty of time.”
Trump also claimed the U.S. had “sent guns, lot of guns” into Iran. “They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs. You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them, because they said, ‘What a beautiful gun. I think I’ll keep it,’” he said…
At a press conference this afternoon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today would mark “the largest volume of strikes since Day 1” of the Iran war, with more to come tomorrow.
Trump doubled down on his threats, warning that all of Iran “can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.” If Tehran does not acquiesce by his 8 p.m. ET deadline tomorrow, Trump said, “they’re going to have no bridges. They’re going to have no power plants. Stone ages.”
The president also floated the possibility of charging U.S. tolls to ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz once it is reopened and potentially seizing Iran’s oil. Trump and defense officials further detailed the harrowing rescue of a fighter jet pilot, who reportedly treated his own wounds while scaling mountainous terrain to evade capture after being downed over Iran…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke yesterday with Trump, who thanked him for Israel’s assistance in rescuing the pilot…
Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned over his opposition to the Iran war, shared a post on social media on Saturday spreading false claims from Iranian state-linked media and Drop Site News that the U.S. was attempting to kill the servicemember whose fighter jet was shot down over Iran prior to him being rescued, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
The initial statement from Drop Site, a far-left news outlet sympathetic to Hamas and totalitarian regimes, cited a report by Tasnim News, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claiming that the U.S. had “lost hope” of recovering the airman and was instead “attempting to kill him”…
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX), who previously served in the Air Force, predicted that the U.S. will deploy ground troops into Iran: “I just don’t see any other way,” he said on Fox News. “I personally think it’s going to be boots — at least special ops, American special operators — on the ground, with allies in the region and air cover,” he said…
The U.S.-led Board of Peace is pressing Hamas to finalize a Gaza demilitarization agreement by the end of the week, The New York Times reports, which would require the terror group to give up its weapons and maps of its tunnel network in the enclave. Negotiators from both sides are expected to meet in Cairo, Egypt, tomorrow…
Democratic Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow announced she raised more than $3 million in the first quarter of 2026 in her bid for U.S. Senate. “There was not a dime of corporate PAC donations, not a dime of AIPAC donations,” she said in a video. The pro-Israel group was the only organization she named.
While McMorrow’s opponents have not yet publicized their latest fundraising figures, her haul surpassed those of last quarter, when Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) led the pack with $2.1 million raised in the final quarter of 2025…
The Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top super PAC, revealed its $350 million plan to retain control of the upper chamber, focusing on defending incumbents in Ohio, North Carolina, Maine, Iowa and Alaska and seeking to flip seats in Michigan, Georgia and New Hampshire.
The funds will largely be used for ad campaigns, with the most money being spent to defend Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who must win his first Senate election for the remainder of his term against the likely Democratic nominee, former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received a grand welcome upon touching down in Damascus yesterday for his first meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa. The two leaders “explored avenues for strengthening economic cooperation and the exchange of expertise,” al-Sharaa said…
Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have signed equity commitments to the tune of $24 billion to back Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, The Wall Street Journal reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of tomorrow’s special election runoff in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, where Republican military veteran and Israel supporter Clay Fuller is expected to win the ruby-red seat of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will hold another press briefing on the Iran war tomorrow morning.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will host rallies tomorrow at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan with guests including Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, a move which has drawn condemnation from some Democrats and sparked a broader debate about the mainstreaming of Piker within the party.
The Democratic National Committee will begin its five-day meeting in New Orleans tomorrow, where its resolutions committee will consider several resolutions condemning AIPAC and Israel, including calls for conditions on or a suspension of U.S. military aid to the Jewish state.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will meet with Trump and administration officials in Washington on Wednesday, as the president continues to slam the organization for its refusal to engage in the Iran war.
In observance of Passover, we’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday, April 13. Chag Pesach Sameach!
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ALTERED LIVES
They survived the Temple Israel attack. They can’t escape what followed
The foiled attack at the Michigan synagogue is being called a miracle — but those who were inside now face the lasting impact of trauma and a search for safety
O CANADA
As antisemitic attacks mount, Canadian Jews ask whether they still belong
After a series of targeted attacks in Toronto and beyond, Jewish leaders are raising the alarms on Canada’s failure to properly protect its Jews amid ‘systemic’ antisemitism
Plus, judge rules against UPenn in antisemitism investigation
Haidar Mohammed Ali/Anadolu via Getty Images
Mourners carry the coffin of Kata'ib Hezbollah member on March 2, 2026 amid Kata'ib Hezbollah flags.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. 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 lashed out at European countries this morning for their posture during the war in Iran: He wrote on Truth Social that France is prohibiting planes with military supplies destined for Israel from flying over its territory, calling Paris “VERY UNHELPFUL … The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!”
Trump also named the U.K. among the countries “which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran” and are now struggling to acquire fuel due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “[G]o to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” the president warned…
Trump told the New York Post about reports that he’s willing to end the war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz: “I don’t think about it, to be honest. My sole function was to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon. They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. When we leave the strait will automatically open.”
He similarly said to CBS News about removing Iran’s enriched uranium, “I don’t even think about it. I just know that, you know, that’s so deeply buried it’s gonna be very hard for anybody. … It’s pretty safe. But, you know, we’ll make a determination”…
During a press briefing this morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that he took a secret trip to the Middle East in recent days to meet with U.S. servicemembers, including Air Force intelligence analysts, Army troops and pilots.
CENTCOM also confirmed that Adm. Brad Cooper visited Israel earlier this week where he met with Defense Minister Israel Katz and Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff…
Israel is ending all arms purchases from France and “replacing it with domestic Israeli procurement or purchases from allied countries,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense said today, adding that there will be “no new professional engagement with the French military” in the latest rift in the deteriorating relationship between Jerusalem and Paris…
A week after Lebanon declared Iran’s ambassador to Beirut persona non grata and expelled him from the country, the ambassador has still refused to leave the embassy compound, and Iran has stated that the embassy remains open…
China and Pakistan, which has been the intermediary for indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, put forward a ceasefire proposal that would see the immediate cessation of hostilities, the safeguarding of nonmilitary targets and the restoration of transit through global shipping lanes…
American journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, today, according to the Iraqi interior ministry, reportedly by Kataib Hezbollah, the same group that held researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov for over 900 days. Kittleson is a freelance journalist primarily based in Europe who has written for outlets including Al-Monitor and Foreign Policy.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said in a statement that the State Department “is aware of the reported kidnapping” and had “previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.” Johnson said an “individual with ties” to Kataib Hezbollah “has been taken into custody” in connection with the kidnapping and that the department will coordinate with the FBI to secure Kittleson’s release…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended a dinner for Eid last week where he spoke with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, a conversation that Piker called “very productive” on a recent Twitch stream.
“No, he did not disavow me,” Piker said in response to a listener’s question. “‘Did you tell him to tune out the bad faith haters?’ I did,” Piker continued. Mamdani appeared on Piker’s Twitch for an interview during the mayoral campaign but has not met with him publicly since…
“Nope,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said in response to a video of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claiming that, “in many respects,” Piker “is doing a very good job.” “Hasan Piker is a proud antisemite … His voice should have no place in our political discourse and all elected officials should condemn his rhetoric,” Gottheimer wrote…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, shared an image of a sign which read, “A Jewish data center has no home here,” displayed outside a town hall she held yesterday urging caution around the approval of data centers. “If you think antisemitism isn’t a problem in Michigan, think again,” Nessel wrote…
A new poll commissioned by former Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson, now a Democratic candidate for governor, found oyster farmer Graham Platner — whom Jackson is backing — nearly 40 points ahead of Gov. Janet Mills in the state’s Senate race (66-28%) among likely Democratic primary voters. The survey was conducted after Mills had started running ads against Platner based on his past controversial statements, a sign that her line of attack may not be persuading voters…
And another poll commissioned by the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic group, found Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leading in the heated Republican primary runoff for Senate against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), 47-42%…
A federal judge ruled that the University of Pennsylvania must comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration that seeks information about Jewish university affiliates, which the university had said resembled nefarious efforts by governments over history to gather lists of Jews…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a report from West Bloomfield, Mich., where JI’s Gabby Deutch sat down with community members still reeling from the attack on Temple Israel earlier this month.
Democrat Analilia Mejia and Republican Joe Hathaway will participate in a debate tomorrow evening ahead of the April 16 special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, after Mejia eked out a surprise victory in last month’s primary. While this race will decide who serves out the rest of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House term, the progressive Mejia is also running essentially unopposed by other Democrats for the full term.
In observance of Passover, we’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday, April 6. Chag Pesach Sameach!
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COMMUNITY TIGHTROPE
In Michigan Senate primary, McMorrow balances Jewish fears and Arab outreach after attack
In an interview with JI, the state senator described herself as someone who supports the U.S.-Israel relationship, but not unconditionally
DECISION TIME
Trump at a crossroads on Iran: Will he or won’t he send in troops?
As the president touts progress in talks with Tehran while escalating military pressure, analysts say the administration is keeping its options open — but will need to make a move soon
Plus, one AI rabbi down but more pop up
Emily Elconin/Getty Images
Caution tape near the front entrance of Temple Israel a day after an active shooter incident on March 13, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. 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 doubled down on threats to escalate the war in Iran while simultaneously heralding the success of ongoing negotiations: He claimed on Truth Social this morning that the U.S. is in “serious discussions” with a “new” and “more reasonable” Iranian regime and that “great progress has been made.”
“But,” he added, “if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”…
Trump confirmed to the New York Post that the U.S. is engaging with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and assessing whether he’s a reliable partner: “We’re gonna find out. I’ll let you know that in about a week.” He also said the U.S. believes new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “probably” alive “but in extraordinarily bad shape” after he was injured in an airstrike…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed in a Fox News interview that the U.S. is “going to retake control of the straits and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through U.S. escorts or a multinational escort”…
A series of surveys released today reveal how Jews and Israelis are perceiving the war in Iran: A poll conducted by the Mellman Group found 55% of American Jews oppose the war while 32% are in favor. Another poll of American Jews, solicited by J Street, found 60% of respondents opposed and 40% in support.
In Israel, meanwhile, a poll released by the Israel Democracy Institute found that the war is losing some support among Israelis, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. In the first week of the war, 93% of Jewish Israelis supported continuing it, while in the latest poll — conducted nearly a month into the war — 78% support it. Nearly three times as many Israeli Jews (12%) now oppose the war as did at the beginning of March (4%)…
The FBI announced findings that the attack on Temple Israel in suburban Detroit earlier this month was “a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.” The brother of the assailant was a Hezbollah commander who had been killed in Lebanon by the IDF the week before the attack…
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told campaign staff that he did not want to take any public position on the killing of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the war because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad,” according to meeting audio obtained by The Washington Free Beacon.
If asked by reporters, El-Sayed said his strategy would be to “go straight to pedophilia, frankly. I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war’”…
Allies of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told Politico that the mayor’s dismissal of criticisms of his wife, Rama Duwaji, for her past extreme rhetoric and social media posts — calling her “a private person” — doesn’t comport with Duwaji’s very public profile.
“‘She is the first lady of New York City. She has a police detail and a government staff,’ said one of the elected officials, who believes Duwaji should explain herself publicly. ‘She would need to do an interview, better explain herself, and have her do some visits and meetings with key constituencies, like Jewish museums’”…
An AI-generated Instagram account, which featured a fake Orthodox rabbi spreading antisemitic conspiracies to its more than 1.4 million followers, was taken offline over the weekend following major backlash from Jewish groups and one Democratic lawmaker — yet several similar, hate-peddling accounts have emerged with little to no public action from Meta, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
Several new Rabbi Goldman accounts started posting similar videos within the past two weeks — two of which already have followings of 18,500 and 10,000. Both remain active on Instagram and their bios state, “only Backup account for @rabbigoldman” and “old account got banned”…
The Knesset passed a controversial law today allowing courts to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists found guilty of murder, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports.
The law, championed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, applies in military courts to non-Israeli residents of the West Bank — meaning, in the vast majority of cases, Palestinians. In civilian courts, the law permits applying the death penalty to those who “intentionally cause the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel” — language which would also likely exclude Jewish assailants. Critics say it will likely be struck down by the High Court…
The Times of Israel breaks down the legislative maneuver used in Knesset by the coalition that caused opposition members to accidentally vote in favor of allocating 800 million shekels (~$250 million USD) to Haredi schools as they passed the state budget this morning…
In an interview on Israel’s Channel 12, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has barely spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since their last meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the resolution coming under consideration by the Democratic National Committee that explicitly criticizes AIPAC’s political spending.
The House and Senate left for recess until mid-April, after failing to come to an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has now reached its longest-ever shutdown. Calls have already begun from at least one Republican senator to bring Congress back into session sooner, but prospects for an early return are currently unclear.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will speak at Temple Emanu-El in New York City tomorrow about his new book, Stand, on the one-year anniversary of his delivery of the longest-ever speech on the Senate floor.
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SEAT SHAKE-UP
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s scandal could send another Israel critic to Congress
The lawmaker, who may soon be expelled from the chamber, is already in a heated primary race with Elijah Manley, a young far-left candidate endorsed by TrackAIPAC
PHONE A FRIEND
Family of China-allied tech mogul embedded in Zohran Mamdani’s movement
The sister, niece and brother-in-law of Maoist magnate Neville ‘Roy’ Singham have gained influence in New York’s ascendant socialist movement
Plus, fake AI rabbis peddle antisemitism
Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. 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 announced this afternoon that he’s extending his original five-day delay on strikes on Iran’s energy sector, which was set to expire tomorrow, by another 10 days. “As per Iranian Government request … I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time,” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that negotiations continue and are “going very well”…
At a Cabinet meeting earlier today, Trump revealed that the “present” Iran had provided the U.S. earlier this week was allowing eight Pakistani-flagged oil tankers to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, which he said proved the U.S. was speaking with the “right people” in Iran with the authority to make such decisions.
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, meanwhile, confirmed reports that the U.S. had presented Iran with a “15-point action list” as a starting offer in peace talks between the two countries, and that Pakistan is acting as mediator…
Speaking at the FII Priority summit in Miami, Jared Kushner said that, during his negotiations with Iran prior to the war, “We basically saw that there was no seriousness, and that they were trying to play different games to just get beyond President Trump in order to preserve their capabilities and pathway to get to a nuclear weapon in a way that would have been very, very hard to be stopped in the future”…
CENTCOM applauded an Israeli strike that killed Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of the IRGC Navy, and warned all IRGC Navy members to “immediately abandon their post and return home.” Tangsiri had been named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. in 2019 and was leading Iran’s efforts to shutter the Strait of Hormuz…
Even as U.S.-Iran negotiations continue, the U.S. is considering diverting weapons for Ukraine to the Middle East, The Washington Post reports, including air-defense interceptor missiles.
Ukraine has proved a stalwart ally to the Gulf as it comes under attack from Iran — around 200 Ukrainian military personnel have been deployed around the Middle East to help defend against Iranian drones and President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Saudi Arabia today for a surprise visit…
Resources are also being redirected to Gaza — the Trump administration has reportedly pulled $1.25 billion from international peacekeeping and disaster assistance programs for the Board of Peace’s operations, for which Trump had pledged $10 billion in U.S. funding…
An AI-generated Instagram account portraying an Orthodox-looking rabbi is pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories to its more than 1.4 million followers, and it’s not the only one, according to a study published Wednesday by Combat Antisemitism Movement.
Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports: Researchers identified 12 AI-generated “rabbis” with a combined following of 2.1 million Instagram users, all of which promote classic antisemitic stereotypes. The “Rabbi Goldman” account features many of these, including one video in which the “rabbi,” wearing a tuxedo and seemingly seated in a luxury airplane, claims that Jews utilize empty private jets to evade taxes…
A new Emerson College poll of the Maine Senate race found oyster farmer Graham Platner with a nearly 30 point lead over Gov. Janet Mills (55-28%) in the Democratic primary. Both Platner and Mills lead Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the general election matchup, 48-41% and 46-43%, respectively…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom again reaffirmed his support for Israel in an interview with The Bulwark, likening his love for the country but strong disapproval of its current government with how he feels about the U.S…
Democrat Analilia Mejia and Republican Joe Hathaway will participate on April 1 in what is likely to be the only debate of the New Jersey 11th Congressional District’s special election, after the far-left Mejia won the Democratic nomination in a hotly contested primary last month. The New Jersey Globe, which is hosting the debate, acknowledged it had chosen to do so on the first night of Passover, in a district with a sizable Jewish population…
The College Republicans chapter at the University of Florida is suing the school, after a photo of one of its members doing what appeared to be a Nazi salute led to the chapter’s ban from campus.
The chapter argues that the ban violated its First Amendment rights as the member “expressed a viewpoint off-campus that was alleged by some to be anti-Semitic,” and claims it was deactivated in part because it recently hosted James Fishback, a candidate for Florida governor who has expressed antisemitic and anti-Israel views…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for comments from Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow on Israel and antisemitism as she seeks the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed.
President Donald Trump will provide closing remarks at the FII Priority summit in Miami tomorrow afternoon.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will headline CPAC’s Ronald Reagan Dinner. His primary opponent, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), will not be making an appearance, despite the confab taking place in his home state and calls from its leadership for him to attend.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to France to attend a meeting of G7 foreign ministers where he is expected to press allies on the Iran war — he told reporters as he departed today, echoing a line from Trump, that the countries involved “get far more of their fuel from” the Strait of Hormuz “than we do.”
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TROUBLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Gulf states slam Arab League countries for tepid response to Iranian aggression
Frustrated UAE leaders are questioning the ‘impotence’ of countries like Egypt — and warn that silence on Iranian aggression will push the Gulf closer to U.S., Israel
MICHIGAN MOMENT
Elissa Slotkin, Haley Stevens criticize El-Sayed over rallies with Hasan Piker
Stevens said that by associating with Piker, El-Sayed is ‘choosing to campaign with someone who has a history of antisemitic rhetoric’
Former CENTCOM head Gen. Frank McKenzie: ‘If you are sitting down at CENTCOM right now, you are satisfied with where you are’
Tolga Akbaba/Anadolu via Getty Images
A view shows explosions lighting up the skyline amid ongoing US-Israel attacks in Tehran, Iran, on March 25, 2026.
Former U.S. Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie said Wednesday that the U.S. military is “in the heart of the plan” in its war against Iran, pointing to major military achievements against Tehran’s missile and military capabilities, while cautioning that the conflict remains a grinding, long-term campaign.
As the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran nears the one-month mark, officials say Iran’s capabilities have been severely degraded, while President Donald Trump has asserted that the war is nearly over and that its objectives have largely been achieved.
At the same time, reports indicate that Iran has rejected Trump administration proposals to negotiate an end to the conflict, while the Pentagon is deploying the military’s highly specialized 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East — raising fresh questions about the trajectory of the war and the broader strategy.
During a webinar hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, McKenzie said the U.S. is “accomplishing the objectives that we set out. CENTCOM is executing a long-prepared campaign plan. This is not something that we’ve drawn up on the back of the envelope day-to-day. These are things that have been studied and refined for many years. If you are sitting down at CENTCOM right now, you are satisfied with where you are.”
McKenzie said one of the clearest indicators of success is that Iran has been unable to generate the kind of large ballistic missile salvos that U.S. military planners had long feared.
“Iran has not been able to mount massive volleys against Israel. Have they been able to fire some number of missiles against our targets? Yes, but not the massive volleys that we thought would make it hard for us to defend,” McKenzie said, attributing that in part to Iran’s own strategic miscalculation.
“The Iranians made a mistake in designing their ballistic missile force. They mistook hardening and burying for security,” McKenzie said. “The truth of warfare today is this: if you can see it, you can hit it. If you can hit it, you can kill it. And even if you dig yourself deep underground with these beautiful missile cities, that just makes it easier for us to strike and destroy these missiles wholesale rather than retail.”
Yaacov Ayish, former head of the IDF’s general staff, also said that “significant progress” has been made. He noted that Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities have subsided.
“When I’m thinking about the amount of ballistic missiles launched by the Iranians compared to what they had planned, I think they are in a very very bad place, and this is due to the fact that not only their command control capabilities were shattered since day one of this war, but also because we [the IDF] are, together with the U.S., hunting their launching capabilities.”
McKenzie said the U.S. is also making progress against Iran’s drone threat, though he acknowledged that it remains an evolving challenge. Throughout the conflict, Tehran has launched over 2,000 low-cost, easy-to-produce drones at targets across the Middle East.
“We are still absorbing how to employ and defend against drones, as is really everybody else,” he said. “The best way to do that is going to be by striking where the drones are manufactured, where they’re launched. The worst way to do it is to defend them in the terminal area.”
McKenzie also addressed the conflict over the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has effectively blocked one of the world’s most critical oil routes. He said the U.S. has already struck Iran’s major naval assets and is now focused on “preparatory steps in order to clear” it.
“What that means is first clearing those craft, getting rid of Iranian submarines, looking at the fast-attack craft, the small cigarette-boat type vessels that can swarm out from the northern to the southern coast of Iran … to affect shipping in the region,” McKenzie said. “CENTCOM is busy on a program of doing that. I think there’s probably some days left ahead of work to finish that. But it’s progressing.”
He said Iran also retains a “large and capable stack of mines,” and suggested CENTCOM has likely been targeting both the mines and the vessels used to lay them.
“You don’t have to clear the whole Strait of Hormuz,” McKenzie said. “You’ve got to clear a route that you’re going to bring vessels through.”
Ayish noted that he sees “two ways to solve” the tension at the strait.
“One is the diplomatic channel that is under discussion between the U.S. and the Iranians via certain mediators, and there is the military option,” Ayish said. “When you are analyzing the achievements that were achieved, it seems like both options are viable, and I think the major reason for the Iranians to go into this negotiation is because they know that it’s very imminent. Both options are seriously on the table.”
When asked whether CENTCOM had failed to adequately prepare for what had unfolded in the strait, McKenzie rejected that premise.
“I’m not sure I’d agree with that assertion,” he said. “You build your plan off the forces that you have. We’ve always thought there’d be a struggle over this. The nature of warfare is you can’t get everything you want. Sometimes it takes a little while to get that. I think we’re working toward that end right now.”
McKenzie also declined to rule out the possibility of U.S. boots on the ground, an outcome many Democrats and some Republicans have strongly opposed.
“I think it’s certainly something we want the Iranians to worry about,” McKenzie said. “I would certainly leave that on the table, and then I wouldn’t share what I was going to do. I think we want them to be very worried about that.”
Meanwhile, while Ayish noted a goal of achieving “a situation that will allow a regime change in the future in Iran,” McKenzie said the U.S. is not directly pursuing regime change in Tehran, even if it could emerge as a consequence of the campaign, even as Trump told reporters Tuesday that regime change had already been achieved.
“The United States is not pursuing regime change directly. It may be a product of what we’re doing,” McKenzie said. “We’d like to get to a point where there’s going to be some entity in Tehran that will negotiate the objectives we want for this campaign, whether it’s a completely new regime or a version of this regime that is so affected by pressure that they’re willing to make these concessions.”
Plus, is Stevens losing steam in Michigan Senate race?
Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) speaks to the press at the U.S. Capitol on October 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed reports that Iran has rejected President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, saying in a press briefing today that “talks continue” and “are productive.” She further confirmed, while cautioning against speculation, that there are “elements of truth” to the 15-point plan that has been reported.
About potential face-to-face negotiations, which International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said could take place in Pakistan as soon as this weekend, Leavitt said she “would not get ahead of our skis on reporting about any talks this weekend until you hear directly from us”…
Emerging from a classified House Armed Services Committee briefing on Iran, Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) expressed frustration that the administration isn’t forthcoming enough about its war plans. “We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are and why they’re being considered, and we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions,” Rogers told reporters.
And Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), asked about his House colleague’s comments, said, “Let me put it this way: I can see why he might have said that.” It’s the latest sign of cracks in the GOP nearly a month into the war effort…
For the first time since the start of the war, the UAE — which has faced the brunt of Iran’s attacks — reported zero Iranian ballistic missile attacks today, raising questions about the Islamic Republic’s potentially dwindling supplies.
Yousef Al Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to the U.S., called for a “conclusive outcome” to the war, as opposed to a “simple cease-fire.” Writing in The Wall Street Journal, he argued that “building a fence around the problem and wishing it goes away isn’t the answer. It would simply defer the next crisis”…
European authorities are investigating whether a new group that has claimed responsibility for several recent terror attacks on Jewish institutions across Europe, the Islamic Movement of the Righteous Companions, is a front for Iran, which has likely recruited people online to carry out the attacks on its behalf…
The Journal profiles Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf as he emerges as a potential leader and negotiating partner for the U.S., with one expert calling him a “wannabe strongman” who simultaneously has “the necessary credentials to deliver a potential deal with the Trump administration”…
An internal poll from the campaign of Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow shows her leading the pack in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, followed by the far-left Abdul El-Sayed with Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) trailing in third place, a sign her campaign is struggling to build momentum. A fifth of potential primary voters still identified themselves as undecided.
Stevens’ campaign then released its own internal poll that showed her in first place, followed closely by El-Sayed with McMorrow in third, though the survey was conducted in mid-February…
As the Trump administration sues Harvard — again — over alleged civil rights violations and failure to address campus antisemitism, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, president of Harvard Chabad, told The Harvard Crimson that the school is in fact “taking the issue” of antisemitism “very seriously.”
“While there is much more to be done, the only plausible characterization of Harvard’s current leadership is as principled and effective in confronting and removing the intolerance which had taken root on campus over more than a decade,” added Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel…
Asked at a recent event at Harvard’s Kennedy School whether the Biden administration could have done more to save lives in the war in Gaza, former Secretary of State Tony Blinken said, “Could we, should we have done things differently such that the suffering that people endured, the loss of the children you just listed and so many others could have been averted? The short answer is: Maybe yes.”
Blinken also called on people not to be “binary” in their thinking about the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. With the Gaza war, he said, “Where did we start? We started with Oct. 7. We started with the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It’s very easy to say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a given.’ Except it wasn’t a given for Israelis and Israeli society”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the growing divide in the Democratic Party over engagement with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker — and the questions it raises about the meaning of progressivism in the current political landscape.
The Atlantic Council and U.S.-Syria Business Council will host a symposium on Syria’s energy sector with keynote remarks from U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack. Also speaking are several oil executives and Jacob McGee, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
The FII Priority Summit continues in Miami; among other sessions tomorrow, Jared Kushner will speak on U.S.-Gulf investment and Zach Witkoff, co-founder of World Liberty Financial and son of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, will discuss crypto.
CPAC, which President Donald Trump is seemingly not attending for the first time in a decade, continues in Dallas. GOP candidates who are in attendance include Brandon Herrera, the far-right influencer running in Texas’ 23rd District; Michael Whatley, the front-runner in North Carolina’s open Senate race; Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), running in a competitive primary to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA); Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), seeking the Senate seat vacated by new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin; and Nate Morris, running to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
The House Ethics Committee will hold a rare public hearing on Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s (D-FL) alleged ethics violations, including her laundering of funds from a FEMA-backed contract for her family business into her congressional campaign.
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STRAIT TALK
Senate Republicans express confidence, but say they haven’t heard plan for reopening Strait of Hormuz
Some disagree on who should claim ultimate responsibility for the strait — the U.S. or other countries in the region
GUARDING THE GATES
Rep. Brad Schneider, New Dems chair, urges Democrats to disavow Hasan Piker
Schneider called Piker ‘an unapologetic antisemite’ and warned ‘Democrats risk losing our credibility to condemn those on the right who traffic in bigotry’ if they continue to embrace him
Plus, media misdirection over AIPAC money
Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images
Hasan Piker during day two of Web Summit Qatar 2026 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. 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
Rumblings of a potential peace summit between Washington and Tehran have begun — sources told Axios that the U.S. and several mediating countries are waiting for Iran to respond to a proposal for peace talks this Thursday, while President Donald Trump reposted a message from Pakistan offering to “be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks”…
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon that “we’re dealing with the right people” in Iran because they “gave us a present, and the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money,” but would only tease that it was “oil and gas related.” Asked if he is negotiating over who will control the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said, “No … we’ll have control of anything we want”…
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has encouraged Trump to continue the campaign against Iran and push towards toppling the regime, The New York Times reports, believing that Iran’s threat to the Gulf will only be removed through the transition of its government and not if the war results in a failed state. MBS has reportedly argued in favor of striking Iran’s energy infrastructure and putting U.S. troops on the ground…
The Pentagon is expected to announce the deployment of about 3,000 soldiers from the military’s 82nd Airborne Division to participate in the campaign against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reports, a move that opens the possibilities for boots on the ground, as the division is trained to parachute into hostile territory…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said today that the IDF will now maintain control over a security zone south of the Litani River in Lebanon and prevent the return of Lebanese residents who have been evacuated from the area “until the security of northern [Israeli] residents is assured”…
Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Youssef Raggi declared Iran’s ambassador to Beirut persona non grata and expelled him from the country, as Iranian proxy Hezbollah continues to fire on Israel against the Lebanese government’s orders.
Shortly after, an Iranian ballistic missile was launched towards Beirut for the first time — it was reportedly intercepted by a “foreign naval vessel,” presumably the U.S., though fragments struck Lebanese towns…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is being dispatched to France later this week to discuss the Iran war, among other issues, with the U.S.’ G7 allies, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, countries that have all declined to participate in the war effort…
Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, said today that Qatar is not involved in mediating any U.S.-Iran negotiations, a shift for the country that has traditionally played the part of go-between. Al-Ansari said there has been no communication between Doha and Tehran since a phone call early in the conflict when Qatar made clear its anger with Iranian strikes on its territory…
Politico reports that several 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls said they wouldn’t or haven’t taken money from AIPAC, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
But while framing the statements as rejections of AIPAC and Israel, the outlet buried or declined to mention Booker’s rebuke of the Democratic Party’s singling out of the pro-Israel group, several respondents’ inability to accept funds from AIPAC since it only participates in congressional elections and Newsom’s own about-face on Israel, where in the same publication he walked back critical comments he’s made and said he’s “proud to support the state.”
AIPAC said in response that it has “never given to a presidential campaign” and that “singling out and excluding millions of pro-Israel Democrats” who are AIPAC members “is wrong and undemocratic”…
Michael Sacks — a prominent Democratic donor and supporter of former President Barack Obama who chaired the 2024 Democratic National Convention host committee — denounced Democratic criticism of AIPAC as a “thinly disguised effort to make support for Israel politically toxic in the Democratic Party, to chase Jews and their allies out of our big tent coalition.”
Sacks wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “Real leadership recognizes that we can hold complicated views about the Israeli government and still refuse to make Jewish identity and pro-Israel sentiment a political disqualifier in our party. We can defend the big tent when it is inconvenient, not just when it is easy”…
Jonathan Cowan, president of the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way, condemned far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his upcoming rallies with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
“It is morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating for Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed and Members of Congress like Summer Lee to cozy up to antisemitic extremists like Hasan Piker,” Cowan said in a statement. “Anyone eager to campaign with Hasan Piker is, at best, comfortable overlooking his antisemitic and anti-American extremism and, at worst, endorsing it”…
El-Sayed stood by his controversial statement about the shooting attack at Temple Israel in suburban Detroit earlier this month, in which he condemned the attack but blamed Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon for the perpetrator’s actions (the attacker’s brother was a Hezbollah commander).
The statement “was a risk,” El-Sayed said on an internal campaign call, per Punchbowl News, “but leadership is being willing to say the thing if you believe it to be true that nobody else is going to say”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for coverage of another war powers resolution expected to receive a vote this evening in the Senate.
President Donald Trump will give the keynote speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual President’s Dinner in Washington.
The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing assessing the impact of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, as lawmakers make progress on negotiations to fund the agency.
D.C. councilmember and mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George will rally alongside other members of the Democratic Socialists of America including Squad-member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), days after Lewis George held a private meeting with Jewish leaders to apologize for saying in a DSA questionnaire she would boycott events “promoting Zionism” and avoid the “Zionist lobby.”
Scholar of Jewish literature Ruth Wisse will deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, the highest honor the federal government gives for intellectual achievement in the humanities, at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
The FII PRIORITY Summit, a high-profile investment and policy conference, will kick off in Miami, with speakers over the rest of the week including Trump; Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner; White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; Dina Powell McCormick, president of Meta; Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud; former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin; Massad Boulos, senior White House advisor on the Middle East; and many more.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, also begins tomorrow in Dallas.
The Jewish Book Council will hold the 75th National Jewish Book Awards Gala, hosted by entertainer Jonah Platt, at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
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SECOND ACT
Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman finds work with Track AIPAC
The ousted New York lawmaker consulted for the far-left PAC, which is partially funded by Don Henley of The Eagles
PAIN TO POWER
From WhatsApp chats to City Hall, a new Jewish activism is born
In the wake of Oct. 7, some in the Jewish community turned to faith, philanthropy or federal advocacy. Others set their sights closer to home, organizing to shape school boards and influence city councils
Gabbard also said Tehran has the ‘intention to rebuild’ its nuclear capabilities that were ‘obliterated’ in last summer’s strikes
Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that the U.S. and Israeli operations against Iran have largely destroyed Tehran’s “power projection capabilities” in the region, but that the regime remains standing, if weakened.
“The [intelligence community] assesses that Operation Epic Fury is advancing fundamental change in the region that began with Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and continued with the 12-day war last year, resulting in weakening Iran and its proxies,” Gabbard said at a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats on Wednesday.
“The IC assesses the regime in Iran appears to be intact but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities,” she continued. “Its conventional military power projection capabilities have largely been destroyed, leaving limited options. Iran’s strategic position has been significantly degraded.”
If the Iranian regime survives the current war, Gabbard said that it would “seek to begin a yearslong effort to rebuild its military, missiles and UAV forces.”
She further said that, if the regime remains standing, internal tensions and resistance to the regime inside Iran are likely to increase as the country’s economy continues to struggle under U.S. and international sanctions.
Gabbard said in her opening statement that Iran “was trying to recover from the severe damage to its nuclear infrastructure sustained during the 12-day war, and continued to refuse to comply with its nuclear obligations” to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Democratic senators pressed her throughout the hearing on apparent differences between those comments and her written remarks provided to the committee before the hearing, in which Gabbard said that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was “obliterated” and that it had made “no efforts since then to try to rebuild” its enrichment capacity.
Under questioning, Gabbard affirmed that stance, but said Iran “maintained the intention to rebuild” its nuclear capabilities. She said she had omitted those remarks from her oral testimony for time reasons.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe throughout the hearing appeared to take a more aggressive and assertive stance on Iran than Gabbard, an isolationist and longtime opponent of war with Iran, offering a clear explanation and justification for the U.S. strikes.
Ratcliffe said that Iran was continuing its nuclear and ballistic missile development, and that he disagreed with an assessment by former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent that Iran did not pose an imminent threat, which Kent alleged in his resignation letter.
“I think Iran has been a constant threat to the United States for an extended period of time, and posed an immediate threat at this time,” Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe said that the U.S. operation was “detailed” and “thoughtful” with specific goals to address a long-running and growing threat.
He said that Iran was continuing to build and develop missiles “at alarming rates” such that its offensive capabilities were on track to outpace and overwhelm the U.S.’ ability to build defensive weaponry.
At the same time, Ratcliffe said the U.S. strikes last summer were a “wild success” and that Iran was “unwillinging and incapable” of enriching uranium to 60% purity since those strikes.
Gabbard, meanwhile, repeatedly declined to say whether the intelligence community had assessed Iran to be an imminent threat to the United States, asserting that only the president has the ability to determine whether any threat is imminent, to the frustration of committee Democrats.
In her opening statement, Gabbard also said that Iran’s space launch capabilities would allow it to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035, if Iran decided to pursue that, though that assessment is pending updates after U.S. military operations.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chair of the Intelligence Committee, suggested in his question that the timeline was much shorter, and that Iran actually could have had an ICBM that could threaten the homeland in six months.
Ratcliffe did not explicitly confirm that timeline, but emphasized that Iran’s missile program was a present and growing threat, which “if left unimpeded … would have the ability to range missiles to the continental U.S.”
“It’s one of the reasons why degrading Iran’s missile production capabilities that is taking place right now in Operation Epic Fury is so important to our national security,” Ratcliffe continued.
Pressed repeatedly by Democrats on whether the intelligence community had warned the President Donald Trump of the likelihood — as previously assessed by intelligence officials — that Iran would attack Gulf states and close the Strait of Hormuz in the event of a war, Gabbard and Ratcliffe both emphasized that the administration was aware of and had taken steps to prepare for those threats, despite comments by Trump that such moves by Iran were unanticipated.
Gabbard also described “the spread of Islamist ideology, in some cases, led by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood” as “a fundamental threat to freedom and the foundational principles that underpin Western civilization.”
She said that Islamists are using such ideologies to recruit and solicit financial support for terrorism globally, and that such activity has been increasing in Europe.
Gabbard called the Trump administration’s designation of certain Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations, “a mechanism to secure Americans.”
Ratcliffe said the CIA is “very focused” on counterterrorism, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the administration has had significant success, which he could share further in a classified setting.
Eighteen-year legal fight over the Iran-tied Alavi Foundation ends with a new group with similar leadership taking over its assets — and NYC skyscraper
Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The 650 Fifth Avenue building, a 36-story office tower, located on 52nd Street near Rockefeller Center is seen on April 20, 2014 in New York City.
As tensions intensified between the U.S. and Iran amid the regime’s violent repression of protesters in January, and as Tehran vowed itself “prepared for war,” a long-running battle with the Islamic Republic’s forces in Manhattan came to an end.
The final stages of the conflict between the Justice Department and the New York-based Alavi Foundation, which since 2008 has faced allegations of acting under Iranian direction, took place in secrecy — with scores of legal documents sealed and even vaulted away.
But materials filed on Jan. 12 with the New York State Charities Bureau revealed its ultimate outcome: a settlement that will provide compensation for numerous American and Israeli victims of Tehran-backed terror, but also enable a successor organization to recoup control of the foundation’s vast assets, including its 36-story crown jewel skyscraper on Fifth Avenue.
The final deal — which a filing this month shows came together confidentially in the last days of the Biden administration, and has just begun to go into effect — will officially dismantle the Alavi Foundation and strip it of hundreds of millions of dollars. Formed as the Pahlavi Foundation in 1973 during its namesake shah’s reign, Alavi was later commandeered and rechristened by figures tied to the regime of the mullahs, and the federal government accused it of conspiring with an Iranian state-owned bank to evade taxes and sanctions.
The settlement of the suit brought by the federal government compels payouts totaling $318 million to the U.S. government and a wide array of people Iran and its proxies have harmed: in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, in the 1996 Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia, in multiple 1990s and 2000s suicide attacks against Israel, in the torture and murder of an Iranian dissident, and in the 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane.
In exchange, a new non-governmental organization, the Amir Kabir Foundation, will rise in Alavi’s place. Named for a historic Persian imperial administrator, the new group will take full possession of 650 Fifth Ave., appraised at $435 million, plus bank and investment accounts holding more than $87.6 million, and properties from Queens to California worth tens of millions more and home to various Shia religious and educational facilities.
Records show that the Amir Kabir Foundation shares Alavi’s old address and even its phone number, and that three of the five members of the Alavi Foundation’s board of directors are part of the new group’s six-person leadership team. This includes Dr. Hamid Yazdi, who has served as Alavi’s president since 2013, and whose name appears on registration paperwork for the Amir Kabir Foundation. Yazdi did not respond to requests for comment.
And although by-laws for the new group require it to remain “independent from any national or international agencies,” it will continue to provide funding and support for at least one longtime Alavi affiliate: the Qoba Foundation of Carmichael, Calif., which occupies an Alavi-owned property that the feds sought to seize in the early days of the case and which bears the name of a politically significant Iranian mosque.
The news that the Amir Kabir Foundation shared much of Alavi’s leadership team and would regain access to the huge rental revenues from 650 Fifth Avenue and the network of religious facilities lodged at the old organization’s properties alarmed longtime Iran-watchers.
“This is the Iranians playing anti-sanctions, anti-accountability three-card monte. They are treating the U.S. Department of Justice and the courts as if they are fools,” asserted Dr. Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. “Iran’s only concern is maintaining the property. It’s lucrative and, in theory, can help undermine U.S. security from within. If the CIA owned a skyscraper in Tehran, would they be so willing to give it up, or would they just shuffle the acronyms around and hope no one notices?”
The news also worried Lara Burns, head of terrorism research at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. Burns highlighted her own contributions to a report that found Alavi-backed groups had promoted anti-American, pro-ayatollah extremist rhetoric, and noted the group’s history of violating sanctions, as documented in the federal case. She suggested “government fatigue” with the lengthy and expensive litigation process may have contributed to the federal decision to settle.
A former FBI agent, Burns further argued financial penalties like those in the settlement can at times serve effective “punitive and deterrent functions” — but not in this case.
“I do not believe restitution and fines serve either purpose in the case of Alavi Foundation, who has shown a willingness to continue its behavior at all costs and the fiscal ability to maintain that agenda,” she argued to Jewish Insider. “Allowing Alavi to obfuscate their identity and basically start with a clean slate creates risks related to a continued foreign influence campaign on behalf of a regime that has called for the death of U.S. leaders and who has blatantly stated its intent to cause America harm through a variety of nefarious activities.”
But Alavi’s longtime attorney, Daniel Ruzumna, maintained that the new foundation would in no way serve as an alter ego to the old. He noted that the Alavi Foundation’s board had completely turned over during the yearslong legal fight, and stated that all members of the Amir Kabir Foundation’s leadership had submitted to interviews with the federal government and received no objection.
Further, he pointed to language in the document filed in New York subjecting the Amir Kabir Foundation to a five-year term of oversight from the state Attorney General’s office, and said that it would operate under the “close supervision” of the Justice Department.
“AKF and its board members have no relationship to the Government of Iran, no connection to the Government of Iran, and have never been accused of having a relationship with Iran — zero, nothing,” Ruzumna said. “Any suggestion otherwise is categorically false.”
The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which handled the case, declined to comment for this story.
Tehran is ‘timing their attacks overnight, but fewer missiles per launch,’ JINSA’s Ari Cicurel found
Amjad Kurdo / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
A view of an Iranian missile after it fell near Qamishli International Airport, near the Turkish border in the Qamishli district of Hasakah, Syria, on March 4, 2026, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Despite a recent escalation in Iranian missile attacks targeting Israel, experts remain confident that Tehran’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded by the U.S. and Israel.
U.S. and Israeli officials have touted that Iran’s missile capabilities have been severely reduced, with CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper saying Wednesday that Iran’s ballistic missile attacks have “dropped drastically.”
That may not feel like the reality for Israelis — after four consecutive days of declining missile fire, Iran briefly increased its launches to 46 missiles on Wednesday, a roughly 70 percent increase from the 27 missiles fired the previous day. That included a seemingly coordinated operation between Iran and Hezbollah, as well as a missile barrage directed toward the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday that caused prayer at holy sites to be suspended.
But the data shows and analysts remain confident that Iran’s stockpiles are being degraded.
Ari Cicurel, the associate director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Jewish Insider that the escalated attacks might actually be a “reflection of Iran’s degrading capabilities.”
“[Iran is] launching more attacks throughout the day, but the overall size of the attacks, the number of missiles they’re launching, is substantially down from the first day of the war,” Cicurel said. “What I see them doing is trying to use all of their resources to fight a psychological war against Israel and to keep the Israelis under constant fire for as long as they can without as many missile launchers because the U.S. and Israel have degraded their launcher capabilities.”
Since the beginning of the war, Iran has launched 1,158 ballistic missiles and 28 cruise missiles across the region. As of March 12, at least 80 percent of Iran’s capacity to launch missiles at Israel has been eliminated, a mark officials expect could rise to 95 percent “within a week.”
“Instead [Iran is] firing more frequent attacks. They’re timing their attacks overnight, but fewer missiles per launch, because they have lost those capabilities,” he added.
Cicurel said it “tracks with the U.S. and Israeli claims that their launch capacity is substantially down,” adding that Wednesday night’s supposedly coordinated strikes on Israel from Iran and Hezbollah is also evidence of this, arguing it is a sign that “as Iran continues to lose its own capabilities, it is going to have to increasingly rely on proxies.” Experts stressed that Hezbollah’s arsenal is different from Iran’s and that the terrorist group “has its own supply.”
“Iran loses capacity, Hezbollah is weakened, and so that’s why you see them joining the war,” Cicurel said. “Iran really has a few main proxies left. Hezbollah, despite Israel severely degrading it over the past few years, still remains a threat with rockets and missiles, but [Iran is] relying on Hezbollah to launch the mass amount of fire, and then Iran is sending a handful of missiles alongside that.”
Dan Shapiro, a deputy assistant secretary of defense under the Biden administration, U.S. ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told JI that the latest wave of attacks from Iran and Hezbollah was “not unexpected.” He said the attacks, however, could suggest that Hezbollah “has been able to rebuild and recover, maybe more than had been understood,” adding that it is possible that Iran’s remaining capabilities could be slightly underestimated.
“It’s definitely possible,” Shapiro said. “I’m sure there has been success in eliminating and degrading significant portions of the Iranian missile attack capability, both in terms of missiles in storage and launchers, but I would be cautious about triumphal claims that the threat has been nearly eliminated, because it’s very likely Iran retains some capability and will continue to be able to use it if the war continues.”
Shapiro, however, agreed that Iran’s stockpile and launching of missiles has appeared to decline. He suggested Iran will likely conduct reduced attacks moving forward, referencing Israeli claims that 70 to 75 percent of Iranian launchers have been eliminated. “If that’s true, the degradation of the launcher inventory is important, and that reduces the ability of the Iranians to fire as many missiles as they did in the early days of the war.”
“I think the likelihood is that they [Iran] will continue to fire at lower levels than they did in the early days of the war, both because of reduced capacity and in order to preserve their remaining capability, but be able to sustain some attack presence on any given day,” Shapiro added. “That’s the most likely trend, if the war continues — sustained fire at reduced levels from the early days.”
Both experts expressed that, while it is unlikely that the U.S. and Israel will completely deplete Iran’s missile arsenal, Washington and Jerusalem could still maintain a successful operation should Tehran’s capabilities be severely degraded.
“They [the U.S. and Israel] may not fully remove all Iranian capabilities and capacity in this war, but the amount of degradation they’ve done to Iran and the lost capabilities could leave it in a bad enough position that the regime no longer has the capacity to launch a massive effort,” Cicurel said. “It also puts the regime in a place where internal dynamics take over and that leads to internal regime collapse. I think that’s the main effort.”
Cicurel also said that while the U.S. and Israel were initially focusing their attacks on military sites and missile launchers, both partners have “shifted” to going after Iran’s stockpiles of missiles and production capabilities.
“I think part of the objective is to severely degrade their [Iran’s] ability over the long term so you don’t see a situation like after the 12-day war, where Israel severely degraded Iran’s missile stockpile and then it was quickly rebuilt back to pre-war levels when this current war started.”
Cicurel added that Iran has “very little capability to be rebuilding” its stockpiles during the ongoing conflict; however, he cautioned that Iran could be attempting to “seek Russian or Chinese support over the long term.”
“Ultimately, [the U.S. and Israel] have to contain the threat during the war and then reach a stable endpoint to the war … and then, when the fighting stops, you have to have a diplomatic strategy to put guardrails around any rebuild of the program,” Shapiro said. “I don’t think there is such a thing as removing the threat completely, but it has to be reduced and it has to be defeated.”
President Donald Trump confirmed the news, calling Khamenei ‘one of the most evil people in history’
Iranian Leader Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes remarks in Tehran, Iran, on May 20, 2025.
President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran and the country’s highest political and religious authority, was killed during Israeli and U.S. strikes in the country.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” Trump wrote.
Israeli media reported he was killed in an Israeli strike on his compound in Tehran. He was 86.
Khamenei had led Iran since 1989, succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who took over the country as part of his Islamic Revolution in 1979. Over more than three decades in power, he oversaw major shifts in Iran’s domestic politics, military posture and regional strategy, moves that resulted in the Islamic Republic becoming the world’s leading exporter of terrorism through proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
As supreme leader, Khamenei exercised ultimate authority over the armed forces, judiciary, state broadcasting and key political appointments. He maintained final say over defense and foreign policy, including Iran’s nuclear program, and appointed top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The IRGC became the primary instrument of Khamenei’s rule. He cultivated and empowered it for decades, and the IRGC in turn underwrote his domestic authority and Iran’s regional ambitions across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza through what he called the “Axis of Resistance.”
His foreign policy was defined by two poles of opposition: the United States, which he called Iran’s “No. 1 enemy,” and Israel, whose destruction he repeatedly called for in rhetoric that mixed geopolitical calculation with antisemitic tropes. Under his leadership, Iran became what the U.S. State Department designated the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.
No successor has been publicly named, and with much of the IRGC’s senior leadership also reported killed in Saturday’s strikes, the question of who fills the vacuum left by Khamenei will mark a pivotal moment in Iran’s history.
Plus, an anti-Israel Republican could win pivotal Texas primary
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump as he leaves the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2026.
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview today’s Board of Peace gathering in Washington as the Trump administration mulls military action against Tehran, and cover an effort by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie to force a vote on a resolution blocking the Trump administration from conducting strikes on Iran. We report on the GOP primary in Texas’ 23rd District, where Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is facing allegations he had an affair with a staffer who has since died by suicide, is facing a challenge from a far-right influencer with a history of antisemitic social media activity, and talk to former Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop about his new role leading the Partnership for New York City. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Bari Weiss, Roddie Edmonds and Amb. Mike Huckabee.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- The Trump administration is convening its Board of Peace today in Washington. Among those attending the gathering are Argentine President Javier Milei, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Belarus Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. More below.
- Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut will deliver the inaugural “State of the Jewish Union” address at the organization’s Washington headquarters.
- The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is holding a daylong public briefing today on antisemitism on campus. Speakers include Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick, Louis D. Brandeis Center founder Kenneth Marcus, National Jewish Advocacy Center CEO Mark Goldfeder, law professor Eugene Volokh and The George Washington University Law School’s Matt Nosanchuk.
- The National Governors Association kicks off its annual Washington summit today.
- Minister of Economic Affairs at the Israel Embassy in Washington Noach Hacker is speaking at the Hudson Institute today, where he will sit with Hudson’s Mike Doran for a conversation about U.S.-Israel economic ties.
- French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are attending the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, that kicked off earlier today.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
High-level foreign officials, top diplomats and heads of state will gather in Washington today for the first in-person convening of the Trump administration’s Board of Peace — as U.S. military assets flow into the Middle East and President Donald Trump mulls a potentially weekslong sustained military campaign in Iran.
The gathering, ostensibly focused on the disarmament of Hamas and the establishment of a peace-aligned administration in the Gaza Strip, comes as the U.S. moves dozens of fighter jets and support aircraft to the region — reportedly the largest buildup in military air power since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
It’s a split screen befitting the president — who said at his inauguration last year that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker,” and who has claimed success in negotiating an end to numerous conflicts, as well as the release of the remaining Israeli hostages from Gaza last year — even as the U.S. has used force to enact political change, such as in Venezuela.
But a U.S. operation in Iran would differ significantly from what took place in Venezuela last month. In the place of ousted President Nicolás Maduro is Delcy Rodríguez, the former vice president who is now working with the Trump administration. No such natural successor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei exists. Behind the supreme leader is a laundry list of equally — if not more — radical hard-liners eager to take the ailing Khamenei’s place. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah of Iran, who has spent most of his life living in exile, has sought to return to Iran to usher the Islamic Republic into a new democratic era — but does not appear to have the on-the-ground support as well as enough legitimacy among Iran’s vast diaspora community.
The Trump administration continues to signal publicly that it wants to find a diplomatic resolution to the situation in Iran, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying as much at yesterday’s press briefing.
But the White House is continuing to move forward with preparations for a military confrontation, which could include anything from targeted strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities to a move toward regime change. Trump met on Wednesday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to discuss options for Iran.
TEHRAN TENSIONS
‘Don’t change your weekend plans,’ experts say amid media frenzy over possible Iran strikes
Tensions in Israel continued to rise over possible missile strikes from Iran, as signals increased that President Donald Trump is ready to order a strike on the Islamic Republic, possibly within days. Yet experts told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Thursday that, despite the constant flow of reports that Trump favors a military response as negotiations with Iran falter, an American strike and Iranian retaliation against Israel are likely not imminent. In a moment that went viral in Israel and sparked hundreds of phone calls to the IDF Home Front Command, former IDF intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told Israel’s Channel 12 on Wednesday that while he went to the Munich Security Conference last week, “I would think twice about flying [abroad] on the coming weekend.”
On alert: IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin, however, said that “there is no change in the situational assessment, and if there will be, we will update [the public]. There is no need to panic.” Defrin also noted that “there are negotiations, and the IDF has long been prepared for maximum defense. If we are attacked, we will respond forcefully.” However, while Israel’s leadership and the IDF’s assessment is that the U.S. will warn them before a strike, they plan to prepare quietly and not alert the public in advance, in order to increase the chances of success, Israel’s Kann News reported on Wednesday. Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran Program at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, quipped to JI in reference to Yadlin’s remarks: “Don’t change your weekend plans.”
Central target: Home Front Command chief Maj.-Gen. Shay Klapper told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday that “the Home Front Command will be a central arena in relevant operational scenarios and is a significant component of Israeli society’s resilience and ability to save lives.”
ON THE AGENDA
What to watch for at the Board of Peace’s first meeting in D.C.
After a splashy debut at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace will convene for its first meeting on Thursday in Washington. The new international body now faces a test of its ability to operationalize its goals: Observers will be watching whether the board makes any significant announcements toward its goal of implementing Phase 2 of Trump’s peace plan, which is focused on rebuilding Gaza and securing the enclave, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Matthew Shea report.
Expected substance: A source familiar with Thursday’s meeting told JI that it is “not just pomp and circumstance,” and that they expect discussion about topics including humanitarian aid and the Palestinian technocratic government in Gaza. “It’s not window dressing at all,” the source said of the board’s work. According to a senior Trump administration official, speakers at the event will include Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Nickolay Mladenov, the former U.N. Middle East envoy now serving as the high representative for Gaza on the Board of Peace. Little has been shared publicly about what the format will be.
TEXAS TROUBLE
How an anti-Israel Republican with an antisemitic history could get elected in Texas
An unfolding scandal implicating Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) could catapult an anti-Israel social media influencer with a history of antisemitic posts to Congress in Texas’ upcoming 23rd District Republican primary, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Brandon Herrera, who ran against Gonzales in 2024, came under fire from Gonzales and Jewish and pro-Israel groups in the previous election cycle over a series of his YouTube videos replete with imagery, music and jokes about the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. He also expressed opposition to U.S. aid to Israel.
Shake-up: But Tuesday evening, corroborating a long-running rumor, the San Antonio Express News reported that Gonzales had been having an extramarital affair with a female staffer who died by suicide last year. The paper reported that the relationship was allegedly well-known and cited multiple sources close to the woman, including a former colleague, and a text message she sent confirming the relationship prior to her death.
FULOP’S FIGHT
Former Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop brings the fight against antisemitism to NYC’s business community
As he settles into his role leading the Partnership for New York City, a prominent business advocacy group, Steve Fulop, the former longtime mayor of Jersey City, N.J., has a few major issues on his mind, chief among them countering the rise of antisemitism. For Fulop, a Jewish Democrat who assumed his new job last month, just five days after he left office on Jan. 15, such efforts are not only personal as a former yeshiva student who was also the grandson of Holocaust survivors. They are directly connected, he explained to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel, to promoting a friendlier climate where businesses can feel safe and welcome in the city.
Should I stay or should I go: Many of the Partnership’s Jewish board members, representing some of the city’s most powerful firms in finance, real estate and other leading sectors, also share his sense of urgency, Fulop said, as do many of the 800,000 employees who make up his group’s core constituency. “They often say of the tax conversation that we could talk about whether people stay or go, if they migrate elsewhere,” Fulop said of his conversations with members in an interview with JI on Tuesday at his fifth-floor office in the Financial District, which looks out on Jersey City. “But if you continue on a trend where it feels like antisemitism is increasing and quality of life is decreasing, that is a trigger for people to leave very, very fast.”
CUBA CAMPAIGN
Nearly half of New York City Council joins JVP, CODEPINK in pro-Cuba appeal
A raft of Democrats — including 23 members of the 51-seat New York City Council, multiple state lawmakers and four candidates for Congress — have joined forces with a Beijing-aligned tech tycoon to bail out the fuel-starved dictatorship in Cuba. The officials in question lent their names to the “Let Cuba Live” campaign, which denounces President Donald Trump’s oil embargo on the island nation and seeks to triage solar panels and generators to defray the crippling impact on its energy production, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Who’s involved: All donations for the effort run through the People’s Forum, a Manhattan-based nonprofit established and financed by Shanghai-based magnate Neville “Roy” Singham, part of his sprawling web of organizations promoting the interests of China and its allies Russia and Iran. Let Cuba Live’s website reveals the involvement of other Singham-linked groups, including CODEPINK — co-founded by his wife, Jodie Evans — and the ANSWER Coalition, both of which spearheaded anti-Israel protests beginning the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Jewish Voice for Peace and the Democratic Socialists of America are also signatories, along with well-known left-wing celebrities such as Susan Sarandon and Roger Waters who have long been vocally hostile to Israel.
WAR POWERS RUSH
Reps. Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie plan to force vote on resolution blocking Iran strikes
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) plan to introduce and attempt to force a vote on a war powers resolution blocking military action against Iran without congressional authorization, as the Trump administration appears to be moving closer to military action against the Islamic Republic, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: Khanna framed the legislation as an attempt to block a “disastrous war” with Iran. “Like the votes before the Iraq war, this could be one of the most consequential votes in the history of Congress,” Khanna said. “Are we going to stop another endless dumb foreign war? Or will the neoconservatives mislead us once again?” Once introduced, there will be a waiting period of 15 House session days before the lawmakers can force a vote on the resolution.
Worthy Reads
School of Hope: The New York Times’ David Halbfinger and Bilal Shbair spotlight the Academies of Hope network of private schools operating in Gaza, the brainchild of a Palestinian American doctor that is primarily funded by Jewish donors, which provides peace-focused education for 9,000 Palestinian students across five campuses. “Operating schools in any war zone is hard enough, and schools across the enclave are struggling to rebuild. But Dr. Hasan has compounded his challenges. He revamped a much-criticized national curriculum and worked to keep Hamas from endangering his schools. He also verifies that none of his staff have ties to militant groups, a charge Israel has leveled against the United Nations agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza and some international aid groups.” [NYTimes]
Poison PEN: In Tablet, Ari Ingel, executive director of the Creative Community for Peace, raises concerns about PEN America’s commitment to free speech, weeks after the literary organization walked back its condemnation of the cancellation of an event by an Israeli comedian. “The pattern has been consistent: They listen, offer no meaningful response, and then double down on a hostile anti-Zionist and anti-Israel posture. In doing so, PEN America has helped legitimize antisemitic discrimination at a moment when antisemitism in the United States is at historic levels. This is not an isolated failure of judgment, but a structural rot in the organization, one that reflects leadership choices, institutional culture, and a governing board that has failed to intervene.” [Tablet]
Sports Talk: The Hollywood Reporter’s Steven Zeitchik reflects on the recent sports successes of Israeli NBA star Deni Avdija and Israel’s first Olympic bobsled team, juxtaposed with the pushback they’ve faced from Israel critics. “But the sight of a Jew excelling in sports is even more than a bit of representational inspiration. So much of antisemitism, historic and resurgent, is bound up with demeaning Jews as genetically inferior — at the top line with Hitler and those infamous Olympics 90 years ago but also much more casually, in easy jokes and schoolyard assumptions, in the implication that genetic makeup makes Jews less athletic.” [HollywoodReporter]
Word on the Street
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and the Israel Airports Authority disputed Tucker Carlson‘s claim that he was detained and interrogated by Ben Gurion Airport security while at the airport for an interview with the ambassador; the IAA said that “Carlson and his party were politely asked a few routine questions, in accordance with standard procedures applied to many travelers” and that the questioning took place “in a separate room within the VIP lounge solely to protect their privacy and to avoid conducting such a discussion in public”…
Democratic Majority for Israel’s PAC announced its endorsement of 11 congressional candidates, including Cait Conley in NY-17, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti in PA-8, Janelle Stelson in PA-10, and former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) in VA-2; the group also announced it is backing Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller in IL-2 and former Rep. Melissa Bean in IL-8, but is staying out of the contentious IL-9 Democratic primary, where AIPAC’s super PAC is backing state Sen. Laura Fine…
A Tennessee man who saved more than 200 Jewish soldiers under his command at a Nazi POW camp in Germany will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by the White House for his efforts; Roddie Edmonds, who was taken captive during the Battle of the Bulge, famously refused to identify Jewish troops when asked by the camp’s commandant, saying, “We are all Jews here”…
An effort to expel Israel from the International Federation of Social Workers failed on Wednesday in a closed-door Zoom meeting; a second vote, on suspending Israel, also failed, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
American, Israeli and African officials gathered with little fanfare but big plans on Wednesday, coming together in Rwanda for the trilateral Kigali Security Summit on issues including technology, innovation and national security, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports…
MS NOW inked an agreement with Crooked Media that will create a new weekly show, titled “Crooked on MS NOW,” that will compile content from the podcast and media company’s shows, including “Pod Save America” and “Pod Save the World”…
Bari Weiss withdrew from the University of California, Los Angeles’ upcoming annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, reportedly citing security concerns…
Chicago and DePaul University police are investigating an incident that occurred at a cafe in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood in which students from three Chicago-area schools said they were harassed while at a meetup for Jewish students at the Olive & Oak Cafe near DePaul’s campus…
An Australian man who pleaded guilty to publicly inciting hatred for antisemitic remarks he made last month at a Sydney rally against immigration was sentenced to a year in jail, with the chance for parole in October…
The U.S. is withdrawing its remaining 1,000 troops from Syria, with plans for the U.S.’ decade-long presence to fully end over the next two months…
Pic of the Day
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz attended a Security Council meeting on Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, during which he defended President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, a day ahead of the board’s gathering.
Birthdays
Actor who played the young autistic Jacob “Jake” Bohm in the Fox TV series “Touch,” later portraying a young Bruce Wayne in another Fox series “Gotham,” David Mazouz turns 25…
2004 Nobel Prize laureate in physics, he is a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, David Jonathan Gross turns 85… Former chairman of the board and CEO of Sony Corporation, chairman of the board of trustees of the American Film Institute, Sir Howard Stringer turns 84… Retired co-founder of integrated digital marketing agency Hawkeye / Mosaic, now known as Publicis Hawkeye, Sharon Edelman… President of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology from 2009 until 2019, Peretz Lavie turns 77… Founder and president of the eponymous Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, she is on the boards of the NFL’s NY Giants, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Aspen Institute, Laurie M. Tisch… and also the birthday of her first cousin once removed, co-founder and CEO of Atria (a private medical institute in NYC), Alan Tisch… Managing partner of Encino, Calif.-based Hager Pacific Properties, Adam Tuvia Milstein turns 74… Former Goldman Sachs partner and then a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, he now serves on various corporate and nonprofit boards, Barry L. Zubrow turns 73… International CEO of Taglit Birthright Israel since 2008, Gidi Mark turns 70… Novelist, essayist and short story writer, he was a winner of a 2005 MacArthur genius fellowship, Jonathan Allen Lethem turns 62… Retired U.S. district court judge, he was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (1993-1994) alongside future justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, Gary Scott Feinerman turns 61… SVP of government relations at Las Vegas Sands Corp., Andy Abboud… Co-founder of the band Phish where he is the lead drummer and frequent songwriter, Jon Fishman turns 61… Communications director for 27 years for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), now a consultant, Kevin D. Bishop… Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel turns 55… Canadian media personality, conservative political activist, writer and broadcaster, Ezra Levant turns 54… Partner at InfraStrategies and senior fellow at the UCLA Institute for Transportation Studies, Joshua Levi Schank, Ph.D…. Founder of The New York Times‘ “DealBook” and co-creator of Showtime’s “Billions,” Andrew Ross Sorkin turns 49… Hollywood writer and producer, best known for “The Newsroom” (2012) and “Quantico” (2015), Gideon Yago turns 48… Jewish rapper, part of the alternative hip hop group Darshan, better known by his stage name Eprhyme (pronounced “E-Prime”), Eden Daniel Pearlstein turns 46… Writer of the “In the Know” gossip column for The Hill newspaper in Washington, where she covers Congress, D.C.’s social scene, celebrities and politics, Judy Kurtz Altscher… Founder of a Middle East NGO, Regional Organization for Peace, Economics & Security (ROPES), Ben Birnbaum… Former MLB pitcher for the Phillies (2011-2012), he now runs Big League Advance, a company that invests in minor league players in exchange for a percentage of their future MLB earnings, Michael Schwimer turns 40… Samantha Zalaznick… Tight end for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, he played college football at Harvard, Anthony Firkser turns 31… Daniel Blum…
The parties concluded a second round of talks with the Iranians expected to produce 'detailed proposals' in the next two weeks
EVELYN HOCKSTEINAMER HILABI/POOL/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff after a meeting with Russian officials at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18, 2025 (L)/ Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaking to AFP during an interview at the Iranian consulate in Jeddah on March 7, 2025.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi indicated that the second round of negotiations between Tehran and Washington produced agreements on several “guiding principles” for a potential deal on Tuesday, though U.S. officials took a more muted position, with one describing the talks as proceeding “as expected.”
Araghchi told Iranian state media that talks with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, which took place in Geneva and was mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, were more “serious, constructive and positive” than previous discussions, but he acknowledged that major gaps remain and that an agreement will not be reached quickly.
“Progress was made in the talks with Iran, but there are still a lot of details to discuss,” the U.S. official told Axios. “The Iranians said they would come back in the next two weeks with detailed proposals to address some of the open gaps in our positions.”
Albusaidi said that the parties “left with clear next steps before the next meeting,” though no date had been set for a third round of talks. Araghchi said both sides agreed to work on draft language, exchange texts and then determine the timing of a date for the next round of negotiations.
“Today’s negotiations between Iran and the U.S. in Geneva have concluded with good progress towards identifying common goals and relevant technical issues,” Albusaidi said in a post on X on Tuesday. “The spirit of our meetings was constructive. Together we made serious efforts to define a number of guiding principles for a final deal.”
Those principles and the parameters of a potential deal remain unclear — as the talks were underway, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X, “The Americans say, ‘Let’s negotiate over your nuclear energy, and the result of the negotiation is supposed to be that you do not have this energy!’ If that’s the case, there is no room for negotiation; but if negotiations are truly to take place, determining the outcome of the negotiations in advance is a wrong and foolish act.”
Parallel to the diplomatic track, both sides are indicating that military options remain on the table: The U.S. has dispatched a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region in recent days as well as additional F-35, F-22 and F-16 fighter jets.
“The Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran,” Khamenei said on Tuesday in response to the deployment. “Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.”
At the start of discussions Tuesday, Iran said it would close the Strait of Hormuz to conduct live-fire military exercises, and had previously threatened to retaliate against U.S. bases in the region should Washington carry out an attack.
On Tuesday, the UN elected Abbas Tajik of the Islamic Republic of Iran as vice chair of its Commission for Social Development
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Ambassadors and representatives to the United Nations meet at the U.N. Security Council to vote on a U.S. resolution on the Gaza peace plan at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City, Nov. 17, 2025.
The United Nations this week elevated an Iranian official to a senior leadership role and publicly congratulated Tehran on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution — moves that former Trump administration officials and Middle East policy analysts say reflect a troublingly conciliatory posture by the international body toward a regime accused of violently repressing its own people.
On Tuesday, the UN elected Abbas Tajik of the Islamic Republic of Iran as vice chair of its Commission for Social Development, a body tasked with advancing policies on poverty eradication, employment and social inclusion. The commission recently adopted resolutions focused on social justice, gender equality and combating gender-based violence — issues critics note remain acute inside Iran, where legal, social and cultural restrictions continue to limit women’s rights and political freedoms.
The following day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres congratulated Iran on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution — the founding moment of the regime now facing widespread domestic unrest — weeks after authorities violently suppressed nationwide protests, imposed internet blackouts and oversaw a crackdown that, according to human rights groups, has resulted in thousands of deaths.
Guterres’ message was condemned by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which posted on X that the gesture represented a “moral failure.”
“History will not remember your speeches. It will remember the regimes you chose to honor,” the statement read. “Sending congratulations to the Islamic Revolution regime — a state built on repression and terror — is not neutrality.”
Critics argue that the juxtaposition of congratulatory gestures and leadership appointments raises broader questions about institutional coherence and moral clarity — particularly as Iran continues to face internal unrest and international scrutiny.
Jason Greenblatt, a former White House Middle East envoy under President Donald Trump, told Jewish Insider that Iran’s latest promotion “tells you all you need to know about what the UN stands for.”
“It’s a bloated, broken, perhaps irredeemable system, and a colossal waste of money,” said Greenblatt.
Elliott Abrams, the former U.S. special representative for Iran during the first Trump administration, agreed, calling the UN a “morally bankrupt institution.”
“The secretary general congratulating the Iranian regime just days after it murdered thousands of its citizens is another example,” said Abrams.
However, Abrams also described the situation as more nuanced, noting that other parts of the UN have taken a firmer stance.
He pointed to a Jan. 26 resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council condemning the Iranian regime’s crackdown. During that session, Sara Hossain, chair of the U.N.’s fact-finding mission on Iran, described unfolding events in Tehran as “the deadliest crackdown against the Iranian people since the 1979 revolution.”
“The violent repression of the Iranian people doesn’t solve the country’s problems,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said at the time. “On the contrary, it creates conditions for further human rights violations, instability, and bloodshed.”
Still, several foreign policy analysts argued that the UN’s repeated elevation of Iran is misguided and at odds with the intended goals of the organization. David May, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, suggested the UN’s actions are a pattern of hypocrisy, noting that the organization has previously elected Tehran to committees despite its poor track record on human rights.
In 2023, Tehran was elected to the UN Committee on Disarmament and International Security. However it was during the same time that Iran was significantly accelerating its nuclear weapons program.
Tehran was also elected by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2021 to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a group responsible for empowering women and promoting gender equality. Former Vice President Kamala Harris supported a U.S-led effort in 2022 to oust Iran from the committee, calling out its “denial of women’s rights and brutal crackdown on its own people.”
Experts said the UN’s latest elevation of Tehran was not unexpected. Still, they argued that the continuation of this pattern is deeply troubling and reflects a broader institutional posture toward the Iranian regime.
“All of this would be laughably absurd if it wasn’t so actively counterproductive, both in terms of isolating Iran’s regime and, more fundamentally, what the UN supposedly stands for in founding documents like the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.
Ruhe argued that the UN treats Iran as a “normal” member in “good standing,” creating what he described as a “dangerous equivalence between Tehran and Washington.”
“Promoting Iran to vice chair, and inviting its foreign minister to address the UN Human Rights Council, bestows a veneer of legitimacy on a regime that just brutally violated its citizens’ right to peaceful protest — a core right recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Ruhe said. “The UN is extending olive branches that rehabilitate Tehran at the exact moment it should be a pariah on par with North Korea.”
David May, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, similarly argued that the UN has become a venue for Iran and other authoritarian governments to “launder their human rights records.”
“People are noticing the absurdity of the UN secretary-general congratulating the Islamic Republic on the anniversary of seizing power because it comes one month after the Tehran regime killed as many as tens of thousands of protesters,” May said.
He added that “when the spotlight is not on Tehran’s tyranny, the United Nations treats Iran like any other country.”
“If the United Nations wants to escape its reputation as a den of dictators, it should disinvite Iran’s foreign minister from addressing the opening of the Human Rights Council on February 23,” May said. “Otherwise, this will provide another opportunity for a human rights abuser to mask its violations by launching attacks against the United States and its allies.”
The ayatollah is ‘never going to stop killing his people and drinking their blood out of a boot, and he’s never going to stop funding Hamas and Hezbollah,’ Sen. John Kennedy said
Iranian Foreign Ministry / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) meets with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Hamad Al Busaidi (R) to exchange views on how to advance US-Iran talks scheduled to be held later in the day, in Muscat, the capital of Oman, on February 06, 2026.
Republicans lawmakers continued to dismiss this week the idea that a nuclear deal with Iran is achievable, despite comments by President Donald Trump over the weekend.
Trump said that the talks with Iran, held in Oman last Friday, had been “very good,” that Tehran “wants to make a deal very badly” and that he is in “no rush” to move ahead. He also said that the Iranian demand that the talks be only focused on nuclear weapons “would be acceptable” — an apparent softening of the U.S. position that any potential agreement should also address Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles and its support for regional terror proxies. The talks did not appear to touch on the Islamic Republic’s recent violent crackdown on nationwide protests.
Asked about Trump’s comments about a nuclear-only deal, Republicans largely dismissed the idea that any deal would actually be forthcoming.
“Iran’s not going to make a deal with us. They’re going to stall and re-stall to buy time, but they’re not going to make a deal,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Jewish Insider. “The ayatollah is [as] crazy as a bed bug. And he’s never going to give up any hope that he has of nuclear weapons. He’s never going to stop killing his people and drinking their blood out of a boot, and he’s never going to stop funding Hamas and Hezbollah.”
Kennedy predicted that military action is both necessary and forthcoming.
“You’re going to have to give them a curbstomping, but you don’t want to start a regional war doing it,” Kennedy continued. “My guess is that’s what the president is talking to [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio and the military guys with a bunch of their flags in their office [about] right now.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) agreed that the Iranian regime is not genuinely interested in making an agreement with the United States.
“There won’t be a deal,” Scott told JI. “They’re not going to do a deal.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he hadn’t seen Trump’s comments but he does not “trust the word of the regime, at all.”
“They have not proven trustworthy with their word in the past, and so you have to have a way to be able to verify everything,” Lankford continued.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), meanwhile, told JI on Monday that he would delay a vote on a war powers resolution he introduced with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blocking military action against Iran pending the ongoing talks with the regime.
The resolution would theoretically be eligible for votes by the full Senate later this week, should Kaine and Paul wish to call it up.
The Virginia senator told JI that he and Paul are in discussions about timing for votes, and that he hasn’t yet made a decision on when to call the bill up.
“We have to check each day to see where [the talks] are. I don’t think calling it up in the middle of discussions that have some chance to it — that’s not the right time — but we’ll just see where we are,” Kaine said.
Ahead of nuclear negotiations, the president said the U.S. discovered Iranian officials were ‘thinking about starting a new site in a different part of the country’
Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks to the press upon returning to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on January 13, 2026.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he should be “very worried” ahead of planned nuclear talks, as the president weighs military action amid rising tensions and signs Tehran may be trying to revive its nuclear program.
“I would say he should be very worried, yeah, he should be,” Trump told NBC News when asked whether Khamenei should be concerned. “As you know, they are negotiating with us.”
U.S. and Iranian officials are slated to meet Friday in Oman, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Wednesday. Iran pushed for the discussions to be moved from Turkey and has insisted they remain limited to its nuclear program. The United States has sought to broaden the agenda to include Tehran’s ballistic missile capabilities and support for regional proxy groups.
Experts told Jewish Insider that despite upcoming discussions, military intervention remains on the table. On Tuesday a U.S. F-35 fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone near the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. Later that day, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attempted to stop and board a U.S.-flagged commercial tanker in the Strait of Hormuz before a U.S. destroyer intervened and escorted the vessel to safety.
During an interview on the Megyn Kelly Show, Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that Trump “will try to achieve what he can through non-military means, but if he feels that the military option is the only option, he is going to choose that option.”
Several Arab and Muslim leaders reportedly lobbied the Trump administration not to walk away from the discussions after Iran demanded to change the venue and format. The administration “told the Arabs we will do the meeting if they insist,” one U.S. official told Axios, but added that they are “very skeptical.”
Satellite images released last week by Planet Labs PBC have also fueled speculation over whether Iran intends to restart its nuclear program after U.S. strikes on several sites in June. Trump confirmed that Iran was “thinking about starting a new site in a different part of the country,” but said the U.S. “found out about it.”
“I said, ‘You do that, we’re going to do very bad things to you,’” Trump warned, stating that in the event Iran continued to pursue its nuclear ambitions, the U.S. would respond as it did before. “If they do, we’re going to send” B-2 bombers “right back and do the job again.”
Last month the president had cancelled meetings with Iranian officials and vowed on social media that Tehran would “pay a big price” for its violent crackdown on protesters in early January, stating that “help is on its way.”
When pressed on whether the U.S. continues to back Iranian protesters, Trump said the administration’s position has not changed.
“We’ve had their backs,” said Trump. “If we didn’t take out” Iran’s nuclear sites, “we wouldn’t have peace in the Middle East, because the Arab countries could have never done that.”
U.S.-Iran negotiations scheduled are ‘likely a diplomatic box-checking exercise and smokescreen,’ FDD’s Andrea Stricker said, while JINSA’s Jonathan Ruhe said U.S. military action is ‘unlikely for the moment’
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 21, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland.
Despite the Trump administration’s willingness to diplomatically engage with Iranian officials, leading Middle East experts told Jewish Insider on Monday that military action against Tehran still remains a very real possibility.
“I can’t tell you what I’m going to do,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday evening when asked about the threshold for an Iran strike.
“We have a tremendous force going there [to the Middle East], just like we did in Venezuela,” said Trump. “I’d like to see a deal negotiated. But right now, we’re talking to [Iran] and if we could work something out, that’d be great. If we can’t, probably bad things will happen.”
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are expected to meet in Istanbul on Friday to discuss a potential new nuclear agreement, according to reports. Jared Kushner, who has played a key role in recent high-profile diplomatic negotiations, is also expected to attend, alongside the foreign ministers of Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, in the first meeting between the U.S. and Iran since U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last June.
The planned talks come as the administration continues to exert pressure on Tehran — in response to Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters last month, Trump has publicly weighed the possibility of U.S. military intervention, ordering the movement of additional military assets into the region and issuing a series of stark warnings on social media indicating that U.S. forces are “ready, willing and able to rapidly fulfill [their] mission, with speed and violence” should a deal fail to be made.
While the administration has emphasized diplomacy as its preferred path, analysts caution that negotiations do not necessarily signal that the U.S. will not strike.
“Military intervention remains likely in light of President Trump’s demonstrated willingness to use force and the U.S. military buildup in the region,” said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum. “Given the gulf between the American and Iranian positions and the general hard-line position of the Iranian regime on nuclear issues, it is hard to tag a nuclear deal as a likely outcome.”
Andrea Stricker, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that a strike does remain on the table. She said that a deal could be difficult to reach and the upcoming meeting in Istanbul is unlikely to yield meaningful results or concessions from Iran.
“The planned meeting is likely a diplomatic box-checking exercise and smokescreen to enable a continued U.S. military buildup before Trump authorizes strikes,” Stricker said. “The administration’s demands that Iran abandon nuclear enrichment, cap its missile program, and halt support for regional proxies and terrorism, as well as stop executing its people, are nonstarters for the regime.”
Koplow said the administration’s “mixed signals” on whether it will seek diplomacy or take military action are likely “not a ruse or a diversion,” but instead a signal that Trump “has not actually made up his mind” and is “unsure what his end goal is.”
Jason Greenblatt, who served as White House Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration, asserted that “there’s no mixed signals,” arguing that the president’s messaging has been clear.
“President Trump has made the choice clear: a real, enforceable deal that ends Iran’s nuclear and missile threats and protects the U.S., our allies, and the Iranian people — or decisive action,” said Greenblatt, who emphasized that while Trump is reluctant to engage in war, the president will not accept an agreement he views as insufficient.
“He is not a war president,” Greenblatt said, “but he will not accept a weak deal. Iran’s leadership should understand by now that President Trump means exactly what he says.”
Stricker also noted that Trump has consistently sought to avoid prolonged conflict, but argued that Iran’s internal repression and continued nuclear advances may push the president toward decisive action. On Saturday, satellite images revealed new activity at Iranian nuclear sites, a potential sign that Tehran is aiming to salvage remaining materials from the June strikes.
“President Trump favors stability and prioritizes ending violence in global affairs,” she said. “After achieving the defanging of Tehran’s nuclear program, the regime has shown it remains a threat — the ongoing massacre is too much for Trump to tolerate as the leader of the free world.” “The president will likely ensure the regime pays a price, but whether the price is regime change remains to be seen,” she added.
When detailing what potential U.S. military intervention could look like, Koplow said that it would likely be “limited” in scope.
“Any U.S. action is likely going to fall short of what the Israelis would like to see, which is a campaign that doesn’t stop until the regime has fallen,” said Koplow. “Trump seems to favor quick strikes, and he is also facing wall-to-wall opposition from Arab states regarding the prospects of a long campaign that destabilizes the region and damages prospects for trade, investment, and growth.”
However, other analysts read the shift to negotiations as a signal that intervention is increasingly unlikely. Jonathan Ruhe, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America told JI that U.S. military action is “unlikely for the moment.”
“An even bigger concern now is that military action could be off the table indefinitely, in a way it wasn’t just a day or two ago, as renewed talks now seem more likely,” said Ruhe.
Ruhe also noted that a key indicator of Trump’s intentions will be “how long he keeps the ‘armada’ within striking distance,” referring to the U.S. military assets in the region. He added that negotiating with Tehran will likely result in an unfavorable outcome for the U.S.
“Negotiating with Iran is absolutely the worst possible option for the United States now, because Iran’s regime will go from being on the ropes to thinking it prevailed,” said Ruhe, noting that Tehran is unlikely to agree to an “acceptable deal,” instead using the “prospect of talks to stave off military threats.”
“[Iran] is trying to do what it always does, playing for time and seeing what concessions it can wrangle without ever giving up anything itself,” Ruhe added. “This leaves zero upside for the U.S., since Iran is too emboldened to agree to serious concessions. There’s plenty of downside, too, since U.S. credibility would be dangerously eroded in Tehran’s eyes if Trump fails to fulfill his earlier threats.”
Koplow said Jerusalem is also concerned about a potential nuclear deal and is likely to perceive Iran’s willingness to enter talks as a way of “dragging out the process indefinitely.”
“[The Israelis] are concerned that Trump will back off his threats to take action or end up signing a deal that falls short of addressing the entire basket of issues — nuclear, missiles, and proxies,” said Koplow.
Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, had said Tehran would strike Israel in response to any U.S. military action, in an interview with the Lebanese-based Al Mayadeen.
Stricker warned that any agreement that falls short of dismantling the regime’s power structure and fails to address key issues would be problematic not only for the U.S. and Israel, but for the Iranian public.
“Any deal with the Islamic Republic would represent a historic betrayal of the Iranian people,” Stricker said. “The only negotiation America should entertain with Tehran is the exit of top regime officials from Iran and their relinquishing of power prior to an orderly transition to democracy.”
Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JI that Trump is engaged in ‘maximum pressure negotiations,’ that are ‘setting up the regime to say no.’
Daniel Torok/The White House via Getty Images
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) sit in the Situation Room as they monitor the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, at the White House on June 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
President Donald Trump, over the last week, has gradually amped up threats of a military strike against Iran, pivoting away from talk of diplomatic negotiations amid continued intransigence from Tehran.
On Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “a massive Armada is heading to Iran … ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence if necessary. Hopefully, Iran will quickly “Come to the Table” and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!”
The president warned that “the next attack will be far worse” than last June’s Operation Midnight Hammer. “Don’t make that happen,” he added.
The regime’s mission to the United Nations responded with Trump-esque capitalization that “Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests—BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!”
Ali Shamkani, an advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who was severely injured in an Israeli airstrike on Iran last June, threatened — in Arabic, English, Hebrew, Russian and Mandarin — that “any military action by [the] US … will be considered the start of [a] war and its response will be immediate, all out and unprecedented, targeting [the] heart of Tel Aviv and all those supporting the aggressor.”
Then, amid widespread reports of secret talks between Washington and Tehran through Omani mediators came the news that they made no progress on limiting the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and that Trump was once again weighing military action, according to CNN.
Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told Jewish Insider that Trump is engaged in “maximum-pressure negotiations,” which are “setting up the regime to say no.”
Nadav Pollak, a lecturer at Reichman University and Israeli intelligence veteran, told JI that the latest developments were significant in that “Trump laid out terms for a deal and Iran said no, or didn’t say anything. It’s not surprising, because his terms — no nuclear program, no ballistic missiles over a certain range, no support for its proxies — are a surrender without concessions [from the U.S.], something the supreme leader can’t do.”
At the same time, Diker said, “Iran is desperate to cut a deal. … The Iranians are reaching out to cut a deal, like they always do when they feel cornered. Regime survival is the top priority of the regime.”
“I think it’s fair to assess that Trump senses he has a lot of leverage and a lot of power — and he does — and I think he’s applying maximum pressure on the regime. He knows the regime is weak, but it’s like a rabid dog … that can do anything, which can be very dangerous. They still have a lot of missiles,” he said.
Diker argued that 30 years after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first warned about the Iranian threat in a joint session of Congress, “the stars aligned in terms of Trump and Netanyahu, and they could finally get rid of this regime, but it will come at a price. … The Iranian proxies will put us in a terrible position.”
Israel is not the only country exposed to those dangers, Diker pointed out. “There is pressure on Trump from the Saudis, the Qataris, the Turks and others across the Middle East not to attack because of the distinct fear the regime will start firing rockets, missiles and drones everywhere. … Iranians will just be throwing stuff all over the Middle East, is the fear.”
In Pollak’s assessment, U.S. military action is likely: “Trump, with all his language and rhetoric, climbed too high not to do anything. He also pushed U.S. assets into the region, similar to what he did in Venezuela. …The scope of a strike is unclear. That’s anyone’s guess right now.”
The shift in Trump’s rhetoric in recent days from focusing on the anti-regime protests to stopping Iran’s nuclear program shows that he is “trying to build legitimacy for a strike,” Pollak said. “The protests against the regime was a trigger for him, but he has other objectives in mind.”
Pollak said that Shamkani’s multilingual social media posts were the first public, direct military threat from Iran towards Israel, something he said Israel’s security establishment surely took note of.
“If it wasn’t certain until yesterday that Israel will get targeted, now it is, even if it’s one barrage,” Pollak said.
Whether Israel will take part in the strikes on Iran remains an open question, Pollak said, but assessed that it is likely to happen. He pointed out that IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Shlomi Binder was in Washington this week, reportedly to share information about possible targets in Iran.
Pollak pointed out that a month ago, in a press conference with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said he would support Israel striking Iran if it continues to produce ballistic missiles, and if Iran tries to rebuild its nuclear weapons program, he would back Israel striking “fast.”
“I think [Netanyahu] for sure would want to take the opportunity to finish some of what we didn’t finish in June,” he said. “The question is whether Trump will let him or not.”
Diker said that “Netanyahu has been hyper-focused on ridding Israel and the world of this regime for 30 years … When Netanyahu says Trump is the best friend Israel ever had, he’s not talking about the Abraham Accords. He’s talking right now about ending the Iranian regime. Netanyahu’s eyes are on that ball.”
‘If Iran restarts their nuclear ambitions, I fully support bombing them until they get the message,’ the Pennsylvania senator told JI
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Sen. John Fetterman, (D-PA) talks with reporters after the Senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Thursday that he would support the U.S. striking Iran’s nuclear facilities again to prevent Tehran from rebuilding its nuclear program — if the regime is found to be making strides toward restoring sites damaged by U.S. and Israeli strikes last year.
The Pennsylvania senator told Jewish Insider that he believes the U.S. and Israel should keep targeting Iranian nuclear facilities until Iran’s leaders “get the message” that the Islamic Republic will never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.
“If Iran restarts their nuclear ambitions, I fully support bombing them until they get the message,” Fetterman told JI.
Fetterman was supportive of President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities amid the 12-day war with Israel last year and has emerged as one of the staunchest Iran hawks in the Democratic Party. He criticized members of his party last June who spoke out against Israel’s strikes on Iran and Trump’s subsequent decision to join the strikes.
“It was just astonishing to see colleagues criticizing these things. It’s like, do you think you can negotiate with that regime? Do you think you want to run that scenario and allow them to acquire 1,000 pounds of weapons grade uranium?” Fetterman told JI at the time. “I can’t understand, I can’t even begin to understand that.”
For his part, the president said late last month while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was open to another round of strikes against Iran.
Asked by reporters if he will support another Israeli attack on Iran if it continues its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, Trump said, “If they continue with the missiles? Yes. If the nuclear? Fast, OK? One will be yes, absolutely; the other was, we’ll do it immediately.”
“Iran may be behaving badly,” he added. “It hasn’t been confirmed, but if it’s confirmed, look, they know the consequences.”
Fetterman is the first Democrat in Congress to publicly endorse additional strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, a move several of his Republican colleagues have also gotten behind.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said in Israel last month that Washington had a duty to act on “credible evidence” that Iran is looking for avenues to rebuild its nuclear program. The South Carolina senator argued it was imperative that the U.S. and Israel “hit them before they can” do so.
“We obliterated the Iranian nuclear facilities. We did not obliterate Iran’s desire to have a nuclear weapon,” Graham said. “The regime hasn’t changed at all. They still want to kill all the Jews, consider America the great Satan, and purify Islam.”
“Are they regenerating their nuclear capability? Are they building more ballistic missiles that could hurt Europe and Israel?” he added. “I don’t know, but there’s evidence that, yes, they are.”
Meeting in Florida, Trump and Netanyahu projected unity but highlighted disagreements on Turkey, Syria and the West Bank
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club on December 29, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida.
President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that he would support the U.S. or Israel launching another round of strikes against Iran if Tehran is attempting to rebuild its ballistic missile program or nuclear facilities.
Trump made the comments while speaking to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the latter’s fifth visit to the United States this year.
Asked if he will support another Israeli attack on Iran if they continue their ballistic missile and nuclear programs, Trump said, “If they continue with the missiles? Yes. If the nuclear? Fast, okay? One will be yes, absolutely; the other was, we’ll do it immediately.”
He added later, “If they are [rearming], we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build up. … We don’t want to waste the fuel on a B-2 [bomber]. It’s a 37-hour trip, both ways, I don’t want to waste a lot of fuel,” suggesting the U.S. would again utilize its bomber jets that conducted the June strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The president repeatedly urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table with the U.S. while cautioning that the regime would face consequences for declining his offer to address the nuclear issue diplomatically. “They could have made a deal the last time before we went through the big attack on them, and they decided not to make the deal. They wish they made that deal. So I think, again, they should make a deal,” he said.
About reports that Iran is rearming, Trump said, “Iran may be behaving badly. It hasn’t been confirmed, but if it’s confirmed, look, they know the consequences.”
“This is just what we hear, but usually where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” he continued. “I’m hearing that their [efforts are] not nuclear yet, but maybe nuclear, too. The sites were obliterated, but they’re looking at other sites [than the ones the U.S. bombed in June]. That’s what I’ve heard. They’re looking. It’ll take a long time. They’re not going to go back to where they were, but they have other places they can go. And if they’re doing that, they’re making a big mistake.”
Trump repeatedly praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his remarks with Netanyahu, pledging to thaw tensions between the Turkish and Israeli leaders and repeated that he was “very seriously” considering approving Turkey’s longstanding requests to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the United States. “We’re thinking about it very seriously,” Trump said about the move, which Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said last month that Israel opposes.
“I know President Erdogan very well, and as you all know, he’s a very good friend of mine … and I do respect him and Bibi respects him, and they’re not going to have a problem,” Trump said.
Speaking to reporters alongside Netanyahu ahead of their meeting, Trump also voiced his support for Turkey joining the proposed U.S.-led International Stabilization Force to be deployed in Gaza.
“I have a great relationship with President Erdogan, and we’ll be talking about it. And if it’s good, I think that’s good. And a lot will be having to do with Bibi, we’re going to be talking about that,” Trump said. “But Turkey has been great, and he [Erdogan] has been excellent, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know about you [Netanyahu], but to me he’s been very good.”
Netanyahu did not comment on the suggestion at the time or during the press conference later on, though Israel, as well as several U.S. lawmakers, has said it opposes Ankara’s involvement in the proposed peacekeeping force due largely to Turkey’s ties to Hamas, despite the supportive posture from the Trump administration.
The president later used the topic of Syria to again praise Erdogan, arguing the Turkish leader deserved “a lot of credit” for ousting the Assad regime.
“Don’t forget, it was President Erdogan that helped very much get rid of a very bad ruler of Syria. That was President Erdogan, and he never wanted the credit for it, but he really gets a lot of credit. Bibi agrees with that. … I know it,” Trump told reporters.
The president went on to say that the U.S. and Israel “have an understanding regarding Syria” and that he was working to improve relations between the Jewish state and its neighbor, praising Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa along the way.
“We do have an understanding regarding Syria. Now with Syria, your new president. I respect him. He’s a very strong guy. That’s what you need in Syria. You can’t put a choir boy, you can’t put somebody that’s a perfect person — everything’s nice, no problems in life,” Trump said.
“I’m sure that Israel and him will get along,” he continued. “I will try and make it so that they do get along. I think they will.”
For its part, Israel has been wary of al-Sharaa and the new Syrian government, with the IDF maintaining control of the 155-square-mile buffer zone between the two countries since the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad last year, against Damascus’ wishes. Israel and Syria have also continued to disagree on the contours of a potential security agreement, which the Trump administration has continuously sought, with Netanyahu maintaining that any agreement must require Syria to accept the demilitarization of territory stretching from southern Damascus to the Israeli border.
Trump was also asked about the Lebanese government’s failure thus far to disarm Hezbollah, amid reports that the terror group is rearming. The president demurred when pressed on his support of Israel striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon again as a result, instead only acknowledging his disapproval with the terrorist organization.
“Well, we’re going to see about that. We’ll see about it,” Trump said. “The Lebanese government is at a little bit of a disadvantage, if you think of it, with Hezbollah, but Hezbollah has been behaving badly. So we’ll see what happens.”
Asked about attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, Trump acknowledged that he and Netanyahu discussed the West Bank during the meeting and that they’re not in complete alignment on the issue. Still, Trump expressed confidence that all parties would reach “a conclusion” to prevent the matter from undermining the implementation of his broader peace plan, though he declined to offer specifics.
“Well, we have had a discussion, big discussion, for a long time on the West Bank. And I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank 100%, but we will come to a conclusion on the West Bank. … It’ll be announced at an appropriate time, but [Netanyahu] will do the right thing. I know that. I know him very well. He will do the right thing,” he said.
Trump also expressed gratitude during his remarks for being named the recipient of the Israel Prize, the Jewish state’s highest cultural honor awarded by the country’s education minister. Netanyahu said Trump will be the first non-Israeli to receive the award, which the president said “really is a great honor.”
Netanyahu invited Trump to visit Israel on Yom Ha’atzmaut, the Jewish state’s independence day, in April, which will be an election year, to receive the award in person.
Joined by Trump at his the meeting with Netanyahu were White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Steve Witkoff, the White House’s Mideast envoy; and Jared Kushner, Trump’s advisor on Middle East efforts.
Netanyahu also met individually with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth while at the president’s property.
From Washington, the London-based Persian-language network is expanding its footprint — connecting Iranians inside the country with global policymakers and challenging Tehran through independent, anti-regime reporting
Wikimedia Commons/ Persian Dutch Network
IRAN INTERNATIONAL - Persian-language TV in London, 2019
Walk into any think tank in Washington and you’re likely to bump into more than a few so-called “Iran watchers”: researchers whose job is to try to interpret the actions of the often-opaque Iranian regime and help policymakers figure out how to approach the Islamic Republic.
Given the adversarial relationship between Washington and Tehran, making sense of the two nations’ policy choices toward each other is big business. But according to some Iranians, something is missing.
“Most of the people who are working on Iran, they have never been to Iran. Americans, I mean. That brings with itself certain limitations,” said Mehdi Parpanchi, who was born in Iran but now lives in Washington. The U.S. does not have a diplomatic presence in Iran, and vice versa. “In my opinion, the image of Iran is not being seen properly from outside the country.”
Parpanchi is the director of U.S. news at Iran International, one of the biggest independent Persian-language news outlets in the world. Based in London, Iran International broadcasts inside of Iran via satellite — much to the chagrin of Iranian officials, who have called the network a terrorist organization. It also reaches Iranians expats and dissidents around the world. While the network mainly operates with the goal of offering independent news from an anti-regime perspective to the global Iranian diaspora, Iran International also serves as a crucial source to Iran watchers of all stripes, including those who have never set foot in the country.
“There is always a decade of delay between the reality inside Iran and how it is being seen from the West, especially from the U.S.,” Parpanchi, who moved to Washington in 2020 to launch a U.S. headquarters for Iran International, told Jewish Insider last month.
A new show from Iran International, filmed in Washington and broadcast around the world, aims to at least partly remedy that problem. “Iran International Insight,” which launched in June, pledges to put Iran International viewers who live in Iran in conversation with the political figures and diplomats across the world whose policy choices will affect their lives.
“The concept was that there’s a tremendous opportunity for policymakers and experts in D.C., but especially policymakers, to be engaging with and taking questions from the Iranian people directly,” said Aaron Lobel, a co-producer of the new show and the founder and president of America Abroad Media, an international media organization.
The growth of Iran International’s programming in Washington comes after the Trump administration slashed funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which supports independent outlets such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL) and Middle East Broadcasting Networks that air pro-democracy content around the world. Parpanchi previously spent two years at RFERL, which has a Persian-language branch.
Iran International is not expressly trying to fill that niche, and the new program was in the works starting in 2024, before Trump even came to office. Regardless, the new program arrives at a time that America has pulled back from cultural diplomacy.
“This is in the best traditions of the United States. It advances American values and it advances American interests,” said Lobel. “The more credible media organizations outside Iran that are trying to reach the Iranian people with information and to give them some sense of hope as well — the more the better.”
So far, three interviews — hourlong conversations between one or two guests and an Iran International anchor — have been filmed, all in front of a live audience, including many Iranians who live and work in Washington. Iran International’s producers and journalists solicit questions from the network’s viewers in Iran. The interviews take place in English, but they are dubbed in Persian before being aired.
“I’ve met with groups of Iranian diaspora, who have family in Iran and who are activists with them. But I don’t think I received online questions like that,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, who was the first guest, told JI. “That was the primary agenda, to speak to the people.”
Leiter’s interview with Iran International was a journalistic gold mine for the network: scheduled in advance, it happened to come at a particularly timely moment, hours after President Donald Trump announced a cease-fire between Israel and Iran at the end of the countries’ 12-day war in June. Leiter touted Israel’s military victories in its campaign to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Yet many Iranians wondered why Israel would attack Iran, but ultimately not seek to remove the ayatollah from power. (Hundreds of questions were submitted.)
“One of the themes that came out that was so striking was, of course, many Iranians wanted Israel to continue the campaign, and they were, I think it’s fair to say, you could hear in that show, disappointed that Israel stopped the war. Or to put it differently, they were upset that the Israeli government had, in their view, raised their expectations of ‘regime change’ and then failed to deliver,” said Lobel.
Leiter offered unusually candid responses to those questions, going beyond the diplomatic language that would’ve gotten the job done even if leaving viewers unsatisfied.
“I appreciated the opportunity to explain why we weren’t going to go further and actually topple the regime by force,” Leiter explained. “I understand them. Remember when the chancellor of Germany said that Israel is doing the ‘dirty work’ for the world? I guess that the people wanted us to do the work completely for the world. But we can’t do that. And it was important for me to be able to explain that.”
Two other programs were recorded this fall. One featured Elliott Abrams, who served as Iran envoy in Trump’s first term, and Dennis Ross, a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy who previously held several high-level jobs at the State Department in Democratic and Republican administrations. Another featured former CIA official Norman Roule and Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Iran International’s main Instagram account has 16 million followers, and video clips from the Roule-Dubowitz event got about 1 million views each.
Those four experts have different ideological backgrounds, but each falls closer to the hawkish end of the spectrum on Iran. So does Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who was scheduled to appear in an interview in September before the congressional schedule led Cotton to cancel. (Parpanchi said they hope to reschedule.)
Parpanchi said Iran International aims to include a broad range of perspectives from Washington, noting that the program is only just beginning.
“It’s not only hawkish. There are other people who have different views about Iran, and we will reflect them all,” Parpanchi said. Iran International plans to ramp up to a more regular filming schedule in 2026.
The president spoke with Fox News host Mark Levin about his administration’s strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Mark Levin on Tuesday that at the time of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, he believed Tehran “would have had nuclear weapons in a period of four weeks.”
Calling in to Levin’s radio show, Trump said that, “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.”
Trump said that, despite news reports questioning his assessment of the efficacy of the strikes, “it turned out that” the impacts were “even more so than I said. It was obliteration.”
“The Atomic Energy Commission said, this place is gone. [Iran] can maybe start up, but they’re not starting up there,” Trump said of the Iranian nuclear facilities targeted in the operation. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission found that the U.S. strike on the Fordow nuclear facility “destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure” and rendered it “inoperable,” though reports differ on the extent of the damage.
The president 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.
Trump lauded his peacemaking abilities, saying, “I’ve settled six wars and we did the Iran night, wiped out their whole nuclear capability, which they would have used against Israel in two seconds if they had the chance.”
He called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war hero” and said, “I guess I am, too. … I mean, I sent those planes.”
‘If the current status quo is the same a year from now and it actually leads towards further negotiation — success,’ Warner told JI
Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) ascends on an escalator on his way to a vote at the U.S. Capitol on June 17, 2025.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told Jewish Insider on Friday that he’s inclined to view the Trump administration’s strikes last month on Iran’s nuclear facilities as a “success,” if negotiations with Tehran resume and barring substantial future retaliation from Iran.
His comments largely echo sentiments shared earlier in the day by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) at the Aspen Security Forum, suggesting an increasing willingness by moderate, national security-minded Democrats to publicly acknowledge positive outcomes of the strikes, even if they maintain other concerns about the process that produced them.
“I will acknowledge the successfulness of the Israeli attacks and how back-foot the regime was. The fact that they didn’t launch the thousands of missiles,” Warner told JI on the sidelines of the forum. “I was concerned about an attack that didn’t bring Congress along. And I do think there was a huge process foul when the Gang of Eight wasn’t notified and the Republicans [were]. Trump[’s first administration] never did that — but I have never contested the success.”
Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s been pleased that there has not been ongoing asymmetric retaliation against the U.S. by Iran, such as cyber, sleeper cell or Iraqi militia attacks.
“If the current status quo is the same a year from now and it actually leads towards further negotiation — success.”
Warner, Coons and other top Democrats had cautioned the administration against unilateral action against Iran without congressional approval just days before the attack.
“Let’s make no doubt that the Iranian regime [are] bad guys, and that is why I’ve been such a consistent supporter of Israel,” Warner told JI.
“Iran’s, at least so far, been shown to be more of a paper tiger,” Warner said. “If we could just get to the resolution in Gaza, there really could be a fresh start.”
The senator said that his ongoing concern is how President Donald Trump has responded to the attacks, declaring that Iran’s nuclear program had been completely obliterated.
“The president, within two hours of the strike, set an arbitrary, almost impossible standard to meet, in terms of ‘total obliteration,’” Warner said. “To get the enriched uranium you’re going to need troops on the ground. And there are more than three sites — the vast majority [of the activity] was [at] those three, but there was some bad stuff happening elsewhere.”
He said the intelligence community had also been pressured to “contort itself to meet” the assessment Trump put forward.
In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, Warner and other Democrats expressed frustration that the Trump administration took days to brief Congress about them. Warner said he’s received “some additional clarity” in the weeks since the strikes about their effects. But he said that without physically sending operatives into the facilities, it’s difficult to know for sure the impacts of the strikes.
“Other nations have made assessments that were more in the multiple months” of delay to Iran’s nuclear program, “but I’m not even sure that’s the right metric,” Warner said. “It was a success. So the question is, what’s next? That, I don’t have visibility on.”
Going forward, Warner emphasized the need for negotiations to bring International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into Iran, adding that he wants to look further into the source of the delays in resuming talks.
Warner said he’s also seeking information on the timeline on which Iran would be able to build a less sophisticated nuclear device that could be delivered in a truck, rather than via a ballistic missile.
Though he noted that U.S. intelligence had not assessed that Iran was actively constructing a nuclear weapon, he said he had heard reports about an Israeli assessment that offered a different view and that he is looking further into it.
Asked about the fluid situation in Syria, in which Israel went, in the span of just a week, from floating normalization with the new Syrian government to bombing key government facilities in response to attacks on the Druze population, Warner indicated he’s still gathering information.
He said that Israel is “appropriately … very protective of its Druze population,” adding that he does not know at this point whether the Syrian government forces attacking the Druze population are doing so at the orders of that government.
He said he’s hopeful that Israel and other parties involved will not miss an opportunity to find a peaceful resolution that could defuse a major longtime threat to Israel’s north.
Warner said he also wants to see Trump use his “enormous influence in Israel” to “[force] Bibi’s government into a return of the hostages, a ceasefire,” saying that would open up opportunities for transformational change in the region, including Saudi-Israeli normalization.
Warner said that while he’s been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel and the IDF deserve credit for their surprise accomplishments in taking down Iran’s proxy network and in their strikes against Iran itself.
“The [Jewish community’s] concern is real and understandable,” Warner said. He said that he has been struck by the “level of anger, animosity, vile things said” in anti-Israel protests that have targeted him — “and I’m not Jewish. And I can only imagine.”
“Iran’s, at least so far, been shown to be more of a paper tiger,” Warner said. “If we could just get to the resolution in Gaza, there really could be a fresh start.”
Asked how concerned he is about the possibility of homeland attacks against the Jewish community carried out by or in the name of Iran, Warner said that U.S. intelligence monitors potential threats fairly comprehensively, but indicated that he’s most worried about radicalized lone-wolf attacks, like those in Washington and Boulder, Colo.
“The [Jewish community’s] concern is real and understandable,” Warner said. He said that he has been struck by the “level of anger, animosity, vile things said” in anti-Israel protests that have targeted him — “and I’m not Jewish. And I can only imagine.”
Warner expressed frustration at the way that the Palestinian cause has crowded out other global issues on college campuses. He said that it “would be healthy” if young people “have the chance to get exposed to other things in the world,” offering as examples the conflict in Sudan — which he said has been more deadly than Gaza and Ukraine combined — and the military junta in Myanmar.
On the subject of the Houthis, who have ramped up attacks against commercial shipping and Israel in recent weeks, Warner called the group a “tough nut to crack,” noting that a protracted Saudi and Emirati campaign against the Iran-backed terrorist group in Yemen had failed to put the issue to bed. But he said that the U.S. can’t rule out further military action against the group.
“I hope that those plans would be kept classified and not shared … on a device that’s not secure,” he quipped, referencing the Signalgate scandal, which he said had prompted concern from the Israeli government.
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Last week’s Aspen summit, which typically prioritizes bipartisan and nonpartisan discussion and solution-making, became particularly politicized after nearly all Trump administration speakers canceled their participation, followed by a handful of foreign and private sector leaders and former government officials disappearing from the week’s agenda.
The issue was a frequent topic of discussion both on the main stage and across the Aspen Meadows campus last week, seen by many as a sign of the ways that intense partisanship has infiltrated U.S. foreign policy, once seen as a less antagonistic space.
Warner’s own panel featured himself and Coons, but not a Republican senator, as has been tradition.
Nevertheless, Warner said that bipartisanship on foreign policy issues still lives in the Senate, noting that the Intelligence Committee had passed an Intelligence Authorization Act recently in a nearly unanimous vote.
Looking ahead, he said the “easiest place to rebuild that consensus is around China,” which he described as an unprecedented competitor. He said there has been a long and difficult journey across multiple administrations to refocus on China, but he said there has been bipartisan success in pushing back against China.
He also argued that the Trump administration’s transactional and short-sighted approach to foreign policy goes against a longtime bipartisan tradition of viewing U.S. international relationships as an effort in “mutual trust-building.”
He said that his Republican colleagues privately disagree with many of Trump’s more outlandish foreign policy efforts — like annexing Canada. “At some point, there’s got to be a break,” he responded, when pressed on the fact that some Republicans defend Trump’s policies publicly despite those private disagreements.
Warner told JI that the bill the Intelligence Committee recently passed would cut the size of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But, despite offering biting criticisms of DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Warner said that the reform efforts are not a reflection of or specifically prompted by concerns about her conduct in the role.
“I’m very comfortable with the idea of bringing the mission closer to what it was originally, but also making sure that people who are at the ODNI get returned to their original home agency and don’t get [fired],” Warner said.
Clarifying comments that he made on the panel about close U.S. intelligence partners in the Five Eyes group curtailing their intelligence sharing with the United States, Warner said he was not aware of specific instances in which that had happened, but said that U.S. partners are concerned about the state of the U.S. intelligence community.
“The challenge about intelligence sharing is [that] this is all based on trust,” Warner said.
Obama’s former national security advisor disagreed with David Petraeus, John Bolton over the effectiveness of the strikes
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice speaks at the J Street 2018 National Conference April 16, 2018 in Washington, D.C.
Susan Rice, who served as national security advisor during the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Tehran’s nuclear program while defending the 2015 agreement during a panel discussion on Monday at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival.
Rice, who was on stage with former Trump administration National Security Advisor John Bolton and former CIA director David Petraeus, disagreed with her two colleagues that Trump’s Iran strikes were largely a success.
“I think the resort to military action when diplomacy had not been exhausted was a strategic mistake,” Rice said. “And the reality is, and we’re back to this point today, only diplomacy and a negotiated settlement can ensure the sustainable and verifiable dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program. You need inspectors on the ground. You need verifiable constraints that are very significant, and you don’t achieve that by ripping up the 2015 nuclear agreement and replacing it with nothing.”
Rice joins a chorus of former Obama and Biden administration officials who have criticized Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, despite many experts concluding the damage to the program was significant. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, for instance, said that “based on the assessments of senior officers in IDF Intelligence, the damage to [Iran’s] nuclear program is … systemic … severe, broad and deep, and pushed back by years.”
Last week, former Secretary of State Tony Blinken wrote an op-ed in The New York Times: “The strike on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities by the United States was unwise and unnecessary. Now that it’s done, I very much hope it succeeded.”
At the Aspen Ideas Festival last week, former Biden administration National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told moderator Fareed Zakaria: “We still need a deal because Iran still has, it appears, stockpiles of enriched uranium, still has centrifuge capacity, even if the installed centrifuge capacity has been destroyed or damaged or who knows what, and still has know-how and therefore still has the possibility of reconstituting its program.”
Bolton, on the same panel as Rice, argued that the time was ripe for military action against Iran.
“I think the regime is weaker than at any point since the 1979 revolution,” Bolton said. “But I think we will never have an opportunity this good to remove not just the nuclear program but the Iranian support for terrorism, which dates back to 1979 when they seized our embassy employees and it went downhill from there.”
Bolton outlined several ways in which Iranians are dissatisfied with the regime, including economic stagnation and state of women’s rights in the country.
“The answer is regime change. But in the meantime, we want to make sure that there aren’t any even possible successful efforts by Iran to do something with what they have,” Bolton said.
Turning to Israel’s war in Gaza, all members of the panel argued that Israel needed to shift its strategy to successfully eliminate Hamas. Bolton said that, despite successfully degrading the terror group’s organizational structure, Israel had not successfully fulfilled all of its war goals, which include eliminating Hamas and securing the release of all the hostages.
Bolton argued that an additional objective of the war should be to “provide a better future for the Palestinians without Hamas in their lives. The only way you can achieve all four of these is … by going in and conducting a comprehensive civil military counterinsurgency campaign. You clear every building floor room and block all the tunnel entrances, let the people that belong there back in with biometric ID cards, and then you have an entry control point to the rest of Gaza. With security, anything is possible.”
Israel vows to ‘respond with force’; four people killed in wave of Iranian missile launches
IDF
IDF Home Front Command forces operate at the impact site in Beersheva, June 24th, 2025
Iran violated a ceasefire with Israel hours after it began on Tuesday, with Israel vowing “powerful strikes” in response.
The IDF intercepted two missiles from Iran at about 10:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. Despite residents of northern Israel reporting interceptions, Iran denied firing the missiles.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he “instructed the IDF to respond forcefully to the violation of the ceasefire by Iran with powerful strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.” IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that “in light of the severe violation of the ceasefire carried out by the Iranian regime, we will respond with force.” A senior Israeli diplomatic source said that “Iran violated the ceasefire — and it will pay.”
In the hours before the ceasefire was meant to go into effect at 7 a.m., Iran launched 20 missiles in a series of barrages at Israel, killing four in a direct hit on a building in Beersheba.
Ahead of the deadly strike, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent mixed messages, first posting on X that “there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire … However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards.” Less than 20 minutes later, Araghchi implied on X that a ceasefire had gone into effect: “The military operations of our powerful Armed Forces to punish Israel for its aggression continued until the very last minute, at 4am.”
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly struck Beersheba since the war began 12 days ago, damaging buildings in the Soroka Medical Center, Microsoft offices and residences in the southern Israel city. The regime said it was aiming at an IDF research center in the city’s HiTech Park.
President Donald Trump announced a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” on Truth Social on Monday evening, saying that each “side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL … This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!”
According to the president, Iran was supposed to have stopped firing at Israel at 7 a.m. local time, and Israel would stop 12 hours later.
At about 8 a.m. Israel time, Trump added: “THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!”
Netanyahu and Trump spoke about the ceasefire overnight, while an American team that included Vice President JD Vance talked to Tehran, Reuters reported. Israel’s condition for the ceasefire was that Iran stop launching attacks, which they reportedly agreed to at the time. Qatar also took part in the negotiations.
The Israeli government released a statement on Tuesday morning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported to the Security Cabinet that “Israel has achieved all of the objectives of Operation Rising Lion, and much more. Israel has removed a double existential threat — on both the nuclear issue and regarding ballistic missiles. The IDF also achieved complete air superiority in the skies over Tehran, struck a severe blow to the military leadership and destroyed dozens of Iran’s main regime targets.”
“In Operation Rising Lion, the State of Israel made great historic achievements and placed itself in the first rank of the world’s major powers,” the government stated. “This is a great success for the people of Israel and its fighters, who removed two existential threats to our country, and ensured the eternity of Israel.”
Israel also “thank[ed] President Trump and the U.S. for their defensive support and for their participation in removing the Iranian nuclear threat.”
The ceasefire was reached “in full coordination with President Trump,” the statement reads, but “Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire.”
IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin also said in a briefing on Tuesday morning that “the IDF has fully met all the objectives defined in Operation Rising Lion.”
“The Chief of the General Staff instructed the IDF to maintain a high level of alert and readiness to deliver a powerful response to any violation of the ceasefire,” he added.
In addition, Israel’s Home Front Command maintained its restrictions on Israelis, including the continued closure of schools and non-essential businesses.
The Israeli government statement also said that the IDF killed hundreds of militants from the Basij, “the terrorist regime’s instrument of repression,” and killed a senior nuclear scientist, named Mohammad Reza Sadighi, according to Iranian reports.
Defrin said that on Monday night and early Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force “struck dozens of military targets in Tehran … deploying more than one hundred munitions.” The targets included the headquarters of SPND, where weapons systems and nuclear technology were developed, as well as military manufacturing infrastructure. The IAF also eliminated eight missile launchers that were ready to fire at Israel.
The strike on the prison was one of several by Israeli fighter jets, targeting “bodies of government oppression in the heart of Tehran,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said
JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache attack helicopters fly over Israel's northern city of Haifa on June 19, 2025.
Israel on Monday bombed the gates of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, where the regime holds and tortures dissidents, and conducted follow-up strikes near the Fordow nuclear facility a day after it was bombed by the U.S.
Evin has been a symbol of the regime’s oppression for decades. The Tehran prison is where the regime has incarcerated activists, protesters, journalists, dual nationals and others, and used torture methods including beatings, solitary confinement and sexual abuse. Iran expert Ben Sabti told Jewish Insider last week that Iranians have called on Israel to strike prisons so that dissident leaders held inside could escape and push for the toppling of the regime.
The strike on the prison was one of several by Israeli fighter jets, targeting “bodies of government oppression in the heart of Tehran,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday morning. The military struck the headquarters of the Basij, the regime’s internal enforcement arm, which has been instrumental in enforcing Islamic law and suppressing protest; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ internal security command center; the Alborz Corps, responsible for security and regime stability in the Tehran district; and a clock in the city’s Palestine Square counting down to Israel’s destruction by 2040.
“These command centers have significant military effect and additionally they impact the regime’s ability to impose control. Striking these military targets harms the Iranian regime’s military capabilities,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office stated.
Israel also conducted follow-up strikes on the access routes to the Fordow nuclear facility on Monday, the IDF confirmed. The strikes came a day after the U.S. struck the complex, which is under a mountain, with bunker-buster bombs.
The full extent of the damage done to the site, as well as facilities in Natanz and Isfahan, remained unclear after the strike by U.S. bombers early Sunday morning.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. did “monumental” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities – “Obliteration is an accurate term!” he wrote on his Truth Social site — amid reports that the sites had been severely damaged but not destroyed.
Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday that “to the best of my knowledge,” the U.S. strikes “succeeded in fully stopping the Iranian nuclear project, certainly at this point.”
International Atomic Energy Agency Secretary-General Rafael Grossi said that the bombing likely caused “very significant damage” to Fordow but that “no one — including the IAEA — is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage.”
An Israeli government source told JI that the full extent of the damage was still being assessed as of Monday morning, but that Natanz and most of Iran’s estimated 400 kg of highly enriched uranium held at Isfahan were destroyed, and little of the uranium was moved to other locations before the strike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel was very close to reaching the main goal of its operation in Iran: rolling back the nuclear and ballistic missile threats to Israel.
“When we reach our goals in Iran, the war will end,” he said in a press conference on Sunday. “We will not be dragged into a war of attrition.”
An Israeli official told Ynet that “if Khamenei stops shooting and says he wants to end the event, we will accept it … We want to end the event soon, this week, but whether it happens depends on Khamenei. If he shoots nonstop, we will have to respond.”
The IDF told JI on Monday that about 50% of Iran’s missile launchers have been destroyed.
Yossi Mansharov, an Iran expert at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, explained that it’s more important “to focus on the launchers that Iran retains, because without launchers, the missiles are useless.”
“This is a historic achievement for Israel, which will require Iran to check its defenses after the war,” Mansharov added. “The regime was caught unprepared for a war when it comes to defense and that has been very costly, as you can see from Israel’s extraordinary achievements.”
Still, Mansharov added, “Israel will also have to do an extensive examination to understand how it can improve its interceptions of deadly missiles.” (The writer is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute.)
Iran hit an electrical facility in southern Israel with a ballistic missile on Monday morning. The Israel Electric Corporation said a “strategic infrastructure facility” was damaged near the city of Ashdod, causing power outages.
The Islamic Republic launched some seven missiles on Monday morning, in four separate barrages, sending Israelis across the country into bomb shelters for over half an hour. Iran also shot one missile into Israel overnight, which was intercepted. No injuries were reported.
As of Monday, Iran had shot about 500 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel since the start of Operation Rising Lion this month, according to the Israeli government.
The IDF continued its strikes on Iran overnight and on Monday morning, including on missile launchers in Kermanshah and Tehran, fighter jets and six military airports in western, eastern and central Iran, and the Parchin military base, where experiments related to nuclear weapons have been conducted.
IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing on Monday that the Israeli strikes are conducted “with an emphasis on the [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps command centers and all elements of the threat to Israel … Every base from which we identify [missile] launches is attacked and damaged.”
Iranian media reported that the Islamic Republic shot down an Israeli drone.
Trump spoke out in favor of changing the regime in Iran, even as senior officials in Washington and Israel have said that is not one of the goals of the operation.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???MIGA!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Netanyahu would not rule out killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei when asked about it last week, and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei should remember “the fate of the dictator of the neighboring country,” Saddam Hussein.
Iran continued to threaten revenge on the U.S. for its recent strikes. A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned in a video in English that “Mr. Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it … The fighters of Islam will respond to the crime with powerful and targeted attacks that will lead to unexpected consequences.”
IAF strikes centrifuge and weapons production sites after 25 Iranian missiles intercepted with no casualties in Israel
KHOSHIRAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Smoke rises from locations targeted in Tehran amid the third day of Israel's waves of strikes against Iran, on Sunday, June 15, 2025.
Israel struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran early Wednesday, after successfully intercepting more than two dozen missiles launched by Iran toward Israel in the preceding hours.
Over 50 Israeli Air Force jets flew to Iran, where they struck a facility in which centrifuges were manufactured to expand and accelerate uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.
”The Iranian regime is enriching uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear power for civilian use does not require enrichment at these levels,” the IDF said.
The IDF also said it struck several weapons manufacturing facilities, including one used “to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel.” Another facility that the IDF struck manufactured components for anti-aircraft missiles.
IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that the IDF “attacked five Iranian combat helicopters that tried to harm our aircraft.”
“There is Iranian resistance, but we control the air [over Iran] and will continue to control it. We are deepening our damage to surface missiles and acting in every place from which the Iranians shoot missiles at Israel,” Defrin added.
Defrin said on Tuesday evening that, as a result of Israel’s air superiority in western Iran and the Tehran area, the Islamic Republic’s military efforts “have been pushed back into central Iran. They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “a tornado is passing over Tehran. Symbols of the regime are exploding and collapsing, from the broadcast authority and soon other targets, and masses of residents are fleeing. This is how dictatorships collapse.”
Most of the projectiles fired from Iran toward northern and central Israel overnight were intercepted, and no injuries or fatalities were reported.
In addition, Iran launched over 10 drones at the Galilee and the Golan on Wednesday morning, all of which the IDF intercepted.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Israel is running low on Arrow interceptors used to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles from Iran. Israel also uses the David’s Sling system against Iranian missiles. The Arrow is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. The U.S. has augmented Israel’s air defenses with its THAAD system, but is concerned about its own stock of interceptors. The IDF told the Journal that “it is prepared and ready to handle any scenario.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X that Iran “must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.” On his Persian X account, Khamenei evoked Khaybar, the site of a massacre of Jews by Muslims in the 7th century, along with an image of a man with a sword entering a burning castle.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it shot Fatah-1 hypersonic missiles at Israel, which move faster than the speed of sound and cannot be detected by missile defense systems. However, there is no evidence on the ground in Israel of that being the case.
Iranian state media reported on Wednesday the interception of an Israeli drone near Isfahan, with footage of an aircraft that looks like an IAF Hermes 900. The IDF declined to comment.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote a letter updating the U.N. Security Council on Israel’s Operation Rising Lion against Iran. The operation is “aimed to neutralize the existential and imminent threat from Iran’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs” and “specifically targets military facilities and critical components of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, as well as key individuals involved in Iran’s efforts to achieve nuclear weapons.”
Sa’ar noted the Islamic Republic’s “public threats to eliminate the State of Israel, in stark violation of the UN charter, and its continued attempts to achieve the means to accomplish this by rapidly developing military nuclear capabilities, as well as its ballistic missile program.” He pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency censured Iran in a recent Board of Governors decision for its non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Sa’ar’s letter came after two missives from Iran to the UNSC about Israel’s strikes on the country.
Also Wednesday, the first Israeli rescue flights arrived from Cyprus, meant to help some of the over 100,000 Israelis stuck abroad while Israel’s airspace is closed. Israel Airports Authority said that 2,800 Israelis were expected to return on Wednesday. Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa will be making further emergency flights to repatriate Israelis.
China’s foreign ministry said that it was telling citizens to leave Israel and Iran, and Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, said that the families of Russian diplomats left Israel via Egypt on Tuesday.
Iran has launched about 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, hitting 40 impact sites since the beginning of the operation on Friday, according to the Israeli Government Press Office. There have been 24 fatalities and over 804 injured, eight of whom are in serious condition. About 3,800 people have been evacuated from their homes and 18,766 damage claims were submitted to the Israel Tax Authority.
Plus, the political extremes horseshoe against Israel ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One after leaving the G7 Leaders' Summit early on June 16, 2025 in Calgary, Alberta.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the latest developments in the war between Israel and Iran, and cover President Donald Trump’s early departure from the G7 in Canada and comments about potential talks with Tehran. We also report on Trump’s rebuke of “kooky” Tucker Carlson over the commentator’s opposition to U.S. support of Israeli strikes, and look at how Jewish LGBTQ community leaders are approaching Pride celebrations that ostracize Jewish and pro-Israel individuals. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Scott Jennings, Jason Isaacs and Jeff Rubin.
What We’re Watching
- We’re continuing to monitor the ongoing situation in Israel and Iran, following another barrage of ballistic missiles fired at Israel by Iran this morning. More below.
- President Donald Trump is back in Washington today, after his early departure from the G7 in Alberta, Canada, where he will meet with senior advisors this morning in the Situation Room to weigh the level of U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are among those who will be meeting with the president.
- Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are expected to put forward a war powers resolution today in the House that would force the administration to seek congressional approval ahead of any U.S. attack on Iran. Yesterday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a war powers resolution in the Senate. More below.
- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are slated to testify this morning before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the administration’s FY2026 budget request for the intelligence community.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) trip to Israel this week, in which Johnson was slated to address the Knesset, has been postponed due to the conflict between Israel and Iran. Read more here.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD
We’ve written a lot about the so-called horseshoe theory of U.S. politics and foreign policy — the point at which the far left and the far right coalesce into agreement — but the Israeli campaign against Iranian military and nuclear targets is providing a particularly stark example of that convergence. The two factions find themselves openly and publicly aligned in opposition to any form of U.S. intervention in Israel’s campaign and against Israel’s operations in general.
An X post by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Sunday provided a distillation of that dynamic. Greene claimed that a regional war or global war, which would likely overwhelm the Middle East, BRICS and NATO, is inevitable and that countries would be “required to take a side.” She continued, “I don’t want to see Israel bombed or Iran bombed or Gaza bombed. … And we do NOT want to be involved or required to pay for ANY OF IT!!!”
Among those who supported Greene’s post were CodePink activist Medea Benjamin, who praised Greene’s “incredibly strong anti-war position!” and Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim, who called the Georgia Republican “presently the most sensible member of Congress.” Doug Stafford, the chief strategist for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), shared Benjamin’s post — and has repeatedly shared and praised both her and Code Pink in the wake of the Israeli operation. Read more here.
It’s not just Greene and Stafford. A host of prominent figures on the right, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and former Pentagon senior advisor Dan Caldwell are touting narratives about the conflict that would not be out of place at a far-left anti-Israel rally.
ISRAEL-IRAN WAR DAY 5
Israel kills Iranian military chief of staff as attacks from Tehran slow down
Israel killed Iran’s new top military commander and confidante of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei days after eliminating his predecessor, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office announced on Tuesday, after a night in which missile launches from Iran towards Israel slowed down significantly. The Israeli Air Force struck a command center in Tehran, killing Ali Shadmani, Iran’s chief of war general staff, who had authority over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian military. Shadmani, whom the IDF Spokesperson’s Office called “one of the closest figures to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,” was on the job for four days after Israel killed his predecessor, Alam Ali Rashid, early Friday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Lower volume: Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning were the quietest since the beginning of the war with Iran on Friday. The IAF intercepted 30 projectiles launched from Iran toward Israel, with sirens mostly in northern and central Israel and no reports of injuries or damage to property. On Tuesday morning, Iran launched additional missiles at Israel, triggering sirens in the center of the country, including Jerusalem and the West Bank. The IDF said it intercepted most of the projectiles. Magen David Adom reported 14 injuries at eight impact sites, including a bus depot in Herzliya where the blast created a 13-foot-wide hole in the ground.
Top target: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out the possibility of targeting Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an interview with ABC News on Monday, amid widespread speculation in Israel and beyond that the strikes on the Islamic Republic could pose an existential challenge to the regime.
DIPLOMACY DIARIES
Trump departs G7 early, denies ‘peace talks’ with Iran
President Donald Trump denied on Tuesday that he was attempting to facilitate “peace talks” with Iran as he returned to Washington after prematurely leaving a meeting of G7 leaders in Canada to monitor the ongoing war between Israel and Iran, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
Word of warning: While still aboard Air Force One, the president told reporters that he wanted “a real end” to Iran’s nuclear program and he would be monitoring developments between Israel and Iran from the White House Situation Room. He suggested that Israel was unlikely to slow its strikes on Iranian targets in the coming days, saying that, “You’re going to find out over the next two days. You’re going to find out. Nobody’s slowed up so far.” But the president stopped short of addressing whether the U.S. would join Israel’s strikes, saying he hopes the Iranian nuclear weapons program “is wiped out long before that.”
French folly: French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to reporters on Monday that Trump had departed the G7 earlier to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying that “the U.S. assured they will find a ceasefire and, since they can pressure Israel, things may change.” Trump slammed Macron and denied his claims, posting on Truth Social, “Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron, of France, mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to D.C. to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran. Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire.” Trump said he had departed for something “much bigger than that.”
United front: The leaders of the G7 issued a joint statement on Sunday affirming “that Israel has a right to defend itself,” their “support for the security of Israel” and that “Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror.” They further “urge[d] that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”
TRUMP CHECKS TUCKER
Trump rebukes ‘kooky Tucker Carlson’ on Iran
President Donald Trump rebuked Tucker Carlson at several points on Monday over Carlson’s comments opposing Trump’s support for Israeli strikes on Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
New nickname: Asked Monday at the G7 Summit in Canada about Carlson’s comments accusing Trump of being “complicit” in the war, Trump quipped, “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.” Trump later posted on his Truth Social platform, “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘Iran CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!’”
ALLIES AND ARMS
U.S. should help Israel destroy Fordow, some Senate Republicans say
Some Senate Republicans argued Monday that the U.S. should join Israel’s strikes on Iran to help it destroy deeply entrenched nuclear sites such as the Fordow facility, contending that Israel lacks the capacity to do so on its own. Others, though, argued that Israel may have alternative plans to attack Fordow, while still others suggested that the U.S. should hold back and focus on diplomacy unless U.S. personnel are attacked directly, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Unique needs: Assessments have long held that bunker-busting bombs and larger bombers, neither of which Israel has, are needed to eliminate Fordow, though some analysts have speculated in recent days that Israel has been developing alternative strategies to strike that site. “We have to. I think we have to help. I am going to be encouraging the president [to support Israel] because the greatest tragedy in the world would be if we left the Iranian regime in place with a nuclear easy startup. I’d hate to see Israel spending all those resources of people and dollars on getting the job 90% done,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told JI.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE).
War powers activated: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a war powers resolution on Monday that aims to block the U.S. from taking military action against Iran in support of Israel’s ongoing operation against the regime, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
STRANDED BUT NOT ALONE
CNN’s Scott Jennings flew to Israel for the first time to understand Oct. 7 — and then war with Iran broke out
CNN contributor Scott Jennings traveled to Israel last week to bear witness to the atrocities Hamas committed during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. But in the wake of Israel launching its military operation to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and prevent the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Jennings is witnessing more than he expected to on his first trip to the Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
And then some: “Not only did I get to fulfill my mission of understanding deeply the horrors of Oct. 7, but being here watching the war unfold against Iran, I feel like I am here at the beginning of the war to defend Western civilization,” Jennings, who is traveling with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, told JI from his hotel in Tiberias on Friday. “I think this has to end with a complete annihilation of Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon,” he said, calling on the U.S. to do “whatever we have to do to achieve that in concert with our special partner, Israel.”
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Proud, but pushed out: Why LGBTQ Jews are creating Pride spaces of their own
In early June, Rabbi Eleanor Steinman wrote to members of Temple Beth Shalom, the Reform congregation she leads in Austin, Texas, sharing the synagogue’s plans to celebrate Pride Month with several events in June. Steinman also revealed that, for the first time in more than two decades, her congregation would not be marching in the Austin Pride parade, which event organizers say draws 200,000 people each August, because of concerns about antisemitism. “The Austin Pride organization took an antisemitic stance in the midst of the Pride Parade and Festival last year,” wrote Steinman, who is gay. Ahead of last year’s Pride parade, slides were leaked from a presentation in which Austin Pride organizers said hate speech against Jews wasn’t welcome, including “symbols, images or flags used by terrorist and hate groups.” It was part of an education campaign for queer activists as anti-Israel sentiment exploded in the queer community after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza, as it did in many other progressive spaces, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Backfiring and backtracking: But the effort to educate about antisemitism backfired. Anti-Israel activists pressured Austin Pride to disavow that message. Austin Pride not only backtracked on barring those slogans; it issued a statement pledging to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and stating that the organization does not work with the Anti-Defamation League. In the months that followed, Jewish leaders and LGBTQ activists pushed Austin Pride’s leadership to consider changing this stance, to no avail. “Despite attempts to meet with Austin Pride since then, a coalition of Jewish leaders were unable to create an environment where we felt we would be both safe and respected as Jewish LGBTQ+ and allies,” Steinman wrote in the email. It was a remarkable statement, tinged with bitter irony: The synagogue first started marching in Pride so that LGBTQ congregants would feel that they could bring their full selves to the Jewish community. Now some of those same congregants feel that they need to suppress their Jewishness in order to fully belong in the queer community.
Worthy Reads
Bibi Turns the Tables: The Wall Street Journal’s Walter Russell Mead considers how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pivoted from a series of domestic and diplomatic crises to mounting one of the most significant military operations in Israeli history. “A coalition in revolt, prosecutors on his heels, powerful rivals looking to unseat him, chilly relations with Mr. Trump, growing opposition from Europe, skeptical military and intelligence chiefs and a hostile press — few leaders anywhere have faced this kind of pressure. By week’s end, Bibi had flipped the script. A series of military blows exposed the weakness of Iran’s sulphurously belligerent regime and demonstrated Israel’s military and intelligence supremacy in the Middle East. The government crisis subsided. Mr. Trump praised Israel’s audacious attack. As in the months after Oct. 7, 2023, a determined prime minister harnessed the Israeli military machine to orchestrate a dazzling series of victories that stunned the world even if they did not win it over.” [WSJ]
More Than Bombs: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius looks at potential avenues to regime change in Iran. “You’ll get no argument from me that it’s long past time for political change in Tehran. The clerical regime has been shedding the blood of Israelis, Americans, Saudis and anyone else who opposed its dictates since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The question is how change will come. What’s the road toward a dynamic country that’s worthy of Iran’s creative, cultured people? Here’s one obvious fact: Israel can’t bomb its way to this new Iran. A campaign of bombing of the kind Tehran is experiencing makes people hunker down, turn inward and often fight harder. Strategic bombing didn’t break the will of the British, German or Japanese people during World War II. It hasn’t yet destroyed Hamas in Gaza, either, for that matter.” [WashPost]
Hate’s Not on the Menu: In the San Francisco Chronicle, Manny Yekutiel condemned the recent vandalism of his eponymous Mission District cafe, which was graffitied with anti-Israel graffiti during recent anti-ICE protests. “A disturbing pattern is emerging — one that even here in San Francisco is endangering the core values this city is meant to uphold: tolerance, inclusion, civic engagement and common humanity. The act of hate at Manny’s is part of a larger danger facing the progressive movement and the country. We are living in a moment where real and painful disagreements are being used as an excuse to turn people against one another. Instead of standing together to fight injustice, some are choosing to let hate and bigotry divide us. We cannot allow that. If we lose the ability to sit across from people we disagree with and have hard conversations, we lose the very foundation of this movement.” [SFChronicle]
Word on the Street
Amos Hochstein, a former special envoy in the Biden administration, told CNBC that only the U.S. could dismantle the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran…
The Senate modified provisions of the Educational Choice for Children Act, a tax credit program for scholarships that could help families afford religious schools, in its version of the budget reconciliation bill; the Senate version of the bill decreases the total annual tax credit from $5 billion to $4 billion, but eliminated a sunset provision that had been in the House version of the bill, making the program permanent. The Senate version also modifies portions of religious liberty protections included in the House bill…
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) told Jewish Insider he hasn’t had any discussions about calling a floor vote to discharge Joel Rayburn‘s nomination from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which it appears Rayburn lacks the votes to advance…
The Florida Legislature earmarked $10 million in funds allotted for Jewish school security, $1 million above the amount recommended by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year…
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Pic of the Day
Ambassador Jim Jeffrey (center) poses with Antoun Sehnaoui (left) and Daniel Glaser, the co-founders of the U.S.-Israel Opera Initiative, at the organization’s launch on Sunday at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The program featured the premiere screening of the opera “Theodor,” about the life of Theodor Herzl. The performance was dedicated to Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two Israeli Embassy staffers who were killed in a terror attack at the Capital Jewish Museum last month.
Birthdays
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Close Netanyahu-Trump ties and GOP divisions on foreign policy make it harder for Israel to push back against a potentially weak deal
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
President Donald Trump (R) speaks alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a model of Air Force One on the table, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Israel finds itself in a familiar position this week: Washington is negotiating a nuclear deal with Tehran while blocking Israel from striking Iran at what it sees as an opportune time.
In contrast with a decade ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly campaigned against then-President Barack Obama entering the U.S. into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to curb Iran’s nuclear activity, President Donald Trump seems to have Netanyahu boxed in.
Trump announced the start of direct talks between the U.S. and Iran last Monday in the Oval Office with Netanyahu, who appeared uncomfortable. Israeli sources told Jewish Insider at the time that they knew negotiations between Washington and Tehran were set to begin soon but did not know the date before meeting with Trump. Netanyahu called for a Libya-style deal, meaning the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program.
Behind closed doors that day, Trump ruled out a U.S.-supported Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites until the diplomatic option is exhausted, according to The New York Times. The time to decide on diplomacy or military action is limited, as nearly six months have passed since Israel destroyed Iran’s air defenses, and a mechanism of the 2015 deal to snap back U.N. sanctions on Iran expires in October 2025.
Days later, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman, the highest level dialogue between the two countries in years. On his return to Washington, Witkoff sent mixed messages about the potential contours of a new nuclear deal. First, he suggested that Iran would be able to continue its uranium enrichment program for civilian purposes, limited to 3.67% enrichment. Critics of the JCPOA, which included similar low-level enrichment, argued that it allowed Iran to maintain a path to a nuclear weapon. The following day, Witkoff walked those comments back, posting on X that a deal would mean that “Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
A Trump administration source told JI on condition of anonymity that while the president is firm on not letting Iran have a nuclear weapon, the policy of how to get there is still in flux. Witkoff faithfully represents the president to the extent that he, like the president, will float ideas publicly to see the reaction and adjust accordingly, the source said.
IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told JI that the Trump administration is “speaking generally, not about the details. They understand very well the need to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.”
Shira Efron, director of research at the Israel Policy Forum, noted that it is still too early to know what a deal will look like.
“There seem to be divisions within the administration itself,” Efron told JI. “There’s a camp that favors a deal … and really sees China as the main adversary while Iran isn’t a priority. Then there are those more aligned with the Israeli position. We don’t know which way this is going to go.”
That did not allay the concerns of some JCPOA critics that the new deal may recycle what they see as the weaknesses of the old one.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told JI: “There is no right to enrich. It’s a made-up term … The whole premise plays into Iranian hands.”
Oren said that Obama-era CIA Director Bill Burns wrote in his memoirs that the U.S. conceded a “right to enrich” during the first negotiation meeting with Iran in 2013, and expressed concern that Witkoff had done the same in talks with the Islamic Republic in Oman on Saturday.
“Once you have the right to enrich, the negotiation is about how many centrifuges are active — because they won’t dismantle — and what is your cap on low-enriched uranium,” Oren said. “It’s a great deal for the Iranians.”
Kuperwasser said that any deal must “make sure Iran does not have the capability to develop a nuclear weapon, not just that it does not have a nuclear weapon. To not have the capability, it cannot be able to enrich uranium, or develop nuclear warheads or nuclear weapons based on uranium or plutonium. There can be no weaponization … The Americans understand that.”
According to Efron, “For Israel, a bad deal would be the worst of all outcomes. A bad deal in 2015 is not like a bad deal would be now. On the one hand, Iran is weaker” — after the Israeli strikes on its air defenses and defeat of its proxies in Lebanon and Syria — “but on the other, its nuclear program is a lot more advanced. The restrictions [in a deal] will have a different utility than they did 10 years ago.”
The Trump administration source said that Witkoff is focused on the nuclear issue in the negotiations and not Iran’s broader malign actions in the Middle East.
Oren expressed concern that, with the money coming in from sanctions relief that would come with a deal, “Iran will rebuild Syria. They’ll find someone to replace [toppled Syrian President Bashar] Assad. They’ll rebuild Hezbollah and Hamas … This is who the Iranians are. No deal will change that.”
Kuperwasser encouraged engagement between Jerusalem and Washington now to prevent a weak deal. He said that “Israel first and foremost must continue its very close communications with the Americans … to ensure that what we don’t want doesn’t happen.”
Simultaneously, he said, “we have to prepare for joint action so that there is a military option, which will increase the chances of getting what we want diplomatically. Israel and the U.S. have to increase their military capabilities so the Iranians are convinced to accept what they don’t want.”
If the Trump administration reaches an agreement with Iran that Israel views as weak, Jerusalem may have fewer channels to push back against it.
In 2015, when Israel sought to prevent the Obama administration from entering the JCPOA — because it allowed Iran to continue enrichment activity and did not address its ballistic missile program or funding proxies, among other criticisms — Capitol Hill became the main arena of debate. Pro-Israel organizations lobbied members and Netanyahu gave a speech before a joint session of Congress.
In 2025, however, it is less likely that Trump would face such challenges. Democratic members of Congress are unlikely to support a more hawkish policy on Iran, and while some GOP senators have already voiced opposition to a deal allowing Iran to enrich, few Republicans are willing to publicly speak out against the president’s policies.
“If the deal looks like a warmed-over JCPOA,” Efron said, “it will be the biggest challenge for Israel, because unlike with Obama, Netanyahu cannot go to Congress. I think the tools at Israel’s disposal are going to be much more limited and Israel will have to be much more sophisticated to campaign against a deal.”
Oren said that “back in 2015, Obama didn’t submit the JCPOA for congressional approval because he knew he wouldn’t get it. President Trump today could be confident that he would.”
The former ambassador suggested that, while “in the past Israel focused its efforts on Congress, today it must focus its efforts on the White House.”
Efron argued that Israel is already doing that, with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer “directly influencing the hawks on Iran in the White House and State Department, plus the Senate, as evidenced by statements by [Sen. Lindsey] Graham [(R-SC)] and [Sen.] Tom Cotton [(R-AR)].”
She also suggested that Israel has leaked details of Iranian weapons smuggling to the international media and will work with like-minded organizations and think tanks in Washington.
“This will continue in full force, but there won’t be a direct confrontation with Trump and his policies like there was with Obama,” she said.
One message Oren suggested that may be effective is to focus on expanding the Abraham Accords: “President Trump wants peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the surest way not to get one is this” — a weak Iran nuclear deal, he said.
The former ambassador also pushed back against what he called “Obama’s line that it’s either diplomacy or war. That is a totally false dichotomy … It’s totally mythic. Iran has no air force, has no ground forces, has zero ability to make war against the U.S. The notion of being afraid of a war is ridiculous.”
As to whether Netanyahu’s public embrace of Trump would make things more difficult for the prime minister to counter a weak Iran nuclear deal, Efron said “it would be hard for any leader to come out against this administration’s policies.”
Efron described the situation as “complicated,” saying that Netanyahu was very influential on Trump’s Iran policy in his first term, when he withdrew from the JCPOA.
At the same time, Netanyahu’s February visit to Washington, in which Trump treated him very well and expressed seriousness about the idea of voluntary migration of Gazans, “bought [Netanyahu] the budget,” referring to the Israeli government’s passage of its budget in March. “It extended the life of his government. He got carte blanche to do what he wanted on all borders … Netanyahu has a personal debt to Trump.”
Though “Netanyahu clearly felt uncomfortable” when Trump announced Iran talks, Efron said, the Israeli leader was “in a bind.”
“I don’t see a situation in which Iran agrees to follow the Libya model,” she added. “If Israel continues to wish for a maximalist position, it might be left with a bad agreement. Maybe there needs to be a middle ground, something more realistic but doable and politically viable.”
Kuperwasser said it was unlikely that the Trump administration would enter into a deal that is similar to the JCPOA.
“The JCPOA paved the way for Iran to have the capability to develop massive amounts of nuclear weapons, hundreds of warheads,” he said. “I’m certain Trump does not mean for that to happen. He understands that cannot happen, so I don’t think there will be tensions with the Americans like in 2015.”
“It doesn’t mean that there won’t be disagreements at some stages of the agreement,” he added.
However, Kuperwasser argued that the chance of reaching any deal with Iran is slim. “The American demands are so great that it is hard to believe the Iranians will accept them,” he said.
As such, Kuperwasser added, “We need to be ready [for a strike on Iran], maybe with American cooperation. Trump doesn’t want to do it, but maybe he will see that he has to.”
If there is a deal that Israel views as bad, Kuperwasser said, “Israel will have no choice but to accept it. I don’t see Israel preventing an American agreement by attacking Iran.”
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