• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wraps up his U.S. trip today and will depart for Israel.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee is holding its Justice Department markup this morning.
• This afternoon, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is hosting an event focused on Israel-Syria relations following last year’s fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
• Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley Conference continues today in Idaho. Yesterday, King Abdullah II of Jordan met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the sidelines of the conference. Read more here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD AND JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted senior administration officials, leaders from Jewish and pro-Israel Christian groups and hostage families for a reception last night at Blair House during his third visit to the United States this year.

Netanyahu was introduced by Paula White-Cain, the senior advisor to the White House Faith Office. “Israel, you are never, never alone,” she told the audience, pledging that evangelicals “will always stand with Israel.”

The Israeli prime minister spoke about efforts to free the hostages, both living and deceased, held in Gaza, saying, “We’re committed to getting every last one out … we don’t leave this sacred mission for a second.” He said he’d arrived a few minutes late because he had been speaking with the Israeli delegation engaging in hostage talks in Doha, Qatar, adding that he and President Donald Trump had spoken extensively about those efforts. 

“We are going to succeed, we’ll bring them all home,” Netanyahu said, repeatedly acknowledging hostage family members in the room. “Each family has their own history of suffering, of hope, of prayer. … We do not forget, we will not relent, we’ll get them all home. All of them.”

Others in the crowded room — forced indoors by a torrential downpour and tornado watch in D.C. — included Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), Justice Department Senior Counsel Leo Terrell and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter. Brett McGurk, from the Biden administration’s National Security Council, was also in the crowd.

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

Pivot to Peace: In The Hill, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) lays out a series of steps that Congress and the White House can take to achieve breakthroughs in Middle East peace efforts following Israeli and American efforts to degrade Iran’s nuclear program. “No one wants another prolonged war in the Middle East. This is not Iraq. It can’t be. We know the Iranian regime is pursuing a nuclear weapon, and no one is pushing for ground forces or seriously considering regime change. But this is a moment of real possibility. Israel has diminished significantly the regime’s most dangerous terrorist armies, Hamas and Hezbollah. They have degraded the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, missile production capabilities, missile firing capabilities and regime infrastructure in ways few thought possible.” [TheHill]

Looming Large: The New York Times’ Ken Bensinger and Robert Draper profile Laura Loomer as the far-right provocateur works to gain influence in the Trump White House. “Within the White House, Ms. Loomer is regarded as an uncontrollable and toxic force whose deep loyalty to Mr. Trump is tempered by her tendency to turn on almost anyone, even her allies. No member of Mr. Trump’s inner circle in the West Wing would speak about her on the record. The same character traits that endear her to the president and lead him to call her several times a month — particularly her seemingly total lack of fear — make many top aides treat her gingerly, as if she might unpin a hand grenade.” [NYTimes] 

Hebron Hesitancy: In The Wall Street Journal, Mahmoud Jabari expresses opposition to a plan put forward by a group of religious officials in Hebron, including a distant cousin, that proposed the creation of localized Palestinian “emirates” in the West Bank, including one in Hebron that would join the Abraham Accords. “What makes this proposal especially painful is that it exploits real Palestinian frustration with the Palestinian Authority, which has failed us in many ways. It has become disconnected from the people, more comfortable with the trappings of power in Ramallah than with the hard work of grass-roots engagement. It has tolerated corruption and failed to build momentum toward freedom. But the solution isn’t to abandon the principle of unified Palestinian representation — it’s to demand better from our leaders and to build more accountable institutions.” [WSJ]

Semafor looks at President Donald Trump’s shift away from the non-interventionist wing of the party toward the views espoused by Russia hawks who have advocated for greater support for Ukraine…

House Democratic leaders condemned Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) for describing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as a “Muslim [terrorist]” and demanded he apologize, suggesting that he was inciting violence against her. Fine doubled down in response…

Omar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced identical amendments to the 2026 Defense Appropriations bill to cut missile defense funding for Israel. Greene also seeks to cut military support for Jordan and Taiwan…

House leaders named Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Max Miller (R-OH), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Randy Fine (R-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Nikema Williams (D-GA) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) to the House-Knesset Parliamentary Friendship Group…

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to repeal Caesar Act sanctions on Syria…

A senior Department of Homeland Security official testified that the department used information taken from the Canary Mission website to identify student activists targeted for deportation over their anti-Israel campus activities…

The Virginia Attorney General’s office is looking into allegations surrounding the expulsion of three Jewish students at the private Nysmith School in Northern Virginia whose parents complained to the school about antisemitic bullying…

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is working to modify a city ban on mask-wearing after parts of the legislation rankled Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and UJA-Federation of New York, that had previously backed efforts to ban protesters from wearing masks during demonstrations…

New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is considering keeping Jessica Tisch in her current role as NYPD commissioner, amid encouragement from city and state officials who have praised her tenure at the top of the agency…

The Financial Times spotlights the challenges facing Spanish President Pedro Sánchez as his top aides face allegations of corruption and his government’s opposition to increased defense spending has put him at odds with some NATO allies…

Jillian Segal, Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, released a report recommending a series of steps that Canberra can take to address the spike in antisemitism across the country; among the suggestions in the report are that the government cut funding to universities that fail to adequately address antisemitism, a joint counterterror task force and banning the granting of visas to individuals who engage in antisemitic acts…

The Atlantic looks at Israel’s strategy to degrade Iran’s air defenses in the year prior to its preemptive strikes on June 13, which allowed the Israeli Air Force to largely control Iranian airspace during the 12-day war between the countries last month…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the challenges facing the Israeli government and hostage families as the government determines which 10 of the remaining 20 hostages believed to be living may be released in an upcoming ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas…

Former hostages Sasha Trufanov and Sapir Cohen, who were taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, from Trufanov’s family home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, got engaged; Cohen was released in the November 2023 temporary ceasefire, while Trufanov was released earlier this year…

Thousands of Syrians who have been living in Lebanon are expected to return to Syria this week under a U.N.-facilitated plan to repatriate many of the more than 1.5 million Syrians living in Lebanon; the program seeks to repatriate 400,000 Syrians this year… 

A second Liberian-flagged ship that was attacked earlier this week by the Houthis sank in the Red Sea; four crew members were killed and at least six are believed to have been captured by the Iran-backed group in Yemen…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) met with former hostage Eli Sharabi ahead of the international release of Sharabi’s memoir, Hostage, about his 491 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Sharabi’s wife, Lianne, and two daughters were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Kibbutz Be’eri.

Voice actor and impressionist who has voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat and dozens of others, Jeffrey Bergman turns 65…

Neurologist, certified by Guinness World Records as the oldest practicing physician in the U.S., in his 60s he attended law school and then passed the bar exam, Howard Tucker, MD, JD turns 103… Senior U.S. district court judge in the Southern District of Texas, Judge David Hittner turns 86… Retired attorney at the California Office of Legislative Counsel, Robert D. Gronke… Stan Udaskin… Folk singer-songwriter, Arlo Guthrie turns 78… NYC-born author of 12 novels, she has been living in Israel since 1971, Naomi Ragen turns 76… Partner in consulting firm Quorum, LLC and president at Regal Domestics, Barbara Goldberg Goldman… Author of 13 books, journalist, she is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Julie Salamon turns 72… Editor of the Cleveland Jewish News, Columbus Jewish News and Akron Jewish News, Bob Jacob… Israel’s ambassador to Spain until 2024, Rodica Radian-Gordon turns 68… Past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest New Jersey, Leslie Dannin Rosenthal… Partner in Holland & Knight’s public policy group, he was previously a member of Congress (D-FL-22), Ronald J. “Ron” Klein turns 68… Lobbyist, he was a member of the New York State Assembly for 10 years and Senate for 14 years, Jeffrey D. Klein turns 65… National president of the American Jewish Committee, he is a founder of Lapin & Landa, a Houston-based civil litigation firm, Robert E. Lapin turns 65… Nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to his native Estonia, he is the president of NYC’s Park East Day School, Roman Pipko turns 65… Critic at large for The New York Times Book Review, Anthony Oliver (A.O.) Scott turns 59… U.S. senator (D-MI), serving since the start of this year, Elissa Blair Slotkin turns 49… NYC-based founding partner at Purposeful Communications, Elie Jacobs… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Yinon Azulai turns 46… Head of politics and public affairs at Altice and Optimum Media, Rena Shapiro… Writer and comedian, his conversion from Mormon to Judaism is the subject of a documentary, “Latter Day Jew,” H. Alan Scott turns 43… Senior policy advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Morgan Deann Ortagus turns 43… Managing editor of The Bulwark, Sam Stein… Founder, creative director and designer for a fashion line bearing her name, Kimberly Ovitz turns 42… Television and film actress, Aviva Farber Baumann turns 41… Dance teacher at John Foster Dulles High School in Missouri City, Texas, Kayla Sokoloff…

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Washington on Sunday, ahead of his planned Monday meeting with President Donald Trump.
• We’ll be reporting on the details around the meeting and what’s at stake as the two leaders discuss Gaza, Iran, Syria and normalization efforts — sign up for Jewish Insider’s email and WhatsApp alerts to stay up to date with the latest developments over the long weekend.
• Former Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander is slated to meet Trump at the White House at 12:45 p.m. ET.
• The Nova Music Festival exhibition and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum are hosting an event this afternoon with DJ and Nova festival survivor Noa Beer and Holocaust survivor Nat Shaffir.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

After Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, the U.S. is now demanding that Tehran return to the negotiating table. 

“Told you so,” many prominent Democrats — including architects of Iran policy in both the Obama and Biden administrations — are saying in response, arguing they were right all along about the power of negotiations. But in doing so, they are also overlooking the impact of President Donald Trump’s military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities on the regime’s negotiating calculus. 

The Pentagon is now saying the strikes set back the Iran nuclear program by two years. Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, said that Iran is no longer a nuclear threshold state as a result of the U.S. and Israeli attacks.

But those assessments, among other similar analyses, have done little to change the minds of some of the leading Democratic foreign policy hands who have long argued for diplomacy above all else.

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

Just the Beginning on Iran: In The New York Times, former National Security Advisor John Bolton suggests that the U.S.’ strikes on Iran last month are not the end of Washington’s efforts to degrade the threats posed by Iran. “Satisfying America’s legitimate demands requires Iran to do a full Libya, meaning real performance in denuclearizing, not just acquiescing to treaty verbiage. It requires that Iran surrender all of its weapons-related assets, meaning any enriched uranium and all remaining physical assets, including dual-use capabilities. However, absent a change of government in Tehran, which Washington should support, a full Libya is impossible. Unlike Muammar el-Qaddafi, the mullahs, already badly humiliated, realize that further humiliation would fatally weaken their rule. They will never voluntarily accept that fate. Instead, they will resume their earlier tactic of using negotiations to string the West along until memories dim and, as the old saying goes, ‘zeal for a deal’ takes over, as it did for Barack Obama, producing the fatally flawed 2015 Iran agreement.” [NYTimes]

Mideast Magical Thinking: In The Wall Street Journal, presidential historian and former White House aide Tevi Troy examines the history of Middle East regimes falsely claiming victory over Israel, following claims by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Israel had been “practically knocked out and crushed” by Iran’s military. “These false statements by Middle Eastern autocracies show the weaknesses of systems that can’t acknowledge reality. An inability to turn a critical eye on oneself and admit a mistake represents a fundamental flaw in authoritarian regimes. … As long as autocratic nations like Iran continue to act like Monty Python’s Black Knight, they’ll never develop the capacity to fight effectively against nations that can critique themselves. But that isn’t all that truth telling can bring. If Iran ever does develop the capacity for honesty, then its leaders would realize — like the Egyptians did — that peace with Israel is a much more effective strategy than fighting with it.” [WSJ]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Wednesday with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud…

In The Wall Street Journal, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), who last week withheld his support from New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, suggests that the Queens assemblyman’s victory should be a “wake-up call” to Democrats and posits that Mamdani won the primary “because too many voters think the rest of the Democratic Party no longer stands for them”…

In the New York Daily News, political strategist Bradley Tusk posits that Mamdani is likely to win the general election in November, owing to the “ceiling” facing any Republican candidate and Mayor Eric Adams’ own unfavorability ratings in the city as he mounts an independent bid…

Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman called on former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to withdraw from the mayoral race following his primary loss to Mamdani, assessing that Cuomo’s “body language, his subdued energy and his proposals to beat Mamdani” indicated he was “not up for the fight” and suggested Cuomo’s departure from the race would be necessary “to maximize Adams’ probability of success”…

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into George Mason University’s handling of antisemitism issues, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports; the Virginia university had faced scrutiny over its response to a series of incidents involving students, including the discovery of pro-terrorism materials in the home of two of GMU students and federal charges brought against a third student accused of plotting a mass causality attack… 

eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Judah Ari Gross interviews Mike and Shelly Pitman, respectively the president and executive director of the Brooklyn-based La’Aretz Foundation, which has raised $1 million to provide $2,500 directly to 500 Bat Yam families affected by Iran’s ballistic missile strike on the city…

Bar Winkler and Roey Lalazar’s Israel-based AI startup Wonderful raised $34 million in its latest round of funding…

The New York Times spotlights “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator Phil Rosenthal, following the release of the eighth season of his travel food show “Somebody Feed Phil”…

Smithsonian Magazine looks at the resurgence in popularity of Jewish food in Poland…

Iran charged two French nationals who have been imprisoned in the country for three years with spying for Israel and conspiring to overthrow the Iranian government…

Australia confirmed it canceled the visa of artist Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, following the May release of a song titled “Heil Hitler”…

Punk-rap duo Bob Vylan was removed from the lineups of upcoming music festivals in France and the U.K. following an uproar over an incident at the Glastonbury music festival last month in which the group led attendees in a chant calling for “death to the IDF”…

U.K. Parliament members voted overwhelmingly in favor of banning the activist group Palestine Action, after two members of the group broke into a British air base and vandalized military aircraft… 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian approved a law passed days ago by the country’s parliament to suspend coordination with the International Atomic Energy Agency and ordered Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Supreme National Security Council and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin implementation of the new law…

The New York Times looks at Iran’s history of recruiting common criminals and cartel members to carry out attacks on American soil…

Hamas called on the leader of a Bedouin clan that has challenged Hamas’ leadership in the enclave to surrender, as Israel bolsters its support for groups operating on the Palestinian Authority’s payroll against Hamas…

Adam Szubin is joining Covington as of counsel in the firm’s national security practice (h/t Playbook)…

Former hostages Omer Shem Tov (second from left); Noa Argamani (third from right) and Iair Horn (second from right); and Tzur Goldin (far left), brother of Lt. Hadar Goldin, met on Wednesday in Washington with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Movie, television and stage actress, director and writer, Shoshannah Stern turns 45…

Civil rights attorney known for many high-profile cases, born Gloria Rachel Bloom, Gloria Allred turns 84… Winner of the Israel Prize in 1998, professor emeritus of mathematics at both Hebrew U and Rutgers, Saharon Shelah turns 80… Founder of an eponymous charitable foundation and a political office, Barbara Fish Lee turns 80… Retired director of the March of the Living in Miami-Dade and in Boca Raton, Leon Weissberg… Psychologist and board member of many non-profit organizations, Dr. Gail (Giti) Bendheim… Israeli celebrity chef, author of 32 cookbooks and culinary columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, Yisrael Aharoni turns 75… Head of pediatric oncology and associate professor of pediatrics at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York, Dr. Carolyn Fein Levy turns 57… Musician, best known as a harmonicist, Annie Raines turns 56… Actor who has appeared in film and television in the U.S., U.K. and Israel, Yair “Jonah” Lotan turns 52… Development professional Suzanne Greene… Pini Herman…

• Senior administration officials will brief the Senate today on U.S. operations in Iran and the Israel-Iran war. The White House will reportedly limit the classified information shared with legislators in the briefing, amid concerns over leaks such as the limited intelligence assessment reported by CNN earlier this week. Absent from the briefing will be Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who had previously been slated to brief legislators alongside CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is holding a press conference at 8 a.m. at the Pentagon to discuss the U.S.’ weekend strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
• The Aspen Ideas Festival continues in Colorado. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Rabbi Shira Stutman are slated to speak on panels today. At 6 p.m. ET, former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will speak in conversation with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
• The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations of North America conclude their two-day leadership fly-in to Washington today. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told the group on Wednesday that funding for the National Security Grant Program — including grants applied for in 2024 and new grants for 2025 — should move forward “very, very quickly.”
• Elsewhere in Washington, Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Shri Thanedar (D-MI) are slated to speak at the March on Washington for Jewish Civil Rights on the Capitol grounds.
• In Venice, Italy, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez‘s wedding weekend kicks off today. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Oprah Winfrey and the Kardashian family are among the attendees; Jordanian Queen Rania is rumored to have received an invite to the nuptials as well.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Israel is feeling victorious after its 12-day war with Iran, which culminated in the U.S. strikes on underground nuclear sites that significantly degraded and rolled back Tehran’s nuclear program. While the country is mourning 29 civilian deaths — in addition to seven soldiers killed in Gaza this week — and thousands have lost their homes in missile strikes, nearly two-thirds of Israelis, according to a new poll, think their country won the war.

But there have been some cautionary signals about the state of Iran’s nuclear program since the fighting ended, most notably a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency report from the U.S. that suggested — with reportedly low confidence — that the bombings only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months. President Donald Trump, at the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, called the DIA intelligence report, which was based on satellite imagery, “fake news” and cited a more favorable Israeli intelligence report as being more reliable. And CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday that “a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes.”

Further dampening the mood was Trump angrily and publicly pressuring Israel not to aggressively respond to a ceasefire violation that came within hours of a volley of missiles that killed several Israelis right before the ceasefire went into effect.

But as Israeli officials and national security experts have taken the time to assess the geopolitical landscape, the overall picture is one of significant military success. 

The Trump administration and Israeli officials have an interest in presenting the mission in Iran as successful, which may lead some to trust the intelligence leaks over their statements. However, their assessment of the DIA report as “flat-out wrong,” as the White House put it, is backed up by several experts surveyed by Jewish Insider – though most cautioned that it’s unlikely anyone knows the full extent of the damage yet.

Israel “attacked and had aerial superiority in Iran for nearly two weeks and could have continued for as long as [it] wanted, had international legitimacy and not just American support, but involvement,” IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and the former head of the research division of the Israel Defense Forces’ Intelligence Directorate, said. “The change in mindset is more important than the physical damage. Iran can build a new Fordow in three or four years; they were already working on more underground facilities, but what is the point if they know that the U.S. has an unlimited number of bombs that they can drop anywhere and are willing to use them?”

In a televised message on Thursday, Iranian Supreme Leader Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised “Iran’s victory over the U.S. regime” and claimed that the “Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic.”

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

Going to Extremes: In the New York Post, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt raises concerns about the ‘horseshoe theory’ that has united the far right and far left around the U.S. strikes on Iran. “From radical-left activists claiming America lives ‘under a Zionist regime’ to far-right conspiracy theorists pushing tropes about Jewish foreign-policy manipulation, the extremes of American politics are perverting healthy democratic debate and corrupting legitimate policy disagreements about foreign intervention. … Today, as Americans debate Trump’s military action against Iran, the same dangerous patterns are emerging. Whether dressed up as ‘anti-Zionism’ or presented as high-minded foreign policy analysis in coded language, legitimate policy debates have become vehicles to spread antisemitism.” [NYPost]

A Striking Change: In The Wall Street Journal, Elliott Abrams considers the shift in American policy and the U.S. approach to the Middle East over the four decades between Israel’s attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor and this month’s joint Israeli-American efforts to neutralize the Iranian nuclear program. “So the U.S. moved in 26 years from condemnation of a surprise Israeli attack on the Iraqi reactor to knowledge and effective approval of the Israeli strike on the Syrian reactor. Another 18 years later, the U.S. actually joined the effort to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. What explains this progression? Relations between the U.S. and Israel grew closer in those four decades, except in the Obama years. American officials and analysts more broadly understood Israel’s value as an ally. U.S. aid budgets grew. Israel joined the U.S. Central Command and began to coordinate through it with Arab armed forces. It became increasingly obvious that Iran was a deadly enemy of the U.S. and the greatest state supporter of terrorism, and its growing alignment with Russia and China made it more dangerous.” [WSJ]

It’s the Economy, Stupid — Again: In The Washington Post, James Carville and Stan Greenberg predict an “earthquake” in the 2026 midterm elections as focus shifts to voters’ economic concerns. “In primaries this month in New Jersey and Virginia, Democratic voters nominated moderate and progressive candidates for governor with broad appeal. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a retired Navy helicopter pilot, and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a former CIA officer, each flipped Republican-held House seats in 2018. They made affordability their top priority. … In the past two years, no mainstream statewide candidate has lost to a challenger from the Bernie Sanders wing. In fact, two members of ‘the Squad’ — Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri — lost their House seats in Democratic primaries last year. The reason is the great majority of Democratic voters hate the activist, elite agenda that dominated the Democratic Party under President Joe Biden.” [WashPost]

In the (Think) Tank: In Politico, Tevi Troy considers the challenges facing newly created Democratic think tanks at a time when the party appears reluctant to embrace new thinking. “Think tank history tells us that this latest iteration can play an important role in the Democratic Party’s climb back to relevance. But the institution only works if a party is aiming for a reboot or a new direction. And it’s not clear Democrats are ready or willing to do that. … New think tanks arising out of election defeats are only useful if they can create a permission structure for changing what isn’t working. It’s not the 501(C)(3) tax status of think tanks that have enabled them to help parties recover from crushing defeats in the past. It’s the willingness to rethink, reexamine and challenge the accepted precepts of a party that has been failing to appeal to voters.” [Politico]

In a post on his Truth Social site, President Donald Trump called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be given a pardon — or have corruption charges against him dropped entirely — alleging that Netanyahu, with whom Trump said he “went through HELL,” was facing a “ridiculous Witch Hunt”…

Trump is considering naming a successor to Fed chair Jerome Powell as soon as September; those in consideration for the role include former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, former World Bank President David Malpass and Fed governor Christopher Waller…

Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff suggested in a Fox News interview that the U.S. “will have big announcements on countries that are coming into the Abraham Accords,” a month after making similar comments at an Israeli Independence Day celebration in Washington…

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was briefly hospitalized on Wednesday for dehydration…

Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who served as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during the first Trump administration, announced his bid for Senate in New Hampshire, setting up a potential matchup against Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH); Brown previously mounted a Senate bid in the state in 2014, where he narrowly lost to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)…

AIPAC’s PAC is reportedly searching for a potential candidate to run against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who has repeatedly opposed legislation to combat antisemitism and support Israel…

Marc Andreessen and Mark Levin were among those named to the Trump administration’s Homeland Security Advisory Council…

White Plains, N.Y., Common Councilman Justin Brasch declared victory over former Councilwoman Nadine Hunt-Robinson in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor…

The Justice Department charged the man accused of firebombing a hostage-awareness rally in Boulder, Colo., last month with committing hate crimes…

A mediator proposed that Trump and Paramount Global settle Trump’s lawsuit against the company for $20 million, with some of that money going to PSAs on Paramount’s networks to combat antisemitism; the lawsuit stems from an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris on CBS’ “60 Minutes” program that the president alleged was selectively edited…

The Brooklyn Nets selected Israeli-American basketball players Danny Wolfand Ben Saraf in the first round of Wednesday night’s draft…

Goldsmiths College issued an apology to Jewish students and faculty for having allowed a “culture” of antisemitism to permeate the London university in recent years…

Xero will acquire Matan Bar and Ilan Atias’ bill-pay startup Melio for $2.5 billion, the largest acquisition in the New Zealand-based accounting-software provider’s history… 

Former Mossad head Yossi Cohen is working on a book on his five years leading the agency, deepening speculation that Cohen is poised to enter politics…

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), hung a mezuzah on the doorpost at the grand opening on Wednesday of Oro Nami, a new kosher sushi restaurant in the West End neighborhood of Washington.

First Jewish federal cabinet member to serve in post-WWII Germany, she is minister for education, family, seniors, women and youth, Karin Prien turns 60…

Artist known for his Expressionist paintings, Jonah Kinigstein turns 102… British Labour party member of Parliament for 42 years ending in 2017, David Winnick turns 92… Member of the New York State Senate from Queens since 1999, she chairs the committee on higher education, Toby Ann Stavisky turns 86… Partner in the law firm BakerHostetler, known for his recovery of $14.5 billion from the Madoff investment scandal, Irving H. Picard turns 84… Retired co-host for more than 30 years of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Robert Siegel turns 78… Rabbi of Congregation Chaverim in Tucson, Ariz., for more than 35 years, Stephanie Aaron… Founder of Grover Strategies, he was previously chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Alan Solow turns 71… CEO of Emerging Star Capital and the author of a biography of President Bill Clinton, Robert E. Levin… Attorney and Holocaust survivors’ rights advocate, Samuel J. Dubbin turns 70… CEO of ZMC, he was previously chairman of CBS and CEO of 20th Century Fox, Strauss Zelnick turns 68… Professor of psychology at Loyola University Maryland, she is known for her work on sleep patterns and behavioral well-being, Amy Ruth Wolfson, Ph.D…. Israeli actress and comedian, Anat Waxman turns 64… Once the wealthiest of all Russian businessmen, then a prisoner in Russia and now living in London, Mikhail Khodorkovsky turns 62… Novelist and journalist, most notable as the author of the Magicians trilogy, Lev Grossman… and his twin brother, author, video game designer and adjunct instructor at NYU, Austin Grossman both turn 56… Former dean of Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business, now head of school at Ramaz, Noam T. Wasserman turns 56… President and founder of Reut Group, Gidi Grinstein turns 55… Political commentator, YouTube personality, comedian and talk show host, Dave Rubin turns 49… Head of external communications at Geico, Ross Feinstein… Partner since January in Mayer Brown’s D.C. office, Michael “Mickey” Leibner… VP of Israel and Jewish affairs at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Sara Fredman Aeder… Executive director at the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, David Bocarsly turns 35… Project leader at Boston Consulting Group, Asher J. Mayerson… Author and former RNC national spokesperson, Elizabeth Pipko turns 30…

• President Donald Trump will hold an intelligence briefing in the Situation Room this morning. The meeting comes days after the president reportedly approved a plan to attack Iran. Trump has so far held off on issuing the final order to move forward on the attack plan, in order to give Tehran the opportunity to abandon its nuclear program diplomatically. 
• We’re also keeping an eye on U.S. military movements in the region, signaling U.S. military preparation for possible strikes on Iran — including whether those movements will include planes capable of carrying the bunker-buster bombs believed necessary to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Lahav harkov

Israelis woke to sirens this morning — a routine occurrence over the past week — but were shocked to learn that Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center, one of the country’s major hospitals, had been among the sites hit in the most recent barrage of ballistic missiles from Iran. In addition to Soroka, there were direct hits in the Tel Aviv area that wounded 89, including three seriously.

The missile struck the hospital’s old surgical building, severely damaging it and causing what a Soroka spokesperson described as “extensive damage in various areas” of the hospital complex. The surgical building had been recently evacuated in light of the war, and patients and staff had been moved to areas with reinforced walls. Injuries from the strike were light, hospital representatives said.

Soroka is the largest hospital in the Negev, such that the strike left a large swath of Israel without a functioning major medical center. Other hospitals in the area, including Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, prepared to take in patients from buildings that were damaged. Magen David Adom provided four intensive care buses, able to transport a total of 23 ICU patients and 50 lightly injured casualties.

Early Thursday, the IDF struck an inactive nuclear reactor near Arak in Iran after sending warnings to civilians in the area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the strike included “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.” The IDF also gave details of strikes on the active nuclear site in Natanz, which “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.” 

In addition, 40 IAF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, including factories manufacturing ballistic missile and air-defense components, as well as air-defense batteries, surface-to-surface missile storage sites, radar systems and other targets.

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

Endgame in Iran: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens suggests how the Trump administration could use military and diplomatic means to achieve an end to the war that eliminates the nuclear threat from Iran and stabilizes the region. “Here, then, is what Trump should do: First, drop bunker busters on Fordo and other hardened nuclear sites to ensure that Iran has no fast route to a bomb. That would need to be followed up by dropping a diplomatic bunker buster on Tehran — the proverbial offer Iran can’t refuse. … The regime would have to agree to two things: First, permanent, verifiable, comprehensive and immediate denuclearization, including a system of intrusive inspections and an end to its enrichment programs. Second, an end to its financial and military support for Hezbollah, Hamas and other foreign proxies.” [NYTimes]

‘America First’ in Iran: In Semafor, former Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt explains President Donald Trump’s approach to Iran. “Meanwhile, Trump is showing Iran its options before it hits the point of no return. If Tehran pursued a new approach — surrendering its nuclear program, dismantling its missile arsenal and proxies, and allowing genuine freedom for its people — it could chart a different course. The likelihood of this is exceedingly low. Trump making the stakes clear is exactly on brand. He doesn’t waste time with niceties or euphemisms. He says things like, ‘We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding…But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers’ and threatening to kill the Ayatollah if he makes a false move. His direct communication style is worth a thousand clever diplomatic maneuvers.” [Semafor]

Iran’s Opposition in Fear: The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi talks to regime opponents in Iran about how they view the military confrontation between Israel and Iran. “Most of the activists I spoke with — about a dozen — blamed the war largely on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and evinced no political support for his regime. Nor were they supportive of Iran’s attacks on Israel, which have already killed at least 23 Israeli civilians, injured hundreds more, and sent thousands of people to bomb shelters every night. But they in no way welcomed the Israeli strikes on their country. They worried about their own safety — and also about societal collapse and the destruction of Iran’s infrastructure.” [TheAtlantic]

Proxies on the Sidelines: The Wall Street Journal’s Sudarsan Raghavan, Summer Said and Saleh al-Batati report on the reluctance of Iran’s regional proxies to join Tehran in attacking Israel. “The bruising wars have left Iran’s allies wary of taking on Israel, which has demonstrated vastly superior military and intelligence capabilities. Some are now focused on their own interests and have a lot to lose from an expanding war, such as Iraq’s militia members who are now making fortunes in the oil sector. Others, like Hezbollah, are trying to rebuild and nursing grievances over the lack of support from Tehran during the group’s war with Israel, according to Arab diplomats who speak to the group regularly.” [WSJ]

The Washington Post looks at President Donald Trump’s inner circle advising him on Israel-Iran policy; Vice President JD Vance, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are among “a small group of lower-key but more experienced aides” who the president is leaning on over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard…

Politico reports on the leading role CENTCOM head Gen. Erik Kurilla has taken in overseeing Pentagon policy vis-a-vis the Israel-Iran war since it began last week…

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called on Wednesday for the international community to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports… 

Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) introduced a Senate version of a resolution condemning rising antisemitic violence that passed the House nearly unanimously earlier this month. The Senate resolution has close to 40 co-sponsors…

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee declined to call up Joel Rayburn’s nomination to be deputy secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs for a vote today, further dimming the prospects of Rayburn being confirmed to the State Department post, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Bipartisan groups of House and Senate members have introduced legislation to repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, sanctions legislation passed in 2019 targeting the former Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad, a step that proponents say will help remove obstacles to reconstruction and stabilization efforts in post-Assad Syria, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The New York Times profiles Katie Miller, the wife of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and former spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency who has continued to work for Elon Musk following his departure from the Trump administration…

Alex Wong, who served as deputy national security advisor until last month, is joining the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board…

Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, who has raised concerns among members of the state’s Jewish community for her efforts to lobby against antisemitism legislation, won the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, defeating former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney…

Federal prosecutors can move forward with hate crimes charges against an Egyptian national accused of firebombing attendees at a hostage-awareness rally in Boulder, Colo., following a judge’s ruling on Wednesday… 

Applicants for student visas will have to put their social media profiles on publicly viewable settings as part of what a senior State Department official called “enhanced social media vetting” amid a broader crackdown on foreign students by the Trump administration…

The Wall Street Journal reviews “I Quit,” the first new album by Haim in five years…

Photography critic Vicki Goldberg died at 88…

Charles Kushner was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to France on Wednesday at the White House. In attendance were Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, in addition to other relatives.

Singer known as Skye, Daniel Skye turns 25…

Attorney, investment banker, film producer and former deputy mayor of NYC, Kenneth Lipper turns 84… Rabbi emeritus of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, N.J., Rabbi Bennett F. Miller… Historian of the Jews in Muslim lands in the modern era, he won the Israel Prize this year for Jewish history, Yaron Tsur turns 77… Retired territory sales manager for GlaxoSmithKline, Harry E. Wenkert… Retired president and CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, last month he was appointed as the interim president of American Jewish University, Jay Sanderson turns 68… Inna N. Zalevsky… Overland Park, Kan., resident, Kathi Shaivitz Rosenberg… Former director of communications for Kings Bay Y, Adrienne M. Knoll… Member of the European Jewish Parliament for Latvia, Valery Engel, Ph.D. turns 64… Physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Jessica Rosenberg Brown, MD… Co-founder of Centerview Partners, Blair Effron turns 63… Singer-songwriter, actress and television personality, Paula Abdul turns 63… Former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union party, Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin turns 55… Co-founder of nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water, and biotechnology industries, Andrew T. Perlman turns 50… Human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran, Marjan Keypour Greenblatt… Director of the export control department in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eitan Weiss… Director of affinities and major giving at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Tslil Shtulsaft… Founder of JSwipe dating app, David Austin Yarus… Rhythmic gymnast from Israel who competed in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, Neta Rivkin turns 34… VP at Jewish Federations of North America, Anna Langer… COO at Lightning Inspiration, Alex Jakubowski… Organization director at Senate Leadership Fund & One Nation, Cydney Couch… 

• The House Appropriations Committee will conduct its full committee markup of the 2026 defense and homeland security funding bills.
• The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Department of Defense’s 2026 budget request with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
• The Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing on the nomination of Sean Plankey to be director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
• The Zionist Organization of America is holding its annual legislative lobbying day at the Capitol.
• Argentine President Javier Milei is being presented with the Genesis Prize today at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Since the Israeli strike on Iran’s air defenses in October, Jerusalem has sought a green light, or something close to it, from Washington to strike the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. President Donald Trump, however, repeatedly told Israel to hold off as he pursued a diplomatic agreement with Tehran to stop its enrichment program. 

Now, after the Iranian nuclear program has continued apace and Trump has voiced frustration over Tehran’s intransigence, it seems that Jerusalem’s patience for diplomacy is running out.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea will be meeting Trump’s top negotiator Steve Witkoff on Friday ahead of the sixth round of talks with Iran in Oman on Sunday “in an additional attempt to clarify Israel’s stance,” an official in Jerusalem said, amid persistent reports and strong indications that Israel is prepared to strike Iran.

After a call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu last week, Trump said that if Tehran does not agree to give up uranium enrichment, the situation will get “very, very dire.” On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that “there have been plenty of indications” that Iran is moving towards weaponization of its nuclear program, and Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the chief of CENTCOM, said that he presented Trump and Hegseth with numerous options to attack Iran if nuclear talks break down. 

Hours later, the State Department began to move some personnel out of Iraq and the military suggested that servicemembers’ families depart the Middle East, while the U.K. warned about a potential “escalation of military activity” in the region. Such evacuations are often the first step to reduce risk ahead of a large-scale military operation. 

Trump told reporters that the evacuations are happening because the Middle East “could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens.” More on this from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod here.

Kurilla postponed his testimony before the Senate planned for Thursday. Staff at U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the Middle East were told to take safety precautions, and those stationed in Israel were told not to leave the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Jerusalem or Beersheva.

Multiple news outlets published reports citing anonymous American officials that Israel is ready to strike Iran without help from the U.S. One possible reason for the timing — moving forward even as Washington and Tehran are set to enter a sixth round of talks on Sunday — is that Iran has reportedly begun to rebuild the air defenses that Israel destroyed last year. Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri reportedly said last month: “We are witnessing a remarkable improvement in the capability and readiness of the country’s air defense.” 

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

A Socialist in Gracie Mansion?: The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold considers Zohran Mamdani’s chances of beating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to become mayor of New York City. “To a rising number of New Yorkers, particularly the young and college-educated, Mamdani is a welcome alternative to a 67-year-old member of the Democratic establishment. As canvassers broke off to start knocking on doors, 33-year-old bar owner Roberto Beltre told me he supported Mamdani because ‘the ideas that we hear at these protests are never said by any of these other politicians.’ His girlfriend, 31-year-old Mercy, chimed in: ‘He’s saying everything that I want to hear. It seems unlikely, but I hope that he can win.’ The thing is—he can. In only a few months, he’s managed to surge from polling at 1 percent, to second place in the race with the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A new poll commissioned by a pro-Mamdani PAC shows him just two points behind Cuomo in a head-to-head race. Other recent polls show Cuomo winning—but only in the eighth or 10th round under New York City’s ranked choice voting system.” [FP]

What’s Next in Gaza?: The Times of Israel’s founding editor, David Horovitz, writes about the continued lack of clarity over Israel’s next steps in Gaza, exacerbated by a growing disconnect between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump as well as the IDF. “Some military sources speculate that the IDF may eventually be asked to oversee a controlled return of the Gaza populace to their largely ruined home areas, under a process that would necessitate screening the returnees to ensure that Hamas forces do not simply come back with them. However nice in theory, the idea is impractical. The IDF is not capable of controlling, much less screening, large masses of civilians. … At the same time, domestic and global criticism of the war is growing — especially since the government chose in March not to move ahead with the second and third phases of the January deal it had unanimously endorsed, which was intended to secure the release of all hostages and end the war, and instead resumed the military campaign. Growing, too, is US presidential impatience, in part reflecting deepening dismay from within Republican ranks, and Trump has vast weapon-supply and diplomatic leverage to exert over Netanyahu should he so choose.” [TOI]

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh threatened on Wednesday to attack U.S. bases in the region if conflict arises, saying, “Some officials on the other side threaten conflict if negotiations don’t come to fruition. If a conflict is imposed on us … all U.S. bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them in host countries”…

Iran announced plans today to expand its uranium enrichment and install advanced centrifuges after a U.N. atomic energy agency resolution declared it in violation of nuclear obligations…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine declined to definitively say on Wednesday whether they believed Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it acquired one, as they testified before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

The Knesset on Thursday struck down a bill that would have called an election later this year, with Haredi parties agreeing to another week of negotiations on penalties for yeshiva students who avoid the IDF draft, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, resigned today and will join the opposition, but the rest of the Haredi bloc remains part of the coalition… 

Ezzedin al-Haddad, known as the Ghost of al-Qassam, has been named as the new leader of Hamas in Gaza following Israel’s assassination of his predecessor Mohammed Sinwar, and before that Yahya Sinwar…

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution mechanism, reported that a bus carrying more than two dozen members of its team were “brutally attacked” by Hamas on Wednesday night, resulting in at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and concerns of some team members taken hostage…

The IDF recovered the bodies of two deceased hostages from Gaza on Wednesday, that of Yair Yaakov and another whose name has not yet been approved for publication…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told U.S. envoy Tom Barrack that he is interested in the U.S. acting as a mediator in an updated security deal ultimately leading to a full peace agreement between Israel and Syria, Axios scooped…

Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Trump advisor, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa this week. On potential Israel-Syria normalization, Moore told Reuters, “I think peace is very possible, if not probable”…

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday stating that the Trump administration cannot detain nor deport Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil. The ruling does not take effect until Friday, leaving time for the government to appeal…

At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on antisemitism, Democrats repeatedly highlighted Trump administration delays in disbursing already allocated Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), the subcommittee chair, argued that policy changes, aggressive prosecutions and condemnations of antisemitic ideology are equally or more important than funding…

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wrote to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, again demanding that Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, be dismissed from her position, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The DETERRENCE Act, bipartisan legislation which increases penalties on individuals who commit crimes on behalf of the Iranian regime or other foreign adversaries, passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Tuesday…

Asif Rahman, a former CIA analyst, was sentenced to just over three years in prison on Wednesday for unlawfully retaining and sharing top secret records about Israeli plans for a strike on Iran on social media…

Ira Stoll writes in the Wall Street Journal about Harvard Memorial Church, owned and operated by Harvard University, where the minister has repeatedly bashed Israel from the pulpit, calling the war in Gaza “increasingly genocidal,” saying “We know what hell looks like … it looks like Gaza today” and arguing that the anti-Israel encampment on campus was “right to lament and decry the death of so many innocent people in Gaza”…

Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, argued in an op-ed titled “Congress must act against the American intifada” that “Congress is failing to meet the urgent demands of the moment” and must open application for the National Security Grant Program, increase its funding to $500 million for 2026 and allocate $200 million of the Department of Justice’s existing grants to local police specifically for increased patrols and police presence at faith institutions…

Leland Lehrman was named as the executive director of the MAHA Institute, a policy center that previously operated as a super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. Lehrman has repeatedly espoused his belief in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and, speaking on a far-right radio show, argued that Jews communicate with the devil and discussed “high-level Jewish Illuminists, or Lucifer worshipers”…

Columnist and writer Miranda Devine described her experience interviewing President Donald Trump for her new podcast “Pod Force One,” calling him “a bountiful host” who will “quite literally offer you the food off his plate”…

Apollo Global Management announced that it will not interview or extend offers to the class of 2027 this year, breaking with its tradition of extending future-dated offers. CEO Marc Rowan said he agreed with criticism of hiring young recruits too early…

The trial of three teenagers accused of raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl, calling her a “dirty Jewess,” began yesterday in Paris…

Some 100 LGBTQ+ leaders from North America met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem yesterday, as part of the Jewish Federations of North America’s LGBTQ+ mission to Israel. 

Founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital and the co-founder of Oscar Health, Joshua Kushner turns 40…

Senior of counsel at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Martin Edelman turns 84… Retired sportscaster for NBA games on TNT, has also been the play-by-play announcer of multiple Super Bowls, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and the World Series, Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig) turns 84… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 1991, now on senior status, Judge Andrew Jay Kleinfeld turns 80… Former solicitor of labor in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then a senior partner at Gibson Dunn, William J. Kilberg turns 79… Social psychologist, he is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, Leonard Saxe turns 78… Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government including 20 years as a member of the Knesset, Yosef “Yossi” Beilin turns 77… Rabbi at Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz County, Calif., for 40 years, now emeritus, known as Rabbi Rick, Richard Litvak… British Conservative Party member of Parliament from 1992 until last year, his father was a rabbi, Sir Michael Fabricant turns 75… Professor at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center, his 2022 book is The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, Walter Russell Mead turns 73… Dental consultant and recruiter, Kenneth Nussen… Peruvian banker and politician, José Chlimper Ackerman turns 70… Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and professor at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, Danielle Pletka turns 62… Television producer and executive, he was the CEO of Showtime Networks until 2022, David Nevins turns 59… EVP of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Levi Shemtov… Film and television actor, known for his role as Louis Litt in the legal drama series “Suits,” Rick Hoffman turns 55… SVP for politics at NBC, Carrie Budoff Brown… Founder of Singularity Communications, Eliezer O. (“Eli”) Zupnick… Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality and venture capitalist, Michele Romanow turns 40… Partner at Enso Collaborative, Hanna Siegel… Co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, he was the director of product at Facebook and then worked at Uber, Blake Aaron Ross turns 40… Associate director of health policy and the law initiative at Georgetown Law School, Zachary Louis Baron… VP at MediaLink, Alexis Rose Levinson… Multimodal transportation coordinator in the planning department of Montgomery County (Md.), Eli Glazier… Photographer and Instagram influencer, Tessa Nesis… Israeli windsurfer, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tom Reuveny turns 25… Lead consultant at AutoNate, Joel Bond…

• The UJA-Federation of New York and JCRC-NY will be hosting a town hall this evening with the leading Democratic New York City mayoral candidates. Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar and New York Jewish Week managing editor Lisa Keys will be co-moderating the forum.
• The Brandeis Center will host a briefing on Capitol Hill featuring current college students and recent graduates sharing their personal experiences with antisemitism on campus. Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center, Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center, and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) will also deliver remarks.
• The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa subcommittee will hold a hearing on the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
• The Qatar Economic Forum wraps up today in Doha. 

A QUICK WORD WITH ji’s TAMARA ZIEVE

It was an evening dedicated to humanitarian service — young Jewish professionals gathering under the theme “Turning Pain Into Purpose,” discussing interfaith collaboration and working to counter the rising tide of “us versus them” narratives. The event spotlighted efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East and North Africa — including in Gaza.

But what was supposed to be a night rooted in shared humanity was rocked by deadly violence. Outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was hosting the event, an assailant opened fire on a group of four people, killing a young couple, both Israeli Embassy employees.

Eyewitness Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. She said security allowed the man in, as well as two other women separately. (Police say the suspect had discarded his weapon.)

Siegel said she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel said that she felt the man was suspicious.

JoJo Drake Kalin, a member of AJC’s DC Young Professional Board and an organizer of the event, told JI’s Danielle Cohen the man appeared disheveled and out of breath when he entered the building. Kalin assumed he had been a bystander to the shooting who needed assistance and she handed him a glass of water. Siegel said that the man was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, and she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.

Siegel then said that the man started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red keffiyeh.

“The deep irony I felt after the guy pulled out the keffiyeh was, ‘if only you knew,’” Drake Kalin reflected. “It was Jewish professionals gathering not for a political agenda but for our collective humanity,” Kalin added. “Which I won’t let this event take from me.”

The two victims of last night’s attack, Yarón Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were due to be engaged soon — Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter said that the man had purchased a ring earlier this week and was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem.

Milgrim’s last job before joining the embassy’s public diplomacy department was at Tech2Peace, where she researched peace-building theory and, according to her LinkedIn profile, designed and implemented a 12-person study on the role of friendships in the Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding process.

Lischinsky emigrated from Germany to Israel at age 16, where he studied government, diplomacy and strategy and served in the IDF, according to his LinkedIn profile. The last post shared on X by Lischinsky, an employee of the embassy’s political department, called out a United Nations official for “blood libel,” for spreading a false claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours without aid.

Reactions to the killings have been swift. President Donald Trump said of the shooting, “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Leiter said Trump vowed to him that the administration would do everything it can to fight antisemitism and demonization and delegitimization of Israel. “We’ll stand together tall and firm and confront this moral depravity without fear,” Leiter said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, updated him on the details of the incident and asked to convey her condolences to the families of the couple, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

“We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel,” Netanyhau said. “Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost. My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer. I have directed that security be increased at Israeli missions around the world and for the state’s representatives.”

In a press conference in Jerusalem this morning, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the attack was “the direct result of toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since the Oct. 7 massacre.” He pointed a finger at incitement by “leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe.”

Sa’ar noted that “there is not one week without terror attacks or attempted terror attacks around the world — usually more than one.”

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and Israeli missions around the world will lower their flags to half-mast today to honor the memory of Milgrim and Lischinsky.

Read JI’s full report on the terrorist attack here.

Terror Comes to Washington: Commentary Editor John Podhoretz reflects on the nature of last night’s deadly attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. “This is a different kind of event from the attacks on synagogues in Pennsylvania and California in 2018, which were the work of white supremacists. It happened at a secular Jewish site, and targeted an event sponsored by the American Jewish Committee for young diplomats. And it was self-evidently an act of anti-Semitic terror in the nation’s capital — which raises similarities to the 2015 attack on the Hyper Casher supermarket in France’s capital, Paris. The only analogue here I can think of was the invasion of the headquarters of the B’nai Brith in D.C. in 1977 by Hanafi Muslims, during which 104 staffers at the Jewish organization — including my wife’s cousin, William Korey, an expert on Soviet Jewry — were held hostage for three days and repeatedly threatened with execution and torture. Two other buildings in DC were invaded as well, and a security guard at one of them was shot in the head and killed.” [Commentary]

Private Sector Diplomacy: The Atlantic’s Andrew Exum writes approvingly about Trump’s transactional approach to Middle East foreign policy in The Atlantic. “Trump unabashedly uses the American private sector as an instrument of national power. In fact, he does this better than any previous president has in my lifetime…Trump may well understand that with the Democratic Party likely divided on Israel for the next generation, his Jewish and evangelical-Christian supporters have nowhere else to go. This puts him in a position of power relative to the Israeli prime minister — one that must surely make Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders very uncomfortable. Making them still more uncomfortable will be the fact that everyone who mattered seemed to be in those meetings in the Gulf. Everyone, that is, except them” [TheAtlantic]

Red Lines on Iran: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board endorses Trump’s Iran diplomacy. “Iran’s rulers are unhappy with the direction of nuclear talks, which is a sign President Trump is pushing in the right places. No one is ever pleased to make far-reaching concessions, but those are what the U.S. and the world need to get a deal worth making… Iran long insisted it would never negotiate with Mr. Trump. It spent the Biden years talking about killing him. But after Mr. Trump resumed sanctions enforcement and built up a military threat that Iran had to take seriously, Iran came to the table. Its other options are worse. Tehran may decide it can’t abandon enrichment or allow its centrifuges to be dismantled. And it may call the U.S. and Israeli bluff on the use of force, but that could be a mistake its leaders come to regret” [WSJ]

President Donald Trump is reportedly set to appoint Thomas Barrack, the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, as a special envoy for Syria…

The Department of Defense formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Qatar for President Donald Trump’s use as Air Force One, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.

The State Department announced that anyone involved in the sale or transfer to or from Iran of 10 materials found to be used in Iran’s nuclear, military and ballistic missile programs will now be subject to mandatory sanctions…

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at a conference in Tehran on Wednesday about nuclear negotiations with the U.S. that Iran “not give up this right to use peaceful nuclear technology in any way. No matter what they say, do, how they threaten us or impose sanctions, it makes no difference.” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said that the fifth round of nuclear talks will be held in Rome on Friday…

Xiyue Wang, who was wrongly imprisoned in Iran for more than three years until Trump arranged for his release during his first administration, was named as a senior advisor for Iran at the State Department…

In a tense meeting at the Oval Office yesterday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa refuted unsubstantiated claims made by Trump about genocide against white South Africans…

Speaking at one of the university’s commencement ceremonies on Wednesday, Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, said, “I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate, Mahmoud Khalil,” referring to the anti-Israel protest leader who is currently facing deportation proceedings, and said, “We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else, and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right.” 

Some 100 pro-Palestinian protesters outside the campus attempted to disrupt the ceremony…

Charl Kleinhaus, an Afrikaner who was granted refugee status in the United States and said Jews are “untrustworthy and a dangerous group” on social media, confirmed that he is being resettled by HIAS and its affiliate, the Jewish Family Services of Western New York. Kleinhaus said his posts were “completely misinterpreted” and he “probably should have worded it better”…

The Vaad of Lakewood, N.J., endorsed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) for the Democratic nomination in the New Jersey gubernatorial election, specifically calling on unaffiliated voters to cast their ballots for him in the June 10 primary…

New York state Democratic lawmakers moved to block a bill in the state Assembly to include the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism in state education law…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights shifting sentiment in the Israeli public toward the war in Gaza…

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor, met with Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone, to discuss investment trends… 

Arc magazine chronicled the role of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in supporting President Jimmy Carter’s creation of the Department of Education…

Amy Schumer, Israeli actor Yadin Gellman and Israeli director Eliran Peled are co-producing a romantic comedy called “Now More Than Ever” about the divides between Israeli and American Jewry post-Oct. 7…

Eliana Goldin, a recent Columbia University graduate and pro-Israel activist, shared her experience being fired from the Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper…

Philanthropist and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose father was Jewish, died at 65…

Auburn University men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl addressed a Jewish American History Month breakfast on Capitol Hill yesterday. Guests included more than 25 House members and senators, antisemitism envoy nominee Yehuda Kaploun and former deputy envoy Aaron Keyak. The event was hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, Jewish Federations of North America, Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, AEPi and Operation Benjamin.

Author, activist, actress and producer, she served until 2023 as a special envoy against antisemitism at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Noa Tishby… 

Senior fellow emeritus at the Hudson Institute, Irwin M. Stelzer turns 93… Retired U.S. district court judge from Massachusetts, now a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, Nancy Gertner turns 79… Award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker since 1989, Connie Bruck turns 79… Former Skadden partner and then vice-chair at Citibank, J. Michael Schell turns 78… Cognitive scientist and CEO emeritus of Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Philip E. Rubin turns 76… Director emeritus of policy and government affairs at AIPAC, Ambassador Bradley Gordon turns 76… Gloria Woodlock… Charles Scott… Former member of Knesset from the Zionist Union party, he was previously a major general in the IDF, Eyal Ben-Reuven turns 71… Immediate past chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Dianne F. Lob… Former member of Congress (D-AZ-1), now a business and transactional attorney in Phoenix, Sam Coppersmith turns 70… Senior consultant as to philanthropy and impact at private equity firm Cresset Capital, Sanford Ronald “Sandy” Cardin… U.S. Sen. (R-AK) Lisa Murkowski turns 68… General partner of Google Ventures where he co-leads the life science investment team, David Schenkein turns 68… Former head coach of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, he was the winning coach of the EuroLeague Championship in 2014 with Maccabi Tel Aviv, David Blatt turns 66… Actor, he appeared in all five seasons of the HBO program “The Wire” as defense attorney Maurice Levy, Michael Kostroff turns 64… British writer, philanthropist and documentary filmmaker, Dame Hannah Mary Rothschild turns 63… Partner at Sidley & Austin, he clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the 1996 term, David H. Hoffman turns 58… Former relief pitcher for seven MLB teams, Alan Brian “Al” Levine turns 57… Harvard Law School professor since 2007, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice David Souter in the 1998 term, Noah Feldman turns 55… Israeli cookbook author and TV cookery show host, Shaily Lipa turns 51… Israel’s minister of communications in the prior government, Yoaz Hendel turns 50… Executive director of American Compass, Oren Cass… Co-founder of Facebook in 2004, Dustin Aaron Moskovitz turns 41… Retired slot receiver and kick returner for the NFL’s New England Patriots, member of three Super Bowl-winning teams, Julian Edelman turns 39… Co-founder and former CEO of Tinder, Sean Rad turns 39… Film, television and theater actress, Molly Ephraim turns 39… Washington bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Wilner turns 36… J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School in the class of 2026, he is a summer associate at Weil Gotshal, Alex Friedman turns 25… Law clerk for a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York until earlier this year, Peter Walker Kaplan… Emma Kaplan… Aryeh Jacobson… Rebecca Weiss… Benjamin Weiss…