AIPAC closes a rocky primary season with a California gamble

By Matthew Kassel
As primary election season comes to an end, AIPAC is closing out its involvement in a dramatic cycle with an unexpected foray into a low-profile California House race on Tuesday where Israel has not been among the top issues.

In the last two weeks, AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project, has spent nearly $2.5 million in an effort to defeat Aisha Wahab, a progressive state senator competing in a special election runoff against Melissa Hernandez, a moderate Democrat who is the president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit board and the former mayor of the East Bay city of Dublin.

The aggressive maneuver, which appears to be AIPAC’s last investment before the general election, has raised eyebrows among some Jewish leaders and Democratic strategists in the state, who see Wahab as favored to replace disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) in California’s 14th District, despite the flood of recent attacks against her from UDP and other allied groups.

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● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.

President Donald Trump threatened to “bomb the s— out of” Oman if the Gulf state’s talks with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz interfere with U.S. efforts to reach a deal with Tehran…

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The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations agency said that a vessel transiting through the Strait of Hormuz earlier Tuesday was struck by a projectile; one casualty was reported in the attack, which caused damage to the ship’s engine room…

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Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) said that she told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, when the Israeli leader was in Washington for Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) funeral, that, like her brother, “I will stand with Israel as well”…

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) criticized the “ongoing siege of Palestinian homes in the West Bank by violent, lawbreaking settlers” and called on the Trump administration to “compel the Israeli government to protect the lives, property and livelihood” of residents.

Jeffries’ comments came as the Ohio-based Palestinian American owner of a West Bank property that has been targeted by settlers returned to the home on Monday night…

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U.S. defense technology firm Ondas is acquiring Israeli company Aran Defense in its first acquisition of operations from a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange…

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The Federal Railroad Administration approved more than $600 million in federal grants for Amtrak to relocate from its facility in Chicago’s South Loop to a new location in nearby Bridgeport; the 47-acre South Loop site is being considered by Chicago White Sox owner-in-waiting Justin Ishbia as the location for a possible new stadium…

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The New York Post spotlights incoming Duquesne University freshman Chaim Galbut, who this fall will become the first observant Jewish player in Division I men’s basketball in 25 years…

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The New York Times looks at a dispute between the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, the granddaughter of the woman who betrayed the survivor’s family and an author seeking to write about the women’s connection…

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The Salzburg, Austria, home that belonged to Stefan Zweig before the writer fled the country in 1934 for England and then Brazil, where he died, was put on the market for $14.5 million…

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The Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh, Scotland, acknowledged that it had discriminated against a Jewish performer whose stand-up show at the venue during last year’s Fringe festival was canceled over his social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war; comic Philip Simon said the venue had canceled his show “just for being Jewish”…

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The IDF said that a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad who participated in the abduction of an Israeli civilian from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks was killed in a strike in southern Gaza…

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Israel has located the remains of Yehuda Katz, who was declared missing after the Battle of Sultan Yacoub during the First Lebanon War in 1982; the remains of two other soldiers who were declared missing following the battle were returned to Israel in 2019 and 2025…

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Six Thai migrant workers were injured, two seriously, after an old unexploded ordnance detonated near the northern Israeli town of Metula…

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The New Yorker’s Ariel Levy is joining CBS’ “60 Minutes” as a contributor…

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Sarah Golabek-Goldman, who served as chief of staff to the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, is joining the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law as director of legal initiatives…

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

Weaponizing the Waterways: In The Washington Post, Elise Labott looks at how the Iran-backed Houthis are using their control over strategic maritime choke points in the Red Sea to disrupt global shipping lanes. “Washington long assumed that if these vulnerabilities were weaponized, it would be by China or Russia. Instead, the Houthis got there first. Washington is still treating them as a military threat and missing their strategic evolution — under the mistaken assumption that insurgent groups don’t develop interests of their own, or the patience to act on them.” [WashPost]

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Two Trump Cards: In The Wall Street Journal, former State Department official Ludovic Hood, now at the Hudson Institute, considers how President Donald Trump can address the stalemate with Iran without delivering a win to the Islamic Republic. “Mr. Trump is caught between political constraints that prevent using adequate military force to change Tehran’s behavior and a defiant regime willing to risk severe economic pain to rebuff Washington’s demands. … Slicing through this Gordian Knot and arriving at a satisfactory outcome, namely a subdued or new government in Tehran, depends on two lines of effort: waging economic warfare against the regime’s revenue sources and rallying partners to undermine Iran and its proxy network in the region.” [WSJ]

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British-Israeli pianist Mendy Portnoy, who is one half of the Portnoy Brothers, released his new solo piano album “Elul” — a piano cover of Hanan Ben Ari’s “Hashiveinu” — six years after the release of Portnoy’s album “Introspection.”

Jessi Ruth Klein, writer, actor and stand-up comedian from NYC, turns 51

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP

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Sonia Wolff Levitin, Holocaust survivor, novelist, artist and producer, turns 92

Barbara Bluhm-Kaul, art collector, museum trustee in Chicago, Aspen, Colo., and Orange County, Calif., and former member of Cultural Property Advisory Committee to the State Department, turns 86

Jerome Seaman, Baltimore resident

Rabbi Noam Gordon, Ph.D, retired teacher of Talmud at Jerusalem’s Yeshiva Torat Shraga

Susan G. Golding, former two-term mayor of San Diego, the first Jewish mayor of the city, turns 81

John D. Goldman, businessman and former chair of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, turns 77

Cindy Chazan, partner in Chazan-Leipzig Consulting

Gary Silow, retired judge of the Montgomery County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas, turns 75

Winnie Holzman, dramatist, screenwriter and poet, turns 72

Raphael Schwartz, president at Wyckoff, N.J.-based Benefit Connections

Alan H. Kadish, M.D., president of Touro University, turns 70

Stuart Tochner, employment law attorney in the Los Angeles office of Ogletree Deakins

Timothy Geithner, treasury secretary in the Obama administration, now chairman of Warburg Pincus, turns 65

Jules Polonetsky, CEO of the Future of Privacy Forum, a D.C.-based think tank and advocacy group focused on issues of data privacy, turns 61

Kenneth Goldin, auctioneer, television personality and sports card collector, he is featured on the Netflix TV series “King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch,” turns 61

David Brog, executive director of the Maccabee Task Force established by Haim Saban and the late Sheldon Adelson, turns 60

Dayvid Figler, criminal defense attorney and media personality in Las Vegas, turns 59

Brian Michael Bendis, award-winning comic book writer and artist for both Marvel and then DC Comics, turns 59

Jason Furman, professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, he served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, turns 56

Sarah Bronson

Andrew Wilkow, conservative political talk radio host on the Sirius XM Patriot channel, turns 54

Gabriel Naddaf, Greek Orthodox priest, he serves as a judge in Israel’s religious court system and encourages Christians to enlist in the IDF, turns 53

Nicole Krauss, best-selling author, her novels have been translated into 35 languages, turns 52

Roger Zakheim, director of the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, he was previously a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling and general counsel of the House Armed Services Committee

David A.J. “Andy” Samberg, actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician, turns 48

Zachary Iscol, former commissioner of New York City Emergency Management, turns 48

Noah Slepkov, fellow at The Jewish People Policy Institute and managing partner of theMadad website

Sarah Breger, editor of Moment Magazine

Sadie Gurman, reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering the Justice Department and federal law enforcement

Laurie Segall, founder and CEO of Mostly Human, a New York-based entertainment media company, turns 41

Olga Rubin, mixed martial artist, she competes in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, turns 37

Or “Ori” Sasson, Israeli judoka who won Olympic bronze medals at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, turns 36

• President Donald Trump is slated to meet today with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at 11 a.m. ET. The meeting comes as Israel moves forward with its plan to withdraw from “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where the Lebanese Armed Forces will move in and administer the area in accordance with the framework agreement established last month between Beirut and Jerusalem.
• The White House is reportedly mulling a proposal from Middle East mediators including Qatar, Egypt and Pakistan for a 10-day ceasefire to halt fighting between the U.S. and Iran. Earlier today, officials in Bahrain confirmed that sirens sounded in the Gulf state ahead of what was believed to have been another Iranian attack.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are slated to appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee this morning to testify about the Trump administration’s $88 billion supplemental funding request for the Pentagon.
• The House Intelligence Committee is convening a hearing today on the next generation of terror threats, with former National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster set to testify.
• Arizona is holding its primaries today, with the GOP’s gubernatorial race between Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) taking center billing. The winner will face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November.
• We’re also closely watching the primary results in Arizona’s 1st District, a swing district based in Scottsdale with a sizable Jewish population, which Schweikert is vacating to run for governor. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is backing former TV news anchor Marlene Galan-Woods over former state Rep. Amish Shah, who was the party’s 2024 nominee. The GOP front-runner is former NFL kicker and CBS Sports sideline reporter Jay Feely.
• In New York, Jewish Women International is hosting a day-long workshop series focused on Jewish women in the workplace.
• More than a dozen Jewish and pro-Israel groups, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Israeli-American Council, the Jewish Federations of North America and Christians United for Israel, are hosting a virtual tribute to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tonight ahead of his funeral next week.
• The three-day Gulf Research Meeting kicks off today in Cambridge, U.K. Speakers include Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud; Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari; Mohammed Ibrahim Al Dhaheri, the deputy director of the United Arab Emirates’ Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy; and Arab World Institute President Anne-Claire Legendre. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

In recent weeks, following the collapse of the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has fired dozens of times on Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

At the same time, it has sustained fire from the U.S., whose military bases across the region have been targeted by the Islamic Republic, with several service members killed. And all the while, Tehran has targeted commercial ships transiting through the strait.

But as focus on the conflict with Iran has shifted from addressing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions to the Strait of Hormuz, Israel has stayed out of the fighting — despite Iranian threats earlier this month to target the Jewish state if the U.S. attacks did not cease.

There is no upside for Israel to reenter the fight, especially when the issue of the Strait of Hormuz falls outside of the objectives set by Israel at the start of the war earlier this year. (This, despite the widespread sentiment among Israelis that this year’s war did not improve Israel’s security situation, according to polling last month from the Israel Democracy Institute.)

Key among the goals laid out by Israel was degrading Iran’s ballistic missile program and setting back elements of its nuclear program. Reopening Hormuz is an American objective, not an Israeli one. With Israel having made the calculus that the most immediate Iranian threats have been blunted — at least in the short term — the current mission has become an American one.

“Israel’s best move is to not move — yet,” Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider this morning. “Washington does the striking. Israel keeps its fire and its threats in reserve, waiting for one of two triggers: a U.S. request to join, or an Iranian regime foolish enough to hit Israel and invite the reprisal that has been promised.”

Despite Iran’s threats to target Israel, such a move would likely be a strategic misstep for the Islamic Republic. Iran’s blockade of the strait and its attacks on Arab and Gulf states are an attempt to reassert its dominance over the region and demonstrate its ability to impact the global energy market. Tehran also appears to be betting that sustained attacks across the region will push Arab states to pressure the U.S. to accept an agreement to reopen the strait, handing the Islamic Republic a win.

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

Eye on 2028: The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich interviews Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), about Kelly’s presidential considerations, Giffords’ recovery after a 2011 shooting and Kelly’s shortlisting as former Vice President Kamala Harris vetted potential running mates. “Kelly told me that he’d only ‘read parts’ of Harris’s memoir. Presumably, these were the parts that corresponded to mentions of ‘Kelly, Mark.’ He smiled when I suggested this and did not deny it. When I brought up that Harris said she was concerned that he wasn’t tested as a national candidate, Kelly grew more openly annoyed than I might have expected, given how beside the point the topic is now. … He also noted, sarcastically, that some people apparently found it charming that Walz asked for Diet Mountain Dew to drink during his VP interview. ‘[Gov. Josh] Shapiro and I asked for water,’ he said, smirking.” [TheAtlantic]

Tehran’s Tactics: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh posit that Iran’s ability to withstand international economic pressure and U.S. strikes has given the Islamic Republic a “wartime advantage” over Washington. “Today’s conflict with the U.S. and Israel lets senior guard commanders, lowly IRGC foot soldiers and the rest of the theocracy’s security forces feel the fraternity of resistance against the regime’s enemies. For a dictatorship that lost most Iranians’ loyalty years ago, these wars were a boon. The zeal of the revolutionary faithful has baffled many Iranian expatriates and analysts, who see a morally, spiritually and financially bankrupt regime.” [WSJ]

Kuwait in the Crosshairs: The Financial Times’ Ahmed Al Omran looks at how the Iranian attacks across the Gulf have affected Kuwait, which has been targeted by more than 1,500 missiles and drones since the start of the war. “The sense of fear is particularly potent in Kuwait, which is still scarred by the trauma of the 1990 Iraqi invasion — a unique experience that sets it apart from other Gulf Arab states. Since the US-Israeli war against Iran started in February, Kuwait’s proximity to the Islamic republic and high concentration of American troops have made it an easy target for Tehran’s short-range missiles. … But the intensity and frequency of the attacks came as a surprise to some observers in Kuwait, which before the war enjoyed relatively cordial relations with Iran.” [FT]

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

Amid its escalating conflict with Iran, the White House’s social media feed posted a three-week-old poll on Monday from a right-wing polling firm indicating Americans support the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding established last month, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Pentagon confirmed a New York Times report that nearly 100 American troops stationed in Jordan have been injured by Iranian attacks over the last two weeks as the Islamic Republic targets U.S. bases in the region; several of the strikes had not been made public prior to the Times’ reporting…

Israeli intelligence shared with the U.S. indicates that Iran moved thousands of centrifuges into its clandestine Pickaxe Mountain site last fall, following the 12-day war in June; read more about Pickaxe Mountain here…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the “once-unthinkable” ideas being mulled by Washington, Beirut and Jerusalem to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon…

The New Yorker‘s David Kirkpatrick talks to former Biden administration officials about the Biden White House’s policies toward Israel and Gaza at the height of the conflict between Israel and Hamas…

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who is challenging Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), removed from his campaign website family photos that featured his son-in-law, who was found to have promoted white nationalism and Nazi ideology online…

The Washington Post reports on the volatile temperament of Troy Jackson, who is expected to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, during the time that Jackson served as the head of the state Senate…

Axios examines how Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) rhetoric as she campaigns for Democrats around the country resembles former President Barack Obama’s own early campaign rhetoric following the launch of his 2008 presidential bid…

Politico looks at how New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has alienated portions of the city’s electorate — including the Black, Jewish and Latino communities — that have traditionally had close ties with City Hall…

The New York Times interviews New York state Assemblymember Micah Lasher about his childhood hobby of performing magic; the New York Democrat, who won last month’s Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), in 1996 published The Magic of Micah Lasher, and performed on national television as a child…

Adam Hamawy and Darializa Avila Chevalier, who won their respective Democratic congressional primaries against more moderate candidates in part by attacking Israel on the campaign trail, were announced as the keynote speakers at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ annual gala in Washington…

Hungarian chess grandmaster Judit Polgar turned down Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s offer to serve as the country’s interim president, saying she felt she lacked “the strength to take on the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation” in the post-Viktor Orbán era…

The president of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants testified before the country’s royal commission investigating antisemitism that increasing antisemitism in the country has “disturbing parallels” to Nazi Germany, but that he did not believe that the country was “becoming another Germany in the 1930s,” owing to Australia’s “democratic institutions, legal system and civilian civil society”…

OpenAI is reportedly starting a business development operation in Israel, having hired a senior Israeli executive from Amazon Web Services to lead the effort to develop relationships in the Israeli high-tech sector…

Air France paused its flights to and from Dubai until next week; the airline is also temporarily suspending its routes to Saudi Arabia until later this week…

Hamas announced Khalil Al-Hayya, the terror group’s top negotiator in Qatar, as its new leader; Al-Hayya succeeds Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the IDF in October 2024…

Former Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is rejoining the Jewish Institute for National Security of America as a distinguished fellow, a position he previously held from 2021 to 2022…

Demonstrators from the Union of Jewish Students of France protested on Monday outside the Paris headquarters of French far-left party La France Insoumise following the interruption over the weekend of a Jewish DJ’s concert in Grenoble. La France Insoumise had for months been calling for a boycott of Barbara Butch’s show last Saturday, which was disrupted by anti-Israel activists.

Retired CEO of Sony/ATV, a large music publishing firm, he is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Martin Bandier turns 85…

President at Admar Group, Henry Dean Ostberg turns 98…  Professor in the physics department at Bar-Ilan University, he won the Israel Prize in 2018, Shlomo Havlin turns 84… Director of the Center for the Political Future at USC, Robert Shrum turns 83… Criminal defense attorney, known for representing many politicians, celebrities and organized crime defendants, Benjamin Brafman turns 78… Former member of the U.K.’s House of Commons, now in the House of Lords, Baroness Susan Veronica Kramer turns 76… Senate majority whip (R-WY), John Barrasso turns 74… Chairman and CEO at Quantitative Financial Strategies, Sanford “Sandy” Jay Grossman turns 73… Endocrinologist and professor at Columbia University’s medical school, she is an honorary president of NYC’s Central Synagogue, Shonni Joy Silverberg, MD… Professor at Columbia Law School and daughter of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Carol Ginsburg turns 71… Brooklyn resident, Irene Ostrovsky… Comedian and actor, best known for his five seasons on “Saturday Night Live” ending in 1990, Jon Lovitz turns 69… Former chief rabbi of Moscow, his opposition to the Ukraine war forced him to leave Russia, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt turns 63… Literary agent at the William Morris Endeavor book department, Eric Matthew Simonoff turns 59… Actor and producer, Alysia Reiner turns 56… Professor of astronomy at MIT and winner of a 2013 MacArthur Genius Award, Sara Seager turns 55… Brazilian fashion designer best known for avant-garde designs and eclectic prints, Alexandre Herchcovitch turns 55… CEO of Fanatics, licensed sports merchandise and digital sports platform, Michael G. Rubin turns 54… Founder, president and CEO of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) and the Electrification Coalition, Raphael “Robbie” Diamond… Rabbi of Congregation Bais Naftali in Los Angeles, his YouTube channel has over 4.6 million views, Rabbi Yoel Gold… Online media personality and director of product management at Electronic Arts (EA) in British Columbia, Veronica Belmont turns 44… CEO of Women of Reform Judaism since 2023, Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch… Clinical social worker, Aniko Gomory-Pink… Entrepreneur and political activist, she came to prominence as an African-American pro-Israel student activist at the U of New Orleans, Chloé Simone Valdary turns 33… Policy advisor at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Zachary A. Marshall… Senior recruiter at Tines, Rachel Elizabeth Nieves… Attorney in Madrid and secretary general of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain until 2021, Elias Cohen…

• President Donald Trump will meet this morning with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, whom he backed in the country’s elections earlier this year amid an effort to push Baghdad to crack down on Iranian militias operating in Iraq. The meeting comes as the U.S. continued to strike Iranian military targets overnight, including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa and Bandar Abbas, “to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said.
• Earlier in the day, CENTCOM announced that U.S. forces would today resume blockading Iranian ports. Trump also declared that the U.S. would institute a 20% fee on all cargo transiting the waterway. Read more here.
• The Aspen Security Forum kicks off this afternoon in Colorado. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker are set to speak later today on a panel titled, “The State of the World in 2026.”
• Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), will be sworn in to her brother’s Senate seat today at 2:30 p.m. ET, after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced his decision on Monday to appoint her to serve the remainder of Graham’s term. Trump threw his support behind Graham Nordone, saying that appointing her “would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly.” Read more here.
• Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is set to testify before the House Financial Services Committee this morning — the first time Warsh will appear before the Congress since assuming the role.
• The two-day Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, hosted by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), will kick off at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., with a keynote address from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will host some GOP members of Congress for dinner tonight, as the Trump administration seeks more than $67 billion for the Pentagon in its supplemental funding request.
• Lebanese and Israeli officials are meeting today at the U.S. Embassy in Rome to discuss the implementation of a framework agreed to by the countries last month that would see the disarmament of Hezbollah, a withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon and an end to the hostilities between Beirut and Jerusalem.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSa weiss

In the span of five days, one of Washington’s most vocal champions of the U.S. relationship with Israel died, while two prospective 2028 Democratic presidential contenders traveled to the Jewish state to define their approaches to the country. Though a coincidence of timing, those events, when taken together, underscored something much more significant: the passing of one generation of American politics vis-a-vis Israel and the opening contest over what will succeed it.

The events of the last week have distilled concerns that have repeatedly emerged at Jewish and Israeli gatherings, over Shabbat meals and in breakfast meetings: As the far left gains traction within the Democratic Party, and as the isolationist right increasingly finds support among Republicans, what does that mean for American Jews and U.S. support for Israel?

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died suddenly on Saturday, represented a generation of politicians — across the political spectrum — for whom support for Israel was tied to deep, long-standing relationships with the Jewish state’s leaders, the belief in the country’s strategic positioning as a key ally and the ability of Israel’s friends in Washington to challenge Jerusalem without imperiling the relationship. 

His death sent shockwaves across the Jewish community at a time when U.S. support for Israel — including among Republicans — is on the decline.

Days before Graham died, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel was in Israel, where he delivered a speech — his own version of tough talk to Israelis — at Tel Aviv University on the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Speaking to reporters ahead of his speech, Emanuel, who served as White House chief of staff from 2009-2010, said that declining U.S. support for Israel “is not a Democratic Party problem. This is an American problem, and a generational problem.”

Separate from Emanuel’s trip, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) also traveled to Israel last week, gaining attention for an incident in the West Bank in which local security forces stopped Khanna, who was accompanied by aides and an activist from Breaking the Silence, after the congressman entered what had been until recently a closed military zone. He has since called for Israel to investigate the incident, even as Israeli officials denied the congressman’s account. Khanna has not provided any evidence to back up his claim of being detained by settlers.

In his public comments and meetings, Emanuel conveyed a desire to halt the growing daylight between future generations of Israelis and Americans. Khanna, who a decade ago was a staunch supporter of close ties with Jerusalem, has adopted a different political calculation, leaning into the growing anti-Israel sentiment in his party as a launching pad for a national campaign.

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

The Loneliness of Chuck Schumer: The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn posits that even as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) serves as one of his party’s most prominent voices, antisemitism of the kind Schumer rails against has gained traction among Democrats. “Today’s party is nothing like the one Mr. Schumer grew up in. Those who regard Israel as a genocidal enemy are ascendant, and though the first Jewish Senate minority leader may cast individual pro-Israel votes, he certainly isn’t leading in Congress on Jewish or Israeli issues. His position is like that of the young babysitter in the 1979 horror film ‘When a Stranger Calls.’ After a series of disturbing phone calls, she calls the police. They get back to her with this chilling message: ‘The calls are coming from inside the house.’” [WSJ]

Poison PEN: The Atlantic’s Gal Beckerman observes the “meltdown” taking place at PEN America, following the resignation of the group’s president over an article that looked at the isolation faced by Israeli and Jewish writers. “Thursday’s article nodded to the curtailed freedoms of Israeli and Jewish writers without taking any ideological side. It was far from a battle cry or a shift in priorities. … This reality does not neutralize the cause of pro-Palestinian writers or the suffering in Gaza and elsewhere. The fact that the article was perceived that way, and that it led to the resignation of a president, tells us all a great deal about the hair-trigger moment we live in, and about the precarity of the liberal principles on which PEN America was founded.” [TheAtlantic]

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?: In “Moral Clarity,” Israeli writer Nachum Kaplan reflects on a recent dinner party in which Israel was a main topic of conversations among guests, most of whom were strident critics of Israel. “I walked home reflecting on the strange burden of being pro-Israel in polite society. One is expected to arrive with evidence, history, nuance, empathy, military expertise, legal precision and a detailed alternative strategy for every available course of action. The other side need only arrive with adjectives. Colonial. Genocidal. Apartheid. Brutal. … The ignorance would be less irritating if it were accompanied by humility. Yet ignorance among the educated rarely travels alone. It brings status, vocabulary and the confidence of belonging to a moral majority. Its possessors do not merely lack knowledge. They regard knowledge as faintly disreputable, particularly when it interferes with the emotional clarity of their conclusions.” [MoralClarity]

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

The Jewish Federations of North America offered its support for the Stop the Fakes Act, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), requiring the labeling of AI-generated content online. “By strengthening transparency and accountability online, the Stop the Fakes Act would help protect Jewish communities, and all vulnerable groups, from AI-enabled antisemitism, hate, impersonation, and targeted harassment,” Omer Yarden-Oppenheim, director of government relations at JFNA, said…

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) urged colleagues to block procedural motions to move ahead with the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act without votes to strip U.S.-Israel military and intelligence cooperation out of the bill…

The Congressional Jewish Staff Association announced its 2026-2027 board, naming Zachary Freiman as president, Lindsey Rubin as vice president of member outreach, Tessa Cate as treasurer, Gabe Feiner as vice president of social programming, Louie Kahn as communications director and Joshua Lash, Max Seltzer and Sasha Frank-Stempel as members-at-large…

Federal officials charged a Texas man with transmitting threatening communications through means of interstate or foreign commerce, alleging he threatened to kill Jewish employees of a security camera company in Georgia…

The New Yorker visits Russ & Daughters with a duo from the Netherlands who are self-styled experts on pickles, as they explore the history of the popular sandwich accompaniment in New York…

U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that the country designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization, with those found guilty of supporting the group facing up to 14 years in prison; the government also banned the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, which No. 10 Downing St. said was behind a number of attacks on British Jewish sites…

The New York Times does a deep dive into a yearslong Mossad effort to groom former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into an Israeli intelligence asset and, potentially, a successor to the Iranian regime; the plot, which included a meeting in Hungary between Ahmadinejad and then-Mossad head David Barnea, ultimately failed following an Israeli attempt to remove the former Iranian president from government surveillance on the first day of the war… 

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the U.S.’ use — for the first time — of drone boats in the war with Iran, as the military increasingly relies on unmanned technologies in battle…

The Financial Times reports on efforts by U.S. adversaries to use cyber attacks to obtain location information about U.S. forces and contractors in the Middle East in the lead-up to the war with Iran…

Dubai-based port operator DP World is planning to build a new port near the city of Fujairah on the United Arab Emirates’ east coast, in an effort to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and decrease the Gulf state’s reliance on the Jebel Ali hub near Dubai…

Israeli Ambassador to Singapore Eli Vered Hazan was named the world chairman of Keren Hayesod, succeeding Sam Grundwerg…

Author Dara Horn (right) discussed her work researching and writing about contemporary antisemitism with Anila Ali, board chair and president of the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council, at AMMWEC’s conference in Washington on Monday about antisemitism and hate. Other speakers included Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ), as well as Luke Moon, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the head of Generation Zion.

U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council during the last three years of the Biden administration, she is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Ambassador Michèle Taylor turns 60… 

Past president of Congregation B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield, Ill., Sandee Holleb… Architect and urban designer, he is identified with Habitat 67, a housing complex built in conjunction with Expo 67 (the 1967 Montreal World’s Fair), Moshe Safdie turns 88… MLB pitcher for 11 seasons, now a sportscaster and author, he won the Cy Young Award and was an MLB All Star in 1980, Steve Stone turns 79… Los Angeles resident, Susan Farrell… Film producer, best known for the “Lethal Weapon” series, the first two “Die Hard” movies and the “Matrix” trilogy, Joel Silver turns 74… Film and theatrical producer, in 2012 he became the first producer to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award, Scott Rudin turns 68… Co-founder and managing director of Beverly Hills Private Wealth, Scott M. Shagrin… United States secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick turns 65… Media columnist for the Chicago Tribune until 2021, Phil Rosenthal turns 63… Illustrator and author best known as the writer of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick turns 60… Principal at Oakland, Calif.-based Full Court Press Communications and a past president of the Oakland Hebrew Day School, Daniel Eli Cohen… Member of the Washington State Senate until 2023, David S. Frockt turns 57… President and CEO at the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, Renee Wizig-Barrios… Rapper and record producer from Brooklyn known as “Ill Bill,” he is the producer, founder and CEO of Uncle Howie Records, William “Bill” Braunstein turns 54… Professor in the department of genetics at the Harvard Medical School, David Emil Reich, Ph.D. turns 52… COO at Aish Global, Elliot Mathias… Fashion designer and cast member on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” Dorit Kemsley turns 50… Retired mixed martial artist, now a life coach, Emily Peters-Kagan turns 45… Co-founder and executive chairman of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann turns 44… Interior designer and owner of Tribe By Design, Tehillah Braun… Professional golfer with four tournament wins in the Asian and European tours, David Lipsky turns 38… Founder at Bashert Group and head of a NYC-based family office, Daniel B. Jeydel… AVP for grantmaking at Hillel International, she is on the board of the Siegel JCC of Delaware, Rachel Giattino… Reporter covering housing and the home building industry for The Wall Street Journal, Nicole Friedman… Director of Chabad Georgetown and rabbi at the Pentagon, Rabbi Menachem Shemtov turns 36… Creator of the Instagram feed called Second Date Shadchan, Elizabeth Morgan “Lizzy” Brenner… Collegiate basketball star for Princeton and Maryland, now playing for Perfumerías Avenida of Spain’s Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, Abby Meyers turns 27… Attorney and founder of In Every Generation, David Rosenberg-Wohl…

• Voters in Maine head to the polls today to cast their ballots in the state’s primary races, including the Democratic primary for Senate, where embattled oyster farmer Graham Platner is expected to win the nomination following Gov. Janet Mills’ suspension of her campaign earlier this spring. We’ll be watching the margin by which Platner, who has been dogged by a series of scandals ranging from a Nazi tattoo to comments supporting Hamas tactics to past volatile romantic relationships, wins tonight — which will indicate his strength going into the general election against one of the Senate’s most moderate Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
• We’ll also be keeping an eye on primaries in Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina.
• In the Middle East, Lebanese media reported Israeli airstrikes near Tyre in southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning after the IDF issued an evacuation order to residents of the city. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that, though Israel is “holding its fire” against Iran, Jerusalem has “a full right to self-defense” and is “exercising it to the extent necessary.” Two Israeli sources told CNN that Jerusalem planned to continue its operations against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
• The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center. The hearing comes two months after the Department of Justice charged the group with fraud in connection with now-defunct efforts to spend upwards of $3 million to pay informants at extremist groups.
• The House Appropriations Committee is holding markups this morning on the 2027 budgets for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor.
• Elsewhere in Washington, Chabad-Lubavitch’s Living Legacy International Conference, which kicked off last night, resumes this morning with a congressional leadership breakfast followed by events at the Library of Congress, a luncheon at the State Department, a roundtable with Jewish leaders from around the world this afternoon and a gala dinner in the evening.
• Agudath Israel of America is holding a dinner to dedicate its new Washington office and pay tribute to Rabbi Abba Cohen, the longtime head of the group’s DC operations.
• The Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum kicks off today in Washington. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Alan Armstrong (R-OK); Reps. Ami Bera (D-CA), Young Kim (R-CA); Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Development Finance Corporation CEO Ben Black and TWG Global’s Amos Hochstein are slated to speak at the two-day gathering.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Domestic politics isn’t always the best lens through which to evaluate foreign policy decisions. 

But in assessing why President Donald Trump has gone to significant lengths to prevent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from striking back against Iran’s attacks, and why Netanyahu went ahead with the first wave of military strikes before standing down, it’s instructive to understand how the domestic politics in the U.S. and Israel are diverging. 

The joint U.S.-Israel military operation against Iran, which began on Feb. 28 and has evolved into a very tenuous ceasefire since April 8, has not achieved many of the military goals outlined by both sides. Iran’s extremist leadership is still in place, it still maintains its nuclear ambitions and retains its nuclear material, and its ballistic missile stockpiles, while damaged, still remain. 

On the Lebanese front, Hezbollah continues to threaten Israel’s north and not abide by any of the diplomatic agreements recently negotiated between Israel and the Lebanese government. 

As a result of the limited achievements so far, public support for renewing military action against Iran has been low among the American public, and the overall operation is receiving lukewarm backing from Republicans. 

Over two-thirds of voters in a recent Economist/YouGov poll said the U.S. “should make a deal to end the war in Iran as quickly as possible,” with just 11% disagreeing. Over half of Republicans shared the same sentiment of ending the war, with just 21% opposing. 

Support for the war itself was much higher among Republicans than Democrats or independents, but still less than typical partisan support for Trump’s actions, with 67% of GOP voters backing the war in Iran and 20% opposing. (Among all voters, just 28% said they supported the war against Iran, with 60% opposing.)

These polling numbers explain why Trump, ever cognizant of public opinion especially in the run-up to a consequential midterm election, is trying to avoid reengaging with Iran militarily — even as he desperately seeks for some diplomatic off-ramp that Iran isn’t giving him.

In fact, it’s Trump’s very transparent desperation for a deal with Iran — and apparent unwillingness to go back to war —that’s emboldening Iran to continue its rejectionism to the point where it launched ballistic missiles at Israel over the weekend, feeling confident Trump would constrain Israel from any sustained response (which he did). 

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

High Seas Hostage Diplomacy: For CNN, Brett McGurk, who served as the White House’s coordinator for the Middle East in the Biden administration, posits that Iran is applying the same tactics to negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz as it did to talks over hostages held in the Islamic Republic. “For Iran, [holding the Strait] is possession. It now has something the US (and for that matter, the rest of the world) wants. And it will not give it up unless and until America pays an exorbitant price. In Tehran’s eyes, the strait has now become the most valuable hostage it has ever possessed. … The question in Washington is when a deal might be concluded following exchanges of texts through mediators. The question in Tehran is simply whether Trump will pay the price they are demanding. It’s the classic dynamic of a hostage negotiation.” [CNN]

Broad Daylight: The Financial Times explores the divide between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based pollster and political analyst, said there was also an element of ‘political theatre’ to the public disagreements. ‘Trump is basically trying to show the American public that he’s trying to keep the war from re-escalating and he’s trying to keep America from getting involved again,’ she said. ‘And Netanyahu looks good to his domestic audience because he’s defying Trump.’” [FT]

Boycotts and Battlefields: In The Washington Post, Aaron Kaplowitz, president of the United States-Israel Business Alliance, argues that efforts to boycott Israeli defense technology, as some European countries have done on the basis of “moral leadership,” risks forgoing technology that is effective on the battlefield. “According to defense officials, governments that have announced boycotts on Israeli weapons makers are placing orders anyway. That is what governing by perception looks like: Speeches for the activist base. Procurement contracts in the back office. European defense ministries understand what they cannot say in public. Israeli systems are battle-tested in real time against adaptive enemies, and there are not many alternatives that perform as well. The defense systems a nation procures depends on what has the best capabilities.” [WashPost]

Vice President JD Vance was asked by Fox News host Jesse Watters about reports that Israel was spying on the U.S. and engaging in military operations in Lebanon, responding that “The Israelis and I, the Israelis and the United States, we have a lot of shared interests, but we also have some situations where our interests diverge. While Israel obviously has objectives it has, the U.S. main objective in Iran is that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon… We’ve created this space necessary where the president believes, and I think he’s right, that we can get the long-term settlement to an Iran nuclear deal. Israel may like that, they may not like that… this is in the best interest of the United States of America”…

President Donald Trump nominated Todd Blanche to be attorney general; Blanche has been serving in the role in an acting capacity since former AG Pam Bondi departed the position in April…

A State Department report submitted to Congress last month accuses Russia, Iran and China of weaponizing antisemitic imagery and rhetoric “across physical and cyber domains”…

Two crew members of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter were rescued after it went down in the Strait of Hormuz; the cause of the helicopter’s downing remains under investigation…

Thirty-eight Senate Democrats, led by Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), demanded the administration provide Congress with the legal opinion backing its determination that U.S. hostilities against Iran have ended, given the ongoing strikes and U.S. presence in the region…

By voice votes, the House passed legislation requiring the Trump administration to determine whether various Iranian clerics, and other Iranian entities meet the standards to face U.S. sanctions, and requiring the State Department to brief Congress on antisemitism in Europe…

Eighty-five House Democrats led by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) urged the administration to act to halt construction of the E1 settlement project in the West Bank…

Third Point founder Dan Loeb hosted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday at his hedge fund’s Manhattan office, according to a photo posted on Loeb’s Instagram account…

Axios reports that Paramount executives have engaged in preliminary conversations for a business-side counterpart to CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss…

Federal officials arrested a New Jersey man on charges of attempting to provide support to the Islamic State; authorities said that Mohamed Sagha had displayed an interest in attacking a Jewish site or National Guard station in the state…

Under the headline “The New York Primary That Is All About Israel,” The Wall Street Journal looks at the degree to which debate over Israel and U.S. policy in the Middle East is “dividing neighbors and consuming” New York’s 10th Congressional District, where Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) is facing a tough primary challenge from former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander…

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a far-left Democrat, edged out Republican Spencer Pratt for the second runoff spot in the race for Los Angeles mayor; Raman will face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat, in November…

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick and Mike Rowe, the CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, announce the launch of America’s Workforce Academy, a partnership between Meta and a number of partner groups to train would-be workers on AI technology…

Meta accused NSO Group of attempting to hack its WhatsApp messaging service in violation of a court order prohibiting the Israeli spyware firm from doing so…

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried submitted a formal request to the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney Office seeking a presidential pardon after serving more than two years of a 25-year term for overseeing a fraudulent cryptocurrency empire…

Richmond, Calif., Mayor Eduardo Martinez is expected to lose his bid for reelection after coming under fire for sharing antisemitic conspiracy theories, including a post that the terror attack at a Sydney, Australia, Hanukkah celebration was an Israeli false flag operation; Martinez trails at least two other candidates in the race, leaving him short of the runoff…

In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, members of the J7 — leading Jewish groups from Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. — raise concerns about rising antisemitism in Canada and call on Ottawa to take a “whole-of-government effort” and address what the body sees as Canada’s “lack of urgency, coordination, and enforcement” as well as “of real action” to address antisemitism…

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, was suspended on Monday over allegations of sexual misconduct with a female aide; the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties will hold a special session to determine the future of Khan’s employment by the court…  

The Wall Street Journal looks at the precarious situation in Lebanon as Beirut, backed by Washington and amid talks with Israel, seeks to degrade Hezbollah as the Iranian-backed group maintains its deep entrenchment in the country’s military and politics…

An Israeli man on Monday visited the wreckage of an Iranian missile near the West Bank city of Jericho, following strikes from Iran earlier in the day targeting Israel.

Producer, director, playwright and screenwriter, he has won an Academy Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes, Aaron Benjamin Sorkin turns 65…

Former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, Walter Julius Levy turns 104… Journalist for 30 years at CBS and NBC who then became the founding director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, then a fellow at GWU, Marvin Kalb turns 96… Retired Israeli diplomat who served as ambassador to Italy and France and world chairman of Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, Aviezer “Avi” Pazner turns 89… Author of 12 books, journalist, lecturer and social activist, founding editor of Ms. Magazine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin turns 87… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Maurice of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi which became the largest in the world, noted for his art collection and for founding Saatchi Gallery, Charles Saatchi turns 83… Diplomat and Shakespeare historian, he was the longtime national editor of Washingtonian magazine, Kenneth Adelman turns 80… Founder of Commonwealth Financial Network (a broker/dealer network) and former chairman of Southworth Development (a golf and leisure business), Joseph Deitch turns 76… Professional mediator, for years she was a syndicated advice columnist in Jewish newspapers, Wendy J. Belzberg… Israel’s former minister of defense and deputy prime minister, Benny Gantz turns 67… Canadian journalist, author, documentary film producer and television personality, Steven Hillel Paikin turns 66… Former lead singer of the Israeli pop rock band Mashina, Yuval Banay turns 64… CEO of Jewish Women’s International, Meredith Jacobs… Managing director at Major, Lindsey & Africa, Craig Appelbaum… EVP of Jewish Funders Network, Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu… Screenwriter, director and producer, Hayden Schlossberg turns 48… Founder and CEO of Delve, an AI platform for public affairs, he was previously a Bush 43 White House Jewish liaison, Jeff Berkowitz… NYC-based writer, actor and entrepreneur, he is a co-founder of Swish Beverages, David Oliver Cohen turns 46… Jerusalem-born Academy Award-winning actor, producer and director, Natalie Portman turns 45… Online producer, writer and director, who together with his brother Benny founded the “React” video series, Rafi Fine turns 43… Multimedia artist known for her work in photography, makeup, hairstyling and textile crafts, Anna Marie Tendler turns 41… Composer and lyricist, in 2024 he became the 20th person to complete the EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards, Benj Pasek turns 41… Israeli tech entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of A.Team, Raphael Ouzan turns 39… Director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, her book, A Flower Traveled In My Blood, was published last year, Haley Cohen Gilliland… Deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications at the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration, Jeff Solnet… Ice hockey player for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and best-selling author of children’s books, Zachary Martin Hyman turns 34… Serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Setscale, Daniel Fine… 

• We’re monitoring news out of Washington and also out of Doha, Qatar, where Middle East officials, including an Iranian delegation, are meeting to continue talks aimed at ending the Iran war.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spent the long weekend in India, said before departing for Armenia today — hours after the U.S. conducted what it said were defensive strikes overnight on Iranian targets — that negotiations were ongoing. “I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it’ll take a few days,” Rubio noted. “The president’s expressed his desire to make it. He’s either going to make a good deal or no deal.”
• Earlier this morning, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei warned in a written statement that “From now on, the slogans ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ will be the dominant slogans of the Islamic nation and the oppressed people of the world. The United States will have no safe haven to spread evil and establish its military bases in the region.”
• We’re also keeping an eye on the Israel-Lebanon border following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s directive to “crush” Hezbollah, as well as Israel’s scaled-up attacks targeting parts of the country held by the Iran-backed terror group.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

For many Americans, Memorial Day weekend marked the unofficial start of summer, with barbecues, weddings and trips to the beach. For President Donald Trump — who opted against attending his own son’s wedding in the Bahamas, citing “circumstances pertaining to Government” — the weekend was spent on calls with Middle East leaders and inching the U.S. closer to a deal with Iran.

The working assumption in Jerusalem and Washington last week — noted in our Daily Kickoff last Thursday — was that the White House preferred a deal with Tehran over a resumption of fighting, owing to increasing opposition to the war and a slew of recent GOP defections on war powers resolutions indicating concerns among Republicans that renewed military action could further damage the party’s midterm prospects.

That assumption was actualized over the weekend, with a series of Truth Social posts by Trump indicating that a deal was near, with the finer details yet to be ironed out. Among the details reportedly in the draft agreement: a 60-day extension of the ceasefire, a lifting of the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s commitment not to seek nuclear weapons as well as the disposal of its stockpile of enriched uranium and an end to fighting on every front — including Lebanon.

In a Truth Social post, Trump — who convened a call with a group of Arab leaders, and a separate call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — said that he was “mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords,” suggesting that Saudi Arabia and Qatar should be the first new countries to normalize relations with Israel, followed by Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan (though the latter two have already enacted peace treaties with Israel, and Ankara and Jerusalem have diplomatic relations). 

The reported contours of the burgeoning agreement drew rebukes from hawkish Senate Republicans. “If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime — still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’ — now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said. Read more here.

But even as Washington and Tehran moved closer to a deal, the U.S. carried out what it called “self-defense strikes” on Iranian targets, including missile launch sites and vessels around the Strait of Hormuz. And in Lebanon, Israel ramped up strikes on Hezbollah targets, with Netanyahu vowing to “crush” the Iran-backed terror group.

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

Dmitriev’s Detail: The Atlantic’s Robert Worth profiles Kirill Dmitriev, the Ukraine-born, U.S.-educated special envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin who leads the country’s sovereign wealth fund and who has been tasked by Moscow to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “Putin chose Dmitriev for this job not only because of his reassuring American credentials — degrees from Stanford and Harvard Business School, work experience at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs — but because his profile matches that of his two main American interlocutors. He is an oligarch whose glamorous blond wife is close friends with Putin’s younger daughter. That makes him a virtual son-in-law of the ruler, and it may be the reason his real-estate holdings alone have soared from some $5 million to $100 million over the past decade.” [TheAtlantic]

Still Running for Something: Politico’s Ben Jacobs profiles Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as the New York Republican, who is not seeking reelection this year after a brief gubernatorial bid and having had her nomination to be U.N. ambassador pulled, considers her next political moves. “Further, Stefanik, who is Catholic, has become very popular among Jewish voters — a reputation burnished by her book on antisemitism. One Democratic operative marvelled at the reception that Stefanik received at a recent AIPAC event in New York City. ‘Guys who were good Democrats and regularly supported strong progressive candidates were on their feet cheering,’ says the operative, granted anonymity to speak frankly.” [Politico]

The Gift That Is Ben-Gvir: In an The Atlantic piece headlined “Israel’s Human Wrecking Ball,” Avi Issacharoff raises concerns about the reputational and societal damage to Israel he believes is being caused by Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who last week was filmed berating Gaza flotilla participants in a since-viral video. “The latest provocation by Ben-Gvir proved something that many Israelis have suspected for years: Ben-Gvir is not merely a nightmare for Israeli liberals, but the fulfillment of the fantasies of Israel’s enemies. He provides them with precisely the ammunition they need to argue, time and again, that Israel, in its fight against Hamas and Hezbollah, is the aggressor, and a cruel one at that. Ben-Gvir is a gift to the terrorist groups and the countries that seek Israel’s destruction.” [TheAtlantic]

Owens’ Omissions: The Wall Street Journal‘s William McGurn questions Hunter Biden’s recent appearance on antisemitic conspiracy theorist Candace Owens’ podcast, during which Owens’ questions to the son of the former president focused heavily on Israel. “But not asking key questions about what was going on in the Biden White House is shirking a duty. There are still many questions that deserve answers, and they can be asked in a way that doesn’t attack former President Biden. One that comes to mind is whether Joe stayed on too long because his friends and family didn’t want him to step aside. Another has to do with all those snide digs on Israel. Maybe Ms. Owens could have asked Hunter if his father or Zohran Mamdani better represents the Democratic Party these days.” [WSJ]

The Trolling of America: In The New York Times, Jessica Brandt, who from 2023-2025 served as an official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, warns that Iran and other malign actors, such as China, are utilizing emerging internet technologies and trends. “But with the Lego-style videos and other satirical content, Iran and its supporters are using a different tool for influencing public opinion. It’s not disinformation. It’s not traditional war propaganda. It’s trolling. No one is being deceived because deception isn’t the point. Reach, ridicule and cultural resonance are. … Iran is exploiting a gap that our current defenses weren’t built to close. We need to address it before a more capable adversary decides to do the same.” [NYTimes]

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that the Lebanese government and Lebanese Armed Forces “need to step up and take immediate action to ensure Hezbollah is fully and permanently disarmed” or risk losing U.S. support…

In The New York Times, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) calls on the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state “that is subject to clear benchmarks, including free and fair elections” while “ending taxpayer-funded support” for Israel; the Maryland Democrat also called for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel…

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed New Jersey doctor and anti-Israel activist Adam Hamawy in the race to succeed outgoing Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) in the state’s 12th Congressional District…

Federal officials are investigating whether antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and other far-left activists, including CodePink’s Madea Benjamin, violated U.S. sanctions during their recent trip to Cuba…

An investigation by the Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and the city’s police chief, through their refusal to tamp down on demonstrators at the anti-Israel encampment at the city’s Auraria Campus, which hosts several state and city colleges, violated Jewish students’ civil rights…

Former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil plans to appeal to the Supreme Court last week’s decision by an appellate court not to review his case as the anti-Israel campus protest leader continues to fight the government’s deportation case against him…

The Wall Street Journal looks at developer Asher Luzzatto’s efforts to convert unused office space in downtown Denver into more than 1,000 housing units and mixed-use spaces…

The Wexner Foundation told alumni on Thursday that it will spin off its flagship leadership programs into an independent nonprofit, marking a major development within the Jewish philanthropic landscape that comes as the foundation’s benefactor, Les Wexner, continues to face pushback for his past ties to financier Jeffrey Epstein, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports…

Pope Leo XIV cautioned of the dangers of artificial intelligence in a new encyclical letter, comparing this juncture of its advancement to the choice “between constructing [the Tower of] Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem” after the Babylonian exile, which he described as a collaborative effort “with God at the center”…

Australia’s royal commissioner investigating antisemitism in the country warned against harassing and intimidating witnesses who have given testimony about their experiences with antisemitism…

Federal prosecutors in Germany filed charges against a Danish national accused of operating as an agent of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who, with support from the IRGC’s Quds Force, allegedly planned to attack leaders of Germany’s Jewish community as well as Jewish grocery stores in Berlin…

The New York Post reports that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, the Iraqi national arrested in Turkey on charges of planning attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets, had also plotted to assassinate Ivanka Trump in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s 2020 strike that killed Al-Saadi’s mentor, Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani…

The head of Iran’s national soccer association said that the national team’s World Cup training base was moved from the U.S. to Tijuana, Mexico, after previously being assigned to Tucson, Ariz….

Haaretz reports that Shin Bet head David Zini traveled to the United Arab Emirates to meet with Mohammed Dahlan, a rival of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who has ties to members of the Palestinian technocratic group helping to administer Gaza…

Semafor spotlights Qatari minister Ali Al Thawadi, who represents Doha on the Gaza Executive Board, as the official plays a quiet but influential role in Middle East policy and Doha’s diplomatic dealings, including in efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war… 

Etihad will add a sixth daily flight from Abu Dhabi to Israel next month for a total of 42 flights per week, making Israel the destination to which the airline has the most weekly flights…

Speaking on Sunday at an event honoring the winners of the Jerusalem Unity Prize, Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the normalization of “a terrible process of brutalization,” amid ongoing settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and reports of brutality against Palestinian detainees…

Israeli software company Wix plans to lay off approximately 1,000 employees — roughly 20% of its staff — in the coming months, amid plummeting stock values and rising costs related to the company’s early adoption of AI technologies…

Israel-Canadian legal scholar and political scientist Ran Hirschl died at 62…

Manny Nosowsky, a New York Times crossword creator who had a first career as a urologist, died at 94…

Singer Mendy Worch released the video for his song “Jungle,” featuring TYH Boys. Worch said the song was inspired by a teaching from his rabbi, who shared his grandfather’s wisdom that “you don’t need to fix the whole giant jungle at once. If you just light up your own little corner, that light will start to spread. It will travel further and further until it fills the entire world.”

Journalist and educator, the mother of Janet (anthropologist and UCSF professor), Anne (co-founder of 23andMe) and the late Susan (former CEO of YouTube), Esther Hochman Wojcicki turns 85…

Public speaker, teacher and author of dozens of books on the English language, he writes a weekly column that is syndicated in newspapers throughout the U.S., Richard Lederer turns 88… Member of the House of Representatives (D-IL) since 1999, she is not seeking reelection this year, Janice Danoff “Jan” Schakowsky turns 82… Former SVP of News at NPR, after a lengthy career at the New York Daily News, The New York Times and the Associated Press, Michael Oreskes turns 72… Co-founder and CEO of Mobileye which he sold to Intel in 2017, he is also a professor at Hebrew University, Amnon Shashua turns 66… NYC real estate developer, past chair and board member of The Charles H. Revson Foundation and a former commissioner on the NYC Planning Commission, Cheryl Cohen Effron… Former brigadier general in the IDF, she has been a member of the Knesset for the Likud since 2009, currently serving as minister of transportation, Miriam “Miri” Regev turns 61… Counsel in the government affairs practice of Paul Hastings, Dina Ellis Rochkind… Photographer, her work has appeared in galleries and been published in books, Naomi Harris turns 53… Communications strategist at O’Connell & Goldberg, Eileen Esther Alkabes… South Florida entrepreneur, Sholom Zeines… Senior program officer for media and communications at Maimonides Fund, Rebecca Friedman… Former minor league baseball player, he has become one of the leading agents for NBA players, with five contracts of over $100 million each, Jason Glushon turns 41… Author of a book on the 1929 origins of the current Arab-Israeli conflict, Yardena Schwartz… CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Mark Goldfeder… Co-founder of Stories Abroad Tours and consultant on policy and advocacy for progressive causes, Arielle Gingold… Assistant professor of law at Wayne State University Law School, Benjamin L. Cavataro… Toronto-born Israeli actor and singer, best known as the protagonist of the Israeli television series “Split,” Melissa Amit Farkash turns 37… Senior manager of strategic partnerships and engagement at U.S. Pharmacopeia, Morgan A. Jacobs… Catcher in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Garrett Patrick Stubbs turns 33… Eytan Merkin… 

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are both slated to testify this morning at back-to-back House and Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearings. In the afternoon, FBI Director Kash Patel will testify before Senate Appropriations.
• The Anti-Defamation League is holding a Jewish American Heritage Month reception this evening on Capitol Hill.
• Elsewhere in Washington, the Jewish Democratic Council of America is kicking off its annual summit tonight with a reception at the Watergate Hotel. The group will honor Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and will hear from Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jason Crow (D-CO), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA).
• The funeral for former Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman, who died on Sunday, will take place this morning at Park Avenue Synagogue.
• In New York City tonight, three of the top candidates in the open congressional race in NY-12 — George Conway and Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher — will participate in a forum at the West Side Institutional Synagogue moderated by Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.
• Elsewhere in New York, the American Jewish Committee will present Cardinal Timothy Dolan with the group’s Nostra Aetate at Sixty Award, honoring Dolan’s interfaith efforts on the 60th anniversary of the groundbreaking Vatican declaration.
• Across the Hudson, the New Jersey Globe is hosting a primary debate for the Democrats running in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. ER physician and former government official Tina Shah, former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett and businessmen Brian Varela and Michael Roth will participate in tonight’s debate, which starts at 7 p.m. ET.
• Israeli Eurovision entrant Noam Battan will perform tonight when the contest’s semifinals kick off in Vienna.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

Over the last two years, the second semester of the academic year at American universities coincided with crisis and chaos. In 2024, it was anti-Israel encampments overtaking campus quads across the country; last year, it was threats from the Trump administration to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and ban foreign students. 

By comparison, the spring of 2026 has been relatively smooth sailing for research universities, even with a bit of hubbub over graduation speakers scrutinized for their stance on Israel and Gaza at a few schools, including the University of Michigan and Georgetown Law. 

But it’s not that things have gone back to the pre-Oct. 7, pre-Donald Trump normal. University administrators have just gotten better at managing an ambient sense of friction: Conflict between university leaders and activist faculty and students is still bubbling under the surface, and the threat of funding cuts at the federal level lingers. 

According to several university presidents who gathered last week at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, the task before universities is to win back the trust of skeptical Americans. 

“The world of higher education, I think, is still in turmoil,” Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier told Jewish Insider in an interview at the Milken confab. “I think the time when a university does say that’s all overblown and everything is great, that’s over. At least the vast majority of university presidents know that there are challenges, and they want to take them on.” 

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

Abe as Mentor: In eJewishPhilanthropy, William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, eulogizes former Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman, who died on Sunday. “He combined toughness and warmth in a way few leaders can. He expected seriousness. He spoke with moral clarity. He pushed younger Jewish leaders to think bigger about our responsibility to the Jewish people and the broader democratic society in which we live. He also challenged me, usually in private, though occasionally in the public pages of newspapers. Abe Foxman knew exactly when to make a point, and exactly how to make it land.” [eJP]

Miller Lite: The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer and Nick Miroff spotlight the waning influence of Stephen Miller in the second Trump administration. “White House insiders said that Miller remains a top adviser to the president, that he has a singular relationship to Trump built over the past decade, and that his job is not in jeopardy. Immigration enforcement remains a central theme of the administration and is expected to feature prominently in Trump’s midterm-election messaging. … But Trump, who has previously joked that Miller’s ‘truest feelings’ are so extreme that they should not be aired publicly, has also told others in recent weeks that he understands Miller sometimes goes too far, advisers told us.” [TheAtlantic]

President Donald Trump said that the ceasefire with Iran was on “life support” following Washington’s rejection of Tehran’s latest response to the U.S. proposal to end the war, Jewish Insider‘s Emily Jacobs reports…

CNN looks at efforts by Iran to recruit operatives in Europe to carry out attacks on Jewish targets…

The United Arab Emirates reportedly carried out strikes on Iran during the active military campaign launched by the U.S. and Israel, targeting among other things an oil refinery on the Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf…

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, speaking at the Tel Aviv Conference today,confirmed that Israel sent missile-defense batteries and operating personnel to the UAE during the war with Iran…

The Financial Times spotlights Iran’s “mosquito fleet” of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fast-attack boats that are engaging commercial and military vessels in the Strait of Hormuz…

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) and 17 other Democrats introduced a bill to ban further funding for military operations against Iran…

Trump nominated Cameron Hamilton to head FEMA, a year after Hamilton, who mounted a failed 2024 bid for Congress, was fired as the interim head of the agency…

Kevin Warsh is expected to be confirmed as the next head of the Federal Reserve as early as tomorrow…

Trump invited several business leaders to join him on his trip later this week to China, including Elon Musk, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Citi’s Jane Fraser and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, among others…

Trump announced the nominations of Kari Lake, the former head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano to be, respectively, the ambassadors to Jamaica and Slovakia…

Former Rep. Billy Long (R-MO), who has been nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Iceland, shared a three-minute clip of a speech by neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on X on Sunday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The New York Times spotlights the work of Fuentes’ acolytes to build on the antisemitic conspiracy theorist’s political movement, an effort that coalesced around a conference of influencers and fringe candidates from both parties in a sparsely attended summit; the low turnout was attributed in part to the absence of Fuentes, who distanced himself from the gathering…

Puck News does a deep dive into the recent layoffs at Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, finding that the recent decision to cut approximately 20% of the company’s staff was fueled by a combination of internal business disagreements and the “‘vibe shift’ among the MAGA base” that has divided conservatives in recent years…

A judge in Santa Clara County, Calif., ordered a Jewish prosecutor to recuse himself from a case against anti-Israel student protesters at Stanford University after the prosecutor described the incident as antisemitic in campaign literature, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Wall Street Journal’s Shira Kaplan reflects on the sanctity of Shabbat following President Donald Trump’s call for the American Jewish community to observe a “national Sabbath” this weekend…

Daniel Septimus is departing Sefaria after 13 years atop the organization, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

Australian Jewish musicians testifying on Tuesday before the country’s royal commission into antisemitism in the country detailed the yearslong ostracization they experienced from the arts community for their support for Israel…

Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur breaks down the “obvious propaganda” in a recent New York Times opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof about alleged Israeli abuses of Palestinian prisoners…

Former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, who was one of the last hostages to be freed after spending more than 700 days in Hamas captivity, called for the resignation of all members of the current Israeli government, whom he called “miserable cowards”…

Israel’s Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children released its comprehensive report on sexual violence during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and during hostages’ time in captivity…

The Knesset passed, with the support of 93 of the body’s 120 lawmakers, a law establishing a military tribunal to try terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 attacks…

E.U. member states unanimously voted to sanction Hamas leaders as well as Israeli settlers in a bid to target extremism; the vote came after Hungary, no longer under the leadership of Viktor Orbán, removed its longstanding opposition to the measure…

Israel denied entry to YouTuber Tyler Oliveira, who in recent months has posted videos suggesting that Jews were “invading” communities in New York and New Jersey…

The Israeli soldier photographed desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in a southern Lebanese village was sentenced to three weeks in a military prison, while the soldier who took the photo received a sentence of two weeks…

Iran executed a graduate student convicted of spying on behalf of the CIA and Mossad; Erfan Shakourzadeh, who attended the prestigious Iran University of Science and Technology, denied the charges in a letter written before his execution…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) met in Kyiv earlier today with Palantir CEO Alex Karp.

Acclaimed architect and master planner for the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, he also designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Daniel Libeskind turns 80…

Israeli agribusiness entrepreneur and real estate investor, he was chairman and owner of Carmel Agrexco, Gideon Bickel turns 82… Former member of the California state Senate for eight years, following six years as a member of the state Assembly, Lois Wolk turns 80… Chairman of the Israel Paralympic Committee, he served for four years as a member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Moshe “Mutz” Matalon turns 73… Former Washington correspondent for McClatchy and then the Miami Herald covering the Pentagon, James Martin Rosen turns 71… SVP and deputy general counsel at Delta Air Lines until 2024, now chief legal officer at private aviation firm Wheels Up, Matthew Knopf turns 70… Professor at Emory University School of Law, he has published over 200 articles on law, religion and Jewish law, Michael Jay Broyde turns 62… Actress known for her role as Lexi Sterling on “Melrose Place,” she also had the lead role in many Lifetime movies, Jamie Michelle Luner turns 55… Founder of strategic communications and consulting firm Hiltzik Strategies, Matthew Hiltzik turns 54… Communications officer in the D.C. office of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations until last year, Jonathan E. Kaplan… First-ever Jewish governor of Colorado, he was a successful serial entrepreneur before entering politics, Jared Polis turns 51… Professor of mathematics at Bar-Ilan University and a scientific advisor at the Y-Data school of data science in Israel, Elena Bunina turns 50… Italian politician, she is the first-ever Jewish mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro turns 50… Israeli pastry chef and parenting counselor, she is married to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Gilat Ethel Bennett turns 49… Author, blogger and public speaker, Michael Ellsberg turns 49… Senior advisor at Accelerator for America Action, Joshua Cohen… Technology and social media reporter at Bloomberg, Alexandra Sophie Levine… Executive director of government affairs at BridgeBio, Amanda Schechter Malakoff… A government affairs and public policy manager for YouTube, Erica Arbetter… Haifa-born actress and model, she is known for her lead roles in seven films since 2014, Odeya Rush turns 29…

• All eyes are on Washington today for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the nation’s capital and meeting with President Donald Trump, followed by a formal dinner in honor of the crown prince’s visit. More below.
• The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is holding a daylong conference on “Exposing and Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Political Right.”
• Elsewhere in Washington, the Aspen Cyber Summit is taking place at the Kennedy Center.
• The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly wraps up today. Speakers at this morning’s closing plenary, which features a musical performance by The Tamari Project, include Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and “Call Me Back” host Dan Senor. JI’s Lahav Harkov will be moderating a session this morning on the future of the Middle East.
• The One Israel Fund is holding its annual gala tonight in New York. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is keynoting this year’s event.
• In Turtle Bay today, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz will be joined by rapper Nicki Minaj as the two deliver remarks on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
• Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams concludes his trip to Israel today. Following a trip to Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel’s south, Adams will depart Israel for Uzbekistan.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Matthew Shea

President Donald Trump is hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman today at the White House, marking the first time MBS has visited Washington since 2018. 

Trump plans to roll out the red carpet for the visit, which includes a welcome ceremony, bilateral meeting in the Oval Office and a black-tie dinner in the evening. Tiger Woods and Elon Musk are expected to be in attendance at the dinner, among other high-profile attendees. “We’re more than meeting,” Trump said late Friday. “We’re honoring Saudi Arabia, the crown prince.” 

The visit is not an official state visit, as MBS is not Saudi Arabia’s head of state; however, the crown prince holds almost all responsibility in ruling the kingdom. 

The bilateral meeting will feature high-stakes discussions on several key issues, including the sale of F-35 fighter jets, Saudi-Israel normalization and a possible U.S.-Saudi defense pact. Experts told Jewish Insider such an agreement is likely to be modeled after the assurances Trump gave Qatar in September, in the wake of an Israeli strike on Hamas in the Gulf state, when he issued an executive order stating that the U.S. will regard “any armed attack” on Qatar “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” 

Trump announced on Monday he would approve the sale of the F-35s to Riyadh, helping the Saudis secure a long-coveted deal and making them the first country in the Middle East other than Israel to obtain the advanced fighter jets. “They want to buy. They are a great ally. We will be doing that. We will be selling them F-35s,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 

Concerns remain within the foreign policy community over the impact that the sale of F-35s will have on the military balance in the region and Israel’s qualitative military edge, which the U.S. is bound by law to uphold. Experts also cautioned the risks of transferring sensitive technology to Riyadh after Saudi naval forces conducted a joint military exercise with China last month. Israel has requested that such a sale be conditioned on the kingdom joining the Abraham Accords, however Trump made no mention of such a provision.

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

• President Donald Trump is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, today for meetings with senior officials. He met earlier today with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• Also in Riyadh, the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum kicked off earlier today. Speakers at the daylong summit include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the White House’s David Sacks, White House advisor Elon Musk, Palantir’s Alex Karp, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Amazon’s Andy Jassy, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Alphabet’s Ruth Porat, BDT & MSD Partners’ Dina Powell McCormick and the Saudi ministers of energy, sports, investment, finance, economy, tourism and housing.
• An Israeli delegation is in Doha, Qatar, today for renewed ceasefire and hostage-release talks.
• In Washington, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing on East Africa. This afternoon, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the U.S.’ missile defense budget request.
• At 10:45 a.m. ET, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will deliver remarks during the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Global Security Forum in Washington.
• Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) are planning to force a floor vote as soon as today on condemning the potential gift of a Qatari luxury jet to President Donald Trump.
• Dan Senor will deliver 92NY’s annual State of World Jewry address tonight in New York.

A QUICK WORD WITH Gabby deutch

President Donald Trump arrived in the Middle East today for the first major international trip of his second term, where he’ll visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He traveled to the region just as his administration secured a major diplomatic breakthrough: the release of Edan Alexander, the final living American hostage, from Hamas captivity in Gaza. 

But Trump will not be visiting Israel to herald Alexander’s release. There will be no victorious photo shoot with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because all reports indicate that the U.S. secured Alexander’s release without even informing the Israelis about the negotiations. Trump will not be visiting Israel at all, dealing another blow to America’s closest ally in the region at a time when ties appear to be straining between Jerusalem and Washington.

Instead, the president will be meeting with the leader of a country that serves as a chief sponsor of Alexander’s captors — just days after Trump accepted the gift of a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family to use as Air Force One, which quickly sparked concern from ethics experts, congressional Democrats and critics of the Gulf state, which has close ties to Hamas leaders. 

The gift of the Qatari plane may be a harbinger of an administration that prioritizes business deals over national security. No further diplomatic victories are expected. After Trump said last week that he would make a “very, very big announcement” before his trip to the Middle East, many observers thought that news would be related to the region. But a White House spokesperson told Jewish Insider that it was instead referring to a drug-pricing executive order he signed on Monday. 

The trip is generating a quiet panic of sorts among members of the pro-Israel and Jewish communal establishment over how the administration’s primary focus on mega dealmaking is eclipsing traditional foreign policy objectives — rendering moot much of the congressional lobbying and advocacy work promoting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as Israel’s own approach to its relationship with Washington. 

A message circulating among insiders this week captures the mood: “All the investment in communal organizations and institutions like Congress are meaningless in this moment and pale in comparison to having a sovereign wealth fund that can get Trump to change his tune on Houthis, Iran, Gaza etc.” (Saudi officials reportedly backed a U.S.-Houthi ceasefire last week, and have been encouraging of U.S. nuclear talks with Iran in an effort to bring more economic stability to the region.) 

Indeed, White House officials have said that national security is not expected to be a major part of Trump’s conversations this week. Rather, trade and investment deals are the focus of the visits, along with announcements of defense spending agreements. 

In the recent past, a trip like this might have been likely to feature talk of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said last week that he expects to be able to announce progress on additional countries joining the Abraham Accords in the next year. But at least publicly, progress on normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia has stalled. 

“It looks like it fell off a cliff,” David Makovsky, a distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told JI. 

A report from Reuters indicates the U.S. might give Saudi Arabia what has been one of its primary asks of Washington — support for a civil nuclear program in the Gulf monarchy — without tying it to the demand that Saudi Arabia establish diplomatic ties with Israel, as was previously expected in a deal. The U.S. also recently approved a major arms sale to Riyadh.

“What you’re seeing is that President Trump has an idea of what is in our interest, and that comes first,” Dennis Ross, a former State Department official who worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations, told The Washington Post. “He defines the nature of our interests abroad not through a geopolitical or security context, but an economic, financial and trade frame. I think President Trump might have the view that ‘We give [Israel] $4 billion a year in military assistance. I do plenty to support the Israelis.’”

Leading up to the trip, reports emerged suggesting that Trump is unhappy with Netanyahu’s decision to launch another major offensive in Gaza. This isn’t just a policy disagreement; it’s about Trump’s personal interest in developing the region, according to NBC News, which reported that he thinks further destruction in Gaza will make it harder to rebuild. 

Ultimately, it appears that this trip could be a harbinger for the second Trump administration’s approach to the region. With Trump-branded projects being announced in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, a Houthi-U.S. ceasefire secured and a potential Iran nuclear agreement on the horizon, the “art of the deal” is looking like it will leave Israel largely out of the equation.

Sana’a Showdown: The New York Times’ Helene Cooper, Greg Jaffe, Jonathan Swan, Eric Schmitt and Maggie Haberman do a deep dive into the Trump administration’s decision to reach a ceasefire with the Houthis in Yemen. “The sudden declaration of victory over the Houthis demonstrates how some members of the president’s national security team underestimated a group known for its resilience. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of Central Command, had pressed for a forceful campaign, which the defense secretary and the national security adviser initially supported, according to several officials with knowledge of the discussions. But the Houthis reinforced many of their bunkers and weapons depots throughout the intense bombing. … What’s more, Mr. Trump’s new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, was concerned that an extended campaign against the Houthis would drain military resources away from the Asia-Pacific region. His predecessor, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., shared that view before he was fired in February.” [NYTimes]

Turning on Their Former Boss: In The Wall Street Journal, Jamie Kirchick reacts to a recent smear campaign by former staffers for Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) targeting the Pennsylvania Democrat. “Conflating Mr. Fetterman’s political evolution with his allegedly declining mental health (dressed up as concern for his well-being) is extremely cynical in light of the debate that ensued after he suffered a stroke during the 2022 Senate campaign. … At the time, progressives castigated anyone who questioned Mr. Fetterman’s fitness for office as an ‘ableist.’ Now, when he’s clearly improved, they claim he’s unfit to serve. Attributing Mr. Fetterman’s political maturation to mental illness is shameful considering the courage it has taken him to speak publicly about his depression. For elected officials especially, it can be difficult to broach such a personal subject. Mr. Fetterman should be commended for discussing it openly. He’s doing for mental health what former First Lady Betty Ford did for addiction, raising awareness about a problem suffered by millions in shame and silence. He is encouraging people to seek professional help. How quickly progressives, usually so careful not to stigmatize people for their mental health, do an about-face when the target of such accusations espouses political views opposing theirs.” [WSJ]

The Trump-Bibi Divide: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg looks at the divergence of opinion between the Israeli public and the Israeli government on how Israel should pursue the release of the remaining 58 hostages. “The release was the result of a back-channel dialogue between the United States and the terrorist group ahead of Donald Trump’s arrival in the region this week. Announcing the news on social media, the president heralded the event not as a one-off, but as a step ‘to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones.’ Israel was not involved in the process and, according to Axios, found out about the negotiations only through its intelligence services. Some reports have cast this disconnect as indicative of a chasm between Trump and Israel. But this is a misreading. The divide is not between the president and Israel so much as between the president and Israel’s leader. Most Israelis support what Trump is doing — and oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the war in Gaza.” [TheAtlantic]

The Pentagon is downgrading its bomber fleet in the Indo-Pacific, replacing the B-2 bombers with B-52s, following the implementation of a ceasefire between the U.S. and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen…

The Trump administration levied sanctions on three Iranians and an Iranian company tied to Iran’s nuclear weapons program…

The State Department announced a roughly $1.4 billion arms sale to the United Arab Emirates on Monday, days before President Donald Trump is set to arrive in the Gulf nation…

The Wall Street Journal suggests that Trump “surprised and sidelined Israel” in the run-up to his Middle East trip, which does not include a stop in the Jewish state…

The negotiations to free American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander reportedly originated with Hamas‘ outreach to former Arab Americans for Trump leader Bishara Bahbah…

A sweeping federal tax bill unveiled on Monday as part of Republicans’ budget reconciliation plan includes legislation that would expand the executive branch’s ability to revoke tax exemptions from nonprofits accused of supporting terrorism, a push that was once broadly bipartisan but ran into strong Democratic opposition at the end of the previous Congress, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) wrote to President Donald Trump last week criticizing his decision to dismiss multiple members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council appointed by President Joe Biden, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Democratic National Committee is moving forward with an effort to void the election of DNC Vice Chairs David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta, the latter of whom is a  Pennsylvania state representative, following allegations that the original February election was conducted in a flawed manner; Hogg accused the DNC of attacking him for his PAC’s strategy to back primary challengers to older elected Democrats…

Rob Sands, who as Iowa’s state auditor is the only Democrat to hold statewide office, announced his bid for governor following Gov. Kim Reynolds’ announcement that she will not seek a third term; Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) also filed paperwork on Monday to enter the race…

The University of San Francisco has become the latest school to divest from Israel-related companies. The school’s endowment fund will sell off its direct investments in Palantir, L3Harris, GE Aerospace and RTX Corporation by June 1, the university confirmed, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The former Czech textile factory where Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Jews reopened as a museum honoring the efforts of Schindler, his wife Emilie and the family that owned the building…

An Iranian government spokesperson said that preparations for Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Tehran at a still-undetermined date “are underway”…

The Kurdish PKK agreed to end its decades-long conflict against Turkey and dissolve itself, shortly after a call from its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in Turkey, to do so…

Writer and illustrator Jack Katz, who pioneered the graphic novel, died at 97…

Corporate executive and attorney Robert Shapiro, who popularized the use of aspartame through branding the sugar substitute as NutraSweet, died at 86…

Former Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander was reunited with his extended family on Monday night at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv, hours after being released from captivity in Gaza.

Retired NFL offensive lineman for seven NFL teams, now a regional manager at Rocksolid, Brian de la Puente turns 40… 

South African-born attorney, now based in London, Sir Sydney Lipworth QC turns 94… Professor emerita of Yiddish literature at Harvard University, she is presently a distinguished senior fellow at The Tikvah Fund, Ruth Wisse turns 89… Emmy Award-winning film, television and stage actress, Zohra Lampert turns 88… Academy Award-winning actor and producer, Harvey Keitel turns 86… Ophthalmologist in South Florida, Dr. Joel Sandberg turns 82… Former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at American Jewish University, Samuel Edelman turns 77… Professor of mathematics at Princeton since 1987, he was a winner of a 1991 MacArthur genius fellowship, Sergiu Klainerman turns 75… Former FDA commissioner during the 1990s, then chief scientific officer for COVID-19 response during the Biden administration, David A. Kessler turns 74… Retired editor and columnist for the New York Post, he was also managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, Eric Fettmann turns 72… Chief rabbi of the city of Shoham in central Israel, chairman of the Tzohar organization and rabbi for the Ezra youth movement, Rabbi David Stav turns 65… Founder and former CEO of LRN, a legal research, ethics and compliance management firm, Dov Seidman turns 61… Immediate past chair of JFNA’s National Women’s Philanthropy Board and past chair of the Hartford (Conn.) Federation, Carolyn Gitlin… Retired NFL defensive lineman, he has played for the Raiders and Panthers, Josh Heinrich Taves, aka Josh Heinrich, turns 53… Ice hockey player, she won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Sara Ann DeCosta turns 48… U.S. senator (R-AR), Tom Cotton turns 48… Chief community and Jewish life officer at The Jewish Federations of North America, Sarah Eisenman… Former Israel director for J Street, then the chief of staff for Israel’s Ministry for Regional Cooperation, Yael Patir… Member of the U.K.’s House of Lords since February, she was previously a member of the House of Commons, Baroness Luciana Berger turns 44… Software entrepreneur, Google project manager, then Facebook engineering lead, and co-founder in 2008 of Asana, Justin Rosenstein turns 42… Israeli rapper, singer, songwriter and actor, known by his stage name Tuna, Itay Zvulun turns 41… Actress, writer, producer and director, best known as the creator, writer and star of the HBO series “Girls,” Lena Dunham turns 39… Hannah Sirdofsky… Co-founder in 2018 of Manna Tree Partners, Gabrielle “Ellie” Rubenstein… Chief of staff and senior program manager at Jigsaw, a unit within Google, Raquel Saxe Gelb… A clinical social work intern in Philadelphia, Bela Galit Krifcher… Graduating from Columbia Law School next Sunday, Dore Lev Feith turns 29… Director of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, Jesse Martin Arm… Gold medalist for Israel in rhythmic gymnastics at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Linoy Ashram turns 26…