• Vice President JD Vance is in Israel today for meetings with senior officials. The vice president had separate meetings earlier today with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More below.
• In a ceremony at the president’s residence in Jerusalem tonight, Herzog is awarding the 2025 Presidential Medal of Honor to nine individuals, including Dr. Miriam Adelson, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Israeli historian Dina Porat, entrepreneur Yossi Vardi and Druze leader Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif. Read more in eJewishPhilanthropy here.
• Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) is slated to visit Lakewood, N.J., today as part of her outreach to the state’s Jewish community ahead of next month’s gubernatorial election. Sherrill’s visit comes as Republican Jack Ciattarelli faces criticism for a recent comment, made by his Muslim affairs advisor at a campaign event over the weekend, that the advisor wasn’t “taking money from Jews.”

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

One of the defining characteristics of our age is the utter lack of institutional gatekeepers and red lines against hate in our politics and culture. Extremist rhetoric, antisemitism, racism and approval of political violence are all becoming commonplace in our discourse, to the point where Americans have become numb to the crazy. 

Just take a look at the headlines over the last month of scandals that have captured national attention — and would have been unthinkable not long ago. 

Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, withdrew himself from consideration yesterday after belated backlash over his history of racist and antisemitic comments — including a recently revealed text message chain where he said he has a “Nazi streak.” We reported on Ingrassia’s extremist record in May, revealing a string of antisemitic and racist public social media posts, including this shocking comment on X days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack: “I think we could all admit at this stage that Israel/Palestine, much like Ukraine before it, and BLM before that, and covid/vaccine before that, was yet another psyop.”

Ingrassia also has been an ally of Nick Fuentes, a virulently antisemitic podcast host and far-right influencer who has long trafficked in Holocaust denial. He attended a rally in 2024 for Fuentes, and in 2023 defended Fuentes after he was banned from Twitter.

Ample documentation of Ingrassia’s bigotry didn’t stunt his nomination, though the new shocking revelations from the private text chain caused key Republicans — most notably, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rick Scott (R-FL) and James Lankford (R-OK) — to withdraw their support and end his chances of getting confirmed.  

But the fact that he got as close as he did to receiving a hearing for the plum role shows just how much antisemitism is becoming normalized.

Graham Platner, the embattled far-left candidate in Maine’s Senate race, already under scrutiny over social media posts declaring himself a communist and calling the police “bastards,” acknowledged he has a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest that his just-departed political director characterized as “anti-Semitic.” A former acquaintance of Platner’s said he called the tattoo “my Totkenpof,” referring to a symbol adopted by a Nazi SS unit.

Platner is facing Maine Gov. Janet Mills, the favorite of the party establishment (for good reason) in the Democratic Senate primary. Platner has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), praised by several progressive senators and backed by a number of leading labor unions, including the UAW.

Despite Platner’s remarkable baggage and Nazi-themed tattoo, Sanders still is standing behind him. ”I personally think he is an excellent candidate. We don’t have enough candidates in this country who are prepared to take on the powers to be and fight for the working class,” Sanders said Tuesday, when pressed by reporters about the tattoo allegations.

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

Threat Assessment: In The Wall Street Journal, Elisha Wiesel raises concerns about what a potential victory by New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani could mean for the city’s Jewish community. “Mr. Mamdani’s messaging has made class war and hatred of Jews great again. Smiling, polished, articulate, Mr. Mamdani lies. He lies about Israel as easily as he lies that he can freeze rent and offer free goods through higher taxes, as though the corporations and billionaires he targets can’t relocate. New Yorkers aren’t dumb, but we’re busy. Mr. Mamdani is lying to those too busy to learn the truth. His attack points: ‘occupation,’ ‘apartheid,’ ‘genocide.’ The casualties: truth, friendships, coexistence for New York’s Jews. Unlike Andrew Cuomo, he seeks to ‘other’ us and divide the city. Mr. Mamdani blamed Hamas’s butchery on the ‘occupation’ on Oct. 8, while Israel was reeling. He omitted that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and that Hamas built rockets and tunnels with billions in aid.” [WSJ]

The Two Gazas: In The Washington Post, Palestinian lawyer and former Hamas political prisoner Moumen Al-Natour warns of the threat that Hamas’ continued governance poses for the areas of the Gaza Strip it still controls. “I have been deeply involved in Gaza’s underground civil society movement for many years, much of which was spent preparing for an unknown moment where we would have a chance to be free of Hamas’s cruel domination and break the cycle of war with Israel. That moment is now here, and I am certain that this is the chance for which I spent my life protesting, organizing and suffering. It was worth the scars and the terror to see that there can be a different future here. But on the other side of the yellow line exists another Gaza that will do anything to prevent this from happening. Over there the war continues, albeit not between Israel and Hamas but between Hamas and Gaza itself.” [WashPost]

Fear Factor: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens urges his readers to pause for thought as he lays out the reasons why many Jewish New Yorkers harbor fears concerning the views of mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. “What does it mean for Jewish New Yorkers that a mayoral candidate who pledges to fight antisemitism also proudly avows the very ideology that is the source of so much of the hatred Jews now face? Why, right after Oct. 7, could he do no better than to issue a mealy-mouthed acknowledgment that Jews had died the day before? Why couldn’t he even denounce the perpetrators of the most murderous antisemitic rampage in the past 80 years? … In the long, sorry tale of anti-Jewish politics, it hasn’t just been the prejudice of a few that’s led Jews to grief. It’s been the supine indifference of the many. That’s what frightens Jews like me.” [NYTimes]

Restraining the Hard Right: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg cautions that while President Donald Trump’s new Gaza agreement earned cheers in Israel, it has begun to restrain the Israeli hard‑right’s settlement ambitions — a dynamic that could determine whether his peace deal endures and that will impact Israel’s path forward. “According to the agreement, in the early stages of the current deal, Israel will remain in control of much of Gaza’s uninhabited territory until Hamas is disarmed and displaced. These are precisely the areas that the far right hopes to settle and even annex to Israel. Hamas is dragging its feet on releasing the bodies of dead Israeli hostages, publicly executing Palestinians opposed to its rule, and showing no sign that it intends to give up its weapons. The Israeli army and Hamas are still skirmishing along the cease-fire line. Even if none of this is enough to capsize the accord, it will likely delay further implementation and provide a window for the settlers and their political allies to try to insinuate themselves into those parts of Gaza. Only Trump can stop this from happening — at least until Israel holds new elections next year that could boot Netanyahu and his partners from power.” [TheAtlantic]

The Trump administration is nearing an agreement with the University of Virginia — the first public university to settle with the federal government — after months of negotiations amid a broader crackdown by the White House on college campuses that included the removal of the school’s president earlier this year…

Efforts to establish a multinational peacekeeping force in Gaza are facing hurdles as countries hesitate to send troops to the enclave due to Hamas’ continued control across broad swaths of the Gaza Strip…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi following media reports of disagreements between the two over Israel’s military strategy; Hanegbi, following his firing, said that the events of Oct. 7, 2023, “must be thoroughly investigated to ensure that the necessary lessons are learned and to help restore the public trust that has been shaken”…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Rep. David Trone (D-MD) are co-chairing a new national campaign aimed at implementing congressional term limits to curb the degree to which Capitol Hill is “dominated by career politicians, buoyed by re-election rates that routinely exceed 90 percent, who seem more concerned with clinging to power than serving the public”… 

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will announce her future political plans following next month’s vote on California redistricting…

State senators in North Carolina approved a new congressional map that would give the GOP an extra seat in the Tarheel State, amid a broader push by the Trump administration for mid-decade redistricting that would secure additional seats…

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, widely viewed as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, plans to publish a memoir early next year, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…

The Federman family is transferring control of its 29% stake in Maccabi Tel Aviv to Mark, Zyg and Leonard Wilf, and will continue as limited partners in the team…

OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved is transitioning to a new role as the company’s chair following his diagnosis of ALS…

Israel received the bodies of Kibbutz Nir Oz residents Tamir Adar and Arie Zalmanowicz from Gaza; Adar was killed during the Oct. 7 attacks, while Zalmanowicz, one of the kibbutz’s founders, was injured when he was taken hostage, and is believed to have died in Hamas captivity in November 2023…

The Financial Times looks at Iran’s efforts to speed up production of solar energy projects as the Islamic Republic faces energy shortages due to international sanctions and aging infrastructure…

Former Gaza Humanitarian Foundation head Rev. Johnnie Moore is joining Pepperdine University as its vice chancellor in Washington, D.C., and managing director of the school’s master of Middle East policy studies program in its school of public policy…

The body of Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese kibbutz worker who was taken hostage by Hamas and killed in captivity, was cremated in a funeral ceremony in Nepal after his remains were repatriated earlier this week after being turned over by the terror group in Gaza…

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the author of The Freedom Seder, died at 92…

Eli Taher, the chairman of Yad L’Banim, which commemorates fallen soldiers, planted a tree yesterday in honor of his son, Yossi Taher, who was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, in the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund’s “Iron Swords Forest,” which was inaugurated yesterday outside Kibbutz Beeri. In his speech at the ceremony, Taher, whose brother and another son were also killed while serving in the military, discussed his struggles to overcome his grief. 

“Every day when I wake up, at 5 a.m., I set for myself a hill to climb. I imagine my two boys sitting on that hill, with a bonfire and a bottle of beer. And every day, I climb that hill. I fall, I get hurt, I yell, I cry, I laugh, but at the end of every day, I drink that beer with my kids. Every day, I overcome that loss and destruction,” Taher said. “Like a tree can grow, so can we, bereaved families, continue to grow despite the pain and loss.”

Read more in eJewishPhilanthropy here.

Actor and producer, best known for his roles as a child actor starting at age 6, Jonathan Lipnicki turns 35…

Australian philanthropist, real estate investor and longtime chairman of Westfield Corporation, Frank Lowy turns 95… Pioneer of the venture capital and private equity industries, he is chairperson and co-founder of Primetime Partners, Alan Patricof turns 91… Retired EVP of the Orthodox Union, he was previously chairman of NYC-based law firm Proskauer Rose, Allen Fagin… Professor of education at American Jewish University, Ron Wolfson, Ph.D…. Actor who starred in many high-grossing films such as “Jurassic Park,” “Independence Day” and sequels to both, Jeff Goldblum turns 73… Agent for artists, sculptors and photographers, he is a son of Lillian Vernon, David Hochberg… Retired vice-chair of SKDK, she was the longtime CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen turns 67… Composer and lyricist, he has won two Grammys, two Emmys and a Tony, Marc Shaiman turns 66… Author of two novels and three other books, Susan Jane Gilman… Former NYC commissioner for international affairs, Edward Alexander Mermelstein turns 58… Bethesda, Md., resident, Eric Matthew Fingerhut… President of Argentina since December 2023, Javier Milei turns 55… Chief of staff of The Associated Jewish Federation of Baltimore, Michelle Gordon… Director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, Albert Stankowski turns 54… Screenwriter and executive producer, Eric Guggenheim turns 52… Actor best known for playing D.J. Conner on the long-running series “Roseanne” and its spin-off show, “The Conners,” Michael Fishman turns 44… Partner at West End Strategy Team, Samantha Friedman Kupferman… Dana Max Tarley Sicherman… Sports radio talk show host and podcaster, Danny Parkins turns 39… Psychotherapist with a private practice in White Plains, Maayan Tregerman, LCSW-R… Journalist and author, Ross Barkan turns 36… One of Israel’s most popular singers, his YouTube channel has over 2.4 billion views, Omer Adam turns 32… Freelance reporter, Ryan Torok…

• President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are spending the day in England for a royal visit, where they will be welcomed by King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle.
• This morning, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a markup of bills aimed at reorganizing and reforming the State Department. Read JI’s breakdown of the legislation here.
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote to advance a series of nominees out of committee, including Michel Issa to be ambassador to Lebanon; Richard Buchan to be ambassador to Morocco; Ben Black to lead the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation; and a second vote on the nomination of Mike Waltz, the former national security advisor, to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N., in order to prevent a procedural challenge from Democrats.
• Also on the Hill, the U.S. Helsinki Commission will hold a briefing on “conspiracy theories, antisemitism and democratic decline.”
• The annual Defense of Freedom-Federalist Society Education, Law & Policy Conference examining the most pressing legal and policy issues in education kicks off today in Washington. Featured speakers include Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth Marcus. One of the panels will focus on discussing the federal government’s efforts to combat antisemitism. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A new poll of young conservatives between the ages of 18-34 commissioned by the Washington Free Beacon shows that Gen Z Republicans are decidedly more supportive of Israel than their liberal counterparts, but that there is a notable faction of those who take a more critical view towards the Jewish state. 

The Echelon Insights poll also found that anti-Israel and antisemitic podcasters like Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens are viewed favorably by this right-wing cohort — even among many of the respondents who say they support Israel and recognize antisemitism is a problem. 

Carlson’s favorability rating among these Gen Z conservatives, for instance, is 50%, with only 11% viewing him unfavorably. Owens has a similarly strong 49/14% favorability rating. The Holocaust-denying podcaster Darryl Cooper isn’t nearly as well-known, but is viewed positively by those who listen to him, holding a 26/8% favorability rating.

At the same time, pro-Israel podcasters like Ben Shapiro are also viewed very favorably; Shapiro’s favorability rating with this cohort is 50/16%. Fox News host Mark Levin isn’t quite as well-known, but holds a stellar 29/7% favorability rating. Asked about “Jews” generally, half of respondents hold a favorable view with only 12% holding an unfavorable opinion.

The encouraging news? A number of these podcast listeners are tuning in to these transgressive shows featuring conspiracy theories, anti-Israel views and some antisemitism, but many are not being persuaded by them. For all their vitriolic attacks against the Jewish state, 54% of Carlson’s viewers and 58% of Owens’ audience have a favorable view towards Israel.

But the gloomier finding is that a notable minority on the right holds bigoted views towards Jews and is critical of Israel. Between 20-25% of these Gen Z conservatives consistently express anti-Israel or antisemitic views — while support for Israel is not nearly as widespread as it is among older conservatives. While 40% of respondents said they side with Israel in its current conflict, about one-fifth (22%) said they side with the Palestinians. About the same percentage of Gen Z conservatives said they agree that “Israel is a colonizer built on the suffering of others.”

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

Out in Left Field: Former Obama administration official Ken Baer writes in the Washington Post about how DSA-affiliated New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is an affront to Democratic Party principles. “It is “spineless politics” to do precisely what [Sen. Chris] Van Hollen, [Gov. Kathy] Hochul and other Democrats have done — and that more Democrats presumably will do in coming days — by casting aside the party’s time-honored liberal principles to back Mamdani. Addressing the affordability crisis is noble. But who’s against affordability? What matters is not just a party’s policy ends, but also its means and its rationale for pursuing them. In the months since President Donald Trump’s victory, Democrats have made no progress in articulating what they are for — and why … At best, this failure presents Democrats as inauthentic as they explain and backpedal when confronted with extreme beliefs from the party’s left but offer nothing in replacement. At worst, it allows the left — within and outside the party — to define the party” [WashPost]

Good Cop, Bad Cop: In The Free Press, Michael Doran, senior fellow and director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute, weighs in on what he describes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “good cop-bad cop” routine. “Israel’s ability to go on offense places it in a rare category among U.S. allies. Most lack the will or capacity to wage war independently. Critics like Tucker Carlson depict Israel’s independence as a liability, dragging America into fights that don’t serve its interests. Trump sees the reverse: Unilateral Israeli military operations spare American forces and serve U.S. strategic goals. In just two years, Israel has blunted Iran’s nuclear ambitions, hammered Hezbollah, neutered Hamas, and weakened the Houthis—achievements many Americans view as enhancing their own security.” [FreePress]

History Lesson: In The Atlantic, Arash Azizi revisits the history of Zionism amid growing use of the term as a slur. “One summer in Brooklyn, a controversy broke out in my dog-park group chat. Dedicated to the upkeep of the park and welfare of our canines, our chat had never indulged in politics before. But someone was now complaining that a dog-insurance company was ‘Zionist,’ and a passionate debate ensued … To criticize someone for supporting, say, the Israeli government or its war in Gaza is one thing. But this charge is broader and vaguer, uttered sometimes in circumstances with no reference to Israel, and in many cases as little more than an anti-Semitic dog whistle. I’m probably the only Middle Eastern member of that park group chat. I’m also a historian by training. I jumped in to say that I didn’t think Zionist should be used as a term of derision. Zionism is a nationalist movement, I insisted, and like other nationalist movements, it has a story rooted in the 19th century—one that is neither all good nor all bad. To call someone a Zionist as an insult is as strange as attacking someone for being a Ghanaian or Chinese nationalist. I’m not sure how many people I convinced. But to me the history of Zionism bears revisiting as a reminder of its impetus and early diversity.” [Atlantic]

Israeli and U.S. officials continue to lament the failure of the Israeli strike in Doha, Qatar, both substantively and diplomatically, with one Israeli official telling Axiosthat “none of the top Hamas leaders were killed” and an American official saying they’d advised Israel to take steps to rectify its relationship with the Trump administration…

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) wrote to Kathy Goldenberg, the president of the New Jersey State Board of Education, on Monday urging the state to reject calls from the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for the state’s education boards to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Advocates with the Anti-Defamation League are set to lobby lawmakers this week on a series of actions related to antisemitism, including a push to jump-start the stalled Antisemitism Awareness Act, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

A new plaintiff was added to a lawsuit brought by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The complaint alleges that a Jewish graduate student was cornered in a campus parking lot by masked individuals calling for death to Israel and Zionists and faced a “campaign of hostility” inside his lab, and the university took no action when it was reported. The original complaint focused on a tenured linguistics professor who publicly harassed an Israeli postdoctoral researcher at the school…

Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, has quit the ice cream company, saying that the business has been “silenced” by parent company Unilever on social issues; Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed in recent years over issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… 

Israel presented Syria with a new security agreement several weeks ago, Axios reports, and Syria is now preparing a counterproposal. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and U.S. envoy Tom Barrack are set to meet in London on Wednesday to discuss the proposal…

Israeli strikes in Gaza City have reportedly cut off internet and telephone services in the city… 

Iran executed Babal Shahbazi, whom it accused of spying for Israel, Iranian state media reported today…

The U.S. and China are finalizing a deal to transfer 80% of ownership of TikTok’s U.S. business to an investor consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. The new U.S. app will still utilize ByteDance’s algorithm, and Oracle will handle its user data in Texas…

Carl Heastie, the Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, is expected to endorse New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani this week, The New York Times reports, one of several state leaders in the party who have thus far resisted doing so, while Jay Jacobs, chair of the New York Democratic Party, told several people he does not plan to endorse Mamdani. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, is reportedly set to endorse him on Monday…

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced a bill that would “prohibit state and local law enforcement from arresting foreign nationals within the United States” solely based on warrants from the International Criminal Court, as Mamdani has threatened to do to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…

Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) appeared on Fox News’ “Special Report” with Bret Baier on Tuesday evening for a discussion on improving political civility, where the duo condemned the use of political rhetoric equating one’s political opponents to Nazis or Adolf Hitler. “When you see dangerous rhetoric like fascist and Nazism and authoritarianism, and the end of democracy, that’s a permission, that takes us down a path where the inevitable next step is violence, and that’s what we see,” McCormick said…

The Democratic PR firm SKDK terminated its contract with the Israeli government, which was meant to run until March 2026. Originally contracted to raise the profile of the Bibas family tragedy, a spokesperson for the firm declined to tell Politico why the deal was cut short…

Gordon Gee, who served as president of five universities, is joining Brownstein as a strategic consulting adviser for the firm’s higher education task force…

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev cleared Uber for entry into Israel’s taxi market, a significant move for the country, which has a strong taxi drivers union…

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa signed an executive order on Tuesday designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations…

The Wall Street Journal reviews Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot’s new book, While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, calling it “an agonizing litany of might-have-beens” and saying “Katz and Bohbot could have titled their book ‘While Israel Was Busy Doing Other Things.’” Read JI’s Lahav Harkov’s interview with Katz here…

Speaking at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called out European countries for pushing for a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, charging that “it destroyed the negotiations for the hostages.” …

Political commentator, author and former host of “The View,” Meghan McCain accepted the Champion of Israel Award yesterday at the American Friends of Magen David Adom Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City…

The Air Force said it has started upgrading the luxury jet donated by Qatar for use as Air Force One…

The New York Times reports on growing turmoil at Manhattan’s iconic Pierre Hotel, where Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the building’s largest shareholder, now faces backlash from residents over a proposed $2 billion sale involving foreign investors that could force them out…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the transformation of Manhattan’s 666 Fifth Avenue, once a high-profile real estate debacle under Jared Kushner’s ownership, now rebounding under Brookfield’s leadership with major renovations and new tenants…

TikTok recently removed at least two antisemitic items from TikTok Shop, a spokesperson told Axios, in a sign of the platform’s recent attempts to address antisemitism…

A new Broadway play, “Giant,” will explore the life of children’s author Roald Dahl and his controversial moments around antisemitism and Israel, in particular, including incendiary comments about the First Lebanon War and the Holocaust…

A delegation of New York State legislators met with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (center) in Jerusalem on Monday. From left: Assemblyman AJ Beephan, Minority Leader Will Barclay, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, Assemblyman Lester Chang and Assemblyman Daniel Norber.

Comedian, writer and actress, she was a frequent guest of Johnny Carson on the “Tonight Show,” Rita Rudner turns 72…

Fashion designer, known worldwide for his leading-edge corporate uniforms, Stan M. Herman turns 97… U.S. senator (R-IA) since 1981, Chuck Grassley turns 92… Investment banker who once served as a NYC deputy mayor, Peter J. Solomon turns 87… Newbery Honor-winning author of many young adult books, Gail Carson Levine turns 78… Author of 11 books, Joshua Muravchik turns 78… Former president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and then president of Gallaudet University, T. Alan Hurwitz turns 78… Rochester attorney, he has held positions at the UJA-Federation of New York and the Rochester Jewish Federation, Frank Hagelberg… Retired judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Jeremy Don Fogel turns 76… Professional tennis player who achieved a world ranking of No. 5 in 1980, Harold Solomon turns 73… Author, comic book writer and editor, best known as group editor of the Spider-Man books at Marvel Comics, Daniel Fingeroth turns 72… Israeli businessman with real estate holdings in Israel and NYC, Mody Kidon turns 71… Author and graphic designer, Ellen Kahan Zager… Former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Rina Frenkel turns 69… Rabbi of the New North London Synagogue with over 3,700 members, Jonathan Wittenberg turns 68… Former consultant at Quick Hits News, Elliott S. Feigenbaum… Journalist, best-selling author including two books on the Obama presidency and Emmy Award-winning executive producer, Richard Wolffe turns 57… Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the last 18 months of the Biden administration, Mandy Krauthamer Cohen turns 47… Former regional communications director and spokesperson for President Obama, now a partner at Seven Letter, Adam Abrams… Member of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education, Nick Melvoin turns 40… Former Obama White House speechwriter who has since written a best-selling comedic memoir, David Litt turns 39… Principal product manager for CathWorks, Adina Shatz… National health-care reporter The Washington Post covering the FDA, Rachel Roubein… Associate at Strand Partners in London, Natalie Edelstein Jarvis… Founder of the Israel Summit at Harvard and board member of the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization, Max August…

• Senior Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibah warned in a just-published interview that Israel’s potential annexation of the West Bank would constitute a “red line” for Abu Dhabi that would “end the vision of regional integration.” We’re keeping an eye on the diplomatic dynamics following Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich‘s announcement earlier today that Israel plans to annex approximately 82% of the West Bank.
• This morning, the Middle East and North Africa subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will sit for a closed-door, member-only roundtable with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee “on key issues facing the bilateral relationship as it relates to Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term for the West Bank.
• We’re monitoring Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s upcoming trip to Israel, first reported yesterday. Rubio is slated to attend the inauguration of the Pilgrims’ Road at the City of David in Jerusalem on Sept. 15. Read more here from JI’s Melissa Weiss.
• We’re also keeping an eye on Sacramento, where California legislators are days from the end of the legislative year and have yet to take up a bipartisan antisemitism bill. Jewish groups in the state have voiced support for the legislation, which has faced pushback from the California Teachers Association.
• Tonight in New York, journalist Yaakov Katz will speak in conversation with The New York Times’ Bret Stephens about Katz’s new book, While Israel Slept, written with Amir Bohbot.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

As Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of a planned takeover of Gaza City and rejects ceasefire proposals that fall short of a comprehensive deal to end the war and release all of the hostages, Jerusalem finds itself facing calls both at home and abroad against further entrenchment in Gaza.

At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing pressure from Washington to end the war — with a decisive victory over Hamas.

President Donald Trump signaled his growing weariness with a protracted war in an exchange with The Daily Caller, published earlier this week, in which he said Israel is “gonna have to get that war over with,” noting that Israel “may be winning the war, but they’re not winning the world of public relations.” Netanyahu said at his weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday that Trump had instructed Israel to go into Gaza City with “full force.”

Days earlier, the president held a White House meeting that included Jared Kushner and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss a “day-after” plan for the Gaza Strip. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer scrapped a planned meeting with World Food Program head Cindy McCain to fly to Washington for consultations.

Taken together, Trump’s comments and last week’s gathering underscore the president’s dwindling patience with the ongoing war — concerns that have been highlighted in Israeli media reports in recent days.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported over the weekend that Trump, frustrated by Hamas’ intransigence, is pushing Netanyahu to move more quickly to decisively defeat Hamas. That could pose a challenge for Israel, which has not been able to declare “total victory” against Hamas in nearly two years but now faces White House pressure to end the war in a short amount of time — “perhaps even within two weeks,” according to Channel 12. 

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

Hitting the Houthis: The Wall Street Journal’s Dov Lieber and Saleh al-Batati spotlight Israel’s efforts to target Houthi leadership, following a strike last week that killed the terror group’s prime minister and nearly a dozen other senior officials. “The strike also reflects an aggressive Israeli security posture in which Israel wants its adversaries to know it will hit back hard against any potential threat, say military analysts. The new doctrine is referred to among soldiers as FAFO, an acronym for f— around and find out, according to one of the security officials. … After escalating its fight against the Houthis, Israel hopes its strikes will have a deterrent effect on the group and other potential enemies in the region, one of the Israeli security officials said. The official said there is hope in Israel that the Yemeni people opposed to the Houthis will once again take up arms against them. ” [WSJ]

Inspection Time: The editorial board of The Washington Post calls on Iran to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country and to resume nuclear talks with the U.S. “The only way to know for certain what’s left is for the inspectors to fully return and for the Iranian government to come clean about what, if anything, it still has. To prevent further conflict, Iran also needs to reenter negotiations with the United States over any future nuclear program for civilian-only use. The United States says it is ready to talk, but Iran has insisted as a precondition, among other things, that Trump commit to no further strikes. That would give away too much leverage. … If Tehran takes any lesson from June, it should be that the United States is not afraid of using military force to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Trump resisted pressure from the vocal isolationist faction in his base, and he could do so again if he feels it is necessary to protect the nation’s security.” [WashPost]

Higher Ed’s Real Problem: In The Atlantic, Boston University professor E. Thomas Finan posits that the Trump administration’s legal efforts against top-tier universities should serve as a “wake-up call” that pushes schools to meaningfully address deep-seated issues. “Strong free-speech protections for students and faculty combined with a commitment to intellectual diversity can help foster open inquiry and rigorous analysis. Colleges and universities should also consider remaining neutral on more political issues: Constant interventions can sap the academy’s credibility and make students who take opposing views feel unwelcome. … Colleges cannot assume that the public consensus that has sustained them will simply remain in place, nor should they assume that reaching financial settlements will mend the structural weaknesses that have made them so vulnerable in the first place. The surest protection for the academy is to forge a new political compact — to prove, once again, that America’s higher education is indispensable to its democracy.” [TheAtlantic]

New War Footing: In his “Clarity” Substack, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren considers the ways in which the Israeli approach to the country’s military has shifted in the post-Oct. 7 era. “Never will we forfeit the need for deep buffer zones along all our frontiers. Never again will the IDF favor a defensive over an offensive strategy — Iron Dome over tanks and armored personnel carriers — and rely almost exclusively on technology rather than soldiers to guard our land. Never again will our reservists go years without training or go into battle without even the most basic gear. … If, before the war, the questions of Haredi military service and integration into the economy were important but still open to debate, today that discussion has ended.” [Clarity]

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on Iraqi businessman Waleed al-Samarra’i, who also holds citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, over his efforts to help Iran evade restrictions on oil exports…

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) announced she will not seek reelection in 2026, setting up a potential primary clash between the establishment and MAGA wings of the GOP; Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), an ally of Ernst, launched her bid shortly after Ernst’s announcement…

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Thrive Capital’s Josh Kushner were spotted sitting together in the first row at last night’s U.S. Open match in Queens, N.Y., between Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz; Jeffrey Katzenberg was also spotted attending the same match…

Elliott Investment Management, which has a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo, is pushing for changes at the food and beverage conglomerate, including re-franchising its bottling network and pulling low-selling products…

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio cautioned that the U.S. risks falling into pre-WWII-era autocratic politics…

In The Wall Street Journal, stock trader Peter Tuchman, who has been photographed more than 1,000 times on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, reflects on his 18-year “15 minutes of fame as the Einstein of Wall Street” after the New York Daily News ran a front-page photograph of Tuchman in 2007…

New York mayoral candidate Jim Walden, who had been polling in single digits, dropped out of the race and called on the remaining candidates who are polling low to consider exiting the race, citing concerns over Democratic nominee and front-runner Zohran Mamdani’s “extreme bigotry toward police, his authentic commitment to communism, his antisemitic obsessions, and his sympathies for terrorists”…

Police in Los Angeles are investigating the vandalism of a Jewish supplies store in the city’s Encino neighborhood; security camera footage captured the vandal spray-painting antisemitic graffiti on the side of the Mitzvahland goods store on Shabbat…

Palantir co-founders Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale, as well as Elad Gil and Keith Rabois,were in Israel this past weekend for the wedding of Zach Frenkel, an investor in Thiel’s VC firm; some of the high-profile wedding attendees, including Blackstone and Palantir executives, reportedly met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the trip…

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the upcoming Conference on the Two-State Solution, which Paris is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia, will be held in New York on Sept. 22; Macron called for a “reformed and strengthened” Palestinian Authority, a “fully reconstructed” Gaza Strip and the disarmament of Hamas…

Pope Leo XIV is slated to meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday at the Vatican…

UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed hosted Larry Fink in Abu Dhabi, where he congratulated the BlackRock CEO on his new position as co-chair of the World Economic Forum…

Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said that U.S. demands that Tehran curb its missile program were hindering potential nuclear talks…

Former U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Yael Lempert was named vice president for outreach at the Middle East Institute…

Israel’s national basketball team, led by Deni Avdija (pictured, in blue), secured a Sweet 16 spot in the EuroBasket tournament for the first time in more than a decade. The team beat Belgium 92-89 on Tuesday in Katowice, Poland.

Media personality, psychologist and socialite, also known as Dr. Estella, Estella Sneider, Psy.D. turns 75…

London-based advice columnist for the Cosmopolitan UK magazine for over 40 years, known there as an agony aunt, Irma Kurtz turns 90… Past chair of the Anti-Defamation League and later the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Robert G. Sugarman turns 86… Retired software engineer at IBM for 39 years, he persevered after many years to locate and inter the remains of the crew of a crashed WW II American B-24 in the Indian Himalayans, succeeding in 2008, Gary Zaetz turns 71… Actor best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on “The Sopranos,” more recently he has appeared in 146 episodes of CBS’ “Blue Bloods,” Steve Schirripa turns 68… Chair of the global sustainability platform at Apollo Global Management, Jonathan Silver… Offensive lineman for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints from 1982 to 1989, now a professional photographer, Brad M. Edelman turns 65… Producer and reporter at NBC and MSNBC, early in his career he spent eight years as a volunteer broadcaster and reader for the Jewish Guild for the Blind, Adam Reiss turns 60… Executive chairman of Time magazine, Edward Felsenthal turns 59… Historian and journalist who has written four books on the rise of the American conservative movement (focused on Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan), Eric S. “Rick” Perlstein turns 56… Mayor of Haifa until 2024, she was the first woman to lead that city, Einat Kalisch-Rotem turns 55… Executive director at the Michael Reese Research & Education Foundation, Jason Rothstein… VP of data visualization at Moody’s Corporation, Todd Lindeman… CEO of PR and communications firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis, Shawn Sachs… Founder of the Silverstein Group, providing strategic policy, crisis management and communications advice, Rustin Silverstein… Rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue, Avraham Bronstein turns 45… Chief advancement officer of Honeymoon Israel, Avital Ingber… Head of global public affairs marketing at Meta / Facebook, Joel Martín Kliksberg… Chief media correspondent for CNN until 2022, then a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, now back at CNN, Brian Stelter turns 40… South Florida-based attorney, she served as the co-chair of JFNA’s national young leadership cabinet, Lindsey Tania Glantz… Comedy writer, producer and performer, Megan Amram turns 38… Fashion model and actress, Kaia Jordan Gerber turns 24…

• Today marks the fifth anniversary of the announcement that the U.S. had brokered a normalization agreement, later known as the Abraham Accords, between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Flashback: Read our 2020 coverage here.
• We’re keeping an eye on Harvard’s negotiations with the Trump administration, as the school nears what is likely to be a $500 million settlement with the government to restore federal funding and grants that had been frozen over the administration’s allegations that the school had not done enough to address antisemitism on campus.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Newsmax’s U.S. Independence Day celebration this evening in Jerusalem. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is also slated to attend the event, which was postponed to August following the Israel-Iran war in June.
• GOP fundraiser Eric Levine is cohosting a fundraiser tonight for New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ reelection bid. Former New York Gov. David Paterson, who had backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid in the Democratic primary, is expected to endorse Adams at the event.
• The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is hosting a web event today focused on Middle East arms sales.
• Senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya is in Cairo today for talks with Egyptian officials focused on reviving hostage-release and ceasefire talks.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A new Siena poll of New York voters illustrates the unpopularity of the state’s leading political figures in the runup to this year’s mayoral contest and next year’s gubernatorial election. Of particular note is the surging dissatisfaction among many Democratic voters towards elected leaders from their own party.

In the poll, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hits his all-time low in popularity, with just 38% of New Yorkers viewing him favorably and 50% viewing him unfavorably. His favorability with Democratic voters took a slight downturn since the last Siena survey in April, with just 49% of voters in his own party viewing him favorably.

Among Jewish voters, a narrow 52% majority of New York Jews viewed him favorably, with 43% rating him unfavorably.  

Schumer doesn’t face reelection until 2028, but amid the wave of anti-establishment sentiment within the Democratic Party, the numbers suggest he could face a credible primary threat if he pursues a sixth term.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who is up for reelection in 2030, also faces a mixed political picture. Her favorability rating is, like every other New York elected official, underwater. But her overall numbers, with 36% viewing her favorably and 38% viewing her unfavorably, are better than nearly all of her counterparts. She’s also the most popular politician among Jewish voters, with 54% viewing her favorably and only 27% viewing her unfavorably.

There’s a notable disconnect between Gov. Kathy Hochul’s job approval rating and favorability rating; more New Yorkers are satisfied with her performance in office than like her personally. Hochul’s job approval rating stands at 53%, with 42% disapproving. But only 42% of New Yorkers view her favorably, while 44% view her unfavorably.

In an early test of a likely 2026 general election matchup between Hochul and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Hochul leads 45-31%. In that matchup, Jewish voters would divide nearly evenly, with 45% backing Hochul and 42% supporting Stefanik, according to the poll.

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

Demographic Dynamics: Tablet’s Armin Rosen considers the circumstances that led to New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory and lack of significant opposition. “For the past decade, New York has reflected the illusions of its rising power centers: namely, young and often childless transplanted degree holders living off public or family subsidies or sometimes both. This is an inherently mobile and perhaps even temporary population that either is insulated from the consequences of urban decline or believes its own values and worldview to be the solution to the evident problems in its midst. Mamdani’s impending victory isn’t the result of what he believes or promises, but of the slow death of New York’s pragmatic and productive middle class and of its replacement with a new category of city dwellers who serve as the implementing middle layer between an activist government and the society it experiments upon. New York is now a city with hundreds of thousands of little Zohran Mamdanis, an agenda-setting constituency of the subsidized that’s at last found a leader and a voice.” [Tablet]

Campus Clashes: The Atlantic‘s Rose Horowitch looks at the ideological split pitting the chancellor of Princeton against the leaders of Washington University and Vanderbilt over how to approach campus climate and governance issues amid legal efforts by the Trump administration to punish schools over their handling of antisemitism. “University officials — led by Washington University’s Andrew Martin and Vanderbilt’s Daniel Diermeier, the chancellors who sparred with [Princeton President Christopher] Eisgruber on the panel — make up the reformist camp. They accept some of Trump’s complaints and believe that the best path forward for higher education is to publicly commit to a kind of voluntary, modified de-wokeification. They argue that some campuses (in, say, Cambridge and Morningside Heights) and departments (much of the humanities) have leaned too far into leftist ideology and allowed anti-Semitism to fester under the guise of protesting Israeli policies. They want the American public to know that they are different from the Ivies. And they think that higher education needs new representation if it’s going to regain the country’s trust.” [TheAtlantic]

Pivot to Asia: In The Wall Street Journal, Seth Cropsey and Joseph Epstein make the case for expanding the Abraham Accords to the Caucasus and Central Asia, citing existing coordination and ties between Israel and a number of countries in the region. “A strategic enlargement of the accords would counter adversaries, diversify supply chains, and build a bloc of moderate, pro-Western Muslim-majority nations aligned with the U.S. and Israel. It would also showcase Israeli outreach, helping counter the anti-Israel global narrative. These nations already maintain strong relationships with Jerusalem. Azerbaijan is Israel’s closest Muslim ally, supplying up to 40% of Israel’s oil and receiving advanced weapons systems in return, which was key to Baku’s success in two wars since 2020. Kazakhstan also is among Israel’s top oil suppliers, and Uzbekistan has stepped in to fill key export gaps like copper after the Turkish boycott.” [WSJ]

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, ruled out a run in what could be Texas’ new 35th District, amid a mid-decade redistricting effort by state GOP officials; Casar would be likely to face off against Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) in a member-on-member primary in Texas’ 37th District, despite Doggett’s efforts to encourage Casar to run in the 35th, which President Donald Trump won by 10 points last year…

In an interview with CNN’s Bianna Golodryga, Foreign Press Association head Ian Williams equated Hamas to U.S. political parties and questioned the terror group’s designation, saying, “We don’t kill journalists for being Republicans or Democrats or Labour Party. Hamas is a political organization, as well as a terrorist organization, perhaps”; the Anti-Defamation League condemned Williams’ “outrageous” comments, saying that the “dangerous normalization” of Hamas’ activities “has no place in journalism”…

The upstate New York man who fired a gun outside Albany’s Temple Israel in December 2023, yelling “Free Palestine” during the attack, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison…

The Wall Street Journal looks at Hal Steinbrenner’s ownership of the New York Yankees, comparing his management of the Bronx Bombers to his father George, whom the WSJ says “ran the New York Yankees with all the patience of an Upper West Sider stuck behind a tourist in the whitefish line at Zabar’s”…

Four years after switching to a plant-based menu, Eleven Madison Park is adding meat items to its repertoire — dashing the dreams of some foodies who had hoped the famed Manhattan eatery, which has three Michelin stars, could secure kosher certification…

The Forward spotlights the century-old Congregation B’nai Jacob in Charleston, W.V., as the synagogue, which has been led by Rabbi Victor Urecki since 1986, transitions to new leadership, under Rabbi Adam Berman, for just the third time since 1932…

Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival rescinded the invitation to show the documentary “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, at its upcoming festival, citing the use of Hamas footage of the attacks that had not been cleared for use by the terror group; Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs called the decision “shameful” and “unconscionable”…

France’s transportation minister confirmed that an air traffic controller in Paris who told El Al pilots to “free Palestine” was suspended and will face disciplinary measures over the incident…

The State Department released its annual global human rights report; the Israel section of this year’s report, the release of which was delayed by several months, was shorter than last year’s report and does not include mention of the humanitarian situation in Gaza…

Israeli hostage families are calling for a day-long strike on Sunday, despite a lack of support from the Histradut, the country’s main labor union…

Israel is in talks with the government of South Sudan about potentially resettling some of the population of Gaza in the East African nation…

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “lost the plot” regarding Gaza…

World Central Kitchen confirmed video footage shared by the Israeli Defense Forces that showed five armed individuals using a car that was marked with a fake WCK logo; WCK said it “strongly condemn[ed] anyone posing as WCK or other humanitarians as this endangers civilians and aid workers”…

The U.S. is working to facilitate the creation of a humanitarian corridor between Israel and the southern Syria city of Sweida; U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, Washington’s Syria envoy, is slated to meet in Paris next week with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to discuss the effort…

The Washington Post spotlights the ongoing effort to find American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012…

The foreign ministers of the U.K., France and Germany told the U.N. they would be open to reimposing sanctions on Iran if Tehran does not return to nuclear negotiations with Western powers…

Iran’s police spokesperson said authorities in the country had detained 21,000 people during Tehran’s 12-day war with Israel in June…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) spoke on Tuesday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Chabad Jewish Community Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., the first Jewish center of its kind in the state.

Israeli Olympic long-distance runner, she ran the marathon for Israel at the Paris Olympics in 2024, Maor Tiyouri turns 35… 

Member of the New York State Assembly for 24 years, since then she has been the county clerk of Queens County, Audrey I. Pheffer turns 84… Retired CPA and senior executive in Los Angeles, Morton Algaze turns 82… Treasury secretary of the United States during the four years of the Biden administration, Janet Yellen turns 79… Documentary still photographer of the American and international Jewish communities since 1970, Robert A. Cumins turns 77… Beverly Hills, Calif., resident, Ruth Fay Kellerman… VP and chief of staff at the Aspen Institute, James M. Spiegelman turns 67… Film producer, writer and director, Susan Landau Finch turns 65… Founder of the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations of Manhattan, he is also the executive chairman of LifeHealth Network, Michael Landau… Co-chairman of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, Michael De Luca turns 60… Storyteller, producer and writer, Jeffrey Mark “Slash” Coleman turns 58… Editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter, Maer Roshan turns 58… Founder and managing director at Beacon Global Strategies, Jeremy B. Bash turns 54… President of Accessibility Partners, a Maryland firm that hires people with disabilities for tech jobs, she is also the founder of a nonprofit Support the Girls, Dana Marlowe… Three-time Olympian water polo player, now assistant coach at Pepperdine, Merrill Marc Moses turns 48… Professor of government at Harvard University, he was the director of the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies, Eric Matthew Nelson turns 48… Professor of law at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, Joshua Michael Blackman turns 41… Deputy general counsel and global head of contracts and litigation for Tower Research Capital, Matthew Weiss turns 39… Weekend editor for The Washington Post, Sara Sorcher… Attorney at Fried Frank, Nathan Jablow… Account supervisor for crisis communications at Edelman, Jodie Michelle Singer… VP of business development at Azul Hospitality Group, Adam Dahan… Founder of Israel-based AlignUp Advisory Services, David Angel… Elaine Hall… Jonathan Gerber…

• The Senate is expected to vote today on two resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on blocking arms sales to Israel. More below.
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is slated to meet with Democrats in Texas today amid a broader debate over mid-decade redistricting, following President Donald Trump’s call for the Lone Star State to redraw the state’s congressional districts to give Republicans up to five additional seats.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

It’s been two months since the Capital Jewish Museum shooting in Washington and the Boulder, Colo., firebombing attack.

The two attacks prompted unified condemnation from lawmakers and calls from the Jewish community for Capitol Hill to take aggressive action against the escalating antisemitism crisis in the United States. 

But as Congress heads into its August break, that initial momentum has produced little concrete action.

The House and Senate have passed resolutions condemning the attacks, but key legislation related to antisemitism remains stalled, even as lawmakers individually and in groups continue to press for action.

There are still no clear prospects for passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a key element of congressional efforts to address antisemitism, after a contentious Senate committee hearing in April in which Democrats, joined by Republicans including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), voted to add amendments that most Republicans supporting the bill view as nonstarters. House leaders have made no public moves to advance the legislation.

And despite calls from Jewish groups for significant increases in nonprofit security funding to as much as $1 billion next year and a push from a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers for $500 million, the funding levels under consideration in the House are little different from those discussed in prior years.

Read more from JI senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod here.

Bibi’s Bind: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg considers the challenge facing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he attempts to prosecute the war in Gaza and keep his government — which includes far-right members with a different vision for the enclave — from collapsing. “Every step he authorized had to be dual use: ostensibly for a strategic purpose but also capable of potentially advancing the far right’s plan. In practice, pursuing these two goals at the same time is incompatible with a just and successfully prosecuted war: It is impossible to provide aid and also withhold it, to pursue a limited war against Hamas to free hostages and also a war of conquest. The longer the conflict has gone on, the more obvious the compromised nature of Netanyahu’s decision making has become.” [TheAtlantic]

Keir’s Veer: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board critiques British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s declaration that the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel meets certain conditions before September. “Framing recognition as a threat to Israel — unless it does x, y and z — lays bare the move’s punitive nature. At least this means we can dispense with the usual pabulum that planting a hostile state in the heart of Israel is a gift for which Israelis would be grateful if only they could see their true interests as clearly as they appear from Paris and London. It is also striking to demand that Israel accept a cease-fire when it has done so over and over, only for Hamas to torpedo talks. That was the Biden team’s conclusion and now the Trump team’s as well. When Israel made difficult concessions last week, Hamas reneged on what it had agreed to previously. The U.K. now gives Hamas a reason to reject future cease-fires; if the terrorists hold out, Mr. Starmer will give them a reward.” [WSJ]

The New York Times published an editor’s note regarding a story about malnutrition in Gaza that failed to note that one of the children featured in the article — whose pictures went viral — suffered from preexisting health conditions affecting his brain and his muscle development…

In a thread on X laying out his positions on the war in Gaza, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) argued that “Qatar should take into custody every Hamas leader in Qatar until every hostage is released and the war is over”…

The Times of Israel published a document signed at this week’s U.N. conference on a two-state solution by 17 countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, calling for Hamas to disarm and end its rule over the Gaza Strip…

President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would partner with Israel on “a new aid plan” to open new food distribution sites in the Gaza Strip…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly discussed mounting a gubernatorial run in Tennessee next year, when Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, will be term-limited…

New guidance released this week by the Office of Personnel Management expressed support for religious expression, including proselytization, in federal workplaces…

A new poll from Gallup found record-low U.S. support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza since it first polled on the issue in November 2023; 60% of Americans surveyed earlier this month disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, up from 45% in November 2023…

The Wall Street Journal looks at Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker’s push to bring quantum computing technology to Chicago…

Italian authorities are investigating as a hate crime an attack on a French Jewish man and his young son that occurred at a rest stop north of Milan; according to video of the incident, the man was assaulted after several individuals, including a cashier at the rest stop, shouted “Free Palestine” at him and his child…

Jewish leaders at the University of Edinburgh are urging the school not to drop its support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, following a report that the school is reconsidering its prior adoption of the definition…

The European Commission proposed barring Israeli participation in the Horizon Europe research program over the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip…

The Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Committee approved construction plans for a new luxury hotel in Herzliya being built by the Hagag Group in partnership with actor Leonardo DiCaprio…

Israeli media reports that the country’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Yossi Shelley, will soon be sent back to Jerusalem following a months-old incident at an Abu Dhabi bar in which Shelley acted in an “undignified” manner; the Prime Minister’s Office denied both the report and that Shelley is being removed from the posting…

Israeli actor Alon Aboutboul, who appeared in such films as “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Munich,” died at 60…

Crown Heights, N.Y., community member Ben “Ziggy” Faulding died at 41…

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), addressing attendees on Tuesday at the Israel on Campus Coalition’s three-day annual national leadership summit in Washington, said that Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks “changed the landscape in ways that could be for the good” and lead to the “possibility of a secure region,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports from the conference. 

Commissioner emeritus of Major League Baseball, his 2019 memoir is For the Good of the Game, Allan Huber “Bud” Selig turns 91…

Retired attorney from the firm of Hatton, Petrie & Stackler in Aliso Viejo, Calif., Ronald E. Stackler turns 88… Longtime owner and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, he was chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation for 12 years, Martin H. “Marty” Peretz turns 86… The first woman justice on the Nebraska Supreme Court, as a teen she won two gold medals and a silver medal as a swimmer at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman turns 78… Actor, director and producer, Ken Olin turns 71… Philanthropist and investor, of Uzbek Bukhari background, known as the “King of Diamonds,” Lev Leviev turns 69… Former mayor of Arad, Israel, and then a member of the Knesset for the Kulanu and Likud parties, Tali Ploskov turns 63… President of C&M Transcontinental, he served as COO for the first two Trump campaigns, Michael S. Glassner turns 62… Emmy Award-winning actress, comedian and producer, Lisa Kudrow turns 62… Head coach of men’s tennis and director of tennis operations at Columbia University, Howard Endelman turns 60… Best-selling nonfiction author, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines, he is a co-creator of the HBO series “Vinyl,” Rich Cohen turns 57… District director for Rep. Jerrold L. Nadler (D-NY), Robert M. Gottheim turns 54… Assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Department of Justice during most of the Biden administration, Jonathan Seth Kanter turns 52… Motivational speaker, author and entrepreneur, he served as a law clerk in 2008 for Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg, the first blind person to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court, Isaac Lidsky turns 46… President of MSNBC since February, Rebecca M. Kutler… Member of the Knesset for the Otzma Yehudit party, Limor Son Har-Melech turns 46… Senior producer at Vox and host and producer of the podcast of the Association for Jewish Studies, Avishay Artsy… President and founder in 2014 of Dallas-based ECA Strategies, Eric Chaim Axel… Team supervisor at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, Lewis Sohinki… Author of Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered: One Woman’s Year in the Heart of the Christian, Muslim, Armenian and Jewish Quarters of Old Jerusalem, Sarah Tuttle-Singer turns 44… Former director of policy and public affairs for the Jewish Community of Denmark, now in the renewable energy and offshore wind industry, Jonas Herzberg Karpantschof… Attorney and member of the Los Angeles County GOP Central Committee for Assembly District 42, which includes Pacific Palisades, Elizabeth Barcohana turns 42… Head of digital operations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel until this past April, Tamar Schwarzbard… Managing principal of West Egg Development, Samuel Ezra Eshaghoff turns 33… Director of business development at Israel’s economic mission to the South and Midwest U.S., Joshua Weintraub… Winner of the Miss Israel pageant in 2014, now a businesswoman, Mor Maman turns 30… Actress, as a 10-year-old she starred as Ramona Quimby in the comedy film “Ramona and Beezus,” Joey Lynn King turns 26…

• President Donald Trump is slated to host Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani tonight at the White House. More below.
• At the Aspen Security Forum this afternoon, Amos Yadlin, the former head of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate; former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog; Brett McGurk, the former National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa; and author and “Call Me Back” podcast host Dan Senor are set to take the stage for a conversation about Israel’s future.
• This morning in Washington, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is slated to hold a business meeting followed by a full committee hearing on State Department reform.
• This afternoon, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East and North Africa subcommittee is holding its own hearing on State Department management.
• Also today, Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) is holding a press conference with other members of Congress calling for the National Education Association’s congressional charter to be revoked following the organization’s adoption of a measure effectively banning cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League.

A QUICK WORD WITH jI’S MELISSA WEISS

Ceasefire and hostage-release talks have been ongoing in Doha, Qatar, for the last week. But one of the most consequential meetings in the negotiations could be happening tonight in Washington, when President Donald Trump hosts Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani for dinner at the White House.

This continues a new tradition for Trump of hosting prominent Gulf royals who aren’t the heads of state of their respective countries for dinner at the White House. In March, Trump hosted a dinner in the White House’s State Dining Room for Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor and chairman of several sovereign wealth funds. 

Qatari officials have been in the U.S. all week. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was rumored to have met with Trump on the sidelines of the FIFA finals in New Jersey on Sunday, after being spotted in New York over the weekend. 

White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, whose trip to Doha last week was postponed over stalled talks, told reporters over the weekend that he planned to meet with Qatari negotiators on the sidelines of the match. And Trump shared a suite with senior Qatari sports officials at the match, including Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaifi, the president of the Paris Saint-Germain team who played in New Jersey on Sunday and chairman of beIN Sports, previously known as Al Jazeera Sport. (In a weekend interview at the FIFA match, Trump even noted Qatar’s “big presence.”)

Qatar also loomed large in Washington this week, where legislators on the House Education and the Workforce Committee pressed university leaders from Georgetown, CUNY and the University of California, Berkeley about their foreign funding sources during a hearing about antisemitism in higher education. (More below on the hearing.) Former Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), one of Qatar’s top lobbyists in Washington, was seen sitting right behind Georgetown University interim President Robert Groves as Groves testified on Tuesday. The school has received over $1 billion from Qatar, and has a campus in Doha.

Qatar’s be-everywhere, invest-in-everything strategy has allowed Doha to gain footholds across the global economy and in diplomatic circles. And since the start of the war, it has sought to highlight its role as a facilitator of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, the latter of which Doha supports financially and diplomatically.

Doha has the power to push Hamas to accept a ceasefire. Whether tonight’s dinner will exact a change in Qatar’s approach to Hamas remains to be seen. The sit-down between Trump and the Qatari prime minister could change the tide in the 21-month war, or it could serve as yet another missed opportunity in a war full of stalemates and diplomatic posturing — with fresh casualties mounting on both sides and 50 hostages still languishing in captivity.

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

NEA’s Lesson Plan: In The Wall Street Journal, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt responds to the National Education Association’s recent adoption of a measure targeting the ADL. “This wasn’t about the ADL. It was a clear and unambiguous statement to Jewish educators, parents and children: You don’t count. And it perversely takes this stance at a time when anti-Jewish hate is skyrocketing. … Unfortunately, the NEA vote is symptomatic of a larger problem of intensifying antisemitism in our K-12 schools. Specifically, antisemitism cloaked in the rhetoric of anti-Zionism. A generation of teachers has been educated on college campuses where this poison has festered and spread. It has been normalized. Now its purveyors want to bring this bigotry into your children’s classrooms.” [WSJ]

Pressing Putin: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius looks at President Donald Trump’s new approach to Russia, following Trump’s support for sending offensive weapons to Ukraine. “Trump decided to escalate for three reasons, according to a source familiar with administration discussions. First, he believed that Putin was disrespecting him, feigning a readiness to make peace but ignoring the U.S. president’s call for a ceasefire. Second, he saw the efficacy of U.S. military power in the use of B-2 bombers and Tomahawk missiles against Iran. And third, he thought Putin would only negotiate if threatened with greater force. As the Russians like to say, Trump decided to ‘escalate to de-escalate.’ Trump has made a sound choice in recognizing that Putin won’t make concessions without more pressure. But the president has also embarked on an escalatory course whose risks are unknowable.” [WashPost]

Mamdani’s Gift … to the GOP: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens posits that a victory in November by New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would be a positive outcome for Republicans nationwide who are likely — and in some cases, have already begun — to push Mamdani as the future of the Democratic Party. “Among the reasons the Democratic Party’s brand has become toxic in recent years is progressive misgovernance in places like Los Angeles; San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Chicago. If Mamdani governs on the promises on which he’s campaigned, he’ll bring the same toxicity to America’s biggest city. … A Mamdani mayoralty would be the political gift that keeps on giving. The state of the city would become a reflection of the Democratic Party writ large. Every Mamdani utterance would become a test for every Democratic politician, starting with Senator Chuck Schumer on Israel.” [NYTimes]

The FBI released new images of three Iranian intelligence agents believed to be involved in the kidnapping and disappearance of retired special agent Bob Levinson, who was last seen on Iran’s Kish Island in 2007; Levinson is believed to have died in Iranian custody sometime prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Adelita Grijalva was declared the winner of the Democratic primary special election in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District to succeed her father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year; the special election in the deep-blue district will take place in September…

Former Washington, D.C., Councilmember Trayon White, who was expelled last year over an ongoing bribery case, was reelected to his seat in a special election on Tuesday; White had previously promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories while in office…

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani told business leaders on Tuesday that he would “discourage” the use of the “globalize the intifada” slogan and not use the phrase himself, but said the term was used by many to show support for Palestinians; among the attendees in the 90-minute meeting was Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who, according to The New York Times, “pushed Mr. Mamdani about the meaning of genocide and defended Israel’s war in Gaza”… 

Former Future Investment Initiative Institute CEO Richard Attias is rejoining the Saudi Arabian conference network as interim CEO, replacing Penny Richards, who is departing after six months in the position…

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism ended its contract last month with an interfaith advisor who had been working with the group for several years, in a potential indication that it is moving away from previous plans to allow rabbis within the movement to officiate interfaith weddings, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

The Washington Post reports on the recent reunion between a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor and one of the American soldiers involved in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp; the reunion was facilitated by the USC Shoah Foundation…

British police cautioned that Russia, China and Iran were behind an increasing number of sabotage, espionage and kidnapping plots in the U.K….

France, Germany and the U.K. will bring back sanctions on Iran via the U.N. Security Council if a nuclear deal is not reached by the end of August, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot warned on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how Iran struck Israeli targets with increasing success during the 12-day war between the countries, as Tehran used trial and error to adapt its military strategy by using more advanced weaponry and firing from more locations toward the end of the war…

The Financial Times reports on tensions between Iranian hard-liners and the country’s reformists following the country’s war last month with Israel, with the country’s hard-line faction opposing engagement with the Trump administration that President Masoud Pezeshkian has supported…

The U.N.’s special representative for Afghanistan warned that the country’s support systems were under strain amid an influx of Afghans returning to the country following the implementation of new immigration laws in Iran; more than 1 million Afghans illegally living in Iran have been repatriated this year amid the crackdown…

The three members of the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reportedly resigned from their positions in rapid succession earlier this month; the resignations come amid an effort by the Trump administration to sanction officials who have targeted Israel in international institutions…

Twenty Palestinians were killed in a crowd rush at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site in Khan Younis, Gaza; the organization said the “chaotic and dangerous surge” was “driven by agitators in the crowd”…

The Argentine Embassy in Washington held a commemoration event at the Capitol last night ahead of the 31st anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed.

World-renowned violinist, violist and conductor, Pinchas Zukerman turns 77… 

One of the three co-founders of Comcast Corporation, he served as its chief financial officer and vice chairman, Julian A. Brodsky turns 92… Senior U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York, Judge Sidney H. Stein turns 80… President of an eponymous communications firm, public speaker and coach, Betsy R. Sheerr… Co-creator of the first-ever spreadsheet program (VisiCalc), he currently serves as the chief technology officer of Alpha Software, Daniel Singer “Dan” Bricklin turns 74… Former high ranking civilian official in the Pentagon during the Bush 43 administration, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, Douglas J. Feith turns 72… Senior rabbi since 1997 at Temple Beth Avodah in Newton Centre, Mass., Rabbi Keith Stern… Los Angeles-based attorney, she is the president emerita of the LA chapter of the Jewish National Fund, Alyse Golden Berkley… Past vice chair of the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Federations of North America, Cynthia D. Shapira… British solicitor, he represented Princess Diana in her divorce and Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt in a libel case, Anthony Julius turns 69… Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Tony Kushner turns 69… U.S. ambassador to the EU in the Trump 45 administration, Gordon David Sondland turns 68… Former airline executive at Northwest and Delta, now on the board of Spirit Airlines, Andrea Fischer Newman… Former president of Viacom Music and Entertainment Group, Douglas Alan Herzog turns 66… Businessman and philanthropist, owner of interests in many Israeli firms including IKEA Israel, Matthew Bronfman turns 66… Canadian journalist, he worked for CNN International for 30 years, Jonathan Mann turns 65… Former Israeli minister of science and technology, now a venture capitalist, Yizhar Nitzan Shai turns 62… Chief of staff of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Jim Rosenberg… Chicago-based entrepreneur and philanthropist, Victoria Rivka Zell… Former NFL offensive lineman, he is now the president of Collective Mortgage in Colorado, Ariel Mace Solomon turns 57… Senior scholar at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, a home for Conservative Judaism in Israel, Rabbi Joshua Kulp turns 55… Israeli former professional tennis player, in 2003 she was ranked 15th in the world, Anna Smashnova turns 49… Founder of Pinkitzel, a cupcake cafe, candy boutique and gift store located in three Oklahoma cities, Jonathan Jantz… U.S. senator (R-IN) since the beginning of this year, Jim Banks turns 46… National political correspondent for The New York Times, Shane Goldmacher… Co-founder of Los Angeles-based Meteorite Social Impact and Health Action Alliance Advisors, Steven Max Levine… White House liaison to the Jewish community in the Bush 43 administration, now managing partner at Arogeti Endeavors, Scott Raymond Arogeti… Features reporter for Jewish Insider, Matthew Kassel… Founder and managing partner at Vine Ventures, Eric M. Reiner… Registered nurse and an internationally board-certified lactation consultant, Chantal Low Katz…

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to meet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today, as well as with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), whose meeting with the prime minister on Tuesday was bumped due to the scheduling of a second meeting between Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.
• Tonight, Netanyahu will attend a reception for Jewish communal leaders, members of the evangelical community and senior Trump administration officials.
• On the Hill this morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing for several nominees to ambassador-level positions, including Jeff Bartos, the Trump administration’s nominee to be the U.S.’ envoy to the United Nations for U.N. management and reform.
• The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a full committee markup of the NDAA today.
• At 10 a.m. ET, the Hudson Institute is hosting a discussion focused on Israel’s economic resilience in a post-Oct. 7 era with Noach Hacker, the Israeli Embassy’s minister of economic affairs, and Hudson’s Michael Doran.
• The Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference continues today. With AI at the forefront of many conversations, OpenAI’s Sam Altman was questioned by reporters about the recruitment competition between OpenAI and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta as the latter scales up its AI operations.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Like with the gradual impact of climate change, the Democratic Party’s shift away from its pro-Israel moorings and its commitments to fight antisemitism is happening in a slow but appreciable fashion. Seemingly every week, there’s a political development, polling nugget or election outcome that underscores that the party’s commitment to Jewish voters isn’t quite where it was in the not-too-distant past.

There were the Pew Research Center and Quinnipiac polls this spring showing that most Democratic voters now view Israel unfavorably — with support for the Jewish state dividing more clearly along partisan lines. The results underscored why so few Democrats could muster even some reluctant praise for the U.S. strikes setting back Iran’s nuclear program. 

There’s the blowback that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro received from the Kamala Harris campaign for comparing extremist anti-Israel protesters on campuses to Ku Klux Klan members, as recounted in a new tell-all book about the 2024 campaign. Or the similar intraparty animus that another leading Democratic Jewish official, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, received after her office charged anti-Israel student protesters for assaulting police and engaging in ethnic intimidation. 

Amid sustained political pressure from the left, these two leading Jewish Democrats have since pulled their political punches. Shapiro, a national political figure who was one of the most prominent targets of antisemitic hate, notably chose to avoid labeling the attack on the governor’s mansion as antisemitic in a nationally televised interview. Nessel later dropped the charges, amid a smear campaign that her decision to charge the students was a result of anti-Muslim bias.

And of course, there was the shocking outcome last month in the New York City Democratic primary where Zohran Mamdani, the far-left candidate who declined to speak out against “globalize the intifada” rhetoric, comfortably prevailed over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his party’s nomination. That result followed pro-Israel stalwart Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s (D-NJ) fourth-place finish in New Jersey’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, despite ample resources and a message geared towards Jewish moderates.

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

War Dividend: In Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler, the outlet’s emeritus editor-in-chief, reflects on the strengthening of the Israeli shekel in the wake of Israel’s military successes. “If markets mean anything, investors, for the first time since Hamas fired 3,000 missiles into Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 (also committing the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust), and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the assault a declaration of war, are giving Israel its strongest vote of confidence as a 77-year-old Mideast nation. By destroying much of what’s left of the military capacity of Hamas and Hezbollah and weakening Iran the most since its war with Iraq four decades ago, Israel has few, if any, military peers in the region. Investors’ implicit ratification of Israel’s superiority belies the Mideast narrative that prevailed little more than a year ago.” [Bloomberg]

Force Multiplier: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens considers how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of prioritizing military force against its enemies has cleared a pathway for diplomacy between Israel and potential regional allies. “The truth is that it’s Israel’s decisive battlefield victories that have created diplomatic openings that have been out of reach for decades — and would have remained so if Israel hadn’t won. … On Israel’s side, diplomatic flexibility has three authors. The first is the Israeli public’s understandable exhaustion with 21 months of fighting. The second is pressure from Trump to reach a deal — and Netanyahu’s eagerness to please him. But neither factor would have been sufficient if Israel hadn’t achieved its military success over Iran, crowned, from an Israeli point of view, by America’s participation in the campaign.” [NYTimes]

An Able Caine: The Atlantic’s Mark Bowden profiles Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine. “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs commands no troops, but Caine’s background might actually make him better suited for the top job today than many of his peers. Particularly since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, American military action has primarily employed three sectors: air power, covert special ops, and intelligence. The attacks against Iranian nuclear sites in June certainly involved two of these and likely all of them. Here Caine has more direct experience than most four-stars.” [TheAtlantic]

‘Never Zohran’: In The Intersection, pollster Patrick Ruffini looks at the similarities between the “Never Trump” movement and the efforts to oppose New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. “But a clinical analysis of the race in July—just take a poll!—ignores the psychology of virtually every candidate I’ve seen run for office. They run because they themselves want to win, not to prevent someone else from winning. If they see any plausible path at all, they see no reason to drop out. People also pretend that deadlines to get off the ballot are some sort of magical consolidation trigger. They aren’t. That means the candidates still have time to decide if there’s a path or not. … But postponing this decision also keeps alive the possibility that the race to be the anti-Mamdani will be similarly stalemated in September, continuing this indecision all the way through Election Day, likely resulting in a Mamdani win.” [TheIntersection]

Continental Drift on Speech: The Wall Street Journal’s Natasha Dangoor, Bertrand Benoit and Max Colchester report on European authorities’ crackdowns on free speech across the continent. “While the U.S. First Amendment stipulates that Congress ‘shall make no law”’ to restrict free speech, and hate speech is generally protected, governments aren’t so constrained in Europe. In a continent scarred by the Holocaust, loosely defined hate-speech laws and the rise of social media have created fertile ground for authorities to crack down on those seen to be stirring up trouble. Rarely a week goes by without a tale of zealous policing.” [WSJ]

A State Department cable warned that an unknown individual using AI software to mimic the voice and writing style of Secretary of State Marco Rubio had contacted numerous domestic and foreign officials, including a member of Congress and multiple foreign ministers…

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) will forgo a challenge to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; President Donald Trump had boosted Meuser, saying the Pennsylvania Republican would have Trump’s “full support” if he mounted a gubernatorial bid…

Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone is mulling a joint bid for Patrick Drahi’s SFR, part of Blackstone’s effort to invest up to $500 billion in Europe over the next decade…

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer announced plans to again pitch for Team Israel in the 2026 World Baseball Classic…

Author Sarah Hurwitz’s As a Jew: Reclaim­ing Our Sto­ry From Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us was announced by Natan and the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil as the “Natan Notable Book” for summer 2025…

In the closing weeks of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential run last year, her campaign, after soliciting guidance, was advised by political strategist Maria Comella to tout her support for Israel — and make clear she disagreed with people in the Democratic Party who compared Israel to Hamas; according to a new book about the 2024 race, Comella did not feel her ideas were taken seriously, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports… 

The New York Times interviews author Gary Shteyngart following the release of his latest novel, Vera, or Faith…

The Wall Street Journal reviews Lynne Olson’s The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück, about the relationship between four French women imprisoned at the Nazi camp during World War II…

In USA Today, Ron Halber and Brandon Rattiner, respectively the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of JEWISHColorado, reflect on how the rise in antisemitism has impacted Jewish communities around the country…

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told journalists that the IDF had been instructed to advance plans for a concentrated “humanitarian zone” in Rafah that would eventually house the entire population of the Gaza Strip…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the mass killings that took place at Syria’s Saydnaya prison under the Bashar al-Assad regime, describing the facility as a “death factory”…

Playwright Richard Greenberg, who won the 2003 Tony Award for “Take Me Out,” died at 67…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday at the Capitol.

Pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization through 2024, now playing in South Korea, Kenny Rosenberg turns 30…

Former Soviet refusenik, prisoner of conscience, human rights activist, author and translator, Iosif Begun turns 93… Constitutional law expert focused on the First Amendment and free speech, senior counsel at Cahill Gordon & Reindel where he has practiced since 1963, Floyd Abrams turns 89… Retired conductor and music director of symphony orchestras in Rotterdam, Rochester, Baltimore and Zurich, David Zinman turns 89… Huntington Woods, Mich., resident, Robert Morris Rubin… Arizona resident, Howard Cohen… Play-by-play announcer for the MLB’s San Diego Padres from 1980 to 2020, Theodore (Ted) Leitner turns 78… Tikvah (Tiki) Stern Lyons… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Jacob of Atlanta, Rabbi Ilan D. Feldman turns 71… U.S. senator (R-SC) since 2003, Lindsey Graham turns 70… Author, motivational speaker and former stockbroker, his autobiographical memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, was adapted into a film, Jordan Ross Belfort turns 63… Mortgage professional and owner of D.C.’s Char Bar, Michael Alan Chelst… Public radio personality, former producer of “This American Life” and the host and executive producer of the “Serial” podcast, Sarah Koenig turns 56… Activist short seller, author and editor of the online investment newsletter “Citron Research,” Andrew Edward Left turns 55… Actor, tour guide, poet, speaker, philosopher and author, Timothy “Speed” Levitch turns 55… Co-founder of Netscape and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Lowell Andreessen turns 54… Reporter for The Free Press, Eli Jon Lake turns 53… Former anchor and reporter for Fox Business Network, Lori Rothman turns 52… Peter Webb … Co-founder and executive director of Nefesh B’Nefesh, Yehoshua Fass turns 52… Brig. Gen. (res.) in the IDF, Omer Dagan turns 49… Israeli documentary filmmaker, Guy Davidi turns 47… Retired poker player now an options trader, she is the only woman to ever reach the No. 1 ranking on the Global Poker Index, Vanessa K. Selbst turns 41… Tony Award-winning theater, film and television actor, Brandon Uranowitz turns 39… Renewable energy and climate specialist, Samantha Hea Marks… Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Jake Kalish turns 34… 

• We’re keeping an eye on both Washington and Jerusalem today, ahead of next week’s planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the leaders and aides provide details of the contours of the talks. Yesterday, Trump said that Israel had agreed to the terms of a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, shortly after Israeli Strategic Minister Ron Dermer and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff wrapped up an hours-long meeting.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

It might be hard to remember now, with all that has happened in recent weeks, but the Knesset seemed very close to calling an early election a day and a half before Israel commenced its airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a post-Iran victory bump, and is once again leading in the polls – but not by much. A poll published on Tuesday showed his Likud party leading a potential party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett by only two seats, and tied with Bennett for leading candidate for prime minister. Another pollster showed a similar margin during the Iran operation, but had the two parties tied after the ceasefire. Parties in the current coalition made up less than half of the Knesset in every poll. In a poll from the Israel Democracy Institute published on Wednesday, only 46% of Jewish Israelis said they trust Netanyahu. 

A common accusation heard by Netanyahu’s political opponents at home and abroad is that he is prolonging the war in Gaza to stay in office, because ending the war before his far-right coalition partners deem Hamas fully defeated would likely see the collapse of his government. But the victories under his leadership are seemingly not staunching the Israeli right’s continued collapse in the polls as the war grinds on in its 635th day.

Netanyahu may consider the political advantages of winding down the war as he heads to Washington next week while President Donald Trump is pushing for a broad deal that would encompass a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages, the administration of Gaza by moderate Sunni states, normalization between Israel and Syria and perhaps other countries, plus working to ensure Iran doesn’t rebuild its nuclear program. 

If Netanyahu returns to Israel with a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release agreement, an expanded Abraham Accords and a way to keep Israel’s achievement in Iran intact, then he may get a more significant electoral bump. In that scenario, one option for him could be to ride that wave and call a snap election, rather than wait until the official October 2026 date for the vote.

Or, Netanyahu could see this as his legacy-clinching move, a sign that his work is done. In 2021, the prime minister said that he wants his legacy to be that he was the “protector of Israel, because I devoted much of my adult life to preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”

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

Abraham Accords 2.0: In the Financial Times, senior Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh, who until 2024 served as the United Arab Emirates’ envoy at the United Nations, calls for a “comprehensive” Middle East peace agreement built on the successes of the Abraham Accords. “For years, two false notions have taken hold in the Middle East: first, that force alone can secure stability and security. Second, that states in our region can be built securely on the basis of a zealous ideology. In fact, military victories in the Middle East are often hollow and fragile and extremist ideology can never create safe, stable and successful societies. As the window to de-escalate closes, there is an opportunity for U.S. President Donald Trump to forge a second-term legacy of peace in the Middle East, by building on his landmark first-term achievement: the Abraham Accords.” [FT]

What’s in a Slogan? The New York Times’ Bret Stephens, who was living in Jerusalem during the Second Intifada, reflects on New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada.” “But a major political candidate who plainly refuses to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’ isn’t participating in legitimate democratic debate; he is giving moral comfort to people who deliberately murder innocent Jews. There are liberals and progressives who’ll continue to make excuses for Mamdani. They will argue that his views on ‘globalize the intifada’ are beside the point of his agenda for New York. They will observe that he has a predictable share of far-left Jewish supporters. They will play semantic games about the original meaning of ‘intifada.’” [NYTimes]

On the Nuclear Clock: The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Malsin and Laurence Norman look at the political calculations affecting the amount of time by which experts and officials believe Iran’s nuclear program has been set back. “If Iran were to make the decision to build a nuclear weapon, it would be betting that it can complete the job and establish deterrence before the U.S. and Israel intervene — through military action, economic pressure or diplomacy — to stop it. A longer timeline increases the risk of being spotted or struck again, which could dissuade Iran from taking such a gamble in the first place. So measured on the Iranian nuclear clock, a delay of a few months could translate into a lot longer than it sounds if it keeps Tehran from moving ahead.” [WSJ]

Paramount reached a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over the comments made about the Israel-Hamas war by then-Vice President Kamala Harris in a “60 Minutes” interview that Trump alleged had selectively edited; the money will be put toward Trump’s legal fees and his future presidential library…

The Wall Street Journal looks at relations between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which appear to be on an upswing following the joint Israel-U.S. cooperation in striking Iran following months of rumored tensions between the two leaders…

As the Senate closed out its marathon session of amendment votes on Republicans’ budget bill, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, it added back a provision fought for by Orthodox Jewish groups, creating a major new national school choice program, which had been stripped from the bill days earlier, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) and 12 other House Republicans introduced a bill to create a service medal for members of the military involved in the Iran-Israel war…

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order addressing antisemitism in the state’s schools; under the terms of the executive order, the Iowa Board of Regents is instructed to work with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to ensure that the state’s universities are in compliance with the Civil Rights Act, and will review universities’ handling of antisemitism complaints dating back to October 2023…

Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken was announced as the Ford Foundation’s next president, succeeding Darren Walker…

The Washington Post spotlights the Pentagon Pizza Report social media account, which tracks spikes in activity at pizzerias in the vicinity of the Defense Department’s Northern Virginia headquarters; the tracker noted an increase in activity ahead of Israel’s preemptive strikes on Iran last month, as well as before Trump announced the U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facilities…

Authorities in Germany arrested a Danish national from Afghanistan accused of surveilling potential Jewish targets in the country on behalf of Iran; prosecutors believe the man was instructed by Iran’s Quds Force to scout Jewish sites and locations used by prominent Jewish communal leaders in the German capital…

Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin over the arrest; German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who is visiting Ukraine, where he visited a synagogue and the Babyn Yar memorial, said if the accusations were proven, “that would once again demonstrate that Iran is a threat to Jews all over the world”…

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin; the two-hour call, which was initiated following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last month, was the first conversation between the two leaders in nearly three years…

The U.K. Defence Journal suggests that dozens of social media accounts that promoted Scottish independence have ceased posting following Israel’s strikes on Iran, which caused blackouts across parts of the Islamic Republic…

Iran reportedly moved forward last month with plans to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, which would have effectively shuttered the waterway to commercial vessels; the mines were loaded onto vessels in the Persian Gulf shortly after Israel began its preemptive strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities…

Iran’s nuclear regulators are no longer responding to outreach from international inspectors, following Tehran’s decision last week to cut off inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency…

Iranian Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, who was believed to have been killed in last month’s Israeli strikes on senior regime officials, was seen, walking with a cane, in footage from the country’s weekend memorial service for military commanders…

Dylan Field’s Figma filed for an IPO, less than two years after the collapse of a planned $20 billion takeover by Adobe; read JI’s profile of Fields here…

Eric Goldstein, the CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, will step down from his position at the end of the next fiscal year, after 12 years in the role, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Entrepreneur, Democratic donor and philanthropist S. Daniel Abraham, who in 1989 established an eponymous center to focus on Middle East peacebuilding efforts, died at 101…

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul laid a stone at the Babyn Yar memorial in Ukraine this week during an unannounced trip to the country.

Actress, singer and producer, she appeared in her first films as a 14-year-old, Ashley Tisdale turns 40…

Director emerita of Hebrew studies at HUC-JIR, now on the board of trustees of Los Angeles Hebrew High School, Rivka Dori… Nobel laureate in medicine in 2004, he is a professor at Columbia University and a molecular biologist, Richard Axel turns 79… Co-creator of the “Seinfeld” television series and creator of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” comedian and producer, Larry David turns 78… Inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of the E Street Band, Roy J. Bittan turns 76… Swedish author and screenwriter, she wrote a novel about Jewish children who escaped the Holocaust, Annika Thor turns 75… Former CEO of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, she also served as a State Department’s special envoy on antisemitism, Hannah Rosenthal turns 74… Montclair, N.J.-based philanthropic consultant, Aaron Issar Back, Ph.D…. Israeli Druze politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Kulanu and Kadima parties, Akram Hasson turns 66… Maryland state senator since 2015, Cheryl C. Kagan turns 64… Founder and head of business development of AQR Capital Management, David G. Kabiller turns 62… Member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism alliance, Ya’akov Asher turns 60… Chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, Peter E. Baker turns 58… Reading specialist at Wayne Thomas School in Highland Park, Ill., Stephanie Rubin… Co-founder, president and dean at Mechon Hadar in Manhattan, Shai Held, Ph.D. turns 54… Global industry editor for health and pharma at Thomson Reuters, Michele Gershberg… Music video and film director, Alma Har’el turns 50… Motivational speaker, media personality and a senior director of capital markets at RXR Realty, Charlie Harary turns 48… Author of fiction and non-fiction on a variety of Jewish topics, Elisa Albert turns 47… Israeli journalist, TV anchor and popular lecturer, Sivan Rahav-Meir turns 44… Member of Congress (R-NY), she was the chair of the House Republican Conference until earlier this year, Elise Stefanik turns 41… Actress and internet personality, Barbara Dunkelman turns 36… Actress, singer and songwriter, she played a lead role in the 2019 ABC series “Emergence,” Alexa Swinton turns 16…

• President Donald Trump is in The Hague, Netherlands, today for the NATO Summit. He’ll return to the U.S. tonight, following a press conference at 3 p.m. local time, 9 a.m. ET. More below on Trump’s comments at the gathering earlier today.
• This morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi is testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Justice Department’s FY2026 budget, while U.S. Agency for Global Media Senior Advisor Kari Lake is slated to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
• Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations of North America are holding a two-day leadership mission to Washington, with conversations with lawmakers expected to focus on domestic antisemitism and the Israel-Iran war.
• Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will deliver a speech at the Institute of Politics in New Hampshire today on the U.S. and Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and “rebuilding American strength and deterrence in a dangerous world.”
• The Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting an event this afternoon looking at the U.S. role during wartime in Israel. Dana Stroul, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East during the Biden administration, and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro are slated to speak.
• The Aspen Ideas Festival kicks off this evening in Colorado. Walter Isaacson and Fareed Zakaria are set to take the stage in tonight’s opening session for a conversation about global current events.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

Zohran Mamdani’s presumed victory over Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor on Tuesday evening marks an extraordinary upset that until recently seemed all but unthinkable for the far-left state assemblyman from Queens who entered the race last October with virtually no name recognition. 

The stunning rise of the 33-year-old democratic socialist with a long history of anti-Israel activism sent shockwaves through New York City’s political establishment and is already reverberating beyond the Big Apple, raising questions over the ideological direction of the Democratic Party as it has struggled to land on a cohesive messaging strategy to counter President Donald Trump. 

With the midterms looming, Trump’s allies are already reportedly preparing to link Mamdani’s radical politics to the broader Democratic brand.

Meanwhile, in a place home to the largest Jewish population of any city in the world, Mamdani’s path to the nomination is also contributing to a growing sense of political homelessness among Jewish Democrats who voiced discomfort with his strident criticism of Israel and refusal to condemn extreme rhetoric such as “globalize the intifada,” a slogan that critics interpret as fueling antisemitism.

Mamdani’s insurgent victory five months into Trump’s second term was reminiscent of then-upstart Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s  (D-NY) upset primary victory over then-Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in the spring of 2018, one of the seminal moments that year of the political backlash to Trump. It was an early signal that the party, even as it elected a number of moderate lawmakers in that year’s Democratic wave, was moving inexorably leftward in reaction to a Trump White House.

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

Remember Beirut: In The Free Press, Albert Eisenberg, whose grandfather was killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, reflects on the recent assassinations of senior Iranian officials, including the July 2024 targeted strike against mastermind of the embassy bombing. “My grandfather was not an invading conqueror. He was a civilian employee of the U.S. government whose desire was to help build up other countries. He was murdered in 1983 by a regime that considers anyone they don’t like an enemy to be enslaved, tortured, or killed. This is not a regime that should ever be trusted with nuclear weapons, and our country’s involvement this weekend in preventing that from happening is justified. In any conflict, if there is one side deliberately targeting civilians — as Iran has done to its own people and to countless Americans since the ayatollahs came to power in 1979 — we should know that this is the side to oppose.” [FreePress]

Military Die is Cast: In The New York Times, former Secretary of State Tony Blinken suggests that, despite his opposition to the Trump administration’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, he hopes they were successful. The Biden administration’s “deployments, deterrence and active defense of Israel when Iran directly attacked it for the first time allowed Israel to degrade Iran’s proxies and its air defenses without a wider war. In so doing, we set the table for Mr. Trump to negotiate the new nuclear deal he pledged years ago to work toward — or to strike. I wish that he had played out the diplomatic hand we left him. Now that the military die has been cast, I can only hope that we inflicted maximum damage — damage that gives the president the leverage he needs to finally deliver the deal he has so far failed to achieve.” [NYTimes]

What’s in a Slogan?: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait acknowledges concerns over New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the “globalize the intifada” slogan, understood by many, including Jewish voters, to be a call for violence against Jews around the world. “The ambiguity of the slogan is not a point in its defense but a point against it. The dual meanings allow the movement to contain both peaceful and militant wings, without the former having to take responsibility for the latter. If activists refused to employ slogans that double as a form of violent incitement, it would insulate them from any association with the harassment and violence that has tainted their protests. Their failure to do so reveals an unwillingness to draw lines, as does Mamdani’s reluctance to allow any daylight between him and their rhetoric.” [TheAtlantic]

The White House is restaffing its National Security Council, weeks after mass purges following the removal of Mike Waltz as national security advisor that significantly downsized the office; Bloomberg reports that some of the ousted staffers have been asked to return to the NSC… 

The FBI is returning counterterrorism staffers who had been reassigned to immigration cases amid concerns about potential domestic terror threats from Iran…

Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) sent a letter to European Union officials raising concerns about proposals to downgrade or suspend the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel…

Congressional Democrats reacted with outrage to the postponement of scheduled classified briefings on the U.S. strikes on Iran, accusing the administration of attempting to hide the truth from lawmakers…

A majority of House Democrats — 128 — voted with Republicans to kill an effort led by Rep. Al Green (D-TX) to impeach President Donald Trump for striking Iran without congressional authorization; 79 members voted to move the effort forward…

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suggested in an X post that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated over his opposition to Israel’s nuclear program…

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine defeated NYC Councilmember Justin Brannan in the city’s comptroller race; in Brooklyn, Maya Kornberg failed to oust Councilmember Shahana Hanif in the Park Slope district; former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) fell short in his city council bid, coming in fourth in a five-person race to represent parts of lower Manhattan…

A prominent member of Qatar’s royal family boosted Zohran Mamdani, a far-left Queens state assemblyman, in his campaign for mayor of New York City, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to announce his bid for a third term on Thursday…

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed suit in federal court in Massachusetts on Wednesday on behalf of two Jewish students, alleging that the university and a tenured professor violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including harassment on social media and in mass emails, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Oliver Darcy reports in his Substack that Skydance Media CEO David Ellison met with Bari Weiss last year in an effort to recruit the Free Press founder to CBS’ news division…

The Washington Post profiles NFL reporter Jordan Schultz, the son of former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and self-described “new breed of sports journalist,” who has leveraged personal ties and relationships to break news…

U.S. immigration authorities arrested 11 Iranian nationals, including one believed to be a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member with ties to Hezbollah…

The Board of Deputies of British Jews suspended five of the 36 members who signed on to an open letter earlier this year criticizing the Israeli government for its actions in Gaza…

Seven IDF soldiers were killed when a bomb planted on their armored vehicle exploded in the southern Gaza Strip…

Chinese officials are reportedly reconsidering a plan to build an oil pipeline between China and Russia as Beijing looks to alternatives to Middle East oil and gas in the wake of the Israel-Iran war…

Iran executed three prisoners in its Urmia Prison who were accused of spying for Israel and bringing “assassination equipment” into the country…

Photographer Marcia Resnick died at 74…

Former hostage Iair Horn (right) met in Washington on Tuesday with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) as part of a delegation of former hostages and hostage families to lobby for the release of the remaining 50 hostages.

Founder and CEO of The Agency, Mauricio Umansky turns 55… 

Music publicist in the 1970s and 1980s for Prince, Billy Joel and Styx, later an author on human behavior, Howard Bloom turns 82… Founder and CEO of Bel Air Partners, a financial advisory firm for automotive retailers, Sheldon J. Sandler turns 81… Real estate developer in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Las Vegas and Miami and founder of The Continuum Company, Ian Bruce Eichner turns 80… Florida resident, Joseph C. Goldberg… Southern California-based mentor, coach and consultant for business executives through Vistage International, Gary Brennglass… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Sonia Sotomayor turns 71… Former member of the Knesset for the Meretz party, Michal Rozin turns 56… Managing director of A-Street, an investment fund focused on seeding and scaling innovative K-12 student learning, Mora Segal… Senior media and PR specialist at Hadassah, Helen Chernikoff… Israeli philosopher, writer and publicist, he teaches at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Midreshet Lindenbaum, Rabbi Chaim Navon turns 52… Founder and director of The Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, known as the “Zoo Rabbi,” Natan Slifkin turns 50… Former fashion model and television presenter, Michele Merkin turns 50… Deputy director of government relations at Bread for the World, Zachary Silberman… President of Gratz College in Melrose Park, Pa., Zev Eleff turns 40… One-half of the husband-and-wife duo known for their YouTube channel h3h3Productions with more than 1.3 billion views, Ethan Edward Klein… Manager of strategic content at Leidos until a few months ago, Isaac Snyder… VP of strategy at Saint Paul Commodities and co-founder of Veriflux, Daniel “Dani” Charles turns 38… Medical resident at Temple University School of Medicine, Avital Mintz-Morgenthau, MD… Senior producer covering the White House for CNN, Betsy Klein… Center fielder in the San Francisco Giants organization, he was the 10th overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft, Hunter David Bishop turns 27…

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning on the Pentagon’s 2026 fiscal year budget.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will appear in a new interview with Tucker Carlson, slated to be released later today. Clips released ahead of the full interview show clashes between the Texas Republican and conservative commentator, whose policy positions on Iran and Israel are increasingly at odds with the Trump administration.
• The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is holding a memorial event tonight for Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

While the last two months have been an exercise in diplomacy for Trump administration officials, who have crisscrossed the Middle East and Europe in an attempt to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, the last 24 hours have seen a sharp pivot from President Donald Trump to a more hard-line approach to Tehran.

“UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” the president posted on his Truth Social site on Tuesday afternoon, understood to be a message to Iran after more than five days of Israeli attacks meant to degrade Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure. Iranian reprisals that have paralyzed Israel, but resulted in damage that has fallen far short of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s threats. (Khamenei responded on Wednesday that “the Iranian nation will not surrender.”)

Trump’s latest comments underscore his shift away from the isolationist elements of the GOP that have dominated his administration since a purge of more traditional foreign policy-minded Republicans, including former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. As The New York Times’ Ross Douthat wrote on Tuesday, Trump’s isolationist supporters “imagined that personnel was policy, that the realists and would-be restrainers in Trump’s orbit would have a decisive influence. That was clearly a mistake, and the lesson here is that Trump decides and no one else.”

On Capitol Hill, while Republicans appear publicly split on the level of involvement that the U.S. should have in the conflict — from working with Israel to destroy the Fordow nuclear facility to forcing Iran’s hand in diplomatic talks — JI’s conversations with legislators indicate a different approach behind the scenes. One senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal conference dynamics estimated that nearly the entire GOP conference is privately united on the issue of the U.S. supporting Israel in bombing the Fordow facility if Israel needs such support. Read more from JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod here.

“I think the president has struck the right position,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI, “which is supportive of Israel’s right of self-defense, which is what this really is, and supporting them publicly while they defend themselves. I think that’s the right position to stick on.” Read more of Hawley’s comments here.

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

From Hands-Off to Hands-On: The New York Times looks at how President Donald Trump’s approach to the Israel-Iran war shifted as the war has unfolded. “When he woke on Friday morning, his favorite TV channel, Fox News, was broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius. And Mr. Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself. In phone calls with reporters, Mr. Trump began hinting that he had played a bigger behind-the-scenes role in the war than people realized. Privately, he told some confidants that he was now leaning toward a more serious escalation: going along with Israel’s earlier request that the United States deliver powerful bunker-busting bombs to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordo[w].” [NYTimes]

Axis of Illiberality: In The Washington Post, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and a former member of Knesset, considers the role of China, Russia and North Korea alongside Iran in advancing antisemitism around the world. “While ‘intersectionality’ once was intended to advance the foundational principles of life and liberty, it can now be applied to a contemporary target: authoritarian and illiberal regimes’ efforts to tear apart those very foundations. The declared intention is destroying liberal democracies. … There are many ties that bind Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Oil, arms and food bring them together; stoking global antisemitism is a useful tool in a divide-and-conquer strategy. These regimes pursue their agendas in ways that may outwardly vary, but they share a common goal: the West’s downfall. They all recognize that the liberal principles of democracies and the international rules-based order can be exploited to sow fear, despair and distrust.” [WashPost]

President Donald Trump, traveling back to Washington from the G7 in Canada, dismissed a public assessment by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made earlier this year that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; Politico looks at the “widening gap” between Trump and Gabbard as the two clash on Middle East policy issues…

A new bipartisan resolution introduced by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) and 14 co-sponsors on Tuesday praises Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities and condemns Iran’s retaliatory missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

An Army general who served as the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate was removed from the joint staff amid an investigation into his social media posts, which included a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies” and allegations that American pro-Israel activists are prioritizing “support for Israel over our actual foreign interests”…

Tablet interviews the Institute for Science and International Security’s David Albright, a former International Atomic Energy Agency inspector, about the state of the Iranian nuclear program and Israeli capabilities to target the Fordow facility without U.S. assistance…

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) said he would consider a bid for the House seat held by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) if Sherrill prevails in the November gubernatorial election…

Colorado’s two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, wrote to Senate leaders on Tuesday calling for funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to be increased to as much as $500 million following the antisemitic attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; they also urged lawmakers to ensure that the funding can be used to “pay permanent security guards and other critical personnel”…

Oracle announced a new program, Oracle Defense Ecosystem, to help smaller vendors sell technology to the Pentagon, including artificial intelligence; participating vendors will be able to utilize Oracle’s office space and expertise with the Defense Department’s procurement system, as well as receive a discount for Palantir’s cloud and AI services…

Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting CEO David Zaslav’s pay when the company divides in two next year, though it will provide him with extra stock options that will pay out if the company hits share-price targets, in order to better tie pay to performance…

A Bay Area man is facing federal hate crimes charges for his participation in what the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office called an “antisemitic group beating” of two people, one of whom was Jewish; a physical confrontation escalated after members of the group reportedly shouted “free Palestine” and “f–k the Jews”…

A Maryland man was charged with allegedly sending numerous threats to Jewish organizations in Pennsylvania over a period of more than a year, from April 2024 to May 2025…

The Birmingham City Council became the first in the U.K. to recognize the Jewish identity of residents when collecting demographic data…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Israel was doing the “dirty work” of striking Iran “for all of us”…

A new poll from the Council for a Secure America found overwhelming support (79%) among the Israeli public for Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities…

The Wall Street Journal speaks with Israeli entrepreneurs about how the war between Israel and Iran is impacting Israeli startups — destroying homes and offices, calling up reservists, canceling conferences, halting business travel and affecting productivity…

The U.S. withdrew troops from two bases in northeastern Syria, amid concerns from U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces in the region that the vacuum could provide an opening for extremist groups…

Turkey is ramping up its production of medium- and long-range missiles amid the escalation between Israel and Iran…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) met on Tuesday with Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, the first time the two have met for a security briefing in more than a month.

Music mogul, Scott Samuel “Scooter” Braun turns 44…

Chicago-based attorney, he is the only ordained rabbi to have served as an alderman on the Chicago City Council, Solomon Gutstein turns 91… Former Washington Post editor and reporter, Fred Barbash turns 80… Retired IT management advisor at Next Stage, Steven Shlomo Nezer… Croatian entrepreneur, he was previously the minister of economy, labour and entrepreneurship in the Croatian government, Davor Stern turns 78… Rabbi at Or Hamidbar in Palm Springs, Calif., he previously led congregations in Israel and Stockholm, Rabbi David James Lazar turns 68… Rebecca Diamond… Best-selling author and journalist, she was editor-in-chief of USA Today, Joanne Lipman turns 64… Retired professor of English at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Helene Meyers… Executive of the William Pears Group, a large UK real estate firm founded by his father and grandfather, Sir Trevor Steven Pears (family name was Schleicher) turns 61… Vice chairman and president of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, she recently joined the board of Meta/Facebook, Dina Powell McCormick… White House senior aide during the Trump 45 administration, he is a principal of Cordish Companies, Reed Saunders Cordish turns 51… Film director and screenwriter, Jonathan A. Levine turns 49… Actor, comedian, satirist and writer, known professionally as Ben Gleib, Ben Nathan Gleiberman turns 47… Television producer and writer, Jeremy Bronson turns 45… Baseball pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, he is now the director of pitching development for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jeremy Bleich turns 38… Of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Esther Lifshitz… Israeli musician, producer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by his stage name Dennis Lloyd, Nir Tibor turns 32… Investor at Silver Point Capital, Jacob E. Best… Rachel Hazan…