• The second round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks are taking place today in Geneva, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi, whose country hosted the first round of talks earlier this month, again mediating between the American team, led by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and the Iran team, led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Witkoff and Kushner are also participating in Russia-Ukraine talks later today in Geneva.
• The latest round of talks comes a day after Araghchi met in Geneva with International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, and as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps begins military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz.
• Representatives from members of the Trump administration’s Board of Peace are arriving in Washington this week ahead of a meeting of member states slated for Thursday. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will be representing Israel at the gathering. Over the weekend, Indonesia announced it would contribute thousands of troops to the international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip. 
• The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is holding its annual mission to Israel.
• Israel’s Olympic bobsled team, led by AJ Edelman, continues trials today, after coming in last place at Monday’s first round.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

Taking the stage at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, two prominent progressive lawmakers rumored to be eyeing presidential runs in 2028, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), used the opportunity to bash Israel.

Criticism of Israel isn’t new for either lawmaker, but taking place on one of the most prominent foreign policy stages in the world, their remarks are a sign of the anti-Israel current that continues to course through the Democratic Party, particularly on its left flank.

Ocasio-Cortez, calling for the U.S. to condition aid to Israel, repeated accusations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

“The United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to laws that require suspension of aid to military units engaged in war crimes. “And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza. And I think that we have thousands of women and children dead … that was completely avoidable.”

Adding insult to injury for some observers, Ocasio-Cortez leveled the accusations in Munich, the site of Adolf Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch, which ultimately catalyzed his rise to power.

Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance at the conference was a foreign policy test for the congresswoman — one she ended up struggling to pass. Despite studying under the tutelage of Matt Duss, a former foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), she faced accusations that she remains unprepared to tackle global issues, accentuated by her stumbling response when asked whether the U.S. should come to the defense of Taiwan if it was attacked by China. (The New York Times headline: “Ocasio-Cortez Offers a Working Class Vision in Munich, with Some Stumbles”)

At the end of the weekend, Ocasio-Cortez griped that her gaffes and perceived presidential ambitions overshadowed the message she intended to deliver, denying that the trip had anything to do with a potential presidential run. Several congressional allies jumped in to back up Ocasio-Cortez.

Murphy, in a separate session, also continued the theme of Democrats’ Israel-bashing. He questioned the reality of the ceasefire in Gaza, emphasizing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement while not mentioning Hamas’ continued violations.

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

• We’re continuing to monitor developments in Australia. At a Sunday vigil in Sydney for the victims of last week’s Bondi Beach attack, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was jeered and booed over what the country’s Jewish leaders have derided as inadequate efforts to address antisemitism before and since the attacks. 
• Earlier today, an Australian court released police charging documents for the alleged shooter who was not killed during the attacks. The documents noted that Naveed Akram and his father had also hurled explosive devices into the crowd that had failed to detonate, and prior to the attacks had recorded a video explaining their motivations while standing in front of an ISIS flag. 
• In Israel, Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, in collaboration with the Ruderman Family Foundation, is hosting a conference this afternoon examining the U.S.-Israel relationship, including the connection between Israel and American Jewry.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar

The kids aren’t alright.

That’s the unmistakable takeaway from a weekend filled with shocking developments surrounding the views of young conservatives, punctuated by a Turning Point USA conference that turned into a proxy war between mainstream voices led by Ben Shapiro, looking to create guardrails against antisemites and conspiracy theorists within the MAGA movement, against a growing cadre of bad-faith right-wing influencers leading the charge to embrace extremist voices into the conservative coalition.

The conference concluded with Vice President JD Vance all but taking the side of the extremists, while offering fulsome praise to his friend, Tucker Carlson, as an essential part of the Republican Party coalition.

The last several days also featured news of an eye-opening Manhattan Institute focus group of Gen Z Nashville-area conservatives reluctant to offer any negative reaction toward Adolf Hitler and sharing numerous antisemitic stereotypes about Jews. (One 29-year-old woman offered this representative reaction about Hitler: “I think he was a great leader, to be honest. I think what he was going for was terrible, but I think he showed very strong leadership values.”)

The weekend ended with a Jewish Insider scoop that a Trump administration nominee for a senior position at the State Department has a long track record of making derogatory comments about the Jewish community, characterizing Jews as religiously incorrect and in need of conversion.

This moment was further underscored by the hideously antisemitic tirade that Candace Owens went on over the last few days, barely eliciting any serious pushback from conservative movement leaders. Meanwhile, former journalist Megyn Kelly, during her own speech Friday at the TPUSA conference, chose to go after Shapiro and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss even as Kelly has publicly steered clear of criticizing Owens, citing the fact that she’s a young mother and a personal friend. (Shapiro, she said, is no longer a friend after he criticized her in his speech Thursday night.)

Shapiro, long one of the leading voices on the right, opened the conference with a warning that the conservative movement is in danger from “charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty, who offer nothing but bile and despair.”  

He called out Tucker Carlson, Owens and Kelly by name. “We must not let fear of audience anger deter us from telling the truth; we must not let fear of other hosts deter us from telling the truth,” Shapiro warned. “The fact that Candace has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years on end while others fly cover for her is … cowardly.”

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

• We’re keeping an eye on Washington following yesterday’s White House meeting — which included Jared Kushner and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair — aimed at winding down the Israel-Hamas war, securing the release of the remaining hostages and laying out “day-after” plans for Gaza. Israeli Strategic Minister Ron Dermer scrapped a planned meeting in Israel with World Food Program head Cindy McCain to travel to Washington for the meeting.
  
• The E3 — the U.K., Germany and France — are set to trigger snapback sanctions against Iran today, following talks between the countries’ foreign minister that failed to yield significant progress. Read more from JI’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik here.
  
• The Atlantic Council is hosting an event this morning titled “Understanding IMEC: A pathway to connectivity amid global uncertainty,” focused on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor project. Read our 2023 coverage of the IMEC project here.
  
• We’re also monitoring the U.N. Security Council’s expected vote on extending the UNIFIL peacekeeping force’s mandate along the Israel-Lebanon border. The initial vote, slated for earlier this week, was postponed and could take place as soon as tomorrow.
  
• On Sunday, Jewish sports fans in Washington are taking part in Jewish Community Day at Nationals Park, when the Nats take on the Tampa Bay Rays.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Last year’s election cycle marked a high point for pro-Israel groups, buoyed by the ouster of two virulently anti-Israel House Democrats (former Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman in New York), the defeat of a House Republican who opposed funding to Israel (former Rep. Bob Good of Virginia) and the success of mainstream Democrats in numerous contested primaries. 

But the political environment for next year’s midterms is looking somewhat choppier in the Jewish world, amid growing anti-Israel sentiment in the Democratic Party, an anti-establishment, transgressive mood in both parties and the reticence of moderate voices to speak up.

In this less hospitable landscape, pro-Israel groups will be playing more defense than offense — ensuring like-minded incumbents are able to avert serious primary challenges, while working to prevent virulently anti-Israel voices from emerging as nominees in key races.

One of the biggest potential showdowns is developing in St. Louis, where Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) faces the prospect of a rematch against Bush, whom he comfortably defeated by six points in last year’s primary. With the benefit of incumbency, Bell would be favored in any rematch, but he is facing an organized campaign by anti-Israel protesters who disrupted his recent town hall after he returned from a trip to the Jewish state. 

AIPAC’s super PAC spent over $8 million against Bush in the 2024 race, and would be expected to prioritize Bell’s reelection as a top priority if she ran again. Bush, for all her celebrity in leftist spaces, has numerous vulnerabilities that haven’t gone away since her last defeat — from her calls to defund the police, lackadaisical constituent service and ethical improprieties involving the use of campaign funds in paying her husband to provide personal security.

Still, in a sign that advocating against Israel can get far-left candidates some traction in deep-blue districts, a Bush comeback will be worth monitoring closely. Indeed, any pro-Israel Democrat running in an urban district with a distinct progressive bent will have to pay attention to any real or prospective primary challenges.

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

Podhoretz’s Path: In The Free Press, Norman Podhoretz, who is 95, reflects on the “double life” he has led as a child of Brooklyn who was welcomed into Manhattan’s aristocracy before falling out of favor with the city’s elite. “In a peculiar way, my journey began when I escaped death at 6 years old, which I learned later was a very close call. It makes me laugh to think about how many people, how many of my former friends, might have reacted if they knew about my early brush with death. Damn, they might have said. If only. But I was, after all, rather good at escaping dire situations. The trauma of falling from the precipice of New York’s intellectual aristocracy in 1967 — a kind of social death — has stayed with me ever since. But over time, as I sat with and bore it, refusing to apologize for its truth or hide it from public view, the immediacy of the pain softened. In its place came opportunity.” [FreePress]

Get Tough on the Quad: In the Jewish News Syndicate, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, call on universities to take a strong stance against campus antisemitism as the academic year begins. “Rules against disruption and harassment must be applied evenly, not bent by politics. Online harassment and doxxing against Jews should be treated with the same seriousness as other threats and harassment on campus. … Campuses must recognize that for most Jews, support for the State of Israel is not a political slogan but an expression of identity. Treating Zionism as illegitimate means treating Jewish identity itself as suspect. Administrators and student-life offices must apply the same clear standards to safeguarding Jewish students as they do for all others. To that end, organizations and their members who target Jewish students must face consequences. Universities must clearly and broadly communicate their rules regarding protests and harassment, and then enforce them vigorously and consistently.” [JNS]

Michael Anton, who serves as the director of the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, is departing his post in Foggy Bottom this fall…

A new Quinnipiac survey found that 60% of Americans do not support sending additional military aid to Israel; half of those surveyed — 77% of Democrats and 20% of Republicans — said they believed Israel was commiting genocide in Gaza…

The New York Times does a deep dive into the federal investigation into former National Security Advisor John Bolton, following last week’s FBI raids of Bolton’s home and office; the investigation centers around the interception by a foreign country of emails sent by Bolton to individuals assisting with his 2020 memoir…

xAI, the parent company of the social media platform X and creator of the Grok artificial intelligence chatbot, said in a letter to lawmakers earlier this month that the antisemitic and violent rants posted by the chatbot last month were the results of an “unintended update” to Grok’s code, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Microsoft fired two employees who participated in a sit-in in the Washington state office of the company’s president, Brad Smith, and demanded the company cut ties with Israel…

The Beverly Hills Unified School District, in a 3-2 vote, approved a proposal to fly the Israeli flag inside all schools and district buildings; the proposal also designates Oct. 7 as a day of remembrance and recognizes May as Jewish American Heritage Month…

State legislators in California are weighing new legislation that would establish an Office of the Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator and would prevent the use of learning materials “that would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination”…

Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Jonathan Glazer signed on as executive producers of an upcoming film about the death of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl alleged to have been killed by IDF fire in January 2024…

Authorities in Argentina raided a Buenos Aires villa in search of the “Portrait of a Lady,” a 17th-century portrait by Italian artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi that was believed to have been looted nearly a century ago from its Jewish owners by a Nazi official who took the artwork to South America after the war…

A group of policy experts from the N7 Initiative — a joint project of the Atlantic Council and the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation — met with senior Syrian officials, including Syria’s minister of defense, in Damascus this week. “We heard [a] real desire to find a way to not just have a ceasefire, but to have a security deal with Israel,” William Wechsler, the senior director of Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council, told Jewish Insider. He said a security deal is the first step on the path toward Israel-Syria normalization — which, he said, is not likely to come soon, but “there’s so many things that can be done in the interim”… 

The International Atomic Energy Agency assessed that no enriched uranium has been moved from Iran’s nuclear site in Isfahan since the country’s 12-day war with Israel in June…

Florida businessman and philanthropist Stephen Muss, who saved both the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach and the Alexander Muss High School in Israel from closure, died at 97…

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on Wednesday in Washington during Sa’ar’s first trip to the capital since becoming foreign minister.

British actress, known professionally as Emma Samms, she is best known for her soap opera roles, Emma Elizabeth Wylie Samuelson turns 65…

Artist and chemist, he survived the Holocaust by living in a hole in the ground for seven months, Tibor Spitz turns 96… Independent international trade and development professional, Bernard Kupferschmid turns 94… Professor emeritus of quantum physics at Tel Aviv University, now on the faculty of Chapman University in Southern California, Yakir Aharonov turns 93… Honorary president of the Israel Policy Forum and the immediate past president of American Jewish Committee (AJC), Robert H. Elman… Filmmaker and the founder of Brave New Films, Robert Greenwald turns 80… Retired general counsel of Queens College of the City University of New York, Jane Denkensohn… Founder and CEO of retail chain Indigo Books & Music and co-founder and past chair of Kobo, Heather Maxine Reisman turns 77… Psychoanalyst and author of a 2019 memoir about her father Norman Mailer, Susan Mailer turns 76… Chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees and former chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, Merryl Hiat Tisch turns 70… CEO of the Consumer Technology Association and author of the New York Times best-seller “Ninja Innovation,” Gary J. Shapiro turns 69… Senior rabbi of B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Jose Rolando Matalon… Actor, best known for his roles in two “Home Alone” films and two “City Slickers” films, Daniel Jacob Stern turns 68… Professor at George Washington University, he was deputy counsel in the Biden administration and the National Security Council legal advisor, Jonathan G. Cedarbaum turns 64… Television writer and producer, he is best known as the original showrunner and executive producer of the animated comedy series “Family Guy,” David J. Zuckerman turns 63… FCC commissioner from 2002 until 2009, then CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association, Jonathan Steven Adelstein turns 63… CEO and founder of PharmStars and managing partner and co-founder of Ambit Health Ventures, Naomi Fried, Ph.D…. COO of Meta / Facebook from 2008 until 2022, Sheryl Sandberg turns 56… Actor, comedian and musician, in 2018 he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Thomas Jacob “Jack” Black turns 56… Early pioneer of contemporary Jewish rock music, Richard Samuel “Rick” Recht turns 55… General counsel of The Guardian US, she is a lecturer at Columbia Law School, Kai Falkenberg… First VP in the Hunt Valley, Md., office of Newmark Valuation & Advisory, Daniel “Doni” Greenwald… Olympic gold medalist in four-man bobsleigh in 2010, he is the co-founder and CEO of Classroom Champions, Steven Michael Mesler turns 47… Israeli soldier held captive for over five years by Hamas, released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal, Gilad Shalit turns 39… Offensive lineman for five different NFL teams since 2017, he was cut by the San Francisco 49ers earlier this week, Michael Dunn turns 31… Ari Willner…

• Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is in New York this morning for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the situation of the hostages held in Gaza. Sa’ar prompted the special session after videos of two hostages — Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski — were released by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Before the session, Sa’ar will hold a meeting with American Jewish leaders. Read more here.
• Northwestern University President Michael Schill will appear before the House Education and Workforce Committee today for a closed-door transcribed interview about alleged failures to protect Jewish students on the Illinois campus.
• Also in Israel this week are two delegations of freshman House members, one from each caucus, organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation. The Democratic trip is led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the former House majority leader, and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the caucus chair.
• The Republican trip is led by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and includes Reps. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), Michael Baumgartner (R-WA), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Rep. Troy Downing (R-MT), Julie Fedorchak (R-ND), Randy Fine (R-FL), Brandon Gill (R-TX), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Harriet Hageman (R-WY), Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), Mark Harris (R-NC), Jeff Hurd (R-CO), Brian Jack (R-GA), John McGuire (R-VA), Bob Onder (R-MO), Derek Schmidt (R-KS), Jefferson Shreve (R-IN), Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) and Tony Wied (R-WI). Their visit will include meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.

A QUICK WORD WITH ji’s josh kraushaar

A new poll of New York City Jewish voters commissioned by the pro-Israel New York Solidarity Network underscores the presence of a cohesive constituency opposed to Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy to become New York City mayor — but also illustrates some of the divisions preventing the city’s Jewish community from speaking with a loud, united voice.

The poll, conducted by the respected Democratic polling firm GQR, found Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, winning only 37% of Jewish voters, with 25% backing Mayor Eric Adams, 21% supporting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and 14% preferring Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. The results show that even though most Jewish voters identify as Democrats, a clear majority won’t support the Democratic nominee because of his record on issues of concern to the Jewish community — in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-to-1.

Adams performs particularly well among Orthodox Jews, winning 61% of their vote, while Cuomo leads among Conservative Jewish voters with 35% support. But among unaffiliated and Reform Jews, Mamdani leads with a near majority of the Jewish vote. 

Asked if Jewish voters were pro-Israel, two-thirds (66%) responded in the affirmative, while 31% said they weren’t. That’s a slightly larger share of non-Zionist Jews than we’ve seen in national polling. Nearly two-thirds (63%) also said that the “globalize the intifada” rhetoric that Mamdani has defended is antisemitic, with just 27% disagreeing. 

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

The Blame Game: Coleman Hughes writes in The Free Press about the West’s “moral confusion” in assigning blame for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “There’s no doubt that there is a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. But the information pipeline between Gaza and the West is fundamentally broken, biased, untrustworthy, and weaponized against Israel. And the less skeptical that Western journalists are, the more sources like Hamas and the Gaza Health Ministry can disseminate misinformation without penalty, perpetuating the false narrative that Israel is the genocidal aggressor in a war waged against them by a group whose mission is, in fact, genocide.” [FreePress]

PR Course Correction: The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer writes about how Israel can turn international public opinion around. “Every image of a child with protruding ribs is both a human tragedy and a propaganda victory for Hamas — and proof of how a just war badly lost the plot. I believed in Israel’s casus belli. I don’t believe in this. No justification can redeem the immorality of a policy built on deprivation. As Gaza braces for the worst, Israel still has a narrow window to correct its course. By flooding the zone [with aid], Israel has one last chance to redeem itself.” [TheAtlantic]

Questioning the War: The Wall Street Journal’s Anat Peled spotlights the growing number of voices in Israeli society, mostly on the center-left, that are questioning the morality of Israel’s actions in Gaza and calling for an end to the war. “In recent weeks, more Israelis — including prominent public figures — have called to end the war in Gaza while decrying the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave, marking a shift in the public discourse. A majority of former directors of the Israeli military; Mossad; Shin Bet, the country’s internal security agency; and the police, called on the Israeli government on Sunday to end the war against Hamas. The cause began as a just one after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, they said. But now it has become futile … Nightly news reports have featured more Gazans talking about suffering in the strip. Photos of Gazans killed in the war are now more visible in some public spaces such as protests. More than 1,000 leading Israeli artists created a stir when they signed a petition calling to end the killing of children and civilians in Gaza.” [WSJ]

Baltics Balance: The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon writes about Israel’s “pivot to the Baltics,” as Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar return from separate trips to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. “Calls for punitive measures against Israel are growing louder in EU corridors. In that environment, courting sympathetic voices in the Baltics – where the diplomatic weather is noticeably warmer – isn’t just smart; it’s necessary. … What’s at stake here is more than just goodwill. There are real, high-stakes policy implications. The EU is currently debating whether to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a framework governing economic and political cooperation between Israel and the EU. Sa’ar’s visit to the Baltics in June – before going to Brussels – was part of an effort to prevent such a move, and Herzog’s visit now continues that effort.” [JPost]

A new Pentagon report confirmed that the U.S. withdrew troops from three military bases in Syria and Iraq in May, who were stationed there to combat ISIS forces…

Air Mail writes about the issue of ordinary Israelis engaging in espionage on behalf of Iran, with the Shin Bet confirming more than 60 Israeli citizens are being prosecuted for treason…

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) defended New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s policy proposals for the city on Monday in a heated debate with CNBC host David Faber. Warren called Mamdani’s primary win “democracy at work”…

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) visited the town of Ariel yesterday, making him the highest-ranking elected federal official to visit a West Bank settlement…

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in grant notices made public Friday that states must guarantee they will not engage in boycotts of Israeli companies in order to qualify for a tranche of more than $1.9 billion in natural disaster preparedness grants…

The Israeli Cabinet voted unanimously yesterday to oust Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, with whom the current government has been at odds since it was formed, accusing her of political bias. Shortly after the vote, the Israeli Supreme Court issued an injunction temporarily blocking the firing and ordering the government to continue abiding by Baharav-Miara’s legal opinions until the court issues a final ruling…

The third season of the TV series “Tehran,” which follows an undercover Mossad agent in Iran, may come to Apple TV soon, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Though it aired in Israel over two years ago, Apple has repeatedly delayed the season’s release in the U.S. due to the Oct. 7 attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza…

Rest of World examines how the rise of data centers in the Gulf amid the race to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure will stress already water-scarce countries including the UAE and Saudi Arabia…

The Anti-Defamation League said on Monday that the Portland Police Department is investigating the recent vandalism of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education with swastikas as a hate crime…

New Lines Magazine chronicles the violent clash inside Sweida Hospital in southern Syria last month as government-aligned militias and Bedouin groups clashed with the local Druze population last month…

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations CEO William Daroff (right) met with Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby at the Pentagon yesterday. Daroff told Jewish Insider that Colby “expressed a clear and serious understanding of U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East, including the vital importance of deterring Iran, preventing regional adversaries from gaining dominance, and sustaining Israel’s security following the Twelve Day War,” and that he was “encouraged by [Colby’s] principled and grounded approach.”

Professional boxer who held the WBA super welterweight title from 2009 to 2010, in 2014 he was ordained as a rabbi and then known as the “Boxing Rabbi,” Yuri Foreman turns 45…

Chairman of Delphi Capital Management, he is the founder and chairman of Open to Debate, a public policy debate series, Robert Rosenkranz turns 83… Former chairman of the World Zionist Organization who later served as chairman of the Jewish National Fund, Avraham Duvdevani turns 80… Former Israeli ambassador to France, following seven years as a member of the Knesset, Yael German turns 78… Author of 25 nonfiction books, including The Portable Curmudgeon, Zen to Go and Advice to Writers, Jon Winokur turns 78… Historian, Nazi hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem until 2024, Efraim Zuroff turns 77… Banker, once known as “Austria’s woman on Wall Street” and founder of Bank Medici in 1994, Sonja Kohn turns 77… Former Soviet Refusenik, he served as speaker of the Knesset for seven years, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein turns 67… Intellectual property and entertainment attorney based in Ithaca, N.Y., he is an adjunct professor of law at both Cornell and Touro, Howard Leib… Member of the British House of Lords, he was chief executive of the Office of the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks and then chief executive of the United Jewish Israel Appeal, Baron Jonathan Andrew Kestenbaum turns 66… Businessman Murray Huberfeld… Songwriter, author, political columnist and noted baseball memorabilia collector, Seth Swirsky turns 65… Chair of the Department of Jewish History at Baltimore’s Beth Tfiloh Dahan High School, Neil Rubin, Ph.D…. Actor who starred in “Weekend at Bernie’s,” his father and grandfather were both rabbis, Jonathan Elihu Silverman turns 59… President at ConservAmerica, he is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Jeffrey Kupfer… President of the Center for Jewish History in NYC and professor at Fairfield University, Dr. Gavriel David Rosenfeld turns 58… Former member of the Knesset for the Kulanu party, Roy Folkman turns 50… Director of the Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution for 13 years until this past June, he is soon to become a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, Natan Sachs… Investment and foundation manager at Denver-based Race Street Management and a board member of JFNA, Cintra Pollack… VP of government affairs at WISPA – the Association for Broadband Without Boundaries, Matt Mandel… Chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of The New York Times, Arthur Gregg (A.G.) Sulzberger turns 45… Former director of responsible innovation at Meta / Facebook, now a consultant, he is also the spiritual leader of Chochmat HaLev, a progressive spiritual community in Berkeley, Calif., Zvika Krieger… Member of the comedy duo Jake and Amir, Jacob Penn Cooper Hurwitz turns 40… Longtime member of the Israeli national soccer team who also played in Europe’s UEFA Champions League, Gil Vermouth turns 40… Co-founder of Cadence, an AI-driven performance nutrition platform, Lila Cohn… Front end engineer at Platform.sh, Abby Milberg… 2023 graduate of Harvard Law School, now an assistant corporation counsel for New York City, Michael E. Snow… Senior advisor for implementation at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, Lisa Geller… Leslie Saunders… Director of antisemitism programs at the Anti-Defamation League, Anyu Silverman…

• Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad Director David Barnea are in Washington this week for meetings on Iran with senior Trump administration officials.
• Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and senior Justice Department officials are slated to speak at a Jewish solidarity event this evening in Washington.
• In New York, the American Jewish Committee, the Consulate General of Israel in New York and Israel’s diplomatic mission at the U.N. are hosting a memorial event this afternoon for the two Israeli Embassy staffers killed outside an AJC event in Washington last week. AJC CEO Ted Deutch, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon and John Kelley, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. mission to the U.N., are among the event’s speakers.
• Elsewhere in New York, a Jewish American Heritage Month reception slated to be hosted tonight at Gracie Mansion by New York City Mayor Eric Adams was postponed to July.
• The IHRA International Conference on Combating Antisemitism at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs concludes today. Earlier today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered remarks via video in which he said he prayed “for the day when the entire world will recognize the futility of antisemitism — when leaders will abandon self-destructive hatred and forge a new future in partnership with Israel. By building on the Abraham Accords. Under President Trump’s leadership, there are signs that the future may be closer than we dare dream.”
• Today marks 600 days since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. Communities in Israel and around the world are marking the day with ceremonies and events. Earlier today, released hostages, including Arbel Yehoud, Luis Har and Yocheved Lifshitz, held a press conference in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square calling for the release of the remaining 58 hostages in Gaza.

A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR

The next month will give political observers an important read on which faction of the Democratic Party — the grassroots left or the pragmatic middle — is ascendant in the early months of the Trump administration. These battles, not coincidentally, are also proxy fights between those serious about fighting antisemitism and supporting Israel against those representing a more radical anti-Israel element.

The first big contest, Pittsburgh’s mayoral primary this month, marked a big win for mainstream Democrats. Challenger Corey O’Connor, the Allegheny County controller, defeated Mayor Ed Gainey, dealing a major blow to the activist left in a city where it had recently been on the rise. O’Connor won, in part, by building a strong relationship with the sizable Jewish community in the city that was turned off by Gainey’s record on antisemitism and frequent anti-Israel commentary.

There are four more big clashes coming up next month in New York and New Jersey. The biggest clash is between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and other challengers in the New York City mayoral race. Cuomo, running as a stalwart champion of the Jewish community, currently holds a comfortable lead, but faces elevated unfavorable ratings from his time as governor. Mamdani is polling in second place as a far-left candidate who doesn’t acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and supports the BDS movement. 

A Cuomo victory would underscore that maintaining close ties to the city’s Jewish community — the largest in the Diaspora — is still the time-tested formula for success in Gotham politics. Recent polling suggests the Jewish electorate in New York City is unusually divided, with Cuomo holding a plurality of support.

Two other downballot contests in New York City are also worthy of attention: a City Council primary clash in Brooklyn between anti-Israel Councilwoman Shahana Hanif and Maya Kornberg, the latter of whom is running as a pro-Israel progressive; and a comptroller battle between Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Councilman Justin Brannan, who has been courting support from anti-Israel activists on the campaign trail.

Two weeks before New York’s June 24 primaries, New Jersey will hold its gubernatorial primaries — with the Democratic side of the field featuring a stalwart of Jewish interests in Congress (Rep. Josh Gottheimer), a center-left candidate with a generally supportive but less reliable record on Israel and antisemitism (Rep. Mikie Sherrill), a progressive-minded Jewish candidate (Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop) and a pair of left-wing candidates with close ties to the activist base (Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and New Jersey Education Association head Sean Spiller).

While the New Jersey governor’s race is less binary than the New York City contests, Gottheimer’s showing will be a useful indicator of the clout of the organized Jewish community in the state, while the performance of the left-wing candidates would indicate whether there’s much of a market for undiluted activism. 

The Democratic nominee is expected to face former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, the front-runner for the GOP nomination. In a surprise, Ciattarelli came within three points of defeating Gov. Phil Murphy in the 2021 governor’s race. 

These four contests will be a valuable bellwether of the Democratic Party’s ideological vibe at a time when it is still trying to calibrate its message after a rough defeat in the 2024 elections. A strong showing by pro-Israel moderates would send a powerful corrective to the common assumption that the AOC wing of the party holds the upper hand.

Anton’s Tone: The Free Press’ Eli Lake spotlights Michael Anton, the White House’s director of policy planning, who played a key role in the administration’s transition phase. “His name is not known to most people outside of Washington, but inside the Trump administration Anton has emerged as one of the most important intellectuals behind the president’s foreign policy revolution. In an administration beset with, at times, bitter ideological divides and an often chaotic style that has shocked both allies and foes, Anton has risen to the top by playing his cards close to his chest and deftly navigating the right’s warring foreign policy camps. … With a mix of provocative broadsides in the media and unglamorous behind-the-scenes work in government, Anton has charted an improbable path, from the heart of the neoconservative establishment to the core of the new MAGA foreign policy establishment. Over a decade in which the American right has been defined by bad-tempered, friendship-ending fights, Anton, a Machiavelli scholar, hasn’t just survived the America First revolution, he has helped to shape it.” [FreePress]

Counting on a Trump Retreat: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh consider the factors at play for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the U.S. and Tehran negotiate a new nuclear agreement. “Five months into Mr. Trump’s second term, the mullahs are no longer afraid of the unpredictable American president who killed Qasem Soleimani in 2020. ‘In matters such as the purchase of Gaza and Greenland, the imposition of new tariffs, and even negotiations related to the Ukraine War, Trump first applied maximum pressure, but ultimately left room for retreat,’ is the assessment of Nournews, the mouthpiece for Iran’s national security council. The Trump administration has convinced many in Tehran that the president doesn’t want another conflict in the region. His threats of fire and fury are becoming more recognizably Middle Eastern — words substitute for actions. Given all the advanced centrifuges and the ever-deeper bomb-proof underground enrichment sites, the military option is becoming less credible. For Israel, it’s now or never. The U.S. has patience with threats that are existential only to its allies.” [WSJ]

Bibi Digging In: The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman reflects on his recent trip to Israel, where he said he saw “signals flashing” that Israelis increasingly back an end to the war, even as the government and Hamas choose to prolong the fighting. “As a result of Netanyahu’s military operations, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah — not to mention Saudi Arabia — are all now much freer to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel to a degree they never were when Iran’s regional mercenary network was so powerful. Yes, Netanyahu made that happen! But he also never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity for peace. Netanyahu today staunchly refuses to harvest what Netanyahu has sown. He will not do the one thing that would unlock the politics of the whole region: open a road, no matter how long, to a two-state solution with a reformed Palestinian Authority. … The more I would argue to Israelis that Netanyahu is making a historic mistake — trading peace with Saudi Arabia for peace with the far-right extremists who keep him in power — the more they would ask me: ‘Do you think Trump can save us?’ That question is the ultimate sign that your democracy is in trouble.” [NYTimes]

Keep Hope Alive: In the Jewish Telegraph Agency, Claire Sufrin juxtaposes the tragedy of the Capital Jewish Museum terror attack with her own relationship with her husband, whose girlfriend prior to Sufrin had been killed in the 2002 Hebrew University bombing. “My story — my family’s story — is a very small piece of a much larger whole, the whole of the Jewish people, and the whole of all humanity, not just existing but persevering. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone as something to replicate, were such a thing possible. And yet, at a time like this, I am standing up to say: let’s not give up, not now or not ever. We must still believe, always believe, that there is potential for something better, even in the wake of the most difficult, most painful loss and even in the hardest moments when all we want is to crawl into a tiny hole and pretend that none of this exists, not evil, not despair, not any of it. We must continue taking chances, risking our hearts and our lives, and we must nurture whatever little glimmer of potential growth we may spot, not because we know what will be — we can’t — but because we need, in a way we can’t explain, to see how it might flower.” [JTA]

President Donald Trump reportedly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week against making any moves that could jeopardize Washington’s nuclear talks with Iran…

The State Department has paused student visa interviews as it prepares to implement a more rigid vetting process for prospective international students that includes screening social media accounts…

Leo Terrell, the head of the Justice Department’s antisemitism task force, said that the University of California system should expect “massive lawsuits” as the White House expands its crackdown on colleges and universities…

The University of Florida Board of Trustees unanimously selected former University of Michigan President Santa Ono to be the school’s next president; Ono had previously been announced as the board’s only finalist for the position, which opened following the resignation of former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE)…

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) starts out with an early lead the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan, according to a new poll commissioned by the Detroit Regional Chamber; Stevens leads with 34% of the Democratic vote, with former Wayne County Health Director Dr. Abdul el-Sayed winning 22% and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in third with 14%. Nearly one-third (30%) of Democrats said they’re undecided…

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan was moving forward with an effort to procure arrest warrants for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir before he went on leave amid an investigation into allegations that he had sexually assaulted subordinates…

Far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker was reinstated on the platform after briefly being banned over comments in which Piker posited that the killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington was a “false flag” operation…

The Overland Park, Kan., Jewish community held the funeral for slain Israeli Embassy staffer Sarah Lynn Milgrim on Tuesday under heavy security; Milgrim’s casket was draped with an Israeli flag…

In The Wall Street Journal, Nathan Lewin calls on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute violators of a 1968 law banning violence against individuals using or benefiting from federally financed programs…

Reuters spotlights the potential effects of the Trump administration’s tariffs on a Spanish hatmaker that sells approximately 30,000 hats each year to Orthodox customers in the U.S….

The New York Times looks at how residents of a Berlin housing development that had originally been built for SS officials and their families during WWII reckon with their neighborhood’s past…

Germany is considering freezing its weapons exports to Israel, amid concerns in Berlin over Israel’s recent actions in Gaza; earlier this week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Israeli actions “in recent days can no longer be justified by a fight against Hamas terrorism”… 

The IDF carried out airstrikes on Houthi targets at the airport in Sana’a, Yemen, in response to a series of Houthi ballistic missile attacks on Israel in recent days…

Israel and Syria have in recent weeks reportedly engaged in direct talks focused on security issues…

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said that Jakarta was open to establishing diplomatic ties with Israel on the condition that Israel recognizes a Palestinian state…

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (center) met on Tuesday in Jerusalem with Jewish leaders, including William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (left), and U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (second from left).

Author of 14 novels and a children’s book, Millions of Maxes, Meg Wolitzer turns 66…

Founding rabbi of both Lincoln Square Synagogue in NYC and then later the city of Efrat in the Judean Hills, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin turns 85… Director of UCSF’s Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, he won the 1997 Nobel Prize in medicine, Stanley Benjamin Prusiner M.D. turns 83… Executive director of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Jerome H. Kadden… Former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani turns 81… Former mayor of Toronto, John Howard Tory turns 71… Winnipeg-born attorney, previous campaign chair for Winnipeg’s Combined Jewish Appeal and governor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Gail Sheryl Asper turns 65… British comedian, screenwriter and singer, he is the author of a 2021 book on antisemitism titled Jews Don’t Count, David Lionel Baddiel turns 61… Secretary of state of the United States, he is also serving as national security advisor, Marco Rubio turns 54… Four-time U.S. national fencing champion and a two-time Olympian, then an attorney who clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eric Oliver “Nick” Bravin turns 54… Longtime member of the Knesset on behalf of the Likud party, now serving as Israel’s consul general to New York, Ofir Akunis turns 52… Guitarist, composer and leader of the bands Rashanim and Zion80, Jon Madof turns 51… Rabbi of Boston’s South Shore Congregation Sha’aray Shalom, Eric M. Berk… Dancer and choreographer, Brian L. Friedman turns 48… Senior manager in the executive office at The Pew Charitable Trusts since 2015, Lauren Mandelker… Singer-songwriter, artist and filmmaker, Adam Green turns 44… Entrepreneur Matthew Pritzker turns 43… Managing principal of Asher Strategies, David A. Lobl… Founder in 2015 of At The Well, a women’s wellness organization rooted in Jewish spirituality and women’s health, Sarah Michal Waxman… Founder and CEO at Vista Nexum, Adelle Malka Nazarian… Freelance journalist writing about culture, Thea Glassman… Fashion designer and the founder of WeWoreWhat, Danielle Bernstein turns 33… Harry Weinstein… Named for his father, a WSJ bureau chief who was kidnapped and murdered by Pakistani terrorists a few months before he was born, Adam Daniel Pearl turns 23… Israeli swimmer, she competed in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, Aviv Barzelay turns 23… Irwin Weiss…