The newly open Senate race in Iowa could pit a House Republican seen as a conventional conservative against challengers likely to attack her from the right. The race could also be an early bellwether of the GOP’s direction as it moves toward the post-Trump era.

Multiple outlets reported on Friday that Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) will drop her bid for reelection in 2026 and retire from the Senate at the end of her current term. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Ernst has been a staunch ally of Israel and an Iran hawk in the upper chamber, traveling to the region repeatedly since Oct. 7, 2023, and serving as a co-chair of the Abraham Accords Caucus.

Humanitarian aid to Gaza must only go to civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said in a joint statement following their meeting on Thursday.

“It was agreed that every effort must be made to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the most vulnerable people where they are, and that humanitarian aid is provided exclusively to civilians,” they stated.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers including Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) criticized the Israeli government on Thursday for carrying out a new round of strikes in Syria, which reportedly killed eight Syrian soldiers.

The statement is one of the most public signs yet of friction between U.S. lawmakers, including some staunch supporters of Israel, and the Israeli government over Israel’s approach to the new Syrian government, which has included repeated rounds of strikes on Syrian targets even amid diplomatic engagements. Many U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, are urging a more optimistic approach.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Thursday floated the possibility of punitive tariffs and visa restrictions in response to Norges Bank Investment Management’s — the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund — decision to sell its stake in the American machinery company Caterpillar in response to the Israeli military’s use of its products.

“To those who run Norway’s sovereign wealth fund: if you cannot do business with Caterpillar because Israel uses their products, maybe it’s time you’re made aware that doing business or visiting America is a privilege, not a right,” Graham said on X.

Sergio Gor’s expected departure from a key role in the White House, where he has vetted thousands of candidates for political jobs as the influential leader of the Presidential Personnel Office, is raising some questions about how his litmus tests and isolationist views will compare to his newly announced replacement, particularly with regard to national security hires.

Gor, 38, was nominated by President Donald Trump last week to be U.S. ambassador to India. If confirmed by the Senate, Gor, who was also tapped as special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs, will leave behind a powerful post at which he built a reputation as an ideological gatekeeper. 

The Boulder chapter of “Run for Their Lives,” an organization that arranges weekly marches to advocate for the hostages held in Gaza, will no longer publicly advertise its walking route, the group announced on Wednesday. 

The decision comes “following weeks of escalating harassment and threats,” including from a candidate for city council, the group said, less than three months after a Molotov cocktail attack on the group left a participant dead and injured 15 others.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the snapback sanctions mechanism on Thursday, to reinstate all United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran that had been lifted since the implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The European parties to the Iran deal, known as the E3, notified the UNSC that they were triggering snapback sanctions due to Iran’s continued noncompliance with its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to which they are still parties despite the U.S. withdrawal in 2018. 

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.