Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), one of the leading foreign policy voices in the Democratic Party’s moderate wing, expressed concern over the weekend that any White House decision to move ahead with military action against Iran would deeply alienate leading European allies of the United States. 

“There are pretty stark early warning signs of some challenges where core allies do not share our priorities,” Coons told Jewish Insider following a weeklong trip to Europe, which included stops at the Munich Security Conference, along with meetings in Ukraine and Moldova with top European diplomats. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring Hanan Lischinsky, the brother of an Israeli Embassy staffer shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last May, as his guest to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

Lischinsky is the brother of Yaron Lischinsky, who was killed alongside Sarah Milgrim, his girlfriend and a fellow embassy staffer, while exiting a museum event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee; the two were gunned down by a suspect seen on video shouting “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” after the attack.

As governors from across the country convened in Washington over the weekend for the annual National Governors Association summit, representatives from the Jewish Federations of North America held dozens of sideline meetings with Democratic officials to lobby them on a new education tax initiative, Josh Nason, JFNA’s senior director of political affairs, told Jewish Insider. 

Their goal was to educate those governors, some of whom were skeptical of the credit, and urge them to participate in the first-of-its-kind supplemental federal funding that could help pay for Jewish day school and yeshiva education. 

Several dozen diplomats, senior Trump administration officials and Jewish communal leaders gathered at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Friday night for a Shabbat dinner hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy, according to a source who attended the dinner. 

A day earlier, that same space had hosted the inaugural Board of Peace meeting. 

Saudi Arabia led a group of Arab and Muslim states and multinational organizations in condemning U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, claiming that he approved of Israeli expansion throughout much of the Middle East, based on partial and misconstrued remarks from his interview with Tucker Carlson released on Saturday.

Among those who signed onto the condemnation were Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council.

An outside group began an ad campaign in the Chicago area on Saturday attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, a progressive congressional candidate in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District.

The ad campaign by Elect Chicago Women — a super PAC rumored to be a vehicle for pro-Israel supporters which has been a leading backer of Biss’ opponent, state Sen. Laura Fine — accuses Biss of making “empty promises,” including voting to cut Medicaid despite promising to protect healthcare, running a super PAC and declaring his candidacy for Congress shortly after taking office as mayor despite pledging to serve a full term.

In a combative conversation with Tucker Carlson, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee repeatedly corrected and pushed back against the far-right podcaster’s caricatures of Israel, the country’s war against Hamas, the historic connection of Jews to Israel and threat that Iran poses to global security.

The nearly three-hour episode, taped at the Fattal Terminal at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport earlier this week, was one of the most public clashes between a prominent Christian Zionist and stalwart supporter of Israel and Carlson, who has emerged as a leader of a small but growing antisemitic faction on the far right.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider on Friday afternoon that he’ll vote against a resolution blocking military action against Iran, expected to come to a vote on the House floor next week.

Moskowitz joins Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who issued a joint statement with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) earlier in the day, as the only Democrats who are thus far publicly opposing the war powers resolution, which Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) plan to introduce.