The Washington Post’s David Ignatius considers the possible outcomes — and risks — of Vice President JD Vance’s outreach this week to Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “U.S. officials close to the negotiations believe that the conflict with Iran is nearing a tipping point, and they want to signal to Tehran’s hard-liners that Vance’s diplomatic outreach is serious. It’s a worthy effort. But Rezaei is a leader whose entire career has been built on defiant opposition to the United States and Israel. He has the power to make a deal with America, but it would represent a startling change of course.”

In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Avi Shafran, a supporter of Israel’s Haredi parties, explains why he would back a coalition that includes Arab parties. “That said, should [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu or [Yashar party leader Gadi] Eisenkot decide to court the Arab parties over the Haredi ones, I will see it as a healthy sign for Israel’s future. Discontent has long simmered among Israel’s Arab citizens, born of the feeling that their needs are ignored. Their achievement at the polls this week could persuade those citizens that they have agency and political power.”

In an X thread, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ David Daoud responds to commentary around the integration of Arab parties into potential governing coalitions. “Arab Israeli turnout shows the ‘Arab vote’ cannot be ignored, nor as a matter of Israel’s democratic values should it be ignored even if the turnout were much lower. But as I’ve noted elsewhere, this and Haredi demographic polling should be a wake-up call to the Zionist parties to start actively seeking to strip away the base of all sectoral parties. There is nothing more damaging to the ability of a country to function than sectoral parties.”

In The Wall Street Journal, presidential historian Tevi Troy reflects on learning from journalist Bob Woodward’s new book the degree to which many of Woodward’s sources during his career were liberal Republicans. “Seeing a number of Mr. Woodward’s sources revealed at once shows that they tended to be on the ‘squish,’ or liberal, side in the liberal-versus-conservative divide in the GOP administrations of that era. … For decades, conservatives in and out of administrations have bristled at the superior coverage that the squishes got in places like the Post. While they suspected that leaking played a role, the scale that Mr. Woodward has now described is shocking.”

In The Free Press, Haviv Rettig Gur lays out the possible outcomes of this week’s Israeli election in which no bloc won an outright majority. “Netanyahu did not win on Tuesday. In pure mathematical terms, he crashed. But he may have done just well enough to deny his opponent, Eisenkot, a win of his own and buy himself the time he desperately needs to achieve the task he has consistently declared his primary legacy: The final felling of Israel’s greatest and most dangerous foe, the regime in Tehran.”

In Foreign Affairs, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Dana Stroul considers how the U.S. and its allies can protect the Strait of Hormuz from becoming a regular flashpoint in efforts by Iran and its Houthi proxies to disrupt global shipping and commerce. “What is needed instead is a single, sustained multinational effort to secure both waterways that combines American military capabilities with the imprimatur of a unified coalition of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern countries. Otherwise, Iran and the Houthis will again learn that threatening global commerce in maritime chokepoints is a strategy worth repeating.”

Democratic Majority for Israel Board Chair Kathy Manning pushes back on former Biden national security official Jon Finer’s recent New York Times essay urging the U.S. to sanction Israel to change its behavior regardless of who wins this week’s election. “Finer posits that a new Israeli government should not be given ‘the benefit of the doubt.’ We strongly disagree. As Finer acknowledges, Gadi Eisenkot has articulated policies that differ significantly from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s in areas that are important to many Americans, particularly in the West Bank. … Taking a punitive approach toward a new government risks squandering opportunities to work with a critical ally. Whatever government emerges, Americans should respect Israelis’ democratic choice and work to advance U.S. interests, encourage meaningful policy changes, and expand opportunities for peace and regional cooperation.”

The Washington Post’s Carine Hajjar posits that some scrutiny of Abdul El-Sayed is warranted given his positions and past rhetoric, even as the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee has suggested that questions about his beliefs are rooted in Islamophobia. “El-Sayed condemned the [Michigan synagogue] attack, but he also tried to rationalize it, saying, ‘Hurt people hurt people.’ El-Sayed later apologized for the comment, saying he was trying to lend ‘context’ to the matter. But is there ever a need for ‘context’ to explain an attempt to massacre Americans? That’s a fair question for any prospective U.S. senator — and religion doesn’t enter into it.”

The Financial Times’ Peter Andringa, Alex Rogers and George Steer do a deep dive into the business interests of President Donald Trump’s sons that have included meetings with foreign leaders and officials even as they remain private citizens. “However it might appear, the Trumps have seized the moment to maximize the profits of their businesses, building a tangled web of financial connections with the potential for conflicts of interest. … Because Trump Jr and Eric are not government employees, their business relationships and finances are more opaque. The brothers have investments and advisory roles in companies across industries — including some being transformed by U.S. policy such as crypto, defense and critical minerals.”

In eJewishPhilanthropy, Laura Merage, a co-founder of the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism, reflects on her own childhood experiences with antisemitism in Iran as her U.S.-based foundation works to combat antisemitism. “Now I catch myself watching my grandchildren head to the mall in Denver wearing their Star of David necklaces, wanting to tell them to tuck them under their shirts — the exact words my mother once said to me. I bite my tongue, but it breaks my heart. That is the arc of my life. I was a girl hiding under a bed in Tehran, and now I’m a grandmother hiding her fear from children who deserve to walk freely.”