Brad Lander, comptroller of New York City and a Democratic mayoral candidate, was detained by federal immigration officers on Tuesday at immigration court in Lower Manhattan.

Dora Pekec, communications director for Lander’s mayoral campaign, told JNS that the city comptroller was arrested while “escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza.”

“Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE,” she said. “This is still developing, and we are monitoring the situation closely.”

Lander, who is Jewish, can be seen being detained by several immigration officers in a post shared on the comptroller’s X account by his wife.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is also running in the Democratic primary set for June 24, condemned Lander’s detention in a statement shared with JNS.

“This is the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump’s ICE out of control,” he said. “One can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE. Fear of separation, fear of being taken from their schools, fear of being detained without just cause.”

ICE raids across New York City must stop immediately, according to Cuomo.

“This kind of conduct is the direct result of Mayor Eric Adams handing the keys of our great city over to Donald Trump,” he said. “Comptroller Brad Lander was doing absolutely nothing wrong when he was illegally detained, and he must be released now.”

Palestinian terrorists launched two rockets at Israel from the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed.

"A short while ago, two launches were identified crossing from the southern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and landing in open areas. There were no casualties," the Israeli military stated in Hebrew.

Air-raid alerts were activated to warn civilians present in the border area "in accordance with policy," shortly after an Iranian ballistic-missile attack had also triggered sirens in Israel's south, the IDF added.

On Sunday evening, Gaza terrorists launched one projectile at Israel. The aerial attack triggered air-raid sirens in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Moshav Ein HaBesor and Kibbutz Magen, the Home Front Command announced.

The day prior, four rockets were shot into southern Israel in two separate attacks. They impacted in open areas, and no casualties were reported.

As of February, some 85% of the 64,000 residents in the Gaza Envelope were back home, with 11,000 still living in temporary, state-funded accommodations elsewhere. Almost all had been evacuated following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The rocket attacks came amid continued IDF ground operations across the Strip as part of "Gideon's Chariots," a campaign with the stated goal of dismantling Hamas's remaining military capabilities, taking control of key areas in Gaza, and securing the release of the remaining 53 captives.

Col. Nathan McCormack, the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate, has referred publicly to “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies,” to Washington having “overwhelmingly” enabled Israel’s “bad behavior” and pro-Israel activists in the United States prioritizing “support for Israel over our actual foreign interests.”

JNS has learned that McCormack, who according to his LinkedIn account has held his current role since June 2024, has also bashed Israel as a “death cult” that is America’s “worst ally” on a semi-anonymous social-media handle, where he has written hundreds of posts since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks about Jews and Israel.

“The Western states go to great lengths to avoid criticism of Israel, much out of Holocaust guilt,” McCormack wrote on social media in April. “Israel’s actions over decades have prompted the accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”

“Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land,” he wrote on social media in May.

“I’ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel’s proxy and not realized it yet,” he wrote in April 2024. “Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”

“The U.S. has not been an honest broker,” he wrote in June 2024. “We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel’s bad behavior.”

In one post replying to the idea of Gazans potentially finding refuge outside the Gaza Strip, McCormack wrote that Israel wants “to expel them and cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ of ethnic Palestinians.”

On Oct. 11, 2023, five days after Hamas’s terror attack, McCormack wrote that “Israel has an absolute right to respond militarily” and “civilians may legally be caught in the crossfire” but that “Israel’s responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians.”

Despite some attempts to anonymize his account, McCormack has repeatedly revealed his name and job title on the platform and has posted photos of himself that match his LinkedIn profile and that include his uniform name tag. (JNS sought comment from the Pentagon and McCormack.)

“How so? What data? This is literally what I do at work every day,” he wrote to someone in May. “I’m the Joint Staff J5 Israel branch chief.” His LinkedIn profile indicates that he is also responsible for Egypt and the wider Levant.

On Aug. 3, 2024, he posted a photo of a meritorious service medal certificate issued to “Lt. Col. Nathan E. McCormack” on June 1, 2022. He has since been promoted to full colonel.

Other posts include descriptions of his conversations with generals in the Israel Defense Forces, briefings from Israel’s coordinator for humanitarian aid into Gaza and aborted plans to send emails over the Pentagon’s Secret Internet Protocol Router Network for sharing classified information.

A DoD contractor who has interacted with McCormack described the postings as “dangerous.”

“This is the kind of bitter oversharing I’d expect from someone who doesn’t know better,” the contractor said. “But at his level and under his own name and likeness? It’s mind-boggling. We have enough opsec and public perception problems as is.” (Opsec refers to operations security.)

The contractor raised the question whether McCormack’s personal politics influence the advice his team provides to senior leaders.

“If this is what he’s publicly sharing, who knows what he’s saying behind closed doors,” the contractor said.

“Who else has seen this? He’s an easy mark for foreign intelligence agencies,” the contractor said. “Publicly expressing such radical views that undermine the president’s policy opens the door for bad actors to exploit.”

“Posting discussions he’s having with colleagues and details about conversations with foreign partners? I’m gobsmacked,” the contractor said.

‘Rants seem out of place’

Blake Johnson, director of communications at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, described the tweets as “disappointing.”

“There should be lots of room in the U.S. decision-making process for vigorous and honest debate, but these anti-Israel rants seem out of place in a Pentagon that has such a strong working relationship with Israel’s Ministry of Defense,” Johnson told JNS.

That’s particularly the case for “someone entrusted with the role of chief of the Levant and Egypt branch of the Joint Staff’s Strategy, Policy and Plans Directorate,” he said.

One theme of McCormack’s posts is that U.S. support for Israel undermines the United States.

In August, McCormack wrote on social media that “the problem with pro-Israel political activism in the United States is that it prioritizes support for Israel over our actual foreign interests.”

Instead, he has called John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which the Anti-Defamation League called “a classical conspiratorial antisemitic analysis invoking the canards of Jewish power and Jewish control,” a “very good” book.

“The argument, that the pro-Israel lobby in the United States has shaped U.S. foreign relations to support Israel in ways that are strategically harmful to both the United States and Israel still holds, even though the book was published in 2007,” he wrote.

“I also particularly like the attention they pay to efforts to silence criticism of Israel’s policy through claims of antisemitism, but also acknowledge actual antisemitism and condemn it,” he said.

Military code

The J5 directorate of the Joint Staff is tasked with providing assessments and recommendations directly to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, per the Joint Chiefs of Staff website. “The Joint Staff J5 proposes strategies, plans and policy recommendations to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to support his provision of military advice across the full spectrum of national security concerns to the president and other national leaders,” it says.

McCormack’s profile includes a disclaimer noting that his tweets “do not represent the position of the Department of Defense or any of its components,” in line with the Army’s online personal conduct guide.

Elizabeth Robbins, a retired Army officer now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that McCormack’s social-media activity remains alarming despite the disclaimer.

“The issue here is his X account is quickly traceable to a senior U.S. Army officer who works at the Pentagon focused on the Middle East,” Robbins said. “A member of the military can hold whatever positions they want on U.S.  national security and foreign policy, but they should refrain from publicizing those opinions.”

That’s the case “particularly when they are a member of the Joint Staff and they are commenting on an American ally at war,” she told JNS.

“I was surprised that McCormack also shared his own movements and activities on X, to include Pentagon gatherings and a cancelled trip to Jordan,” she said. “This X account shows a lack of circumspection and professionalism, and the contents could be pieced together by adversaries to infer classified insights, such as dissension in the ranks regarding U.S. support for Israel.”

The Army’s social-media guide is mostly focused on steering soldiers away from posting domestic partisan political content, but also bars “showing contempt for public officials, releasing sensitive information or posting unprofessional material that is prejudicial to good order and discipline under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

In April, McCormack wrote a reply to Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) mocking his use of military metaphors in support of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to “put the warfighter first.” (JNS sought comment from the senator’s office.)

“Grok, create an image of a plumber leading the breach, laying down cover fire, taking the high ground, exposing himself to enemy fire to communicate and bringing back integrity, focus and putting the warfighter first inside DoD,” he wrote, addressing his reply to X’s artificial intelligence image generator.

The Pentagon’s social-media guide also tells soldiers to “avoid use of Department of Defense titles, insignia, uniforms or symbols in a way that could imply DoD sanction or endorsement of content on your personal page.”

“Also avoid misrepresenting yourself as an official DoD spokesperson on your personal account,” it adds.

On Monday afternoon, McCormack wrote about himself as part of the official defense community to endorse the casualty numbers put forward by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

“Along with the World Health Organization and United Nations, we (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable (though not precise),” he wrote, “but probably less so now than they were originally due to the general destruction and chaos in Gaza.”

U.S. officials during the Biden administration sometimes cited Hamas’s casualty figures from Gaza, but also cast doubt on their accuracy.

“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” former President Joe Biden said in late October 2023. “I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.” He cited Hamas figures in a State of the Union address several months later, however.

The DoD contractor expressed surprise to JNS that McCormack had so much free time to post so many comments, given the extent of regional turmoil after Oct. 7.

“Two-and-a-half years into a new war, I’d hope he’d have something more productive to do during the day,” the contractor said.

It was never my plan to be in Israel when it attacked Iran.

About a year ago, my wife and I learned that a close relative of ours had decided to volunteer for the Israel Defense Forces as a lone soldier. This was a longtime goal. He’s 19.

We knew that we had to be there when he received his rifle and Tanach (Bible) at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem, during what is often translated as a swearing-in ceremony. For nearly two millennia, Jews were unable to defend the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. Now, we live in a time when that is possible. If a Jew is not moved by this simple fact, I’m at a loss to understand it.

We stood at the wall on the night of June 11, not knowing that less than 30 hours later, Israeli forces would stun the world with their successes within Iran.

What is truly shocking, though, is that most American Jews (and many Israelis) have little understanding of what these incredibly moving ceremonies are really like.

The leadership of each brigade decides when their soldiers will receive their Bible and weapon. It can happen anywhere—from several weeks into their training to many weeks after that, and there’s an additional six months of training after the “swearing-in” ceremony for most.

This, to me, speaks to the genius of the Israeli army. Young men and women are forged into cohesive, effective fighting units, bonded through shared experiences of training and ceremonies that blend spirituality and patriotism. These units will serve together long after training ends.

At this particular ceremony, we witnessed hundreds of young men swearing—or affirming—that they would sacrifice their lives to defend Israel. They came from religious homes (including Haredi ones), and secular ones, were born in Israel and abroad, and represented a full spectrum of racial backgrounds—white, black and brown.

The unity on display was powerful, offering clear evidence against the idea that Israeli society is fractured to the point of civil war.

The Western Wall Plaza was packed—standing room only. Thousands of emotional and proud family members surrounded us. The remarks from the various officers who addressed the soldiers and their families were inspiring and worthy of repetition, but space here doesn’t allow for that.

What I can share is this: The officers began by remembering their fallen heroes. The speakers who followed quoted Torah, acknowledged the hostages in Gaza, and reflected on Zionist history and the biblical prophets, weaving an authentic and moving tapestry of the Jewish People. Chazak v’amatz is a Hebrew phrase meaning “Be strong and courageous,” from Devarim (Deuteronomy). These ancient words that Moses directed to Joshua were quoted to the soldiers.

The young fighters, filled with pride and excitement, hoisted their comrades on their shoulders, dancing and chanting slogans.

Families and fellow recruits cheered as the new soldiers received their Bibles and their rifles. It was a moment of pure connection.

The evening ended with everyone—soldiers, commanders, families and onlookers—united in song. We sang “Hatikvah,” and later, “Ani Ma’amin” (“I Believe”). The words of the Rambam (Maimonides), written in the 1100s, resonated deeply: “I believe with complete faith in the coming of Moshiach (Messiah), and although he may tarry, nevertheless, I wait every day for him to come.”

The perceived divisions within Israeli society have been overstated. In reality, Israel is a nation bound together by shared concern, care and solidarity. Israelis support one another, deeply and unwaveringly.

As I write this, Iranian and Houthi missiles continue to target Israeli neighborhoods across the land. We’ve witnessed these attacks up close and personal, just as we have seen time and again that Israelis are one people.

And to you, dear reader—whether you’ve never visited Israel, haven’t been there in years or have visited more recently—I urge you to go again. You owe it to yourself and to the people of the Jewish state to experience the unity and resilience firsthand.

Israeli airlines, led by El Al, will begin operating a limited number of one-way flights to Tel Aviv on Wednesday to gradually bring home the tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad by the war against Iran.

The first El Al flights, which are completely sold out, will depart from Larnaca, Athens, Rome, Milano and Paris, Israel’s national carrier stated on Tuesday.

Three smaller Israeli airlines—Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa—will also start flying passengers back to Tel Aviv on June 18 if security conditions permit. Their initial pre-assigned repatriation flights were also sold out.

The news came as some 150,000 Israelis remain stranded abroad since the Jewish state closed its airspace to civilian traffic after launching a preemptive strike on Friday against Iranian nuclear and military sites.

The El Al flights to Tel Aviv will only be available to travelers whose tickets were canceled due to the war.

There will be no outbound flights from Israel. Israel's airspace for commercial flights remains closed through at least Monday.

More than 60,000 passengers signed up on El Al’s registration site in the hour after the return flights were announced on Monday.

Prioritization of flight assignment is subject to the date of cancellation of the original flight and exceptional medical humanitarian cases.

Arkia will let those wanting to return to Israel book a flight on its website, while Israir said that it would first work to return its ticketed passengers, starting with group travel. Air Haifa announced that it will run up to nine daily flights from Larnaca, beginning with ticketed passengers.

Miri Regev, Israeli minister of transportation, announced on Monday that the rescue flights would begin within 72 hours pending final security approval.

The head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority warned this weekend that it will take weeks before all Israelis stranded abroad will be able to fly home.

Israeli carriers have relocated their planes to Larnaca, Cyprus, and Athens, Greece, in line with the recommendations of a contingency plan developed ahead of the strike on Iran.

Qatar is buying influence at Georgetown University and reshaping the Jesuit school’s academic mission, hiring practices and campus culture, according to a new report from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.

“The big takeaway is that we found $1 billion of soft power from the Qatari regime that goes into one of the most important universities in the United States, and if not the world,” Charles Asher Small, founding director and president of the nonprofit, told JNS.

“Muslim Brotherhood ideologues have had an influence in the academic world,” he said. “Not just in Georgetown but throughout the United States.”

According to the 135-page report, decades of “substantial” funding from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar have changed Georgetown in the past 50 years from “a prestigious academic institution rooted in Jesuit traditions into a pivotal nexus where radical ideologies, academic inquiry and geopolitical influence converge.”

Those funders have steered the Washington private school “toward a distinctive pro-Islamist and anti-Israel orientation,” according to the report. The foreign donors, of which Qatar is the principal, have also shaped a school that is “a training ground for U.S. foreign service professionals,” according to the report.

“It’s all open-source information that we have seen,” Small told JNS. “Just imagine what we couldn’t find.”

‘Blur the lines’

In 2005, the school opened a campus in Doha that is “an extension of the university that operates under a distinctly different set of political and academic constraints,” according to the report.

The Qatar campus, Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and its Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding—the latter two of which are parts of its School of Foreign Service in Washington—are “conduits through which external capital and ideological impulses converge to promote narratives that challenge the traditional American bipartisan consensus on international relations and cultural understanding,” according to the report.

“By fostering environments that often blur the lines between academic freedom and ideological advocacy, these centers have not only influenced scholarly discourse but have also played a significant role in the formation of activist networks and policy-oriented debates,” it states.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a driving force behind the Qatari belief system, which Small described as a “fusion of European genocidal antisemitism and even Nazism fused with a perversion of Islam.” It aims to “alienate and weaken Israel, to fragment and weaken the United States and Europe and to fragment the ‘great Satan,’” he said.

By infiltrating elite North American and European universities, the brotherhood and its allies are shaping the values and ideas of future leaders, with the effects now visible “from the classroom to the encampment to our streets,” Small said.

In Doha, Georgetown’s campus depends financially on the Qatar Foundation, which the royal family and the government control. Events organized on the campus and scholars invited to them have ties to extremism.

Small told JNS he had “particular shock” that Georgetown awarded its president’s medal to Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chair of the Qatar Foundation and a public supporter of Hamas. (Jewish Insider noted that she posted, “O Allah, we entrust Palestine to you,” in Arabic on Oct. 8, 2023.)

“Here’s Georgetown giving a medal to a woman who supports Hamas, applauds Hamas’s activities when it comes to murdering Israelis and Jews,” he said. “This, to me, is astounding. It’s almost like it’s prime and plain sight.”

Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, there have been more antisemitic incidents, pro-Hamas demonstrations and harassment of Jewish students at Georgetown, according to the report.

“Universities have a sacred mission,” Small told JNS. “You’re educating young people on how to be citizens in a democracy. When liberal educational institutions are taking money from regimes that want to exterminate Jews, subjugate women, murder gay people, destroy democracy, this is really a threat to our stability and to our democracy and our democratic principles.”

He added that other research from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy has found that Qatar funds U.S. institutions to the tune of $100 billion.

“It’s probably only the tip of an iceberg,” Small told JNS. “Now, we’re extending our research into Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.”

“We’re very concerned that Qatar has excellent relations with Iran,” he said. The Qataris “understand our culture and our language and our political institutions, and we in the West remain ignorant and oblivious.”

The Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command said on Tuesday it would no longer be issuing alerts urging civilians to stay near bomb shelters ahead of confirmed missile or drone launches from Iran.

The alerts, which were sent out up to 30 minutes before launches were detected but after the military recognized preparations for an attack, will now be replaced by a 10-minute alert after a confirmed launch.

Citizens are to seek shelter immediately after receiving the new alert and stay there until Home Front Command gives the all-clear, it said.

The IDF clarified that while it wasn't canceling the early warning system altogether, it has not always been able to issue one ahead of time, with Home Front Command urging that "it should not be relied upon."

Early on June 13, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of enemy targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a "preemptive, precise, combined" opening strike against Tehran's nuclear program.

Since the start of the war, Iranian attacks on Israel's civilian population centers have killed 24 people in the Jewish state. Three were killed on Friday, 13 overnight on Saturday and eight early on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the operation would "continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat," vowing to end the Iranian threat to the Jewish state's "very survival."

Three days after Iran launched missiles against the Jewish state in April 2024, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said the Islamic Republic’s “unprecedented attack on Israel following Israel’s strike in Damascus represents an escalation in this conflict that I strongly condemn.”

It took the member of the far-left “Squad” in Congress four days to comment this time on Israel’s preemptive attack on the Iranian regime. “Signing on,” the congresswoman wrote on Monday night, in response to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduction of a resolution barring Washington from entering the war.

Many Democratic lawmakers have supported Israel publicly as it attacks Iranian nuclear and other military sites. However, Ocasio-Cortez’s comment was an unusual response to the attacks from someone being discussed as a potential Democratic presidential hopeful in 2028.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, passed over by Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate when she took over the campaign reins from former President Joe Biden last fall, is another exception as an expected 2028 candidate. Shapiro, who is Jewish, said last week at a country club in a Pittsburgh suburb that Iran, “the largest state sponsor of terror,” is “a destabilizing force in the world,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

Shapiro added that it’s “probably a good day for the world” that Israel is dismantling Iran’s nuclear arsenal, “but make no mistake, we do not want an all-out war in the Middle East,” the paper reported.

A JNS review found that others being discussed as Democratic candidates in 2028 have not commented on the targeted Israeli airstrikes and Iran’s attacks on Israeli civilians, including Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago. (Newsom and Harris condemned the two missile barrages on Israel by Iran last year, one in April and one in October.)

Henry Olsen, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told JNS that statements from Shapiro and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) “are excellent examples of the nuanced statements that offend neither side in the internal debate.”

“They tilt towards Israel and against Iran without explicitly endorsing the attacks or indicating what they might have done had they been president,” said Olsen, who hosts the “Beyond the Polls” podcast.

“Booker’s emphasis on a nuclear deal suggests his approach would be to try to reinsert the JCPOA, which, of course, Biden tried to do for four years unsuccessfully,” he added. (The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the 2015 Iran deal negotiated by the Obama administration.)

‘Not a serious contender’

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate and a rumored 2028 candidate, spoke last week about the Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

“Iran has to retaliate in their mind, I’m sure, and now who is the voice in the world that can negotiate some type of agreement in this?” the governor said. “Who holds the moral authority? Who holds the ability to do that? Because we are not seen as a neutral actor.”

Walz suggested that “it might be the Chinese, and that goes against everything they say they’re trying to do in terms of the balance of power.”

Olsen told JNS that Walz’s remarks show “that he’s not a serious contender for national office.”

Dan Schnur, who lectures on political science at Pepperdine University, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, told JNS that he has “not seen much from the potential Democratic candidates on this front” but has found congressional Democrats “unsurprisingly divided on the war.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) slammed some of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate for criticizing Israel’s strikes against Israel in an interview with Jewish Insider.

“This reflects the similar division among Democratic voters about the Middle East,” Schnur told JNS. “Any party leader has to balance the anti-Israel sentiments of their progressive base with the Zionist legacy of the party establishment.”

“For a candidate or elected official trying to unite the Democratic Party, they know that this is not the issue that will do it,” Schnur said.

Olsen told JNS that “Fetterman is an unlikely Democratic candidate for president, but it’s important to note how much intra-party criticism he has endured for his unapologetic statements in favor of Israel.”

“Democratic voters, especially Democratic primary voters, are largely split on whether they have positive views regarding Israel,” he said, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and his government are especially unpopular among Democratic voters, even among most who overall support Israel in its regional conflicts.”

“Any Democrat who unreservedly endorses Israel’s attack in Iran, then, takes a large risk that they might alienate a substantial portion of the party’s most loyal and frequent voters,” Olsen said.

‘Stay quiet’

Generally speaking, “no Democrat occupying the White House in the foreseeable future can unreservedly support Israel in its regional relations,” regardless of who the Israeli prime minister is, Olsen told JNS.

He cited April data from the Pew Research Center suggesting that among Democrats and those who lean left, “69% have a negative view of Israel, and 53% believe that a two-state solution to the Palestinian question is possible.”

“Democratic voters do not want unconditional support of Israel and tend to lean toward putting pressure on Israel to make concessions to Fatah, and on Gaza, that Israeli politics cannot endorse,” he told JNS.

Any Democrat who wins in 2028 will likely follow the party’s voters, “even if they personally are more sympathetic towards Israel’s geo-strategic challenges,” Olsen said.

“If someone unabashedly from the party’s left flank gains the White House, expect to see unacceptable levels of pressure put on Israel and perhaps a cutoff of U.S. military aid,” he told JNS.

The overwhelming silence from likely Democratic candidates in 2028 “shows how hard it is for Democrats to make clear statements on any matter involving Israel’s use of force,” Olsen said. “More prudent to stay quiet and see how events unfold.”

Sam Markstein, national political director and communications director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS that “the silence from prominent Democrats as Israel defends itself from the terrorist regime in Iran is deafening.”

“Republicans, from President Donald Trump on down, are proudly and loudly standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish state,” he said. “Support for Israel should be bipartisan, especially when they are fighting an existential war to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

“This is a war of good versus evil, and sadly, today’s Democratic Party seems increasingly incapable of discerning the difference,” he added.

Getting up on stage at any Republican event anywhere in the country and saying “I stand with Israel” gets an “automatic applause line,” according to Markstein.

“If you tried that at a Democratic event, you’d be booed off the stage,” Markstein said. “Unfortunately, this isn’t new for the Democratic Party. Remember, at the Democratic National Convention in 2012, the hall in Charlotte erupted in boos against simply reaffirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in their party platform.”

At the 2024 GOP convention in Milwaukee, Matt Brooks, the coalition’s CEO, received “rapturous” applause when he said, “Let me hear you cheer if you support Israel,” according to Markstein.

“The contrast is stark,” he said. “It’s a major reason why more and more Jewish Americans are moving to the Republican Party election after election.”

Three separate Iranian ballistic missile attacks targeted Israel's north, south and center on Tuesday evening, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The most recent barrage, which was successfully intercepted by the IDF, targeted the Haifa, Galilee and Golan Heights regions in Israel's north.

According to initial reports, no injuries or damages were recorded.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, air-raid sirens were activated across southern Israel, including in the desert metropolis of Beersheva.

"Sirens sounding in southern Israel as Iran launches another barrage of ballistic missiles," the military said in an English-language statement.

According to the Ynet news outlet, one ballistic missile was shot down, while a second projectile fell short outside Israeli territory. No injuries or significant damages were reported in the attack, local media reported.

Less than two hours earlier, the Israeli military had also intercepted several Iranian missiles fired at the Jewish state's population centers.

"In the past hour, several missiles were launched toward the State of Israel from Iran; most of them were intercepted," the IDF said, urging civilians to continue to follow its Home Front Command guidelines.

According to Israel's Magen David Adom medical emergency response group, no casualties were reported in the earlier Iranian aerial assault, except for four people who sustained injuries while rushing to shelter.

The attack triggered air-raid sirens in the country's densely populated center, including Tel Aviv, as well as in the coastal plain and Samaria.

Jordan's Al-Mamlaka public broadcaster said that sirens also sounded in the Hashemite Kingdom, with an interception claimed over Amman.

Channel 12 News reported that fewer than 10 missiles were launched as part of that attack, which was reportedly fended off with the help of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic-missile battery.

Early on June 13, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of enemy targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a "preemptive, precise, combined" opening strike against Tehran's nuclear program.

Since the start of the war on Friday, Iranian attacks on Israel's civilian population centers have killed 24 people in the Jewish state. Three were killed on Friday, 13 overnight on Saturday, and eight early on Monday.

Channel 12 said on Tuesday that Iran launched 17 waves of attacks using more than 400 ballistic missiles, in addition to suicide drones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the operation would "continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat," vowing to end the Iranian threat to the Jewish state's "very survival."