U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire and an end to the war between the two countries.

Trump said the ceasefire would begin in about six hours, at approximately midnight Eastern time, when both sides would conclude any ongoing military operations.

“It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a complete and total ceasefire,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “During each ceasefire, the other side will remain peaceful and respectful.” 

“On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both countries, Israel and Iran, on having the stamina, courage and intelligence to end what should be called ‘the 12-Day War,’” Trump said. “This is a war that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will.”

“Congratulations, world, it’s time for peace,” he wrote in a second message. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have not yet commented on the ceasefire agreement.

New York state agencies are on high alert due to rising tensions between the United States and Iran, though no credible threats to New York exist at this time, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Monday.

Hochul said she held a call with over 100 religious and community leaders to let them know “all the steps we’ve taken since I first became aware of the situation and immediately convened my top security team: counterintelligence, State Police, all of our partners and Homeland Security to talk about what we can do.”

The New York State Thruway Authority, the New York State Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as well as all trains, airports, water systems, utilities and the New York Power Authority, are on high alert, according to Hochul.

“All of these are actually vulnerabilities, but it’s not something that hasn’t been contemplated,” she stated. “We tabletop exercises. We drill. We have highly professional individuals who are stepping up to do what they’ve been trained to do, and that is to protect our homeland and to protect the people of the State of New York.”

Hochul stated that patrols will increase around houses of worship in the state.

“There are a lot of people feeling scared who have family members in the Middle East,” she stated. “Religious groups, whether it’s the Jewish or Muslim communities—we have the largest groups in the State of New York or anywhere in the country—we are going to continue letting them know that we will defend and fight against hate crimes.”

“Our State Police Hate Crimes Task Force is on high alert, ready to assist anyone who needs help,” she continued.

Hochul urged the public to remain on high alert as a “number of attacks have been thwarted because of vigilant individuals—our civilians who’ve stepped up and reported what they’ve seen.”

“Let us not forget the brave men and women of our armed services who are putting themselves in harm’s way every single day, and pray for them and a speedy de-escalation of this conflict and ultimately peace in the region,” she stated.

Richard Hirschhaut, the Los Angeles regional director of the American Jewish Committee, told JNS on Monday that the AJC group “welcomes” an apology from the  Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, after the department issued a statement referring to the “victims” of the strikes on Iran.

The department, under Robert Luna, the sheriff of Los Angeles County, “has been unwavering in its support and protection of the Jewish community and other vulnerable populations across Los Angeles County,” Hirschhaut said.

“While a mistake was made, it was quickly acknowledged and corrected, with a pledge to review internal protocols to prevent any future recurrence,” he told JNS. “The events of recent weeks demand that we all move forward with a focus upon keeping our communities safe and free from fear and intimidation.”

On Sunday, the day after Washington bombed key Iranian nuclear facilities, the sheriff’s department stated that “our hearts go out to the victims and families impacted by the recent bombings in Iran.”

“While this tragic event occurred overseas, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is closely monitoring the situation alongside our local, state and federal partners,” it said in the since-deleted post.

The department first amended the post by deleting the sentences referencing the “victims” and the “tragic event.” It then removed the whole post and apologized “formally” on Sunday for what it said was an “offensive and inappropriate social media post,” which it said was “unacceptable, made in error and does not reflect the views of Sheriff Robert G. Luna or the department.”

The department added that “as a law enforcement agency, we do not comment on foreign policy or military matters” and that it is launching an “internal review to determine how it was created and published.”

“Steps are being taken to strengthen our social media oversight protocols and ensure that any future communications align with our department’s standards of professionalism, respect and accountability,” it stated.

Jay Town, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, wrote to the department on social media asking, “How exactly was Operation Midnight Hammer a ‘tragic event’ exactly?”

“Also, why did you delete this tweet after you edited it?” he wrote. “Finally, when did you decide to become an embarrassment to the badge?”

Alex Villanueva, former Los Angeles County sheriff, wrote that Luna, the current sheriff, needed to apologize and resign.

StopAntisemitism stated that the department “deleted their outrageous post mourning ‘victims’ of the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.”

“There were zero casualties. This was not an attack on civilians but a precision strike on the world’s top state sponsor of terror, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” it said. “We hope the investigation yields accountability for this careless and misleading post.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Monday that would try to limit the funding the Taliban receives from foreign governments and charities.

The No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act (H.R. 260) declares it to be the foreign policy of the United States to “oppose the provision of foreign assistance by foreign countries and nongovernmental organizations to the Taliban, particularly those countries and organizations that receive United States-provided foreign assistance.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who introduced the measure, said on the House floor on Monday that Afghans resisting Taliban rule had told him that foreign assistance is being diverted to the regime.

“According to them, nearly all of the cash aid sent to Afghanistan ends up in the hands of the Taliban,” Burchett stated. “Mr. Speaker, they will hate us for free. We do not need to give them hard-earned American tax dollars.”

The legislation requires the Secretary of State to develop a strategy within 180 days to discourage foreign governments and charities from aiding the Taliban, to find ways to support Afghan women and former U.S. military partners and to issue a series of reports to Congress about aid to Afghanistan.

Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) noted the measure had bipartisan support, but criticized the Trump administration for a lack of transparency about its intentions for Afghanistan.

“There is not a consensus about what the Trump administration is doing on Afghanistan, because they won’t tell us,” Jackson stated. “We urgently need more information and assurances from the Trump administration about their priorities in Afghanistan and now Iran.”

The bill passed the House by voice vote without objection. It will now proceed to the Senate for final passage.

Wikipedia editors decided to roll a page on the “destruction of Israel in Iranian policy,” which garnered more than 62,000 page views in the past 30 days, into a larger article called “Iran-Israel relations.”

Experts told JNS that, while discussions were underway on whether to delete the page or combine it with another, it ought to be a standalone article. 

Max Abrahms, an associate professor of political science at Northeastern University, said at the time that if the page was deleted or merged, “Israel will be less popular, the Islamic Republic will be more popular and readers will be stupider.”

The “closer,” Wikipedia’s term for someone uninvolved in the topic brought in to look for a consensus of editors and decide what to do with the page, stated that “it appears most appropriate to merge into the parent article and discuss the content there first.”

Shlomit Aharoni Lir, a research fellow at the University of Haifa who studies Wikipedia, participated in the discussion on the online encyclopedia about what should be done with the page.

“The article provided a focused and well-sourced examination of a documented policy that is particularly relevant to understanding current events,” she told JNS. 

She said the arguments to delete or merge the article are “part of a recurring trend of proposals to delete or merge entries that don’t conform to the dominant editorial stance on the platform.”

Something similar happened with what she called a “comprehensive” article about “Antisemitism on Wikipedia,” which, she said, “was reduced and demoted to a section under ‘Criticism of Wikipedia.’” 

The article “Calls for the destruction of Israel,” which is now a subsection under “Legitimacy of the State of Israel,” is another example, according to Lir, who authored a World Jewish Congress report on Wikipedia’s bias.

“​The decision reflects a growing trend, in which Wikipedia undermines its foundational principles of neutrality and open knowledge by failing to disclose facts related to sensitive topics and actively concealing them, especially regarding subjects related to Israel,” Lir said.

A Wikipedia editor, who declined to be named and who has made thousands of edits on the online encyclopedia, told JNS that it’s “fairly obvious it won’t fit into another article,” because it has 50 sources. 

“I can easily identify 20 high-quality sources that would be difficult to challenge, although I’m sure that won’t stop them trying,” the anonymous editor said.

The editor told JNS that it is “ridiculous” that anti-Israel editors are “trying to suppress anything that makes their heroes look bad.”

That editor thinks the page may well break out into a new one again, “and it will be hard to challenge again.”

“It’s just a delay tactic in this case,” the editor said.

The New York City mayoral primary race is coming to a close on June 24, and an unlikely candidate, Democrat Zohran Mamdani, has become its star. Yet Jews and all New Yorkers should be concerned about Mamdani’s antisemitic past and present.

Mamdani is one of several people vying to be the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor. Among his opponents is former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has the support of the organized Orthodox Jewish community.

Mamdani’s Facebook profile features a video of him standing in front of the Israeli Consulate in New York with members of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel group that routinely calls for abolishing Zionism, surrounded by signs with slogans including, “There is only one solution, Intifada Revolution.” The American Jewish Committee defines “intifada” refers to as “periods of intense Palestinian protest against Israel, mainly in the form of violent terrorism.” Mamdani is also seen chanting “BDS! BDS!” Mamdani’s support for terrorism and boycotting the world’s only Jewish state ought to make him persona non grata in America’s most Jewish city.

How is it that Mamdani, who, until recently, was an obscure state assemblyman, is so close to city hall in America’s most Jewish city?

The child of two successful immigrants, Mamdani has an unusual background, even by New York’s melting pot standards. Born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and Cape Town, South Africa, his family moved to New York when he was 7. His parents have never been shy about opposing the existence of Israel.

His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor of anthropology at Columbia University who specializes in the study of “colonialism, anti-colonialism and decolonization.” During a 2014 speech, the elder Mamdani said, “Jews can have a homeland in historic Palestine, but not a state.” This language may be par for the course at Columbia, a once-respected Ivy League university now known for pro-Hamas encampments, but it meets the working definition of antisemitism as outlined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which includes “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination.”

Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, a respected Bollywood film director, is not much different. This year, Canary Mission reported that Nair “was one of 100 ‘film workers’ who signed an open letter calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to forbid Israeli actress Gal Gadot from attending the Oscars.” As far back as 2013, Nair was part of a cultural boycott against Israel and refused to travel to the country after being invited to headline a film festival in Haifa.

The big apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

As a student at Bowdoin College in the early 2010s, Mandami co-founded the college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. Mamdani also wrote a column in the student newspaper urging Bowdoin to shun Israeli academics in solidarity with the BDS campaign.

He had a short stint as a rapper under the name Mr. Cardamom, but his career went in a different direction as he became a housing counselor and an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). DSA blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 massacre without mentioning Hamas in its statement.

Thus far, the throughline in Mamdani’s career and activism is hating Israel.

As Black Lives Matter protests engulfed the country in flames and violence in 2020, Mamdani ran as a DSA candidate for the New York State Assembly for the 36th District and won, beating a Democratic incumbent in the primary.

The media alike couldn’t resist the feel-good story of the scrappy immigrant Mamdani, son of an Ivy League professor and famous film director, bootstrapping his way from Bowdoin College to the state assembly. Jacobin magazine, named after the violent insurrectionists behind France’s Reign of Terror, mentioned him in a story about “socialist insurgents” taking over New York. The New York Times quoted his tweet, “Socialism won,” about left-wing victories in the legislature.

In the current legislative session, Mamdani sponsored New York’s “Not on our dime!” bill, which aims to dissolve state-registered charities that fundraise in support of Israel’s military. The bill is in committee with no vote scheduled.

At a recent UJA-Federation of New York forum, Mamdani said, “My support for BDS is consistent with the core of my politics, which is nonviolence, and I think that it is a legitimate movement when you are seeking to find compliance with international law.” He may say the core of his politics is nonviolence, yet he supports organizations that condone Palestinian terrorism and condemn Israel.

Mamdani’s story is, indeed, unique. But amid his experiences, one theme is consistent: his anti-Israel sentiment. New Yorkers ought to question the motives of a candidate whose animating mission is to delegitimize the world’s only Jewish state.

In a makeshift campaign office in her neighbor’s apartment on the Upper East Side, Rachel Storch ticks off the sort of concerns that motivate many a New York City Council candidate: subway crime, housing costs and quality of life.

But Storch, who is Jewish, told JNS a few days before the June 24 primary that rising Jew-hatred pushed her over the edge to run for the council in District 4 on the Upper East Side, which stretches from 93rd to 14th Streets and includes Museum Mile, New York Public Libraries, much of Broadway, Rockefeller Plaza, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Empire State building.

“As somebody who did lose family members in the Holocaust, it has been devastating to me to see the scourge of antisemitism rear its ugly head across New York City, across the country and, of course, around the globe,” she told JNS, seated at the apartment’s kitchen table surrounded by boxes of campaign materials.

The Democrat, who wore a Star of David necklace, has a very Jewish New York kind of story to her makeshift campaign office. The room was available because the nonagenarian apartment owner, whom she calls a kind of grandfather to her children, was in Missouri—where Storch used to live—dating her aunt, who is in her 80s.

Storch told JNS that recent attacks on visibly Jewish New Yorkers, the marginalization of Jewish students on college campuses and vandalism of Jewish businesses, including in her Upper East Side neighborhood, signal a dangerous turning point.

“We are at a critical juncture in the largest home of Jews outside of Israel,” she said. “I am laser-focused on ensuring that the Jewish community has a voice and representation in local government to say enough is enough.”

‘Common ground’

Storch, a former Missouri state representative, recently stepped down after five years as chief operating officer of the Orthodox congregation Fifth Avenue Synagogue on Manhattan’s East Side.

She moved back to New York from Missouri in her 30s, she told JNS, after Esther Jungreis, the late author and speaker, introduced her to the man who became her husband.

Storch told JNS that she isn’t cynical about creating change in New York City, citing her past experience as a legislator in a conservative state, where she learned how to build bridges and advocate effectively.

“So much of being an effective legislator is about relationship building, and I have always worked to be a unifying force–someone who could bridge divides, someone who never closes a door to someone who comes from a different background than me,” she said.

“I believe that there is almost always some common ground that can be found or a consensus that can be built,” she told JNS.

She told JNS she is “a mother proudly raising four Jewish children,” who attend the Modern Orthodox day school Ramaz and go to Jewish camps. She said that it is of “paramount importance” to her that “they continue to live a safe and dignified life as Jews in New York City.”

“My great-grandparents came here many generations ago, fleeing persecution and poverty to create a better life for their families in New York City,” she said. “That was really what America always represented, and especially New York City, in the eyes of the world.”

“A land of opportunity, a place where people of any faith could come and create a better life for the next generation, maintain an education, have social mobility and practice a religion freely,” she added. “Today, some of these things are being called into question, and we have to ensure that these values are protected for this generation and for generations to come.”

‘Unafraid’

Storch told JNS that the New York City Council used to have 12 to 14 Jewish members, but the Jewish caucus has dwindled to five. “It’s really critical that we have a voice and people who are unafraid to stand up and speak out,” she said.

She said that the council must use its voice to ensure that hate crimes are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ask tough questions of leaders of public universities about Jew-hatred on campus and to push for the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred.

She also said that education is essential.

“Far too many young people have no information or disinformation that they are getting from TikTok and other social media sources,” she said. “They’re disavowing the Holocaust, and we want to make sure that there is something in the public school curriculum that teaches children not only about the Holocaust but about ensuring that New York City can be a place for all of us.”

“The same tools that can be used to fight antisemitism can and should be used to fight any other form of hate, whether it’s prosecuting a hate crime or having a fully staffed police department who can patrol in areas where there might be more vulnerability, or ensuring that campuses are safe,” she said.

“These are universal standards that should be upheld, that any individual should be able to practice a religion freely, or walk to a house of worship safely or attend a school, religious or otherwise, safely,” she added.

Storch cited the shortage of New York City Police Department officers as a major issue and said that the force must grow from 33,000 to 38,000.

“One of the issues we have is that the NYPD is really depleted,” she told JNS. “An ideologically driven City Council has worked harder to rein in cops than rein in crime, and I think that the commissioner has done such an outstanding job, and she needs more partners in the city council who will support the NYPD.” (The police commissioner is Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish.)

The Democratic party has changed dramatically from when Storch first took office 20 years ago as a state legislator, she said.

“One of the things that attracted me to the Democratic Party was that it was a broad umbrella that embraced a plurality of views and made room for everyone. It wasn’t homogeneous, but it was accepting,” she said. “Today, there are voices in the Democratic Party that have become very shrill and represent values that I do not and would never espouse—anti-Zionist and antisemitic.

“My goal is to fix the party from within,” she said.

The United States’ direct, devastating strikes on Iran’s three core nuclear facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow enrichment plant, early on June 22 marked a historic turning point in the military campaign to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. 

This unprecedented American military intervention, coordinated with Israel’s ongoing "Operation Rising Lion,” was made possible by a quiet but highly significant shift that occurred years earlier: The transfer of Israel from the area of responsibility of the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) to that of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for the Middle East.

The American strikes involved six U.S. Air Force B-2 “Spirit” stealth bombers flying a 37-hour nonstop mission from their base in Missouri to drop  13.5-ton GBU-57 “bunker-buster” bombs on the deeply buried Fordow facility.

Simultaneously, U.S. Navy submarines launched approximately 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles against the nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan, with two additional bunker busters also hitting Natanz’s underground halls. Battle damage assessments on the targets are underway. 

The practical results of this new architecture have been on display even before the American strikes. During Iran’s retaliatory missile salvos, U.S. systems like the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployed in Israel and ship-based AEGIS missile defense systems in the region have played an important role in helping Israel with missile interceptions. 

Reported offensive coordination was also seen in the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. According to an i24NEWS report, Israel was notified of the impending U.S. strike on June 19, when Washington requested Israeli assistance, including striking Iranian surface-to-air missile batteries to clear a path for the American bombers.

The foundation for this level of cooperation was laid in January 2021, when the Trump administration formally moved Israel into CENTCOM’s domain.

JINSA explains the rationale

Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of the Washington D.C.-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), which had long advocated for the move, explained its significance. He said that  JINSA had advocated for the move since 2018, adding that after it happened, top IDF generals described it as a “game-changer.”

 “Close U.S.-Israel military cooperation became even closer," he said. "That became most evident when Iran attacked Israel in April and October [2024] with missiles and drones, and Israel worked with the U.S. military and regional Arab countries to defend its airspace. It’s also been evident in the military campaigns of the past couple of weeks."

Makovsky added, "The U.S. military command focused on Iran is CENTCOM. Its outstanding commander is Gen. Erik Kurilla, who has privately pressed for an aggressive approach toward Iran, including its Houthi proxy. Operationally, the overlapping focus of both CENTCOM and Israel on Iran has facilitated extremely close coordination between the two militaries. I suspect over time we’ll learn just how close that coordination has been.”

Before the change, Israel was an outlier in EUCOM, whose primary focus was Russia and Europe. As explained in a detailed JINSA policy paper published in April 2024, this meant that the U.S. command responsible for partnering with Israel was not the same one responsible for planning and operating against their greatest mutual threat: Iran.

The move to CENTCOM eliminated these bureaucratic stovepipes, placing the IDF and the U.S. command most engaged in the Middle East into daily contact. This fostered shared threat assessments, joint operational planning, pooling together intelligence and sensors, and, most importantly, the personal trust between commanders that is essential in wartime.

General (ret.) Kenneth F. McKenzie, a former CENTCOM commander and a distinguished JINSA fellow, placed the move within a broader strategic context.  In a May 14 JINSA report, he argued that it was one of three key Trump administration actions that had reshaped the region. 

“The first was the strike on Soleimani," he wrote, referring to the U.S. assassination of Iran's Quds Force Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020. "This clearly showed an administration that was in thrall of the potential for escalation. The second was the signing of the Abraham Accords, which opened the pathway for eventual Israeli diplomatic and economic integration into the region."

He added, "Finally, the Trump decision to move Israel from United States European Command (EUCOM) into United States Central Command (CENTCOM) operationalized the Abraham Accords and created the mechanism that enabled the United States to assist in the defense of Israel from Iranian attack, and to even incorporate the activities of Israel’s neighbors."

Top Israeli military commanders have publicly lauded the partnership. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, speaking on June 22 from the IDF command center, called the U.S. strike "a turning point in the campaign" and emphasized that the coordination with the United States is a "major strategic asset."

This sentiment was echoed by an Israeli military official who, speaking at the start of the Israeli campaign against Iran, said the U.S. military had been a leading partner since “day one of this war,” saving many lives. And, he noted, “That’s not an overstatement."

Israeli authorities have identified Yvette Shmilovitz, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor, as the fourth victim of Iran’s ballistic missile strike in Petach Tikvah last week.

Eight people were killed and nearly 300 wounded by the June 16 Iranian ballistic missile barrage across four locations in the central and northern regions of the Jewish state. Twenty-four people have been killed in Iranian strikes since Israel launched its attack against the country on June 13.

“The Petach Tikvah Municipality will accompany the family and assist as much as necessary, as it does with the other families who lost their loved ones in the severe attack,” said Rami Greenberg, the mayor of Petach Tikvah, according to Jewish News UK.

“We bow our heads and mourn the murder of four of the city’s residents who were killed following the missile attack from Iran,” he said.

“I’m devastated to learn that 95-year-old Holocaust survivor Yvette Shmilovitz z”l was killed by an Iranian missile in Petach Tikvah last week,” wrote Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. “She survived the horrors of the Shoah and 80 years later was killed by Iranian terror in her own home—in the Jewish state.”

“This is who the Iranian regime targets. Innocent civilians in residential buildings. Children. The elderly. Holocaust survivors,” he stated. “May Yvette’s memory forever be a blessing.”