WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. Today: UNICEF vehicle struck by Israeli fire; clashes over the potential return of Palestinian workers to jobs in Israel; and the latest from the trial of the alleged killer of a gay Jewish teenager.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Josh Wander, who coaches others in how to prepare for disasters, has one piece of advice he gives everyone: Buy a gun. (Susan Greene)

‘Nothing is really clear or certain or safe’: Israelis grapple with powerlessness in face of Iran threat. Israel is anticipating a retaliatory attack from Iran, which some reports suggest could happen as early as today, after killing a top Iranian commander in Syria earlier this month. The situation has led some Israelis to feel a new degree of powerlessness and fear, reports our Israel correspondent, Susan Greene. “We always saw ourselves as the strongest and smartest and most powerful. But now there’s a big dent in that,” said one psychologist. “We’re at a point where we’ve lost our trust in the government, in the army, in the general idea that we can take care of ourselves and feel safe.” Read the story ➤

Analysis: Will Iran’s threats bridge the U.S.-Israel rift? Growing tensions over the war between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have brought U.S.-Israeli relations to an unprecedented low. But some experts think Iran’s threats of retaliation after Israel recently struck the Iranian consulate in Syria might remind the allies of shared interests. Yes, Biden and Netanyahu may be unlikely to reach an accord on the war. But as one source told our reporter Jacob Kornbluh, “Iran is an existential threat in a way the Palestinian issue is not.” Read the story ➤

Israelis relaxed on a beach near the Orot Rabin Power Station on Friday, amid fears of an attack by Iran. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

Latest on the war…

• Gen. Michael Kurilla, a top U.S. military commander, arrived in Israel yesterday to coordinate around Iran’s expected attack, amid reports that senior Pentagon officials were not notified of plans for Israel’s strike on the Iranian commander in Damascus in advance. Separately, Biden officials on Thursday said U.S. intelligence suggests Iran’s planned attack will not be serious enough to draw the U.S. into war.

  
  

• The U.S. warned Americans in Israel not to travel outside major cities in response to the threat, and countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and France issued travel warnings for those planning to travel to Israel.

  
  

• Samantha Power, leader of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told lawmakers that the agency has seen “credible” assessments that a famine is in progress in northern Gaza.

  
  

• The Israeli military announced a new operation to target members of Hamas in Gaza on Thursday, a day after killing three sons of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader-in-exile of Hamas’ political wing, in an airstrike.

  
  

• UNICEF, a United Nations agency responsible for providing global humanitarian aid to children, said a vehicle attached to its operations in Gaza was “hit by live ammunition” while waiting to enter the strip this week.

  
  

• Right-wing Israeli activists blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza through Egypt for three hours Thursday morning, in the latest instance of months of efforts to disrupt the flow of aid into the strip.

  
  

• Israel’s interior minister, Moshe Arbel, sent Netanyahu a letter Thursday objecting to Netanyahu’s interference with his efforts to help Palestinian workers return to jobs in Israel amid a serious shortage of foreign workers, writing that “the prime minister can go ahead and fire me if he wants to usurp my authority.”

A woman shouts at a protest at IDF headquarters. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

Israelis feel scared and abandoned — mostly by their own state. With Israel facing profound international pressure over the war, solidarity on the home front is extending only so far — and specifically, not to the government, writes David Kaufman, who just returned from a visit to the war-torn country. Many Israelis see Netanyahu’s coalition as having lost sight of essential priorities, foremost the return of the hostages. And “how could they not?” he asks: “Just this week — while hostages remain missing and missiles rain down from Lebanon — the Knesset embarks on its annual monthlong vacation, stoking frustration with lawmakers as round after round of negotiations with Hamas lead nowhere.” Read his essay ➤

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

19-year-old Blaze Bernstein, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, was murdered in January 2018. (Courtesy of the Bernstein family)

Blaze Bernstein’s cryptic final texts revealed in court as murder trial continues. Bernstein, a Jewish 19-year-old, was brutally murdered in 2018. On the second day of his alleged killer Samuel Woodward’s trial, the slow relationship the two built on Tinder took center stage. At play: a complicated dynamic between Bernstein, who was openly gay, and his high school classmate Woodward, an ultra-conservative who Bernstein and his friends had suspected might be struggling with his sexuality.

In a Christian Nationalist surveillance state, the few remaining Jews struggle to survive. The Last Yiddish Speaker, a new play currently running Philadelphia, imagines “a dystopian world in which the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has triumphed,” writes Julia M. Klein, installing a government “that punishes dissent; banishes or kills Jews, gays and other outsiders; and forbids women from attending college or holding professional jobs.” Set in 2029, the show follows a father and daughter concealing their Jewish identity, and meditates on “the challenges of maintaining Jewish identity in a sometimes hostile world.”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

(Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

👀  Two Jewish Legal Aid lawyers in New York City are suing over their union dues, arguing that being forced to pay dues to the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys after it made statements they perceived as antisemitic violates their rights to free speech and free association. (Reuters)

🇮🇩  Indonesia is considering normalizing ties with Israel as part of a deal to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a forum for developed countries, an Israeli official confirmed. (Times of Israel)

😔  German police announced a reward of 5,000 euros for information on an arson attack on a synagogue in a northern city, Oldenburg, last week. The attack caused minor damage to the building, but no injuries. (Associated Press)

😨  A neo-Nazi-affiliated British teenager had plans for a suicide bombing at a synagogue on a Jewish holiday, court testimony revealed on Thursday. The teenager, Mason Reynolds, was arrested in June 2023. (Telegraph)

🇦🇷  Argentina’s right-wing president, Javier Milei, revealed that one of his grandfathers was Jewish. Milei, who has expressed a desire to convert to Judaism, made the revelation while speaking at a Miami-area Chabad. (JTA)

🎤  Luxembourg’s Eurovision contestant, Tali Golergant, is facing backlash over her family ties to Israel. She was born in Israel, and in January said her brother was serving in the IDF in Gaza. Golergant has “gotten a lot of hate” over her participation, she said, “which I think is so unfortunate because this is a contest about music and togetherness.” (Times of Israel)

Mazel tov ➤ To mathematician and theoretical computer scientist Avi Wigderson, announced Thursday as the winner of this year’s $1 million Turing Award, sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize of computing.

What else we’re reading ➤ “The untold story of Arab Jews — and their solidarity with Palestinians” … “3 thinkers trace the intellectual heritage and communal beliefs of Judaism” … “This episode of Golden Girlsteaches us how to shut down antisemites.”

PHOTO OF THE DAY

A crowd of thousands of Haredi Jews demonstrated in front of an Israel Defense Forces enlistment office in Jerusalem on Thursday, with some saying they’d opt for death over military service.

Thanks to Benyamin Cohen for contributing to this newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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