(JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday, as the American leader is weighing whether to expand his bombing campaign against Iran or to find a diplomatic resolution regarding the Straits of Hormouz and the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Israel fears that Trump is going to negotiate a premature end to the war without eliminating Iran’s capacity to develop nuclear weapons in the future. Trump has persistently insisted that Iran can’t possess nuclear weapons, but the war and the economic upheaval it has spurred has contributed to Trump’s approval rating hitting record lows in his second term. The poor marks are ringing alarm bells for Republicans ahead of midterm elections that could return Democrats to leadership in at least one chamber of Congress.

Netanyahu and Trump are also at odds over other issues, however, including the recent U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal, the pending sale of F-35 advance fighter jets to Turkey and the extent of Israel’s troop presence in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

Netanyahu is coming to the United States to attend the funeral for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who remained one of Israel’s most unyielding advocates even as its popularity plummeted and was one of the most important Trump associates in pressing for the Iran war. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, now the opposition leader, will also be at the service at Washington’s National Cathedral on Tuesday.

But while in Washington, Netanyahu will seek to close the widening gaps between himself and Trump over Middle East strategy. In a video statement he released before Monday‘s departure, Netanyahu said, “I am embarking on this mission with one clear goal – to ensure the security, strength and future of our dear State of Israel.”

“We will discuss all the issues on the agenda, first and foremost, Iran,” he said. “Naturally, our goal is to safeguard our security and also to expand the circle of peace around us.”

During the trip, Netanyahu said he would also pay his final respect to Graham, “one of the greatest friends the State of Israel has ever known.”

Israelis are acutely aware of the emerging differences between the allies. “It will not be an easy visit,” former IDF intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told Israel Radio on Monday morning. “There is no doubt that Netanyahu wants the United States to return to war.”

Trump himself spoke on Monday of the discord between himself and Netanyahu, even as he lauded Netanyahu, while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, stating that Netanahu had been “great” and that “we did very well together.”

On the plane Trump was quizzed about U.S. plans to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, which Netanyahu has publicly opposed. “Turkey has been a great ally for me,” Trump told reporters, stressing, “No one tells me what we should be selling or not.” He acknowledged that Turkey “is not a big fan” of Israel and Netanyahu.

When it comes to the Saudi civilian nuclear power program that the Trump administration recently completed, Israel has been more circumspect. But it has deep concerns about an agreement that allows for plants with the capacity to enrich uranium. Assisting in the building of those plants had been one of the key incentives former President Joe Biden had used as a means to sway Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel and join the Abraham Accords between Israel and several other Muslim countries.

Trump has since said that U.S. support for a Saudi civilian nuclear program would be contingent on normalization with Israel and that the plants would not be allowed to enrich uranium. But on Monday, he told reporters aboard Air Force One that he hadn’t spoken with Saudi Arabia about the Abraham Accords. Tuesday’s meeting is the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Netanyahu since the announcement.

The closer Netanyahu appears to Trump and the center of U.S. decision making, the better it is for him domestically ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election. Trump has in his second term met with Netanyahu more than any other leader. This will be their eighth such conversation, and the fifth time he has hosted the Israeli leader in the White House.

Tight ties with Netanyahu also plays well for Trump with his evangelical base ahead of the U.S. mid-terms in November, but they run the risk of further alienating the larger American public that opposes the conflict.

Netanyahu’s influence in America had diminished, in part because of how unpopular the war has become in the United States and the role he played spurring it on.

“This is not the same Netanyahu of 2025 or even of February 2026. He is greeted with suspicion,” Yadlin said of the reception he expects for the prime minister in the United States.

Netanyahu last visited Washington in February, where he successfully advocated for the joint Israeli-U.S. military aerial bombing campaign against Iran launched on the 28th of that month.

Tehran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil supply is shipped. That step caused crude oil prices to spike in the first quarter of 2026 from $61 a barrel to $118, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Iran allowed the strait to reopen in a limited way after an April ceasefire that was followed by a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. in June. The agreement fell apart in early July, with the parties resuming attacks – but without any Israeli military involvement. The United States bombed Iran for 13 consecutive nights, ending on Thursday, even as talks with the Islamic Republic  continued.

The United States and Israel in February were initially aligned around their joint goal of destroying Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, with Netanyahu also focused on the collapse of the Islamic Republic.

Over the weekend, Trump stressed that the war was still about eliminating Iran’s nuclear program. Last week he spoke about specifically hitting the nuclear facility at Pickaxe mountain.

In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said the United States was “keeping all options on the table,” but was giving space for talks.

He dismissed media reports that lack of military supplies was part of Trump’s motivation to pause its bombing campaign, stating that the United States had everything it needed militarily.

Waltz warned Iran not to ignore American military threats. Early Monday morning, Trump published a short AI video in which his likeness planted an American flag on an Iranian oil tanker, with a slogan that stated, “it’s our oil tanker now.”

Later in the day, the president told reporters on Air Force One that he was having “good talks” with the Iranians, “so we will see what happens. I think there is a good chance something could happen. If it does, good. If it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Yadlin told Israel Radio that at the end of the day, “What interests President Trump is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”

The war might have begun in February with a focus on the Iranian regime and its nuclear program, but it will end, Yadlin predicted, with the reopening of the strait and some kind of diplomatic achievement with regard to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Israel has watched the U.S.-Iran reengagement warily from the sidelines.

Sima Shine, an Iran expert at the Tel Aviv-based International Institute of Strategic Studies, said that until now, neither Washington nor Tehran had wanted Israel’s involvement in the resumed fighting, fearing that such a step would “widen the scope of the war.”

Maintaining its status as a bilateral conflict makes it easier to return to negotiations, she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The United States can better control the battlefield without Israel, which would have its own military agenda and objectives, Shine said. Israel can only enter the war if it is attacked by Iran or invited to do so by the United States, she added.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Netanyahu warned of a forceful response should Iran attack Israel.

Iran has to end its nuclear program, he stressed, saying that the military strikes so far have set the program back but have not eliminated it.

A nuclear-armed Iran is a danger to Israel, the region, the United States and the world, he said, adding, “President Trump and I are both committed to prevent this danger.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post Netanyahu to meet Trump with Iran, Gaza and Saudi Arabia on the line appeared first on The Forward.

(JTA) — DETROIT — Hours before a big debate showdown with her primary rival, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens began a routine campaign stop Monday seemingly comfortably in her element.

The Michigan candidate for U.S. Senate walked into The Roost, a cafe and wine shop in the Woodbridge neighborhood, chatting up her record on small businesses with the owner, Jeff Tatum. She gamely made herself a cappuccino, exclaiming with glee that the store used Dial soap like her father’s business had.

She also made a play for party unity. Asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about Jewish Democratic donors who have indicated they would fundraise for Republican candidate Mike Rogers if Stevens lost the primary, she responded, “I’m on the Democratic team. I’m on the Beat Mike Rogers team.”

But things went off-script for Stevens when she sat down with Jai Singletary, director of a local neighborhood improvement association — who revealed, midway through their conversation, that he had already cast his early voting primary ballot for her opponent, former county health director Abdul El-Sayed.

What’s more, Singletary made it clear to Stevens that the candidates’ respective stances on aid to Israel were the deciding factor for him.

“Genocide isn’t a Palestinian issue. We’ve all got to care about this,” Singletary told Stevens, a pro-Israel centrist who has received nearly $30 million in outside spending from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to date in her primary — the organization’s largest-ever investment in a single race, according to CBS News. He believes, he said, that “our country is directly responsible for peace not being achieved.”

The director of Woodbridge Neighborhood Development and local soccer coach added, “We’ve got to have the money stay here. I don’t think we should be giving any more aid to the State of Israel while they’re committing the atrocities they’re committing in widespread collective punishment.”

The interaction spotlighted two of the biggest questions hanging over Michigan’s closely watched and hard-fought Democratic Senate primary: To what degree are the state’s voters factoring Israel into their decisions, and does the pro-Palestinian sentiment driving El-Sayed’s campaign cross racial lines — including in the Black communities where Stevens has long maintained strong relationships?

Many of the Jews in Michigan who form a major base of support for Stevens have made clear their distrust of El-Sayed, who has questioned whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state. Meanwhile, the state has a large Arab and Muslim voting bloc, and voters here helped propel a 2024 Democratic revolt over Israel’s war in Gaza that helped lead to the party’s current civil war. But the situation is less clear with voters from other groups.

El-Sayed and the insurgent progressive movement he represents have sought to make Israel central to the race and have tried to turn Stevens’ AIPAC support into her biggest liability. But the Stevens campaign has made the calculation that most of the state’s voters — including Detroit’s majority-Black population, with whom she has enjoyed good relations in the past — would rather talk about other things.

Not so, according to Singletary, who is Black. In his own Detroit community, he told JTA, Israel was an important issue.

“It’s connected,” he said, comparing the Israeli-Palestinian state of affairs to Apartheid-era South Africa, adding, “$3.3 billion to the state of Israel, and that’s money that could be helping out here. I think people are now seeing the links.” He told reporters that, though he does not have Palestinian family himself, his own vote was “100% exclusive” based on Israel.

After the campaign left, Singletary told JTA that he had no affiliation with the El-Sayed campaign and had stopped by on an invitation from the store’s owner. He said he would not vote for Rogers in the general election even if Stevens wins and came because he hoped to develop a connection with her in the event she became the nominee.

The issue of whether backers of either candidate across the yawning policy divide would continue to vote for a Democrat in the general if their preferred choice loses has become an emerging question. Last week, Democratic U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan, a Stevens backer, refused to commit to voting for El-Sayed if he wins the primary. Scholten cited the candidate’s campaigning with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who has repeatedly said he would “vote” for Hamas over Israel. Her objection, she said, was to his comment that “America deserved 9/11.”

“Abdul El-Sayed is taking us in a direction we don’t want to go as a party,” Scholten told CNN host Jake Tapper.

Stevens’ campaign is also touting her backing from a growing number of establishment Democrats, including, on Friday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She and El-Sayed face off Monday evening in their final televised debate before the Aug. 4 primary.

Speaking to Singletary, Stevens smiled and nodded. She name-dropped a Palestinian supporter of hers, and mentioned legislation targeting China that she’s worked on with “my colleague Ro Khanna” — the staunchly pro-Palestinian Democratic congressman from California, who has endorsed El-Sayed. She added that she believes in a two-state solution and has been attacked “by name” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

She also turned to her staff and excitedly indicated to Singletary: “He voted for Abdul in the primary, and he came here to talk to me.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post In Detroit, pro-Israel Senate candidate Haley Stevens meets a pro-Palestinan El-Sayed supporter appeared first on The Forward.

As a kid, I had no idea schmuck wasn’t an English word.

In 1985, my fourth-grade Cheder class in Los Angeles was assigned to write a short story about a time we felt embarrassed. I had a great example I wanted to share, so while the other girls asked the teacher questions, I got straight to the assignment. My pen glided across the smooth, wide-ruled paper. Done! Without even looking up, I knew I had finished first. I raised my hand, and my teacher called on me.

Here goes:

“This past Shabbos, I slept at Mimi’s house. On Friday night after Shabbat dinner, Mimi’s father took us to a party celebrating a new baby boy born in the neighborhood. We ate delicious cake and sat around with the other kids, but it was getting late. Mimi and I looked at each other. “Ready to go?” she asked me. I was ready. We peeked into the dining room where all the men sat and realized that Mimi’s father had disappeared. Who were we supposed to walk home with now? Mimi spotted her neighbor getting up to leave and pulled me out of the house. We never asked him to walk us home; we just casually walked behind him. We figured out that he knew we were there, trailing him, when he suddenly spoke loud enough for us to hear: “What kind of schmuck leaves his kids at a party?”

Immediately, my teacher interjected, “Sit down this moment, Dena!”

“But, Ms. B, I’m not finished with my story!” I protested. I stubbornly read the last line as I made my way back to my seat.

“…I was so embarrassed that he lectured us, and I wanted to disappear. Thankfully, we made it home safely. The end.”

I was especially excited to tell this story because the neighbor who had embarrassed us was Ms. B’s brother. Mimi knew it. I knew it. All my classmates knew it. The one person who didn’t realize it was Ms. B.

What I didn’t know was that schmuck was a vulgar Yiddish word. This was my first clue that the language I thought was ordinary English was actually something else. The adults around me used it and got away with it — until I came along and said it out loud. That was the first time I understood that some words aren’t really about their meaning at all — they’re about who’s saying them, and why.

Yiddish couldn’t sound like profanity to me. It sounded like home, and we didn’t say curse words at home. It sounded like the people who loved me and raised me, their affection softening even its roughest edges.

* * *

The Yiddish I grew up with begins, fittingly, with the first English sentence my father remembers hearing when he landed in America from Israel at 11 years old:

Gey across the street tsu dem candy store, un keyf mir a candy.

Go across the street to the candy store and buy me a candy.

Although he didn’t understand English, the word candy was universal. He got the gist.

My Aba repeated this command to us throughout our childhood whenever he wanted us out of the room so he could prepare a class, take a phone call, or speak privately with my mother.

“Gey.”

Go.

We went.

For him, the joke was picking out the English words, like candy and street. For me, a generation later, it was the Yiddish.

This blending of Yiddish and English was the two worlds our family inhabited, meshing naturally into one. Growing up, I heard a lot of Yinglish — Yiddish peppered with English, accented with Polish, Russian, or Hungarian. The official language in our home was English, but even that was seasoned with Yiddish. At different times in my life, I understood less and then more of it, but somehow the meaning always came through. No matter what, I understood the shape of what the “old people” were trying to say.

Whenever a grandchild or great-grandchild was born, my Bubby Pearl, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, would say, “Mayn nekome afn Daytsh” — “my revenge against the Germans.”

Today, my parents are the age the “old people” were when I was a child. Their English is flawless, but still seasoned with Yiddish.

I want my children to know about my grandparents’ generation. I pepper my English with their sweet Yiddish (in truth, some of it is Russian), as though doing so might somehow seed a little of my ancestors’ courage and character into my children’s souls. It’s a bit like the crumpled bills my grandparents shoved into our pockets: We enjoyed the extra cash, but even as a child, it seemed to me that the givers were more enriched than we were. How grateful they were to have grandchildren, and to have something to give us. So now I do the same with language.

I plead with my children to pick up their shmutsike vesh off the bathroom floor and put it in the hamper. When someone sweeps the kitchen floor, the crumbs go into the savok and then the garbage bin. In the morning, I throw my khalat over my pajamas and slip into my warm tapkes.

When I wrote that story about my teacher’s brother, I knew I was being chutzpadik. No one would have accused me of being an eydl meydl.

These words wove themselves through the conversations of my parents and grandparents. I didn’t realize until much later that many of them weren’t English at all. (A few were less savory and such fun to say: paskutsveh, for being obnoxious; svolitch, if you were real scum; or smarkatsh, for rascal. And schmuck of course, which I thought meant idiot. Then there was krasavitseh — beautiful, in the eyes of all.)

In class that day, I did not know I had uttered a dirty, vulgar word. I wish I could say that when I found out its meaning, I was embarrassed. The truth is, I was thrilled — because, as my mother said, I was a khutspinyak (one level up from regular chutzpah).

What is it about Yiddish? So many things. But as it does, so will I: compress whole stories into one word.

Take khutspinyak. There is no English word that carries my mother’s voice, her mother’s voice, and her mother’s mother’s voice. Or schmuck. In either of those words, I don’t hear an insult or vulgarity. I am folded right into the generations that came before me. Maybe that is why I never learned to hear these words as foreign; they never came to me as vocabulary. They were, and remain, simply love.

Dena Schusterman, a mother of eight and native Californian, is co-founder of Chabad Intown in Atlanta, a Jewish educator, preschool director and teacher. Stories Carry is her debut memoir.

The post How Yiddish compresses whole stories into one word appeared first on The Forward.