Rep. Robert Garcia was elected the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, charting a new direction for the party’s opposition to congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump’s administration. Garcia, of California, won the job overwhelmingly in a closed-door vote of the House Democratic caucus. He beat out Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, 150-63. Afterward, Garcia thanked colleagues who also sought the top job and promised the Democratic side of the committee would be focused on rooting out government corruption and increasing government efficiency. “Efficiency is not DOGE,” Garcia said, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency.

Following the conclusion of Operation “Am K’Lavi” and the significant blows dealt to Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is considering a diplomatic visit to the United States, which would include a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
According to senior diplomatic officials, formal discussions between Yerushalayim and Washington have yet to begin, but the intention is to schedule the visit as soon as possible—potentially within the next few weeks. One official noted, “The goal is to create a symbolic and international moment of victory over Iran—both on the diplomatic stage and in the court of global public opinion.”

Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, is returning to full operations after the Home Front Command lifted all wartime travel restrictions, the Israel Airports Authority announced Tuesday. Effective immediately, limitations on the number of incoming and outgoing flights, as well as passenger capacity per flight, have been removed. In addition, entry restrictions for travelers and accompanying individuals at airport terminals have been fully lifted. “The restrictions on the number of incoming and outgoing flights, as well as the number of passengers on each flight, have been lifted,” the Airports Authority said in a statement.

In a test case for the artificial intelligence industry, a federal judge has ruled that AI company Anthropic didn’t break the law by training its chatbot Claude on millions of copyrighted books. But the company is still on the hook and must now go to trial over how it acquired those books by downloading them from online “shadow libraries” of pirated copies. U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said in a ruling filed late Monday that the AI system’s distilling from thousands of written works to be able to produce its own passages of text qualified as “fair use” under U.S.

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, led by MK Yuli Edelstein, convened behind closed doors today at the Kirya military compound in Tel Aviv. Defense Minister Yisroel Katz joined the session and delivered a comprehensive update on the current state of Israel’s military campaigns across Gaza, the northern front, and in the Iranian sphere.
Minister Katz disclosed that Iran had been preparing to initiate a major assault, but Israel acted first to prevent it. “The Iranians planned to strike first and launch between 400 to 500 missiles in the opening strike. If we hadn’t acted first, it would have been much harder for us. Our biggest challenge was opening the skies and neutralizing Iran’s air defense systems. We controlled the skies and were able to continue.”

The IDF Chief of the General Staff LTG Eyal Zamir conducted a situational assessment with members of the General Staff Forum, following the beginning of the ceasefire with Iran, and made the following remarks: “We have concluded a significant phase, but the campaign against Iran is not over. We are entering a new phase based on the achievements of the current one. We’ve set Iran’s nuclear project back by years, and the same applies to its missile program. The IDF performed at its best — the Intelligence Directorate delivered unprecedented intelligence achievements. IAF pilots operated with courage, while putting their lives at risk, thousands of kilometers from Israeli territory and struck and destroyed military targets.

The first Maariv at the Kosel after its been reopened following the war with Iran.

Dancing at the Kosel tonight, as Yidden celebrate the victory of the destruction of the Iranian nuclear program.