House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed his concern regarding President Joe Biden’s recent statement, wherein he hinted at withholding U.S. weapons from Israel in case of an assault on Rafah. Johnson described it as a potential “senior moment,” feeling disillusioned by what he perceives as a breach of promises made to secure a substantial foreign aid package amounting to nearly $100 billion.
In a conversation with Politico following the rejection of an attempt to remove him from his position by House members, the Louisiana Republican highlighted his pre-existing apprehensions about the United States possibly discontinuing weapon supplies to Israel even before Biden’s declaration.

Jerusalem will win the war against Hamas in Gaza with its fingernails, if necessary, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Thursday night, a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said he would cut arms supplies to the Jewish state if Israel launched a major attack in Rafah.
“If we need to stand alone, we will stand alone,” Netanyahu stated. “But we have much more than fingernails, and with that same strength of spirit, with God’s help, together we will win.”
The premier noted that Israel will celebrate its Independence Day on Tuesday, per the Hebrew calendar.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) advocated more aggressive measures to regain security for Jewish students on American college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
“For those international students who defied university orders, and police instruction, in favor of acting on pro-terrorist views, this should result in immediate expulsion from their host institution and our generous country,” Rubio wrote on May 8. “No questions asked.”
He wrote, “Let me be clear: espousing support for a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization is grounds for the termination of a visa and immediate removal from our country.”

The National Archives and the genealogy company Ancestry are teaming up to digitize and put online tens of millions of records from the Archives’ vast holdings.
The project, announced Thursday, will take place over five years. In the first phase, about 65.5 million records that had previously not been available online will appear on Ancestry’s website, the organizations said in a statement.
The newly available records will include military documents from World War II and the Korean War era, as well as immigration and naturalization reports, their statement said.
The data is expected to begin appearing in about two years, Pamela Wright, the Archives’ chief innovation officer, said in a video interview Tuesday.

Veterans Affairs leaders improperly handed out almost $11 million in bonuses to more than 180 senior executives last year, with several taking home more than $100,000, a new investigation has found.
The bonuses came from funds that Congress earmarked to recruit and keep staff needed to process billions of dollars in new veterans benefits – not to reward top officials in Washington.

Multiple outbursts from the sun could trigger magnificent auroras in many parts of the United States this weekend.
A severe geomagnetic storm is expected to hit Earth on Friday, triggering colorful nighttime auroras, or the northern lights. People in the United States could see moderate to strong geomagnetic activity starting around 11 p.m. and lasting through Saturday.
Current forecasts project the lights could be seen as far south as Alabama and California, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Chances of seeing the lights will be highest in the northern United States, Canada and northern Europe.

A group of 22 members of Congress visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and discussed the origins of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) toured the museum with other legislators and House Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben.
The 90-minute event began with a presentation by Danny Greene, an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University, discussing “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” forgery that has fueled hate against Jews for more than a century.

Three soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces sustained moderate wounds when a booby-trapped tunnel shaft they had discovered in the Gaza Strip’s eastern Rafah area blew up, the army announced on Thursday night.
The wounded troops were evacuated and received medical treatment at a hospital in Israel, the IDF said. Their families have been informed.
In another incident on Thursday, an “unidentified aerial object” from the Strip crossed into Israeli airspace, falling in an open area, the military announced. There were no reports of damage or casualties.
Since Israel launched its limited operation against Hamas strongholds in Rafah on Monday, IDF forces have eliminated as many as 50 gunmen and located 10 tunnel shafts, Israel Hayom reported on Thursday.

U.S. President Joe Biden delayed revealing that he ordered an arms shipment to Israel be paused last week until after he delivered a Holocaust remembrance day address at the U.S. Capitol, the Associated Press reported.
“There seem to be two Bidens,” wrote Abe Foxman, director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League, the one who “spoke at the Holocaust event, who flew to Israel during war against Israel” and who supported Israel militarily and financially,” and the “political Biden, who engages in party politics—telling Israel it has [a] right to defend itself—but we will tell you when and how.”

In a rare show of unity, Israel Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Minister Benny Gantz and opposition leader Yair Lapid issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling on the public to preserve the sanctity of the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror.
Yom Hazikaron will be observed on Sunday evening and Monday, ahead of Yom Ha’atzmaut, which will be observed starting on Monday evening.
The four leaders signed a letter drafted by Eli Ben-Shem, chairman of the Yad LaBanim organization for bereaved families. The letter urges Israelis to “leave disputes outside military cemeteries” and avoid political arguments at gravesites out of respect for the fallen and their families.