The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
US legislative committee says it’s investigating antisemitism in leading teacher union
The US House Committee on Education and the Workforce is investigating antisemitism in the National Education Association, a leading teacher union, representing more than three million public school educators and administrators.
The committee has put heavy pressure on universities for alleged antisemitism since the start of the war in Gaza.
In a letter to the president of the union, US Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican, cites the union’s vote to ban materials by the Anti-Defamation League and alleged antisemitism in the union’s 2025 handbook.
In one example, the union’s handbook says the group will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day by “recognizing more than 12 million victims of the Holocaust,” without mentioning Jews.
The handbook also says the union plans to educate members about the Nakba, without providing context about the creation of the State of Israel, the letter says.
The committee demands that the union provide all documents and communications from its leadership relating to antisemitism, Israel, and the Palestinians since the start of the Gaza war; meeting minutes that refer to the conflict; documents related to the ADL vote; and other materials related to the conflict and antisemitism.
The committee gives the union a deadline of September 4 to respond.
PM’s office says Israel will dispatch negotiating team when location for talks is set
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issues a statement attributed to a senior Israeli official who says that once a location for negotiations is determined, the premier will order the dispatch of an Israeli delegation to hold talks aimed at securing the release of all remaining hostages and at ending the war on Israel’s terms.
It’s not clear whether Netanyahu’s statement was coordinated with any of the Arab mediators who are currently waiting for Israel to respond to their phased hostage release proposal that Hamas accepted on Monday.
The mediators are hoping that Israel will accept the proposal to allow for the immediate commencement of negotiations in either Doha or Cairo in order to finalize the terms, such as the identities of the Palestinian security prisoners who will be released.
Netanyahu appears to instead be talking about a deal that will see the release of all 50 remaining hostages at once.
This is something that Hamas has long offered in exchange for an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
But Netanyahu has argued that this exchange would leave Hamas in power with the ability to revive itself.
Instead, the cabinet approved earlier this month a series of terms for ending the war that effectively amount to Hamas’s complete surrender.
The conditions are the release of all remaining hostages at once, the disarmament of Hamas, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, overall Israeli security control of the Gaza Strip and the transfer of governance to a body that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas has already rejected calls to give up its weapons, and the IDF has estimated that the full dismantlement of Hamas’s terror infrastructure in Gaza will take years to complete, leading critics to accuse Netanyahu of seeking to prolong the war to stay in power.
Sa’ar to meet Rubio next week on first trip to DC as foreign minister — official
Gideon Sa’ar will make his first trip to Washington next week since being appointed foreign minister in November of last year, an Israeli official confirms to The Times of Israel.
Sa’ar will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, the official says.