The House voted 314-104 on Wednesday to reject an amendment to the 2027 State Department appropriations bill that would have cut all $3.3 billion in annual U.S. aid to Israel. However, 103 Democrats, a near-majority of the caucus, voted in favor of the measure, with 98 others voting no and ten voting present.

The record number of Democrats voting in favor of cutting off U.S. aid to Israel highlights the extent to which Democratic support for the Jewish state has eroded and comes on the heels of 40 Senate Democrats voting to block some weapons sales to Israel earlier this year. 

Vice President JD Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan on Wednesday that he is worried American politicians are being swayed by Israeli “influence campaigns.” 

In the three-hour interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Vance warned of a “very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign” to derail negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. 

Three senior U.S. officials connected to the Board of Peace, the Trump-led body created to resolve the conflict in Gaza, have been meeting with congressional offices this week to request $200 million for a peacekeeping force, according to two people with knowledge of the meetings. The meetings mark the first time that Board of Peace representatives have approached Congress with a funding request. 

Jasper Jeffers, an American military officer serving as commander of the International Stabilization Force, the United Nations-mandated peacekeeping force created in last year’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas; Board of Peace senior advisor Josh Gruenbaum; and retired Gen. Mark Schwartz, a former U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority who is now the Board of Peace’s security lead, spoke at the Capitol Hill meetings. 

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the No. 2 House Democrat, said she plans to vote for an amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to cut off U.S. aid to Israel next year — breaking with other members of Democratic leadership on the issue.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Tuesday that he plans to vote against the amendment but said Democratic leadership will not be whipping the vote, set for Wednesday afternoon. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the No. 3 House Democrat, is also opposing the amendment.

The late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) understood the value of staying in President Donald Trump’s good graces — both to advance his top legislative priorities and to shield himself from challenges on his right flank.

In the wake of Graham’s sudden death, the candidates vying to succeed him have absorbed a central lesson of his career: the most decisive factor in the Republican primary will almost certainly be who wins Trump’s endorsement.

Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC), who ousted a sitting GOP lawmaker with Trump’s endorsement in 2022, is emerging as one of the leading contenders and someone who has an inside track to receive the president’s blessing. Fry’s defeat of former Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC), who was one of the few Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment in 2021, allowed him to build early relationships with Trump’s political circle. 

As Maine Democrats pick up the pieces of Graham Platner’s failed Senate campaign and quickly try to find a replacement for the scandal-tarred candidate on the ballot, moderate Democrats in Michigan, where a primary is fast approaching, are in a race against time to prevent another far-left Senate candidate from capturing a valuable nomination.  

The final three weeks of the Michigan primary will be 2026’s most consequential test yet for the power the party establishment still holds, particularly in a pivotal swing state. After socialist candidates scored a number of surprise victories in heavily blue districts in New York City, Philadelphia and Denver, party leaders are fighting with renewed vigor to rally behind Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the primary against her left-wing challenger, Abdul El-Sayed.

Nickolay Mladenov and Aryeh Lightstone, respectively the high representative for the Board of Peace and the body’s senior advisor, met in Brussels earlier this week with rabbis representing Jewish communities across the Islamic world, Jewish Insider has learned. 

Mladenov and Lightstone met with the executive board of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States at the group’s annual two-day board meeting. On Monday, the two also attended the second convening of the EU-backed Palestine Donor Group, as the collective of some 65 delegations launched a billion-dollar initiative to begin the economic recovery of the Gaza Strip. Jared Kushner joined the donor conference by video.

President Donald Trump has a border czar, a government official leading the crackdown on undocumented immigrants — whom the White House calls “illegal aliens” — crossing the southern border. The president, who likes to go big, now also has a UFO czar, a Harvard astrophysicist who is scanning the cosmos in search of aliens of the science-fiction variety.

It’s a stunning if improbable career highlight for Avi Loeb, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi Germany and settled in a moshav, a cooperative agricultural community, in central Israel. As a child, Loeb had a lot of time alone with his thoughts — walking around to collect eggs from the chickens, or driving a tractor to the surrounding hills, where he would sit and read philosophy books.