Mansour Abbas, head of Israel’s conservative Islamic Raam party, speaks during a press conference in the northern city of Nazareth, on April 1, 2021.

As the already turbulent Knesset neared a vote this week to dissolve itself, Arab-Israeli lawmaker Mansour Abbas, leader of Ra’am (United Arab List), sat calm and collected in his nondescript, sparsely decorated basement-level office. Even as the government he helped create and sustain through the past year collapsed around him, even as he now finds himself in the eye of the political storm — with Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, divided over the participation of an Arab faction in the national government — Abbas remains clear-headed and confident in his conviction that Arab-Israeli citizens must embrace their civic identity and seek representation in Israel’s leadership, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.

Partnership for good: “On one hand, it’s the fundamental right in every democracy,” Abbas told JI on Tuesday. “On the other hand, the Arab community has real needs that were not dealt with by previous governments, and Arab Knesset members did not have any influence to deal with those problems.” It is on the latter point that Abbas, 48, has focused over the past year. Even as Jewish members of the government squabbled and quit, weakening the coalition and ultimately bringing it to collapse, Abbas, whose party represents the political wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has worked diligently to improve the quality of life for Israel’s 1.9 million Arab citizens, roughly 21% of the country’s population. At the same time, he has made clear that Jews and Arabs must work together for the greater good of the country.

Political gamble: It was a political gamble. Never in Israel’s 74 years has an Arab party, let alone one comprised of Islamists, become part of the ruling coalition. And while Abbas and his faction have seen some success in tackling crime and securing funding for the community, it is the very act of being part of the government in the Jewish state that will now be examined and debated as Israelis head once again to the polls. On Thursday, legislators voted to dissolve the parliament and hold a general election — the fifth in less than five years — on Nov. 1. The outcome will depend, in large part, on whether Abbas has proved to his own community, as well as to Israeli Jews, that his unprecedented partnering experiment has been positive.

Continue to coexist: Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told JI, “The discourse within Arab society about this experiment is still ongoing. There is a reduction in crime and there are more budgets, but the most important impact is that the Arabs are now part of the circle of decision-making for the first time since 1948.” He said the importance of Abbas’ participation in the government was also important for Jews. “We can’t just look at the political discourse on whether this succeeded or not, we must also look at the broader reality and its impact on relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel – if he [Abbas] collapses, it will have much deeper implications on whether we can continue to coexist.”

Partnering despite disagreements: Abbas made clear that he is a willing partner for whomever Israel’s next leadership might be – if they accept him – including a government headed by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who currently leads the opposition. “My goal is to create a partnership that will make a difference,” he said, acknowledging that his decision to partner with Israel’s government pushed both communities – Jews and Arabs – out of their comfort zones. “It wasn’t comfortable for either of them to confront this question of partnership,” Abbas continued. “But in Ra’am we say that we do not need to agree on everything, we can have partnerships even with disagreements.”

Read the full story here.

Blake Masters speaking with attendees at a “Save America” rally at Country Thunder Arizona in Florence, Arizona.

Andrew Anglin, the neo-Nazi publisher of The Daily Stormer, one of the internet’s most notorious hate sites, announced his endorsement of Blake Masters in an enthusiastic blog post earlier this month, declaring that the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona “is getting better and better,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. “I cannot give a more forceful endorsement, and I demand that anyone in Arizona (who is not some kind of known neo-Nazi or whatever) get in contact with his campaign and see what kind of help he needs,” Anglin wrote in a previously unreported entry, published June 9.

Background: The white nationalist agitator was gleefully responding to a recent viral incident, caught on video, in which Masters violently confronted a 73-year-old Democratic activist and former high school counselor, Peter Jackson, who had appeared at a local GOP event in Arizona’s Pima County wearing an anti-Trump hat and a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. While his ensemble drew the ire of those in attendance, Masters, 35, claims he lunged at the uninvited guest, who refused requests to leave, after seeing him “hit a woman in the jaw” — an allegation Jackson has denied. In his blog post days after the altercation, Anglin dismissed Jackson as “scum” and noted admiringly that Masters had “moved in to take care of business” when he grabbed the man’s neck and forced him to the ground, according to footage of the confrontation.

Ominous warning: “Anglin habitually uses The Daily Stormer to celebrate and encourage right-wing political violence,” Luke O’Brien, a journalist who investigates political extremism and has written extensively about Anglin, said in an email exchange with JI on Thursday. “He has a tepid blanket disclaimer on the front page of his site in an attempt to create legal cover for himself.” The comparatively tame entry in support of Masters, an author and venture capitalist now mounting his first bid for public office, “doesn’t mean much in a traditional sense,” according to O’Brien. “He’s not going to be turning out the vote… But it is notable for other reasons, especially in this context,” O’Brien explained. “Anglin is a bellwether for authoritarianism in America. He also tends to signal what the master plotters in the global anti-democratic movement have in mind to damage democracy.”

Anglin’ for Ohio: In his post, Anglin, expressed support for another protégé of billionaire tech investor and GOP donor Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author who in May clinched the Republican nomination in Ohio’s hotly contested Senate race. (Thiel has donated some $13 million to Masters’ campaign.) “Peter Thiel’s losing streak is up,” Anglin proclaimed. “I don’t agree with everything the man endorses, and I don’t think he agrees with everything he endorses, but JD Vance and Blake Masters are going to change the entire game… Masters is better than Vance, frankly,” he said, noting that Masters is “married to a white women [sic] with sons despite some possibly questionable mannerisms, and now he’s dropping the red pills we all wanted to hear: the truth about the root of ‘America’s gun violence problem.’” (Vance’s wife is Indian American.)

New York City Hall

In a fraught public hearing yesterday on antisemitism, New York City councilmembers clashed with administrators from the City University of New York (CUNY) system, whose chancellor withdrew from testifying ahead of the Thursday hearing, Jewish Insider’s Jacob Miller reports. The hearing, which had been delayed for weeks to accommodate CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez’s schedule, focused on allegations of antisemitism within the CUNY system and featured virtual testimony from CUNY administrators, including the school’s senior vice chancellor for institutional affairs, Glenda Grace; vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management, Denise Maybank; and Graduate Center President Robin Garrell.

Law school decision: Under scrutiny for its handling of antisemitic incidents across its 25 campuses, CUNY came under fire when its law school faculty and law school student government association endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. In the wake of that decision, Brooklyn Councilmember Inna Vernikov withdrew $50,000 of funding earmarked for CUNY Law.

No show: Vernikov, who led the hearing alongside Bronx Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, denounced what she called Matos Rodríguez’s “cowardly” decision to skip the hearing, saying, “What a sham, what an insult to the Jewish community of New York.” She added, “Him not showing up is actually perpetuating the antisemitism that we’re talking about here.” Matos Rodríguez’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

On the record: At one point during the hearing, Maybank gave mixed signals about CUNY’s stance on the BDS movement, first refusing to denounce the global effort, and then subsequently backtracking, saying “we think [the BDS movement is] wrong… that to me is denouncing.” CUNY also admitted to not logging antisemitic incidents occuring on its campuses, and said that students who deface a campus with a swastika are not automatically expelled. When prodded about whether discriminating against Zionist Jews is antisemitic, CUNY administrators demurred. “I would look at what our policy says and if someone is acting against someone because of a protected status and treating them differently, then it would be discrimination harassment,” said Maybank.

Read the full story here.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) speaking at Politico’s “Unlocking The AI Data Puzzle In Federal Government” conference in Washington, D.C.

The United Democracy Project, an AIPAC-linked super PAC, announced on Thursday that it had spent nearly $1 million in the increasingly bitter Democratic primary between Reps. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Andy Levin (D-MI), as well as an additional $1.1 million opposing former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) and supporting her opponent, Glenn Ivey, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Michigan matters: In a filing with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, UDP disclosed that it has spent $911,000 in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, where it is supporting centrist Stevens in her primary race against progressive Levin, and $888,000 in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, where it’s supporting state Rep. Adam Hollier in a crowded Democratic race.

Ad analysis: Two of UDP’s ads highlight Stevens’ role in the Obama administration’s auto industry rescue efforts — including a clip from the former president commending her efforts. Another focuses on her support for abortion rights. In its ads supporting Hollier, the group touts the state legislator’s background as a volunteer firefighter and Army reservist. Another version of the ad aims to tie Hollier to the state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

Next level: UDP’s most recent filing also revealed that the group has now spent nearly $3 million in its efforts to oppose Edwards and support Ivey, a former Prince George’s County state attorney. In addition to the ads it had run criticizing Edwards, whose votes in Congress on foreign policy issues drew the ire of some in the pro-Israel community, the group also launched an ad supporting Ivey that focuses on his work as a prosecutor.

Read more here.