Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
Michigan state Rep. Shri Thanedar was declared the winner of the Democratic primary in the state’s 13th Congressional District, edging out state Sen. Adam Hollier by 4.8 points, 28.3% to 23.5%. Hollier’s defeat marked only the second time a United Democracy Project-supported candidate has lost. Read on for Jewish Insider’s interview with UDP CEO Rob Bassin and AIPAC PAC Director Marilyn Rosenthal.
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee swiftly passed the Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act, which would create a dedicated office for managing the program and support increased funding to $360 million. The version of the bill that passed the House proposed $500 million annually.
A group of five Democratic House members is in Israel this week on a delegation led by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and run by J Street. The group also includes Reps. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA).
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with Brooklyn-based Iranian human rights activist Masih Alinejad yesterday. Speaking on behalf of President Joe Biden, Sullivan expressed “profound concern over Alinejad’s physical safety, and commended the work of law enforcement agencies for their actions to ensure the protection of Alinejad and her family,” according to a White House readout of the call. Sullivan “further noted that President Biden will continue to receive updates on her situation, and indicated that the United States stands with Alinejad and all those in Iran who demand equal rights and dignity.”
warming ties
Three decades on, peace between Israel, Jordan takes off – slowly

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid (L) is welcomed by King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein (R) at Al Husseiniya Palace in Amman, Jordan on July 27, 2022. (Photo by GPO/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Nearly three decades after signing a peace treaty, Israel and Jordan took a tiny step forward toward warming ties this week with the announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid that his government would accelerate a neglected project to build a joint Israeli-Jordanian industrial zone straddling the banks of the Jordan River, The Circuit’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Tension remains: Touted as a “breakthrough” and a step toward “civil peace,” the Jordan Gateway plan fits snugly within the broader process of normalization taking place between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. However, while both Israel and Jordan stand to gain economically from this shared venture, lingering tensions between the countries, including anti-Israel sentiment among many Jordanians and Israeli bureaucracy tied up with ongoing electoral chaos, will likely mean progress is slow, analysts and those working on the project say.
Important step: “I’m hesitant to say this signifies a normalizing of relations between Israelis and Jordanians,” Oded Eran, Israel’s former ambassador to Jordan, told The Circuit. “However, if this project does finally come to a conclusion, it will be an important step, psychologically, because it has become a lingering symbol of the failure of the relations between Israel and Jordan,” added Eran, now a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
Positive dynamic: Ksenia Svetlova, a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and the Israel Middle East program director for Mitvim, an Israeli think tank, drew a parallel between the new momentum on the industrial zone and the Abraham Accords, saying that the Accords might be playing a role in renewing ties and reviving the joint economic plan. “The generally optimistic and positive dynamics of the Abraham Accords have had an impact on Israel’s veteran normalization partners, Egypt and Jordan,” she maintained. “There have been more developments in the past two years than there were in the previous 10 years with both these countries, so I think that generally, there was more inspiration in promoting important economic projects between Israel and Arab countries in the region.”