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.”

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Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Vedat Gashi

In New York’s redrawn 16th Congressional District, where freshman Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is hoping to fend off a moderate primary challenger, the district’s former longtime representative has waded into the race, backing his successor’s opponent. Former Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who represented parts of the Bronx and Westchester for more than three decades, is bucking Bowman and endorsing Vedat Gashi, Jewish Insider’s Jacob Miller has learned.

New blood: Gashi, an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia who currently serves as a Westchester county legislator and a Democratic district leader, is running a kitchen-table-issues campaign in the solidly blue district, contrasting himself with Bowman, who identifies himself with the “Squad,” a cohort of progressive lawmakers. Two other candidates — Catherine Parker and Mark Jaffe — are also running, but trail far behind Bowman and Gashi in fundraising. Parker has raised $145,000 to Bowman’s $909,000 and Gashi’s $462,000. (No FEC filings for Jaffe were visible.) A source with knowledge of Gashi’s campaign told JI that Gashi trails Bowman in internal polling.

Rave reviews: “Vedat is the type of leader we need in Washington, D.C. – someone who understands the unprecedented times we are facing and who will work with President Biden and fellow Democrats on our shared democratic values,” said Engel. “Someone who will work to achieve real results and real progress, not rhetoric or partisan politics.” Engel, a top Democratic legislator who chaired the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee and helped lead the first impeachment investigation into former President Donald Trump, lost his seat to Bowman in a bitter 2020 primary.

Foreign affairs: When it comes to issues beyond the district, Engel and Gashi share several priorities. Both have an affinity for Kosovo, whose statehood Engel vocally supported in Congress, earning him celebrity status — and a street named after him — in the Balkan country. Gashi also aided Kosovo in its early days of statehood, flying to his birthplace to help draft some of the country’s foundational legal documents. “I’ve gotten to know [Engel] a little bit through the work in Kosovo,” Gashi said. Additionally, the two are strong supporters of Israel. Engel, who was known as a staunchly pro-Israel member of Congress, opposed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and once sponsored a resolution declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital. Gashi supports legislation aimed at expanding the list of Arab nations that have normalized relations with Israel as a result of the Abraham Accords.

Read more here.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) speaks Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, at an election night party in Birmingham, Mich.

As the first primary season of AIPAC’s newly formed PAC and super PAC — in which the two frequently dominated conversation in political circles — begins to wind down, AIPAC PAC Director Marilyn Rosenthal and United Democracy Project CEO Rob Bassin spoke to Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in a joint interview on Wednesday to discuss their results and explain their strategies.

Victory lap: UDP, Bassin noted, has become “the largest bipartisan super PAC in the country” — it has spent $24.3 million, second only to the conservative Club for Growth in total outside spending — and has won seven of the nine races in which it has spent money. “By any measure, we’ve had a very successful start to our operations,” he told JI. Rosenthal said, “We’ve achieved some extraordinary results in a very short period of time.” The PAC “is allowing us to clearly define who is and who is not pro-Israel. And that is the objective, essentially, of what we’re trying to achieve,” she added.

Politics and policy: The groups’ wins show “being pro-Israel is both good policy and politics,” Rosenthal argued. Israel has not, however, been a primary deciding factorfor voters in many of the races in which UDP has been involved, and its messaging in the races has not revolved around Israel. “I would just say about that, first of all, the issues that UDP has focused on have been the issues that are foremost on the minds of voters,” Bassin responded. “That being said, I think the views of the candidates on the U.S.-Israel relationship have been made clear on their websites and their position papers and in their voting records.” Rosenthal added that pro-Israel candidates “have raised great deals of dollars from AIPAC members because of their support for Israel.”

What’s next: Bassin declined to say whether UDP plans to get involved in any other races this cycle, but left the door open to the possibility. Incumbent members of Congress make up the large majority of AIPAC PAC’s endorsements, as well as a dozen non-incumbents, mostly from safe districts. Rosenthal said the group is “looking at opportunities” in the remaining primary races and the general election, but hasn’t yet decided whether it’s going to make endorsements in highly competitive general election races.

Strategy session: Bassin explained that UDP has honed in on races where “there is a sharp contrast between a strong supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship… and a detractor of that relationship” and where “we believe our involvement can make a difference in the outcome of that race.” He continued, “The super PAC has been focused on detractors of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Friends of the U.S.-Israel relationship have been supported through the PAC and the portal.” Rosenthal explained that, in addition to races where there are clear divisions among candidates on Israel, the PAC’s endorsements also take incumbency into consideration, as well as backing open-seat candidates who have “identified themselves as champions and leaders if they were to get elected.”

Read more here.