Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the Democrats running in next week’s Philadelphia mayoral primary, and interview Emily Tisch Sussman about her pivot away from politics. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Carl Icahn, Carol Kane and Mohammed Alyahya.
After being canceled by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) “Nakba Day” event was moved to the Senate side of the Capitol complex, to the hearing room of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
During her speech at the event, Tlaib remarked that “everyone needs an aamu in the Senate” — an Arabic word meaning “uncle” — “so I want to also welcome you to Senator Bernie Sanders’s [committee room].” Sanders, who has been a vocal critic of Israel in the Senate in recent years, did not personally attend the event. McCarthy, as House speaker, does not have jurisdiction over Senate office buildings. A Senate source told JI that Senate committees have final control over their own rooms.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a pro-Israel stalwart who co-chairs the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, told JI that “calling the establishment of the world’s only Jewish state a ‘catastrophe’ is deeply offensive, and I strongly disagree with allowing this event to be held on Capitol Hill.”
“Israel was founded as a refuge for the Jewish people fleeing millennia of antisemitic persecution and violence,” Rosen continued. “Let me be absolutely clear: the United States is and will always remain a stalwart ally of the State of Israel.”
Earlier in the day, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the No. 3 House Democratic leader, said it was “unfortunate” that McCarthy had canceled the event. Aguilar, responding to a question from JI at a Democratic leadership press conference, said, “People should be allowed to congregate, to have discussions, to express their viewpoints and ideas. That’s who we are.” Aguilar emphasized, “that doesn’t mean I agree with everything every member in my caucus says or that every sponsored group or organization that comes here says” and that he did not “know who the official sponsors, speakers, guests and organizations are.” Read more here.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, on Monday evening, during which Sullivan, according to an official White House readout, reiterated the Biden administration’s “ironclad support for Israel’s security, as well as its right to defend its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks” and “emphasized the need to deescalate tensions and prevent further loss of life.”
In the hours before and after Tlaib’s event in Washington — despite reports of an Egypt-mediated cease-fire — Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets rained down on Israeli communities, continuing into Thursday, while Israel pressed on with Operation Shield and Arrow, striking Islamic Jihad targets.
Overnight, Israel killed Ali Hassan Ghali, the commander of the terrorist organization’s rocket launching force, along with two additional militants from the group who were with him in a hideout apartment, according to the IDF; Palestinian media identified them as Ghali’s brother and nephew. More than two dozen Palestinians have reportedly been killed during the three-day flare-up of violence.
An Israeli diplomatic source denied a report that Israel had agreed to release the body of Khader Adnan, who died in Israeli prison after an 80-day hunger strike, as part of a ceasefire agreement with Islamic Jihad.
philly ballot
Three Jewish Democrats among top contenders in Philadelphia mayoral race

In the closely divided race to become Philadelphia’s next mayor, three Jewish Democrats with divergent backgrounds are among the top candidates vying for the nomination — marking what some observers view as a local record for Jewish representation on the ballot. “This is the first time that I can remember where we’ve had three Jewish candidates,” Robin Schatz, the director of government affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel this week. “That’s just amazing to me.”
Nonissue: The candidates themselves, however, have largely refrained from emphasizing their Jewish identities or highlighting communal issues in heavily Jewish Philadelphia, where antisemitic incidents have been on the rise. “I don’t see anyone going around talking about being Jewish,” said Larry Ceisler, a public affairs executive in Philadelphia. “I don’t think it would have any effect.”
Crime and safety: Polling has shown that crime and public safety are the leading issues in Tuesday’s crowded primary, where five Democrats are seen as viable. Allan Domb, a self-funding real estate mogul and moderate Jewish Democrat, claims that he is the only candidate whose public safety plan includes an explicit pledge to increase funding to combat hate crimes and to provide police protections for synagogues and mosques. Jeff Brown, a 59-year-old Jewish grocery store owner, has won endorsements from police unions, while Cherelle Parker, 50, has vowed to hire more police officers and expressed support for stop-and-frisk tactics, which she had previously opposed as a city councilwoman. Meanwhile, Rebecca Rhynhart, a 48-year-old Jewish Democrat and former city controller, has voiced criticism of law enforcement while advocating for intervention strategies such as therapy and job training, even as she has also argued in favor of “more police.”
Frontrunner: The leading progressive candidate, Helen Gym, a former city councilwoman, has shied away from past comments in which she aligned with the movement to abolish the police. The 50-year-old Democrat now issues calls “to stabilize police funding” and says it is “not the time to cut.” In recent weeks, Gym’s profile has risen as she has drawn support from a growing number of national leaders on the activist left, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). The two New York Democrats, who are among the most outspoken Israel critics in the House, have had strained relationships with members of the organized Jewish community in their districts.