Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the Democratic leaders who are distancing themselves from Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s comments about Israel and bring you updates on Israel’s status on the Visa Waiver Program. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sam Brown, Efrat Lachter and Rachel Sharansky Danziger.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, described Israel as a “racist state,” as she addressed pro-Palestinian hecklers during the annual progressive Netroots Nation conference in Chicago on Saturday.
“As somebody who’s been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations, I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us, that it does not even feel possible,” Jayapal said, while sharing the stage with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL).
After receiving backlash for her comments, Jayapal clarified her views in a Sunday evening statement. “At a conference, I attempted to defuse a tense situation during a panel where fellow members of Congress were being protested. Words do matter and so it is important that I clarify my statement. I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. I do, however, believe that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government.”
Jayapal represents over 100 Democratic lawmakers as head of Congress’ leading progressive caucus, making her remarks more notable than an average member of the left-wing Squad. It also comes several days before Israel’s President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to speak at a joint session of Congress — one which a handful of far-left members pledged to boycott.
Trying to minimize the political damage, House Democratic leaders issued a statement on Sunday evening on the controversy. “Israel is not a racist state,” their statement began. “The special relationship between the United States and Israel will endure. We are determined to make sure support for Israel in the Congress remains strongly bipartisan.” It made no mention of Jayapal or her specific comments.
One of the letter’s signatories is Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who is himself a member of the CPC.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) tweeted, “Let me set the record straight about Israel as a multiracial democracy based on nearly a decade to traveling to the region. Jewish and Arab citizens enjoy equal protection under the laws, including an equal right to vote in Israeli elections. There is Arab representation in both the Knesset and the Israeli Supreme Court. There is disproportionate Arab representation in the Israeli health care system, which is central to Israeli life. Arab matriculation in Israeli higher education has been rising at an astonishing pace—an unmistakable sign of racial progress.”
Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod has more on Democrats distancing themselves from Jayapal’s remarks, including a draft statement led by seven Jewish House Democrats calling the congresswoman’s original comments “unacceptable.” The statement is still circulating for additional signatures. Read the full story here.
Christians United for Israel launched its 18th annual policy conference on Sunday, and will be hosting three of the leading Republican presidential candidates.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be speaking about his record on Israel and countering antisemitism in the afternoon, while former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will be headlining the evening program, along with CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee.
A senior CUFI source said Pence, Haley and DeSantis were the only three presidential candidates invited. Former President Donald Trump, currently leading in Republican primary polls, was not invited to speak at this year’s conference.
“We’ve invited the former president in the past but he was not invited to speak at this year’s summit. There are 13 candidates running. The three we invited are coming,” said the CUFI source.
The pro-Israel group’s members will be lobbying lawmakers on three key pieces of legislation: continued foreign aid to Israel, an anti-BDS measure that would prohibit the federal government from entering into contracts with entities that engage in anti-Israel boycotts, and a bill increasing sanctions for those engaging in illicit purchases of Iranian petroleum.
“Policies change and politics change, our mission has stayed the same regardless of who’s in the White House and who’s in the Knesset,” Sandra Hagee Parker, chairwoman of the CUFI Action Fund, told Jewish Insider.
On the campaign trail, one of the biggest takeaways from candidates’ recently filed fundraising reports: who isn’t raising big money from donors in the 2024 presidential and congressional races.
A few notable examples:
Pence raised only $1.2 million in his first quarter of fundraising, a pittance for a former vice president with preexisting fundraising networks. He hasn’t yet received donations from 40,000 donors, the threshold necessary to qualify for the August debate.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who still hasn’t announced whether she’s running for reelection, raised $1.6 million — a total that included $689,000 from individual donors. That total lags significantly behind the $3.1 million raised by Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), the expected Democratic nominee.
Rep. David Trone (D-MD), running for the Senate in Maryland, lent his campaign a lofty $9.7 million since April, but only raised $108,000 from donors. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, his leading rival, raised $1.7 million since entering the race.
On Capitol Hill last Friday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) demanded a classified briefing on Iran envoy Rob Malley’s security clearance, threatening to subpoena State Department officials if they do not voluntarily appear.
The request marks an escalation of McCaul’s and other lawmakers’ efforts to probe Malley’s status, after the Department of State brushed off a previous request from McCaul last week. “The Committee expects prompt and full compliance with its requests, and it will not tolerate obstruction of its oversight of this national security matter,” McCaul wrote in a letter. He demanded that the department make arrangements for a classified briefing by the end of the day on Monday, to be held by July 26.
On Friday, Malley’s profile was removed from the biography page for the Iran envoy’s office on the State Department website, and from the Twitter page for the special envoy.
silver state seat
Top GOP Senate recruit breaks with party leaders on foreign policy

During his first Senate campaign in Nevada last year, Sam Brown, a retired Army captain who said last week that he will challenge Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), was courting voters at a closed-door candidate luncheon hosted by the state’s largest GOP women’s club, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. It was weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Brown made reference to the conflict with a suggestion that he acknowledged ran against the bipartisan foreign policy consensus.
‘Need to cut’: “At a time where there’s so much domestic unease on so many issues, the media and our politicians want to turn our eyes to places like Ukraine or Afghanistan,” the Army veteran told members of Southern Hills Republican Women, according to an audio recording obtained by JI last week. “I think maybe where we spend on these foreign issues is a place we need to cut.”
Defining fault line: In written comments shared with JI, Brown, 39, would not confirm if he is now open to cutting aid to Ukraine, which has become a defining fault line in Republican foreign policy debates. As a small but growing contingent of right-wing populists seeks to wrest control from the GOP’s traditionally hawkish establishment wing, his candidacy will be a key test of whether his heterodox views have larger purchase in one of the biggest battleground states in the country. His candidacy against Rosen has been championed by national GOP leadership.