Rep. David Trone (D-MD) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are locked in a highly competitive Democratic primary to succeed retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). But while the two candidates haven’t clashed much over Israel on the campaign trail — with both expressing broad pro-Israel sentiment, mixed with occasional criticism of its war conduct — Alsobrooks has taken a tougher stance in the race’s final stretch, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Rafah rhetoric: Alsobrooks said late last week that she would vote against future arms sales to Israel if it invades Rafah, siding with President Joe Biden’s controversial position and marking a major policy shift right before Tuesday’s pivotal primary. Alsobrooks’ campaign did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the statement, which placed the Senate hopeful more in line with Biden and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) than Cardin, a pro-Israel stalwart. Van Hollen has emerged as a leading critic of Israel since it launched its war against Hamas in Gaza last year, while Cardin has held firm in his support for the Jewish state. 

Cease-fire questions: A spokesperson for Trone referred JI to the congressman’s remarks at an event organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville last Tuesday. While the topic of a Rafah invasion did not come up, Trone has opposed conditioning aid to Israel. At the JCRC event, he voiced his opposition to a cease-fire deal that doesn’t include the release of hostages.

Balancing act: Alsobrooks and Trone have balanced their overall support for Israel with calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, while offering critiques of Israel’s handling of its war against Hamas, two standard positions for Democrats competing in a primary this cycle to take. Still, they are also competing to represent Maryland, a state with one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country. While Alsobrooks has moved toward Van Hollen’s hard-line posture of opposing future weapons sales and a Rafah invasion, Trone has stuck to rhetorical criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the high civilian death toll in Gaza. 

Read the full story here.

In today’s West Virginia Republican primary, Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) is fending off a challenge from former West Virginia state Del. Derrick Evans, who was convicted for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has entertained antisemitic conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. 

RJC backing: Miller, the chair of the Main Street Caucus — a group that describes its members as “pragmatic conservatives” — is being backed in the primary by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which rarely involves itself in contested GOP primaries, highlighting the degree of concern over Evans’ candidacy. The group pointed to Evans’ exchange with Peters in its endorsement of Miller. In a statement, RJC chair Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks described Evans as a “convicted felon and fringe extremist.” 

Miller’s Israel record: The RJC praised Miller as a “reliable supporter of pro-Israel measures” who “understands that America must continue to lead in a dangerous world” and as a “fierce advocate for her West Virginia constituents and a strong ally to the Jewish community.” Local observers say that Miller is favored in the primary, but Evans could have a shot at an upset.

Read the full story here.

A week after President Joe Biden gave a speech about the Holocaust and modern-day antisemitism, senior members of his administration met on Monday with Jewish community leaders to discuss ways to further combat antisemitism on college campuses and elsewhere, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. Key White House stakeholders at the meeting included Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall and Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer. 

Antisemitism strategy: The meeting focused on implementing the Biden administration’s national strategy to counter antisemitism and working to strengthen it as challenges have evolved since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel. “I think everyone agrees that while a lot has been done, there is also so much more to do given the scope of the challenge,” said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, who was at the Monday meeting. “That requires continuing to build on and adapt the strategy to meet evolving needs, such as the post-10/7 reality on campus.” 

Underlying tensions: But while the meeting ostensibly focused on antisemitism, it took place against a backdrop of tensions between many prominent Jewish advocacy groups and the Biden administration, after Biden’s decision to condition offensive military aid to Israel based on Israel’s actions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Attendees did not shy away from raising the issue, and Finer’s presence in the meeting suggested the White House knew the topic would come up.

War of words: Nathan Diament, executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, urged the Biden administration to be “much more careful” in its language around Israel, because recent statements made by the administration “provide fuel to the fire of the antisemites,” according to another person who was in the room. Finer said that was “an important point,” the attendee said.

Sullivan briefing: At the same time, in the White House Briefing Room, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan addressed key issues concerning the Biden administration’s approach to the current state of the Israel-Hamas war. On the subject of the arms sale pause, Sullivan stressed that the U.S. has “sent a massive amount of military assistance to Israel to defend itself against all threats, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran and its other proxies. We are continuing to send military assistance, and we will ensure that Israel receives the full amount provided in the supplemental. We have paused a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, because we do not believe they should be dropped in densely populated cities.”

Read the full story here.

Fred Guttenberg, who became a nationally known gun control activist in the wake of his daughter’s death in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, warned in a recent interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod that he’s concerned rising antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment in activist circles could, if not addressed, overtake the Democratic Party.

Minority stand: “I believe this party as a whole does not stand for hate, does not stand for antisemitism. But there is a minority of this party that does,” Guttenberg said. “And what worries me is we can look back on the Republican Party from years ago, when there was a minority of the party who stood for autocracy, and now it’s the platform of the party. They stood for hate against a lot of people, it’s now the platform of that party.”

Pivotal moment: “I don’t want that to happen to the Democrats,” he continued, “and right now is the moment in time where we can ensure that it doesn’t.” Guttenberg has been outspoken since Oct. 7 about his support for Israel and his concerns about rising antisemitism in left-wing spaces since the Hamas terror attack.

Outside agitators: Reflecting on conversations with Republicans who oppose former President Donald Trump, Guttenberg said he thinks that Democrats need to have serious, private conversations, and that he’s hopeful that the Democratic Party can find the way forward. But he warned that “these outside agitators are going to do everything they can to disrupt, and we need to know who those outside agitators are, so that we can work together for the good of America.”

Read the full interview here.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) stood by his anti-Israel record amid sustained attacks from Westchester County Executive George Latimer at their first primary debate of the campaign cycle on Monday, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Tensions were high even before the debate began, with Latimer accusing the Bowman campaign of sending supporters “to attempt to agitate” the Westchester County executive on his way inside the event space. Latimer’s campaign said in a statement that two individuals posing as supporters tried to physically prevent him from entering the area until his staff intervened. The incident didn’t come up during the debate, though tempers flared plenty during the showdown.

Trading barbs: Bowman accused Latimer of using the “Southern strategy in the North” of portraying him as “the angry Black man” after the two sparred about each other’s records. Latimer had knocked Bowman’s votes against bipartisan deals and described him as a performative politician who “has done a lot of letter writing and a lot of talking.” Bowman also claimed Latimer had not taken any real action on guns, crime or the migrant crisis in New York in his decades of public service.

AIPAC in focus: The incumbent lawmaker also made AIPAC a top target of the evening, accusing the group of being a right-wing operation that wants to “destroy our democracy.” Latimer pushed back on the claim, pointing to AIPAC’s support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Grace Meng (D-NY), Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY).

Read the full story here.

There was a constant flow of traffic on Route 89, the central road running through the Druze village of Hurfeish in northern Israel, and all the tables inside Sambousak HaErez, one of the most popular local eateries, were full of diners on a sunny weekday lunch hour last week. Hurfeish’s northernmost point is less than a mile from Israel’s border with Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed Islamist Shiite group Hezbollah has been firing mortars, rockets and killer drones into Israel almost daily since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, yet in this village, unlike other communities nearby, there were few signs of the shadow of this war. It was a day like any other, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Ruth Marks Eglash report.

Sharp contrast: Children disembarked from a school bus outside Sambousak HaErez, lugging backpacks as they headed home. A muscle-bound father in a shirt with the name of his IDF unit sat with his two young children at one table, four men in their 20s and 30s smoked at another table outside; and two middle-aged men held a meeting with a laptop between them. Iyad (who did not want to give his last name) pushed pitas into a traditional Druze taboon oven and then scooped labneh yogurt spread, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with za’atar spice mix, into bowls. The lively scene in Hurfeish sharply contrasted with every other kibbutz and moshav in the area, all of which were evacuated in the chaotic days following Oct. 7 and remain empty seven months later. Members of Israel’s Druze community decided to remain in their homes.

Defending the land: “Our religion says we have to defend our land,” Osama, 31, one of the men smoking outside, said. “Parents with children in the army can’t sleep, can’t eat. My parents and grandparents watch the news all day; there’s bad energy in the home. We see [missiles] over our heads, but none have fallen in the village,” he added, showing a photo on his phone of his cousin’s factory abutting Hurfeish, destroyed by an anti-tank missile launched from Lebanon.

Read the full story here.