Plus, Fine’s election spending suspicions
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) walks to the Senate Chambers in the U.S. Capitol Building on July 28, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover the results of the Massachusetts Senate primary and highlight Rahm Emanuel’s call for Democrats to unequivocally condemn Hasan Piker’s antisemitic rhetoric. We also cover a House vote to adopt a Republican-led resolution condemning socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America, and report on allegations made by Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) that an unregistered spending campaign illegally interfered in his congressional race, to aid his neo-Nazi opponent. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alberto Barbera, Yair Saban and Niv Hoffman.
Curated by Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
We’re monitoring the escalation between the U.S. and Iran after the U.S. completed a wave of strikes against Iranian military targets on Tuesday evening, following Iranian attacks on U.S. forces in the region over the weekend as well as two strikes on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
U.S. forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air-defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites, according to a statement by CENTCOM.
Tehran retaliated by firing missiles and drones at U.S. targets in Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain.
Meanwhile, overnight, Hezbollah launched two explosive drones toward Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, the IDF said. Troops downed one of the drones and no IDF injuries were reported. In response to the attack, the military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the area of Nabatieh.
In the lead-up to the Israeli elections, the Yedioth Ahronoth Group and the Israel Democracy Institute are holding a conference today titled “Decision Time: Democracy and Society,” moderated by TV host Sharon Kidon. Among the speakers are: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot, Together Chair Naftali Bennett, Democrats Chair Yair Golan, Yisrael Beiteinu Chair Avigdor Liberman and Ra’am Chair Mansour Abbas.
The J50 Forum, a body of Jewish organizations from around the world established by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, concludes its meeting in Jerusalem today. Attendees include J50 chair William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Betsy Berns Korn, chair of the Conference of Presidents; Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America; Evan Bernstein, CEO of B’nai B’rith International; Daniel Mariaschin, honorary CEO of B’nai B’rith; and Marina Rosenberg, senior vice president of international affairs at the ADL.
One Thing To Know
ANALYSIS
Ideological progressivism and incumbency proved to be more potent advantages than an argument for generational change in the Massachusetts Senate primary, where Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) easily dispatched a challenge from more-moderate Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who nonetheless swung leftward during the primary campaign.
Markey, a lifelong politician first elected to Congress in 1976, locked down support from the state’s leading progressives, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) — and won backing from the stars of the socialist wing of the party, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
That progressive show of support was more than enough to inoculate Markey over questions Moulton raised about the 80-year-old senator’s age — the challenger’s most frequent line of attack that ended up falling flat. Markey won a sweeping victory, tallying nearly two-thirds (65%) of the Democratic vote and winning the vast majority of towns and cities in the state.
The Big Reads
SOCIALISM SHOWDOWN
The House voted 220-192 on Tuesday to adopt a Republican-led resolution condemning socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. The vote fell largely along party lines after GOP leaders attached language to the resolution backing President Donald Trump’s priority voting rights legislation, the SAVE America Act, which would mandate proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. But eight moderate Democrats still broke ranks to vote with Republicans in favor: Reps. Don Davis (D-NC), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Kathy Castor (D-FL), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), Jared Golden (D-ME), Darren Soto (D-FL), Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX). In addition, Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) voted present.
FINE PRINT
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) alleged this week, without providing evidence, that an unregistered spending campaign to the tune of millions of dollars illegally interfered in his congressional race to aid his neo-Nazi opponent, influencer Dan Bilzerian. Fine added that the money backing that campaign may have come from foreign sources. Fine, speaking to Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition summit this weekend, said that the group, Florida First Action Network, spent millions on television and mail advertising attacking him without registering with the Federal Election Commission, as required by law.
LOUD AND CLEAR
Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and chief of staff to President Barack Obama who is now mulling a presidential bid in 2028, said he would go on Hasan Piker’s Twitch show to give the antisemitic streamer “a lesson in what he is perpetuating and the advocacy and the rhetoric of what he’s doing,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. “I can give him a two-by-four upside his head because of what he said,” Emanuel said in a CNN interview on Monday, referring to recent comments in which Piker had claimed that Jews who support Israel are inviting violence against themselves.
The Rundown
TEHRAN TALK
HOUTHI HARASSMENT
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The New York Times reports that before Vice President JD Vance accepted the Republican Jewish Coalition‘s invitation to speak, intermediaries for the vice president reached out to prominent Jewish donors to gauge what kind of reception he would receive…
Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and a former GOP presidential candidate, called on Vance to “choose a side” between the “Tucker Carlson wing of the country” or the pro-Israel wing, after Vance failed to condemn the far-right commentator in his remarks at the RJC summit on Monday…
Conservative broadcaster Mark Levin similarly posted on X, “Re RJC and all the discussion. Let me help. If you truly oppose antisemitism say, ‘I reject and condemn antisemitism in all its forms and in every way.’ That wasn’t too tough. And this, ‘I will not tolerate those who say antisemitic things and promote Jew-hatred, and that includes Tucker Carlson and his ilk.’ Very easy”…
FBI Director Kash Patel hosted Shin Bet head David Zini in Washington on Tuesday, where they discussed counterterrorism efforts including breaking terrorist financing networks, intelligence sharing and counter-drone technologies, according to Patel…
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that the FBI seized $560,000 in cryptocurrency donations intended for Hamas as well as fundraising and recruitment communication infrastructure belonging to the terror group…
Russia has been helping Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles, according to a Financial Times investigation of leaked Russian communications. The highly sophisticated weapons technology, which can travel at several times the speed of sound, could assist Tehran in targeting U.S. aircraft carriers and other assets in the region…
A U.S. strike against Iran on Tuesday reportedly hit a wedding party, killing five and wounding dozens. CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said, “We’re aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media. The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC”…
The U.S. naval blockade on Iran has prevented Tehran from shipping meaningful crude exports through the Strait of Hormuz for about seven weeks — the longest stretch on record — draining one of its main sources of foreign income in a way that sanctions failed to do, Reuters reports…
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said at a press conference on Tuesday that Israel and Syria are engaged in negotiations mediated by the U.S. and that Damascus is “still committed” to reaching a diplomatic agreement, despite what he described as dozens of ongoing IDF incursions into Syrian territory…
California’s state Legislature passed a bill on Monday adding Jewish as an ethnicity option on state forms that collect demographic data. The bill, which now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature or veto, has raised some historical concerns around government records of Jews, while its proponents say the state’s privacy protections should prevent improper use of the data…
Israeli cybersecurity company AIR, which is building a firewall for AI agents, emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $50 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks; the company was founded six months ago by Yair Saban and Niv Hoffman…
Israeli cybersecurity startup Huskeys, which is developing an AI layer for web application firewalls to secure autonomous AI agents online, raised $27 million in a round led by Blackstone, bringing its total funding to $35 million…
Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on Tuesday that he is launching a defense tech company and that Palantir CEO Alex Karp will be its first lead investor…
A painting by Wassily Kandinsky, “The Colorful Life,” which was returned to the heirs of its Jewish owners in 2023 after Germany’s Nazi-looted art panel recommended restitution, will be put up for auction at Christie’s in London on Oct. 14, where it’s expected to fetch more than $30 million…
In an interview with Variety, Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera said there are no Israeli films featured at the festival this year because there was only one Israeli submission. Asked if the festival is boycotting Israel, Barbera responded, “No, not at all. Never. It is absolutely important to say that we have no prejudice against anyone anywhere in the world. If there had been a Russian film, an Israeli film of good quality, we would undoubtedly have invited it”…
Sarah Rose Cohen, formerly chief of staff to the chief rabbi of the UAE, announced her new role as senior foreign policy advisor to Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL)…
Michael Brooks, veteran Hillel professional who led University of Michigan Hillel for many years as its executive director, died on Monday at 80…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Dressing Down the Met: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens weighs in on the Met’s canceled John Galliano retrospective, arguing the museum drew the wrong line by celebrating the designer rather than merely displaying his designs. “The error of the Galliano retrospective was not the desire to display his outstanding body of work for the public. A dress, assuming it doesn’t have a swastika stitched to it, doesn’t convey a prejudice, and curious visitors, including Jewish ones, could learn a lot from an excellent exhibition. The outrage was the highly personalized form of the honor being bestowed on Galliano himself, above all through the Met Gala, which violated the principle of separation by celebrating the execrable creator along with his extraordinary creations.” [NYTimes]
Where’s the Outrage?: In RealClearWorld, Ludovic Hood, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former U.S. diplomat who served in the Middle East for 20 years, calls out what he describes as selective outrage and a double standard applied to bloodshed in the region. “Why didn’t students at Columbia and UCLA or Democratic Party and DSA politicians or many media outlets care about millions of dead and displaced Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Sudanese and Yemenis in the years leading up to October 2023? Why don’t students and activists take to the streets or wage political campaigns about the hundreds of thousands of people massacred in Sudan’s ongoing civil war? Or the thousands of dead Iranian youth gunned down by their own government little more than six months ago? … One can only deduce that it is Israel’s involvement in certain conflicts that triggers the outrage, the censure, and the hateful rhetoric — when all other conflicts in the same region, regardless of America’s participation or role, draw shrugs.” [RealClearWorld]
Picture of the Day
Shin Bet chief David Zini (second from right) visited the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Tuesday, during a trip to the U.S. for meetings with officials. X/Rabbi Chanina Sperlin
Birthdays
Jon Feltheimer, CEO of Lionsgate film and television studio, turns 75
Robin L Marshall/Getty Images
Diane Troderman, trustee of a foundation she helped found with her husband, Harold Grinspoon, turns 85
Robert Shapiro, attorney who was part of the “Dream Team” that successfully defended O.J. Simpson in 1995, he co-founded LegalZoom, Shoedazzle and RightCounsel, turns 84
Yossi Vardi, one of Israel’s earliest high-tech entrepreneurs, turns 84
Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer, rabbi of Baltimore’s Shearith Israel Congregation since 1987 and president of the Baltimore Vaad HaRabonim, turns 82
Tobi Kelmer, Lincolnwood, Ill., resident
Richard Mandelbaum, tech entrepreneur and principal at Xynetics Group, turns 80
Yaakov Litzman, member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party from 1999 to 2022, turns 78
Steven Kocen, SVP at Southern Bank & Trust, he is an honorary director of Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk, Va.
Harvey Levin, television producer, attorney, legal analyst and celebrity reporter, he is the founder of celebrity news website TMZ, turns 76
Lee Wunsch, retired president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston (1999-2017), turns 74
Nick Hanauer, author, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, turns 67
Daniel Klaidman, investigative producer for CBS News
James Rosen, chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax, turns 58
Guy Rolnik, founder of Israeli media organization TheMarker and a deputy publisher of the Haaretz daily newspaper, he is also a clinical professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, turns 58
Eric Lefkofsky, serial entrepreneur, co-founder and chairman of Groupon, he is also the founder and CEO of Tempus AI, turns 57
Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer at PBS’ “Frontline,” turns 56
Eliyahu David “Eli” Groner, board member at the David Group and former director-general of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, turns 56
Ohad Moskowitz, contemporary Jewish religious music vocalist, known by the mononym “Ohad,” turns 52
Jess Fassler, chief of staff for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Richard Rubin, D.C.-based U.S. tax policy reporter for The Wall Street Journal
Jonathan Kite, actor, comedian and impressionist, turns 47
Joseph Weisenthal, executive editor of news for Bloomberg, the co-anchor of “What’d You Miss” on Bloomberg Television and co-host of the “Odd Lots” podcast on Bloomberg Podcasts, turns 46
Ethan Zorfas, partner at Axiom Strategies, turns 41
Margot Edelman, lead of the global tech practice at Edelman
Seth Zweifler, chief of staff at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Rob Kaminsky, professional baseball pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization, turns 32
In Israel, the deal is being met with dismay across the board
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while aboard Air Force One on June 5, 2026 en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
A year and a day after Israeli fighter jets first opened fire above Iran, setting off a year of intermittent fighting and numerous failed negotiations, President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that an agreement with Iran to end the war had been reached. A signing ceremony set for later this week in Switzerland — which is expected to be attended by Vice President JD Vance — will kick off a 60-negotiation period to address Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
For Americans, the deal closes a chapter that saw high gas and food prices as well as schisms in the GOP as the party’s wings fought over how the war should be fought and ended. Among Democrats, legislators and activists from the party’s progressive wing — from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to the National Iranian American Council’s Trita Parsi (who additionally gloated, “Netanyahu failed!”) — praised the deal.
But Israel was not part of the negotiations, nor did it have final say in what was in the agreement inked between Washington and Tehran. As the Is were dotted and Ts were crossed on the agreement, tensions between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — already on display following Israel’s threatened escalation last week in Beirut, followed by an actual escalation on Sunday when Israel struck Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood — deepened. In a call on Sunday after Israel conducted the strike — later claiming to have killed a senior Hezbollah commander — Trump told Axios he had conveyed to Netanyahu that he “was so pissed off.” Netanyahu, Trump said, “has no f***ing judgement. I let him know that.”
In Israel, the deal is being met with dismay across the board, as neither of the war goals laid out by Netanyahu last June — removing Iran’s “existential threats” to Israel and ending Tehran’s support for its terror proxies across the region — have been met, even after a year of fighting.
With elections in the country fast approaching, Netanyahu, who has long billed himself as “Mr. Security,” is already finding himself on the receiving end of criticism from across the political spectrum. Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman blasted the deal as “catastrophe from Israel’s perspective,” while prominent right-wing Israeli journalist Amit Segal posted an ominous quote from former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
The question now is what, exactly, is in the agreement. Iran’s state-linked Mehr agency reported that under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. will release $12 billion in frozen assets to Iran before talks begin.
Fox News reported that the $12 billion figure, as well as other reports of the deal’s stipulations, are incorrect, and that officials within the Trump administration are growing frustrated over rumors about the contours of the agreement.
Calls for the deal’s text to be made public have come from even Trump’s staunchest supporters. Commentator Mark Levin said he has “asked for days, why can’t we, the people, see the damn MOU?” Levin added that he had “never seen anything like this. If it is a great outcome for peace, then release it.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on X on Sunday that he was “somewhat concerned” that Iran’s account of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal diverges sharply from what the U.S. negotiators are claiming, and demanded Vice President JD Vance personally present the deal to Congress.
The vice president, who two months ago traveled to Pakistan for high-level negotiations with Iranian officials, has increasingly become the public face of the Iran talks. In an interview last week that aired yesterday on “CBS Sunday Morning,” Vance said he believed “that we are in a position to get a deal that is good for the United States economically and that really does deal with the Iranian nuclear program” in the long term.
For Vance, the success or failure of the deal, and of the negotiations to follow, could become one of the defining political issues of his rumored 2028 presidential bid — one in which he will likely find himself up against Secretary of State Marco Rubio in what could be a bruising primary.
With the deal’s signing later this week, the military phase of the war — begun just over a year ago — will conclude. But what comes next is the political phase, which will determine Iran’s nuclear future, Israeli security policy and the direction of U.S. foreign policy in the region for decades to come.
Plus, Hezbollah drone dread
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a "Rental Ripoff" hearing at Fordham University in the Bronx borough of New York on March 11, 2026, in New York City.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover last night’s debate between Rep. Dan Goldman and Brad Lander, as the two sparred over Israel, and report on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s backing of a congressional candidate with a history of posting extremist sentiments online, including promoting a post questioning Israel’s existence. We explore the challenges posed to Israel’s security by Hezbollah’s new drones, and look at how Rep. Ro Khanna’s leftward shift on Israel has divided Jewish residents of his Silicon Valley district. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Janet Mills, Marc Rowan and Barry Diller.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- It’s primary day in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. We’ll be closely following the results as polls close this evening, with an eye toward the results of the Los Angeles mayoral and controller elections, as well as the NJ-12 Democratic primary, where Adam Hamawy, who is under scrutiny for his past ties to Islamist extremists, is the front-runner in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).
- The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum concludes today. Speakers at the closing plenary include the Justice Department’s Harmeet Dhillon, Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), and Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to testify this morning before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the State Department’s budget. This afternoon, Rubio will appear before the House Appropriations Committee for a separate hearing on the department’s budget. Following Rubio, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will appear before the House committee for a hearing on the Justice Department’s upcoming budget.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is set to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee this afternoon on his department’s budget for the upcoming year.
- The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding a closed-door intel briefing today.
- Roman Gofman begins his tenure today as head of the Mossad, after Israel’s High Court rejected two petitions challenging his appointment. He was sworn in earlier today at a command-change ceremony at the Mossad headquarters that was attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
- The Israel Democracy Institute’s Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society kicked off earlier today in Jerusalem. Speakers include former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, as well as MKs Avigdor Liberman, Benny Gantz and Mansour Abbas. Read more here.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL
As the 2028 presidential campaign season nears, a handful of prospective candidates from the Democratic Party’s left flank are raising their profiles with efforts to shape a more critical approach to U.S. policy toward Israel.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), as well as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), all of whom are seen as potential presidential prospects, have been among the party’s most prominent critics of Israel on Capitol Hill amid a marked decline in Democratic support for the Jewish state.
Recent moves suggest they are each testing voter appetite for a possible White House campaign. Even as they are not considered top-tier contenders in what is likely to be a crowded primary field, history has shown they could be positioning themselves for a Cabinet role — particularly if they prove successful in driving the national conversation on the debate stage and other forums.
Murphy, for instance, released a book last month, Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America, of the sort that typically presages a bid for higher office. The senator has otherwise continued to promote what he terms a “forward-looking foreign policy,” which has included an increasingly antagonistic assessment of Israel and its relationship with the United States.
Van Hollen, meanwhile, published a deeply disputed op-ed in The New York Times last week that argued for wholly jettisoning the Democratic Party’s “unconditional support to Israeli governments” that, he warned, has “increasingly undermined American interests and values.”
candidate concerns
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s favored candidate to topple Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) has a history of extremist sentiments — with commentary assailing Israel, interracial relationships, “white liberals” and the U.S. flag and military, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Problematic posts: Inflammatory posts by Darializa Avila Chevalier, which have received coverage in the New York Post, Politico and AM New York, include: lambasting Black and Arab men for “fetishizing ugly colonizer women,” boasting of wiping her hand on the American flag, attacking former President Joe Biden as a “rapist,” declaring “f*** [Vice President] Kamala Harris,” demanding “No more police at all ever,” asserting Mayor Bill de Blasio “hates Black people” and is “a piece of shit” and calling American military veterans “child murderers” guilty of “war crimes.” She also shared a post stating that “Israel doesn’t exist.”
Bonus: American Priorities PAC plans to spend $2 million to boost three left-wing candidates backed by Mamdani. In addition to Avila Chevalier, the super PAC plans to run ads backing congressional candidates Brad Lander and Claire Valdez.
DEBATE WATCH
Israel was on the menu — in more ways than one — in former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s televised clash with Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) Monday night as Lander seeks to oust the incumbent congressman in this month’s Democratic primary. The Jewish state was the centerpiece over which the two congressional contenders clashed for much of the hour-long debate on Spectrum News NY1, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Fiery feud: Lander criticized Goldman’s support for former President Joe Biden’s policy toward the conflict in Gaza, touted his own pledge to deny further military aid to Israel and voiced sympathy for the successful push to ban Israeli products from the Park Slope Food Coop, though the self-described progressive Zionist maintained he still opposed the effort. So intensely did the two chew over the issue that Goldman at one point burst out, “Israel is not the most important issue in this district!” But when asked for the best place in the Brooklyn-Manhattan district to break bread, Lander returned to the Holy Land once more: or rather, to its cuisine. “I love Masalawala on Fifth Avenue, I love Miriam — I’ll go with those two,” the candidate answered.
HARD RO TO HOE
Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) emergence as a leading Democratic Party critic of Israel — while affiliating with and embracing individuals and groups that have been accused of antisemitism and support for terrorism — is creating divisions within the local Jewish community in his Silicon Valley-area district, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: While Khanna maintains unified support from Jewish elected officials in the district, other Jewish community leaders say they feel abandoned, ignored and even attacked by their congressman, who they once saw as an ally, as he faces what could be his most credible primary challenge in years.
On the air: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro defended Israel’s standing as a Jewish state, telling CNN in an interview aired on Monday that the country faces a level of scrutiny and attack over its religious character not applied to the dozens of Muslim states throughout the region, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
GROWING THREAT
One of Israel’s most urgent emerging security threats is not a sophisticated missile or advanced weapons system, but a small, cheap drone that can be bought online and easily assembled. Hezbollah’s use of first-person view drones (FPVs) — a battlefield tactic widely utilized in the Russia-Ukraine war and now adopted by the Iran-backed terror group — has caused Israeli casualties, threatens civilians and exposed vulnerabilities in Israel’s air-defense systems, including the Iron Dome. The drones are small and inexpensive, but difficult to detect, experts tell Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea.
Rethinking strategy: The growing threat has caught the IDF off guard and is forcing Israeli officials to rethink how they protect soldiers, border communities and critical defense infrastructure during the fragile partial ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. “These are very simple, unsophisticated drones,” Yaakov Katz, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, told JI. “Imagine a person can watch with goggles almost and be the eyes of the drone, see what the drone sees and literally fly it to wherever it wants its target to be.”
Beirut breakthrough: President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Israel would not carry out strikes against Hezbollah in Beirut in exchange for the terror group halting its persistent attacks on northern Israel and IDF soldiers, cutting off imminent Israeli plans to expand its operations against Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports.
IN OPPOSITION
Michael Makovsky, the president and CEO of the hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security of America, criticized the Trump administration’s recent handling of the U.S. war in Iran, expressing concern about the possibility of a broader peace deal that does not address key issues. “The U.S. has lost the plot on Iran,” Makovsky told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs on Friday.
A different tack: “After significant military achievements, declaring the ceasefire was a huge mistake, and there was too much hype about what pressure a blockade alone would achieve,” Makovsky said. “The net result has reduced U.S. leverage, and the perception that America is vulnerable if gasoline nears $5 per gallon.” Makovsky said that the U.S. “should not pursue a deal” with Iran, arguing that such an agreement “wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on.” He said that a deal “will only enrich and strengthen the regime and demoralize the Iranian people.”
ON THE HILL
A relatively routine provision that aims to facilitate expanded U.S. cooperation with Israel in the House’s draft of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act has fueled outrage from the far left and far right, with some prominent figures making inaccurate claims that the provision would subjugate the U.S. military to Israel or otherwise compromise U.S. sovereignty, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The situation: Critics are objecting to a provision in the bill, the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” which aims to expand and accelerate joint U.S.-Israel technological development and industrial cooperation; allow the U.S. to quickly adopt proven Israeli technologies; and promote joint training exercises, information sharing and co-production in areas including defense manufacturing, anti-tunneling, air- and missile-defense and various advanced technologies. Many such programs are already in place, and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, called the provision “quite unremarkable.”
Aid to trade: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on X that the next U.S. memorandum of understanding with Israel will end U.S. aid to Israel in favor of prioritizing trade.
Worthy Reads
Tech-tonic Shift: In The Atlantic, Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin explore how Iran’s crackdowns on tech startups dealt a death blow to the industry as it was on the rise. “The story of Iran’s start-ups could have been a triumphant one for Iran’s private sector, and for a young generation seeking opportunity and connection with the outside world. Instead, this is a story of thievery. … Iran’s tech entrepreneurs had built their businesses on a paradox. They were inspired by the Silicon Valley mythos of fierce competition, user-first design, and disruption. But Silicon Valley had arisen in a time and place where access to infrastructure, especially the internet, was relatively free and open. Iran’s economy was built on closed networks.” [TheAtlantic]
Not Easy Being Green: The Financial Times’ Anna Gross and Rachel Rees do a deep dive into the political evolution of U.K. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who has come under fire amid numerous reports that he exaggerated or misrepresented elements of his background. “Within months of being overlooked [as a Liberal Democrat candidate], Polanski had joined the Green Party. He now describes himself as an ‘eco-populist,’ and has become the most popular figure on the left, fighting to reduce inequality, lower living costs and oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza. But Polanski has faced allegations that he misled the public about his career, his legal address and whether he voted in local elections.” [FT]
Survivor’s Story: In eJewishPhilanthropy, British-born Nova music festival survivor Maayan Dee describes her experience marching in Sunday’s Israel Day on Fifth parade in Manhattan. “Trauma isolates. It makes you feel that no one can understand, that the world keeps spinning while you’re frozen in the same field, on the same ground, that same Saturday morning. And after Oct. 7, alongside the personal pain, came something else: the feeling that the world doesn’t see us, that our story is being erased. But then something like this happens. You plant your feet on a street in Manhattan and you see a sea of blue and white. Jews and non-Jews who had no obligation to be there, and yet they were.” [eJP]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump reportedly went on an expletive-laden tirade against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Monday over the Israeli leader’s plans, since scrapped, to escalate military activities in Lebanon; a U.S. official speaking to Axios summed up Trump’s comments to Netanyahu as, “You’re f**king crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this”…
Israeli journalist Amit Segal said earlier today that the Axios report was “inaccurate,” noting that “Trump did not make personal remarks about jail or claim Netanyahu is hated globally” but indicated that “defending Israel’s global position is difficult and breeds hatred”…
A federal prosecutor told a judge in New York that the government may charge additional people in a wide-ranging terror probe following the arrest of the head of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the White House’s efforts to pressure Oman, which has largely stayed neutral in the conflict with Iran, to side with the U.S. and cut its relations with Tehran…
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) blamed low turnout for his loss to Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s GOP Senate primary last week, and said that Trump’s endorsement of Paxton “wasn’t as [impactful] as he thought.” Cornyn said he “absolutely” believes that Paxton’s nomination endangers the seat, and that he stands by his comments during the campaign…
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks celebrated his group’s role in ousting Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his primary election earlier this month at the organization’s “America 250”-themed gala Sunday night, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
The New York Times does a deep dive into the congressional race pitting far-left activist Claire Valdez against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was endorsed by outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), as the race splits members of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s coalition…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills said in an interview with a local news outlet that she remains on the ballot in the state’s Democratic Senate primary, amid a new report that Graham Platner, who had been leading Mills in primary polling prior to her suspension of her campaign, had inappropriately communicated with at least half a dozen women while married to his wife…
Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan met on Monday in Qatar with Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al-Thani, the Gulf state’s minister of commerce…
Barry Diller’s People Inc. is preparing an $18 billion bid to take over MGM Resorts…
In a speech addressing antisemitism in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the country’s “civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians; the Canadian premier also announced the establishment of a new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion…
The Associated Press spotlights efforts by residents of Bedzin, Poland, and historians in the country to preserve World War II-era artifacts, including a building in what was the city’s Jewish ghetto that had secret bunkers and acted as a hub for Jewish resistance fighters…
El Al will resume its flights between Israel and San Francisco, more than six years after the route was paused amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; the airline will run three weekly nonstop flights — under the flight number LY49, in tribute to the San Francisco 49ers — between Ben Gurion Airport and SFO…
Israel’s Defense Ministry said that France has barred official Israeli participation in the upcoming Eurosatory defense exhibition in Paris taking place later this month…
Thousands of Haredi demonstrators protesting Israel’s proposed draft laws crippled transportation in parts of the country on Monday, blocking highways and train tracks between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem…
The Associated Press reports on rising levels of child marriage in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel-Hamas war…
A Russian cargo ship arrived in Syria last month to resupply Moscow’s air base in the country, the first time it has done so since the fall of the Assad regime, signaling Russian officials’ intention to maintain the installation under the government of Ahmad al-Sharaa…
Pic of the Day
A memorial ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Monday marking the one-year anniversary of the murders of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky was filled with many tears, some anger and even a few laughs, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
Milgrim’s father, Robert, told an assembled crowd of dignitaries, Jewish leaders and D.C. staffers that he was saddened not only by the death of his daughter but by the ways in which her death exemplifies the challenges facing every Jewish community.
Birthdays
Aerospace engineer and a former NASA astronaut, he flew on three shuttle missions and took a memento from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum into space, Mark L. Polansky (right) turns 70…
Former member of the British Parliament from Manchester and then a member of European Parliament, David Anthony Gerald Sumberg turns 85… Co-founder of ReelAbilities, a film festival by, or about, people with disabilities, Anita Altman turns 81… Israeli entrepreneur and inventor, founder of Indigo Digital Press and known as the father of commercial digital printing, Benny Landa turns 80… Johns Hopkins University professor and a pioneer in the field of cancer genomics, Dr. Bert Vogelstein turns 77… Writer-at-large for New York magazine since 2011, following a 31-year career at The New York Times, Frank Rich turns 77… SVP of institutional advancement at Brandeis University, Jordan E. Tannenbaum… Commissioner of the National Hockey League since 1993, Gary Bettman turns 74… Holiday and weekend cantor at Los Angeles Jewish Health (formerly Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging), Ben Zion Kogen… Former board chair of Sapir Academic College in the western Negev, he was one of Israel’s senior peace negotiators at the Camp David summit in 2000, Gilead Sher turns 73… Founder of Newark, N.J.-based IDT Corp and numerous affiliates and spinoffs, Howard S. Jonas turns 70… Dinorah Cecilia Baroody… General manager of The Piedmont Club, a Spartanburg, S.C., private social club, Davina Weinstein… Radio and television talk show host, Andrew Joseph “Andy” Cohen turns 58… President of Marvel Studios and chief creative officer for Marvel Comics, Marvel Television and Marvel Animation, Kevin Feige turns 53… Special counsel focused on land use and zoning at NYC-based law firm Goldstein Hall, Jessica Ashenberg Loeser… SVP of EnTrust Global, Jordan David Kaplan… Director of technology at Santa Monica, Calif.-based Action Network, a tech platform for progressive causes, Jason S. Rosenbaum… Woman Grandmaster chess player, she won the 2004 Israel Women’s Chess Championship, Bella Igla Gesser turns 41… Equestrian show jumper, she represented Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Danielle “Dani” Goldstein Waldman turns 41… Co-founder and former CEO of The Wing, now the owner of The Six Bells (“a new old country store”) in Brooklyn, Audrey H. Gelman turns 39… Founder and CEO at Button AI, a company for AI paralegals that settle estates, Jared R. Fleitman… CEO and co-founder at Platform Cannabis Advisors, Benjamin G. Sheridan… Theater, television and film actor best known for his lead role in “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical,” Ethan Samuel Slater turns 34… Israeli K-pop singer, whose first two songs when she was 17 both topped Israeli airplay charts, Ella-Lee Lahav turns 23…
Plus, Ted Cruz’s warning about antisemitism in both parties
Meg Kinnard/AP
Former U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel speaks to voters as he participates in the South Carolina Democratic Party's "On the Road" series on Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Abbeville, S.C.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel about his leftward shift on Israel as he mulls a 2028 presidential bid, and talk to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz about Hamas’ refusal to disarm. We report on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s visit to the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn, and interview Sen. Ted Cruz about his concerns over the spread of antisemitism across the political spectrum. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Alex Karp and Sharon Sharabi.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to brief reporters from the White House at 3 p.m. ET today, amid rising tensions with Tehran following yesterday’s launch from Iran of several missiles and drones at the United Arab Emirates. More below.
- Vice President JD Vance is in Iowa, where he’s campaigning with Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) as the Des Moines-area Republican attempts to hold his seat in the midterms.
- The Manhattan Jewish Historical Initiative is holding its 2026 Hall of Fame induction ceremony today in Bryant Park. Those being inducted this year include Ari Ackerman, Michael Fuchs, Michael Hershman, Melissa Manchester, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, David Milch, Richard Price, Josef and Devora Wilhelm, Tanya Zuckerbrot and Ariel Zwang.
- In Washington, Hostages and Missing Families Forum U.S. co-founders Matan Sivek and Bar Ben Yaakov are being honored tonight with the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation’s humanitarian award. The foundation will also honor Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Khulaifi with its “2026 American Hostage Freedom Award.”
- The Milken Institute Global Conference continues today in Los Angeles. Speakers today include Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former First Lady Jill Biden, former Biden administration senior official Amos Hochstein, World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Citadel’s Ken Griffin, KIND Snacks’ Daniel Lubetzky, Palantir’s Josh Harris, Altérra’s Majid Al Suwaidi, ADGM’s Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the Center for American Progress’ Neera Tanden.
- One of the day’s first sessions is a panel hosted by the Milken Family Foundation’s Richard Sandler focused on antisemitism. Speakers on the panel include American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, the University of Pennsylvania’s Steven Weitzman, Pepperdine Dean Pete Peterson, Sinai Temple Senior Rabbi Nicole Guzik and journalist and philanthropist Jacki Karsh.
- Later in the morning, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will sit with The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker for a conversation about the future of U.S. politics.
- In the afternoon, Emirati and Qatari officials will sit for separate conversations about economic growth among Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
- A panel later in the afternoon will focus on higher education, with the leaders of the University of Southern California, Dartmouth, Arizona State University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
- Indiana and Ohio voters are headed to the polls to vote in primary elections. In Indiana, the state Senate primaries will offer an early test of President Donald Trump’s clout within the party, as he has worked to defeat seven GOP state lawmakers who successfully opposed his redistricting push. In Ohio, Republicans will nominate a challenger to Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), one of the most stalwart pro-Israel Democrats in the House who is running for reelection in a Trump district.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
The tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran came close to collapsing overnight after the Islamic Republic fired 15 missiles and four drones at the United Arab Emirates. The question now is whether hostilities will resume in the coming days — just before next week’s major summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, slated to take place in Beijing.
Monday’s Iranian missile fire came amid ramped-up rhetoric from both Tehran and Washington over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and as the U.S. launched “Project Freedom” to assist vessels attempting to transit through the waterway. One of the drones fired yesterday by Iran hit the UAE’s Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, sparking a fire that injured three Indian workers.
CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper touted the initial success of the Project Freedom naval effort, which on its first day protected two U.S.-flagged ships traveling through the strait. It’s unclear the degree to which the endeavor will help with the resumption of normal activities in the waterway, which normally sees some 120 vessels passing through each day.
Later Monday, two U.S. naval ships came under heavy fire from Iran as they navigated through the passage. Iran claimed to have hit a warship, which CENTCOM denied. Trump told Fox News’ Trey Yingst that Iran would be “wipe[d] off the face of the earth” if it targeted ships being escorted through the strait. The Wall Street Journal reported that the president “for days has toggled between two competing impulses: severely punishing Iran for failing to abandon its nuclear work, and avoiding a significant escalation that could draw the U.S. deeper into a Middle East conflict.”
The bigger question is what will happen next week, when Trump is slated to meet with China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing — a summit already delayed once due to the war. Over the weekend, Beijing told Chinese firms to ignore U.S. sanctions on five Iran-linked oil refiners in the country.
Beijing has attempted to play both sides of the conflict, encouraging Iran to pursue diplomacy while also providing the Islamic Republic with commercial support for use in the event of a resumption of hostilities. Should the summit take place, all eyes will be on Xi to see if he attempts to play Trump, as well.
RAHM UNBOUND
Last November, Rahm Emanuel, a former ambassador, mayor, White House chief of staff and current prospective presidential candidate, warned the Jewish Federations of North America about Israel’s declining global reputation, marking a turning point in his approach to the issue. In an interview with Jewish Insider‘s Matthew Kassel last week, he outlined his views amid changing winds in a Democratic Party increasingly hostile to the pro-Israel stance long central to his identity.
On military aid to Israel: “What I said couldn’t have been clearer,” he told JI last Thursday, referring to his recent comments on “Real Time With Bill Maher” calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel that raised eyebrows in the Jewish community. “There will no longer be U.S. taxpayer subsidies for the purchase of U.S. military equipment. Israel will be like every other ally. They can buy what they want, and they have to live within the restrictions. You can decide to slice it, dice it, but that’s what it is,” he said.
Read the full interview and story here.
Elsewhere: Politico‘s Jonathan Martin sat down at Manny’s Deli in Chicago with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to discuss the Jewish Democrat’s potential 2028 presidential bid. Pritzker touched on his faith, noting that he and his family have faced increased threats in recent years, and raised concerns about the rise in antisemitism more generally. Pritzker noted that he was “unapologetically in favor of having a peaceful sanctuary Jews can live in, in Israel,” and doubled down on his call for a two-state solution.
FAMILIAR FACE
Several top Jewish Democrats are expressing concerns about the ideological direction of a newly revived foreign policy group now aiming to shape the party’s approach to Israel in the 2028 presidential election as well as a future Democratic administration. National Security Action is returning to the political arena with a new leader, Maher Bitar, who has served in high-level defense and intelligence roles on Capitol Hill and in the White House, the group confirmed on Sunday, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Israel approach: Bitar has faced scrutiny over his past record of anti-Israel activism. “We urge National Security Action to continue to be an honest convener about these important issues,” Brian Romick, the president of Democratic Majority for Israel, told JI. “There is a strong majority of Americans, including Democratic primary voters, who support the U.S.-Israel relationship because they understand that doing so is in the best interest of the United States.
GAZA RECONSTRUCTION
While the world’s attention has been fixed on Iran, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and a team of American bureaucrats have spent the last few months quietly working to turn President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace into a fully functioning entity. “The contributions keep coming in for both the international stabilization force and the new police force,” Waltz told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch during an interview on Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
Waltz’s vision: Waltz is bullish on the possibility that the morass of Gaza can be worked out peacefully, with enough buy-in from countries who are willing to finance the creation of a new governing and police structure in Gaza. “That training is standing up in both Egypt and Jordan. It’s going to take time, but all of those pieces are moving forward,” Waltz said. One lingering challenge is Hamas’ grip on power. Waltz swore that Hamas “will never again rule Gaza,” whether as a result of “diplomatic action or military action.”
Elsewhere at the Milken Conference: Top foundation leaders on a panel on philanthropy called for grantmakers to move toward a “builder” mindset amid seismic shifts in the economy and society, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
SOUNDING THE ALARM
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has for months been raising the alarm about the growing threat of antisemitism on the American right. During a visit to Los Angeles for the Milken Institute Global Conference, he called for elected officials — including in his own party — to take a clear stand on the issue, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Words of warning: “I don’t want to wake up in five years and find ourselves in a country where both major political parties are unequivocally anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic. And I think that is a very real threat,” Cruz told JI in an interview on Monday on the sidelines of the Milken conference. “Every elected official is going to have to decide where he or she stands, and what you believe,” said Cruz. “As Ronald Reagan said more than 50 years ago, this is a time for choosing, and each person can decide where he or she stands.”
Swastikas in Queens: Multiple Jewish homes, a synagogue and a Jewish center in Queens — which contains a preschool — were vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti overnight on Monday, leaving Jewish residents questioning their safety amid a spate of antisemitic incidents, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
CALL TO ARMS
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would support “big, strong and short” U.S. military action against Iran following Tehran’s latest strikes on the United Arab Emirates on Monday — the first such attack on the critical American ally since the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire took hold in early April, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
What he said: Graham, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and supporter of the war effort, said that Iran’s “attack against UAE’s vital infrastructure and continued attacks on international shipping … justifies a big, strong and short response to inflict further damage on Iran’s war machine” in a statement on X. “A forceful response on behalf of our ally, UAE, will reinforce that America is back as a reliable ally, helping to further wash away the damage caused by the Biden administration on this front,” Graham continued.
MAYORAL TOUR
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani toured the Jewish Children’s Museum in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn on Monday — accompanied by the police commissioner, the local city councilmember and the museum’s co-founder, but no press or local religious leaders, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Closed-door tour: The mayor’s stop was first reported by Chabad community news site COLlive, which shared a photo of him entering the building alongside NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and inside the lobby with Tisch and Councilmember Crystal Hudson. In another image was Devorah Halberstam, one of the museum’s founders, who COLlive reported provided a “closed-door tour.” Halberstam told JI she connected with the mayor following the car-ramming of the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters, which sits a few hundred feet from the museum and serves as the spiritual center of the neighborhood, and that a meeting had been in the works since before Passover.
Bonus: Mamdani appeared alongside Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) at an event on Monday in the Bronx to announce a federal investment of $2 million for an effort to expand high-speed internet access to low-income residents in parts of the city. Politico New York looks at the relationship between the two NYC politicos, who clashed during last year’s mayoral campaign.
Worthy Reads
What Rachel Represents: In the Jewish Review of Books, Dara Horn reviews Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s When We See You Again. “As we face an ongoing barrage of anti-Jewish attacks worldwide — the massacres of October 7 and the subsequent torture and murder of hostages, missile hailstorms, maniacs murdering Jews in synagogues and museums and on beaches and sidewalks, and nonstop calls from all sorts of influencers cheering for more of the same, or explaining why we deserve it — our responses have oscillated between confusion and outrage, with little room for sorrow. [Goldberg-Polin’s book] is a reminder that beneath all the armor each of us must now wear in public, we are actually wounded, grieving mothers and fathers and daughters and sons, and we are allowed to weep.” [JewishReviewofBooks]
Dems Should Fear Keir: In The New York Times, Samuel Earle suggests that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plummeting popularity among Labour party members serves as a warning to Democrats ahead of the midterms. “For Democrats, there are lessons in Mr. Starmer’s plight. To name a few: A leader without a base will soon find the floor falling out from beneath them; a campaign that relies on voter apathy will foment the political forces it purports to fight; and an offer of competence, pragmatism and decency is no longer enough. These dynamics have played out in Maine, where an unconventional, unpolished outsider with a radical message galvanized Democratic voters so much more than the state’s experienced and moderate governor that the governor dropped out of the race.” [NYTimes]
End of an Era: In The Independent, Ben Judah posits that the “golden age” of Jewish life in the Diaspora has ended. “Today, with the Jewish community feeling that many spaces, from social media platforms to pro-Palestine marches on the streets of London, or the arts, have normalised a kind of attitude to Israel they find antisemitic, demonised any connection to it and rolled their eyes at the attacks they are under, there is a profound Jewish alienation instead of the old enthusiasm. There will be less Jewish energy powering these cultural and political engines of the West going forward.” [TheIndependent]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump issued a proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month, calling on Jewish Americans to observe a “national Sabbath” May 15-16, in “special honor of 250 glorious years of American independence and on the weekend of Rededicate 250 — a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving”…
The Financial Times reports that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clashed with U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves over Reeves’ comments, made last month while she was in Washington for International Monetary Fund meetings, critical of the Iran war…
Palantir announced record-high first quarter earnings of $1.63 billion in sales amid the company’s entry into the AI space and efforts to make inroads in Washington; CEO Alex Karp said that the company’ “biggest problem currently is demand in the U.S.,” adding, “We just cannot meet demand”…
The Egyptian national accused of firebombing participants in a Boulder, Colo., march to raise awareness for the Israeli hostages last year, killing an elderly woman and injuring a dozen others, will plead guilty to a series of charges including murder; Mohamed Sabry Soliman pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges, which can carry the death penalty, but last year offered to plead guilty to the charge in exchange for life in prison…
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher spotlights the celebrations around the third annual National Challah Day, which fell on May 2…
During its second day of public testimony, Australia’s royal commission into the circumstances that led to the December terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach heard from Jewish parents who described ongoing, “normalized” antisemitism in Australian society; the commission also listened to testimony from a paramedic who faced antisemitism from both patients and other emergency responders, one of whom threatened to “skin you the way my family skinned yours in the camps”…
The U.K.’s Metropolitan police are investigating a suspected arson attack at a former synagogue in the Whitechapel district of London…
Former Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party announced that Sharon Sharabi, the brother of hostages Eli and Yossi Sharabi, the latter of whom was killed in captivity, was joining the party; the announcement came amid reports that the right-wing opposition party was considering a merger with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party…
Israel’s Defense Ministry said that the first of six new Boeing KC-46 refueling planes that Israel ordered from the U.S. completed its first flight test…
The New York Times looks at the rise in settler violence targeting Palestinians in the West Bank…
Kan reporter Suleiman Maswadeh is joining Israel’s Channel 13 as the network’s Washington correspondent…
Elliot Cohen is joining the Trump administration’s Board of Peace after being detailed to the Office of Special Envoy for Peace Missions through the Department of the Interior; he was previously at the Department of Government Efficiency and Blackstone…
Doris Fisher, who with her husband, Don, started The Gap in 1969, died at 94…
Pic of the Day
Birthdays
Head coach of the football team at the University of Washington, Jedd Ari Fisch turns 50…
Senior U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert W. Gettleman turns 83… Best-selling author of 20 novels featuring fictional Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper, written by the former head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Linda Fairstein turns 79… Retired chief judge on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, he was once president of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, Peter B. Krauser turns 79… Docent at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ruth Klein Schwalbe… Gayle Weiss Schochet… Member of the Knesset, almost continuously since 1988, leader of the Ashekazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism, Moshe Gafni turns 74… South African-born former president of American Jewish World Service, Robert Bank turns 67… David Shamir… Pulitzer Prize-winning author of three nonfiction books, historian and journalist, Tom Reiss turns 62… Senior managing director of Jewish Funders Network, he is a graduate of Yeshiva College and Yale Law School, Yossi Prager… Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer, known for “The Simpsons,” Josh Weinstein turns 60… Special education consultant, Nancy Simcha Cook Kimsey… EVP of BerlinRosen, Nicole Rosen… Executive director of public relations at UJA-Federation of New York, Emily Kutner… Executive director of Micah Philanthropies, Deena Fuchs… President of Charleston, S.C.-based InterTech Group, a global holding company, Jonathan M. Zucker turns 48… Television news correspondent, print journalist, stage and film actress, entrepreneur and pro-Israel activist, Lara Berman Krinsky turns 46… Former Israeli national soccer team captain, he also played for Chelsea, West Ham United and Liverpool in the English Premier League, Yossi Benayoun turns 46… Mayor of Bat Yam, Israel, Tzvika Brot turns 46… Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since 2013, Michael H. Schlossberg turns 43… Former professional golfer, now an orthopedic surgeon, David Bartos Merkow, MD turns 41… Partner at New Enterprise Associates and a member of the inaugural class of the Schwarzman Scholars program, Andrew Adams Schoen… Maxine S. Fuchs… Blake E. Goodman… Basketball player selected 27th overall by the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the 2025 NBA draft, Danny Wolf turns 22…
Former Defense Minister Liberman warns clan is affiliated with ISIS and can turn on Israel; Netanyahu did not bring decision to security cabinet
BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images
A Palestinian Hamas fighter carries a rifle as terrorists and people gather at the site of the handing over of Israeli hostages at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on February 22, 2025.
Israel is providing weapons to an armed militia opposing Hamas, a defense source confirmed on Thursday.
Following reports in recent weeks that Israel was working with a gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab based in Rafah in southern Gaza, Avigdor Liberman, the former defense minister and current opposition lawmaker, said on Kan radio that “Israel provided assault rifles and light arms to crime families in Gaza, on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s orders … These are the equivalent of ISIS in Gaza.”
Liberman said Israel’s security cabinet was not involved in or informed of the decision to give the Al Shabab clan guns, but the Shin Bet was aware of it.
“No one can ensure that these weapons will not be turned against Israel,” he added. “We have no way of supervising or following [where they go].”
Netanyahu’s office did not deny the allegation and responded that “Israel is acting to defeat Hamas in various ways upon the recommendation of the heads of the security establishment.”
Israel is providing the Al Shabab gang with Kalashnikov rifles, some of which were confiscated from Hamas during fighting in the past 20 months.
Liberman compared giving the Al Shabab militia guns to Netanyahu allowing Qatar to send aid to Gaza, based on an idea that keeping Palestinians divided is better for Israel.
“The prime minister of Oct. 7 hasn’t learned anything and is still continuing with the same idea that led us to the greatest massacre in the history of the state,” Liberman posted on X. “For years, Netanyahu nurtured Hamas and refused to listen to me when I said that he is severely damaging Israel’s national security.”
“Now he is making the exact same mistake and sending weapons to clans identified with ISIS in Gaza,” Liberman stated.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declined to comment. Ben-Gvir began his career in political activism opposing the Oslo Accords; one of the Israeli right’s leading slogans against the accords was “don’t give [the Palestinians] guns.”
Hamas posted videos online of its members targeting the militia in Rafah, a city which the IDF controls. Hamas called Abu Shabab “the Israeli Robin Hood” in a social media post on Thursday, and other members of his clan distanced themselves from him.
Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University, noted on X that Palestinian media have reported on Israeli cooperation with clan-based militias in recent weeks to secure humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Abu Shabab militia has a few hundred members who came together since the IDF entered Rafah in mid-2024.
Milshtein told JI that he does not know of any ties between ISIS and Yasser Abu Shabab, whose gang he called “psychopaths.”
Yasser Abu Shabab spent years in Hamas prisons, mostly for smuggling, theft and selling drugs, and was freed after Oct. 7, 2023, Milshtein said.
By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff
DRIVING THE DAY: For the first time in over a year, Israeli PM Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke together on the phone today: The call was initiated by Abbas who condemned both the kidnapping of three Israeli boys and the series of “Israeli violations” – a reference to Israeli military raids and arrests in the West Bank since the boys disappeared on Thursday. [Reuters] — Since Saturday, 150 people have been taken into custody as the search for the boys continues [JPost] — Kerry Points Finger at Hamas in Israelis’ kidnapping [JTA] — BuzzFeed: Who Was Behind The Kidnapping Of Three Israeli Teens, And Why Are They So Hard To Find? [BuzzFeed] — At 11:30am, PM Netanyahu will hold a meeting at the IDF central command in Jerusalem and give a statement to the press. (more…)
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