RUNNING FOR CABINET?

Anti-Israel Democrats eye 2028 in hopes of reshaping debate

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), as well as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), 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

Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) speaks during a rally around the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on September 19, 2025.

By

Matthew Kassel

June 2, 2026

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.” He also proposed several steps that the next Democratic president should take with respect to Israel — such as recognizing a Palestinian state “subject to clear benchmarks” and ending U.S. “taxpayer-funded support to Israel,” which has also recently been championed by more moderate voices such as former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

In a noteworthy aside at the end of his essay, Van Hollen, who, like Murphy, sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated that voters “won’t trust any Democratic presidential candidate who does not have a record of moral and strategic clarity on these issues” — a possible advertisement for his own 2028 ambitions.

The senator also insisted that voters will not be open to a presidential “candidate who plans to re-enlist the senior Democratic decision makers who whitewashed the truth during the Biden administration and refuse to acknowledge their complicity.”

Left unmentioned was that Van Hollen’s dictates could reasonably be seen as planting the seeds for a possible post in a future administration, including secretary of state or another top foreign policy role.

Khanna, long seen as harboring presidential ambitions, has for his part moved swiftly to the far left on Israel policy in recent years, while giving his endorsement to a range of Israel critics running for House and Senate this cycle that have helped him to build a progressive imprint throughout the country.

None of the three lawmakers, however media-savvy, possesses the name recognition or national profile of other prominent Democrats who are more frequently cited as presidential prospects, such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on the left.

But if they do choose to mount what would likely be long-shot presidential bids, each has the potential to become a more significant player in national politics, as previous presidential contests have demonstrated.

During the 2020 primary, for instance, Andrew Yang rose to prominence as a Democratic outsider thanks in part to his calls for unconventional policies such as universal basic income. And Pete Buttigieg channeled his short-lived primary surge from small-town mayor in Indiana to leading the Transportation Department under former President Joe Biden.

With intraparty conflict over Israel poised to inflect the 2028 presidential race, it would not be surprising if Khanna, Murphy or Van Hollen seized the national spotlight while championing Middle East policy positions that had once been considered off-limits for a viable campaign.

Kenneth Baer, a former Obama administration official who now leads a communications firm, voiced concerns about the possibility, albeit hypothetical, of a lawmaker like Van Hollen helming the State Department, say, in a future administration.

“The only thing more menacing to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship than Van Hollen as SFRC chair is him as secretary of state,” Baer, a constituent of the senator, told Jewish Insider. “It’s a sad commentary about the state of our party that more than a few presidential hopefuls would seriously consider him for that role.”

Daily Kickoff

U.S. senator roots against U.S. Navy

Plus, inside J Street's turn against Iron Dome

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks during a news conference following the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon meeting at the U.S. Capitol Building on September 19, 2023, in Washington, DC.

By

JI Staff

April 21, 2026

Good Tuesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on United Democracy Project’s $790,000 ad buy targeting GOP Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, and report on Sen. Chris Murphy‘s praise for dozens of Iranian ships that bypassed the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. We interview Rachel Goldberg-Polin about the release of her new book, out today, and report on Jack Schlossberg’s plans to skip upcoming Jewish candidate forums in the Manhattan congressional district where he is mounting a bid. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sue Altman, Idan Ofer and Jessica Chastain.

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

Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, will conclude later today as the country moves directly into Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. A prerecorded official torchlighting ceremony meant to mark the transition between the holidays will air this evening at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem.
Argentine President Javier Milei will be among those to participate in the torchlighting ceremony in Jerusalem, which traditionally honors supporters of Israel and designees from across Israeli society who are honored for their contributions to the country.
EU foreign ministers are meeting today in Luxembourg, where Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares is leading an effort for the bloc to suspend its cooperation agreement with Israel.
Talks between the U.S. and Iran, which were slated to begin today, remain unclear as both sides send mixed signals over the status of the negotiations. Iran has reportedly informed regional mediators that it plans to send a delegation today even as it publicly distances itself from the talks, while unnamed U.S. officials said Vice President JD Vance will travel to Islamabad today ahead of the expiration of the two-week ceasefire.
The Senate is set to vote for a fifth time on a war powers resolution limiting U.S. actions in Iran.
This afternoon, the Helsinki Commission is holding a hearing on Capitol Hill on Iranian support for Russia.
Also this afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is convening senior State Department officials for a hearing on U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa.
The House Ethics Committee is holding a sanctions hearing for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), as the Florida Democrat faces allegations that she illegally misdirected FEMA funds.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S josh kraushaar

Amid the downbeat assessment of Israel’s political standing in the U.S., two new polls that came out last week suggest that the Jewish state still can rely on a sizable, if largely Republican, base of support.

The biggest takeaway from these two new polls — one commissioned by NBC News and one conducted by the respected GOP firm Echelon Insights — is that Israel has become a partisan issue, with Democrats turning decidedly against the Jewish state while Republicans have become strongly supportive.

All told, the polls show the public evenly divided over Israel, with the splits largely along party, ideological and generational lines. The results indicate President Donald Trump’s embrace of the Jewish state has caused Democrats to take an instinctively more negative view — in a continuation of how politics has generally operated in the Trump era.

Echelon Insights, which surveyed 1,022 respondents from March 12-16, found 44% of respondents held a favorable view of Israel, while 38% held an unfavorable view. While Israel’s plus-6 net favorability score is nothing to write home about, the results are noticeably better than a recent Pew Research Center poll that drew outsized attention for finding Israel’s net favorability rating at a dismal minus-23 (37/60%).

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

SCOOP

AIPAC’s super PAC takes aim at Thomas Massie with major ad buy

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) speaks to reporters as he arrives for a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on February 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-linked super PAC, is taking aim again at Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) with a significant buy for a television ad targeting the anti-Israel congressman, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

About the ad: The buy totals $790,000 for a week of broadcast and cable ads in the Cincinnati, Louisville and Charleston media markets. The ad, which features a graphic of Massie’s face on a flipping coin, accuses Massie of changing his policy positions from when he was first elected, saying he “started out as a conservative Republican but now votes with liberal Democrats” on issues including border security and Israel.

Read the full story here.

Exclusive: The Republican Jewish Coalition announced Tuesday that it is endorsing four Republican Senate candidates for open seats: Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme in Montana and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley in North Carolina, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

on whose side?

Sen. Chris Murphy applauds Iranian ships against U.S. Navy

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America)

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Monday appeared to cheer on the reported evasion by more than two dozen Iranian ships of the U.S. maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.

Comment card: The Connecticut Democrat, one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate, responded on X with a one-word comment — “awesome” — to an unconfirmed report that at least 26 vessels belonging to the shadow fleet, which is overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had bypassed the blockade.

Read the full story here.

IRON DOME DECISIONS

J Street accelerates leftward shift as progressives move to end Iron Dome funding

Rockets fired from Gaza are neutralized in the air by Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ air defense system on the fourth day of the clashes in the city of Ashkelon, Israel on October 10, 2023. (Saeed Qaq/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In recent years, as the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street joined left-wing calls to place restrictions on U.S. military aid to Israel, support for funding Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system remained a sacred cow for the group. That consensus has shattered in recent weeks. Instead of steering the conversation among Democrats, where J Street maintains a solid base of support, the organization found itself playing catch-up to the progressive lawmakers it supports after several of them announced in early April that they think the U.S. should no longer fund Iron Dome batteries, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Change in position: J Street released a statement on April 13 calling for the U.S. to cease funding Iron Dome batteries, arguing that Israel — a wealthy nation with a substantial defense budget — should pay for its own missile-defense systems. In conversation with JI on Monday, J Street’s chief policy officer, Ilan Goldenberg, acknowledged that progressives’ rapid shift on the issue factored into J Street’s announcement, even as the group insists it was moving in that direction anyway. “It stirred up the conversation a little more, but that memo was already written,” Goldenberg said.

Read the full story here.

ABSENCES AND ANSWERS

Jack Schlossberg to skip Jewish candidate forums as questions remain around his stance on Israel

Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John. F Kennedy who is currently running for Congress, on Jan. 12, 2026 in New York City. (Edna Leshowitz/Getty Images)

As Jack Schlossberg gains a foothold in his primary campaign for a coveted open House seat in the heart of Manhattan, his views on Israel policy are drawing closer scrutiny, as he begins to stake out a stance on the increasingly heated subject of Democratic debate. His decision to skip at least two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums occurring next month, meanwhile, is also raising some eyebrows in the district, which has a large Jewish constituency, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Not attending: On Middle East policy, the 33-year-old Kennedy scion has embraced positions that place him to the left in the crowded field on Israel issues. Some Jewish leaders say that they are interested in hearing more from Schlossberg as he emerges as a leading candidate in the race. He attended Shabbat services in March at the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side, a day after the terrorist attack against Temple Israel in suburban Detroit.

Read the full story here.

PHILLY FIGHT

Progressive heavyweights line up behind Israel critic Chris Rabb in crowded Pa. congressional primary

Pennsylvania State Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Philadelphia, speaks during a 50501 protest outside of the Pennsylvania Capitol. (Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Anti-Israel Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb has collected a series of high-profile congressional endorsements in recent days as he seeks the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District against state Sen. Sharif Street and Ala Stanford, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Rabb has made his criticism of Israel and pro-Israel groups a central part of his House campaign, including accusing Israel of committing genocide.

Backing Rabb: Rabb has been endorsed in recent days by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Jared Huffman (D-CA), as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Far-left streamer Hasan Piker has also praised Rabb on his show.

Read the full story here.

LOVE AND PAIN

In new book, Rachel Goldberg-Polin recounts the before and after (and ever after) of her son’s life and death

Book cover/Rachel Goldberg-Polin (Amazon/AHIKAM SERI/AFP via Getty Images)

In the months after the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at the hands of his Hamas captors, his parents became the faces of a unique kind of grief — one that they experienced in the public eye. Rachel Goldberg-Polin recounts some of those moments in her new book, When We See You Again, which comes out today, a chronicle of her life before, during and after her son’s captivity and murder, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.

Writing as therapy: “I don’t think of this book at all as a memoir or a tell-all,” Goldberg-Polin told JI. “It’s like little Tupperware of pieces of a life that was, and then figuring out a life that is, and how do you do this? How do we do this, breathing in a world where we no longer have air?” She had started writing because she found it therapeutic. “I couldn’t bear the intensity of the suffering that I was carrying; [it] was making my knees buckle and my soul buckle,” Goldberg-Polin explained.

Read the full story here.

Worthy Reads

MBS Scales Back: The New York Times’ Vivian Nereim observes Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pivot away from his grandiose Vision 2030 endeavor to more modest projects and advancement amid financial challenges. “Over the past 10 years, the government has managed to reduce its reliance on oil revenue, finding new sources of funding by introducing taxes and fees. But the prince’s plans and ambitions have grown more rapidly than the state’s financial capacity. … But in recent years, the prince has refashioned himself as a mediator and diplomat, while pulling back on some of the most ostentatious elements of his plans.” [NYTimes]

The New Gulf Doctrine: In Semafor, former senior Qatari defense official Nawaf Al-Thani posits that the recent war with Iran has changed the decades-old doctrines that have guided regional relations for the last half-century. “It won’t happen overnight, because states don’t abandon half a century of accumulated practice in weeks, but change will come because the old formula was too generous and cautious. What follows this war will be narrower, harder, and more demanding. There may still be trust, but it will require verification of a far more definitive kind.” [Semafor]

The Missiles That Bind: In the Jewish New Syndicate, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, argue that “a shared civilian battlefield” is the “new reality” tying Israel to Gulf states in the wake of the war with Iran. “The experience no longer divides along national lines. The same missile that sent a family in Tel Aviv to a shelter sent a family in Abu Dhabi to do the same. The geography differs. The fear does not. The ceasefire quiets the sirens for now, but it does not erase what people across the region now understand.” [JNS]

Word on the Street

The Board of Peace’s Nickolay Mladenov suggested that negotiators working to get Hamas to agree to disarm have “maximum a couple of weeks” to reach a deal with the terror group, which has already blown past its deadline to accept the board’s disarmament proposal…

The Iranian ship seized by the U.S. Navy in the Gulf of Oman was believed to be carrying dual-use items from China that had potential military uses…

Pakistan has reportedly paused plans to move forward on a $1.5 billion deal to supply weapons to Sudan after Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Islamabad, with which it signed a defense pact last year, said it would not finance the sale…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the “hidden war within a war” that took place between Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Gulf states during the broader war with Iran…

CBS News goes to Tehran to meet with members of the country’s 12,000-strong Jewish community to discuss the recent U.S. and Israeli war with Iran…

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Congress “should not support the [Lebanese Armed Forces] unless it acts to disarm Hezbollah completely — and immediately”…

Sue Altman, a progressive organizer and former top staffer for Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who is running for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, slammed her anti-Israel primary opponent Adam Hamawy for “cheerleading and wishing for the deaths of Israeli children” with his comments opposing Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

NBC News looks at former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel’s leftward shift on Israel as he mulls a potential White House bid in 2028…

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Alan Dershowitz, a registered Democrat who has long been a vocal critic of his party, announced he was reregistering as a Republican, arguing that the Democratic Party’s “hostility to Israel represents a deeper and more dangerous shift away from the center and toward a radical approach that is bad for America and the free world”…

Mohamed Abdou, a former Columbia University professor terminated for praising Hamas and advocating for jihad following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, is scheduled to speak on Tuesday at an event organized by New York University students, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Real Deal profiles Israeli businessman Idan Ofer as the founder of Quantum Pacific Group looks to break into the New York real estate market by acquiring offices to convert into residential properties…

The Washington Post does a deep dive into the finances of Nick Fuentes, who had made close to $1 million, largely through donations from superfans who pay for extra access to the far-right antisemitic conspiracy theorist…

Apple TV is expected to release the long-delayed thriller series “The Savant,” which stars Jessica Chastain as a researcher who uses the dark web to track down extremists and domestic terror groups; the series, which was delayed following the assassination of Charlie Kirk last September, is largely based on the work of an Anti-Defamation League employee…

Residents of Scarsdale, N.Y., are calling on the president of the school board to resign after his daughter, a student at Scarsdale High School, praised the recent vandalism of posters promoting a student-led Israeli culture club that were ripped down and discarded in a urinal…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted to having unintentionally misled legislators about the security clearance of Peter Mandelson, who was appointed to be London’s envoy to the U.S. despite having failed vetting over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein; Starmer said that the government itself had been misled by lower-level Foreign Office staffers who greenlit Mandelson…

An Australian man who mimicked the terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach weeks after the deadly shooting and made antisemitic comments was sentenced to a year in jail; the man’s attorney said, “What he did say was antisemitic but he didn’t go out of his way to be an antisemite”…

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar said that Budapest would comply with the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, should the Israeli leader enter Hungary; Netanyahu had earlier this month accepted an invitation to travel to the country later this year to take part in a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising…

The Financial Times profiles Marion Maréchal, the niece of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, as she works to build a broad right-wing alliance modeled on similar efforts by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that would propel Le Pen’s National Rally party to electoral victory next year…

Swiss football club FC Basel, which was set to host Kanye West during his planned European tour this summer, canceled his upcoming show, following similar moves in the U.K., France and Poland, over West’s history of making antisemitic comments…

Israeli computer scientist Michael Rabin, who in 1976 was a co-recipient of the Turing Award, died at 94…

Pic of the Day

Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid a wreath on Tuesday morning at the Memorial Day ceremony for Israel’s fallen soldiers at the Hall of Remembrance on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Birthdays

Once the top-ranked collegiate female tennis player in the U.S. and currently the head women’s tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma, Audra Marie Cohen turns 40…

Comedian, screenwriter, film director and actress, she returned to Broadway in 2018 after a 60-year hiatus, Elaine May turns 94… Art collector and museum trustee in Chicago, he is a retired attorney, Don Kaul turns 91… President and executive director of the Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, Howard Rosenbloom turns 87… British chemist and emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, Sir Alan Roy Fersht turns 83… Award-winning folklorist, author, poet and editor of dozens of books, Howard Schwartz turns 81… Former lieutenant governor of Connecticut, Nancy S. Wyman turns 80… Southern California-based interior designer, Marilyn Weiss… Emergency physician in Panorama City, Calif., Joseph Edward Beezy… Founding director of Microsoft’s long-running research program on quantum physics at UCSB, an early winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship (1984), Michael Hartley Freedman turns 75… Rabbi, psychologist, writer and editor, Susan Schnur turns 75… Professor emeritus at George Mason University Law School (now known as Antonin Scalia Law School), he lectures frequently at Federalist Society chapters across the country, Michael Ian Krauss turns 75… Australian barrister who is a minister for local government following 31 years as mayor of Botany Bay, Ron Hoenig turns 73… Rabbi at Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village, Calif., Michael Barclay turns 63… Ukrainian-born industrialist, now also an Israeli citizen, he co-founded the Genesis Prize and the Genesis Philanthropy Group, Mikhail Fridman turns 62… Chicago-based lobbyist and attorney, Scott D. Yonover… Art collector and dealer, who together with his father and brother are reputed to own $1 billion of art including over 1,000 pieces by Andy Warhol, Alberto “Tico” Mugrabi turns 56… International breaking news reporter at The New York Times, Ephrat Livni… Founder of I Was Supposed to Have a Baby (IWSTHAB), an online community geared toward Jewish women experiencing infertility, Aimee Friedman Baron… Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and best-selling author, Jodi Kantor turns 51… CEO of Unistream, Ifat Bechor… Head of customer success at SnapStream, Eric Weisbrod… Retired actress and voice actress, her career included the voice of Regina “Reggie” Rocket on Nickelodeon’s “Rocket Power,” Shayna Bracha Fox turns 42… Investor relations officer at Gryphon Investors, he is a past president of the Berkeley Hillel, Robert J. Kaufman… Salesforce marketing and cloud consultant at Jackson Family Wines, Joshua Gibbs… Outfielder for MLB’s Texas Rangers, he is a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All-Star, he played for Team Israel in the 2013 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Joc Pederson turns 34… Writer, magazine editor and actress, she was the founder and editor-in-chief of the since closed online Rookie Magazine, aimed primarily at teenage girls, Tavi Gevinson turns 30…

toxic tweet

Sen. Chris Murphy applauds Iranian ships against U.S. Navy

A spokesperson for Murphy said the senator's social media post was 'sarcasm'

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

By

Melissa Weiss

April 21, 2026

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Monday appeared to cheer on the reported evasion by more than two dozen Iranian ships of the U.S. maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Connecticut Democrat, one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate, responded on X with a one-word comment — “awesome” — to an unconfirmed report that at least 26 vessels belonging to the shadow fleet, which is overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had bypassed the blockade.

awesome https://t.co/nRj1trI3rF
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 20, 2026

A spokesperson for Murphy clarified to Jewish Insider, “The tweet was sarcasm. Chris obviously thinks it’s terrible that Donald Trump continues to mishandle every aspect of a war he started but clearly has no strategy to end.”

Over the weekend, Murphy appeared at the Alex Soros-backed Global Progressive Summit in Barcelona, where he claimed that the U.S. was “in the middle of” a “totalitarian takeover.”

This post was updated at 9:25 a.m. ET on 4/21/2026 to add comment from Murphy’s office.

UNITING THE GLOBAL LEFT

Chorus of anti-Israel voices gathers at Alex Soros summit in Spain

Attendees included Sen. Chris Murphy, Israeli lawmaker Ahmed Tibi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Lula de Silva

Elisa Schu/picture alliance via Getty Images

Alex Soros speaks during the presentation of the European Civil Rights Prize for Sinti and Roma on Oct, 23 2025.

By

Lahav Harkov

April 19, 2026

A range of Israel critics, from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) to Israeli lawmaker Ahmed Tibi, were among those gathered in Barcelona, Spain, over the weekend for the inaugural Global Progressive Summit, backed by left-wing philanthropist Alex Soros.

The conference brought together representatives from over 40 countries, offering, according to its website, “a necessary alternative to conservative and far-right forces.” Among its goals, the site says, is “to make progressive solutions visible and credible, proving they are the key to humanity’s prosperity.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of Israel who called on Saturday to downgrade EU-Israel relations, hosted the two-day conference, whose American attendees also included Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, with Soros.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent video messages.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose government petitioned the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders, Brazilian President Lula de Silva and U.K. Justice Secretary David Lammy were also in attendance.

Tibi is one of the Knesset’s veteran Arab lawmakers and a former advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Other prominent attendees included former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh; Neera Tanden, CEO of the Center for American Progress; and Owen Jones, a writer and former advisor to former U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was stripped of his leadership position and ultimately booted from the party over his antisemitic views.

Bringing some ideological diversity to the attendee lineup were Clinton, who has been broadly supportive of Israel in recent years; Tanden, a longtime Clinton confidante; and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a supporter of Israel and chairman of the Albanian Socialist Party. (Clinton’s longtime aide Huma Abedin is married to Alex Soros.)

Murphy said in his remarks that Trump “is out to end our democracy. We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover, we are in the middle of it.”

Lula called on U.N. Security Council members to “fulfill their obligation and guarantee peace,” and “stop this madness of war, because the world cannot bear anymore wars.”

Sánchez spoke about “attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” an apparent reference to the recent war in Iran.

”They know their vision of how the world should be ordered is falling apart due to the tariffs and wars,” he added.

Soros, one of the progressive movement’s most influential donors and son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, has also been outspoken against the war in Iran, praising Spain for refusing to allow the U.S. to use bases on its soil and reprimanding other European countries for not doing the same.

Trump has criticized Sánchez for Spain’s recalcitrance regarding the Iran war, including on Saturday, writing on Truth Social: “Has anyone looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to Sánchez’s call to downgrade relations between the EU and Israel, writing on X that Jerusalem “will not accept a hypocritical lecture from someone who has relationships with totalitarian regimes that violate human rights, such as [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s Turkey and [Nicolas] Maduro’s Venezuela, a government that receives thanks from Iran’s brutal regime and terrorist organizations and has dedicated itself to spreading antisemitism.”

MURPHY'S MOMENT

At J Street, Chris Murphy argues Jewish history demands resistance to Trump

Murphy: ‘Not a single one of us is safe from a future that mirrors the thousands of years of persecution that the Jewish people, with no self-determination, suffered under’

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

By

Gabby Deutch

March 2, 2026

Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has routinely adopted the argument that Trump poses a unique threat to American democracy. In an address on Monday at the J Street conference in Washington, Murphy leaned on Jewish history to tailor his case to fight Trump specifically to American Jews.

Murphy, who is considered a possible 2028 presidential candidate, invoked three pivotal moments in Jewish history that he said should inspire American Jews to speak out against what he described as Trump’s efforts to undercut democratic norms and procedures: the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman empire that led to the displacement of the Jewish diaspora; the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 that saw Jews flee Spain rather than face conversion or death; and pogroms under imperial Russia in which Jews had no recourse against state-sanctioned violence.

If American Jewry doesn’t stand up to Trump, Murphy said, they risk facing a similar fate in the United States.

“We are here today because we believe that this tragic history requires our world to make a home for the Jewish people in the Holy Land. That place is Israel. That place will always be Israel,” said Murphy, who has taken a harsher stance toward Israel in recent years. “When we criticize the government of Israel, when we speak up against its policies in places like Gaza or the West Bank, it is because we love Israel. It is out of our love for Israel and our belief that its current leaders are jeopardizing the future survival of that state.”

Yet he argued that the existence of a Jewish state should not preclude American Jews from fighting for the future of their own country.

“The answer to thousands of years of the Jewish people’s faith being decided by emperors and queens and czars is not and cannot simply be the State of Israel. No, the rest of the answer is simple. It’s democracy,” said Murphy. “In a working democracy, Jewish citizens are not subjects. They are not petitioners. They’re not guests to be expelled at the whim of a monarch. They are, you are, we are citizens.”

In the speech, Murphy criticized the U.S. attacks on Iran, saying Trump “launched an illegal war that the American people do not want” and that it amounts to “his most grievous assault on democracy.” But Murphy mostly used the stage to raise the alarm about democracy generally, saying America is “in the middle” of “a totalitarian takeover” and rallying J Street’s attendees to work to save it.

“You are here at maybe the most pivotal moment of all of our lifetimes when it comes to the preservation of self-determination, essential to the American project, essential to the future of the Jewish people all over the country,” said Murphy.

He closed by using a story about former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir as a call to action. Murphy described her attendance at the 1938 Evian Conference on the shores of Lake Geneva, where 32 nations — led by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — discussed the plight of Jews in Europe. Meir attended as a Zionist representative of British Mandatory Palestine.

“She was assigned the status of observer, forced to watch in silence as one by one the representatives of 32 nations rose to express their deepest sympathy for the Jewish people in Europe, and then one by one explained why their countries could not take them in,” said Murphy. “Years later, reflecting on what her experience at that pivotal conference had taught her, she put it simply. The Jews should not be dependent on anyone giving them permission to stay alive.”

But where Meir used that sentiment to justify her support for Zionism, Murphy argued that it should also apply to American Jews living in the diaspora.

“Today, Jews in America and a multitude of other groups that are still facing discrimination and bias are not observers like Golda Meir was in the late 1930s. In our democracy, however imperfect, we have self-determination,” said Murphy.

“What a gift to be alive,” Murphy offered in closing, “when our mission is to save a country and to remember that without self-governance and self-determination, not a single one of us is safe from a future that mirrors the thousands of years of persecution that the Jewish people, with no self-determination, suffered under.”

Daily Kickoff

Tom BarrAnkara

Plus, Graham's Munich message to Riyadh: 'Knock it off'

(Photo by Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (R) receives US Ambassador to Turkiye and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack (L) in Ankara, Turkiye on November 14, 2025.

By

JI Staff

February 17, 2026

👋 Good Tuesday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover the weekend’s Munich Security Conference, including Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s mainstage criticisms of Israel. We talk to lawmakers concerned about U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack as the diplomat expands his Middle East portfolio, and report on Illinois congressional candidate Daniel Biss’ defense of his decision, as mayor of Evanston, not to give police support to Northwestern as it sought to break up its anti-Israel encampment. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Lindsey Graham, LeBron James and Dasha Zhukova.

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

The second round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks are taking place today in Geneva, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi, whose country hosted the first round of talks earlier this month, again mediating between the American team, led by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and the Iran team, led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Witkoff and Kushner are also participating in Russia-Ukraine talks later today in Geneva.
The latest round of talks comes a day after Araghchi met in Geneva with International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, and as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps begins military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz.
Representatives from members of the Trump administration’s Board of Peace are arriving in Washington this week ahead of a meeting of member states slated for Thursday. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will be representing Israel at the gathering. Over the weekend, Indonesia announced it would contribute thousands of troops to the international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is holding its annual mission to Israel.
Israel’s Olympic bobsled team, led by AJ Edelman, continues trials today, after coming in last place at Monday’s first round.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

Taking the stage at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, two prominent progressive lawmakers rumored to be eyeing presidential runs in 2028, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), used the opportunity to bash Israel.

Criticism of Israel isn’t new for either lawmaker, but taking place on one of the most prominent foreign policy stages in the world, their remarks are a sign of the anti-Israel current that continues to course through the Democratic Party, particularly on its left flank.

Ocasio-Cortez, calling for the U.S. to condition aid to Israel, repeated accusations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

“The United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to laws that require suspension of aid to military units engaged in war crimes. “And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza. And I think that we have thousands of women and children dead … that was completely avoidable.”

Adding insult to injury for some observers, Ocasio-Cortez leveled the accusations in Munich, the site of Adolf Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch, which ultimately catalyzed his rise to power.

Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance at the conference was a foreign policy test for the congresswoman — one she ended up struggling to pass. Despite studying under the tutelage of Matt Duss, a former foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), she faced accusations that she remains unprepared to tackle global issues, accentuated by her stumbling response when asked whether the U.S. should come to the defense of Taiwan if it was attacked by China. (The New York Times headline: “Ocasio-Cortez Offers a Working Class Vision in Munich, with Some Stumbles”)

At the end of the weekend, Ocasio-Cortez griped that her gaffes and perceived presidential ambitions overshadowed the message she intended to deliver, denying that the trip had anything to do with a potential presidential run. Several congressional allies jumped in to back up Ocasio-Cortez.

Murphy, in a separate session, also continued the theme of Democrats’ Israel-bashing. He questioned the reality of the ceasefire in Gaza, emphasizing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement while not mentioning Hamas’ continued violations.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

ENVOY ISSUES

Lawmakers alarmed by Barrack’s Turkey tilt in his Middle East diplomacy

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack speaks during the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit on September 24, 2025 in New York City. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Annual Summit)

Simmering frustrations among lawmakers with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack — who also serves as special envoy to Syria and manages a wide remit in America’s Middle East policy — have recently broken into public view, as multiple lawmakers tell Jewish Insider they have concerns about the U.S. envoy’s expansive role, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

What they’re saying: A Republican senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told JI last week that Barrack’s role in U.S. policy in the region makes them “nervous.” The senator added, “He’s running a Turkish line, and there are very legit[imate] concerns” about his role and influence. A senior Senate Democrat involved in foreign policy issues also said he had concerns about Barrack, suggesting the envoy was pursuing personal business interests through his post. “Barrack is clearly knowledgeable about the region, he’s clearly energetic and engaged. But that’s the only good I can say. I have real concerns about his motives and the consequences of his action,” the Democratic senator said.

Read the full story here.

FUNDING FURY

Senate Appropriations committee debates Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdowns

Sen. Chris Murphy argued that there are no provisions in federal law that give the government any authority to condition funding on the ‘viewpoint diversity’ of the faculty

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

By

Marc Rod

August 1, 2025

Senate Appropriations committee members sparred on Thursday over the Trump administration’s sweeping moves to combat campus antisemitism, including withholding hundreds of millions of dollars from some elite institutions.

The debate was sparked by an amendment proposed by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) that would prevent the administration from spending any funding on the Office for Civil Rights until the Department of Education inspector general certifies that enforcement actions targeting colleges and universities are being carried out in accordance with law and regulation.

The amendment was voted down along party lines. It’s unclear at this point how much funding the bill — which has not yet been released in full — actually provides for the Office for Civil Rights. The Trump administration had requested substantial cuts to the office’s budget.

Murphy said that the actions taken by the Office for Civil Rights have been undertaken “without going through any of the prescribed processes that we have put in law and previous administrations have put in regulation,” to allow schools and the public to contest and litigate against the decisions before losing federal funding.

“I think the extraordinary ways this administration is ignoring the law or going around the law requires us to do due diligence in making sure that when we appropriate money it gets used for the proper purposes,” Murphy said.

He called the administration’s suspension of funding to Harvard University particularly egregious, specifically highlighting the administration’s demand for greater viewpoint diversity in Harvard’s faculty.

Murphy argued — as he has previously — that there are no provisions in federal law that give the government any authority to condition funding on the “viewpoint diversity” of the faculty.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the ranking member of the subcommittee responsible for Department of Education funding, pushed back, describing the administration’s actions as necessary and proper to counter “rampant” antisemitism on campuses and address a lack of action by the prior administration.

“Some of those higher education institutions have come to the table with the administration and said, ‘Yes, we’re gonna make changes, and that’s because of the violations of the office of what is under the Office of Civil Rights Under Title VI,’” Capito said. “Your amendment would halt the work of the Office of Civil Rights.”

Capito warned that any pause in Office for Civil Rights activities would likely drag on significantly.

She compared the situation on college campuses to the Nazi regime in World War II.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who is Jewish, condemned the administration’s actions.

“I utterly reject this administration’s cynical exploitation of this issue, which it uses as a fig leaf to take control of and impose its will on institutions of higher education and other critics,” Ossoff said.

During the committee meeting, Democrats emphasized that the Department of Education funding bill as a whole defied Trump’s wishes to defund and dismantle key parts of the department.

Daily Kickoff

To whom does the senator from Connecticut yield?

Plus, Bibi plans a Beltway blitz

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

By

JI Staff

July 1, 2025

Good Tuesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at Sen. Chris Murphy’s leftward shift on Israel, and spotlight Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s congressional votes and relations with Illinois’ Jewish community as he mounts a bid for Senate. We cover Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Washington, and report on a new lawsuit alleging the Nysmith School in Northern Virginia discriminated against Jewish students. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Doron Spielman, Karen Diamond and Susan Rice.

What We’re Watching

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting in Washington today with his counterparts from Japan, China and Australia.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Aaron David Miller is hosting a web event this morning with former CIA Director David Petraeus and analyst Karim Sadjadpour focused on Israel, Iran and the U.S.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro is speaking this morning at a Center for International & Strategic Studies event on ties between North Korea and Iran.
The Christians United For Israel summit continues today in Washington. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, the Brandeis Center’s Ken Marcus and Israel Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon are slated to speak today.
The Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado wraps up today.
New York City is slated to release the first round of ranked-choice voting results from last week’s primaries

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

The political developments over the last week couldn’t send a more dispiriting message about the viability of the political center — in both parties.

Last Tuesday, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on a far-left agenda on issues ranging from the economy, crime and antisemitism, emerged as the Democratic standard-bearer for mayor of New York City.

Over the weekend, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), one of the most pragmatic Republicans in the upper chamber, announced he wouldn’t be running for reelection after signaling he’d be one of two GOP votes against President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill. His decision to retire came after Trump, in a Truth Social post, threatened to support a primary challenger.

Tillis, notably, was the deciding Republican vote scuttling the nomination of interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin for, among other issues, his associations with a Nazi sympathizer.

And on Monday, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), one of only three House Republicans who represents a district that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, formally announced his retirement, making it all the more likely a more-partisan Democratic lawmaker will succeed him in the seat.

These are just the latest developments that underscore that moderation, pragmatism and bipartisanship are becoming endangered principles in a polarized political environment that rewards extremism and hot takes over thoughtful policymaking.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

SOLIDARITY SNUB

Connecticut’s Jewish community wonders: What happened to Chris Murphy?

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy speaks at the rally to Say NO to Tax Breaks for Billionaires & Corporations at Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America)

Two days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) spoke emotionally at the “Rally for Israel” in West Hartford, Conn. “This is a moment where we are going to have to stand as a nation with greater force, with greater purpose than ever, to make sure that Israel has what it needs,” Murphy said. But members of Connecticut’s Jewish community say Murphy strayed from that promise just weeks later. In late November 2023, Murphy said on CNN that he was open to placing conditions on U.S. aid to Israel, a position that astounded many of the people who had stood with him in West Hartford not long before. Since then, he has emerged as a vocal critic of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza, and more than 18 months after the attack, the Connecticut Jewish community’s frustration with him has only grown, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Veering off: Murphy voted twice in support of resolutions put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would block certain arms sales to Israel. Following Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Murphy slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for sending the Middle East into a “new, deadly conflict.” His shift to the party’s left flank on Israel comes as Murphy positions himself as a leading voice in the Democratic Party in opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies and builds a stronger public profile for himself. He’s a regular on cable news shows and recently created a new political action committee to encourage protests against Trump, with plans to spend $2 million in the 2026 midterms, sparking rumors that he could mount a presidential bid in 2028. It’s not just Murphy’s foreign policy views that are concerning his Jewish constituents. Recently, the senator has emerged as one of the most prominent boosters of presumptive New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, even as some of his Democratic colleagues have raised concerns about Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.”

Communal concerns: Rabbi Tuvia Brander, the spiritual leader of Young Israel of West Hartford, told JI that Murphy’s praise of Mamdani is “so beyond the pale of what is just in the basic interests of many of his constituents.”

Read the full story here.

PRAIRIE STATE OF PLAY

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi hopes to win the Jewish vote in Illinois Senate contest

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) speaks next to the famous tank man photo during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre on June 4, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

As he competes for Illinois’ open Senate seat, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) is hoping that the state’s sizable Jewish community, concentrated in the Chicago area, will help him chart a path to victory in the Democratic primary, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Making his pitch: “I do think that [Jewish voters] have a desire for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship,” Krishnamoorthi said, “and I don’t think there’s anybody else with the track record in this race that I possess, showing strong support for that relationship, but also knowing why that relationship needs to continue to be strong on a bipartisan basis, and we need to take this out of politics.” Krishnamoorthi spoke to JI about his approach to antisemitism, Iran and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Read the full interview here.

WAR OF WORDS

Responding to Mamdani, Senate Democrats say ‘globalize the intifada’ slogan must be condemned

Protesters hold a banner reading “Globalize the Student Intifada” during a demonstration outside the ICE building in Washington, DC, on March 15, 2025. (HANNA LEKA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Several Senate Democrats told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod on Monday that calls to “globalize the intifada” are unacceptable and must be condemned, amid concerns from Jewish leaders and organizations over presumptive New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the slogan.

Mamdani musings: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has thus far not endorsed Mamdani, told JI he plans to meet with Mamdani in a few weeks, when asked about Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan. “Sen. Schumer condemns the phrase ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and believes it should not be used because it has such dangerous implications. As Senator Schumer said after the death of Karen Diamond, the attack in Boulder continues to serve as a grave reminder of the deadly consequences of the rise in antisemitism,” a spokesperson for Schumer told JI. “I don’t know what [Mamdani’s] position is on it, but I certainly think that the call to spread the intifada is the kind of incitement that can lead to extremist violence,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told JI.

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), John Fetterman (D-PA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).

TRIP TALK

Netanyahu heading to D.C. next week to ‘take advantage of the victory’ in Iran

President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the signing of the Abraham Accords. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s White House visit next week is a chance to “take advantage of the victory” in Iran, he said at the start of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday,Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

On the agenda: The trip to Washington “comes as a continuation of the great victory we achieved in Operation Rising Lion,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israel’s 12-day operation against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, which the U.S. joined. “Taking advantage of the victory is no less important than achieving the victory.” An Israeli official told JI on Tuesday that “everything” is on the agenda, including U.S.-Israel cooperation to stop Iran from rebuilding its nuclear program, next steps in Gaza and the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with Syria and other Arab and Muslim countries.

Read the full story here.

Meanwhile at Aspen: Susan Rice, who served as national security advisor during the Obama administration’s inking of the nuclear deal with Iran, sharply criticized Trump’s decision to strike Tehran’s nuclear program while defending the 2015 agreement during a panel discussion at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival on Monday,Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports. Rice joins a chorus of former Obama and Biden administration officials who have criticized Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, despite many experts concluding the damage to the program was significant.

Worth noting: The New York Times’ David Brooks, writing in a piece headlined “I Detest Netanyahu, but on Some Things He’s Actually Right,” adds context to consider when evaluating the strikes. “We may know in time what the bombings accomplished. In the meantime, we do know that Israel and the United States have the will and capacity to attack Iran anytime and anyplace. We do know that if Iran reconstitutes its nuclear program, Israel and America have the capacity to deliver a much more devastating and regime-threatening blow. We also know that Iran and its proxies have made some insanely self-destructive miscalculations since Oct. 7, 2023, and they must know that, too. These are ominous omens for the theocrats in Tehran.”

HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT

Brandeis Center files complaint alleging antisemitism at Virginia private school

The parents of an 11-year-old Jewish student at a private school in Northern Virginia say their daughter faced months of antisemitic harassment that went unaddressed by school officials, who also cancelled an annual event featuring a Holocaust survivor due to concerns that the event might exacerbate tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war. Days after the parents addressed the campus environment with school leadership, all three of their children were expelled, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday with the Office for Civil Rights in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned.

The allegations: According to the complaint, Kenneth Nysmith, headmaster and owner of The Nysmith School for the Gifted in Herndon, Va., canceled the event with the Holocaust survivor and expressed concern that it might inflame tensions within the school community in light of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. The complaint, filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law and Washington-based firm Dillon PLLC, alleges several antisemitic incidents that the parents of the 11-year-old Jewish student say she faced in the months leading up to the cancellation of the Holocaust survivor event. The complaint recounts that in October 2024, their daughter’s history teacher asked students to work together on an art project to create a large drawing featuring the attributes of “strong historical leaders.” The students collaborated on a large artistic rendering of a strong leader, featuring Adolf Hitler’s face.

Read the full story here.

Elsewhere: The Brandeis Center, working with the Anti-Defamation League and Mayer Brown, filed a brief on Monday with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that officials in a Massachusetts school district did not adequately protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and discrimination.

BOOK REVIEW

‘When the Stones Speak’: Doron Spielman connects Jewish history to present-day Israel

After Israel waged war against an Iranian regime that has vowed to destroy the Jewish state and diaspora Jews face a heightened atmosphere of antisemitism stemming from the Israel-Gaza war, a new book aims to equip Israel supporters with “a foundation” to refute claims that Jews do not have ancient roots in the land of Israel. When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know, written by former IDF spokesperson Doron Spielman, does so by recounting discoveries made in Israel’s largest excavation site, the City of David, where Spielman has worked closely with archaeologists for two decades to uncover and promote the site’s historical significance. The book, Spielman suggested in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen, is aimed at what he calls “the middle group of people” — “logical, reasonable people” who don’t know whether they’re pro-Israel or anti-Israel.

Lay of the land: “When they understand that ‘when the stones speak,’ they tell the story of the truth of the Jewish people’s connection to the land,” that could help sway the conversation on college campuses. This middle group will come to understand, he said, that “at the very least [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] is a fight between two people who think they’re indigenous, and at the very best they understand the Jews are people who have only one land, they’ve been there for 3,800 years and therefore they have a right to defend it.”

New York state of mind: Spielman hopes the book’s impact will also reach supporters of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive winner of the Democratic primary last week amid his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” and denial that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. “He’s denying the Jewish people their right to live as a nation in the one place they ever called home,” Spielman told JI. “When the Stones Speak cuts through the lies with facts on the ground — literally.”

Read the full interview here.

Worthy Reads

Knockout Blow, But Not the End: The Times of Israel’s David Horovitz reflects on the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. “There is, however, absolutely no room or reason for hubris. Israel allowed itself to slip into existential peril, and the astounding success of the 12-day war is a temporary accomplishment. Iran is not going anywhere. And so long as the ayatollahs retain power, they can be relied upon to recommit to their efforts to wipe out Israel. … Along with delight and profound relief at the achievements of the war, the military and security top brass are resolved not to underestimate the regime and its single-minded determination to destroy Israel. This was a knockout blow in a life-or-death fight. But it is not the end of the existential struggle.” [TOI]

Not Science Fiction: In The Free Press, Matti Friedman considers the impact of Iran’s ballistic missile attack on the Weizmann Institute of Science. “When [neurobiologist Oren Schuldiner] heard that his lab was hit, he said, he had trouble grasping what this meant, and kept texting colleagues to ask what could be salvaged — there were two microscopes in the lab, for example, each worth nearly $1 million, and thousands of fruit fly specimens that he uses to map neural changes that may one day help us better understand diseases like schizophrenia and autism. Finally, a colleague who’d lost her own lab sent him a link to the Wikipedia page detailing the five stages of grief. ‘I understood that I was in denial,’ he said. Only when he made it back did he understand that the lab wasn’t damaged — it was gone, along with most of his work of the past 17 years.” [FreePress]

Lula’s Lurch:The Economist spotlights Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose declining domestic popularity has coincided with his country’s deepening ties with Iran, Russia and China. “On June 22nd, hours after the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites with huge bunker-buster bombs, Brazil’s foreign ministry put out a statement. It said that Brazil’s government ‘strongly condemns’ the American attack, and that the strikes were a ‘violation of Iran’s sovereignty and international law.’ This strength of language put Brazil at odds with all other Western democracies, which either supported the strikes or merely expressed concern. Brazil’s friendliness with Iran is set to continue on July 6th and 7th when the BRICS, a group of 11 emerging-market economies including Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa, holds its annual summit in Rio de Janeiro. Iran, which became a member of the BRICS in 2024, is expected to send a delegation. The club is currently chaired by Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula. Originally, being a member had offered Brazil a platform from which to exert global influence. Now it makes Brazil look increasingly hostile to the West.” [TheEconomist]

Word on the Street

President Donald Trump signed an executive order lifting the majority of sanctions imposed on Syria over the last 50 years; the executive order includes steps to lift the Foreign Terrorist Organization status of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa previously led, as well as a review of Damascus’ role as a state sponsor of terror…

An Iran-linked hacking group that had previously accessed email accounts associated with Trump’s 2024 campaign threatened to release a new tranche of emails sent from Trump aides…

Satellite images obtained by CNN over the weekend indicate “ongoing activity at and near the ventilation shafts and holes caused by last week’s airstrikes” on Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility…

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights issued a 57-page report accusing Harvard of having acted with “deliberate indifference” toward antisemitism and anti-Israel discrimination on the Cambridge campus…

Elon Musk said he planned to support Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who is facing an effort by the White House to recruit a primary challenger over Massie’s refusal to back the administration’s budget reconciliation bill; Musk was prompted by a social media post from former Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) calling on the X owner to back Massie, but is already facing pushback from some in the Kentucky Jewish community…

Former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), who fell short in his bid to unseat Sen. Tex Cruz (R-TX) last year, announced his entry into Texas’ Senate race; Allred is seeking to challenge Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who is already facing a tough primary battle…

Karen Diamond, one of the more than two dozen people injured in last month’s antisemitic firebombing attack targeting a Boulder, Colo., march in support of the remaining Israeli hostages, died from her injuries, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…

Unilever cut off financial support for the charitable arm of its Ben & Jerry’s subsidiary, alleging that the ice cream company foundation’s trustees “have continued to resist basic oversight” and refused to provide audit documents…

A British court rejected a legal challenge by the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq that sought to stop the government’s exports to Israel of components of F-35 fighter jets; the court determined it lacked jurisdiction over the U.K.’s defense sector…

British musical group Bob Vylan is facing a criminal investigation over chants the duo led at the weekend Glastonbury music festival calling for “death to the IDF”; U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also denounced the chants, which resulted in the State Department’s canceling of group members’ visas ahead of a planned U.S. tour…

An Australian court ordered a Sydney imam to remove from the internet past speeches that the court said were “fundamentally racist and antisemitic”; the cleric was also instructed to refrain from making similar speeches in the future…

The newly created Kinetica VC fund, founded by Yoav Knoll, Aaron Applbaum, Yitz Applbaum and Frederic Landau, is raising $150 million for investments focused on Israel’s tech industry; the firm has also recruited former U.S. Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite, Joe Lonsdale and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) to join its advisory board…

Former Israeli hostages Liri Elbag, Karina Ariev, Naama Levy, Danielle Gilboa and Agam Berger visited the set of “Fauda” as the series films its fifth season…

Pic of the Day

Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl spoke on Monday at the Christians United For Israel conference in Washington.

Birthdays

CANNES, FRANCE – APRIL 08: Mike Burstyn attends the “The Zweiflers” Photocall during the 7th Canneseries International Festival on April 08, 2024 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/WireImage)

Television, film and theater actor, including early career roles in Yiddish theater, Michael Burstein turns 80…

Applied mathematician, statistician and physicist, professor emeritus at both MIT and Harvard, Herman Chernoff turns 102… Former U.S. assistant aecretary of education and research professor at NYU, Diane Silvers Ravitch turns 87… Nobel laureate in economics for 1997 and co-creator of the Black-Scholes model for valuing options and other derivatives, Myron Scholes turns 84… Noted British art dealer and founder of an eponymous London art gallery, Victoria Marion Miro turns 80… Born in a DP camp to her Holocaust survivor parents, she was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Canadian Supreme Court, Rosalie Silberman Abella turns 79… Israeli-Russian businessman, with holdings in energy and international real estate development, Shalva Chigirinsky turns 76… Partner in the Encino, Calif.-based law firm of Nolan Heimann, Douglas E. Mirell… Hall of Fame player and coach in the Women’s National Basketball Association and now an NBA broadcaster, Nancy Lieberman turns 67… Attorney and longtime Democratic activist in Pittsburgh, he is a regional chair of the ADL, Steven D. Irwin turns 66… Contributing editor at The Forward and CEO of the A-Mark Foundation, Rob Eshman… President emeritus of the Orthodox Union and a retired partner at Ropes & Gray, Mark (Moishe) Bane… Undersecretary of state for political affairs during most of the Biden administration, Victoria Jane Nuland (family name was Nudelman) turns 64… Journalist, filmmaker and educator, he is the co-founder of Aish[dot]com, Shraga Simmons turns 64… Professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, Benjamin Brown turns 59… Member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2014, Marcus Bertram Simon turns 55… U.S. senator (R-IA), Joni Ernst turns 55… Screenwriter, producer and film director known for romantic comedy films, Marc Silverstein turns 54… Los Angeles resident, Adam B. Siegel… NASA astronaut, on her 2019 trip to the International Space Station she took novelty socks with Stars of David and menorahs, Jessica Meir turns 48… Co-founder of Edgeline Films, Elyse Steinberg… Hasidic musician mixing elements of dancehall, reggae, hip-hop and R&B, known by his stage name DeScribe, Shneur Hasofer turns 43… Rising senior and president of the school of business and finance at Ocean Township High School in Oakhurst, N.J., Samuel Peretz Fields…

SOLIDARITY SNUB

Connecticut’s Jewish community wonders: What happened to Chris Murphy?

The Democratic senator — and Joe Lieberman successor — has grown increasingly antagonistic toward Israel and now says he welcomes out-of-the mainstream voices into the Democratic party

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

By

Gabby Deutch

July 1, 2025

When Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) walked up to the microphone at the “Rally for Israel” in West Hartford, Conn., two days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, sporting a well-worn UConn baseball hat and a quarter-zip sweatshirt, the first thing he did was apologize for his attire. He was in the middle of his annual walk across the entire state of Connecticut, sporting the same sneakers he has worn each year since 2016.

He said he almost canceled the remainder of the walk after the attacks in Israel.

“But then I thought to myself, what better way to spend my week than traveling from one end of the state to the next to explain to the people of this state why it is so important for this state, the people of this state, to stand up and speak with one voice that we stand in support of Israel?” Murphy asked, receiving loud applause from the crowd gathered outside West Hartford City Hall. The Hartford metro area boasts the largest Jewish community in the state.

Murphy spoke emotionally about the “unspeakable” videos and images that were emerging from Israel. “This is a moment where we are going to have to stand as a nation with greater force, with greater purpose than ever, to make sure that Israel has what it needs,” Murphy said.

But members of Connecticut’s Jewish community say Murphy strayed from that promise just weeks after Hamas launched the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history. In late November 2023, Murphy said on CNN that he was open to placing conditions on U.S. aid to Israel, a position that astounded many of the people who had stood with him in West Hartford not long before. Since then, he has emerged as a vocal critic of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.

“Unlike the unwavering support for Israel shown by President [Joe] Biden and the Democratic leadership in the Senate, your tune has changed in recent weeks,” Rabbi Tuvia Brander, the spiritual leader of Young Israel of West Hartford, wrote in an open letter responding to Murphy, published in the Jewish Link, a local Jewish news outlet. “As a voter and your constituent, I hope you will do better; Israel deserves better, America deserves better, we deserve better!”

Now, more than 18 months after the attack and Murphy’s pledge to stand by Israel, the Connecticut Jewish community’s frustration with Murphy has only grown.

The Connecticut senator voted twice in support of resolutions put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would block certain arms sales to Israel. Following Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Murphy slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for sending the Middle East into a “new, deadly conflict,” arguing that the U.S. has “no obligation to follow Israel into a war we did not ask for and will make us less safe.”

His shift to the party’s left flank on Israel comes as Murphy positions himself as a leading voice in the Democratic Party in opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies and builds a stronger public profile for himself. He’s a regular on cable news shows and recently created a new political action committee to encourage protests against Trump, with plans to spend $2 million in the 2026 midterms, sparking rumors that he could mount a presidential bid in 2028.

It’s not just Murphy’s foreign policy views that are concerning his Jewish constituents. Recently, the senator has emerged as one of the most prominent boosters of presumptive New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, even as some of his Democratic colleagues have raised concerns about Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.”

Murphy went on national television on Sunday and announced he was endorsing Mamdani, while saying it might be necessary to include outside-the-mainstream views within the Democratic Party.

“He was authentic, right? I mean, yes, he’s got some views that are a little bit out of the conventional mainstream. But you know what? The traditional political pundits have no idea what’s actually mainstream in this country … And so Democrats should learn from his victory,” Murphy said on “Meet the Press.”

Brander told Jewish Insider that Murphy’s praise of Mamdani is “so beyond the pale of what is just in the basic interests of many of his constituents.”

“He really seems to be trying to position himself within the progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” said Leslie Loew, an emeritus professor at the University of Connecticut’s cell biology department. “He’s been saying things and doing things that people who are supportive of Israel and are sympathetic to Israel’s plight are kind of disturbed at.”

Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, views foreign policy as a key issue of national concern, and one where he has decided to be outspoken. His official website touts his efforts to chart a “forward-thinking foreign policy vision” for the United States, describing himself as an “outspoken proponent of diplomacy, international human rights and the need for clear-eyed American leadership abroad.”

Some in the Jewish community — including many who have supported him in the past, particularly around gun control, the issue that first brought him national attention — are left watching all of this warily. (Murphy became a vocal advocate for gun violence prevention after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, when he represented Newtown in the House of Representatives.)

“He really seems to be trying to position himself within the progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” said Leslie Loew, an emeritus professor at the University of Connecticut’s cell biology department. “He’s been saying things and doing things that people who are supportive of Israel and are sympathetic to Israel’s plight are kind of disturbed at.”

Loew, a Democrat, voted for Murphy in his first two Senate elections. But last year, when Murphy was on the ballot, Loew opted not to vote in the Senate race.

Murphy defeated Republican challenger Matthew Corey by nearly 20 points. He does not face any serious political opposition in solidly blue Connecticut.

“There’s really no challenging him in terms of state politics. He can have his Senate seat as long as he wants it,” said Scott McLean, a political science professor at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University, who also called Murphy “one of the most visible voices challenging the [Trump] administration on a whole variety of issues.”

One of those issues is Iran, and, more broadly, Trump’s foreign policy in the Middle East. Murphy had also taken aim at Trump for bombing three nuclear sites in Iran, saying that Trump was “goaded into these strikes by the perpetual cheerleaders of war in the Middle East,” and called the actions “illegal” while warning that “countless Americans” could die as a result.

Last week, a senior foreign policy advisor in Murphy’s office met virtually with Loew and Ari Schaffer, who founded an Israel advocacy group called Greater Hartford for Israel, over concerns about Murphy’s approach to Iran. Loew and Schaffer have been organizing weekly pro-Israel marches in West Hartford since Oct. 7.

Murphy’s staffer “insisted that he is fully supportive of Israel,” Loew said after last week’s meeting. “I actually believe her. I think that in his mind, he believes in Israel’s right to exist, but he doesn’t project that when he criticizes Israel. He criticizes Israel at every opportunity, and obviously very unfairly in many cases.”

Murphy told JI in a statement Monday that he “will always be a strong friend of the Israeli people and support Israel’s right to defend itself, especially after the horrors of October 7th but also against the threats posed by Iran and its proxies.”

In April, on the morning of the Senate vote on the Sanders-sponsored resolutions on cutting arms sales to Israel, Murphy spoke with a group of leaders from Jewish federations throughout Connecticut, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. He listened to their arguments, but he was still one of 15 Democratic senators to vote in favor of the resolutions.

Stephen Davis, a Harvard Law School professor who lives in Connecticut, defended Murphy, despite his distance from the Jewish communal establishment. “Senator Murphy is as pro-Israel as they come. But that doesn’t mean backing everything the current Israeli government does,” said Davis, the chair of J Street’s Connecticut chapter.

Murphy told JI in a statement Monday that he “will always be a strong friend of the Israeli people and support Israel’s right to defend itself, especially after the horrors of October 7th but also against the threats posed by Iran and its proxies.”

He argues that the change is not his attitude toward Israel, but Israel’s actions in Gaza and the shifting geopolitical reality in the Middle East. “I have consistently supported sending Israel the military aid it needs to decimate Hamas’ military capabilities and eliminate Hamas leadership,” said Murphy, adding that he believes “those aims have been achieved, and the government should prioritize a cease-fire deal that brings home all of the hostages.”

“Sen. Chris Murphy has been a critical voice in the fight against antisemitism and extremism. At a time when Jewish communities face historic threats, he has renewed his commitment to strengthening and growing the Nonprofit Security Grant Program,” said Stacey Sobel, the Anti-Defamation League’s Connecticut director, adding that the ADL will continue “working through any differences to advance our shared goals.”

“My vote on the recent JRDs reflects my serious frustration with how Prime Minister Netanyahu has prosecuted this war, which has led to the deaths of more than 50,000 Palestinians and pushed Gaza to the brink of famine,” Murphy said, referring to the Sanders-authored resolutions.

Despite mounting frustration over Murphy’s approach to Israel, Jewish leaders have found common cause with the senator on their requests to increase federal funding for vital security aid for nonprofits. Murphy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, plays an important role on that issue, and has advocated for additional funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

“Sen. Chris Murphy has been a critical voice in the fight against antisemitism and extremism. At a time when Jewish communities face historic threats, he has renewed his commitment to strengthening and growing the Nonprofit Security Grant Program,” said Stacey Sobel, the Anti-Defamation League’s Connecticut director, adding that the ADL will continue “working through any differences to advance our shared goals.”

Still, despite the areas of collaboration, some of Murphy’s Jewish constituents view his approach to Israel as a betrayal — and a cause for concern as he ascends within the Democratic Party.

“A lot of people are worried what it means for the future of the Jewish community and the safety of the Jewish community, for our relationship with the State of Israel, if he’s the kind of person who’s going to be the standard bearer for the Democratic Party going forward,” Schaffer, who is a registered Republican, said.

The pro-Israel marches that Schaffer has organized since Oct. 7 have drawn several Connecticut lawmakers, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. John Larson (D-CT). Despite regular invitations, Murphy has yet to attend one of the weekly pro-Israel events.

Daily Kickoff

Daily Kickoff: St. Louis Jewish leaders met with Rep. Cori Bush’s staff — what they did and didn’t discuss

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 22: Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) speaks during a news conference to advocate for ending the Senate filibuster, outside the U.S. Capitol on April 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. With the Senate filibuster rules in place, legislative bills require 60 votes to end debate and advance, rather than a simple majority in the 100 member Senate. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By

JI Staff

August 12, 2021

👋 Good Thursday morning!

Ed. note: There won’t be a Daily Kickoff on Friday. We’ll see you on Monday!

For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent JI stories, including: Who’s in the majority now?; What was Bakari Sellers thinking in Ohio 11?; Jewish groups hear echoes of Hitler’s Games in run-up to 2022 Beijing Olympics; New York Jewish leaders recognize a familiar face in Kathy Hochul; Yogi Oliff, Jewish hoopster, gets D1 offer from West Point; and From the Archives: 20 years later, Joe Lieberman reflects back on the moment he was picked by Gore. Print the latest edition here.

Actress Mayim Bialikwill join “Jeopardy!” as one of the show’s new co-hosts, alongside executive producer Mike Richards. Bialik will host the show’s primetime specials.

One year ago yesterday, Joe Biden selected then-Sen. Kamala Harris (CA) as his running mate. Here’s what California Jewish leaders shared with us at the time.

the room where it happened

St. Louis Jewish leaders meet with Rep. Cori Bush staffers

Staffers for Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) met for the first time on Tuesday with leaders from St. Louis’s Jewish federation and Jewish Community Relations Council and the local chapters of the National Council of Jewish Women and American Jewish Committee, days after the Missouri congresswoman drew national attention for her successful sit-in at the Capitol to protest the end of the eviction moratorium, reports Jewish Insider‘s Marc Rod.

Background: Bush, who supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, has staked out a stridently anti-Israel stance, drawing connections in a May House floor speech between “militarized policing, occupation and systems of violent oppression and trauma” in the Palestinian territories and Ferguson, Mo., referring to Israel’s capital as “Jerusalem, Palestine” and describing Israel as an “apartheid” state.

Keeping it light: Jewish community leaders offered to provide information to Bush’s office on Israel issues going forward, but the conversation did not go into specifics on policy, according to St. Louis JCRC Executive Director Rori Picker Neiss. Bush’s support for BDS also did not come up.

Diverging opinions: Picker Neiss told JI, “They acknowledged that this could be an area where we might have more disagreement, but that because it’s an area where we know we have differing opinions, that’s why we need to talk about it more. We felt like they left that door wide open for us to continue that conversation with them.”

Reaching out: She also told JI that there has been a “getting to know you process” with Bush’s staff, given that Jewish organizations do not have long-running contacts in the freshman congresswoman’s office, but that Bush’s chief of staff, Abbas Alawieh, “made the initiative to reach out” to Picker Neiss to set up Tuesday’s meeting.

Next steps: The staff was also “committed to keeping an open channel of communication with the Jewish community, with future meetings taking place with Rep. Bush,” according to AJC St. Louis Director Nancy Lisker.

scene the other night

Turkish ambassador’s event seen as signal of warming ties between Ankara and Jerusalem

In an apparent sign of warming ties between Ankara and Jerusalem, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. and U.N. Gilad Erdan was slated to attend an event at the Turkish ambassador’s residence on Tuesday night, but thunderstorms in the Northeast prevented him from getting there, an attendee told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch.

Azerbaijan angle: Turkish Ambassador Hasan Murat Mercan hosted a farewell dinner for Azerbaijani Ambassador to the U.S. Elin Suleymanov, who is leaving Washington after 10 years at the embassy. Last week, Azerbaijan opened its first trade mission in Israel to boost economic ties between the two nations, and Israel has negotiated arms deals with Azerbaijan in the past.

History lesson: Ties between Israel and Turkey were first formalized in 1949, but relations between Israel and Turkey grew strained in 2010 when armed activists aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara attempted to break through to Gaza, leading to a clash with Israeli soldiers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israeli President Isaac Herzog last month to congratulate him on becoming president, and a spokesperson for Erdogan announced that the two countries agreed to work toward improving relations.

Rebuilding ties: “We need to focus on the ability to get the chain back on the bicycle, and continue the wonderful journey of many centuries which marks the relationship between Turkey and the Jewish people, in Israel as well as the Diaspora,” said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), who spoke at the event.

Who’s who: Attendees at the event included ambassadors from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Monaco; Jonathan Missner, board chair of Pro-Israel America; George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs; Tom Kahn, former staff director and chief counsel of the House Budget Committee; Nechama Shemtov; and Andrew Schofer, co-chair of a negotiating group for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

podcast playback

Murphy urges U.S. to deprioritize Iran, tells Saudis to ‘come to terms’ with Hezbollah influence

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee focusing on Middle East issues, believes the U.S. should deprioritize Iran deterrence and urge Saudi Arabia to “come to terms” with Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon, he said in a Tuesday podcast interview with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Rollback: “How much does it matter to the United States what share of power Iran and Saudi Arabia have in the region 10 or 20 years from now? We act as if that question is existential to the United States. I’m not sure that it is,” Murphy said, adding that he is skeptical whether “providing security guarantees big enough to provide deterrence against the Iranians — for instance, creating red lines about what they can and cannot do in a place like Lebanon… is commensurate with our interest in the region. We have an interest in keeping the Iranians at bay. We have an interest in continuing to work with our partners, but I don’t know that it is such a significant interest that we should be dramatically increasing the security presence of the United States in the region.”

Targeted: Murphy recounted that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “always reminds” him that Iranian missiles are pointed at Saudi Arabia, not Israel. He acknowledged, however, that he takes “everything [Zarif] says with a large shaker of salt.” Rather than increasing security aid to Gulf allies, which Iran finds “provocative,” Murphy said the U.S.’s priority should be reentering the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal and reaching other long-term diplomatic agreements with Iran.

New reality: Murphy warned that Lebanon, which is facing a series of crises, is on the brink of becoming a failed state and a source of instability and terrorism that could last decades. He blamed the deteriorating situation in part on a lack of Saudi engagement due to Hezbollah’s influence inside Lebanon. “[The Saudis] are deeply uncomfortable with the role that Hezbollah plays. The Saudis should come to terms with the fact that — at least in the short term — Hezbollah is going to be part of the political infrastructure there,” he said. “It would be much better for the Saudis to be a partner with the United States, with the French and other countries to try to offer the kind of economic support that might provoke political reform that would eventually allow for technocrats and non-sectarian actors to have greater influence in the government. That would lessen the influence of Hezbollah.”

Read more here.

travel plans

J Street postpones congressional trips to Israel

J Street, the left-leaning Israel advocacy group, has delayed two August delegations to Israel, including one for House members and another for congressional staffers, amid mounting concerns over the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus, reports Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel. “We’ll be closely monitoring the outlook and hope to get our delegations to the region up and running again as soon as it’s safe and viable to do so,” J Street spokesperson Logan Bayroff told JI. The group hopes to reschedule the trips for the fall but has not made “any definitive timing decisions,” Bayroff said.

New direction: The postponements come as J Street seeks to advance a new policy that represents a change in direction for the lobbying group amid growing divisions over Israel within the Democratic Party. While J Street says it’s opposed to conditioning aid to Israel, the organization has recently begun advocating for restricting aid to the Jewish state. The group, which supports a recent bill that would restrict foreign security assistance to Israel, argues that this policy is different from conditioning aid. A spokesperson told JI in May that the group favors “end-use restrictions” to ensure that Israel uses U.S. aid only for “legitimate security purposes.”

Policy push: The group sought to advance this policy in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District special election this past spring. Melanie Stansbury, the Democratic candidate who was endorsed by J Street, called for restricting aid to Israel “if it is indeed being used in any way that goes against U.S. interests and values, endangers Palestinian people or threatens the basic human rights of Palestinians,” as she put it in a statement to JI at the time. Stansbury, a former New Mexico state legislator, now serves in Congress.

‘No names to share’: J Street has yet to announce its full slate of congressional endorsements for the 2022 midterms, but earlier this summer confirmed to JI that it was backing Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) for reelection next cycle. In June, following the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Davis told JI that he had been invited by J Street to participate in the now-postponed August delegation but had not yet decided if he would make the trip. Bayroff said J Street was planning to “roll out” a list of participants for the upcoming congressional delegation “once a trip is confirmed” but had “no names to share” at this point.

Read more here.

Worthy Reads

🔬 Paying It Forward: In an interview with The Hill’s Jim Saksa, Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) reflects on his grandfather’s service during World War II — instead of being sent overseas to fight, the government enrolled him at Purdue University to study biomedical engineering, and he went on to become a pioneer in the field of artificial limbs. “I just think about that,” Auchincloss said. “in one of the lowest moments of World War II, one of the lowest moments for Jews in our history, the U.S. government sent a Jewish kid in the Marine Corps to school. They gave him an opportunity, and he seized it. And this was a chance for me to pay that forward and to serve. It was also a way to challenge myself in a totally new realm.” [TheHill]

📉 Bad Bet:Institutional Investor’s Michelle Celarier speaks to some of the individuals who lost significant amounts of money investing in Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, which failed to seal a high-stakes deal with Universal Music Group earlier this summer. “These men — and they all happen to be men — are immigrants, first-generation Americans, and children of the blue-collar working class who have excelled in their professions. They are now engineers, small-business owners, doctors, consultants. Some went to Harvard, Princeton, UCLA. Many were the first in their families to attend college; a few are still students. They are millennials — ranging in age from 24 to 39 — who live in New York, California, Illinois, Maine, Utah, and Texas, as well as Germany and Canada. They all lost money in Tontine — in at least one case more than $2 million — as SPAC mania swept through the stock market like wildfire over the past year.” [InstitutionalInvestor]

🦸 Thou Shall Not: In the New York Post, John Podhoretz, using outgoing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as an example, warns against the idolization of political figures. “The psalmist warned us: ‘Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of a man, in whom there is no help.’ It isn’t just the mortality of princes that should make us wary of putting them on a pedestal. It is the fact that as mortal men, they are prone to deep human weaknesses: greed, vanity, lust, including the lust for domination. And yet we can’t help ourselves. We want to believe that the people we elect — or even, as in the case of the psalmist’s time and much of the planet even now, the strongmen who rule through force alone — are made of better stuff. And so we often impute to them moral strengths they don’t have, simply because we are so hungry to have someone to believe in.” [NYPost]

👨‍💻 Scaling Up: In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Israeli Minister of Science, Technology and Space Orit Farkash-Hacohen announced Israel’s intention to provide professional opportunities in the tech sector to Israelis who are otherwise underrepresented in the field, such as Israeli Arabs, Bedouins and the ultra-Orthodox. “The plan aims to help the Arab community develop skills to work in science and technology. It will include educational programs, vocational training, and technology incubators for entrepreneurs and startups. We plan to establish technology and science centers for Arabs, an incubator hub with seed funding for promising minority entrepreneurs, and two new research-and-development centers, one of them for the Bedouin community.” [WSJ]

Around the Web

🎤 Questionable Ties: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is scheduled to participate in a town hall hosted by an organization whose CEO recently said that “some of our toughest battles today… are against corporations run by Jews.”

🗳️ Reflecting: Rabbi Pinchas Landis chronicles his volunteer efforts during the heated Democratic primary in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, which pitted Shontel Brown against Nina Turner, a race that garnered national attention and underscored deep ideological divides within the Democratic Party.

🎙️ Overheard: C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman, author of When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill, appeared on a podcast hosted by Reason’s Nick Gillespie to discuss the evolution of the modern media landscape.

📗 Making the List:Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was included on Time’s list of the 100 best young adult books of all time.

🎭 Hello, Gorgeous: Beanie Feldstein will star as Fanny Brice in a Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” next spring.

⛔ Access Revoked: Two NYU researchers investigating the spread of misinformation on the social media platform claim that Facebook blocked their access to the site, citing users’ privacy concerns in its decision.

🖥️ Tough Sell: Some vendors at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota are selling merchandise with Nazi imagery.

✍️ Will’s Quill: Writing in Religion News Service, Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin describes the parallels he sees between modern anti-Israel demonstrations, which he views as guises for antisemitic political activity, and the mobs in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”

🏦 Recovery Road: Israel has nearly reduced its risk to its financial systems to pre-pandemic levels, according to a report from the European Central Bank.

📈 Super Store: Israeli supermarket company Shufersal reported a rise in second-quarter profits despite a sustained hit from the pandemic-induced sluggish economy.

☢️ Last Bid: German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on Iran to return to the nuclear talks in Vienna “with the necessary flexibility and readiness for compromise to strike a deal.”

👨 Free Press: Secretary of State Tony Blinken said he believes that journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared nine years ago in Syria while covering the early years of the country’s conflict, is alive and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has the ability to release him.

🕯️ Remembering: Marcia Nasatir, one of the first female executives in Hollywood, died at 95.

Pic of the Day

The Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel (ECYP) unveiled a mural of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) at the Baltimore courthouse named in his honor. Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), second from left, a friend of Cummings and his successor in Congress, was on hand for the event to honor the late congressman, who founded the organization in 1998.

Birthdays

U.S. diplomat, Karyn Allison Posner-Mullen turns 70…

Hungarian-American investor, George Soros (born György Schwartz) turns 91… Retired Beverly Hills attorney, Sheldon S. Ellis turns 89… Television writer, creator of Dallas and Knots Landing, David Jacobs turns 82… Television screenwriter, producer and author, Gail Parent turns 81… NYC-born historian and author, William Rubinstein turns 75… Attorney in Ontario, Canada, who served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Lester Scheininger turns 74… Director of management operations at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Fredi Bleeker Franks turns 69… Sales manager of Illi Commercial Real Estate in Encino, Calif., Stuart Steinberg turns 65… Israel’s resident ambassador to Albania and non-resident ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Noah Gal Gendler turns 64… Former member of Knesset from the Yesh Atid party, Haim Yellin turns 63… Founding editor of The Times of Israel, David Horovitz turns 59… Rabbi at Brookline’s Temple Beth Zion, Claudia Kreiman turns 47… SVP for external engagement at NYC’s Educational Alliance, Anya Hoerburger turns 44… Chief marketing officer at Cross Campus, Jay Chernikoff turns 42… Senior product manager at NYC-based Dynamic Yield, David Fine turns 32… CEO and co-founder of Forsight, a leading prop tech AI and machine learning company, Ariel Applbaum turns 27…

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Birthdays

What We’re Watching

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

SOLIDARITY SNUB

Connecticut’s Jewish community wonders: What happened to Chris Murphy?

PRAIRIE STATE OF PLAY

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi hopes to win the Jewish vote in Illinois Senate contest

WAR OF WORDS

Responding to Mamdani, Senate Democrats say ‘globalize the intifada’ slogan must be condemned

TRIP TALK

Netanyahu heading to D.C. next week to ‘take advantage of the victory’ in Iran

HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT

Brandeis Center files complaint alleging antisemitism at Virginia private school