Her decision has sparked frustration from Black Florida Democrats, who say that the seat should be represented by a Black lawmaker
Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Add JewishInsider on GoogleRep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) announced Friday that she plans to run in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which has been represented by a Black lawmaker for more than three decades, after her current district was redrawn by Florida Republicans in an effort to secure more seats in the House.
The decision will pit her against scandal-plagued former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), who is running again for the seat despite recently resigning ahead of an anticipated expulsion effort, progressive activist Elijah Manley and others running primary challenges against Cherfilus-McCormick.
Her decision has also sparked frustration from Black Florida Democrats, who say that the seat should be represented by a Black lawmaker.
In an announcement statement, Wasserman Schultz and her supporters emphasized Wasserman Schultz’s experience and seniority in the House as a key asset for the community.
“We cannot let Trump destroy Broward County’s power. Having somebody with that experience right now in these turbulent times is so important. … I’ll use all my seniority and clout in Washington to continue to make our lives more affordable and make Broward a safer, less expensive place to live, raise a family, and retire,” she said. “Some people do a lot of talking. I work hard to deliver results.”
Wasserman Schultz has served in Congress for more than 20 years, and is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, a member of House Democratic leadership and a former Democratic National Committee chairwoman. She one of several pro-Israel Democrats, including Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Darren Soto (D-FL) and Kathy Castor (D-FL), who have had their districts redrawn by redistricting in the state.
Wasserman Schultz has long prided herself on representing a heavily Jewish constituency, joking to Jewish audiences about the number of Jewish retirees in her district.
State Sen. Shevrin Jones, the incoming Florida Democratic Senate leader, expressed disappointment with Wasserman Schultz’s decision while calling her a friend. He said in a statement he’s spoken to her about the issue and emphasized that “Black representation is a non-negotiable for me.”
“Everyone deserves to have a seat at the table to ensure our communities are represented by those with their same lived experience. This is not about Debbie because she has shown she can lead; that’s not the argument nor should it be the fight, at least not mine,” Jones said. “My fight is for Black representation, and I am in the business of expanding it, not diminishing it.”
In a joint statement, the Florida Legislative Black Caucus also criticized Wasserman Schultz’s decision.
“Congresswman Wasserman Schultz’s decision to pursue reelection in this historically Black district, despite explicit requests from the Black community to seek candidacy in a neighboring district, is disheartening,” the statement reads. “Building trust with Black leaders and constituents should be paramount for anyone seeking to represent a majority-Black district. Unfortunately, the actions taken by Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz suggest a failure to prioritize these essential values, perpetuating a narrative of performative allyship rather than meaningful connection.”
Manley condemned Wasserman Schultz as a carpetbagger and compared her to Florida Republicans who redrew the state’s congressional districts.
Wasserman Schultz told Politico she had engaged with more than 100 community leaders in the district, many of them Black, before making her decision, again emphasizing the need for an experienced lawmaker.
Other candidates in the race include Luther Campbell, a musician and free speech advocate, physician Rudolph Moise and former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness.
The anti-Israel account rescinded its endorsement of Maureen Galindo, who called to imprison Zionists, after a groundswell of Dem condemnation
Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images
Maureen Galindo, left, and Johnny Garcia, right, participate in a TX-35 forum in San Antonio on May 6, 2026.
Track AIPAC, the social media account that has gained a growing audience among anti-Israel activists in recent years, found itself in an embarrassing position this week when a candidate it had championed for Congress faced bipartisan backlash over extreme antisemitic comments calling to imprison and castrate “American Zionists,” whom she accused of pedophilia.
In a lengthy statement posted to X on Tuesday, the account said it was “aware of incendiary statements and troubling behavior” by Maureen Galindo, a San Antonio activist competing for an open swing seat in Texas next week against a pro-Israel Democrat whom national party leaders view as their best chance to flip the newly drawn House district in the general election.
While the account, which runs an affiliated super PAC, qualified its response with the added caveat that it “stands firmly on the side of free expression,” it informed its nearly 500,000 followers that it was “immediately revoking” its endorsement of Galindo, whom it had helped raise funds for through an online portal, and encouraged others “to follow suit.”
“Calls for cruel and unusual punishment,” Track AIPAC wrote, “are fundamentally in opposition to our organization’s commitment to justice and due process.”
Still, the point at which Track AIPAC finally chose to draw a line over Galindo’s rhetoric underscored how the account’s ostensibly narrow focus on opposition to what it calls the “Israel lobby” has often obscured an indulgence of extreme views and positions.
Galindo, who narrowly finished in first in the March primary, rose to prominence with a stream of unhinged videos promoting conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel.
Well before calling to imprison Zionists, for example, she had said Jews “own Hollywood” and “worship the synagogue of Satan,” while claiming that “billionaire Zionists and their puppet journalists are FAKE Jews who create antisemitism to harm and harvest off the real Jews,” among several other incendiary remarks Track AIPAC apparently did not find disqualifying.
Those who have taken issue with the account — which has also faced criticism for using antisemitic language in its fierce opposition to AIPAC and calls for the group to register as a foreign agent — were quick to detect a lack of sincerity in its decision to rescind support for Galindo.
The about-face raises questions about Track AIPAC’s judgement and vetting process, adding to widespread criticism related to its methodology for scoring candidates and elected officials who have taken donations from a range of disparate Israel advocacy groups like J Street, AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel, a broad category critics have dismissed as selective and sloppy.
The account, which has backed several candidates through its political arm, Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, has at times included contributions from individual lobby donors, fueling accusations that it is simply singling out Jewish political spending without making clearer distinctions among pro-Israel groups.
Brian Romick, the president of DMFI PAC, which is backing Galindo’s runoff opponent, Johnny Garcia, argued that “Track AIPAC embodies the very-online activist fringe: large social-media following, minimal real-world influence, and a political strategy based on vibes.”
While Galindo is likely the most extreme candidate Track AIPAC has endorsed this election cycle, it has backed others who have used inflammatory rhetoric while speaking about Israel, including Chris Rabb, a Democratic state legislator in Pennsylvania who recently claimed the nomination after sharing an Instagram post blaming the massacre of Jewish Australians at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on “Zionists.”
Track AIPAC was co-founded by Casey Kennedy and Cory Archibald, a former campaign staffer for several anti-Israel Squad members who has described herself as a Marxist and reportedly resides in Germany. The account, which launched in 2024, has claimed a level of growing vitality among far-left audiences due to its eye-catching scorecards posted to social media. Its super PAC, however, reported only $265,000 cash on hand at the end of March, far outnumbered by AIPAC itself.
The group has endorsed around 80 candidates for House and Senate this election cycle, most notably Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed, now running for Senate seats in Maine and Michigan, respectively.
Even as Galindo’s comments drew fierce blowback from some high-profile figures on the left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Track AIPAC largely eluded serious scrutiny in progressive circles. In a testament to the extremist views of its followers, the account faced criticism from anti-Zionist X users who accused Track AIPAC of abandoning its values in pulling support for the antisemitic House candidate.
Jewish Insider contacted several candidates backed by Track AIPAC asking if they were still comfortable receiving support from the account after the Galindo episode, and only one responded.
Chuck Park, a Democrat challenging Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) in New York City, said “Galindo’s antisemitic comments are reprehensible,” while adding, “I agree with their decision to rescind the endorsement.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a progressive critic of Israel, has interacted cordially with Track AIPAC but is not endorsed by the account, which encourages him “to continue improving” his record “on Israel-Palestine issues.”
In a statement to JI, Khanna appeared to distance himself from Track AIPAC without directly referring to the account. “What Galindo said was hateful and disgusting,” he said. “Antisemitism has no place in the Democratic party or America. There is a reason I never supported Galindo, and no one should endorse her.”
Track AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment.
Joel Rubin, a progressive strategist who has warned that the far left is alienating Jewish Democrats with incendiary rhetoric about Israel, said he believed that Track AIPAC’s decision to rescind its endorsement of Galindo did not go “far enough,” saying the account “should be calling for her to immediately withdraw from the race.”
“For Track AIPAC, this does demonstrate the hostility they have to the Jewish community and Israel,” he told JI on Wednesday. “They were so gleefully supporting someone like this when they knew very well how hateful and racist she was.”
DNC Chair Ken Martin added his condemnation of Galindo: ‘This kind of vile, antisemitic rhetoric has no place in the Democratic Party’
U.S. House of Representatives
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL)
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said on Wednesday that they would seek to expel Maureen Galindo, a Democrat running for Congress in Texas who has expressed extreme antisemitic views, if she is elected.
Their comments mark an escalation among Democrats condemning Galindo since comments by the House candidate, in which she called for the interment and castration of Zionists, gained widespread attention.
“If for some reason, Maureen Galindo wins the Congressional election in TX-35, as soon as she is sworn in, we will force a vote to expel her every single day we are here,” Gottheimer and Moskowitz said in a joint statement. “Maureen’s insane, antisemitic views — including putting Americans in concentration camps — have no place in our Party or country.”
Moskowitz added in a post on X about Galindo, “My grandmother was part of the Kindertransport out of Berlin. Her parents were killed in Auschwitz. My kids are never going to ‘the camps.’”
He made a similar comment, and expounded on the situation, during a House hearing earlier in the day, describing Galindo’s comments as a logical escalation of attacks on Jewish and pro-Israel Americans and U.S. support for Israel, which have become increasingly common in Democratic politics.
“We’ve gone from, ‘Oh there’s Americans who donate to elected officials that are AIPAC,’ and then it’s ‘ok, Netanyahu,’ and then it’s ‘ok, maybe we shouldn’t support foreign money,’ and ‘ok, now we’re going to call all these people Zionists.’ And now we’re at concentration camps,” Moskowitz said. “By the way, we got to concentration camps much faster than I thought we would, but here we are. And it’s real scary.”
“People are scared. People don’t want to show their Jewish stars anymore, they’re moving into neighborhoods just to be around other Jews because they’re concerned,” he continued.
Galindo came in first place in the March 3 primary race, leading sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia, despite Garcia being the party-backed candidate. Since the primary, a host of national Democratic groups, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Majority for Israel, have been boosting Garcia ahead of a runoff race.
But Lead Left PAC, a secretive GOP-linked super PAC, has been airing ads backing Galindo with close to $1 million in outside spending ahead of next week’s runoff.
Galindo had previously made numerous antisemitic comments, including claiming that Jews “own Hollywood” and “worship at the synagogue of Satan,” but her comments about placing Zionists into concentration camps gained greater attention.
All Jewish Democratic House lawmakers joined in another joint statement on Wednesday to condemn the “vile, bigoted, and antisemitic views spewed by the desperate and unhinged Maureen Galindo,” which they said “[merit] no safe harbor anywhere in American politics, and for sure not in the Democratic Party.” In a first, the group expressed their joint support for Garcia.
They also said they were “appalled” by reports of a GOP-linked super PAC supporting Galindo, “shamefully embracing and elevating her disgusting antisemitic views and ideas.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin also condemned Galindo.
“This kind of vile, antisemitic rhetoric has no place in the Democratic Party,” Martin said. “No matter someone’s political party, we must confront and stand up to hate wherever and whenever it appears.”
A group of Texas Democratic Party leaders, including the state party chair, also condemned Galindo on Wednesday.
“Antisemitism and hateful rhetoric have no place in the Democratic Party or in our communities. Maureen Galindo’s comments do not reflect our values as Democrats or Texans,” their statement reads. “The Texas Democratic Party and its county parties remain committed to standing against antisemitism in all its forms.”
‘Barney Frank changed the country through the barriers he broke and through the seriousness, clarity, and effectiveness he brought to public life,’ said Jeremy Burton of the Boston JCRC
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) speaks during a bill enrollment ceremony for the Respect For Marriage Act as Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) looks on at the U.S. Capitol Building on December 08, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who represented the Boston area in Congress for more than three decades and was the first openly gay member of Congress, died on Tuesday. He was 86.
Known as a liberal firebrand, Frank’s most high-profile act in politics was drafting the legislation that tightened financial regulations in response to the 2008 financial crisis, a bill known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He also was widely considered a pioneer for the LGBTQ community after coming out publicly as gay in 1987.
Frank grew up in a working-class Jewish family in Bayonne, N.J. His sister, Ann Lewis, also worked in politics, holding senior roles in the Clinton administration and later on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Frank said he was drawn to public service early, feeling in some way that he was an outsider who could challenge how things were done.
“I’m a left-handed gay Jew,” Frank said. “I’ve never felt, automatically, a member of any majority.”
He knew from the time he was a teenager that he was gay, but figured that being Jewish would be a bigger barrier to holding public office.
“I knew I was a homosexual growing up in the 1950s, but figured no one had to know I was one,” Frank told a group of Yale students in 2013. “And it was already out [that] I was Jewish. I had been bar mitzvahed.”
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Frank spent nearly his entire career in elected office after a short stint working in Boston politics. He was elected to the Massachusetts State House in 1972, a position he held for eight years until his election to Congress in 1980.
For 32 years, until he retired in 2013, he represented a district that included the Boston suburbs of Newton, Needham, Brookline, Foxborough and Sharon. One of Frank’s final acts in office was marrying his husband, James Ready, in 2012, becoming the first sitting member of Congress to marry a same-sex partner.
“Massachusetts and the Jewish community are mourning one of the defining public leaders of his generation,” Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, said in a statement. “Barney Frank changed the country through the barriers he broke and through the seriousness, clarity, and effectiveness he brought to public life.”
In the final weeks of his life, Frank did a series of interviews to promote his new book, The Hard Path to Unity: Why We Must Reform the Left to Rescue Democracy, which will be released in September. He entered hospice a few weeks ago and knew he would not make it to the book’s release date.
Frank explained in a May 8 interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he believed Democrats should get rid of far-left litmus tests that he said limited the party’s electoral prospects and turned away voters — but added that he thought Israel should be treated differently.
“I’ve been talking about the importance of repudiating positions from the left and from the far left, but the Israel one is almost 180 degrees” different, he told JTA. “It’s the one area where we are not doing enough in terms of making our position clear.”
Frank, who considered himself a Zionist and supporter of Israel, said Democrats need to be much clearer about their opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. He said Netanyahu is the “enabler” of rising anti-Israel Democrats, such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“It’s what the Democrats should be doing, it’s what America should be doing, and it should be what the Democrats are advocating, is giving an ultimatum that [Netanyahu] either changes things substantially in Gaza and the West Bank, or we cut off any aid,” Frank said in the interview. “We’ve now gone to the point where supporting Israel has become unpopular, and that’s all Netanyahu’s doing.”
But, Frank added, opposition to Netanyahu should not be seen as opposing Israel’s very existence.
“We should make it clear that the right position here is to support Israel’s right to exist, but to be unwilling to facilitate what they’re doing militarily and to give them an ultimatum,” said Frank.
Plus, bipartisan push for Jewish American Security Act
Jeffrey Dean/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, speaks during a campaign event ahead of a primary election at Veterans Memorial Park in Vanceburg, Kentucky, US, on Monday, May 18, 2026.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down the results of yesterday’s critical primaries, including Rep. Thomas Massie’s loss in Kentucky and Chris Rabb’s win in PA-03, and report on the introduction by Sens. Jacky Rosen and James Lankford of the Jewish American Security Act. We look at how Democratic officials speaking at the Center for American Progress’ convening on Tuesday sidestepped discussions about Israel even as it held multiple sessions on the Middle East, and cover a new report from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies warning about the effects of the erosion of American Jewish support for Israel on the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nick Valensi and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
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 House of Representatives is expected to vote today on the Iran war powers resolution sponsored by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The vote comes a day after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who last week fell short in his reelection bid after President Donald Trump endorsed an opponent, flipped his vote to advance a similar Democratic-led measure in the Senate. More below.
- The House Education Committee’s subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions is holding a hearing this morning on antisemitism in the healthcare field, with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’s Deena Margolies, Dr. Jacob Agronin, Bend the Arc CEO Jamie Beran and American Jewish Medical Association CEO Eveline Shekhman set to testify. Read more here.
- Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) is among those slated to speak at a hearing being convened this morning by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the State Department’s budget request for its adjacent entities.
- The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center in a session titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate.”
- Elsewhere in Washington this morning, the Jewish Federations of North America, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History are hosting a congressional breakfast to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month. Sam Salz, who in 2022 became one of the only Orthodox Jews to play Division I college football when he walked on to Texas A&M’s team, will give the breakfast’s keynote address.
- Down Pennsylvania Ave., the Hudson Institute is holding an event with Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, on modernizing public diplomacy to address global challenges. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) is slated to give introductory remarks at the event.
- The Federalist Society is hosting its inaugural Legislative Branch Summit today in Washington.
- In Israel, the Knesset unanimously advanced a bill to dissolve the body, which if passed would automatically trigger elections, which are slated to take place no later than October 27. The bill will still need to go through several more readings and votes before it is passed.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Pro-Israel and Republican Jewish groups helped oust one of their leading GOP antagonists on Tuesday night, aligning with President Donald Trump to defeat Rep.Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the most expensive House primary in recent memory.
Ed Gallrein, a military veteran and farmer recruited by the Trump White House to challenge Massie, decisively defeated the congressman by 10 points, 55-45%. Massie, a libertarian lawmaker who long cast lonely Republican votes against Israel funding and resolutions condemning antisemitism, increasingly trafficked in bigoted rhetoric in the closing weeks of the campaign.
In his concession speech, Massie continued his antisemitic vitriol against his opponent, telling the crowd: “I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.” Even though Trump’s outspoken opposition was the leading factor behind his demise, he routinely blamed Jewish and pro-Israel donors like Miriam Adelson for costing him his seat and insinuated that Israel was buying seats in Congress.
Massie first drew the ire of Trump for voting against his “big beautiful” reconciliation bill last year, and the anger was exacerbated by his work with Democrats to force the Department of Justice to release all of the files involving Jeffrey Epstein.
Outside groups, including a Trump-aligned super PAC (MAGA KY) and those affiliated with the Republican Jewish Coalition, AIPAC and Christians United for Israel, spent aggressively with ads and billboards attacking Massie over his record, with several pointing out his opposition to Israel and Trump’s foreign policy.
Massie’s defeat also underscores Trump’s strong and continued support within the party, with his endorsements in primaries almost always translating into his candidate’s victory. His opposition to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) led to his defeat last week, and he successfully ousted most of the Indiana GOP state senators who opposed his redistricting efforts.
POLICY PRIORITIES
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) on Tuesday introduced the Jewish American Security Act, a broad new effort by the lawmakers, who co-chair the Senate antisemitism task force, to address antisemitism across multiple sectors of American society, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Similar legislation is also expected to be introduced in the House.
About the bill: The bill contains various provisions aimed at increasing security for Jewish communities through additional funding and federal resources. Key provisions include: additional security assistance and improvements to security grant programs for Jewish communities; addressing antisemitism on college campuses through new federal oversight measures including a federal official to handle campus antisemitism; and addressing the spread of antisemitism online by requiring new transparency reports from social media companies, among a range of related steps in each category.
EIGHTH TIME’S THE CHARM
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) joined with Democrats to vote for a procedural motion advancing legislation that would end U.S. military operations against Iran, allowing the war powers resolution to move forward on Democrats’ eighth such attempt since the war began, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: Cassidy, who last week fell short in his reelection primary effort against a Trump-backed challenger, joined three other Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rand Paul (R-KY) — in voting for the procedural motion, which was approved by a 50-47 vote. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted against the motion. The passage of the motion will now tee up further debate on and an additional vote on the resolution itself, at a time to be determined.
Money messages: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on U.S. allies on Tuesday to “step up” and join Washington in taking aggressive economic action against Iran and its broader terrorism financing networks, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
LEAVING FINGERPRINTS
A newly launched super PAC with ties to Republicans has spent nearly half a million dollars to help boost a Democrat running for a competitive open House seat in Texas who is facing growing bipartisan furor over a series of virulently antisemitic social media remarks, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Boosting Galindo: Lead Left PAC, the GOP-linked group, has been aggressively promoting Maureen Galindo, a fringe San Antonio activist who finished first in the primary and has said that Jews “own Hollywood” and “worship the synagogue of Satan.” Last week, she said that, if elected, she would turn a local immigration detention center “into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,” while adding, “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
Bonus: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed Galindo’s comments, saying that “bigoted garbage and antisemitism should be nowhere near our politics” and suggesting that the “donors behind the Republican super PAC funding her should be exposed.”
MENDING FENCES
A new study from the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute of National Security Studies warns that American Jews’ ties with Israel have weakened in recent years, and Israeli leaders do not seem to care enough about how these shifting attitudes might affect Israel’s national security. If Israel ignores the growing distance with the American Jewish community, the country could face long-term consequences, authors Ted Sasson and Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis argue, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Words of warning: “An American Jewish community that is less supportive of Israel would leave Israel more isolated globally, less capable of extending soft power, and less confident in its role as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Sasson, a Middlebury College professor and INSS scholar, and Ben Sasson-Gordis, director of the Israel-United States Research Field at INSS, write.
DEM DISCUSSIONS
On Tuesday, more than a dozen Democrats pitched their vision for America to a roomfull of liberal donors, staffers and funders at the Center for American Progress’ IDEAS Conference, a convening that pledged to bring together “the broad center-left’s leading thinkers and doers” to offer ideas on a range of policy topics. American foreign policy was one of those topics. In the two sessions on national security, each of which devoted significant discussion to the Middle East, one topic was notably absent: Israel, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Iran war opposition: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) kicked off the gathering with an address billed as “National Security Ideas for the Future.” He cited his own experiences as a member of the Marine Corps who served in Iraq, arguing that the war in Iran is misguided and harming Americans. ”I’m here today because right now our country is in danger. Will this president continue to drag America into another endless Middle East war?” Gallego said. “This is a war that wasn’t planned, wasn’t authorized and is not making us safer. [Donald] Trump got his war, and working families got stuck with the bill every day.”
FLOURISHING FRIENDSHIPS
While some geopolitical relationships have been tested by the Iran war, others have been strengthened: Emerging alignments between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and India are creating new opportunities for cooperation among three countries increasingly bound by shared defense and economic interests, experts told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Overlapping interests: On Friday, India and the UAE agreed on the framework for a strategic defense partnership, a step that could deepen ties between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi amid the regional fallout from the war. Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that the partnership also extends to Israel, which has remained a key ally of both countries. He said the emerging alignment is rooted in overlapping economic and strategic interests and shared adversaries.
Worthy Reads
Narrative War: Days after The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof published a piece alleging numerous abuses of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security officials, Kristof’s colleague on the Opinion desk, Bret Stephens, observes the documented history of news outlets publishing falsehoods about Israel without basic fact-checking. “The common thread in these and many other stories is that they all involve strenuous, if ultimately embarrassed, efforts to prove that Israelis deliberately seek to kill the innocent and maim the vulnerable, apparently for no other reason than gratuitous cruelty. This isn’t a matter of reporters’ impartially trying to expose wrongdoing wherever they find it — if that were the case, the errors wouldn’t invariably lean in the same ideological direction. It isn’t speaking truth to power. It’s feeding narratives to the credulous.” [NYTimes]
Drawing Down Aid: In The Wall Street Journal, the American Enterprise Institute’s Daniel Samet argues in favor of winding down U.S. aid to Israel, calling it a “political liability” that could affect the future of the relationship between the countries. “Military aid to Israel, which Washington began supplying in significant amounts during the 1960s, has been a sound investment. The U.S. has financed a reliable ally that fights and wins wars against America’s enemies. Yet Israel no longer commands the affection of the American people as widely as it once did. Ending military assistance is a political imperative in changing times.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
U.S. forces in the Indian Ocean seized an Iran-linked oil tanker that had been under U.S. sanctions since March; the vessel was believed to be carrying upwards of a million barrels of crude oil that was loaded earlier this year from Iran’s Kharg Island…
The New York Times reports on an Israeli-developed plan, backed by the U.S., for former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was under house arrest in Tehran, to be installed as the leader of Iran; the plan reportedly fell apart after the hard-liner was injured on the first day of the war in a strike intended to free him from house arrest and, per the Times, “became disillusioned with the regime change plan”…
Ahmadinejad biographer and Israeli analyst Meir Javedanfar dismissed the report, calling it “a disinformation campaign initiated by those that tried to assassinate him”; Javedanfar said that the “disinformation is being used to create chaos within the ranks of the Islamic Republic of Iran” following what he described as “an assassination attempt gone wrong”…
Iranian state media reported that Tehran had offered a new proposal to the U.S. that would include the withdrawal of U.S. troops from areas near Iran, an end to hostilities targeting both Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon and reparations for damages the regime sustained in the recent war…
The United Arab Emirates said that three drones that targeted the country’s nuclear power plant over the weekend originated from Iraq, deepening speculation that Iran, which backs militias in the country, was behind the attack…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the challenges facing Kuwait following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that has halted the Gulf state’s ability to ship crude oil…
President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s primary challenge against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday, dealing a significant blow to Cornyn’s bid for a fifth term, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
Former CIA officer Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, an ally of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, is departing her senior roles at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of Management and Budget to return to the private sector…
The Senate passed a resolution honoring Jewish American Heritage Month by unanimous consent…
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), responding to Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) primary defeat, said that Massie “lost because he had the guts to stand up to the Epstein class and against the war”; the California Democrat, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, said he welcomed “voters who feel rejected by Trump,” pledging to “build a movement to stand for Team America”…
The South Carolina Statehouse approved a new congressional map that would eliminate the district represented by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the state’s only Democratic district; the new map will next head to the state Senate for a vote…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has in recent days held a series of meetings and listening sessions with Wall Street executives, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, after Mamdani angered business leaders by filming a video outside the home of Citadel’s Ken Griffin in which the mayor announced a plan to tax second homes in the city…
Police in New York are investigating the death of a Jewish bakery owner and former Hatzolah volunteer whose body was found in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing after he was shot in the neck and back…
The Strokes announced that guitarist Nick Valensi, who is Jewish, won’t be participating in the band’s upcoming summer tour, weeks after Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas said on the “SubwayTakes” web series that “American Zionists get the benefits of white privileged people, but talk like they are Black people during slavery”…
Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland‘s newly arrived ambassador to Israel, announced that Hargeisa planned to open its embassy in the country in Jerusalem…
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed that the International Criminal Court was seeking a warrant for his arrest; the ICC would not comment on the claim, saying that requests for warrants are confidential…
In what he said was a response to the ICC’s request for a warrant, Smotrich threatened to evict residents of the West Bank Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar…
Comedy writer Barry Blaustein, a longtime collaborator of comedian Eddie Murphy who worked on the screenplays of “Coming to America” and “The Nutty Professor,” died at 71…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is in Prague this week for meetings with senior officials, announced the launch of the Israel-Czech Republic Business Forum alongside his Czech counterpart, Petr Macinka.
Birthdays
Emmy Award-winning singer and songwriter, Rachel Platten turns 45…
CEO at Kings’ Care – A Safe Place, operator of multiple drug and alcohol rehabilitation and treatment centers, Ilene Leiter… Canadian businesswoman and elected official, she served in the Ontario Assembly and in the Canadian House of Commons, Elinor Caplan turns 82… Former member of the New York State Assembly until 2020, representing the 97th Assembly District in Rockland County, Ellen Jaffee turns 82… Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CT) for 20 years, he was born in a DP camp in Germany after WWII, Sam Gejdenson turns 78… Chagrin Falls, Ohio, attorney, Robert Charles Rosenfeld… CEO emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Michael S. Miller… Seamstress and weaver, Bernice Ann Penn Venable… Retired in 2022 as a federal judge for the Southern District of Texas, she is now a mediator and arbitrator, Judge Nancy Ellen Friedman Atlas turns 77… Five-time Emmy Award-winning producer and writer who has worked on “Saturday Night Live,” PBS’ “Great Performances” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Alan Zweibel turns 76… U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) turns 75… Former director of international affairs, policy and planning at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, following 12 years at the ADL, Michael Alan Salberg… Professor at Tulane, he was president of the Aspen Institute, CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time, Walter Isaacson turns 74… Born in upstate New York as Michael Scott Bornstein, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and then member of the Knesset, Michael Oren turns 71… Actor and singer, known for her work in musical theater, Judy Kuhn turns 68… CEO and founder of Abrams Media, chief legal analyst for ABC News and the founder of Mediaite, Dan Abrams turns 60… NYC location scout and unit production manager for feature films, TV and commercials, David Brotsky… Co-founder and CEO of Breitbart News, Larry Solov turns 58… Senior advisor at Majority Democrats, Ami Copeland… French singer and actor, at 13 she became the youngest singer to ever reach No. 1 in the French charts, Elsa Lunghini turns 53… Co-president of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, Matthew Silverman turns 50… Principal of public policy at Amazon, Philip Justin “PJ” Hoffman… Program officer of Jewish life at the Michigan-based William Davidson Foundation, Vadim Avshalumov… Founder and CEO of Berkeley, California-based Caribou Biosciences, a genome engineering company, Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D…. Senior director of government relations and strategy for the ADL, Lauren D. Wolman… Executive communications leader, Susan Sloan… VP of digital advocacy at McGuireWoods Consulting, Josh Canter… Beauty pageant winner who was awarded the title of Miss Israel 2014, Doron Matalon turns 33… Master of public policy candidate at Oxford University, Aylon Berger turns 26… Conservative political activist, he is a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Kyle Kashuv turns 25…
If Republicans end up ousting a lawmaker trafficking in some of the ugliest bigotry, while Democrats anoint a future lawmaker pushing extremist antisemitic conspiracy theories, it’s a sign of the direction both parties are headed
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Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, speaks during a campaign event ahead of a primary election at Veterans Memorial Park in Vanceburg, Kentucky, US, on Monday, May 18, 2026.
Today’s primaries in Kentucky and Pennsylvania may well serve as an early test over which party is more effectively dealing with its own antisemitism problems.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the few remaining anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, has been spewing antisemitic tropes in the closing days of the campaign, portraying Congress as Israel-occupied territory and caricaturing wealthy Jewish donors as the fuel behind his opponent’s support, as he tries to fend off a serious challenge from Ed Gallrein, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, state Rep. Chris Rabb — who shared a post on his Instagram account promoting a conspiracy theory that the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney in which 14 Jews were killed was a false-flag operation perpetuating Israeli interests — holds the late momentum in an open Democratic congressional primary to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA). (Rabb’s campaign blamed a former campaign staffer for the offending post.)
A parade of progressive stars, from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to Jamie Raskin (D-MD), have traveled to Philadelphia to campaign with the Democratic Socialists of America-backed Rabb. Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker likewise rallied with Rabb and held a fundraiser with him where attendees chanted: “Free Palestine!”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), representing the more mainstream wing of the Democratic Party, held a rally on Monday to boost one of Rabb’s leading challengers, state Sen. Sharif Street.
Gallrein and Rabb both appear to hold late momentum in their respective races. If the two end up winning, the conventional wisdom — and corresponding coverage — will rightly conclude that a Massie defeat came as a result of Trump’s outspoken opposition to the congressman and that a Rabb victory will be the result of progressives’ ascendance within the Democratic Party.
But that will only tell part of the story. If Republicans end up ousting a lawmaker trafficking in some of the ugliest bigotry, while Democrats anoint a future lawmaker pushing extremist antisemitic conspiracy theories, it’s a sign of the direction both parties are headed.
It’s well-documented that antisemitism is rising on both the left and the right, especially among younger Americans. As many experts have noted, it takes leaders calling out anti-Jewish hate from within their own party to combat it most effectively.
To be sure, Trump’s fury towards Massie has little to do with the congressman’s antisemitism. It’s mainly a result of the congressman voting against several of the president’s legislative priorities, while pushing legislation to require the Department of Justice to release files on Jeffrey Epstein.
But at least he’s giving the party cover to confront its own extremism. The comparative silence over Rabb from Democratic leaders speaks volumes over how hard that is to do.
In August 2025, O’Donnell hosted a popular far-right influencer best known by his online pseudonym ‘Raw Egg Nationalist’ on his podcast for a friendly discussion
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons
Marty O’Donnell
Marty O’Donnell, a Republican candidate in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District recently endorsed by President Donald Trump, hosted a Nazi supporter on his podcast last year, months after filing to run for Congress.
O’Donnell is an outsider candidate who also ran in the district in 2024, placing fourth in the GOP primary. He was best known before his political career as the music composer for the “Halo” video game series.
But with Trump’s endorsement — as well as backing from the National Republican Congressional Committee’s MAGA Majority program — the unlikely political candidate has become the favorite for the nomination, despite facing a former U.S. ambassador to Iceland, among others.
In August 2025, O’Donnell hosted Charles Cornish-Dale, a popular far-right influencer better known by his online pseudonym “Raw Egg Nationalist,” on his podcast for a friendly discussion. Repeatedly, over the course of multiple years, Cornish-Dale has shared antisemitic and pro-Nazi content on his Raw Egg Nationalist X account.
Those posts include a quote from Mein Kampf alongside a meme featuring a man in a Nazi uniform in front of a swastika flag; a reference to the “zog” — a conspiracy theory claiming Zionist control of the U.S. government and society; the shorthand “HH” — which stands for Heil Hitler; an advertisement for “Blood, Soil and Grass-fed Beef” t-shirts — referencing a Nazi and white nationalist slogan; and various other Nazi-sympathetic posts.
In his introduction to the interview, O’Donnell acknowledged that Cornish-Dale has been “accused of many weird — fascist, nationalist, white nationalist, misogynist, you name it — he’s been accused of everything. And of course I’m being accused of those things too, so I had to talk to him to find out what’s true and what’s not true.” He called the interview “one of those sort of marriages made in heaven.”
“Charles Cornish Dale was booked by Marty’s production team. Marty was unfamiliar with Dale before the interview and was unaware of these posts shared by Jewish Insider until we received the inquiry,” Keith Schipper, a spokesperson for O’Donnell, said in a statement. “Marty’s support of Israel is unequivocal and, as seen in various interviews and online posts, he will not tolerate the rise of anti-semitism in our country. Marty will continue to fight bigotry, misinformation, and hate toward Israel because it is the right and moral thing to do.”
Later in the interview, O’Donnell again dismissed criticisms of Cornish-Dale, including accusations of white nationalism and misogyny, as not credible. Cornish-Dale responded, “Once upon a time you were a Nazi if you held specific political beliefs and worshiped Adolf Hitler and all that, and now you’re just a Nazi if you’re right wing” — glossing over his own past commentary.
O’Donnell’s personal Discord server — The Marty Army — which he has used and promoted for campaign purposes, also contains a number of users who have shared antisemitic, pro-Nazi and anti-Israel sentiments, even as O’Donnell himself has personally debated with and threatened to ban some of those users from the server — and appears to have banned at least one such user.
Some of those comments, including a series of comments deriding the Anti-Defamation League, have been shared in a channel dedicated to O’Donnell’s congressional campaign.
O’Donnell’s friendly interview with Cornish-Dale comes in spite of his own personal history of speaking out against antisemitism and in support of Israel on social media, in the Discord server and in other public forums.
In a recent podcast interview, O’Donnell leaned into the religious and historical connection between Jews and Christians, and emphasized the West’s “Judeo-Christian” heritage.
“These Christian weirdos who are heretics, who say, ‘Oh, well, the Jews killed Jesus.’ Like, no, Jesus said, ‘No one takes my life from me. Amen. I lay down willingly. I’m doing my Father’s will.’ This is the plan for saving humanity, and it’s a Judeo-Christian plan. That’s God’s plan. That’s the people He chose,” O’Donnell said.
He said he believes that politics now is a form of “spiritual warfare,” including against antisemitic figures on the far right.
“How else do you explain Candace Owens? How else do you explain Tucker Carlson? Some evil spirit has clouded their minds, whether they’re just grifting for money or something evil is happening, but it’s spiritual warfare,” he said.
“Antisemitism, or Jew Hatred, is NOT ‘woke right’. Groypers, [Nick] Fuentes, and his followers are as far from the right as any of the godless Marxist progressives are,” he said at another point on X last year.
Alex Bores has invoked his labor bona fides through his union chief father in his run for the heavily Jewish Manhattan seat
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Alex Bores at Human Rights Campaign Greater New York Dinner held at the Marriott Marquis on February 07, 2026 in New York, New York.
New York state Assemblymember Alex Bores’ father, a former union president, has worked to advance his son’s ambition to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in a heavily Jewish Manhattan House seat. But William Bores has spent campaign season raging online against Israel and Jewish people more broadly, even cheerleading the killings of Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The elder Bores served as president of a Communication Workers of America local union representing the broadcast industry from 2023 until April of this year. Both the larger district council for New York City and Alex Bores cited William’s long involvement in the labor organization when the union endorsed the state lawmaker’s congressional bid last month. William Bores and his wife have also lent their names and personal attestations to a mailer, produced by a supportive political action committee, backing the Alex Bores campaign.
William Bores, a veteran ABC technical director, has also taken to boosting his son’s bid on social media, including on his Threads account.
But elsewhere on that account, William Bores — who did not respond to repeated outreach for this story — has in recent weeks equated support for a Jewish national homeland with the ideology of Adolf Hitler, declaring on different occasions: “Zionists are Nazis!,” “Zionism=Nazism” and “Zionists and Nazis, one and the same.”
When an account called “officialmuslimblog” posted a celebratory announcement of a Hezbollah ambush upon IDF troops in early April, William Bores replied with an excited note of his own.
“Nazis and Zionists, both better when dead,” he wrote.
He also replied to a post about the death of a 19-year-old IDF soldier in Lebanon with “one less murderer,” and the report of the death of another young Israeli sergeant with “Another murderer gone!”
William Bores also reacted to a piece of viral disinformation, claiming the killing of 11 female Israeli soldiers was “Karma.”
Bores has reacted similarly to reports of the killing of Israeli civilians. also reacted to an alert about a 52-year-old Tel Aviv security guard’s death from the shrapnel from an Iranian missile by writing, “What a shame, the world lost another supporter of genocide.”
Days later, in response to a post about an 11-year-old girl from Bnei Brak succumbing to injuries sustained during a separate Iranian strike last month, the elder Bores wrote “FAFO” — an acronym for “f**k around and find out,” a popular Internet phrase indicating a person has received a deserved comeuppance. He has in recent days taken to routinely posting this shorthand in response to claims of Israeli casualties, on one occasion adding, “too bad Zionism only brings death to the Middle East.”
Although he has maintained that his aversion is to “Zionists [and] not Jews,” William Bores has also lashed out at various expressions of Jewish religion, history and identity.
On April 23, in reaction to a video from a Hasidic wedding, William Bores wrote: “All men, in bizarre uniforms, dancing! So cult like.” A few days later, in response to a U.K.-based Jewish influencer who had posted a video expressing that his “wish for 2026 is simple. That Jewish people around the world face less hate, and can live proudly and peacefully without fear,”
William Bores wrote,“Start by ending the genocide in Gaza, and commit to pay for rebuilding.”
In response to a video about a Mizrahi Shabbat dinner, the political paterfamilias wrote “Proud of genocide?”
When Rabbi Shmuley Boteach posted about Holocaust Remembrance Day, William Bores replied, “Do you remember the holocaust Israel is responsible for in Gaza? The victims, 80 years later, have become the victimizes [sic].”
William Bores has also raged against some of the congressional lawmakers with whom his son, if elected, could work in Washington, declaring last fall that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) are “bought and paid for by Israel.”
Bores’ campaign did answer whether the candidate was aware of his father’s views, or of his Threads account.
“I love my dad, value what I’ve learned from him, and disagree with many of the things he’s said,” the lawmaker said in a statement to JI. “His posts don’t reflect who I am or what I believe. It’s a dynamic a lot of families can recognize. I have my own record and my own views and those are what this campaign is built on.”
While Alex Bores is not Jewish, he has stressed his connection to the community via his wife and her family, and taken strongly supportive stances toward Israel. The liberal and heavily Jewish district has long elected pro-Israel Democrats to represent it.
Citing the estimated $29 billion cost of the Iran war, the House minority leader asked, ‘How is it possible that we can't spend at least 500 million’ on NSGP?
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks during his weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on March 19, 2026.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called for a dramatic increase in funding of the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program, telling a group of Jewish activists on Wednesday that it should receive $1 billion — up from the $300 million that Congress allocated in last month’s homeland security funding bill.
“The not-for-profit security grant funding program is woefully underfunded. It’s woefully underfunded. $300 million is not acceptable,” Jeffries said at the Jewish Democratic Council of America’s leadership summit in Washington.
He pointed out that the Pentagon now estimates the cost of the war with Iran so far is $29 billion, and Democrats believe it is possibly much more.
“We think it’s probably double that. But even if you just take the $29 billion number, how is it possible that we can’t spend at least 500 million? I think the number should be even higher,” said Jeffries. “Why wouldn’t we spend a billion dollars to make sure that the communities that we care about across this country are safe?”
The $300 million approved by Congress last month is a small increase from the $274.5 million allocated to the program in 2024 and 2025.
Jewish organizations have for years been lobbying for Congress to significantly increase the federal budget for the program, which provides security grants to vulnerable nonprofits, including synagogues and Jewish day schools, arguing that its current level does not come close to meeting the security needs of Jewish institutions. In 2024, more than half of all applications for NSGP funding were declined.
Jewish communities and institutions are “now spending an outsized amount of budget funding to provide security in America,” Jeffries said. “That should not happen.”
A group of 41 senators last month called for $750 million in funding for the program next year. Last month, a coalition of interfaith groups called for Congress to increase NSGP funding to $1 billion. A bipartisan group of 150 members of the House asked the House Appropriations Committee in March to increase funding to $1 billion, although no members of House leadership in the Democratic or Republican Party signed onto it.
‘Should the president make the decision to recommence … we would have all the authorities necessary to do so,’ the defense secretary told lawmakers
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (C) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine (R) testify during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense hearing to examine the 2027 budget for the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2026.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday that the Trump administration does not plan to and does not believe it needs to seek congressional approval should it decide to resume military operations in Iran, further sidelining Congress at a time when a growing number of Republicans are becoming hesitant about continued U.S. military operations.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who has been working on an Authorization for Use of Military Force to set parameters for the operation in Iran, said that the War Powers Act makes clear that the administration must terminate hostilities within 60 days without congressional approval, a timeline that expired on April 28. She said it did not appear, despite the administration’s assertions, that the hostilities in the Gulf had actually ended.
“Our view is that, should the president make the decision to recommence, that we would have all the authorities necessary to do so,” Hegseth responded.
Hegseth and other top military leaders testified to both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees on Tuesday.
During the hearing, which took place a day before President Donald Trump is set to depart for China to meet with President Xi Jinping, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) emphasized that Beijing is “propping up Russia and Iran” and that it would have a significant capability to pressure Iran into changing course if it were to cease purchasing oil from Iran.
Graham also continued to voice concerns about Pakistan’s role as a mediator in the U.S.-Iran talks, citing a report from the day prior about Pakistan hosting Iranian military aircraft on its military bases. Both Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to comment on those reports.
“That tells me we should be looking maybe for somebody else to mediate” between the U.S. and Iran. “No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere,” Graham told the military officials. “I appreciate all you’ve done, I’m very supportive of it, but when it comes to Pakistan and China, enough already.”
Jules Hurst III, the acting Pentagon comptroller, said that the cost of the war thus far, including munitions used in the war, is around $29 billion, a sum that Democrats countered seemed low.
Hurst acknowledged that estimate didn’t include the potentially sizable costs for rebuilding U.S. installations damaged or destroyed in Iranian counterattacks. He said that the costs of such rebuilding would be dependent on the U.S.’ posture and needs going forward and potential contributions from host countries.
He indicated it could also increase further depending on costs for repairing or replacing damaged aircraft.
Hegseth and Caine insisted that the U.S. maintains sufficient munitions stockpiles to carry out any missions that are required, though Caine said that he appreciated efforts by Congress to provide funding for more munitions production.
Hegseth also asserted that the war had been massively successful in achieving the U.S.’ goals, and that the U.S. has the capabilities for a range of scenarios including resuming the war, to ensure that it will end on the U.S.’ terms.
“There are lots of different discussions with our negotiating team, they’re happening … different drafts, different perspectives. It’s a very dynamic situation where a negotiated settlement could be the outcome here, where Iran does not have nuclear capabilities,” Hegseth said. He sidestepped questions about the specific terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Pressed on whether Iran’s support for terrorism and ballistic missile program are part of negotiations, Hegseth said that the negotiations are not his responsibility but “we have world-class negotiators” and “the core of it is the nuclear weapons issue” but “those other factors are always a factor.”
Asked by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, whether the U.S. had anticipated the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Caine declined to discuss the specific advice he provided to the administration but said that the military had considered the full range of potential consequences.
“It seems to me that there’s been a different plan almost daily [for] dealing with this problem,” Collins said.
Caine said that the issue of the Strait of Hormuz is a complex one, as Iran uses small boats and low-cost drones to attack larger vessels, but urged Iran to “think wisely about their next moves” and open the waterway voluntarily.
Hegseth emphasized the effectiveness of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, insisting that “the economic pressure that creates on them greatly outstrips the pressure on us. … Nothing’s going in that we don’t allow to go in. And trust me, when we look at what Iran’s thinking about that — they know they can’t break it.”
He repeatedly dodged questions about specific plans for reopening the strait and securing trade moving through it in the short-term. He said that there are “certainly” military means by which the strait could be re-opened, but said that a diplomatic deal is the “preferred long-term approach.”
On both sides of the aisle, in both hearings, senior lawmakers raised questions about the administration’s decision to split off more than $300 billion of the proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget request into a proposed partisan reconciliation package, rather than trying to pass it through regular order. That request was also finalized prior to the war in Iran.
Lawmakers warned that reconciliation packages would not be a sustainable path to growing and maintaining U.S. defense capabilities in the long term, and that a third reconciliation package might not be feasible at all this year.
Rep. Tom Barrett of Michigan said military operations ‘are ongoing’ despite the administration’s claim otherwise
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Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) conducts a news conference at the Republican National Committee after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Sept. 9, 2025.
Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) on Thursday introduced an authorization for use of military force (AUMF) in Iran that would limit the length and scope of U.S. military operations, dismissing assertions by the administration that the operation that began in February had already concluded.
The AUMF marks one of the most concrete actions by congressional Republicans thus far to limit U.S. operations against Iran, and may preview further action by Republicans wary of the undefined and unclear scope of and plans for U.S. action against Iran. Senate Republicans are working on a similar AUMF effort.
In a statement, Barrett’s office noted that the administration notified Congress on May 1 that the use of military force against Iran had concluded, meeting a 60-day deadline under the War Powers Act for executive use of military force without congressional approval.
But, Barrett’s office noted, U.S. operations “are ongoing” and described his AUMF as an effort “reclaiming Congress’s authority under Article 1 of the Constitution and giving President Trump clear legal authority to stop Iran from procuring a nuclear weapon with clear safeguards and limitations.”
The AUMF would authorize the administration to use U.S. military force against Iran’s nuclear program, against “imminent threats” to U.S. forces or facilities by Iran or its proxies, to blockade Iran’s ports and to protect safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz — but that authorization would terminate on July 30, which falls 90 days after the War Powers Act deadline, irrespective of the current tenuous ceasefire agreement.
Barrett’s AUMF provides a 30-day wind-down period “only as necessary to end the deployment or engagement of the Armed Forces.”
The resolution would ban “sustained ground combat operations” in Iran, seizing or holding any territory within Iran and “nation-building or stabilization operations or the establishment of long-term security governance within Iran.” This would prevent the U.S. from occupying Iran’s Kharg Island oil facilities, an option discussed earlier in the war.
It would permit rescue operations or intelligence collection or sharing.
Barrett’s legislation states that U.S. servicemembers and the American people “deserve to know the clear mission scope and objective for the use of any military force.”
“Two things have been clear from the very beginning: Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the United States of America cannot be dragged into another endless war,” Barrett, a veteran, said in a statement. “The Commander in Chief has the sole authority to lead our troops in wartime, but I’ve lost too many friends on the battlefield to allow that to happen without Congress exercising its constitutional role to clearly define the mission with safeguards and a deadline. If we don’t learn from our foreign policy failures of the past, we are bound to repeat them.”
Barrett hails from a swing district rated as a toss-up by the Cook Political Report. His decision to introduce an AUMF comes amid concerns that the war could be a political liability for Republicans in the midterm elections in November.
The AUMF also requires detailed reports to Congress every 30 days on the U.S. operations — addressing frustrations from both sides of the aisle about a lack of information from the administration — including an explanation of the legal authority and policy justifications for “each action and operation” undertaken, the “expected scope and duration” of these actions and an assessment of civilian and military casualties.
The House is likely to vote on a Democratic-led war powers resolution to halt operations in Iran when it returns next week, which could pass. Progressive House Democrats have teed up a series of additional war powers votes in the coming weeks, with plans to force votes as frequently as every day.
Under the War Powers Resolution, a president cannot sustain military operations for more than 60 days without congressional approval or requesting a 30-day extension
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) talks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Senate Republicans are increasingly skeptical about the future of U.S. military engagement in Iran as the 60-day deadline for the war mandated by the War Powers Resolution approaches.
Under the 1973 law, the president cannot sustain military operations for more than 60 days without congressional authorization or a formal declaration of war, after which U.S. forces must be withdrawn. The White House can request a 30-day extension — with written justification to Congress — should it present “unavoidable military necessity.”
Short of a formal declaration of war, Congress can authorize continued operations through an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), similar to that enacted following the 9/11 attacks, which would provide the legal basis for the administration to sustain the campaign.
But the prospects for such a measure remain uncertain, as it would require a high-stakes public vote that could divide Republicans.
With the 60-day deadline approaching this week, GOP lawmakers told Jewish Insider they expect the White House to comply with the statute and notify Congress of a 30-day extension — though they remain uncertain and divided over whether they would support authorizing continued military action.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said he will not “quibble” over whether the exact deadline is met, however he stressed that the White House should respect the law on the books.
“I’m not going to quibble over a day or two, but people are saying we don’t know if the War Powers Resolution is constitutional … the reality is it’s on the books, ratified by Congress,” Tillis said. “[The White House should] follow it and at least ask for an extension, and give us clarity on why you need the extension beyond the 60 days. Then it gives them 30 days to be clear on what they need for the appropriations request,” he said, referring to the coming supplemental funding request from the administration.
Tillis did not indicate whether he believed an authorization would be needed, but said he would “support an AUMF that is drafted and supported by Republicans.” He called the recent rounds of war powers votes initiated by Democrats “political theater.”
“They’re not a serious effort to understand the details of what the president wants to accomplish and then provide congressional support to do it,” Tillis said. “I think if we do that, it strengthens our hand in dealing with the murderers posing as the mullahs of Iran.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) did not commit to whether he would support an AUMF. He told JI that it will depend on several factors, including an explanation from the White House.
“It’ll depend on the information that they [the White House] provide to us, and we’ll see if they’re actually intending to stay there for an extended period of time, or if they’re going to have boots on the ground, or whether they’re going to be withdrawing from the area based on any kind of peace agreement,” Rounds said.
Rounds said his “expectation” is that the White House will “notify us [Congress] of an additional 30-day extension.”
“We’ve begun the process now of both classified and an open hearing tomorrow,” Rounds said, referring to a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing taking place on Thursday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine. “So I think now steps will start to happen in terms of a more complete congressional review.”
However, Rounds noted that regardless of where the war heads, he expects that “this chapter in our history has not closed.”
“I suspect we’re still going to have to deal with an Iranian regime, which is a threat to the entire world,” he said.
Tillis said he had not heard anything on the White House potentially asking for a 30-day extension, but said in response to Rounds’ comments that “[Rounds] is on the Senate Armed Services committee, so that’s good news. I would expect Senate Armed Services Committee members to know before me. That’s good.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) also did not signal whether he would support an AUMF. While he noted that he believes the White House has “been very careful to follow the war powers framework this whole conflict,” he stressed that he would like to see hostilities wind down and is skeptical of voting for a move that opens up the conflict further.
“Hopefully [there will be] an end to the war,” Hawley said, adding that he hopes “the president and secretary of state will be able to come back to Congress [and say] that they’re working to end the conflict and that active hostilities are over.”
He added that he wants the White House to do something “better than ask for 30 more days.”
“Clearly the president is trying to get to a peace deal here, I mean he says it everyday. It’s clear what he’s trying to do. He does not want to go back,” Hawley said. “We’re not bombing. He has said he doesn’t want to go back to that, which I agree with by the way. So I think we should bring this to a close.” President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he’s rejecting Iran’s latest proposal to end the war as it omits any concessions on the country’s nuclear program.
Hawley said that Congress “can always debate an AUMF” if the White House doesn’t ask for a 30-day extension, but emphasized that he would prefer to “keep on that track” of winding down the war.
“I don’t really want to authorize a war, I want to end it,” Hawley said. “If we can’t, if the administration doesn’t ask for more time, if there are no additional certifications from them, I think we’re in AUMF territory, which would be kind of unfortunate. I would prefer not to vote to open up a conflict that I think ought to be wound down.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), meanwhile, said that he would be “open” to supporting an AUMF, but “would be skeptical that it could pass.” He added that Trump is “relying on his own power within the Constitution.”
“We don’t have any American troops on the ground, and I don’t think that’s the president’s idea,” Cornyn said. “I mean, we’ve seriously degraded their ability to threaten their neighbors and that’s a good thing.”
“But unfortunately, it looks like now the supreme leader is out of the picture, that the more radical IRGC elements [are coming to power], which you can’t trust them so I wouldn’t trust any agreement that you might have,” Cornyn added. “I think President Trump ought to finish the job he started and make sure there’s not a threat to us or to the region for the foreseeable future.”
Dozens of GOP lawmakers sent a letter last year urging the president to fill the position created in 2023
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) speaks to reporters as he leaves the House Republican Conference meeting in the U.S. Capitol on December 10, 2025.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) expects Congress to make another “big push” to urge President Donald Trump to fill the role of special envoy for the Abraham Accords once the Iran conflict subsides.
The role was created in 2023, when Lawler and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a bill to establish a Senate-confirmed, ambassador-level special envoy position dedicated to expanding the Abraham Accords and Middle East normalization. The measure was ultimately signed into law as part of the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Tasked with strengthening and expanding regional normalization, the special envoy would be responsible for coordinating U.S. strategy across regional embassies, nongovernmental organizations, and international stakeholders.
But despite the legal mandate, the position has remained open. The vacancy has drawn frustration from congressional Republicans, with 47 House GOP members sending a letter in January 2025 urging Trump to immediately fill the post while condemning former President Joe Biden’s failure to do so during his term.
Lawler told Jewish Insider that he would “like to see it filled,” noting that the evolving situation in the region has increased the need for the position. He said it is something he will “continue to advocate for.”
“Obviously there’s been a lot happening in the Middle East over the last year and a half. As we see the situation in Iran get resolved, I do think the Abraham Accords is going to critical moving forward,” Lawler said. “I would like to see somebody fill that position and be entirely dedicated to that work, which I think is going to be a key part of keeping stability in the region.”
Asked whether he expects House Republicans to make another push similar to the January 2025 letter urging Trump to fill the position, Lawler replied: “I do. I think we will.”
“As you see the situation in the Middle East, from the standpoint of Iran, resolve, there will be a big push again on the special envoy.”
“Look, obviously a lot of the focus has been on the role of Steve Witkoff, the [White House] special envoy, and he has been hyper-focused on a lot of these issues that are covered in the Abraham Accords. So I think in some capacity they have been doing this work,” Lawler added. “But I think long term, this was a position we created to accentuate one of the president’s biggest achievements of his first term.”
Rasoul will instead remain in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he is chair of the Education Committee
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Sam Rasoul of the Virginia House of Delegates speaks during a rally on the National Mall on May 31, 2021 in Washington, DC.
A Virginia state lawmaker with a history of inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric who had been exploring a congressional run announced on Friday that he would instead remain in the state’s House of Delegates.
Sam Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who is the son of Palestinian immigrants, said he would hold onto his seat in the state Legislature to continue focusing on his work chairing the Education Committee, a role that has garnered concern from the state’s Jewish community due to his heated comments.
The decision comes days after Virginia voters approved a new congressional map that is likely to deliver four additional House seats to Democrats, prompting a reshuffling as politicians in the state opt to run — or not to run — for the newly drawn Democratic-friendly seats.
“Over the past few months, I have been evaluating the best path forward for me to continue serving our communities as we witness the Trump administration use our taxpayer dollars to fund a genocide abroad and wage an illegal and immoral Middle East war, all while our infrastructure and education systems are left crumbling here at home,” Rasoul said in a statement. “After careful consideration, I have decided that I will not be running for Congress this year.”
He urged congressional leaders to “champion Medicare for All, tackle the affordability crisis, and fight for an arms embargo on Israel.”
Rasoul came under fire last year from Jewish leaders in the state after posting a series of anti-Israel messages on social media that critics say veered into antisemitism. “Zionism has proven how evil our society can be,” he wrote on Instagram last summer, in a post that also called Zionism a “supremacist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way.”
The Jewish Community Relations Councils for the Washington metro area, Richmond, Virginia Beach and Newport News called last August for Rasoul to be removed from his position as chair of the Education Committee, but that push was not successful.
Plus, Dems concerned over fraying Israel-Europe ties
Daniel Torok/The White House via Getty Images
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) sit in the Situation Room as they monitor the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, at the White House on June 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced this afternoon, with the status of negotiations with Iran up in the air and the expiration of the ceasefire quickly approaching, that he is indefinitely extending the ceasefire at the request of Pakistani negotiators (despite having said, as recently as this morning, that he was not inclined to do so).
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured … we have been asked to hold our Attack … until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other”…
Talks were meant to begin shortly in Islamabad, but Vice President JD Vance’s trip was reportedly put on hold and he remains in Washington. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were all spotted arriving at the White House for meetings this afternoon.
Iran also had not committed to sending its own delegation — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire through its blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, calling it an “act of war. … Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying,” he wrote…
U.S. forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean that had been sanctioned for working with Iran which defense officials said was currently carrying Iranian oil, in a further escalation of the U.S. campaign against Tehran-aligned assets and actors outside of the Middle East.
The Treasury Department also announced sanctions on 14 individuals and entities in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for “their involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian regime”…
Six weeks after he was announced as Iran’s new supreme leader after the assassination of his father, Mojtaba Khamenei has still not been seen in public, raising speculation he is incapacitated from injuries sustained in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike or has been smuggled abroad…
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) endorsed Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) view that the U.S. should reconsider its funding for the Lebanese Armed Forces in light of its continued inaction to disarm Hezbollah, in addition to the Lebanese government’s failure to “follow through on long-promised economic reform. The era of complacency & unconditional bailouts must come to end,” Risch said…
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) clarified that his post calling it “awesome” that several Iranian oil tankers had bypassed the U.S. blockade — reporting that has been disputed as Iranian propaganda — was written as sarcasm. “[O]bviously Trump’s bungled mismanagement of this war is not ‘awesome.’ As I have said a million times here, it’s a disaster and he should end the war immediately,” Murphy wrote on X…
Democratic lawmakers are expressing concern over Israel’s fracturing relationship with key European allies, while experts say the shifting dynamics could carry longer-term economic and political risks for Jerusalem, even if Israel weathers threats to unwind largely symbolic defense agreements, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Among other recent moves, Spain and Ireland led a push today to suspend the EU’s association agreement with Israel. The initiative stalled as member states remained divided on the issue; still, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called the developments “deeply alarming.”
“NATO allies like Spain, France and Italy are turning their backs on Israel, a key democratic partner that is actively fighting on the front lines against Iran,” Gottheimer said. “Singling out Israel represents a double standard”…
The arsonist who pleaded guilty to attacking a North London synagogue on Saturday night was released on bail by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. The 17-year-old boy who threw a bottle containing accelerant through the window of Kenton United Synagogue must live and sleep at his home address and not enter any synagogue, the judge said. It was the third such attack on a Jewish institution in London within a week…
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) resigned from Congress this afternoon, half an hour before her House Ethics Committee sanctions hearing was due to begin. Having lost jurisdiction in the matter, the committee canceled the hearing…
The Board of Peace is reportedly in discussion with the UAE-owned DP World logistics company about managing supply chains and humanitarian aid in Gaza, including potentially building a new port and developing a free-trade zone, according to Financial Times, as part of the Trump administration’s vision of privatizing much of Gaza’s services and infrastructure…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at how Jewish Democrats in Michigan are making sense of their place in the party in the wake of a state convention where pro-Israel voices were shouted down and a pro-Hezbollah candidate won the party’s nomination for a statewide race.
The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing evaluating the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions.
A vote on the fifth Iran war powers resolution in the Senate, expected today, has been pushed to tomorrow.
92NY will host a discussion on the future of New York’s Jewish community with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and New York City Comptroller Mark Levine.
The New York City Council’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will hold its first hearing. The task force was established by Menin in January, shortly after her election, to make recommendations and work towards her five-point plan to combat antisemitism.
Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate will host a unity dinner in partnership with the NFL, Hillel International, United Negro College Fund and the Pittsburgh Steelers for Black and Jewish college students from the Pittsburgh area. The event will include a fireside chat featuring Kraft, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch.
Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie will hold a meet-and-greet with young Jewish professionals.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) will speak in conversation at Yeshiva University with its president, Rabbi Ari Berman, about her new book, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.
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IRON DOME DECISIONS
J Street’s Ilan Goldenberg said the surge in far-left calls to cut off missile-defense aid ‘stirred up the conversation a little more’ but says the group was moving that way regardless
CAMPAIGN CLASH
Adam Hamawy said on Hasan Piker’s show that he does not support Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, arguing that it insulates Israel from the consequences of war
Adam Hamawy said on Hasan Piker’s show that he does not support Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, arguing that it insulates Israel from the consequences of war
Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network
Sue Altman, executive director at New Jersey Working Families Alliance speaks to the rally outside Rep. Josh Gottheimer's office on September 20, 2021 in Glen Rock City.
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.
Hamawy said last week in an appearance on far-left streamer Hasan Piker’s show that he does not support Iron Dome because it insulates Israel from the consequences of war.
“When we talk about the Iron Dome or any kind of defensive weapons, what it is doing is insulating Israel from having to make decisions to make peace, and it really isolates them from having to deal with the consequences,” Hamawy said. “It’s like giving a bully body armor to go bully people some more. We need to be able to have them feel the effects of war, and then they’ll stop and actually have a conversation.”
He also said that he supports financial sanctions on Israel, asking “what makes it different than Russia or Iran?”
Altman, speaking to Jewish Insider on Monday, pushed back forcefully against Hamawy’s comments.
“Reasonable people can agree that the U.S. doesn’t need to be subsidizing military spending for a prosperous ally. And reasonable people can agree that we should be treating Israel as the same as all other prosperous allies,” Altman said. “But where I draw the line is — and where I feel like progressives need to draw the line is — that we absolutely cannot and should not ever be cheerleading and wishing for the deaths of Israeli children.”
She said that she believed that more Israeli civilian deaths are Hamawy’s goal.
“It is clear that this was a policy end and a policy goal for my opponent, and that is beyond the pale,” she continued. “I have spoken out against atrocities in Gaza, I have spoken out against the settlements in West Bank, and I think it is possible to be aligned in the ways America spends its money to support our allies, but I am disgusted by the very thought of wishing for Israeli civilians to die or be rained upon by missiles aimed at killing them.”
She said that the policy articulated by Hamawy constituted an “encouragement of further conflict and further death,” adding that “the absolute last thing we need in the Middle East is more civilian death.”
“My work is about reconciliation and peace. I build coalitions. I believe in democracy and hope. I am not someone who’s for revenge and death,” Altman said. “I think that the Democratic Party should be better than this. We need to have alignment of U.S. and international law, and treat Israel like we treat other [allies]. But I am not for a politics of revenge and death. I am not for recreating the dark and violent dynamics of the Middle East in our Democratic primaries. Our party is better than this. The people of the 12th deserve better [than] this, and we need long-term peace.”
A Hamawy spokesperson accused Altman of seeking support from pro-Israel groups, though her own positions on the issue have significantly shifted to the left and would likely make her unable to receive their support.
“Dr. Adam Hamawy survived multiple bombings while working in a hospital in Gaza to save the lives of children. He knows the cost of war and opposes all wars. He is seeking to end these wars while Sue Altman is yet again positioning for support from AIPAC and DMFI,” a Hamawy spokesperson said.
Altman, during her 2024 campaign in a neighboring congressional district, took a stronger pro-Israel stance and received an endorsement from Democratic Majority for Israel, but said she’s been pained by what she has seen in the years since then in Gaza and has shifted her own positions.
Altman said she now supports the Block the Bombs Act and conditions on U.S. aid to Israel. But she said she does not support a full arms embargo on Israel and does not support financial sanctions. She said that Israel remains an ally but that she does not support a “blank check” or “unconditional aid” and does not want U.S. taxpayer funding “paying for civilian deaths in the Middle East.”
She said that she wants to “build towards a relationship with Israel like we have with other allies” and to treat Israel “in accordance with international law.” Regarding Iron Dome, she said she’s aligned with J Street and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that she does not want the U.S. to subsidize Israel’s acquisition of the system, which is jointly produced, but thinks Jerusalem should be allowed to purchase it from the U.S.
“To be very clear: I want the Iron Dome to exist. The U.S. has worked together with Israel to create that system. I think it’s really, really, really important to keeping civilian life safe, and that is crucial for me,” Altman said. “And at the same time, I’m not convinced American taxpayer money needs to be going to a prosperous ally to subsidize that. It seems like they could afford it on their own, even as I very much think it needs to exist.”
Altman sees the Israeli government as a “problem,” and called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, but said she wants Israel to continue to exist and feels no ill will toward the Israeli people “and I think making that distinction is crucial.”
“I want to believe in an Israel that is a strong democracy. I want pro-democracy fighters and advocates from Israel to be strong in the state,” Altman said. “And I want there also to be a two-state solution. And maybe that’s a boring old take, but I believe it’s the only way to peace. And I find this entire conversation to be really scary and sad, because I want so desperately for us to have an ally in Israel that we can believe in, but not one that’s causing atrocities and war crimes in Gaza and elsewhere.”
Altman said she has “lost more sleep” about the U.S.-Israel relationship than she has about any other issue in the campaign, saying she previously strongly “admired Israel” but feels that it has “really gotten away from being the democracy they were” and that she has found the developments in Gaza “horrific.”
Asked about Hamawy’s decision to appear on Piker’s stream, she said she wasn’t expecting an invite, and that she “would be very challenging to [Piker]” if she ever was invited on. She said she’s “not surprised” that Hamawy did appear on the show, but “I’m not going to give him campaign advice.”
Altman told JI she has been “disturbed” by antisemitism she has seen in both parties, and that it is “appalling,” condemning it along with Islamophobia. She said she would work to provide additional security assistance to both Jewish and Muslim communities, and that she wants to see hate crimes prosecuted strongly.
Hamawy, who worked for several months in Gaza as a physician during the war, said that the experience was transformative and shaped his approach to his political career, accusing Israel of deliberately targeting civilians rather than targeting Hamas. He called the U.S. “the villain in this whole story.”
“I’m paying for this. I’m paying with my own tax dollars,” Hamawy said on Piker’s stream. “And I come home and people don’t believe what’s happening. I witnessed it with my own eyes. I took care of these children, and I felt guilty that I got to leave.”
He also asserted that nearly all of the patients he saw were civilians and that he had seen no evidence of Hamas using hospitals in Gaza as military facilities.
“I saw no weapons at all, no one that looked at all like a military person. And 99.9% of the people coming in were clearly civilians, unless you want to call any young man who’s 20 years old a combatant, which is not reasonable.”
Plus, Israel-Lebanon talks to continue Thursday
Edna Leshowitz/Getty Images
Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John. F Kennedy who is currently running for Congress, on Jan. 12, 2026 in New York City.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Iranian officials have signaled they will attend talks with the U.S. in Islamabad, Pakistan, this week, with Vice President JD Vance, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to depart for the meeting tomorrow (despite President Donald Trump’s claim that they were already in transit this morning).
Negotiators are up against a running clock, as Trump said today that his two-week ceasefire with Iran will end “Wednesday evening Washington time” and it’s “highly unlikely that I’d extend it” if no deal is reached…
In a series of heated social media posts, Trump again denied that Israel dragged the U.S. into war with Iran: “[T]he results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” were his motivation, he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also boasted that the deal under negotiation will be “far better” than the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “If a Deal happens under ‘TRUMP,’ it will guarantee Peace, Security, and Safety, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for Europe, America, and everywhere else,” he wrote. Lashing out at the media, Trump insisted, “I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well,” claiming the U.S. blockade, “which we will not take off until there is a ‘DEAL,’ is absolutely destroying Iran”…
The State Department confirmed that the U.S. will host the second round of ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday, as the 10-day ceasefire between the two countries that began last Thursday, after the first round of talks, continues to hold…
Republican operatives and strategists are growing increasingly concerned that the GOP may lose the Senate in the midterm elections, several told Politico, as rising gas prices and unease around the war with Iran create a poor national environment for Trump’s party.
The New York Times’ Nate Cohn argues that Democrats have a “realistic chance” to flip the four seats they need to win back the chamber because “they’ve recruited unusually strong candidates in three states that supported Mr. Trump three times: North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska.”
“In all three states, the Democrats’ likely nominees are popular recent statewide office holders. They either won their last campaign or were highly competitive in losing re-election under less favorable political conditions. So far, the polls show those Democrats running well ahead of what one might otherwise expect,” Cohn writes…
Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg’s shifting views on Israel policy and decision to skip two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums are raising eyebrows in New York’s heavily Jewish 12th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
During a candidate forum at 92NY last week, for example, Schlossberg rejected continued U.S. funding for offensive weapons to Israel amid the war in Iran — even as he emphasized support for boosting the Iron Dome missile-defense system, which he described as a “critical” technology…
Minnesota’s Democratic Party is poised to endorse progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for U.S. Senate at its convention next month, Flanagan’s campaign said, after the lieutenant governor secured support from over 90% of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party local conventions held statewide. The party endorsement, however, will not determine the nominee, as Democratic voters are set to choose their candidate in the Aug. 11 primary election.
The campaign of Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), Flanagan’s primary opponent and the favorite of pro-Israel activists, called on the DFL last week to launch a formal investigation into a series of alleged instances of antisemitic activity among its delegates. One instance at a local convention last month reportedly saw an unnamed delegate argue that “we should nuke” Israel…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the growing feud between Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which “spilled out into public view on Thursday, when Driscoll described to lawmakers his fondness for the Army’s former top general, Randy George, whom Hegseth fired as the service’s chief of staff on April 2 while Driscoll was on vacation”…
A Washington Post investigation found that, since January 2025, neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes has made nearly $900,000 through paid messages on his livestreams from roughly 11,000 fans. His top 500 donors are responsible for almost half of that amount…
The UAE has asked the U.S. to consider offering it financial assistance amid the war with Iran, as the Gulf country has borne the brunt of Iran’s drone and missile strikes, taking a heavy toll on its oil, economic and tourism industries. Emirati officials raised the idea of a currency-swap line, which would allow Abu Dhabi inexpensive access to U.S. dollars…
European officials hosted two meetings on Gaza reconstruction today — one gathering, led by EU representative Kaja Kallas and Norway, centered on coordinating aid with the U.S.-led Board of Peace, where White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum requested international assistance in rebuilding the enclave. The other forum, led by Kallas and Belgium, focused on a two-state solution and was attended by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa…
In response to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s condemnation of an IDF soldier found to have desecrated a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon, Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, accused the IDF of committing war crimes.
“Lessons should also be drawn regarding the way they are being trained,” Sikorski wrote on X. “IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages”…
Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar affirmed that his country is bound by rules of the International Criminal Court to arrest those sought under its warrants, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Magyar said he intends to prevent Hungary from leaving the ICC, a move his predecessor, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, had initiated.
Responding to questions about Netanyahu’s claim that Magyar had invited him to the country for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising, Magyar responded, “Every leader is welcome to attend this important commemoration,” but “we have a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, and I’m sure [Netanyahu] knows this”…
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced this afternoon that he will step down from the helm of the tech giant and become its executive chairman in September. Succeeding Cook is John Ternus, head of the company’s hardware engineering…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for an interview with Rachel Goldberg-Polin on the release of her book, When We See You Again, which debuts tomorrow.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a nomination hearing for Kevin Warsh, son-in-law of Jewish philanthropist Ronald Lauder, to be chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Democrats intend to press Warsh on his personal fortune, which he has only partially disclosed thus far.
The House Ethics Committee will hold a public hearing to determine whether to apply sanctions to Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), after finding last month that she had committed serious ethics violations and campaign finance misconduct.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission will hold a hearing on Iran’s support for Russia amid its war with Ukraine.
The Senate Foreign Relation Committee’s subcommittee on Africa will hold a hearing on U.S. approaches to counterterrorism on the continent.
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LATIN LINKS
An Israeli diplomatic source told JI that Ecuador and Paraguay are expected to join the Isaac Accords
MICHIGAN MOMENT
Platner, in Reddit post on Hamas terrorist attack: ‘From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent’
The New York Republican talked to JI about her leading role holding university presidents accountable
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on her nomination to be Ambassador to the United Nations on Capitol Hill on January 21, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has long been a vocal advocate for combating antisemitism and active on Middle East security issues. But it was her questioning at a December 2023 hearing that made her a household name in the American Jewish community and beyond, and drew her into the center of the unfolding fight on campus antisemitism.
“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your school’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment?” Stefanik asked the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Their equivocal responses, as disruptive and at times threatening anti-Israel protests were sweeping universities across the country, were a major factor in the resignations of two of those presidents and a slew of further hearings that put college presidents in the hot seat.
Now, as she prepares to leave Congress next year, Stefanik is out with a new book on campus antisemitism, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.
More than two years after that first hearing — and after a tumultuous political period in which she saw her nomination as ambassador to the United Nations withdrawn before launching a short-lived New York gubernatorial campaign — Stefanik offered a mixed readout on how she sees the state of American higher education in an interview with Jewish Insider this week.
“In the year after the hearing, we saw that the universities failed to fix themselves and continued to dig deeper and deeper, and it was going to take significant administrative and legislative and frankly, appropriations action of withholding of funds, to force them to really reckon with what the American people saw loudly and clearly in that hearing, [which] is that there are deep-seated issues in higher education,” Stefanik said.
She said that there have also, however, been leadership changes at many of the universities that were probed by the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, in part because of those hearings, as well as overhauls such as the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs at some schools.
“The other piece, I would say, is you’re seeing parents and students vote with their wallets and their feet,” such as the rising application and matriculation rates to schools like Vanderbilt University, which Stefanik has highlighted as having handled the post-Oct. 7, 2023, environment effectively.
The New York congresswoman argued that the hearings played a major factor in the reform efforts that followed. She also said that the Trump administration, even before it took office, has been sharply focused on the issue of campus antisemitism, coordinating closely with her office to help shape the administration’s lawsuits and executive orders on the issue.
Asked about anti-Israel and antisemitic voices in the Republican Party such as commentators Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, Stefanik largely dismissed the idea that antisemitism was, or could become, a significant problem within the GOP.
“The difference between [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and those podcasters is Mamdani is elected to the most important city in the world as mayor, and those other names are not elected, and I think are often overstated [in] their influence,” Stefanik said. “They would not be elected to local office, to state office, to congressional office. That’s why I think it’s very important for actual elected officials, actual leaders, to speak out on issues of importance.”
She praised Trump for calling out Carlson and Owens and making clear that they don’t represent him or his voters, and argued that similar voices represent just a small fringe of Republican members in Congress.
Pressed on the fact that such voices represented a similarly small fringe of the Democratic Party in Congress a decade ago, Stefanik insisted that Republican voters would not embrace such voices.
“The Democrat[ic] Party — it’s a full blown takeover of Hasan Piker, of these voices that The New York Times is now embracing, and ‘Pod Save America’ is now embracing,” Stefanik said. “That is not the case on the Republican side. And as a candidate who actually has stood in front of the voters for the past decade-plus — yes, those voices can say what they want, you actually represent the people that elect you, and that’s not what voters in my district [want].”
Despite the relatively small share of Jewish voters in her district, Stefanik said that her work on campus antisemitism still receives some of the strongest praise from constituents.
Though the administration’s initial blitz of action on campus antisemitism has faded from the headlines, Stefanik said its efforts to address issues in higher education are ongoing, and that the issue also remains top-of-mind for the country at large.
“It’s not just about antisemitism,” she added. “This is broader higher education reform. … That was the canary in the coal mine issue that brought up so many broader issues that were wrong with higher education.”
In Congress, she said that more legislation should be brought to the floor on campus antisemitism, adding that she’s also hoping to work on reining in funding to colleges, cracking down on tax advantages and loopholes that benefit colleges and further limiting foreign funding and foreign student populations at U.S. institutions in her remaining months on the Hill.
She pointed to Qatar as one driver of antisemitism on campuses, and said that the U.S. should make clear to Doha that, if it wants to remain a military partner with the U.S., it “can’t foment and fund this anti-Americanism on college campuses, full stop.”
Stefanik isn’t yet sharing her next steps, but said she wrote her new book in part to serve as a historical record of antisemitism on college campuses, so that “mainstream media” can’t “brush this chapter under the rug.” She said she intends to continue shining a light on the issue.
Though she ultimately passed on a gubernatorial run, Stefanik seems to have longer-term plans in New York politics, and said that Republicans will be in a stronger position to win in the state in the coming years.
Regarding her decision to drop out of the governor’s race, Stefanik argued that the political environment is not currently ripe for a GOP victory, that Republicans need more time to build their statewide infrastructure and that Mamdani’s policies will grow more unpopular in the next few years.
“I think the Democrat Party is going to be increasingly taken over [by Mamdani-aligned socialists],” Stefanik said. “That, long-term, is where Republicans can win back those independents and traditional Democrats.”
Stefanik drew a direct line between the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University and Mamdani’s election — both because Mamdani’s father is “very much part of this antisemitic petri dish” at Columbia and because “the same people that were organizing the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia directly were boots on the ground for [his] campaign.”
She called herself “the leader” among state Republicans in pushing back against “socialist and Democrat single-party rule of New York State,” and highlighted that she has her own statewide political apparatus — separate from the statewide GOP, which she said lacks infrastructure.
“There is going to be a long road in rebuilding that infrastructure to save the state,” she said.
She also said she wanted to spend more time with her four-year-old son at this stage of his life.
“My voice is not going anywhere. If anything, it’s more. I mean, we’re putting this [book] out in the world and helping set the tone for the type of leadership we need in New York and, frankly, across the country,” Stefanik said.
Plus, Vance courts pro-Israel donors ahead of 2028
Adri Salido/Getty Images
The Lebanese capital is seen from a viewpoint after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that would commence at midnight local time on April 16, 2026 in Beirut, Lebanon.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced the start of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon to begin at 5 p.m. ET today, after he held phone calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Trump added that he will be inviting Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for “meaningful talks,” later telling reporters such a meeting could happen in the “next week or two.”
The text of the agreement released by the State Department indicates the ceasefire is a “gesture of goodwill” on Israel’s part “intended to enable good-faith negotiations” toward a permanent agreement. The temporary pause in hostilities could be extended if Lebanon “effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty” and prevent Hezbollah from carrying out attacks against Israel…
Trump again indicated further talks with Iran could take place this weekend and said the two sides are “very close to making a deal,” telling reporters this afternoon that Iran has already agreed to “give us back the nuclear dust,” referring to its highly enriched uranium.
Hours earlier, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned at a press briefing that U.S. forces are “maximally postured” to return to military operations against Iran if negotiations are unsuccessful, and will look to attack “infrastructure, power and energy”…
The House narrowly voted to block a Democratic resolution to force an end to the war in Iran by a vote of 214-213-1, with all but one of the four Democrats who opposed a similar effort in March changing their votes to support today’s measure, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Juan Vargas (D-CA) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who voted last month against a similar resolution, flipped their votes to support the war powers effort. But Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who is retiring at the end of his term, voted no again. On the Republican side, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who voted for the war powers resolution last time, switched his vote to “present.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only Republican who voted for the resolution…
Vice President JD Vance, the first vice president to serve simultaneously as finance chair of his party, is building donor relationships that may prove useful should he choose to run for president in 2028, The New York Times reports, including attempting to woo some pro-Israel donors who have otherwise been wary of his ties to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson.
Among others, Vance has developed relationships with Jewish philanthropists Miriam Adelson, whom he spent New Years Eve with at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and Paul Singer; has appeared as the guest of honor at a dinner hosted by Palantir and 8VC co-founder Joe Lonsdale; and has been featured at a Republican National Committee event hosted by tech executive Keith Rabois, who is married to Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg…
With less than six weeks to go until the Texas primary runoff election, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is defending his seat against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with a significantly larger war chest: As the first quarter of 2026 closed, Cornyn had more than $8 million in cash on hand (including a small donation from former President George W. Bush), while Paxton had $2.6 million in the bank. Whoever clinches the GOP nomination will face state Sen. James Talarico, who has nearly $10 million on hand…
Josef Palermo, who was the first curator of visual arts and special programming at the Kennedy Center until his dismissal last month, recounts his experience as Trump and the center’s then-President Richard Grenell initiated an overhaul of the building, a process Palermo describes as “cronyism, incompetence, and a series of bizarre moves.”
Palermo recounts an exhibition he organized commemorating the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in the building’s Israeli Lounge: “Speaking at the opening reception, Grenell warned the mostly Jewish audience that unless donors came forward to sponsor the space and pay for renovation costs, the lounge would be given away to a new donor. … Such a strong-armed fundraising pitch, at an event commemorating a pogrom, struck many of us in the room as inappropriate. I was mortified”…
Asked for his perspective on antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s reach on his platform, Twitch CEO Daniel Clancy said at the Semafor World Economy summit in Washington today that “one of the challenges is when you’re livestreaming you say a lot … you might say a lot of things that are over the top. … If you violate [community guidelines] then we take enforcement actions and we suspend you — it’s designed not to kick you off forever.”
“Whenever Hasan has stepped over the line, we’ve taken action … Folks will get worked up from both the right and the left on this because we have also conservative people that are saying certain things that some people don’t like. … In general, we think it is important for us to allow people to express themselves,” Clancy said…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a temperature check on support for Israel within the Democratic Party, in light of 85% of Democratic senators voting in favor of a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-led measure to block military sales to the Jewish state.
France and the U.K. will co-host a conference tomorrow focused on restoring freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, with leaders from several European, Asian and Gulf countries participating via video.
Michigan’s Democratic Party will hold its endorsement convention on Sunday, where party activists will nominate their two preferred candidates for the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents. The election has reignited the campus’ debate over Israel, as candidate and anti-Israel activist Amir Makled seeks to unseat Jewish regent Jordan Acker, who became the target of antisemitic vandalism and harassment in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. (The SEIU labor union recently pulled its endorsement of Makled over his past support of Hezbollah.)
National party leaders including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will appear at events in Detroit ahead of the convention.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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Plus, Senate Dems dominate 2026 fundraising
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference on committee assignments for the 118th U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A war powers resolution brought by Senate Democrats to force an end to the war in Iran was blocked by Republicans yet again this afternoon, the fourth failed attempt mounted by Senate Democrats since the war began in late February, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Nevertheless, top Senate Democrats have said they intend to continue forcing such votes weekly (they have nine more resolutions already filed) in the hopes that more Republicans will change their votes as the war drags on…
Texas state Sen. James Talarico announced he raised $27 million in the first quarter of 2026 in his run for U.S. Senate, a massive haul that his campaign claimed is the largest amount ever raised by a Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year. Democrats hope the funds will put Texas in play as Talarico seeks to challenge either Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are still locked in their own hotly contested primary.
The top Senate fundraisers behind Talarico this quarter were also Democrats: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) brought in $14 million — breaking the record for first-quarter fundraising in Georgia — former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper raised $13.8 million and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) raised $12.5 million…
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) said he raised $1.1 million in this year’s first quarter, bringing his total to $4.4 million raised — more than any other House incumbent or candidate in New Jersey this cycle, according to the New Jersey Globe — as he defends his swing seat from several well-funded Democratic challengers.
But even as he’s pulled in plenty of support, Kean has missed a month’s worth of votes on Capitol Hill due to an unspecified medical issue, with his staff declining to say when he will return…
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in an interview on the “Pod Save America” podcast praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with President Donald Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“I believe the thing that has been very fascinating, especially about Marjorie and Candace, is that … they’re saying, ‘This action is wrong,’ right? They’re saying, ‘I am done with you.’ We should give them credit for that, the fact that they’ve had this wake-up call to finally seeing this con man, this corrupt, chaotic man for what he is,” Omar said…
Sebastian Gorka, the White House senior director for counterterrorism and a deputy assistant to the president, is reportedly angling for the position of director of the National Counterterrorism Center, which was recently vacated by Joe Kent amid Kent’s opposition to the Iran war. Gorka has been a staunch defender of Trump and backed his war with Iran, as well as repeatedly praised Israel amid its war in Gaza…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Péter Magyar, the presumptive next prime minister of Hungary, for the first time today, calling the conversation “warm” and saying that Magyar indicated he will continue the close relationship the countries enjoyed under his predecessor, outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul defended her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship today, JI’s Will Bredderman reports, legislation that has drawn legal scrutiny over its creation of a new felony offense for violators.
“I believe I have the right to protect people’s constitutional right to free exercise of religion,” Hochul told reporters when asked if she had concerns that the legislation might provoke challenges on First Amendment grounds. “So if that means we test it in court, bring it on”…
After holding its final public hearing earlier this week, the White House Religious Liberty Commission is now preparing a set of recommendations to be presented to the president next month. Ambiguity and confusion about the commission’s mandate has left commissioners unsure if they’ll continue to meet — their first year on the panel was marred by the firing of one commissioner over her disruption of a hearing on antisemitism…
Progressive media organization More Perfect Union is launching More Perfect University, an effort aimed at college students to act as an alternative to the conservative Turning Point USA, with a focus on urging young people to share left-wing political and economic messaging through social media. Faiz Shakir, the head of More Perfect Union who is also chief political advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign, said he hopes to jump-start “an economic populist movement for the next generation”…
Duke University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter has been suspended as a student group and had its funding frozen after it posted virulently antisemitic imagery depicting Israel and the U.S. as pigs frothing at the mouth on its Instagram page, prompting student complaints to campus administration…
University of Michigan President-elect Kent Syverud announced today he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will no longer assume the presidency, leaving the future of the school’s leadership in question. Jewish leaders had praised Syverud’s appointment as a positive development for UM, which had seen rampant anti-Israel activity in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of a first-of-its-kind antisemitism conference taking place tomorrow at Harvard, created as an outcome of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school.
New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District will hold its special election for the remainder of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s congressional term, where progressive Analilia Mejia is expected to prevail against Republican Joe Hathaway.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold nomination hearings for John Breslow to be U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and Preston Wells to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, among others.
The Shalom Hartman Institute will host a discussion at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, on American Jewry ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a budget hearing on the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
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Majority Leader Thune said about a congressional vote to extend the war, ‘hopefully that question won't be a necessary one that we’ll have to answer’
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) calls on reporters at the U.S. Capitol on January 14, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Tuesday that he’s hopeful that the war in Iran is close to winding down, in advance of a deadline that could require congressional action for the war to continue.
Under the War Powers Act, unilateral military action undertaken by the president without congressional authority is limited to 60 days — with a 30-day extension for draw-down purposes.
Thune emphasized that the administration’s current goal is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and that Senate Republicans support efforts to isolate the Iranian regime and their economy.
“We get the strait open again — and that’s sort of their last resort. The military effort here has been extraordinarily successful. This is sort of the last dying gasp of this regime, is to try and shut down the strait,” Thune said in a press conference after a GOP conference meeting. “The administration is making an effort to ensure that it’s open, that there’ll be traffic in and out there. And hopefully that will be successful and we can begin to see this thing wind down.”
Pressed on whether Republicans would be open to voting to continue the war if it extends beyond 90 days, Thune suggested that wouldn’t be necessary.
“At this point, most of us, I believe, feel pretty good about what the American military has achieved there in terms of its objectives,” Thune said. “It’s a hypothetical down the road. … I think the administration has a clear objective, a clear plan, and if they can execute on it, hopefully that question won’t be a necessary one that we’ll have to answer.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said that it’s “not quite time” yet for a full Senate discussion on the war, but said that he does want to see the administration more fully lay out its strategy and plan as the war continues and approaches the 60-day deadline at the end of April.
“We do expect that the administration will be laying out their plan for after the end of seven, eight, nine weeks,” Rounds said. “We have to know what the next steps are, and that’s part of our due diligence that we have to do.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) said that Republicans did not discuss the possibility of an authorization for the war during their meeting.
Other Republicans have argued that the provision of the War Powers Act that sets out the 60-day deadline, is not enforceable and that Republicans on Capitol Hill are not paying attention to it.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that the U.S. should “finish the job” rather than extending a ceasefire agreement with Iran if the regime is not willing to agree to U.S. demands, including a permanent end to nuclear enrichment, surrendering all of its already enriched uranium, fully reopening the strait and abandoning its ballistic missile program and support for terrorism.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that Senate Democrats plan to bring forward another war powers resolution to stop the war on Wednesday, and will continue to force votes on similar resolutions weekly until the war ends. For now, most Republicans seem likely to continue to vote against the legislation.
Senate Republicans also indicated that they’re not likely to attempt to include supplemental funding for the Iran war in an upcoming partisan budget reconciliation package, which is focused on border security and immigration funding currently being blocked by Democrats.
Thune, who has said he wants an “anorexic-like” reconciliation package, again indicated on Tuesday at a press conference after a Senate Republican lunch meeting that the package will be tightly “focused” to fund immigration enforcement.
“I think we’re going to do a very skinny reconciliation,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said when asked about Republicans’ discussions on Iran during the conference meeting.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that he has not heard anything about either the timing or the size of the supplemental request the administration plans to submit. Initial reports indicated that the Pentagon wanted to ask for $200 billion, but more recent reports have indicated that the final request will be lower.
Republicans have discussed advancing another reconciliation package before the end of the year, though some members of the conference, like Kennedy, have openly expressed skepticism that such an effort would be possible.
At this point, given the strong and widespread opposition among Democrats to the war in Iran, it’s unclear whether a funding package for the war would be able to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold necessary for passage in the Senate.
Plus, positive readouts from Israel-Lebanon talks in D.C.
Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni addresses the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
U.S.-Iran talks could restart in the next two days, President Donald Trump told the New York Post. “[S]omething could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go [back to Islamabad, Pakistan]” rather than a different mediating country, he said in an interview today.
Trump also indicated he wasn’t happy with reports that his own negotiating team had offered Iran a 20-year pause on its ability to enrich uranium. “I’ve been saying they can’t have nuclear weapons, so I don’t like the 20 years,” he said…
CENTCOM announced that no ships made it past the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in its first 24 hours, and six merchant ships “complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around”…
Saudi Arabia is reportedly pressuring the U.S. to end the blockade, fearing retaliation and disruption to other trade routes. Iran has threatened to mobilize the Houthis in Yemen to close off the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which Riyadh utilizes to move its oil exports out of the Red Sea…
European countries are drafting a plan to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz after the war ends, possibly without the participation of the U.S. As part of this effort, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France and the U.K. will co-host a conference on Friday of “non-belligerent countries ready to contribute” to the “multilateral and purely defensive mission”…
The Treasury Department said it will not renew a waiver set to expire later this week that temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian oil — the waiver had drawn condemnation from some lawmakers who had worked to institute those sanctions…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized at the outset of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in Washington this morning that the talks are a “process” that will “take time,” and that the objective of today’s meeting was to “outline a framework upon which a permanent and lasting peace can be developed” and bring a “permanent end to Hezbollah’s influence” in the region.
The State Department said after the meeting, the highest-level talks between Jerusalem and Beirut in over 30 years, that the sides “agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue,” though it did not indicate when or where further talks may take place. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told reporters that the parties “discovered today that we’re on the same side of the equation. That’s the most positive thing we could have come away with”…
Italy is suspending its defense agreement with Israel, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said today, declining to renew the agreement “in consideration of the current situation.” Italy had grown critical of Israel’s war in Gaza and has been noncooperative in the war with Iran, reportedly not allowing U.S. aircraft to land at its bases.
Trump railed against Meloni, who has thus far been an ally of his, in an interview with an Italian outlet today, saying he’s “shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong,” and claiming she’s “no longer the same person” after she called the president’s attack on Pope Leo XIV yesterday “unacceptable.” “It’s her who’s unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance,” Trump said…
Hamas has rejected the U.S.-led Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal, according to the BBC. The parties seem to once again be at an impasse, as Hamas tells mediators it will not continue onto the second phase of the ceasefire until it feels Israel has complied completely with the first phase, while Israel says it will not move forward until there is progress on disarming Hamas…
The New York Times details a tense event held by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in his Hudson Valley-based swing district where the lawmaker was pressed by constituents demanding answers and accountability on the Iran war; it’s seen as a harbinger of the growing discontent some Republicans will have to contend with around the largely unpopular war in the lead-up to the midterms…
The Union for Reform Judaism released a statement yesterday voicing concern about “efforts to single out AIPAC as a particularly malign influence in campaign finance. … [T]he harsh language being used by some to denigrate and vilify AIPAC borders on — and in some cases crosses over into — antisemitism.”
“Until such time as [C]ongress reforms the nation’s broken campaign finance system overall — an effort we would enthusiastically welcome — to single out AIPAC’s activity will continue to raise questions of antisemitic motivation,” the organization wrote, in a sign of how the demonization of pro-Israel donors and groups is raising alarms across the Jewish political and religious spectrum…
California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a progressive Jewish legislator running to fill Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) seat, was accused at a campaign event earlier this week of taking $50,000 from AIPAC by a constituent citing the far-left group TrackAIPAC. “I just want to be clear, I’m not accepting any support from AIPAC,” Wiener responded. “There are people who are gonna list out all my Jewish donors and say that. I’m not taking any support from AIPAC and I support the Block the Bombs Act”…
The Michigan arm of the powerful SEIU labor union announced today that it had rescinded its endorsement of Amir Makled, a candidate for the University of Michigan board of regents, in light of Makled’s deleted social media posts praising the terrorist group Hezbollah, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Makled is a Dearborn attorney who represented an anti-Israel protester who was arrested during the 2024 anti-Israel encampments at UM’s flagship Ann Arbor campus. A Detroit News report found that Makled had deleted posts praising Hezbollah’s leaders and retweets of antisemitic messages from the far-right influencer Candace Owens, as he now seeks to unseat Jewish regent Jordan Acker…
The relationship between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin appears to be growing increasingly acrimonious as Menin publicly distances herself from some of the mayor’s policies, Politico reports, including apparently helping to plan a protest outside Mamdani’s speech marking his first 100 days in office…
France is exploring legal options to bar rapper Kanye West from entering the country to perform at a concert in Marseille in June, after he was similarly banned and prevented from performing in the U.K. earlier this month. “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism,” the city’s mayor, Benoit Payan, wrote on social media…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look into the work of the Democratic National Committee’s Middle East working group, established last summer, including how it’s approaching intraparty divides over Israel policy.
Two of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) three joint resolutions of disapproval seeking to halt $658.8 million in sales of munitions to Israel are expected to receive a vote in the Senate tomorrow. Sanders and other progressive Democrats have forced votes on similar efforts to block arms sales to Israel on three previous occasions since the war in Gaza began, with a majority of the Democratic caucus — 27 lawmakers — voting to block at least one arms sale in July of last year, a significant jump in support from similar efforts in November 2024 and April 2025.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told reporters Democrats will likely force a vote tomorrow on another Iran war powers resolution, the third such vote after the previous two failed largely along party lines.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on reforming the U.N. with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform Jeff Bartos.
The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan will host an antisemitism town hall with Senior Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
Israel’s Sheba Medical Center will unveil ARC Landing Boston, its first health care accelerator based in the U.S., at an event featuring Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.
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Plus, Hasan Piker calls Hamas 'orphan children'
Jacquelyn Martin - Pool/Getty Images
Vice President JD Vance arrives for talks with Iranian officials on April 11, 2026 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz began this morning, with more than 15 American warships involved in the operation intended to pressure Iran into concessions after this weekend’s failed negotiations.
President Donald Trump said hours later that the U.S. was “called this morning by the right people, the appropriate people, and they want to work a deal.” Mediators including Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey are also reportedly attempting to revive talks between the parties…
One reported sticking point in the negotiations is a U.S. request that Iran agree not to enrich uranium for 20 years. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal was highly criticized for its sunset clauses, which lifted limits on activity including uranium enrichment after 15 years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked a similar timeframe at a Cabinet meeting today, saying he spoke with Vice President JD Vance yesterday who told him that the U.S. aims to ensure “there is no more enrichment in the coming years, and that could be in decades, no enrichment within Iran.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took issue with the timeline: “If this reporting is accurate, the idea that we would agree to a moratorium on enrichment rather than a ban on enrichment would be a mistake in my view. Would we agree to a moratorium for al Qaeda to enrich? No,” he wrote on X. “No enrichment means no enrichment”.…
Six additional Senate Democrats plan to file new war powers resolutions this week to halt the war in Iran, a move that would allow Democrats to continue forcing votes on the war for the foreseeable future, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Previously, a different group of six Democrats introduced similar resolutions, and Democrats have called up two of them thus far, with plans to call up a third this week. The latest group of lawmakers spans from staunch progressives and critics of Israel to generally more pro-Israel members, including Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Andy Kim (D-NJ)…
Citing an “increasingly sour national environment for Republicans,” the Cook Political Report shifted its ratings for four key Senate races in Democrats’ favor: The North Carolina and Georgia races now lean Democratic, the Ohio race is a toss-up and the Nebraska race is likely Republican, rather than solidly. Democrats would need to flip four seats to take back the chamber…
In another heated Senate race where Democrats hope to pick up a seat, former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) raised nearly $9 million in the first quarter of 2026, four times the amount her opponent, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), pulled in. The GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund has pledged to spend $15 million in the race, as polls show Peltola with a slight lead…
In an appearance on the “Pod Save America” podcast released yesterday, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker said he “stands by” his statement made in January that “Hamas is a thousand times better than a fascist settler-colonial apartheid state,” referring to Israel.
“I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time,” he said on the podcast, claiming Hamas is “entirely comprised … of orphan children that have had their parents killed by an apartheid state that has been dominating the lives of Palestinians for 80 years at this point. … Hamas’ tactics, which I oppose at times, or its like internal governance issues are secondary to this conversation”…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called for the federal government to “immediately” pull funding from Yale University over Yale Political Union’s decision to host Piker, who previously suggested that the senator should be killed. Piker is scheduled to speak on campus tomorrow for a debate titled “Resolved: End the American Empire.”
For Scott, Piker’s incendiary language is personal: the streamer was briefly suspended from Twitch last year after urging his followers to “kill Rick Scott.” “An elite private university that hosts an antisemite who says a Senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the U.S. deserved 9/11, shouldn’t get ONE CENT from taxpayers,” Scott wrote on X on Friday…
J Street is seeking to “set the record straight” after the group backed the growing calls among far-left lawmakers to end U.S. support for Israel’s missile-defense systems, including Iron Dome, despite its own criteria for its endorsees stating otherwise.
In a new FAQ, the group called Iron Dome “a critically important defense system” which it “supports and consistently lobbies for.” After the end of the Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel, which runs through Fiscal Year 2028, however, “financial subsidies to Israel should be rapidly and responsibly phased out. … Israel should pay for these systems”…
More Jews were killed in antisemitic incidents outside of Israel in 2025 than any year in the past three decades, according to a report from Tel Aviv University. Twenty Jews were killed last year in attacks in countries including Australia, the U.S. and the U.K., while the previous record was set in 1994 with the AMIA bombing, which killed 85 people in Buenos Aires, Argentina…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at a new poll assessing the partisan divide emerging among American Jews over pro-Israel political engagement.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will host a Yom HaShoah remembrance event at the Capitol, with a keynote address delivered by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Other speakers include several Holocaust survivors as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Lois Frankel (D-FL).
Amid the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group’s spring meetings being held in Washington this week, Jacob Helberg, under secretary of state for economic affairs, will speak at an event with the Atlantic Council about U.S. economic leadership in the Middle East, including utilization of the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, which has been floated as an alternative trade route to the volatile Strait of Hormuz.
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THE VIEW FROM ISRAEL
Israelis uncertain if Iran war made them safer after ceasefire brings combat to an inconclusive halt
After the ceasefire went into effect, there was a pervading feeling in Israel that the war with Iran was not complete, and the return to routine life may be short-lived
COMFORT FOOD
A traveling program called ‘Soul and Roll’ by singer Hananel Edri and Foodish CEO Merav Oren tells the Jewish story through an immersive culinary and musical experience
At least 50 House Democrats are calling for Trump’s immediate removal from office
Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks during his weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on March 19, 2026.
Top Democrats across both chambers condemned President Donald Trump for threatening that “a whole civilization will die tonight” in Iran, with some pushing for Trump’s immediate removal from office over the threat and his conduct of the war.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and other members of Democratic leadership including Reps. Katherine Clark (D-MA), Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA), issued a statement calling Trump “unhinged” and saying that he risks bringing the country “into World War III” unless Congress reconvenes to vote to bring the war to an end.
“For years, Republicans have enabled and excused Donald Trump’s deeply dangerous and extreme behavior. Enough is enough,” the leaders said. “Our brave men and women in uniform have been put into harm’s way in the Middle East. Over a dozen have already been killed and hundreds injured. Gas prices are skyrocketing, the cost of living in America is out of control and billions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted on a reckless war of choice.”
In another joint statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), who are the top Democrats on several relevant committees and subcommittees, similarly condemned Trump’s comments, saying they indicate an intent to commit war crimes.
“This is not strength. Intentionally destroying the power, water, or basic infrastructure upon which tens of millions of civilians depend to punish the very civilians who suffer at the hands of the Iranian regime would constitute a war crime, a betrayal of the values this nation was founded on, and a moral failure,” the lawmakers said. “It’s unconscionable to threaten the lives of so many people — grandparents, children, families — simply because they were born in Iran.”
They said that Trump’s comment “makes Americans less safe, further destabilizes our nation and economy, and puts at greater risk U.S. service members,” as well as makes a diplomatic solution — ”the only viable solution to this war” — harder to achieve.
In a separate statement, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also said that Trump’s threat constitutes a war crime and an illegal action under international law which risks tens of millions of Iranian civilians, and potentially catastrophic after-effects.
“At this critical moment, the United States must pursue immediate de-escalation and a coordinated diplomatic strategy with our allies. We cannot allow Iran to simply reset to a dangerous status quo — but the answer is not to threaten war crimes and isolate us from every partner we need to end this conflict,” Meeks said. Trump’s threat is “recklessness that America and the region will pay for long after this president is gone,” he added.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who prior to the war was one of the few Democrats who said he would oppose a war powers resolution — though he ultimately voted for it after the war began — demanded that the House immediately reconvene for a war powers vote. Moskowitz’s comments are a sign that Trump’s latest comments have crossed a line even for some of the most hawkish Democrats in the House.
“Speaker Johnson must immediately reconvene the House to vote on a war powers resolution. It’s beyond clear we are at war,” Moskowitz said. “The Speaker’s legacy will be that he made Congress so irrelevant that a president can threaten to wipe out a civilization while Congress is on vacation.”
Jeffries said Democrats plan to bring up another war powers resolution to halt the conflict in Iran, which stands a stronger chance of passing than a previous one, when the House returns from its recess. At least some of the Democrats who voted against the previous resolution are expected to support this one, and a small number of additional Republicans may join them.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), one of four House Democrats who voted against the previous war powers resolution on the war in Iran last month, announced he will now support such an effort because the administration has failed to provide adequate answers about its goals and its exit strategy.
“[W]e must be careful with the language we use. Strength and destruction are not the same,” Cuellar added. “When the United States echoes the rhetoric of its adversaries, we risk weakening the values that have long defined our leadership.”
Several Democrats have described Trump’s comments as a threat to commit genocide.
Trump’s threat has also prompted growing calls from at least 70 House Democrats for his removal from office, either through impeachment or the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which allows the involuntary removal of a president from power if he is mentally or physically unfit to govern.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) joined those calls.
“Donald Trump is deranged,” Wyden said. “He must be impeached and removed from office. Republicans who don’t stop him will have blood on their hands, and anyone who carries out an order to bomb civilian targets will be complicit in war crimes and will be held accountable.”
Markey called the president “unstable and a clear and present danger, not just to the American people but to the world” and said he “must be removed from office before he causes incalculable and unfathomable harm.” He said that a war powers resolution to stop the war is now insufficient to address the situation.
A small number of Republicans are also airing concerns with Trump’s threat.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of the few Republicans who has been openly skeptical of the war effort in Iran, said that Trump’s threat “cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran.”
“This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years. It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home,” Murkowski said, calling for deescalation by both Trump and Iran, and insisting that the U.S. must draw a distinction between the Iranian regime and the Iranian people.
Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) said that, while he has supported the war thus far, “I do not support the destruction of a ‘whole civilization.’ That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America.”
“[W]hat sets America apart is not only our strength, but how we use it. Our nation has always conducted military operations for just causes and through just and moral means. This must continue in the future; otherwise we forfeit our legitimacy to lead the world,” Moran said. “[H]ow we protect the lives of the innocent is just as important as how we engage the enemy.”
Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), who recently left the Republican Party but remains part of the GOP caucus and has generally been hawkish on Iran, said that the U.S. “does not destroy civilizations. Nor do we threaten to do so as some sort of negotiating tactic.”
“Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight with respect to ongoing military operations and our obligations under both U.S. law and international agreements to which we are a signatory,” Kiley said.
Plus, Joe Kent amplifies Iranian propaganda
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
President Donald Trump conducts a news conference in the White House briefing room about the war in Iran on Monday, April 6, 2026.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Amid reports that Iran has rejected the U.S.’ ceasefire framework, President Donald Trump told reporters Tehran has made its own “significant” proposal, though it is “not good enough.”
Asked if he may push the deadline again for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face increased U.S. military action — as he has already done three times — Trump said, “Highly unlikely. They’ve had plenty of time.”
Trump also claimed the U.S. had “sent guns, lot of guns” into Iran. “They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs. You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them, because they said, ‘What a beautiful gun. I think I’ll keep it,’” he said…
At a press conference this afternoon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today would mark “the largest volume of strikes since Day 1” of the Iran war, with more to come tomorrow.
Trump doubled down on his threats, warning that all of Iran “can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.” If Tehran does not acquiesce by his 8 p.m. ET deadline tomorrow, Trump said, “they’re going to have no bridges. They’re going to have no power plants. Stone ages.”
The president also floated the possibility of charging U.S. tolls to ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz once it is reopened and potentially seizing Iran’s oil. Trump and defense officials further detailed the harrowing rescue of a fighter jet pilot, who reportedly treated his own wounds while scaling mountainous terrain to evade capture after being downed over Iran…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke yesterday with Trump, who thanked him for Israel’s assistance in rescuing the pilot…
Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned over his opposition to the Iran war, shared a post on social media on Saturday spreading false claims from Iranian state-linked media and Drop Site News that the U.S. was attempting to kill the servicemember whose fighter jet was shot down over Iran prior to him being rescued, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
The initial statement from Drop Site, a far-left news outlet sympathetic to Hamas and totalitarian regimes, cited a report by Tasnim News, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claiming that the U.S. had “lost hope” of recovering the airman and was instead “attempting to kill him”…
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX), who previously served in the Air Force, predicted that the U.S. will deploy ground troops into Iran: “I just don’t see any other way,” he said on Fox News. “I personally think it’s going to be boots — at least special ops, American special operators — on the ground, with allies in the region and air cover,” he said…
The U.S.-led Board of Peace is pressing Hamas to finalize a Gaza demilitarization agreement by the end of the week, The New York Times reports, which would require the terror group to give up its weapons and maps of its tunnel network in the enclave. Negotiators from both sides are expected to meet in Cairo, Egypt, tomorrow…
Democratic Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow announced she raised more than $3 million in the first quarter of 2026 in her bid for U.S. Senate. “There was not a dime of corporate PAC donations, not a dime of AIPAC donations,” she said in a video. The pro-Israel group was the only organization she named.
While McMorrow’s opponents have not yet publicized their latest fundraising figures, her haul surpassed those of last quarter, when Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) led the pack with $2.1 million raised in the final quarter of 2025…
The Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top super PAC, revealed its $350 million plan to retain control of the upper chamber, focusing on defending incumbents in Ohio, North Carolina, Maine, Iowa and Alaska and seeking to flip seats in Michigan, Georgia and New Hampshire.
The funds will largely be used for ad campaigns, with the most money being spent to defend Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who must win his first Senate election for the remainder of his term against the likely Democratic nominee, former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received a grand welcome upon touching down in Damascus yesterday for his first meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa. The two leaders “explored avenues for strengthening economic cooperation and the exchange of expertise,” al-Sharaa said…
Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have signed equity commitments to the tune of $24 billion to back Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, The Wall Street Journal reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of tomorrow’s special election runoff in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, where Republican military veteran and Israel supporter Clay Fuller is expected to win the ruby-red seat of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will hold another press briefing on the Iran war tomorrow morning.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will host rallies tomorrow at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan with guests including Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, a move which has drawn condemnation from some Democrats and sparked a broader debate about the mainstreaming of Piker within the party.
The Democratic National Committee will begin its five-day meeting in New Orleans tomorrow, where its resolutions committee will consider several resolutions condemning AIPAC and Israel, including calls for conditions on or a suspension of U.S. military aid to the Jewish state.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will meet with Trump and administration officials in Washington on Wednesday, as the president continues to slam the organization for its refusal to engage in the Iran war.
In observance of Passover, we’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday, April 13. Chag Pesach Sameach!
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ALTERED LIVES
The foiled attack at the Michigan synagogue is being called a miracle — but those who were inside now face the lasting impact of trauma and a search for safety
O CANADA
After a series of targeted attacks in Toronto and beyond, Jewish leaders are raising the alarms on Canada’s failure to properly protect its Jews amid ‘systemic’ antisemitism
Plus, judge rules against UPenn in antisemitism investigation
Haidar Mohammed Ali/Anadolu via Getty Images
Mourners carry the coffin of Kata'ib Hezbollah member on March 2, 2026 amid Kata'ib Hezbollah flags.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump lashed out at European countries this morning for their posture during the war in Iran: He wrote on Truth Social that France is prohibiting planes with military supplies destined for Israel from flying over its territory, calling Paris “VERY UNHELPFUL … The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!”
Trump also named the U.K. among the countries “which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran” and are now struggling to acquire fuel due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “[G]o to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” the president warned…
Trump told the New York Post about reports that he’s willing to end the war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz: “I don’t think about it, to be honest. My sole function was to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon. They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. When we leave the strait will automatically open.”
He similarly said to CBS News about removing Iran’s enriched uranium, “I don’t even think about it. I just know that, you know, that’s so deeply buried it’s gonna be very hard for anybody. … It’s pretty safe. But, you know, we’ll make a determination”…
During a press briefing this morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that he took a secret trip to the Middle East in recent days to meet with U.S. servicemembers, including Air Force intelligence analysts, Army troops and pilots.
CENTCOM also confirmed that Adm. Brad Cooper visited Israel earlier this week where he met with Defense Minister Israel Katz and Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff…
Israel is ending all arms purchases from France and “replacing it with domestic Israeli procurement or purchases from allied countries,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense said today, adding that there will be “no new professional engagement with the French military” in the latest rift in the deteriorating relationship between Jerusalem and Paris…
A week after Lebanon declared Iran’s ambassador to Beirut persona non grata and expelled him from the country, the ambassador has still refused to leave the embassy compound, and Iran has stated that the embassy remains open…
China and Pakistan, which has been the intermediary for indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, put forward a ceasefire proposal that would see the immediate cessation of hostilities, the safeguarding of nonmilitary targets and the restoration of transit through global shipping lanes…
American journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, today, according to the Iraqi interior ministry, reportedly by Kataib Hezbollah, the same group that held researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov for over 900 days. Kittleson is a freelance journalist primarily based in Europe who has written for outlets including Al-Monitor and Foreign Policy.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said in a statement that the State Department “is aware of the reported kidnapping” and had “previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.” Johnson said an “individual with ties” to Kataib Hezbollah “has been taken into custody” in connection with the kidnapping and that the department will coordinate with the FBI to secure Kittleson’s release…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended a dinner for Eid last week where he spoke with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, a conversation that Piker called “very productive” on a recent Twitch stream.
“No, he did not disavow me,” Piker said in response to a listener’s question. “‘Did you tell him to tune out the bad faith haters?’ I did,” Piker continued. Mamdani appeared on Piker’s Twitch for an interview during the mayoral campaign but has not met with him publicly since…
“Nope,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said in response to a video of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claiming that, “in many respects,” Piker “is doing a very good job.” “Hasan Piker is a proud antisemite … His voice should have no place in our political discourse and all elected officials should condemn his rhetoric,” Gottheimer wrote…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, shared an image of a sign which read, “A Jewish data center has no home here,” displayed outside a town hall she held yesterday urging caution around the approval of data centers. “If you think antisemitism isn’t a problem in Michigan, think again,” Nessel wrote…
A new poll commissioned by former Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson, now a Democratic candidate for governor, found oyster farmer Graham Platner — whom Jackson is backing — nearly 40 points ahead of Gov. Janet Mills in the state’s Senate race (66-28%) among likely Democratic primary voters. The survey was conducted after Mills had started running ads against Platner based on his past controversial statements, a sign that her line of attack may not be persuading voters…
And another poll commissioned by the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic group, found Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leading in the heated Republican primary runoff for Senate against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), 47-42%…
A federal judge ruled that the University of Pennsylvania must comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration that seeks information about Jewish university affiliates, which the university had said resembled nefarious efforts by governments over history to gather lists of Jews…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a report from West Bloomfield, Mich., where JI’s Gabby Deutch sat down with community members still reeling from the attack on Temple Israel earlier this month.
Democrat Analilia Mejia and Republican Joe Hathaway will participate in a debate tomorrow evening ahead of the April 16 special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, after Mejia eked out a surprise victory in last month’s primary. While this race will decide who serves out the rest of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House term, the progressive Mejia is also running essentially unopposed by other Democrats for the full term.
In observance of Passover, we’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday, April 6. Chag Pesach Sameach!
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COMMUNITY TIGHTROPE
In an interview with JI, the state senator described herself as someone who supports the U.S.-Israel relationship, but not unconditionally
DECISION TIME
As the president touts progress in talks with Tehran while escalating military pressure, analysts say the administration is keeping its options open — but will need to make a move soon
Plus, one AI rabbi down but more pop up
Emily Elconin/Getty Images
Caution tape near the front entrance of Temple Israel a day after an active shooter incident on March 13, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump doubled down on threats to escalate the war in Iran while simultaneously heralding the success of ongoing negotiations: He claimed on Truth Social this morning that the U.S. is in “serious discussions” with a “new” and “more reasonable” Iranian regime and that “great progress has been made.”
“But,” he added, “if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”…
Trump confirmed to the New York Post that the U.S. is engaging with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and assessing whether he’s a reliable partner: “We’re gonna find out. I’ll let you know that in about a week.” He also said the U.S. believes new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “probably” alive “but in extraordinarily bad shape” after he was injured in an airstrike…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed in a Fox News interview that the U.S. is “going to retake control of the straits and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through U.S. escorts or a multinational escort”…
A series of surveys released today reveal how Jews and Israelis are perceiving the war in Iran: A poll conducted by the Mellman Group found 55% of American Jews oppose the war while 32% are in favor. Another poll of American Jews, solicited by J Street, found 60% of respondents opposed and 40% in support.
In Israel, meanwhile, a poll released by the Israel Democracy Institute found that the war is losing some support among Israelis, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. In the first week of the war, 93% of Jewish Israelis supported continuing it, while in the latest poll — conducted nearly a month into the war — 78% support it. Nearly three times as many Israeli Jews (12%) now oppose the war as did at the beginning of March (4%)…
The FBI announced findings that the attack on Temple Israel in suburban Detroit earlier this month was “a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.” The brother of the assailant was a Hezbollah commander who had been killed in Lebanon by the IDF the week before the attack…
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told campaign staff that he did not want to take any public position on the killing of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the war because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad,” according to meeting audio obtained by The Washington Free Beacon.
If asked by reporters, El-Sayed said his strategy would be to “go straight to pedophilia, frankly. I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war’”…
Allies of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told Politico that the mayor’s dismissal of criticisms of his wife, Rama Duwaji, for her past extreme rhetoric and social media posts — calling her “a private person” — doesn’t comport with Duwaji’s very public profile.
“‘She is the first lady of New York City. She has a police detail and a government staff,’ said one of the elected officials, who believes Duwaji should explain herself publicly. ‘She would need to do an interview, better explain herself, and have her do some visits and meetings with key constituencies, like Jewish museums’”…
An AI-generated Instagram account, which featured a fake Orthodox rabbi spreading antisemitic conspiracies to its more than 1.4 million followers, was taken offline over the weekend following major backlash from Jewish groups and one Democratic lawmaker — yet several similar, hate-peddling accounts have emerged with little to no public action from Meta, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
Several new Rabbi Goldman accounts started posting similar videos within the past two weeks — two of which already have followings of 18,500 and 10,000. Both remain active on Instagram and their bios state, “only Backup account for @rabbigoldman” and “old account got banned”…
The Knesset passed a controversial law today allowing courts to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists found guilty of murder, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports.
The law, championed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, applies in military courts to non-Israeli residents of the West Bank — meaning, in the vast majority of cases, Palestinians. In civilian courts, the law permits applying the death penalty to those who “intentionally cause the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel” — language which would also likely exclude Jewish assailants. Critics say it will likely be struck down by the High Court…
The Times of Israel breaks down the legislative maneuver used in Knesset by the coalition that caused opposition members to accidentally vote in favor of allocating 800 million shekels (~$250 million USD) to Haredi schools as they passed the state budget this morning…
In an interview on Israel’s Channel 12, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has barely spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since their last meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the resolution coming under consideration by the Democratic National Committee that explicitly criticizes AIPAC’s political spending.
The House and Senate left for recess until mid-April, after failing to come to an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has now reached its longest-ever shutdown. Calls have already begun from at least one Republican senator to bring Congress back into session sooner, but prospects for an early return are currently unclear.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will speak at Temple Emanu-El in New York City tomorrow about his new book, Stand, on the one-year anniversary of his delivery of the longest-ever speech on the Senate floor.
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SEAT SHAKE-UP
The lawmaker, who may soon be expelled from the chamber, is already in a heated primary race with Elijah Manley, a young far-left candidate endorsed by TrackAIPAC
PHONE A FRIEND
The sister, niece and brother-in-law of Maoist magnate Neville ‘Roy’ Singham have gained influence in New York’s ascendant socialist movement
The lawmaker, who may soon be expelled from the chamber, is already in a heated primary race with Elijah Manley, a young far-left candidate endorsed by TrackAIPAC
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Elijah Manley, who is running in the FL-20 primary against Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), left, attends a House Ethics Committee adjudicatory subcommittee on a motion for summary judgment regarding accusations against her, in Longworth building on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
The scandal surrounding Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) could send another far-left Israel critic to Congress, after a House Ethics Committee panel found her guilty on Thursday of 25 charges and lawmakers now move toward expelling her from the chamber.
Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted in late 2025 for a range of financial crimes including allegedly stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, money laundering and illegal campaign contributions.
Cherfilus-McCormick has been a consistently strong supporter of Israel since taking office, when she defeated a Democratic rival by just four votes in a 2021 special election race. She served last year as ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, but stepped aside, as required by Democratic Caucus rules, after her indictment.
Even before the indictment and Ethics Committee inquiry, Cherfilus-McCormick faced primary challenges including from Elijah Manley, a young progressive who has been critical of Israel. Manley, 27, who has leaned into Cherfilus-McCormick’s indictment as fuel for his campaign, sat prominently behind her at her Ethics Committee trial last week. Dale Holness, the candidate who lost by a hair to Cherfilus-McCormick in 2021, is also running again.
A poll of 300 likely primary voters in Pensacola in February found Manley leading the field with 38% of the vote, followed by Cherfilus-McCormick with 35% and Holness with just 10%. In a head-to-head matchup with Holness, Manley held a double digit lead, 45%-33%.
Manley has topped the field in fundraising with $678,000 to Holness’ $185,000, but Manley reported having burned through nearly all of that war chest as of the end of 2025, with just $6,000 left on hand with months to go until the mid-August primary.
Manley has been endorsed by the anti-Israel group TrackAIPAC, which requires its endorsees to support an arms embargo on Israel and describe the war in Gaza as a genocide.
Last summer, he argued that the U.S. should not defend Israel from Iranian counterattacks during the 12-day war, saying, “It’s not America’s responsibility to defend Israel from the consequences of attacking Iran right now, especially while we’re trying to negotiate a nuclear deal. Americans don’t want more forever wars.”
Even before the war in Gaza, he accused supporters of Israel of acting like the country is “above criticism and act cultishly about it.”
But Manley has also condemned Hamas and its Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, called on various occasions during the Gaza war for the return of hostages and celebrated their return. He also criticized those who planned to withhold their votes from Democrats in the 2024 election in protest of the situation in Gaza.
“Elijah condemns Hamas terrorists for the brutal and unacceptable October 7th, 2023, terror attack that claimed the lives of 1,300 Israeli civilians and the kidnapping of hundreds more,” his campaign website reads. “He also condemns the far-right Netanyahu government for its bombardment of Gaza, illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank, and blockade of humanitarian aid.”
“Elijah Manley believes in the right to peace, dignity, and safety for both Israelis and Palestinians, including Israel and Palestinian right to self determination and the right to exist,” the site continues. “In Congress, Elijah will be an advocate for a just and lasting peace rooted in the value of human rights, an end to violence and suffering, and security for both peoples.”
AJC’s Director of Antisemitism Policy Holly Huffnagle: ‘The No. 1 reason that we have the antisemitism levels that we do today in the United States and around the world is because of the digital space’
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
AJC CEO Ted Deutch on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025.
A new report by the American Jewish Committee, released on Friday, found that 73% of American Jews saw or heard antisemitism online in the last year and 21% said that the antisemitism they witnessed made them feel physically threatened.
Top officials at the group say that this pervasive antisemitism online is the fundamental root of the current wave of antisemitic sentiment society-wide, including violent extremist attacks on Jewish communities in the U.S. and globally, and that protecting the Jewish community requires making real progress in tackling that problem.
According to the group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, the report is the first comprehensive survey-based tracking of American Jews’ experiences with and opinions on social media, “and the results are alarming.”
Deutch told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday that the report further finds that those pushing antisemitic content have found an “alarming number of ways” to avoid rules on various platforms to safeguard against hate.
Deutch, a longtime former House lawmaker, expressed frustration at the continued lack of action from Congress on antisemitism generally, amid a series of violent attacks across the country and the globe, drawing some parallels between that dynamic and his own struggles in the House to pass legislation in response to school shootings, as such events repeated themselves.
“If we stop it from spreading online, we’ve taken a dramatic step to preventing someone from showing up in D.C., killing two people, and saying, ‘I did it for Gaza,’ or someone in Colorado showing up, throwing Molotov cocktails with people at a march for the hostages, and killing someone there, and saying, ‘I did it for Palestine,’” Deutch said. “This needs urgent attention. It’s not getting it and it’s not acceptable.”
Speaking out against antisemitism is important, he said, “but you know what? We know where this starts, we know how it spreads. We have to do something to stop it there, so that we can stop the violence.”
He said that he’s concerned that Congress is becoming desensitized to the string of attacks on the Jewish community and isn’t responding with the action it warrants.
“The ability for Congress and policymakers around the country to simply move on, from one attack to another, the normalization of the antisemitic rhetoric that’s being used, the willingness to simply chalk this up to one extreme or another … You wind up accepting it. We cannot accept it,” Deutch said. “That sense of urgency does not exist. I don’t understand it.”
“I get it that this is a really hard time for Congress to legislate,” Deutch continued. “I understand that there are very strong feelings about everything that happens in politics, but I cannot understand how on an issue like this, when the data is clear and the impact of what’s happening is clear, that we can allow week to week, more attacks on synagogues, more attacks on schools.”
He said that ultimately, true security for the Jewish community won’t come through increasingly stringent physical security measures, but through a broader shift, “and that starts with what’s happening online” because the attacks across the country and the world “aren’t isolated incidents.”
He said that he wants Congress, President Donald Trump and the American people to understand that, and to collectively work to tone down antisemitic rhetoric online and decrease its spread.
The report, compiled in collaboration with Cyberwell, an Israeli nonprofit aimed at fighting antisemitism online, offers a variety of recommendations for technology companies and platforms to respond to antisemitism on their services.
“The No. 1 reason that we have the antisemitism levels that we do today in the United States and around the world is because of the digital space,” Holly Huffnagle, AJC’s director of antisemitism policy, said. “We can’t just keep sitting by and observing and collecting data. We actually need to do something about this, and this is how we think is the best way to go forward in closing some of those gaps around enforcement on the platforms.”
The report found that, across social media platforms, only around one-third of American Jews report antisemitic content they see, in many cases feeling that doing so will be futile. Deutch said he found that data point the most concerning.
“If the Jewish community is essentially throwing up its hands … then that says an awful lot about them, and our larger population as a whole,” Deutch said. He argued it sends the conclusion to the population at large that “the battle is lost. We can’t afford that. This isn’t a battle that is lost. This is an ongoing effort that we all have to be a part of.”
Huffnagle said that the report, based in part on data from AJC’s annual poll of the Jewish community’s experience of antisemitism, is proof of what many in the Jewish community have long seen and felt — that antisemitism is rampant online — and shows that “they’re not alone.”
The report offers a set of nine recommendations for tech companies: tightening enforcement mechanisms against those who support terrorism and antisemitic attacks; clarifying and strengthening policies on antisemitism; addressing coded antisemitism through emojis and euphemisms; consistently applying visibility restrictions on antisemitic content, ensuring that such measures are applied early and improving tools to prevent targeted harassment; ensuring that hateful content is not monetized or amplified and that users can’t evade restrictions; detecting and preventing AI-created and -driven antisemitic content; implementing better tools to prevent coordinated activity to boost antisemitic content; creating better reporting systems for antisemitism; and providing greater transparency and data access.
Legislatively, AJC is supporting the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, which would require social media companies to share more data with the public. Deutch said that lawmakers are “flying blind” when it comes to antisemitism on social media platforms, lacking the data internal to the platforms that they and civil society need to address the problem.
“The transparency … can help drive accountability and real policy change and real changes to community standards, so that we don’t have to see these kinds of data points repeat year after year,” Deutch said.
“We have to approach this with greater urgency,” he continued. “Congress can’t simply allow itself to fall into the same old argument about how to approach this, and should we be talking about liability or not, whether this is free speech or it’s not free speech. That’s not what this is about. This is about real threats to the Jewish community and the ability that social media companies have — and the urgent need that we all have — for them to act, to keep the Jewish community and, in turn, to keep society safe.”
Huffnagle said she hopes the report can help identify other “creative” solutions and approaches to addressing antisemitism, particularly outside of government and apart from longstanding debates in Congress like reforming liability protections for social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — an idea that Jewish groups have discussed for years but hasn’t seen movement on legislatively.
“I think we need to be creative,” she said. “Just because something’s being stalled doesn’t mean there can’t be movement elsewhere.”
Huffnagle said AJC is working with various platforms to tailor the group’s approach to the specific issues on those platforms — having developed a greater understanding of the distinct problem sets on each platform — rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach that they and others in the Jewish community previously had.
In spite of policy shifts at social media companies in recent years toward a more permissive posture, including less strict content moderation and less company-sponsored fact-checking, Huffnagle said that AJC maintains relationships with social media companies and that they have been receptive to and implemented some of the feedback that AJC has offered.
She added that engaging with the tech sector — not just law enforcement and government — is necessary to addressing the society-wide problem of antisemitism. Huffnagle emphasized that she wants to see real change come out of this report — not just a compilation of data and unfulfilled recommendations.
She acknowledged that the survey likely includes a blindspot when it comes to TikTok because AJC only surveyed adults, and the platform is highly popular among younger teens.
The survey found that a majority of American Jews (65%) are concerned that artificial intelligence chatbots will spread antisemitism, and 69% were concerned that information produced by AI will fuel antisemitic incidents.
AI, Huffnagle said, poses both “novel problems” as well as “helpful solutions.” It can both create and amplify antisemitic content, but can also help moderate content, particularly as platforms are scaling back on human moderators. But, she said, using AI for moderation can’t currently keep up with the pace of antisemitic content.
“It can be used for good. I see it. It’s just not nearly as efficient and sufficient to meet how it’s being used for bad,” Huffnagle said.
Deutch said another concern is that, without proper policies and transparency from social media companies, platforms may devolve into a “war … between the AI that’s targeting us and the AI that’s trying to protect us.”
Deutch and Huffnagle’s conversation with JI came on the same day that a jury ruled that Meta and YouTube were negligent in their design of their platforms, awarding a plaintiff $3 million, a landmark case finding that social media platforms are responsible for their platforms’ impacts on their users.
“The one conclusion that I think everyone should draw from these headlines is that the courts have now ruled that there is responsibility to the customer,” Deutch said. “The tech companies acknowledge that. They wouldn’t have their community standards if they weren’t worried about what’s happening to their users. … It’s time for these community standards to be enforced.”
Plus, fake AI rabbis peddle antisemitism
Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced this afternoon that he’s extending his original five-day delay on strikes on Iran’s energy sector, which was set to expire tomorrow, by another 10 days. “As per Iranian Government request … I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time,” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that negotiations continue and are “going very well”…
At a Cabinet meeting earlier today, Trump revealed that the “present” Iran had provided the U.S. earlier this week was allowing eight Pakistani-flagged oil tankers to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, which he said proved the U.S. was speaking with the “right people” in Iran with the authority to make such decisions.
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, meanwhile, confirmed reports that the U.S. had presented Iran with a “15-point action list” as a starting offer in peace talks between the two countries, and that Pakistan is acting as mediator…
Speaking at the FII Priority summit in Miami, Jared Kushner said that, during his negotiations with Iran prior to the war, “We basically saw that there was no seriousness, and that they were trying to play different games to just get beyond President Trump in order to preserve their capabilities and pathway to get to a nuclear weapon in a way that would have been very, very hard to be stopped in the future”…
CENTCOM applauded an Israeli strike that killed Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of the IRGC Navy, and warned all IRGC Navy members to “immediately abandon their post and return home.” Tangsiri had been named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. in 2019 and was leading Iran’s efforts to shutter the Strait of Hormuz…
Even as U.S.-Iran negotiations continue, the U.S. is considering diverting weapons for Ukraine to the Middle East, The Washington Post reports, including air-defense interceptor missiles.
Ukraine has proved a stalwart ally to the Gulf as it comes under attack from Iran — around 200 Ukrainian military personnel have been deployed around the Middle East to help defend against Iranian drones and President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Saudi Arabia today for a surprise visit…
Resources are also being redirected to Gaza — the Trump administration has reportedly pulled $1.25 billion from international peacekeeping and disaster assistance programs for the Board of Peace’s operations, for which Trump had pledged $10 billion in U.S. funding…
An AI-generated Instagram account portraying an Orthodox-looking rabbi is pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories to its more than 1.4 million followers, and it’s not the only one, according to a study published Wednesday by Combat Antisemitism Movement.
Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports: Researchers identified 12 AI-generated “rabbis” with a combined following of 2.1 million Instagram users, all of which promote classic antisemitic stereotypes. The “Rabbi Goldman” account features many of these, including one video in which the “rabbi,” wearing a tuxedo and seemingly seated in a luxury airplane, claims that Jews utilize empty private jets to evade taxes…
A new Emerson College poll of the Maine Senate race found oyster farmer Graham Platner with a nearly 30 point lead over Gov. Janet Mills (55-28%) in the Democratic primary. Both Platner and Mills lead Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the general election matchup, 48-41% and 46-43%, respectively…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom again reaffirmed his support for Israel in an interview with The Bulwark, likening his love for the country but strong disapproval of its current government with how he feels about the U.S…
Democrat Analilia Mejia and Republican Joe Hathaway will participate on April 1 in what is likely to be the only debate of the New Jersey 11th Congressional District’s special election, after the far-left Mejia won the Democratic nomination in a hotly contested primary last month. The New Jersey Globe, which is hosting the debate, acknowledged it had chosen to do so on the first night of Passover, in a district with a sizable Jewish population…
The College Republicans chapter at the University of Florida is suing the school, after a photo of one of its members doing what appeared to be a Nazi salute led to the chapter’s ban from campus.
The chapter argues that the ban violated its First Amendment rights as the member “expressed a viewpoint off-campus that was alleged by some to be anti-Semitic,” and claims it was deactivated in part because it recently hosted James Fishback, a candidate for Florida governor who has expressed antisemitic and anti-Israel views…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for comments from Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow on Israel and antisemitism as she seeks the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed.
President Donald Trump will provide closing remarks at the FII Priority summit in Miami tomorrow afternoon.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will headline CPAC’s Ronald Reagan Dinner. His primary opponent, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), will not be making an appearance, despite the confab taking place in his home state and calls from its leadership for him to attend.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to France to attend a meeting of G7 foreign ministers where he is expected to press allies on the Iran war — he told reporters as he departed today, echoing a line from Trump, that the countries involved “get far more of their fuel from” the Strait of Hormuz “than we do.”
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TROUBLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Frustrated UAE leaders are questioning the ‘impotence’ of countries like Egypt — and warn that silence on Iranian aggression will push the Gulf closer to U.S., Israel
MICHIGAN MOMENT
Stevens said that by associating with Piker, El-Sayed is ‘choosing to campaign with someone who has a history of antisemitic rhetoric’
Plus, is Stevens losing steam in Michigan Senate race?
Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) speaks to the press at the U.S. Capitol on October 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed reports that Iran has rejected President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, saying in a press briefing today that “talks continue” and “are productive.” She further confirmed, while cautioning against speculation, that there are “elements of truth” to the 15-point plan that has been reported.
About potential face-to-face negotiations, which International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said could take place in Pakistan as soon as this weekend, Leavitt said she “would not get ahead of our skis on reporting about any talks this weekend until you hear directly from us”…
Emerging from a classified House Armed Services Committee briefing on Iran, Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) expressed frustration that the administration isn’t forthcoming enough about its war plans. “We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are and why they’re being considered, and we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions,” Rogers told reporters.
And Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), asked about his House colleague’s comments, said, “Let me put it this way: I can see why he might have said that.” It’s the latest sign of cracks in the GOP nearly a month into the war effort…
For the first time since the start of the war, the UAE — which has faced the brunt of Iran’s attacks — reported zero Iranian ballistic missile attacks today, raising questions about the Islamic Republic’s potentially dwindling supplies.
Yousef Al Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to the U.S., called for a “conclusive outcome” to the war, as opposed to a “simple cease-fire.” Writing in The Wall Street Journal, he argued that “building a fence around the problem and wishing it goes away isn’t the answer. It would simply defer the next crisis”…
European authorities are investigating whether a new group that has claimed responsibility for several recent terror attacks on Jewish institutions across Europe, the Islamic Movement of the Righteous Companions, is a front for Iran, which has likely recruited people online to carry out the attacks on its behalf…
The Journal profiles Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf as he emerges as a potential leader and negotiating partner for the U.S., with one expert calling him a “wannabe strongman” who simultaneously has “the necessary credentials to deliver a potential deal with the Trump administration”…
An internal poll from the campaign of Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow shows her leading the pack in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, followed by the far-left Abdul El-Sayed with Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) trailing in third place, a sign her campaign is struggling to build momentum. A fifth of potential primary voters still identified themselves as undecided.
Stevens’ campaign then released its own internal poll that showed her in first place, followed closely by El-Sayed with McMorrow in third, though the survey was conducted in mid-February…
As the Trump administration sues Harvard — again — over alleged civil rights violations and failure to address campus antisemitism, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, president of Harvard Chabad, told The Harvard Crimson that the school is in fact “taking the issue” of antisemitism “very seriously.”
“While there is much more to be done, the only plausible characterization of Harvard’s current leadership is as principled and effective in confronting and removing the intolerance which had taken root on campus over more than a decade,” added Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel…
Asked at a recent event at Harvard’s Kennedy School whether the Biden administration could have done more to save lives in the war in Gaza, former Secretary of State Tony Blinken said, “Could we, should we have done things differently such that the suffering that people endured, the loss of the children you just listed and so many others could have been averted? The short answer is: Maybe yes.”
Blinken also called on people not to be “binary” in their thinking about the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. With the Gaza war, he said, “Where did we start? We started with Oct. 7. We started with the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It’s very easy to say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a given.’ Except it wasn’t a given for Israelis and Israeli society”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the growing divide in the Democratic Party over engagement with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker — and the questions it raises about the meaning of progressivism in the current political landscape.
The Atlantic Council and U.S.-Syria Business Council will host a symposium on Syria’s energy sector with keynote remarks from U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack. Also speaking are several oil executives and Jacob McGee, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
The FII Priority Summit continues in Miami; among other sessions tomorrow, Jared Kushner will speak on U.S.-Gulf investment and Zach Witkoff, co-founder of World Liberty Financial and son of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, will discuss crypto.
CPAC, which President Donald Trump is seemingly not attending for the first time in a decade, continues in Dallas. GOP candidates who are in attendance include Brandon Herrera, the far-right influencer running in Texas’ 23rd District; Michael Whatley, the front-runner in North Carolina’s open Senate race; Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), running in a competitive primary to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA); Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), seeking the Senate seat vacated by new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin; and Nate Morris, running to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
The House Ethics Committee will hold a rare public hearing on Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s (D-FL) alleged ethics violations, including her laundering of funds from a FEMA-backed contract for her family business into her congressional campaign.
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STRAIT TALK
Some disagree on who should claim ultimate responsibility for the strait — the U.S. or other countries in the region
GUARDING THE GATES
Schneider called Piker ‘an unapologetic antisemite’ and warned ‘Democrats risk losing our credibility to condemn those on the right who traffic in bigotry’ if they continue to embrace him
Plus, media misdirection over AIPAC money
Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images
Hasan Piker during day two of Web Summit Qatar 2026 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Rumblings of a potential peace summit between Washington and Tehran have begun — sources told Axios that the U.S. and several mediating countries are waiting for Iran to respond to a proposal for peace talks this Thursday, while President Donald Trump reposted a message from Pakistan offering to “be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks”…
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon that “we’re dealing with the right people” in Iran because they “gave us a present, and the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money,” but would only tease that it was “oil and gas related.” Asked if he is negotiating over who will control the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said, “No … we’ll have control of anything we want”…
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has encouraged Trump to continue the campaign against Iran and push towards toppling the regime, The New York Times reports, believing that Iran’s threat to the Gulf will only be removed through the transition of its government and not if the war results in a failed state. MBS has reportedly argued in favor of striking Iran’s energy infrastructure and putting U.S. troops on the ground…
The Pentagon is expected to announce the deployment of about 3,000 soldiers from the military’s 82nd Airborne Division to participate in the campaign against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reports, a move that opens the possibilities for boots on the ground, as the division is trained to parachute into hostile territory…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said today that the IDF will now maintain control over a security zone south of the Litani River in Lebanon and prevent the return of Lebanese residents who have been evacuated from the area “until the security of northern [Israeli] residents is assured”…
Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Youssef Raggi declared Iran’s ambassador to Beirut persona non grata and expelled him from the country, as Iranian proxy Hezbollah continues to fire on Israel against the Lebanese government’s orders.
Shortly after, an Iranian ballistic missile was launched towards Beirut for the first time — it was reportedly intercepted by a “foreign naval vessel,” presumably the U.S., though fragments struck Lebanese towns…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is being dispatched to France later this week to discuss the Iran war, among other issues, with the U.S.’ G7 allies, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, countries that have all declined to participate in the war effort…
Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, said today that Qatar is not involved in mediating any U.S.-Iran negotiations, a shift for the country that has traditionally played the part of go-between. Al-Ansari said there has been no communication between Doha and Tehran since a phone call early in the conflict when Qatar made clear its anger with Iranian strikes on its territory…
Politico reports that several 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls said they wouldn’t or haven’t taken money from AIPAC, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
But while framing the statements as rejections of AIPAC and Israel, the outlet buried or declined to mention Booker’s rebuke of the Democratic Party’s singling out of the pro-Israel group, several respondents’ inability to accept funds from AIPAC since it only participates in congressional elections and Newsom’s own about-face on Israel, where in the same publication he walked back critical comments he’s made and said he’s “proud to support the state.”
AIPAC said in response that it has “never given to a presidential campaign” and that “singling out and excluding millions of pro-Israel Democrats” who are AIPAC members “is wrong and undemocratic”…
Michael Sacks — a prominent Democratic donor and supporter of former President Barack Obama who chaired the 2024 Democratic National Convention host committee — denounced Democratic criticism of AIPAC as a “thinly disguised effort to make support for Israel politically toxic in the Democratic Party, to chase Jews and their allies out of our big tent coalition.”
Sacks wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “Real leadership recognizes that we can hold complicated views about the Israeli government and still refuse to make Jewish identity and pro-Israel sentiment a political disqualifier in our party. We can defend the big tent when it is inconvenient, not just when it is easy”…
Jonathan Cowan, president of the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way, condemned far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his upcoming rallies with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
“It is morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating for Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed and Members of Congress like Summer Lee to cozy up to antisemitic extremists like Hasan Piker,” Cowan said in a statement. “Anyone eager to campaign with Hasan Piker is, at best, comfortable overlooking his antisemitic and anti-American extremism and, at worst, endorsing it”…
El-Sayed stood by his controversial statement about the shooting attack at Temple Israel in suburban Detroit earlier this month, in which he condemned the attack but blamed Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon for the perpetrator’s actions (the attacker’s brother was a Hezbollah commander).
The statement “was a risk,” El-Sayed said on an internal campaign call, per Punchbowl News, “but leadership is being willing to say the thing if you believe it to be true that nobody else is going to say”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for coverage of another war powers resolution expected to receive a vote this evening in the Senate.
President Donald Trump will give the keynote speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual President’s Dinner in Washington.
The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing assessing the impact of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, as lawmakers make progress on negotiations to fund the agency.
D.C. councilmember and mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George will rally alongside other members of the Democratic Socialists of America including Squad-member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), days after Lewis George held a private meeting with Jewish leaders to apologize for saying in a DSA questionnaire she would boycott events “promoting Zionism” and avoid the “Zionist lobby.”
Scholar of Jewish literature Ruth Wisse will deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, the highest honor the federal government gives for intellectual achievement in the humanities, at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
The FII PRIORITY Summit, a high-profile investment and policy conference, will kick off in Miami, with speakers over the rest of the week including Trump; Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner; White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; Dina Powell McCormick, president of Meta; Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud; former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin; Massad Boulos, senior White House advisor on the Middle East; and many more.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, also begins tomorrow in Dallas.
The Jewish Book Council will hold the 75th National Jewish Book Awards Gala, hosted by entertainer Jonah Platt, at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
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SECOND ACT
PAIN TO POWER
In the wake of Oct. 7, some in the Jewish community turned to faith, philanthropy or federal advocacy. Others set their sights closer to home, organizing to shape school boards and influence city councils
Plus, GOP losing hope in unseating Ossoff
Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on March 23, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump revealed today that White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and advisor Jared Kushner have been negotiating with Iran amid the ongoing war, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports, which played a role in Trump’s decision to delay by five days potential strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure.
“We have had very strong talks,” Trump told reporters. “Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them. They went, I would say, perfectly. If they carry through with that, it’ll end that problem.” But the president kept the option of continued military action open: “If it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out,” he said.
At an event in Tennessee this afternoon, Trump added, “My whole life has been a negotiation, but with Iran we’ve been negotiating for a long time, and this time they mean business” and claimed the U.S. has taken out 90% of Iran’s missile launchers…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that he spoke with Trump today about the negotiations, which the president believes could result in “an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests.”
“At the same time,” Netanyahu said, Israel is continuing to strike targets in Iran and Lebanon; the IDF announced it had struck several “regime headquarters” in Tehran and CENTCOM also said it continues “to aggressively strike Iranian military targets with precision munitions”…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declined to directly address whether the degradation of Iran’s military infrastructure should be viewed as a positive outcome, JI’s Matthew Shea reports, instead emphasizing the war’s potential economic and geopolitical consequences.
Asked on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” if the degradation is a “good thing,” Schumer said it’s a “premature question. What is going to happen in the next several months? Is it worth it? Will the world economy collapse? … If you ask the American people, if you have the choice of degrading the military structure in Iran, but having gasoline be $6 a gallon and our economy falling into a deep recession where millions lose their job, what do you think?”…
The New York Times reports on the apparent failure of a plan by the Mossad to foment internal Iranian rebellion that could lead to the overthrow of the regime amid the ongoing war, as American and Israeli intelligence indicates the regime is weakened but intact…
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said Abu Dhabi will “never be blackmailed by terrorists,” in response to a post from French diplomat Gérard Araud who called the UAE’s further embrace of the U.S. amid bombardment from Iran “strange”…
The Associated Press examines Israel’s use of Iran’s network of surveillance cameras to carry out intelligence operations including the assassination of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei…
Asked if former intelligence official Joe Kent was leaking classified information, as he is reportedly under investigation by the FBI for doing, Trump said “that’s possible,” and largely derided Kent for his failed congressional campaigns and for remarrying “quickly” after his first wife was killed in 2019 while serving in Syria.
“I felt badly for him, so I told my people, ‘Reach out to him, give him a job at the White House.’ This is the thanks I get,” Trump told reporters. He also dismissed Kent’s opposition to the Iran war as an effort “to get publicity”…
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said that internal MAGA divisions over the Iran war, like those espoused by Kent, are “good” for the movement. “As it relates to tensions in the movement or disagreements about national security, actually, it’s good that those exist,” he told The Hill. But, Roberts said, he believes Trump “has executed [the war] perfectly, including not involving untrustworthy European, quote, unquote allies in the conversation”…
Politico looks at the decision of pro-Israel groups including AIPAC and the Republican Jewish Coalition not to spend money against Texas congressional candidate Brandon Herrera as they did during his first run for Congress, despite Herrera’s history of extreme views and antisemitic rhetoric. Trump endorsed Herrera last week after Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) withdrew from the race…
New filings from the Federal Election Commission show that two super PACs rumored to be established by pro-Israel groups during the Illinois Democratic primaries were primarily funded by United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, which spent more than $5.3 million through Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now.
Among the other major donors who backed the two groups was prominent Democratic philanthropist Michael Sacks, who had lamented the rising “Jew hate” among candidates who refused to take money from donors affiliated with AIPAC earlier in the election…
Republicans are quietly losing hope in their ability to defeat Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), a seat which the GOP had named as one of its main targets to flip, The Washington Post reports. “This guy’s no slouch,” Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), running in the GOP primary, told a crowd of Republican voters, calling Ossoff “articulate” and “handsome.”
Jewish leaders in Georgia told JI last year that Ossoff was making amends with their community after he had voted to block some aid to Israel, though the Jewish lawmaker is now drawing fresh controversy by adopting Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) rhetoric about the “Epstein class,” which some have identified as antisemitic…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at how the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks has sparked a wave of grassroots Jewish political activism across the U.S., as community members organize locally — from city councils to school boards — to respond to rising antisemitism and shape down-ballot races.
The Hill & Valley Forum, a summit focused on connecting government and the tech and innovation industries, will hold its annual gathering in Washington tomorrow with opening remarks by its co-founder, Jacob Helberg, now under secretary of state for economic affairs. Ahead of the summit, Helberg announced today that the U.S. will contribute $250 million alongside a consortium of countries involved in the Pax Silica initiative to invest in energy projects and critical minerals.
Also speaking tomorrow are Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Chris Coons (D-DE), Todd Young (R-IN), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Jim Banks (R-IN), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Mark Warner (D-VA); House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA); Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and John Moolenaar (R-MI); OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap; JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon; NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman; Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar; Michael Duffey, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment; and Ben Black, CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
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Democrats rejected the figure, while Republicans were open to a supplemental funding request but noncommittal on the $200 billion proposal
Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
Smoke rises after airstrikes in Tehran, Iran on March 13, 2026.
The Pentagon’s reported intention to ask Congress for $200 billion for an emergency supplemental to fund the U.S. military amid war in Iran is being met with prompt rejection from a number of congressional Democrats, raising questions about whether the funding will pass through normal procedures or if supporters will have to resort to partisan budget reconciliation measures.
“As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously. It takes money to kill bad guys,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said of the reported proposal on Thursday. “We’re going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is — everything’s refilled, and not just refilled, but above and beyond.”
The Pentagon request will still need to be approved by the White House before being submitted to Congress.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said that the size of the request suggests that the administration is planning for a much larger war than initially envisioned.
“At the height of combat the Iraq War cost around $140 Billion per year. If the Pentagon is asking for $200 billion they are asking for a long war. The answer is a simple no,” Gallego said on X.
The request seems likely, however, to include funding to expand U.S. defense production beyond the specific costs of the current Iran war. President Donald Trump has requested $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon’s overall budget in 2027, expanding the military budget by more than one-third.
“We’re asking for a lot of reasons beyond even what we’re talking about in Iran. This is a very volatile world,” Trump said Thursday.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters that a $200 billion request for a war without congressional authorization and for which the costs have not been clearly articulated would be a “nonstarter.” He also raised concerns — as have other Democrats — that any authorization of funding for the war could be legally considered an authorization for use of military force.
“Trump is asking Congress for $200 billion more for his war in Iran, but he cut your health care, drove costs up, and slashed Medicaid,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said. “He wants money for his war first while Americans are paying for it.”
At the same time, some Republicans have expressed that they would likely support the request, arguing that it is necessary to provide funding in time of war if it makes sense, though some haven’t treated the $200 billion figure as final.
“We’ve been in a shooting war … we need to see it through and make sure our men and women have what they need,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), arguably the leading advocate for the war on Capitol Hill. “So I’d hate to be the senator that denied the request if it made sense.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) predicted that the request would be carefully considered and matched to U.S. needs.
“It will be detailed and specified. I’m sure it’s not a random number, so we’ll look at that,” Johnson said. “But obviously, it’s a dangerous time in the world, and we have to adequately fund defense, and we have a commitment to do that.”
Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is withholding comment until the funding request is finalized and submitted.
Other Republicans have expressed more skepticism, with some calling for a clear plan from the White House before any decision is made. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said she is a “no” in an interview with CNN, arguing instead that funds should be allocated domestically.
“I have already told [House] leadership: I am a ‘no’ on any war supplemental. I am so tired of spending money over there [in the Middle East],” Boebert said. “I have folks in Colorado who can’t afford to live. We need America First policies right now.”
Since the war started, some on Capitol Hill have discussed potentially attaching funding for the war to a reconciliation package, which could pass the Senate by a party-line vote rather than needing to receive a filibuster-proof 60 vote majority.
But Sen. Susan Collins (R-AK), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, rejected that idea on Thursday.
“That would not be my preference,” Collins said. “I understand the need to get this through, but it seems to me that it would be best to go through the appropriations process.”
It is also not clear, with narrow margins in the House and a small number of Republicans opposed to the war, that any reconciliation package — particularly one including funding for the conflict — could pass the lower chamber, either.
Plus, Temple Israel seeks to 'tell its story'
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Tulsi Gabbard is sworn in as Director of National Intelligence in the Oval Office at the White House on February 12, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard distanced herself — to a degree — from two of her isolationist-minded aides, Joe Kent and Dan Caldwell, who have taken a hostile stance to the U.S.’ Middle East policy, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Gabbard affirmed, after being pressed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing today, that the conspiratorial views about Israel espoused by Kent in his resignation letter earlier this week did concern her, and said about Caldwell that he would have no influence over intelligence reports at her agency.
Gabbard, who has previously been a vocal critic of military engagement with Iran, further acknowledged that her current position requires her to “check” her personal views “at the door”…
Reports of a potential $200 billion emergency funding request from the Pentagon for the war in Iran are drawing firm Democratic opposition and hedged responses from Republicans on the Hill: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he’ll “look at” the request “but obviously it’s a dangerous time in the world and we have to adequately fund defense,” while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he’d “hate to be the senator that denied the request if it made sense.” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) responded with a simple “No,” while Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called it a “nonstarter”…
The Senate is set to hold another round of votes on blocking U.S. arms transfers to Israel, after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) filed three new joint resolutions of disapproval against $658.8 million in sales of over 20,000 bombs to Israel, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
A majority of the Democratic caucus — 27 lawmakers — voted to block at least one arms sale in July of last year, a significant jump in support from previous similar efforts; Israel’s standing in the party has largely declined since then amid Democratic criticism of the war with Iran…
During a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House today, President Donald Trump reiterated that he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iranian oil facilities, after an Israeli strike on the South Pars gas field yesterday: “I told them, don’t do that. We didn’t discuss. … It’s coordinated, but on occasion, he’ll do something.”
Trump also put pressure on Takaichi to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, while European leaders released a joint statement “express[ing] our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait,” after repeatedly declining to get involved. A team of British military planners is now consulting with CENTCOM on options to assist short of military action, The New York Times reports…
Asked if he will deploy more U.S. troops in the region, Trump told reporters he’s “not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you — but I’m not putting troops”…
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth compared Iran to Hamas in a briefing today, saying that, “just like Hamas and their tunnels,” Iran has “poured any aid, any economic development … into tunnels and rockets”…
A group of congressional Democrats is urging the State Department to restart chartered evacuation flights out of Israel and take additional steps to help U.S. citizens who wish to leave the country amid the ongoing war with Iran, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
The lawmakers described the State Department’s current partnership with El Al, which launched on March 13 with a limited number of special evacuation flights for U.S. citizens, as insufficient. The Israeli airline has currently suspended registration for the flights, and government-imposed security restrictions are limiting passenger capacity on each flight and reducing airport operations…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. may lift sanctions on Iranian oil already at sea in order to blunt rising gas prices. “In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign,” he explained on Fox News…
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan warned the kingdom is reaching a breaking point after continued Iranian attacks, saying “what little trust” Riyadh had with Tehran has “completely been shattered.”
On a potential Saudi military response, Prince Faisal said, “Do they have a day, two, a week? I’m not going to telegraph that.” It’s a notable shift for Riyadh, which had been pivoting away from its traditional allies and towards Iran and other Islamist countries prior to the war…
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker condemned AIPAC after a primary cycle in which the pro-Israel group spent millions backing — and opposing — candidates across the state, calling it “an organization that was supporting Donald Trump and people who follow Donald Trump.”
Pritzker, a Jewish Democrat who was once an AIPAC donor himself, said it “really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of.” He further echoed far-left sentiments that Israel dragged the U.S. into conflict with Iran, claiming Trump “simply follow[ed] Netanyahu into that war”…
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) details his experience with a would-be assailant, a man described by authorities as a “ticking time bomb,” who was arrested near his home last year after police discovered an arsenal of weapons and a handwritten list of targets that included Jewish sites and Moskowitz.
“Besides the police presence outside his house, Moskowitz himself will not appear in parades and says he won’t speak at outdoor staged events. ‘It’s not worth it. I’d rather lose my election,’” the lawmaker told Roll Call…
Temple Israel in suburban Detroit released photos of the devastation to the building caused by an attacker last week, noting that it had “chosen thus far not to make [the photos] public” but are doing so now “to take back control of our narrative” after several were leaked to the media.
“We share these images because our community deserves to see our building through eyes of love, not through the lens of spectacle. This is our sacred space, and we will be the ones to tell its story,” the synagogue wrote…
The University of California, Berkeley reached a settlement in its lawsuit with the federal government, agreeing to pay $1 million and make changes to its discrimination policy following accusations that the university had failed to properly address campus antisemitism.
Among the policy changes, the school will clarify that the word “Zionist” cannot be used as a proxy for Jew or Israeli. The claims in the lawsuit predate the recent campus unrest over Israel’s war in Gaza, stemming from an incident in 2022 when student groups adopted policies saying they would not host Zionist speakers…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the struggles facing international broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Europe in reaching Iranian citizens during the ongoing war due to budget cuts and roadblocks from the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a field hearing at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in New York City on “accountability and reform” at the U.N.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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Plus, JD Vance says he likes Joe Kent
Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin testifies during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today that the Iranian regime “appears to be intact but largely degraded,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, as the U.S. and Israel continue to target Iranian leaders and assets. If it survives the war, she said, the regime would “seek to begin a yearslong effort to rebuild its military, missiles and UAV forces.”
Gabbard, a longtime opponent of war with Iran, repeatedly declined to say whether the intelligence community had assessed Iran to be an imminent threat to the United States, after her former deputy, Joe Kent, alleged in his resignation letter yesterday that no such threat existed. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, however, was clear in his view that “Iran has been a constant threat to the United States for an extended period of time, and posed an immediate threat at this time”…
Regarding Kent’s resignation over his opposition to the war in Iran and claims that Israel coerced the U.S. into the war, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Kent “was not someone who was involved in … the president’s intelligence briefings over the last several months. Have not seen him here at the White House for quite some time.”
She said President Donald Trump finds it “disappointing” that Kent would “resign with a letter filled with falsehoods, accusing the president of the United States [of] being controlled by a foreign country. That’s both insulting and laughable.”
Vice President JD Vance told reporters, “I know Joe Kent a little bit. I like Joe Kent … It’s fine to disagree, but once the president makes a decision, it’s up to everybody who serves in his administration to make it as successful as possible. That’s how I do my job”…
In his nomination hearing to be secretary of homeland security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he will aim to “streamline the process” for grants, including the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, JI’s Matthew Shea reports, vowing to work to “cut out the redundancies.”
“The amount of paperwork once you’re approved to get the funding flowing, and then the paperwork that’s followed up on is way too encompassing,” Mullin said. “Taking years to get reimbursed is not acceptable. Taking months to get reimbursed is not acceptable.” His hearing was otherwise colored by personal hostility with Homeland Security Committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which could complicate Mullin’s path to nomination…
The Israeli Air Force reportedly struck the South Pars gas field in Iran, the largest in the world; Qatar, which owns half of the field, called it a “dangerous and irresponsible step.” The U.S. reportedly had knowledge of the operation, despite the Trump administration asking Israel earlier this month not to strike energy facilities…
Trump issued a veiled threat to American allies who have declined to assist in securing the Strait of Hormuz, musing on Truth Social, “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”…
Michael Blake, the Democrat challenging Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) whose campaign has focused extensively on criticism of Israel and AIPAC, expressed strong support for Kent’s resignation letter and his baseless claim of Israel’s role in initiating the war. “An absolutely breathtaking, courageous and bold resignation letter stating that Iran posed NO IMMINENT THREAT to us and Trump made this decision due to the Israeli government and its American Lobby,” Blake wrote on X…
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner released an ad in response to one from his opponent, Gov. Janet Mills, highlighting social media comments he had made about sexual assault. “If I saw these ads, I’d have questions,” Platner says in the spot. “Maine, I’m asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago, but who I am today.”
Mills replied with another ad featuring an interview clip of Platner in which he said about his posts, “I made a lot of comments that I’m not, like, ashamed of. It’s not as though I have this ream of comments in which I look back and I’m like, oh my god, I was a terrible person back then”…
During an economic-focused visit to Detroit today, Vance remarked about the recent shooting attack at nearby Temple Israel, “When something happens to any member of our American family, and this particular incident happened to Jewish members of our American family, it is something that all of us have to stand up and say, it’s disgusting, it’s unacceptable”…
Also in response to the Temple Israel attack, Montgomery County, Md., a heavily Jewish suburb of Washington, announced it will provide $500,000 in supplemental funding for its Nonprofit Security Grant Program for current recipients over the next 90 days. It’s one of the few localities that provides its own funding in addition to the federal program…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the far-left candidates running against establishment Democrats in Colorado.
The Senate will vote on another war powers resolution this evening aiming to stop the U.S. operation in Iran. The resolution, sponsored by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), is expected to fail largely along party lines, as the previous one did earlier this month.
Administration intelligence officials including DNI Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe will appear before the House Intelligence Committee tomorrow for its rescheduled worldwide threats hearing.
The Senate’s Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee is set to hold a vote on Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) nomination to be secretary of homeland security, though Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) threatened to cancel it over personal animosity and outstanding questions about a 2016 overseas trip that Mullin claims was classified. If a vote is held, Mullin will need the support of at least one Democrat on the committee in order to advance without Paul’s support, which Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has previously pledged to provide.
After his appearance this evening on far-right commentator Tucker Carlson’s podcast, Joe Kent will be interviewed tomorrow by Candace Owens, who similarly deals in antisemitic conspiracy theories, at the Catholic Prayer for America gala in Washington. Also appearing at the gala is Carrie Prejean Boller, the former beauty pageant queen who was removed from the White House’s Religious Liberty Commission after berating Jewish hearing witnesses over antisemitism.
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TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (2L), New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch (2R) and Cardinal Timothy Dolan (R) participate in annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York on March 17, 2026.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his role today over opposition to the war in Iran, baselessly alleging that Israel had coerced the United States into what he characterized as a misguided military conflict, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
In a letter to President Donald Trump, Kent, a former Green Beret who had reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, wrote that he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” claiming that the Islamic Republic “posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
Kent, a hard-right former congressional candidate with isolationist foreign policy leanings, has previously promoted conspiracy theories, echoed pro-Russia messaging and associated with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, among other controversies. He’s now expected to appear on the podcast of his ally and friend Tucker Carlson…
After being largely rejected by foreign leaders on his repeated calls to assist in the war with Iran, Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that, “Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! … WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
Asked about the timeline of the war by reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon, Trump said, “We’re not ready to leave yet, but we will be leaving in the … very near future”…
Reports indicate Iran’s security forces, despite being badly battered by the U.S. and Israel, are conducting renewed crackdowns on the Iranian public and potential dissenters. At least 500 people have been arrested since the start of the war, and new security checkpoints are being deployed for regime oversight…
Major U.S. airlines have extended their suspensions of direct flights to Tel Aviv as the war continues, JI’s Haley Cohen reports, with both United and Delta airlines not offering any direct flights until June.
The first direct flight on United Airlines between Newark Liberty International Airport and Ben Gurion Airport is available on June 16, while the first direct New York to Tel Aviv flight on Delta Airlines is available June 1. United’s direct flights from Israel to Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles International Airport are also suspended…
U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack denied reports that the U.S. is encouraging Syria to deploy forces into eastern Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah, as the IDF begins to carry out ground incursions in the south of the country…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to post “proof of life” videos on social media amid internet conspiracy theories that he has been killed and replaced by a look-alike…
Trump’s decision to withhold his endorsement in the Texas Senate GOP runoff all but guarantees that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will both appear on the May 26 runoff ballot, as neither have dropped out of the race ahead of this evening’s deadline…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills released her first attack ad against her Democratic primary rival in the race for U.S. Senate, oyster farmer Graham Platner, highlighting social media comments he made about sexual assault that have marred his campaign. In the ad, several women read disparaging comments made by Platner on Reddit over a decade ago relating to rape, and a picture of Platner’s Nazi tattoo — which he has since had covered — is displayed under a magnifying glass. “The closer you look, the worse it gets,” the ad’s narrator says…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the gamble being made by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as he expends political capital (and actual capital) backing his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, in the state’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate taking place today. Pritzker’s involvement has drawn the ire of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is backing Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL), even though both Stratton and Kelly are Black. The race is seen as a test of Pritzker’s political clout in his home state…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day and the presence of former Irish President Mary Robinson in New York to accuse Israel of committing genocide and to praise Robinson’s controversial tenure as the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
“I think also of how she stood steadfast alongside the people of Palestine,” the mayor said in listing Robinson’s accomplishments. “I say this as over the past few years as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many. For those who have long cared about universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians, silence, however, is nothing new. For Palestinians are so often left to weep alone. Yet former President Robinson has never been silent”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a rundown of the results of Illinois’ Democratic primaries, where polls close at 8 p.m. ET.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is expected to face questions over the departure of her deputy, Joe Kent, at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing on worldwide threats, where she will testify alongside other intelligence agency heads. Gabbard said today after Kent’s resignation that, as commander-in-chief, Trump “concluded that … Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion,” but did not say whether she agrees herself in that assessment, something she is likely to be pressed on tomorrow.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will receive a classified briefing on the war in Iran from State Department intelligence officials.
The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to be secretary of homeland security after Trump’s ouster of Secretary Kristi Noem.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will hold a hearing on rising antisemitism abroad.
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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sits for an interview at the Pennsylvania State Capitol on June 11, 2025.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
European countries are largely rebuffing President Donald Trump’s calls to join the war with Iran and help secure the largely impassable Strait of Hormuz. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said today, “This is not our war; we did not start it,” while the French foreign ministry said, “Posture has not changed: defensive it is.” Poland, the U.K. and Italy similarly made clear they would not be participating in an offensive capacity…
On potential negotiations with Iran, Trump told reporters, “We don’t even know their leaders. We have people wanting to negotiate. We have no idea who they are.” He said new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “badly disfigured” and noted it’s “unusual” he hasn’t recently been seen in public.
Khamenei narrowly survived an airstrike on his compound on Feb. 28 as he briefly stepped outside, according to leaked audio obtained by The Telegraph, which reportedly contains remarks by an official in the office of deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to senior clerics…
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani denied reports that Israel is running low on missile interceptors, saying there is no “urgent problem” and that the military re-equips its supplies “in real time”…
Debris and missile fragments from Iranian attacks fell in the Old City of Jerusalem near several sensitive sites including the Western Wall Plaza and feet away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre…
Twenty-three Democratic members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Trump requesting a public hearing with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to understand their role in “lead[ing] diplomatic engagement with Iran”…
Representatives of the U.S.-led Board of Peace met with Hamas officials over the weekend in Cairo, Egypt, Reuters reports, in an effort to keep ceasefire negotiations on track even as the war with Iran proceeds. Aryeh Lightstone, an aide to Witkoff, reportedly represented the U.S. delegation, with more meetings expected this week…
Times of Israel reporter Emanuel Fabian chronicles his experience receiving death threats from users of the prediction market platform Polymarket over his reporting on a recent Iranian missile strike in the city of Beit Shemesh…
Trump announced that Susie Wiles, his White House chief of staff, has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and will receive treatment while remaining in her post…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential 2028 presidential contender, tested out his measured, pro-Israel messaging in a series of recent podcast interviews, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. In his appearances on “Pod Save America” and “Higher Learning,” Shapiro made the case that, as the starting point for any public political conversation about Israel, the fact of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state must be respected.
“I think what is dangerous here … is for those who think Israel doesn’t have a right to exist in [the] conversation. That to me is a recipe for permanent war,” Shapiro told “Higher Learning” host Van Lathan. He also pushed back on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, his potential 2028 opponent, for saying Israel could be described as an apartheid state…
Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-NY) reelection campaign is employing a community activist, Darrell Davis, who has criticized Democratic politicians, including Rep. George Latimer (D-NY) and a county executive, for taking money from pro-Israel groups and traveling to Israel, Politico reports.
Davis accused Latimer of being on the receiving end of a “Jewish organized spending spree” and taking “about $30 million to buy a congressional seat, to represent the interests of Israel,” which he called “a horrific threat to democracy.” About Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins’ trip to Israel, Davis wrote, “Why are they in Israel?? What more proof do people need that black Dems don’t give a sh*t about you. They are up for sale”…
The day before her primary election in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, far-left social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh removed language from her campaign website claiming “There is no acceptable scenario that leaves Hamas in charge of the Gaza Strip,” after she had faced criticism from the Hamas-friendly outlet Drop Site News over its inclusion. Her site says that the earlier language on the page “did not accurately reflect Kat’s views or the values of this campaign”…
And the closing drama in the Illinois Senate Democratic primary is Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s claim that she received a deathbed endorsement from civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, which the Jackson family said today he had never finalized. The late reverend’s support is seen as meaningful in the race, which includes multiple prominent Black candidates, as well as Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)…
The Atlantic spotlights one of the main obstacles facing Maine Gov. Janet Mills in her Democratic primary for U.S. Senate against oyster farmer Graham Platner: her age. Mills, 78, “does not have a dicey Reddit history or a recently covered-over Nazi tattoo” but is still trailing in the polls, even as Platner continues to be plagued by scandals. “One likely factor: If she is elected, Mills would be the oldest freshman senator in history”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the tense runoff in the Democratic primary for Texas’ 35th Congressional District, where a fringe conspiracy theorist eked out a narrow victory over a sheriff’s deputy backed by the pro-Israel establishment.
All eyes will be on the Prairie State tomorrow, as several high-profile Democratic primaries will be decided across Illinois. Read JI’s coverage of the races to watch.
On the Hill, the House Intelligence Committee will hold its annual hearing on worldwide threats, with testimony from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, NSA Acting Director William Hartman and DIA Director James Adams.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on reforming U.S. defense sales.
Stories You May Have Missed
BREAKING POINT
Democrats began calling out those who traffic in antisemitic rhetoric when they offered platitudes after an attack on a Michigan synagogue
UNDER PRESSURE
Tech entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal: ‘He thinks being racist against Jewish people is going to help him win the American left. I don’t care if he’s right. I just think it’s unethical and immoral’
Democrats began calling out those who traffic in antisemitic rhetoric when they offered platitudes after an attack on a Michigan synagogue
Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
A vigil is held near the scene of a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade, on July 5, 2022 in Highland Park, Illinois.
American antisemitism is having its “thoughts and prayers” moment.
Whenever there is a mass shooting in the United States, the immediate reaction has become something of a meme. “Sending thoughts and prayers,” politicians — mostly Republicans — will inevitably write in a social media post expressing grief at the murder of innocent people at an elementary school, in a bowling alley or at a Walmart.
Gun violence prevention advocates roll their eyes. They see the oft-repeated sentiment as disingenuous, given how little action Congress has taken to enact gun control measures. During the 2018 March for Our Lives, when hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand action after 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Fla., scores of people carried signs with the words “thoughts and prayers” crossed out, and the phrase “policy and change” written underneath.
A similar phenomenon was on display after a heavily armed man drove a car into a synagogue in suburban Detroit on Thursday. He was killed by a security guard before he was able to enter the building, where 140 preschool and kindergarten students were locked down in their classrooms.
Afterward, politicians with a history of promoting antisemitic tropes began bemoaning antisemitism. And Jewish politicians and activists in the Democratic party who had grown exasperated over the hypocrisy of it all started calling them out.
Noah Arbit, the Jewish state representative whose district includes West Bloomfield Township, where the attack took place, called out Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his “crocodile tears” expressing concern about the shooting. Arbit grew up attending Temple Israel.
“Amazed by the crocodile tears from someone who’s done more than most to stoke & inflame hatred against Jews. It’s a very small logical leap from ‘AIPAC controls the US government,’ ‘Israel is committing genocide,’ ‘Zionists kill Arab babies’ to ‘kill Jews in West Bloomfield,’” Arbit, a Democrat, wrote in a post on X replying to El-Sayed.
El-Sayed, a progressive running a campaign with an anti-Israel message, sent a fundraising email on the two-year anniversary of Oct. 7 accusing Israel of genocide and calling out AIPAC. “If you’re asking yourself, ‘Why on Earth are politicians in Washington continuing to add fuel to the fire?’ The answer is money. AIPAC is funneling millions into campaigns in exchange for loyalty,” El-Sayed wrote in the Oct. 7 email, referring to the war in Gaza.
As the attack was unfolding, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) took to social media to respond to a message by a junior staffer at the centrist think tank Third Way that called for Democrats to do more to address antisemitism within their ranks. Rather than taking the criticism seriously, Khanna said he was “proud” to stand by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and far-left antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, and took aim at “neocons” in the party. (Forty minutes later, Khanna condemned the shooting and said “antisemitism and violence have no place in America.”)
“What the hell is wrong with you? 48 hours ago two men were beaten in your district for speaking Hebrew. Earlier today there was a shooting at a Jewish school in Michigan. Is it politics? Lack of empathy? Are you actually racist?” Ethan Agarwal, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur challenging Khanna in this year’s Democratic primary, wrote in response.
Earlier in the day, Khanna had tweeted in defense of Pat Buchanan, President Ronald Reagan’s communications director who has a lengthy history of making overtly antisemitic arguments.
“The same Pat Buchanan who wrote that Hitler was ‘a man of great courage’? Who called Capitol Hill ‘Israeli-occupied territory’? Who said there was ‘No evidence exists that any Jews were gassed at Treblinka’? Pretty sure he was antisemitic,” said Shannon Watts, a liberal activist who started the advocacy group “Moms Demand Action” after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, when 26 students and teachers were killed at a Connecticut elementary school.
Khanna doubled down afterward.
Later, Watts — who has called Republicans’ “thoughts and prayers” framing a form of gaslighting — said Democrats need to do more to combat antisemitism among members of their own party.
“The Democratic Party has been infected by antisemitism and it’s spreading. It isn’t (yet) as virulent as it is on the right, but it’s insidious and we have to stop pretending it doesn’t exist,” Watts wrote on X.
In West Bloomfield, tragedy was averted, miraculously, because of the actions of a security guard who quickly put himself in harm’s way.
But if the response to rising antisemitism begins to resemble the country’s response to gun violence — expressions of outrage followed by little introspection — the result may be a familiar one: condemnation after the antisemitic incident, but little reckoning with the permissive culture that helped create the danger in the first place.
Plus, Ro Khanna defends Hasan Piker amid Mich. attack
Emily Elconin/Getty Images
Law enforcement respond near Temple Israel following reports of an active shooter on March 12, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Mich.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A suspect was killed during an active shooter and car ramming incident at Temple Israel in the heavily Jewish Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield Township, Mich., this afternoon, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Armed synagogue security engaged the suspect with gunfire, and a security guard who was knocked unconscious is expected to recover. A preschool that was in session at the time of the incident was evacuated safely. Authorities are continuing to investigate the suspect’s identity and motive.
“Everyone is safe. All 140 students in our Susan and Harold Loss Early Childhood Center, our amazing staff, our courageous teachers, and our heroic security personnel are all accounted for and safe,” the synagogue wrote on social media. “This note is coming to you before we know anything about our future programming or services, or any investigation. We wanted you to know we are safe, and we love you all”…
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, issued his first public statement today that indicates he’s as hard-line as his late father: Khamenei demanded the U.S. shut all its military bases in the Gulf immediately and said he’ll continue to target the Strait of Hormuz in order to “pressure the enemy.” His statement was read on state media indirectly by a presenter, as reports indicate the 56-year-old was injured in an Israeli strike and he has not been seen in public since.
President Donald Trump did not seem dissuaded — he posted on Truth Social, “when oil prices go up” the U.S. makes “a lot of money,” but “of far greater importance to me, as President, is stopping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons”…
Following a Republican convening this week focused on combating right-wing antisemitism, the center-left think tank Third Way urged fellow Democrats to follow the lead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in calling out antisemitism within their own party.
“We certainly believe that Cruz was right and our side has a real antisemitism problem too that too many Democrats are failing to face squarely,” Matt Bennett, the group’s executive vice president for public affairs, told JI’s Gabby Deutch.
Similar comments from Third Way staff sparked a public clash with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who defended controversial left-wing figures including antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and said the true issue lies with the “neocons” in the party…
Less than a week until primary election day in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, outside spending in the race is approaching $9 million, the majority of which is aimed at boosting state Sen. Laura Fine, a pro-Israel Democrat. Nearly half of all outside spending has come from the Elect Chicago Women super PAC, widely rumored to be connected to pro-Israel groups.
Another PAC rumored to be connected to AIPAC, Chicago Progressive Partnership, has spent over $1 million attacking anti-Israel social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh, including a new ad that spotlights her support from James “Fergie” Cox Chambers Jr., a communist political activist and scion of the billionaire Cox family often involved in radical-left causes…
A new poll commissioned by the far-left advocacy group Justice Democrats finds Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) in a competitive race for his seat — he’s now neck-and-neck with his primary opponent, state Rep. Justin Pearson. Pearson, a progressive legislator, gained public attention for being expelled from the Statehouse in 2023 for participating in a gun control protest on the floor…
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed Assemblyman Micah Lasher, his former staffer, in the hotly contested primary race for New York’s 12th Congressional District today, calling him “a key part of our team in City Hall.” Bloomberg plans to spend “millions of dollars” on a super PAC and ad campaign to boost Lasher, The New York Times reports, a notable effort by the popular former mayor to elevate Lasher among the pack…
Trump has delayed endorsing Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Texas Senate runoff against Attorney General Ken Paxton, which Trump implied last week he would do imminently, instead using the potential endorsement to pressure Senate Republicans to change filibuster rules and pass his voter-ID bill. Paxton raised the stakes by saying he might drop out if the bill passes, a move that forced Cornyn to shift his stance on the filibuster…
The Boston Globe looks at Rep. Seth Moulton’s (D-MA) efforts to get on the Democratic primary ballot in his race against Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), which will require him to receive support from 15% of delegates at the state Democratic Party’s upcoming convention. Moulton is attempting to recruit unregistered voters to become delegates in order to boost his chances, which observers are split on…
Politico uncovers the past political stances and writings of Morris Katz, the Democratic operative and anti-Israel whisperer now behind several high-profile progressive campaigns, when he lauded former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and derided progressive icon Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)…
Shortly after the organization elevated a new political director who is closely tied to neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, College Republicans of America’s chapter at Georgetown University came under investigation by the school for a social media post in which it claimed “Muslims have no place in American society”…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, as he “stay[s] out of the politics of the war” in Iran “and remains focused on waging it”…
The Treasury Department issued sanctions against four “sham charity” groups in Turkey and Indonesia that it said are funneling money and resources to Hamas’ military wing, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for reaction to today’s attack on Michigan’s Temple Israel from Jewish leaders and leading lawmakers.
The South by Southwest festival will hold its annual #openShabbat experience for Jews in tech, film and music tomorrow in Austin, Texas.
A Saturday fundraiser for Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) with an appearance by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Nunn’s home district in Iowa has been canceled; the event, called “Top Nunn” in reference to the “Top Gun” movies, had drawn scrutiny after several soldiers who had been stationed in Nunn’s district were killed in the course of the war with Iran.
The Jewish Funders Network international conference starts Sunday in San Diego.
HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir performs at Lincoln Center in New York City on Sunday evening.
The Zionist Organization of America will host its Florida Superstar Gala Sunday evening, where it will honor Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel; Justice Department official Leo Terrell; and Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), among others.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
Stories You May Have Missed
POLITICAL TIGHTROPE
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she would likely have voted to authorize force against Iran if the administration had approached Congress properly before launching the war
FEELING THE HEAT
Republican senators argued to JI that the war will ultimately be to the Gulf’s benefit, even if they’re feeling the pain now
Plus, Israel considers building Somaliland base
Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ben Rhodes, then-deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama, participates in an interview with press at the White House in on Wednesday, December 14, 2016.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The Strait of Hormuz continues to be a key site of conflict in the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran — a spokesperson for the Iranian Armed Forces said in a video statement that the regime “will never allow even a single liter of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the benefit of America, the Zionists or their partners,” shortly after several ships were struck by missiles while passing through or near the strait…
The International Energy Agency announced its member countries will release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves in order to blunt the impacts of the war, the largest emergency release in history…
President Donald Trump told Axios that the war will end “soon” because there’s “practically nothing left to target” in Iran. U.S. and Israeli officials are reportedly preparing for at least two more weeks of hostilities…
Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea speaks to experts and former Trump administration officials about Qatar’s potentially changing calculus on hosting Iranian-backed Hamas leaders as Tehran continues to attack the Gulf state…
A preliminary U.S. military investigation has found the deadly strike on a school in Iran was caused by the U.S. as it was targeting a nearby Iranian base, sources told The New York Times…
The FBI recently warned California police departments that Iran may launch a drone attack in the state, ABC News reports. As of last month, “Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” the bureau’s alert read…
Israel is considering building a base in Somaliland, which it recently recognized as an independent country, in order to combat the threat of the Houthis, which are based in Yemen just across the Gulf of Aden…
Iran will not participate in the 2026 World Cup after the U.S. “assassinated our leader,” Iran’s sports minister told state media, shortly after Trump said he would still “welcome” the team’s participation. Iran’s national men’s soccer team was set to compete in June in Los Angeles and Seattle; several athletes from the country’s women’s team recently defected to Australia after playing in a match there…
Spain permanently withdrew its ambassador to Israel, as the countries’ already tense relations worsen over Madrid’s opposition to the war in Iran…
House Republican leadership discussed ways to incorporate an expected emergency supplemental for the U.S. military into the budget reconciliation process, Politico reports, rather than attempting to rally support from Senate Democrats for the 60-vote threshold that would otherwise be required in the Senate on a stand-alone vote. The move would also sidestep a vote that could be politically challenging for some House Republicans…
Former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes, a leading Israel critic on the left, said on an episode of his “Pod Save the World” podcast that Democrats who vote in favor of funding for the war with Iran “should be primaried. I don’t want you in the Democratic Party.”
Rhodes and co-host Tommy Vietor referenced the four Democrats who voted against a war powers resolution in the House as ripe for primary challenges. Left unsaid: Three of the four — Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Jared Golden (D-ME) — represent GOP-leaning seats that would likely flip with a more progressive Democratic candidate…
In a sign of the political gulfs between the Israeli and American left, Yair Zivan, who is an advisor to Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, pushed back on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) after the senator criticized Israeli operations in Lebanon.
“Senator, I work for the Leader of the Opposition in Israel and I’m writing this from a bomb shelter with my children. Israel is under attack by fanatical terrorists who want to murder us. It never ceases to amaze that your humanity never seems to extend to Israeli lives,” Zivan wrote on X…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he called New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to “check in on him and his wife to make sure they’re doing okay” after the attempted terror attack outside Mamdani’s official residence over the weekend. “As someone who’s had to deal with political violence, I know it can take a toll,” Shapiro said. The governor previously spoke with Mamdani after his win in November to express concerns over his rhetoric about Israel…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the far-right ties of the new political director of College Republicans of America.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on foreign influence in American higher education, including testimony from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Craig Singleton.
The annual weeklong South by Southwest festival kicks off tomorrow in Austin, Texas. Appearing at the summit, whose 300,000 attendees include many film and media professionals, is anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who will speak about “the system that tried to silence him, and the personal and political stakes of resistance.”
Stories You May Have Missed
PRIMARY PRESSURE
The pro-Israel Democratic group warns that nominating far-left candidates will cost the party winnable seats against GOP incumbents
DEMOCRATIC DIVIDE
The Pennsylvania senator told JI about the U.S. military operation’s successes: ‘Why can’t a single Democrat agree that this is a good thing for the world and the region?’
Plus, CNN walks back coverage downplaying NYC terror attempt
JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP via Getty Images
A person points at a page on the Marinetraffic website that shows commercial boats traffic on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz near the Iranian coast, in Paris on March 4, 2026.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump denied reports that U.S. intelligence has found Iran is taking steps to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, but said if it has been done, “we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!” If not, he warned, “the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before,” and if they are removed, “it will be a giant step in the right direction.”
Shortly after, Trump confirmed the U.S. has “hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships.”
Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter out of Saudi Arabia, warned oil markets will face “catastrophic consequences” if the strait continues to be impacted by the war. “While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced,” CEO Amin Nasser told reporters…
The White House asked Israel not to target any more Iranian energy facilities, Axios reports, citing harm to Iranian civilians, the hope to cooperate with the Iranian oil industry after the war and potential for Tehran to retaliate against Gulf states…
Around 140 U.S. servicemembers have been injured in the course of the campaign against Iran, Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said today, the majority of whom have already returned to service…
After receiving a classified briefing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters, “I emerged from this briefing as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate. … We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran.”
Blumenthal continued, “There is also, as disturbingly as anything else, the specter of active Russian aid to Iran … with intelligence and perhaps with other means, and China also may be assisting”…
The U.S. ordered the departure of its diplomats and their families from southern Turkey after two attempted Iranian missile strikes in the area; it’s the first mandated departure of U.S. officials outside of the Gulf and Lebanon since the start of the war…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement to the “people of Iran” hinting at a coming opportunity for a popular uprising. He wrote on X, “We are waging a historic war for liberty. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to remove the Ayatollah regime and gain your freedom. … In the coming days we will create the conditions for you to grasp your destiny. … When the time is right, and that time is fast approaching, we will pass the torch to you”…
CNN significantly changed a story and removed a social media post today that downplayed the attempted terror attack outside Gracie Mansion, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence, over the weekend, initially writing that the suspects traveled from Pennsylvania for “what could’ve been a normal day” during the city’s “abnormally warm weather.”
CNN later deleted its post on X and added an editor’s note to its story, saying that the language “failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting”…
The NYPD evacuated Carl Schurz Park near the mayor’s mansion today after a suspicious device was found in the vicinity; it was determined to be “non-threatening”…
Secure Community Network said there was no known threat to the Jewish community following an active shooter incident Tuesday afternoon near the Agudath Israel of Baltimore synagogue, during which a Baltimore Police officer and a suspect were shot in what appeared to be a domestic incident…
A week ahead of Illinois’ primary election, a new poll conducted by an outside group backing Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) shows the congressman with a double-digit lead in the race for Senate, up 11 points over his next closest competitor, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. Over 87,000 early votes have already been cast in the race, 40,000 votes more than had been cast at the same point in early voting during the 2022 primaries…
Morris Katz, the Democratic strategist who has shaped the campaigns of progressive politicians hostile to Israel including Mamdani and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, is now behind the campaign of another populist Democrat: Allison Ziogas, a first-time candidate attempting to unseat Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). Trump won 61% of the vote in Malliotakis’ Staten Island–based district in 2024, making it difficult for any Democrat to prevail…
The Anti-Defamation League released its 2026 Campus Antisemitism Report Card, which showed a “clear upward trend” in universities taking steps to address antisemitism, the organization said. Almost two dozen schools received A grades.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk celebrated his university’s improvement from a D to a B, but said in a statement, “a grade is a waypoint, not a destination. … While we have made clear progress in addressing antisemitism, we have more to do in our shared goal of eradicating it in its entirety”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at a late flurry of spending against far-left social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, as pro-Israel groups indicate concern that the virulently anti-Israel Democrat could win the seat.
President Donald Trump will host an event in Hebron, Ky., tomorrow, with Republican congressional candidate Ed Gallrein in attendance. Gallrein is challenging Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) with Trump’s endorsement — Massie will not be attending the event, which is taking place in his district.
Fox News’ Bret Baier will speak in conversation with journalist Gary Rosenblatt at Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Center in New York City.
Stories You May Have Missed
SCOOP
Local DSA chair Justin Yuan wrote on social media, ‘Love Hamas. Simple as’
BLUEGRASS BATTLE
President Trump is set to rally with Massie’s opponent this week
Plus, Trump says Iran operation 'very complete'
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 13, 2026 in Munich, Germany.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for assisting the members of Iran’s women’s soccer team, who are in Australia competing in the Women’s Asian Cup, amid fears for their persecution should they be forced to return home.
The president had called for Albanese to grant the athletes political asylum, saying they would “most likely be killed” if they were repatriated to Iran, and later commended him for “doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation,” with five athletes “already taken care of, and the rest are on their way”…
Trump disputed reports that the U.S. is preparing to deploy ground troops to secure nuclear material at the Isfahan enrichment site in Iran, telling the New York Post, “We haven’t made any decision on that. We’re nowhere near it.” He also told CBS News that “the war is very complete, pretty much,” and the U.S. is “very far” ahead of his initial four-to-five-week timeline…
Trump has communicated to aides that he would support the assassination of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, if Khamenei does not acquiesce to U.S. demands, including ending Iran’s nuclear program, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal…
The Lebanese government has requested direct negotiations with Israel, sending the message through U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, Axios reports. Washington and Jerusalem were reportedly skeptical about the idea, with Beirut thus far failing to disarm or rein in Hezbollah activities as the terror group continues to launch missiles into Israel…
NATO missile defense systems intercepted another Iranian missile heading for Turkey, a spokesperson announced today, the second time Iran has attempted to strike the NATO country’s territory…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatened to impose “consequences” on Saudi Arabia for its unwillingness to join the U.S. campaign against Iran, as the U.S. evacuates its embassy in Riyadh and the kingdom continues to endure Iranian attacks, which have so far resulted in the deaths of two civilians and one U.S. servicemember. “Question — why should America do a defense agreement with a country like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is unwilling to join a fight of mutual interest?” Graham wrote on X…
Talks to advance Trump’s 20-point peace plan in Gaza, including the issue of Hamas’ disarmament, have been at a standstill during the campaign against Iran, Reuters reports, as Gulf countries that pledged funds to help rebuild the enclave have come under fire and flight disruptions have prevented mediators from traveling…
The criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York today against the two Pennsylvania men who allegedly hurled improvised explosive devices toward a protest against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday stated that both men explicitly identified ISIS as their inspiration, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
“This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the Prophet [Muhammad],” Emir Balat, 18, told police, according to the charging documents. He also said he had hoped to pull off something “even bigger” than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which he noted had caused “only three deaths”…
The White House moved today to designate the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity and announced plans to impose a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation on March 16, JI’s Matthew Shea reports, in the Trump administration’s latest crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood affiliates…
A new poll from the campaign of Rushern Baker, former executive of Maryland’s Prince George’s County, found him leading the crowded Democratic field seeking to succeed retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Though a plurality of likely primary voters (28%) said they’re still undecided, Baker polled at 22% compared to former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn’s 15% and Hoyer-endorsed state Del. Adrian Boafo’s 3%…
Rep. Kevin Kiley of California officially switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent — he had filed for reelection as an independent, but said today he would leave the party for the rest of his term as well. The move narrows the GOP majority even further, 217-214, but Kiley said he’ll continue to caucus with Republicans, blunting the impact…
Politico looks at the flurry of independent candidates seeking to unseat congressional Republicans in GOP-leaning districts, clashing with local Democratic establishments in the process…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider — we’ll have a profile of Dario Amodei, the Jewish CEO of Anthropic, which sued the Pentagon today over its decision to label the AI company a “supply chain risk.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to receive a classified briefing on the status of the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran.
The Republican Jewish Coalition and conservative magazine National Review will hold a daylong symposium on antisemitism, with remarks from Sens. Jim Banks (R-IN), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ted Cruz (R-TX); Noah Pollak, senior advisor at the Department of Education; Kenneth Marcus, founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy; Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights; and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Georgia’s 14th Congressional District will hold its special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), with more than a dozen candidates on the all-party ballot. The district leans strongly Republican but the GOP field is split among nine candidates, raising the possibility that the Democratic front-runner — retired Army Brig. Gen. Shawn Harris — could slip into the April runoff.
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SCOOP
NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji showed support for far-left orgs applauding Hamas rampage
POWER PLAYER
Ad maker Morris Katz has been instrumental in elevating Israel antagonists into office as part of a move to reshape the Democratic Party
Plus, Kristi Noem gets the boot
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Reps. Thomas Massie, (R-KY), left, and Ro Khanna, (D-CA), conduct a news conference outside a Department of Justice office in NoMa on Monday, February 9, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced he’s replacing Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), after Noem had rankled the president and some Republican members of Congress with her oversight of widespread turmoil at the agency, among other issues. Mullin still needs to be confirmed by the Senate to assume the post.
Mullin, if confirmed, would take the helm of DHS amid its continued partial shutdown, and as it has repeatedly come under fire for its handling of issues related to antisemitism from lawmakers and Jewish community groups. Noem, meanwhile, will become special envoy to a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere being launched by Trump this weekend…
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other GOP leadership called on Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) to drop out of his reelection race, after the lawmaker admitted yesterday to having an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide. Gonzales is headed to a May runoff with his primary opponent, social media influencer Brandon Herrera; if Gonzales does step aside, Herrera, who has a history of antisemitic posts about the Holocaust, is all but guaranteed the GOP nomination in a solidly Republican district…
Trump said he “[has] to be involved in the appointment” of the next Iranian leader, in an interview with Axios, “like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela.” He called Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has emerged as his father’s likely successor, “unacceptable.” The president’s comments seem to widen the administration’s stated war aims, which have thus far focused on eliminating Iran’s naval, air and nuclear assets.
Trump also insisted in the interview that Israeli President Isaac Herzog issue a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “today,” as he wants Netanyahu “to focus on the war and not on the f**king court case. I want the only pressure on Bibi to be the fighting against Iran”…
Some Democratic lawmakers — including Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI), Gary Peters (D-MI), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) — told Politico they won’t “rule out” voting in favor of an emergency supplemental funding request to shore up the military should one come from the administration amid the campaign against Iran, despite widespread Democratic condemnation of the White House’s failure to consult Congress beforehand…
A vote on a war powers resolution to stop the military campaign in Iran failed in the House this afternoon 219-212, with two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Warren Davison (R-OH) — crossing the aisle in support and four Democrats — Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Jared Golden (D-ME) and Juan Vargas (D-CA) — breaking with their party to oppose it.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) both changed their positions and voted in favor of the resolution, weeks after Moskowitz told Jewish Insider — before the campaign began — that its sponsors “should just rename [the resolution] the Ayatollah Protection Act because that’s what it does.” Asked by JI about the shift in his stance today, Moskowitz answered, “I didn’t flip at all. Circumstances have changed since my first statement”…
Antisemitic podcaster Tucker Carlson’s latest extreme rhetoric took aim at the Chabad Lubavitch movement, with sweeping conspiratorial language accusing the Hasidic sect of seeking to start a “religious war” amid the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Carlson argued in an episode of his show that dropped last night that Jews see the war against Iran as an opportunity to feud with Islam and to target Christians. Carlson’s remarks prompted outrage among Chabad’s backers, who pointed out that Chabad emissaries have for decades played a crucial role in connecting American Jews to their faith and to each other…
In a conversation with ABC News, Trump said this afternoon that Tucker “has lost his way. I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. … Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that”…
In a discussion with the New York Post, Trump railed against European countries which have continued to oppose the campaign against Iran, calling Spain “a loser” and the U.K. “very disappointing.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, said today that the Iran war is a “failure” of the international order, but would not “categorically rule out” Canada’s participation…
Iran’s indiscriminate attacks are bringing allies together worldwide: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he’s deploying specialists to assist the U.S. after Washington requested “specific support in protection” against Iranian Shahed drones, which Ukraine has been battling for several years as Russia has regularly deployed them, and the European Union and Gulf Cooperation Council held a joint meeting to discuss Iran’s “unjustifiable, unprovoked, and unlawful attacks”…
The New York Times profiles Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, as he helps lead Israel’s efforts in the campaign against Iran…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at Jack Cocchiarella, the progressive Gen Z podcaster who has made a name for himself hosting high-profile Democratic candidates — including California Gov. Gavin Newsom in New Hampshire tonight — and who has recently taken a turn towards bashing Israel.
Team Israel will play its first games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Saturday against Venezuela and on Sunday against Nicaragua.
Also Sunday, AJ Edelman, the Israeli Olympic bobsled team pilot, will speak in conversation with Neil Goldman at Chabad of West Village in New York.
Birthright Israel’s Excelerate26 summit is also taking place in New York this weekend, with keynote speeches on Sunday from Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots; Anne Neuberger, former deputy national security advisor during the Biden administration; and Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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MILITARY UPDATE
Tehran also attacked Azerbaijan for the first time, launching drones that injured two at Nakhchivan International Airport
ABOUT-FACE
The Arizona senator’s outspoken commentary has repeatedly placed blame for the military operation on Israel, leading one Jewish Democrat to pull her support
Plus, Qatar rebuffs Iranian diplomacy
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks with press in the Hart Senate Office Building on April 07, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
On the fifth day of the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the accomplishment of several key objectives, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports, including that “the leader of the unit” responsible for the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in November 2024 “has been hunted down and killed.”
Hegseth also revealed that an American submarine sank an Iranian warship by torpedo, the first time such a thing has been accomplished since World War II. Responding to concerns over whether the U.S. will be able to maintain enough munitions throughout the conflict, Hegseth dismissed “stories and speculation,” instead asserting: “Iran cannot outlast us”…
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, to insist that Iranian drones and missiles attacking Qatar are really directed at U.S. assets and “not intended to target the Gulf state.”
Al Thani “categorically rejected” that claim, according to Qatar’s foreign ministry, “citing the civilian and residential areas inside the country struck by the attacks.” He told Araghchi that Iran’s actions do not “indicate any genuine desire for de-escalation or resolution” and are trying to drag Qatar into a war “that is not theirs”…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the White House Monday to ask about intelligence that indicated the U.S. might be communicating with Iran, Axios reports, which administration officials told him was false. A New York Times report found that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence had indirectly sent a message to the CIA attempting to start negotiations to end hostilities…
NATO air defense systems shot down an Iranian missile that was flying through Iraq and Syria on its way toward Turkey, the Turkish defense ministry said this morning. It’s the first attack by Iran on a NATO country’s territory. The U.K. and France, also NATO countries, are sending additional planes and warships to the region after Iran targeted a British base in Cyprus…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, asked about reports of the U.S. arming Kurdish militias to assist in regime change in Iran, told reporters that Trump has spoken to Kurdish leaders in recent days about the U.S. military base in northern Iraq, but “any report suggesting that the president has agreed to any such plan” about arming the Kurds “is completely false and should not be written”…
Leavitt also said that the U.S. is now coordinating with Spain on the military operation in Iran, after Trump threatened yesterday to cut off all trade with Madrid over its refusal to let the U.S. use military bases on its soil and its lack of defense spending. Spain categorically denied that it is cooperating with the U.S. or has changed its position at all…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio held phone calls with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani about the campaign against Iran. Turkey and Cyprus have both faced attacks by Iranian projectiles, while Italy summoned its Iranian ambassador to protest the attack on Cyprus…
Trump indicated he’s close to offering his endorsement to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who beat expectations by finishing ahead of right-wing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in yesterday’s primary. While both Republicans are headed to a May runoff, a Trump endorsement would make Cornyn the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination — and alleviate a lot of GOP anxiety over the possibility that a scandal-plagued Paxton could lose to state Rep. James Talarico, the newly minted Democratic nominee…
In North Carolina, Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) holds a narrow lead over her far-left opponent, Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, who has indicated she will seek a recount. Foushee said in a statement that she would “welcome the opportunity” for a recount and is “confident that the Democratic voters of North Carolina will have nominated me to serve a third term”…
Hegseth will headline a fundraiser next week for Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), after four servicemembers who were previously stationed in his district were killed by an Iranian drone in Kuwait on Sunday. Nunn, who has been a staunch ally of Israel in the House, is facing a competitive reelection race as Democrats target his seat in their attempt to take back the chamber…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a breakdown of the Senate’s consideration of the Iranian war powers resolution, led by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY), which is currently on track to fail on a procedural vote.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “advancing national security through diplomacy” with Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy.
The Muslim World League will host an interfaith iftar gathering on Capitol Hill.
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IN THE CROSSHAIRS
Also Wednesday, an Israeli F-35I fighter jet shot down an Iranian YAK-130 fighter jet over Tehran, marking the first time an F-35 jet shot down a manned fighter aircraft, IDF says
PUSHING BACK
Republicans and some Democrats insisted Trump made the decision, while other Democrats said that the timing of the onset of hostilities was impacted by Israel’s plans
The new resolution, put forth by a group of pro-Israel Democrats, gives the administration 30 days to end the campaign or seek congressional approval
Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA
Pedestrians walk near near the U.S. Capitol Building, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, January 2, 2025.
A group of six moderate House Democrats introduced an alternative war powers resolution on Iran, which — rather than demanding an immediate end to the ongoing U.S. operation — would give the administration 30 days in which to either end the campaign or come to Congress to seek approval for continued strikes.
The resolution is sponsored by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Jared Golden (D-ME) and Jim Costa (D-CA). It signals concern from the group of hawkish pro-Israel House Democrats about the efforts by their colleagues to demand an immediate end to operations in Iran, though at least some of the sponsors of the resolution still plan to vote for the existing war powers resolution this week as well.
“Iran is actively firing drones and ballistic missiles at U.S. troops, our embassies, allies, and is targeting civilians across the region,” Gottheimer said on X on Tuesday. “This new Democratic War Powers Resolution will uphold Congress’s constitutional authority — while also ensuring the U.S. can defend our troops, embassies, and allies from Iranian aggression.”
Landsman said that the resolution “allows for the short-term, targeted strikes on the regime’s missiles and bombs, requires Trump to come to Congress for a vote, and specifies ‘no ground troops.’ Destroy the [regime’s] ability to destroy more lives or cause any more mayhem or violence. Nothing more.”
In a press release, Gottheimer’s office pointed to concerns that the resolution led by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), which is set to receive a House vote this week, would pull out U.S. forces even as Iran is targeting U.S. troops, assets, facilities and allies. “It is vital that we allow for a safe transition, that protects our service members, embassies, and allies, not a potentially precarious withdrawal,” the statement reads.
Lawmakers supporting the war powers resolutions in both chambers have largely not articulated what an immediate end to the war would entail or the potential consequences of abruptly pulling out U.S. forces.
The new resolution includes specific language forbidding the administration from deploying ground troops into Iran “in a combat role, including for regime change, or for occupation unless explicitly authorized by Congress,” but includes an exception for search and rescue and intelligence operations.
Gottheimer’s press release argues that an “open-ended commitment” and a potential commitment of ground troops would both be “unacceptable,” while also warning that “it is equally unwise to act in a precipitous way and endanger America’s security and put our service members in additional harm’s way.”
The Gottheimer-led resolution also contains language that would allow the U.S. to continue to defend its facilities, personnel and allies from “imminent attack;” keep forces in the region “for defensive purposes” and who are engaged in other missions and continue sharing intelligence with partners.
The war powers resolution that is set to receive a House vote later this week does not include similar language to specifically allow for continued intelligence sharing and defensive operations protecting allies, which could raise concerns for pro-Israel Democrats.
The Senate version of the resolution does include such protections.
While Gottheimer and Landsman have said they oppose the Massie-Khanna resolution, Panetta said on Tuesday that he would support it, despite also backing the Gottheimer resolution.
“The President has not abided by our Constitution when it comes to invading foreign sovereign states,” Panetta said in a statement. “That is why Congress must fulfill our obligations under the constitution by supporting this week’s bipartisan War Powers Resolution.”
Asked about the Gottheimer resolution, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, emphasized that the Massie-Khanna legislation will be coming to the floor on Wednesday. “That’s the one we have. This is continuing right now. We need to vote on this resolution tomorrow. I’m not considering any other [resolution].”
Jeremy Bash, a former chief of staff at the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency under the Obama administration, told JI that the Khanna-Massie resolution is reckless.
“We have U.S. servicemembers in harm’s way. Some are flying combat sorties as we speak. We can’t call them in the cockpit and say ‘Congress has prohibited you from completing this mission. Please turn around and stop what you’re doing.’ If that sounds a little strange, it is because the Ro Khanna resolution requires that very strange outcome,” Bash said. “An immediate withdrawal is dangerous for our troops. Any pullback needs to be orderly and safe. We need to give the combatant commander at least a few weeks to do this safely.”
He said that Congress can and should be involved in debating the war and providing oversight, but “for a war powers resolution to be credible, it has to build in several days for the commanders to act responsibly to protect their troops. This cannot be done immediately.”
Bash called Gottheimer’s resolution a “very sensible alternative that will protect our troops.”
Daniel Silverberg, a former advisor to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), emphasized that a similar effort to cut off the U.S.’ Libya operations led by “one of the most ardent anti-war activists in the House,” then-Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), included a 15-day wind-down provision.
“The Massie-Khanna resolution lacks it. The notion that Democrats would not, at a minimum, support that amendment to allow for a responsible withdrawal of forces is problematic from a national security perspective and from a messaging perspective,” Silverberg said.
Amb. Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and senior State and Defense Department official, said that the resolution could serve as a “fallback” if the Massie-Khanna resolution fails, one which might have a chance of attracting GOP support.
“The 30 day clock … arguably addresses a concern that some members might have about troops who are actively engaged and in the field, and would need some window of time … to wind down and safely conclude operations,” Shapiro said.
Plus, Alex Soros boosts antisemitic conspiracy theorist
Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Friedrich Merz, Germany's chancellor, center left, and US President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Good Tuesday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The Trump administration emphatically denied reports, based on partial comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday, that Israel forced the U.S. to launch the operation against Iran.
“If anything, I might’ve forced Israel’s hand,” President Donald Trump told reporters while meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office today. “You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they [Iran] were going to attack first.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boosted the president’s comments, saying, “This is 100% correct,” while Rubio insisted his original remarks were misrepresented…
Trump continues to share optimistic assessments of the war’s progress: he told Politico that Iran is running out of missile launchers while claiming the U.S. has “a virtually unlimited supply” of weapons, saying, “wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies”…
The Israeli Air Force struck a building where senior clerics had gathered to elect Iran’s next supreme leader, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told CNN, “and there’s a very good chance that the electors won’t be readily available for any further meetings”…
Trump is open to backing militias in Iran who will work to mount regime change, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal, after he held phone calls with Kurdish leaders who maintain armed groups along the Iran-Iraq border.
Trump has wavered in recent comments on his vision for the future of Iran, saying today that “somebody from within” might be the best option to lead, rather than individuals like exiled former crown prince, Reza Pahlavi. At the same time, Trump told reporters, “Most of the people we had in mind are dead. And now we have another group, they may be dead also. Pretty soon we’re not gonna know anybody”…
Trump ordered the U.S. Development Finance Corporation to provide political risk insurance for all maritime trade traveling through the Gulf, as oil traffic has essentially halted and energy prices have soared. The U.S. Navy will also, if necessary, begin physically escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his country’s assistance to the UAE, as the Gulf country has been targeted by over 1,000 Iranian drones and missiles since the operation began Saturday. Ukraine has become particularly skilled in combating Iranian Shahed drones, something the UAE has little experience with, as Russia has regularly used them in its attacks on Ukraine…
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia was struck with two Iranian drones, with no casualties reported; the embassy was closed, along with U.S. embassies in Kuwait and Beirut. The State Department ordered the mandatory departure of all non-emergency personnel in several countries and has begun “actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave” the region…
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment plant was struck in the course of hostilities in recent days. Trump has claimed the site was rendered inoperable during the U.S.’ June 2025 strikes…
Alex Soros, one of the progressive movement’s most influential donors, boosted a social media post today about U.S. casualties in the war with Iran from Max Blumenthal, a prominent anti-Israel conspiracy theorist, Jewish Insider‘s Matthew Kassel reports.
Soros also praised Spain for its refusal to allow the U.S. to use joint bases on its soil, calling Madrid the “leader of the free world” and reprimanding other European countries for not doing the same…
After issuing a statement solely attacking the U.S. and Israel over the campaign against Iran — which provoked backlash from members of the Iranian dissident and diaspora communities — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged the “systematic repression” of the Iranian people by the regime, while declining to criticize the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
Even as he acknowledged Tehran’s bloody suppression of protesters, Mamdani did not directly answer a reporter’s question at a press conference today about whether the Middle Eastern nation was better off without the radical cleric who ruled for nearly 37 years…
Amazon Web Services operations are “significantly impaired” after three of its data centers in the Middle East were struck by Iranian drones — two directly hit in the UAE and one sustaining damage in Bahrain. The strikes “caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage,” AWS said…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the results of today’s high-stakes primary elections in North Carolina and Texas and their implications for pro-Israel voters.
The Heritage Foundation will hold an event to launch its 2026 “Index of U.S. Military Strength” with remarks from Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Reps. August Pfluger (R-TX), Pat Harrigan (R-TX) and Matt Van Epps (R-TN).
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will release its annual report tomorrow on Capitol Hill.
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SQUARING OFF
A trio of Mamdani backers united with tech and real estate investors to boost anti-Israel candidates
PARTY PERSPECTIVE
Speaking at J Street’s national summit, Sen. Tim Kaine also said ‘virtually all’ Democratic senators now seek the group’s endorsement
J Street members are heading to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to lobby members of Congress to vote in favor of constraining military action in Iran
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Borrowers
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) speaks on Capitol Hill on February 09, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Democratic members of Congress addressing J Street’s national convention in Washington on Monday used the occasion to rally support for long-shot resolutions coming before the House and Senate this week that will attempt to end U.S. military strikes against Iran.
“The president’s refusal to pursue consent from Congress, as required by the Constitution, is perhaps his most grievous assault on democracy, and we should not let it stand,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said to the 1,500 activists gathered at J Street’s morning plenary.
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) told the crowd that he expects to see “very robust, possibly unanimous support” from congressional Democrats on the measures, which would put an immediate end to U.S. operations against Iran.
“I’m not the whip, but certainly the caucus seems to be very on board with asserting their constitutional authority,” Casten said. Even some hawkish Democrats, like Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), are expected to vote in support of the measure, although a handful of Democrats, including Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), have already said they will oppose it.
Casten was speaking alongside Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), both of whom had recently returned from a J Street-sponsored trip to Israel and the West Bank. Dean said President Donald Trump should have used his State of the Union address last week to more directly discuss the coming attacks on Iran.
“Wouldn’t that have been the time, at least by then, to begin messaging to the American people what the vision and the mission was — if he was going to take this extraordinary military action, and of course, to message it to Congress, to say to Congress, ‘I recognize your role’?” Dean said. “We are a constitutional democracy. We are supposed to actually make sure that the people closest to the ground, closest to the people, have some say.”
The war powers resolutions are likely to fail, given Republicans’ control of Congress and their overall support for the military action ordered by Trump over the weekend. Even if passed, they would need two-thirds support to override an inevitable presidential veto.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told the audience that even if the war powers resolutions are defeated, Congress still has a role to play in further authorizing U.S. military strikes against Iran.
“Republicans defeating the resolution is not a war authorization. The law is clear: Congress needs to explicitly authorize war through an authorization of the use of military force,” said Schatz. “Congress has a duty not just to check a reckless and lawless president, but also to represent the will of the people. And the people want nothing to do with this.”
On Tuesday, J Street members will go to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers to oppose the strikes and to vote in support of the war powers resolutions.
“Elected officials are elected for a reason: to put themselves on the record at important moments, and this is one of those moments,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami told reporters on Monday. “We urge senators and congressmen to vote in favor of a war powers resolution when it comes to the floor.”
Plus, Tehran takes aim at global energy
Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
Smoke rises from the area after it was targeted in attacks as a series of explosions are heard in Tehran, Iran on March 01, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump and senior U.S. defense officials laid out an open-ended timeline for the ongoing bombing campaign against Iran in several press briefings and interviews today, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea and Emily Jacobs report.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both declined to rule out a U.S. ground invasion of Iran, while Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine announced more American troops are en route to the region. “Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it. I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary,’” Trump told the New York Post.
The president repeatedly said the operation is “ahead of schedule,” but added that the U.S. military is prepared to continue the campaign beyond his initial four-to-five-week timeline. Trump also told CNN that the “big wave” of strikes on Iran “hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon”…
On the American public’s perception of the strikes, Trump said, “I think that the polling is very good, but I don’t care about polling. I have to do the right thing. This should have been done a long time ago.” A new CNN poll found that 41% of Americans support the strikes against Iran, while 59% disapprove…
After Hezbollah jumped into the conflict by launching strikes on Israel overnight, prompting Israeli fire on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in return, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam banned the terror group’s “military activities,” restricting it “to the political sphere.”
Salam said the group’s actions are now “illegal” and called on the Lebanese Armed Forces to “prevent any attacks originating from Lebanese territory,” a long-awaited show of resolve from Beirut. The LAF has struggled to disarm Hezbollah forces since the signing of a ceasefire agreement with Israel in November 2024…
On a ground invasion of Lebanon, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said, similarly to the U.S. position on Iran, “all options are on the table”…
U.S. casualties in the course of the operation increased today to six servicemembers…
Qatar’s Ministry of Defense condemned attacks by Iran on a power plant and an oil facility in the country, further indicating Tehran is setting its sights on civilian and energy infrastructure. The targeted energy plant, Ras Laffan, is responsible for around a fifth of all global natural gas production — Qatar halted production after the strike which, along with decreased passage through the vital Strait of Hormuz, sent oil prices soaring…
Iran continues to sustain heavy losses: The U.S. said it has sunk all 11 of Iran’s warships in the Gulf of Oman while Qatar shot down two Iranian SU-24 tactical bombers, which were developed by Russia; the UAE also intercepted around 150 Iranian drones and 15 missiles today in addition to hundreds over the weekend…
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated in an address to parliament today that Britain will not be joining the strikes on Iran but will allow the U.S. to use its bases for “defensive actions,” noting that Iran has already struck a military base in Bahrain that houses around 300 British troops. “France and Germany are also prepared to enable U.S. action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones from the source,” Starmer added.
Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Starmer in an interview with The Telegraph, saying the prime minister “took far too long” in deciding to allow U.S. forces to utilize its bases…
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised the campaign, calling it “really important … because it is taking out, degrading the capacity of Iran to get its hands on nuclear capability, the ballistic missile capability.” But, he said, “there are absolutely no plans whatsoever for NATO to get dragged into this”…
GOP lawmakers are pushing Democrats to agree to a funding deal for the still-shuttered Department of Homeland Security, as hostilities with Iran raise concerns about domestic terror threats…
The war is also making its way into some of the most heated primary races unfolding across the country: In North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, anti-Israel activist Nida Allam, who is challenging Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), put out a new campaign ad just before tomorrow’s primary slamming “Trump and Netanyahu’s reckless war.”
Allam accused the administration of using “our taxpayer dollars to bomb a school in Iran, killing over 100 elementary school children,” even though there has been no proof that the U.S. was responsible for the strike…
Some pro-Israel Democratic candidates in Illinois also took harsh stances against the Iran operation: state Sen. Laura Fine, running in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, called for Trump’s impeachment, while Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, running in the 2nd District, and Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, running in the 7th District, called the strikes “reckless” and “immoral,” respectively…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a rundown of the high-profile primaries on the ballot tomorrow in North Carolina and Texas.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House for a conversation that was set to focus on negotiations between Russia and Ukraine but will likely be overshadowed by the ongoing operation against Iran. Germany joined the U.K. and France over the weekend in offering a supportive but cautious stance on the hostilities.
It will be a busy day on the Hill, where administration officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine will hold all-member briefings on Iran for the House and Senate. Rubio is briefing the Gang of Eight again this afternoon, and national security committees in both chambers were briefed over the weekend.
Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy, will brief the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy; Colby has previously drawn bipartisan ire from the committee over a lack of consultation by his team and alleged rogue decision-making on a range of issues by his office.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security with testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The Capitol Jewish Forum will host its annual Capitol Hill Purim celebration, attended by a number of Jewish lawmakers.
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WEIGHING IN
The resolutions are unlikely to pass; if they do, they will need two-thirds support to override an inevitable presidential veto
CLOSING RANKS
UAE and Saudi leaders spoke by phone; the GCC affirmed its ‘right to respond’
Most Democrats are pushing for a war powers resolution next week, amid ongoing military operations
Win McNamee/Getty Images
The American flag flies in front of the U.S. Capitol on February 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. U.S.
A number of Republican lawmakers rallied behind President Donald Trump’s military strikes against Iran on Saturday, while leading Democrats expressed quick and strident opposition to the administration’s decision to attack Iran.
Democrats are also demanding Congress reconvene promptly next week to vote on war powers resolutions to block further military operations in Iran without congressional approval. The resolutions were already expected to come up for votes in the coming week.
A few Democratic lawmakers sounded more open-minded about the attack against Tehran. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), one of the few foreign policy hawks in his party, said the president “was absolutely” correct to attack Iran in an appearance on Fox News. “God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel,” Fetterman said.
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), who told Jewish Insider earlier this week that limited strikes on Iran could be necessary and productive, echoed that stance on Saturday. He said that he would oppose the war powers resolution.
“I hope these targeted strikes on the Iranian regime’s military assets end the regime’s mayhem and bloodshed and makes way for this lasting peace in the region,” Landsman said. “Thank you to our brave service members who are leading this effort, and I pray their work will finally free the people of Iran and those in the region from more violence or war. May peace emerge from all of this.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who had been planning to oppose the war powers resolution, praised the attack while highlighting the administration’s obligations under the War Powers Act, which limits the duration for which the president can unilaterally commit forces to armed conflict without congressional approval.
“Today, the United States, with our key democratic ally Israel, took decisive action to defend our national security, fight terror, protect our allies and stand with the Iranian people who have been massacred in the streets for demanding freedom from the murderous Iranian regime,” Gottheimer said. “I applaud the extraordinary bravery and professionalism of our servicemembers and pray for their safety as Iran and its terrorist proxies retaliate against American bases and our partners in the region.”
“Confronting the Iranian threat is essential to America’s national security and to global stability. The world is safer because of the courage and skill of our service members. I am praying for their safety and the safety of all of our allies who have been targeted by Iranian retaliation,” he continued.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) offered more muted support for the operation, praising U.S. servicemembers while saying she “stand[s] with the Iranian people in their hope for a better future and will continue to work in a bipartisan way in Congress to provide them the support they need.” She called for an immediate and detailed briefing on the administration’s plans, and highlighted Iran’s long record of malign activity and attacks on its own citizens.
But Rosen also warned against a protracted conflict and criticized the lack of congressional authorization.
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), among the most moderate Democrats in the House and a potential swing vote on the war powers resolution, said Trump needs to seek congressional authorization for the operation, while offering support for the administration’s goals.
“I agree with the President’s objectives that Iran can never be allowed to obtain nuclear capabilities. The President must now clearly define the national security objective and articulate his plan to avoid another costly, prolonged war in the Middle East,” Suozzi said. “Iran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the region and must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. Preventing that outcome is vital to our national security, the safety of our allies, and the stability of the Middle East.”
Most of the leading voices in the Democratic Party, however, are rallying against the Iran attack.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who is leading a war powers resolution in the Senate that he planned to call up for a vote next week, said in a statement, “Every single Senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action,” calling the strikes a “colossal mistake,” accusing the president of having “learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East” and of being “mentally incapacitated.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who is leading similar legislation in the House, said that “the American people are tired of regime change wars that cost us billions of dollars and risk our lives. We don’t want to be at war with a country of 90 million people in the Middle East.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the few GOP isolationists in Congress and Khanna’s cosponsor on that resolution, also said he opposes the operation.
“This is not ‘America First,’” Massie said. “When Congress reconvenes, I will work with @RepRoKhanna to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran. The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), another isolationist-minded Republican who indicated this week that he was leaning toward voting for the war powers resolution, sent similar signals on Saturday.
“We need a government small enough to fit within the Constitution. We need a government effective enough to solve problems and serve its own people. Or, we need a new Constitution,” Davidson said.
The House is not scheduled to reconvene until Wednesday.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who was one of the handful of congressional leaders briefed on the administration’s plans earlier this week, said that “everything I have heard from the administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame.”
He said he expressed his concerns to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the briefing this week.
Republicans are largely lining up behind the administration, with the exception of Massie.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who had urged Trump to take action, praised the administration, saying Trump had “met the moment.”
“My mind is racing with the thought that the murderous ayatollah’s regime in Iran will soon be no more. The biggest change in the Middle East in a thousand years is upon us,” Graham said. “The likelihood of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel getting back on track is exceedingly high – a subject I brought up last week to the key players in the region who concurred if the ayatollah goes down, historic peace advances.”
Graham met with leaders in Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this month and said on Fox News on Saturday morning that he plans to return soon. Following retaliatory strikes by Iran on U.S. military facilities in several Arab states, Saudi Arabia issued a statement condemning Iran and offering its support for measures the Arab states may take in response.
“This operation has been well-planned,” Graham continued. “It will be violent, extensive and I believe, at the end of the day, successful. Again the demise of the ayatollah’s regime with American blood on its hands is necessary and more than justified.”
He later urged Arab and other allies to “get behind President Trump and go all in to ensure the ayatollah’s Iran, which has become the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world is no more.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who was also briefed, said, “The butcher’s bill has finally come due for the ayatollahs. May God bless and protect our troops on this vital mission of vengeance, and justice, and safety,” highlighting the regime’s long record of attacks against Americans.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Iran is “facing the severe consequences of its evil actions,” and said Trump had “made every effort” at diplomacy. “For decades, Iran has defiantly maintained its nuclear program while arming and funding Hamas, Hezbollah, and other internationally recognized terrorist organizations. Iran and its proxies have menaced America and American lives, undermined our core national interests, systematically destabilized the Middle East, and threatened the security of the entire West.”
“The Gang of 8 was briefed in detail earlier this week that military action may become necessary to protect American troops and American citizens in Iran. I received updates from Secretary Rubio thereafter, and I will remain in close contact with the President and the Department of War as this operation proceeds,” Johnson continued.
Other rank-and-file Democrats, including some moderates, drew parallels with the Bush administration’s war against Iraq in their criticism.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the strikes raise “serious legal and constitutional concerns.”
“The American people have seen this playbook before — claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change and prolonged, costly nation-building,” Warner continued. “We owe it to our service members, and to every American family, to ensure that we are not repeating the mistakes of the past. The president owes the country clear answers: What is the objective? What is the strategy to prevent escalation? And how does this make Americans safer?”
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), an Iraq war veteran representing a GOP-leaning state, expressed concern for U.S. forces, who Trump acknowledged could be lost in the ensuing war.
“I lost friends in Iraq to an illegal war. Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn’t been explained or justified to the American people,” Gallego said. “We can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending our troops to die.”
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a co-chair of the House Jewish caucus and a key pro-Israel leader, criticized the administration’s move and said he would support the war powers resolution. “The President of the United States is not allowed to take our nation to war without authorization from Congress.”
“This is a moment of peril and opportunity,” Schneider said. “Congress must step up to meet the moment, fulfill its constitutional duties, and ensure American action — with our allies in the region and around the world — leads to a more stable and peaceful Middle East, not another generational entanglement ending in failure.”
Former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), among the House’s most vocal Democratic Iran hawks while she was in office and who is now running to reclaim her former seat, also said Congress should “immediately return to Washington” to vote on Kaine’s war powers resolution.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said that Trump has “no credibility on either the strategy or law guiding foreign policy” — pointing to the president’s delayed promise to Iranian protesters earlier this year that help would be coming — and said he plans to support the war powers resolution.
“I am ready to work across the aisle to craft congressionally directed strategy on Iran, especially for securing American air supremacy in the region and supporting the Iranian people’s right to self determination,” Auchincloss said. “But first congressional Republicans must call the question on this fundamental issue of war powers by voting against a reckless commander-in-chief and for the Constitution.”
Plus, Mamdani makes surprise WH visit
Umman Foreign Ministry/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (C) advisor Jared Kushner (L) meet with Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi (R), who is mediating between the parties in the third round of Iran-U.S. negotiations held in Geneva, Switzerland, on February 26, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
U.S.-Iran negotiations wrapped up for the day in Geneva without a decisive result: Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the sides had made “significant progress” while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media they negotiated “very seriously,” but no agreement was reached.
Araghchi said technical experts will meet on Monday in Vienna at the International Atomic Energy Agency and fourth round negotiations will take place later next week, after consultations in both capitals…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters yesterday that Iran “poses a very grave threat to the United States” and is trying to reconstitute its nuclear program. “After their nuclear program was obliterated, they were told not to try to restart it, and here they are. You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it. They’re not enriching right now, but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”
Beyond the nuclear issue, Rubio said, Iran also has “conventional weapons that are solely designed to attack America and attack Americans. … These things have to be addressed.” While the current talks are focused solely on Tehran’s nuclear program, “it’s also important to remember that Iran refuses to talk about ballistic missiles to us or to anyone, and that’s a big problem”…
House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement today that they plan to force a vote “as soon as Congress reconvenes next week” on a resolution blocking military action against Iran without congressional authorization, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Three Democrats have already indicated they will oppose the resolution, with other defections likely to follow…
U.S. forces raided a ship last month and seized cargo heading from China to Iran, officials told The Wall Street Journal, part of a broader effort to head off Iran’s covert arms purchases after the 12-day war last June. The cargo was reportedly intended for Iranian companies that procure weapons for the regime’s missile program…
The Journal interviews fighter pilots involved in the U.S. bombing campaign against the Houthis last spring, as military assets are once again amassing in the Middle East for a potential operation against Iran…
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner amplified a social media post today from a far-right conspiracy theorist well-known for viciously antisemitic commentary — before quickly deleting the statement, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports. In a comment on X, Platner approvingly boosted a remark opposing war with Iran from Stew Peters, who has said Judaism is “satanic” and a “death cult,” promoted blood libels and called for a “final solution” to mass-deport American Jews…
The issue is particularly sensitive for Platner, who earlier in his campaign faced scrutiny over a Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he has since had covered. He was pressed today on a YouTube call-in show about his knowledge of the tattoo’s symbolism because of his self-identification as a WWII history enthusiast.
“I was well aware that they [Nazis] used a similar-looking thing,” Platner said. “You have to admit it’s not a ‘similar-looking thing,’ it’s the same thing. … Anyone who’s remotely a WWII buff knows what that is,” the caller replied. Platner answered, “I’m not going to apologize for something that I didn’t know about or do”…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made an unannounced visit to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump today. Among other issues, the two discussed housing and immigration activities…
The family of Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Israel and the Palestinian territories, sued Trump and other administration officials yesterday in district court, alleging that the sanctions imposed on Albanese by the U.S. violate her First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights…
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar attended an iftar meal to break the Ramadan fast hosted by UAE Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja in Tel Aviv, where Herzog said that the “members of the Abraham Accords should be treated in an upgraded manner as they pursue the noble cause of peace.”
“And this I say especially,” Herzog continued, “when there are nations who are spreading hate, spreading blasphemy against nations who seek peace — against the Emiratis, against the Israelis,” ostensibly referring to Saudi Arabia…
As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up his trip to Israel today, the two countries signed 16 memorandums of understanding to expand cooperation in fields including agriculture and AI. Modi also met with the cast of “Fauda”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a profile of Sam Bregman, the Jewish cowboy-hat wearing former district attorney running for governor of New Mexico.
ADL’s Desert Region will hold its annual conference at Arizona State University, with speakers including ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and state Rep. Alma Hernandez.
J Street’s annual conference will kick off Saturday in Washington. Speakers will include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Sean Casten (D-IL) and Madeleine Dean (D-PA). J Street’s PAC will hold an event with Roy Cooper, the former governor of North Carolina now running for Senate, and phone banking sessions for Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss, running for the House.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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The far-left influencer, running competitively in a Chicago-area district with a sizable Jewish constituency, debated primary rivals Laura Fine and Daniel Biss on Wednesday
Three Democrats have indicated they will oppose the resolution, with some other defections likely
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (C) speaks alongside Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) (R) and Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) (L) during a news conference after a vote on healthcare subsidies at the U.S. Capitol on January 8, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement on Thursday that they plan to force a vote “as soon as Congress reconvenes next week” on a resolution blocking military action against Iran without congressional authorization.
The statement, signed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA), as well as Reps. Greg Meeks (D-NY), Jim Himes (D-CT), Adam Smith (D-WA) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), all of whom hold committee leadership roles, argues that military action against Iran without authorization would be unconstitutional. The statement also serves as an apparent repudiation of claims by some progressives that Democratic leaders were privately maneuvering to block a vote on the resolution, fearing a significant number of party defections.
“The Iranian regime is brutal and destabilizing, seen most recently in the killing of thousands of protestors,” the Democratic officials said. “However, undertaking a war of choice in the Middle East, without a full understanding of all the attendant risks to our servicemembers and to escalation, is reckless.”
“We maintain that any such action would be unconstitutional without consultation with and authorization from Congress,” they continued.
At least one Republican, other than the resolution’s cosponsor Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), appears likely to support the war powers resolution. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), a Republican with isolationist foreign policy leanings, said he would vote in favor of the resolution unless he receives a classified briefing on the “mission” in Iran next week that provides “new information.”
“War requires congressional authorization. There are actions short of war, but no case has been made,” Davidson said.
Three Democrats — Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Greg Landsman (D-OH) — have indicated they will oppose the resolution. Some other defections are likely.
One issue that could drive particular concern for pro-Israel Democrats is that the legislation does not include specific language allowing for continued intelligence-sharing and defensive operations and aid to protect Israel from Iranian attack, which is included in similar Senate legislation.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a Senate floor speech on Thursday, two days after receiving a classified briefing from Cabinet officials — that the administration still has yet to lay out its goals and plans for Iran.
“The issues we discussed in our classified briefing were very serious and the American people deserve to hear it directly from the president and his administration,” Schumer said.
Schumer has signed on as a cosponsor of the Senate war powers legislation.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who was also briefed, said Thursday that any action against Iran should be decisive enough to bring down the regime.
“In my view, if you’re going to do something there, you better well make it about getting new leadership and regime change,” Thune said.
Plus, Witkoff calls for indefinite Iran nuclear deal
Mario Tama/Getty Images
An attendee wears a jacket at an Iowa caucus watch party organized by Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, on February 3, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Ahead of the third round of U.S.-Iran negotiations taking place in Geneva tomorrow, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that President Donald Trump “has a number of other tools at his disposal” besides diplomacy to ensure “the craziest and worst regime in the world” does not obtain nuclear weapons, following on the president’s remarks during last night’s State of the Union calling Iran “the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror”…
In response to Trump’s comments, where he also said Iran was developing advanced ballistic missiles and had killed 32,000 protesters, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei tied Trump to the “law of propaganda coined by Nazi [chief propagandist] Joseph Goebbels.”
“This is now systematically used by the U.S. administration and the war profiteers encircling it, particularly the genocidal Israeli regime … Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baghaei wrote on X…
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading Iran negotiations alongside Jared Kushner, reportedly told AIPAC members at the group’s summit in Washington yesterday that any deal reached with Iran should not have a “sunset clause,” as the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was criticized for.
“We start with the Iranians with the premise that there is no sunset provision. Whether we get a deal or not, our premise is: you have to behave for the rest of your lives,” Witkoff told the group, according to Axios. He said talks are currently focused only on the nuclear issue, but if they are successful, the administration would look to hold additional talks on Tehran’s missile program and support for terror proxies…
Satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press appear to show U.S. ships that typically dock in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet have moved out to sea. The 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships during the U.S. strikes in Iran last June…
Dutch airline KLM announced a suspension of flights between its hub in Amsterdam and Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport starting March 1 until further notice, saying in a statement that it is currently “not commercially or operationally feasible for KLM to operate flights to Tel Aviv.” It’s the first airline to pause flights amid the current unrest with Iran…
On the campaign trail, Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George vowed to reject the “Zionist lobby” in a questionnaire seeking the endorsement of the Metro D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports, a category that the DSA said includes AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel, Christians United for Israel and J Street.
Referencing her appearance at an event with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in December, Lewis George assured the DSA she “disagree[s] with the JCRC on a number of issues,” including its opposition to describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide and its “definition of antisemitism that criminalizes dissent, and their attacks on activists.”
Ron Halber, CEO of the JCRC, told JI, “As far as I’m concerned, [the DSA’s questionnaire] is an antisemitic manifesto. They are making the price of their endorsement the social exclusion of Jews”…
Illinois state Sen. Laura Fine, a Democrat running for an open Illinois House seat, unapologetically championed her backing for Israel in a position paper obtained by JI’s Marc Rod, amid attacks from anti-Israel activists and groups over her support for the Jewish state and backing from pro-Israel supporters.
Fine described Israel in the paper as “more than just a strategic ally, it is a beacon of democracy in one of the world’s most volatile regions,” as she and some of her primary opponents, including Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and far-left activist Kat Abughazaleh, are set to participate in a televised debate tonight…
The U.S.-led Board of Peace released a video today laying out its vision for Gaza. The board’s goal by Year 3 is to fully rebuild the southern Gazan city of Rafah and have Gaza “connected to the world through an Abrahamic gateway, linking it with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and extending to India and Europe.” By the board’s 10th year, it said, Gaza will be “self-governed,” without specifying who will oversee the enclave and how Hamas will be removed from power…
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana awarded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the newly established Medal of the Knesset, the highest honor of the body, after Modi’s address there today. His remarks were warmly received by members of Knesset and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also in the chamber…
Following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland’s independence in December, Jerusalem accepted the appointment of Mohamed Hagi as the first Somaliland ambassador to the Jewish state (and its first fully accredited ambassador anywhere in the world). Hagi “was a member of the inner circle of officials who promoted the establishment of relations between Israel and Somaliland,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, and vowed that a reciprocal Israeli ambassador “will soon be appointed”…
Former Harvard President Larry Summers will remain on leave from his teaching position at the Ivy League school for the duration of the academic year, at which point he will retire, Harvard announced today, after files released by the Department of Justice showed Summers maintained a relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after the financier had been convicted of prostitution involving a minor…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of Fox Nation’s new docudrama on King David, offering a dramatic reenactment of the biblical coming-of-age story of the Jewish leader.
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will hold discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.
California Jewish groups including the JCRC Bay Area, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and Jewish California, which rebranded today from its previous name of JPAC, are hosting a forum for candidates running for governor, as Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his term limit. Participating candidates include former presidential contender Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, all of whom are Democrats, as well as Republican commentator Steve Hilton.
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Protestors gather after police cleared a new encampment on the UCLA campus on May 23, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Good Tuesday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Previewing his State of the Union address tonight, where it remains to be seen if he will make any announcements on Iran, President Donald Trump told reporters, “Iran wants to make a deal more than I do, but they just won’t say the sacred phrase: ‘We won’t build nuclear weapons,’” signaling that the two sides are still at an impasse ahead of the third round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the congressional Gang of Eight, the bipartisan set of leaders advised on classified matters by the executive branch, this afternoon to provide an update on Iran, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly joining the discussion. The White House did not brief the group before striking Iran last June, drawing ire from Democrats…
Ahead of the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told C-SPAN about potential Iran strikes, “Closed-door briefings are fine, but the administration has to make its case to the American people on something as important as this”…
Around a dozen U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets departed from the U.K. today to be deployed at an Israeli Air Force base in the south of the country, as over 150 aircraft are being moved to the region. Military experts told The Washington Post that the “assets being assembled are indicative of a multiday campaign without a ground invasion”…
The Coast Guard is investigating a swastika drawn at its primary recruit training center in New Jersey, where Coast Guard commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday quickly flew to address recruits and staff about the incident. Lunday recently came under fire from Congress, and had his confirmation delayed, over a change in Coast Guard policy that downgraded the swastika from a prohibited hate symbol to “potentially divisive,” which was eventually walked back.
Regarding the recent incident, Lunday said in a statement to The Washington Post, “Anyone who adheres to or advances hate or extremist ideology — get out. Leave. You don’t belong in the United States Coast Guard and we reject you”…
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) is pushing for legislation to require an affirmative congressional vote prior to the U.S. reaching any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, following a notification from the administration to Congress indicating that it is moving toward a deal that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
The notification procedures, which do not include specific terms of a potential deal, suggest that Saudi Arabia will not be required to agree to more intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections or “gold standard” safeguards — which would require Saudi Arabia to agree not to enrich or reprocess nuclear material — used for the U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates…
The Justice Department sued the University of California today under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination, alleging that the UCLA campus created a “hostile work environment against Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff.”
During campus anti-Israel protests in 2024, the DOJ said, “the University allowed antisemitic harassment to continue unabated for days” and “has ignored, and continues to ignore, gross and repeated violations” of time, place and manner restrictions on student protest. The department further claimed Jewish and Israeli faculty at the school have been physically threatened, ostracized, harassed, forced to take leave and assaulted…
The New York Times details efforts by New York’s business community and Democratic establishment to organize and promote the moderate wing of the party in response to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise to power. Some of the individuals involved, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo allies Phil Singer and Steven Cohen, are considering forming PACs, watchdog groups, lobbying campaigns and more…
New York’s Working Families Party endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) yesterday over Mamdani’s objections. The mayor has been backing Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who, like Mamdani, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a vocal critic of Israel, and he had lobbied the WFP to endorse her or to stay out of the race. WFP’s director, Jasmine Gripper, told the Times, “At the end of the day, Zohran is an individual who gets to weigh in as an individual”…
A new poll from the University of New Hampshire found oyster farmer Graham Platner with a commanding lead among likely Senate Democratic primary voters, outdistancing Gov. Janet Mills by 34 points, with the primary less than four months away. In a general election matchup with incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Platner leads Collins by 11 points, while Mills and Collins are neck-and-neck…
Khalid Turaani, executive director of the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), testified at the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee last week against a bill to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, where he claimed that Israel operates the world’s largest human skin bank and harvests the skin from deceased Palestinians. “And if I call them Nazis,” Turaani continued, “your law is going to punish me.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Ohio River Valley office condemned Turaani’s speech, saying that the “antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries”…
The U.S. Embassy in Israel announced that, as part of the government’s “efforts to reach all Americans,” the embassy will be providing consular services for one day only at several locations across Israel and the West Bank, including Ramallah and the Jewish settlement of Efrat…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for the highlights from President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, taking place at 9 p.m. ET tonight, as all eyes are on possible U.S. military action against Iran.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Israel tomorrow, where he will be greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before addressing the Knesset. In the evening, the two leaders will have dinner at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. Read JI’s interview on Modi’s visit with Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar.
The New York City Council will hold its first hearing on Council Speaker Julie Menin’s bill aiming to create “buffer zones” around houses of worship to protect from disruptive protests. The bill’s language was updated last night to remove the original 100-foot figure, which had reportedly emerged as a point of concern for the NYPD.
Congressional candidates from Illinois’ 9th District, where pro-Israel spending is boosting state Sen. Laura Fine and attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, will hold a debate on local news.
Stories You May Have Missed
SHIFTING STANCE
The progressive activist ran as a pro-Israel candidate in a neighboring swing district, but is now walking back her support as she runs to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
PRAIRIE STATE OF PLAY
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton seems to be running to the congressman’s left on Israel, even as Rep. Robin Kelly is the most outspoken critic of Israel in the race
We’ll be watching for how Trump will address the situation with Iran in his speech, if at all
Murat Gok/Anadolu via Getty Images
President Donald Trump makes a speech during the inaugural meeting of the 'Board of Peace' at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, United States on February 19, 2026.
President Donald Trump is set to address Congress for his State of the Union speech tonight, with U.S. forces amassing in the Middle East and administration officials engaged in an ongoing flurry of diplomacy with the Iranian regime.
We’ll be watching for how Trump will address the situation with Iran in his speech, if at all. Will he set red lines or negotiate demands for the regime? Will he lay out his plan or goals for a potential military attack? The White House, as of now, isn’t previewing his remarks.
Trump took to Truth Social yesterday afternoon with a post rejecting as “fake news” reporting from a series of outlets that Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had raised concerns about a sustained military campaign against Iran.
The president said that Caine “like all of us, would not like to see War” but also believes that a military conflict would be “easily won.” Although talks have reportedly centered around limits on Iran’s nuclear program, Trump continued to insist that the regime’s nuclear development is “no longer, but rather, was blown to smithereens.” He called reports that the administration is considering limited strikes on Iran “fake.”
It’s not out of the question that Trump, who loves a made-for-TV moment, breaks major news on Iran during the speech — last year, he announced in the middle of his speech that the U.S. had apprehended a terrorist allegedly involved in the bombing that killed 13 U.S. servicemembers during the pullout from Afghanistan.
On the other hand, Trump might steer clear of the topic entirely as he focuses on domestic issues dominating the headlines, such as tariffs and immigration.
We’ll also be keeping an ear out for whether Trump tries to draw any boundaries for the conservative movement on Israel policy and antisemitism in his speech. The president has largely stayed out of the ongoing fight over Israel roiling the right, but the GOP’s most prominent Israel critic, Tucker Carlson, visited the White House on Monday after an interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee that grabbed headlines.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia is set to deliver the Democratic rebuttal to Trump’s speech — making her the second of a class of female Democrats with national security backgrounds to deliver the response in two years, following Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-MI) remarks last year.
Despite Slotkin’s expertise, her speech last year was fairly light on foreign policy, and it remains to be seen whether Spanberger will follow that approach.
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), among the most strident Israel critics in the House, is set to deliver a response on behalf of the progressive Working Families Party.
On the Democratic side of the chamber, don’t expect to see a repeat of last year’s rowdy response from the crowd — Democratic leaders are urging members to avoid disruptive protests during the speech, such as attempting to interrupt Trump.
And a growing number of Democrats, mostly progressives, including several Senate Democrats with potential presidential ambitions,are set to skip the speech entirely, in some cases attending or speaking at counter-programming events being hosted by liberal groups.
Plus, previewing AIPAC's Congressional Summit
Murat Gok/Anadolu via Getty Images
President Donald Trump makes a speech during the inaugural meeting of the 'Board of Peace' at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, United States on February 19, 2026.
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview the upcoming AIPAC Congressional Summit, which kicks off on Sunday in Washington, and spotlight a Texas congressional race in which Rep. Christian Menefee appears poised to oust Rep. Al Green, the latter of whom has strained his relationship with the district’s Jewish community over a series of anti-Israel votes. We report on a meeting between NYC’s DSA and far-left NYC Councilmember Shahana Hanif, who took flak from the group over her condemnation of Hamas, and cover Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s decision to pull her endorsement of congressional candidate Donna Miller over AIPAC’s suspected support for Miller. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Eric Fingerhut, Yardena Schwartz and Palmer Luckey.
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.
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 Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Former Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop brings the fight against antisemitism to NYC’s business community; Josh Shapiro tells BBYO teens: Be proud to be Jewish; and Sole Jewish lawmaker in Belgium faces backlash amid spat with U.S. over mohels. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’ll be keeping a close eye this weekend on developments in the Middle East as President Donald Trump mulls military action against Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the president could order an initial limited strike in an effort to push Tehran into accepting a nuclear agreement. More below.
- AIPAC’s annual Congressional Summit kicks off on Sunday in Washington. More below on the gathering, which in recent years has taken the place of the group’s annual Policy Conference.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
More than 1,000 of AIPAC’s top donors will gather in Washington this weekend for the pro-Israel group’s annual Congressional Summit, meeting at a moment of intense scrutiny surrounding the group’s political tactics.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid are slated to address the convening via video, along with senior congressional leaders and a representative from the Trump administration, according to an AIPAC source. U.S. Ambassador to the U. N. Mike Waltz will speak at the conference, as will House Speaker Mike Johnson (R‑LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D‑NY) and Sens. Tom Cotton (R‑AR) and Ted Cruz (R‑TX).
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) did not respond to a request for comment.
At the conference, AIPAC activists will work to “further accelerate the community’s political efforts this election cycle” and will meet with more than 400 members of Congress, according to the source with knowledge of AIPAC’s plans.
“Discussions will focus on the evolving threats facing Israel, the negotiations with Iran, solidarity with the Iranian people seeking freedom from a brutal regime, continued U.S. security assistance and expanding joint defense cooperation that will strengthen the security and strategic edge of both nations,” the source told Jewish Insider.
Supporters and critics alike are closely watching the group’s next moves after a very public defeat earlier this month. AIPAC spent more than $2.3 million on attack ads against former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) in a Democratic primary in New Jersey, only for Malinowski to lose in a close race to Analilia Mejia, a far-left activist who will almost certainly take a much more hostile approach to Israel than Malinowski.
TEXAS TAKEDOWN
Jewish leaders in the Houston area see a chance for a fresh start this year with a new congressman, after an increasingly strained relationship with their longtime representative, Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who has taken a strong anti-Israel turn in recent years, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Due to Texas’ redistricting process, Rep. Christian Menefee (D-TX) now faces Green, as well as other long-shot candidates, for a full term in the House beginning in 2027.
Where things stand: Green, 78, is struggling to hold onto his seat in a primary against newly elected Menefee, the former Harris County attorney, who won a commanding victory in a special election runoff last month to replace former Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX). Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Green has consistently taken anti-Israel stances, even on legislation that has received widespread support on a bipartisan basis. Jewish leaders in the district say that Green, who was once close with the Jewish community, has become inaccessible and even hostile to Jewish constituents since Oct. 7.
CHICAGO FLIP-FLOP
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) rescinded her endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, who is running in a Democratic congressional primary in Illinois’ 2nd District, over support Miller is reportedly receiving from AIPAC-aligned forces, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Miller has not been endorsed by AIPAC and neither the group nor its super PAC are publicly spending any money in the district. But it’s widely rumored in the Chicagoland area that pro-Israel forces are backing a new group, Affordable Chicago Now, supporting Miller.
State of play: Schakowsky’s reversal is a notable step in a campaign by progressives to make even perceived ties to AIPAC or any individual donors who have supported the pro-Israel group toxic within the Democratic Party — even if their support for a candidate isn’t coming through AIPAC. “Illinois deserves leaders who put voters first, not AIPAC or out-of-state Trump donors,” Schakowsky said in a statement. “I cannot support any candidate who is funded by these outside interests.”
UNDER FIRE
A New York City councilmember known for her fervent criticism of Israel faced harsh questioning at a recent gathering of the Democratic Socialists of America — because she had also spoken out against Hamas, as well as supporters of the terrorist organization who demonstrated outside New York synagogues. The comments came during Councilmember Shahana Hanif’s interview earlier this month with the NYC-DSA Socialists in Office committee. Hanif, a DSA member who long lambasted Israel prior to facing a centrist challenger last year, appeared before the group in order to receive formal endorsement and volunteer support from the organization in the future, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
In the hot seat: “Something that concerned me is the comparison of protesters who chanted support of Hamas to neo-Nazi protests, equating them both as antisemitism. Many of us, with 60% of Gen Z supporting Hamas against Israel, many of us are realizing now that we’ve been lied to all our lives,” one participant in the interview said to Hanif. “We do so under fear knowing that the politicians that represent us are supporting a genocide, as well as supporting political repression against us. So will you fight back against that effort to repress us, or will you take part in it yourself?”
EDUCATION CONSTERNATION
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights met in Washington on Thursday to hold its first hearing on campus antisemitism in more than 20 years. The commission — a bipartisan federal fact-finding agency established in 1957 — is chaired by a Democrat and also includes two Republicans appointed by President Donald Trump, yielding a diverse group of witnesses who sparred over Trump’s approach to campus antisemitism and his administration’s firing of more than half of the attorneys in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
In the room: The 22 witnesses included Craig Trainor, who served as acting director of OCR during Trump’s first year in office; several former OCR attorneys; Matt Nosanchuk, a former deputy assistant secretary at DOE during the Biden administration now at The George Washington University Law School; Brandeis Center CEO Ken Marcus, who led OCR during Trump’s first term; National Jewish Advocacy Center CEO Mark Goldfeder; Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick; J Street U Director Erin Beiner; and students from Harvard, American University and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
WAR AND PEACE
President Donald Trump used the occasion of the first meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday to announce significant monetary and troop commitments from the U.S. and other countries to stabilize Gaza, as well as lay out a timeline for military action against Iran, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Putting money where their mouth is: “I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace,” Trump said at the United States Institute of Peace (now named after the president), where several foreign leaders gathered for the meeting. The president also named, for the first time, which countries have agreed to make additional financial contributions to the reconstruction of Gaza: Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait “have all contributed more than $7 billion toward the relief package,” Trump said. In addition to U.S. and foreign officials, Marc Rowan, Yakir Gabay, Liran Tancman and Michael Eisenberg were in attendance, with Rowan, Gabay and Tancman all addressing the group.
Bonus: FIFA head Gianni Infantino, who attended the Board of Peace meeting in Washington, pledged $50 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in the Gaza Strip, as well as $15 million for the creation of a FIFA academy.
SENATOR SAYS
In an appearance on the “On The Record” podcast with Hadley Gamble, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) rejected the suggestion from some in the Arab world that the deaths of civilians in Gaza do not align with Christian values. “I just don’t buy that at all, because what did we do in World War II? Did we think for one minute about starving the Germans? Did we bomb every city into smitherreens?” Asked if that meant he was comparing Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on the Jewish state to how the U.S. responded in World War II, Graham responded affirmatively, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What he said: Gamble then pressed Graham on Israel “flattening Gaza,” which the South Carolina senator said he took no issue with. “Just flatten it. We flattened Berlin. We flattened Tokyo,” Graham said. “Were we wrong to drop an atomic bomb to end the Japanese reign of terror? Were we? In my view, if I were Israel, I would have probably done it the same way. Without military victory, there is no hope of breaking radicalism. We flattened Germany. We flattened Japan.”
Bonus: Graham, who is wrapping up a weeklong trip to the Middle East, posted on X that he had “a very friendly, extensive and consequential meeting” with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Graham said that he was “hopeful that a dialogue can be started between Saudi Arabia and the UAE regarding their disputes in Yemen and Sudan,” and that the crown prince’s “vision for the region is for conservative Islam to coexist – with tremendous economic opportunity – for the people of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and the entire world.”
Worthy Reads
Protect Syrian Minorities: In The Wall Street Journal, Sam Brownback, formerly the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, raises concerns about the security of religious minorities in Syria. “At the end of Saddam [Hussein]’s brutal dictatorship, Iraq had about 1.5 million Christians. Today, there are fewer than 250,000. There were more than 500,000 Yazidis in 2003 under Saddam. Today that number is estimated at 300,000, with 125,000 of those in internal-displacement camps, primarily in the Kurdistan region. The same will happen in Syria if we don’t insist on the safety of the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities. Syrian Kurds, Christians, Druze, Yazidis and Alawites must have domestic security. … When minorities are threatened, social cohesion breaks down. When social cohesion breaks down, durable peace becomes impossible. That vacuum is where other extremist groups thrive.” [WSJ]
Document Dump: In Tablet, David Sclar looks at how financial challenges facing Jewish institutions have forced some to sell off documents and artifacts they had been entrusted to keep safe. “The point is not nostalgia. It is that institutions are tested precisely in the moments when preservation becomes inconvenient. Jewish learning has often emerged in distress. … The question is not whether Jewish institutions face financial pressure, but whether these challenges warrant the irreversible dispersal of the documentary record. To abandon the foundations on which an institution rests, and the cultural heritage it is entrusted to preserve, is to incur a loss that extends well beyond its boundaries. Yet these collections can be used as bulwarks against the very pressures Jewish leaders seek to confront.” [Tablet]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump notified Congress that the White House is seeking to reach a civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that will not include nonproliferation safeguards that would prevent Riyadh from obtaining nuclear weapons…
The Congressional Jewish Caucus issued a statement condemning recent anti-Muslim comments by Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), saying, “As political violence and attacks on religious minorities hit record levels, Members of Congress must lead by example, not fuel more hatred through dehumanization. As Jewish Americans who all come from families that immigrated to this country and faced ethnic and religiously based discrimination, seeing any Member, and particularly a fellow Jewish Member of Congress, spew such hatred is wholly unacceptable and against our Jewish values”…
The Free Press found an influx of new registrations by foreign lobbyists since Trump’s election in 2024, with “the biggest winners of the foreign lobbying surge” being MAGA-aligned Republicans…
Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut called on Congress to increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion annually and to “make the program more flexible and simpler to use” during JFNA’s inaugural “State of the Jewish Union” address at the organization’s Washington headquarters, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
The Anti-Defamation League and Blue Square Alliance Against Hate are joining forces in a new partnership to combat the spread of antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned…
Crystal City Entertainment is developing Yardena Schwartz’s 2024 nonfiction book Ghosts Of A Holy War, about the 1929 Hebron massacre, into a narrative feature adaptation; read our interview with Schwartz here…
French and Israeli officials unveiled signage of the newly renamed Place Shimon Peres in Paris, honoring the late Israeli leader…
The American Jewish Committee and Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France, the umbrella organization representing French Jewry, announced a new partnership on Friday aimed at combating an increase of antisemitism that has caused many French Jews to consider leaving the country, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
The New York Times looks at Alan Dershowitz’s efforts to challenge the 1964 Supreme Court ruling on New York Times v. Sullivan, about press freedoms, which Dershowitz himself helped author while he was a law clerk in the court…
Global accounting firm KPMG is distancing itself from the upcoming Sydney Writers’ Festival, which is facing criticism for its inclusion of a Palestinian Australian speaker who called for “the end of Israel” and said that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety”…
Anduril founder Palmer Luckey traveled to Israel earlier this week for Defense Tech Expo, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
Israel’s High Court ruled that the government must move forward with the restoration and upgrading of the Western Wall egalitarian plaza, which has been delayed for nearly a decade due to resistance from the country’s chief rabbis and Haredi legislators…
In eJewishPhilanthropy, Tamara Zieve and Rachel Kohn spotlight the Peace of Mind program that brought former IDF soldiers known as tatziptaniyot, female soldiers who serve as unarmed observers — and whose unit gained attention after 15 were killed and seven taken hostage from the Nahal Oz base during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks — to the U.S. to work through trauma…
Palestinian Health Ministry officials said a 19-year-old Palestinian American man was killed in clashes with Israeli settlers in the West Bank…
The IDF said it “strongly” condemned an infiltration of far-right activists, including Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech, into the Gaza Strip on Thursday…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the challenges for the Trump administration if it decides to move forward with an effort to force regime change in Iran, citing a “lack of a clear alternative” should Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei be removed from power…
The U.K. said it would not allow its bases in Gloucester and the Indian Ocean to be used by the U.S. to launch an attack on Iran; Trump, in response, withdrew U.S. support for the U.K.’s agreement to hand the Chagos Islands over to the country of Mauritius…
The family of a British couple detained in Iran said the pair, who were arrested and charged with espionage while on a motorcycling trip around the world, was sentenced to 10 years in prison…
Grammy Award-winning producer and lyricist Billy Steinberg, who wrote five No. 1 singles, including Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” and the Bangles’ “Eternal Flame,” died at 75…
Pic of the Day
A delegation of U.N. ambassadors led by Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon traveled to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Thursday.
Birthdays
Defenseman for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, Jake Walman turns 30…
FRIDAY: U.S. senator (R-KY), Mitch McConnell turns 84… Former head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet and later a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, Yaakov Peri turns 82… Co-owner of NYC-based TF Cornerstone, owner of 12 million square feet and 7,000 apartments in NYC and D.C., Kamran Thomas Elghanayan turns 81… Screenwriter, film director and novelist, he wrote the screenplay for “Blazing Saddles,” Andrew Bergman turns 81… University professor at Brown University, winner of a 2015 Pulitzer Prize for biography, David Kertzer turns 78… Physician and acupuncturist based in Valley Village, Calif., Andrea Hoffman Kachuck… Nursing home administrator in Hazlet, N.J., Benzion Schachter turns 75… Founder and publisher of “Punch,” M. Sloane Citron turns 70… Senior VP for daytime news programming at Newsmax Media, David M. Friend turns 70… Former NFL player who played for seven different teams over 16 seasons, he was one of the NFL’s original long snapper specialists, Adam Blayne Schreiber turns 64… Senior editor at Politico, David Cohen… Professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago, Shmuel Aaron Weinberger turns 63… U.S. senator (D-AZ), Mark Kelly turns 62… Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer and theater critic for The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum… Cantor and lecturer at Hebrew Union College, Kerith Carolyn Spencer-Shapiro… Actress, comedian and writer, Andrea Savage turns 53… Emmy Award-winning film and television producer, he is the founder of Hidden Pictures Media, Todd Darren Lieberman turns 53… Comedian, actor and writer, best known for portraying Gina Linetti on Fox’s series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Chelsea Peretti turns 48… Actor, best known for his role as Joel Maisel on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Michael Zegen turns 47… Owner of a baseball development facility in Denver, he was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball, Jason Hirsh turns 44… CEO at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Amy Spitalnick… Philanthropy consultant, Aimee Weiss… Ethiopian-born Israeli fashion model and television personality, winner of the Israeli version of “Big Brother,” Tahounia Rubel turns 38… Boca Raton, Fla., resident, Levi Yitzchok Shemtov turns 33…
SATURDAY: Holocaust survivor and author of a book on systemic hate, he was the developer of the L’Ermitage Beverly Hills in 1976, Severyn Ashkenazy turns 90… Co-founder of Dreamworks and noted collector of American artists’ work, his name is on the Lincoln Center complex in NYC, David Geffen turns 83… Monica Oakes Agor… Vice chairman of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, he was previously a sports agent for basketball and baseball players, Arn Herschel Tellem turns 72… Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes during his 30 years reporting career, he is the director of a fiscal and monetary policy group at the Brookings Institution, David Meyer Wessel turns 72… Financial executive and real estate entrepreneur, he is the chairman of the KABR Group, a New Jersey-based real estate investment firm, Kenneth D. Pasternak turns 72… President of Yale University from 2013-2024, Peter Salovey (family name was Soloveitchik) turns 68… Fitness personality, he develops businesses through the “Body by Jake” brand, Jake Steinfeld turns 68… Owner of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns until 2012, he also owned Aston Villa F.C. of the English Premier League until 2016, Randolph David “Randy” Lerner turns 64… Former member of the Knesset for the Kadima and Hatnuah parties, Orit Zuaretz turns 59… Executive director of former Vice President Mike Pence’s advocacy organization, Advancing American Freedom, Paul Teller turns 55… Reality television star with frequent appearances on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and its spin-offs, Jonathan Cheban turns 52… NYT best-selling novelist (two of which have been made into movies), writer-in-residence in the graduate creative writing program at NYU, Jonathan Safran Foer turns 49… Chicago Cubs player best known for being hit in the head on the first pitch of his MLB debut resulting in a compound skull fracture, Adam Greenberg turns 45… Emergency medical physician at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and AIPAC National Council member, Dr. Miriam Fischer Wachter… Former member of the Florida House of Representatives for six years, now in private law practice, Katie Edwards-Walpole turns 45… New York City police commissioner since 2024, Jessica S. Tisch turns 45… French actress and film director, best known in the U.S. for her starring role as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 war film “Inglourious Basterds,” Mélanie Laurent turns 43… Director of strategic philanthropy for the northeast region of American Friends of Magen David Adom, Samuel Zeev Konig… Rochester, N.Y., resident, Joshua Futerman… Pitcher for the Israeli team at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier, he is now a sales associate at Stryker, Brad Goldberg turns 36… Israeli judoka, she won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Shira Rishony turns 35… Director of campus support and action implementation at Hillel International, Reuben Berman… Rhythmic gymnast who competed in the 2012 Olympics in London as a member of the Israeli team, Polina Zakaluzny turns 34… Monsey, N.Y., resident, Efrayim Katz… Former professional tennis player, in 2015 he was named the ACC Tennis Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, Noah Rubin turns 30… Associate at Jones Day, Jay S. Schaefer…
SUNDAY: Retired justice and deputy president of the Supreme Court of Israel, Shlomo Levin turns 93… Child survivor of Bergen-Belsen, in 2024 she donated $55 million to the University of Haifa, Herta Amir turns 93… Music journalist and former board member for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Rona Elliot turns 79… Former co-chair of Wisconsin Jewish Democrats and author of three “Jewish Miss Marple” books, Linda Frank turns 78… Dutch singer-songwriter especially popular in France, she converted to Judaism and her children live in Israel, Helena “Lenny” Kuhr turns 76… White House counsel to President Barack Obama, now a professor at NYU School of Law, Robert (Bob) Bauer turns 74… Marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles and founder of the Israel Institute for Alternative Energy Advancement, Daryl Temkin Ph.D…. Chief strategist for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, now a CNN commentator, David Axelrod turns 71… President of the New York Yankees since 2000, executive producer for the YES Network, Randy Levine turns 71… Winner of five major golf championships and 24 other LPGA Tour events, she is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, now a golf course architect, Amy Alcott turns 70… Former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home–Tkuma party, Mordechai “Moti” Yogev turns 70… Office and program coordinator at The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, Lisa Shusterman… Writer, editor and publisher best known for his dark fiction, as well as his publishing imprint Aardwolf Publishing, Clifford Lawrence Meth turns 65… Senior rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Norfolk, Va., Rabbi Jacob Herber turns 63… Actress, comedian and cast member of “Saturday Night Live” for seven years, Rachel Dratch turns 60… Past leader of the Israeli Labor Party, he is now the CEO of Partner Communications (formerly known as Orange Israel), Avraham “Avi” Gabbay turns 59… Emmy Award-winning television producer, he served as showrunner for four seasons of NBC’s sitcom “The Office,” Paul Lieberstein turns 59… Actor, author and academic, Ari Hoptman turns 59… Soccer player on the Israeli national team and on teams in both Spain and Turkey, now a successful Israeli businessman, Haim Michael Revivo turns 54… Former president of the University of Florida, he retired as a U.S. senator from Nebraska in 2023, Ben Sasse turns 54… British stand-up comedian and broadcaster for GB News, Josh Howie turns 50… Winner of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” in 2008, she has released six stand-up specials on Netflix, Iliza Shlesinger turns 43… Partner in the appellate practice of Norton Rose Fulbright, Peter B. Siegal… VP at Oddity, Miranda R. May… Former chair of the Washington chapter of the Israel Policy Forum Atid, Danielle Bella Ellison…
Even as the super PAC backing Miller isn’t officially affiliated with AIPAC, the progressive lawmaker’s move shows how pro-Israel donors are now shunned by some Dems
Keith Mellnick
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) rescinded her endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, who is running in a Democratic congressional primary in Illinois’ 2nd District, over support Miller is reportedly receiving from AIPAC-aligned forces.
Miller has not been endorsed by AIPAC and neither the group nor its super PAC are publicly spending any money in the district. But it’s widely rumored in the Chicagoland area that pro-Israel forces are backing a new group, Affordable Chicago Now, that’s spending about $900,000 on behalf of Miller’s campaign. Schakowsky also said Miller is accepting individual donations from AIPAC supporters.
Schakowsky’s reversal is a notable step in a campaign by progressives to make even perceived ties to AIPAC or any individual donors who have supported the pro-Israel group toxic within the Democratic Party — even if their support for a candidate isn’t coming through AIPAC.
“Illinois deserves leaders who put voters first, not AIPAC or out-of-state Trump donors,” Schakowsky said in a statement. “I cannot support any candidate who is funded by these outside interests.”
It’s not clear how much influence Schakowsky’s endorsement will have outside her district, given her limited profile in a majority-Black district — as opposed to her wealthy, progressive Lakefront constituency. But it comes amid a broader campaign by left-wing activists in the Democratic Party to turn AIPAC and its donors into a burden for Democratic candidates.
The Illinois primaries are set to be a major test of pro-Israel donors’ influence and political instincts after a high-profile fumble in New Jersey, in which the group’s spending was seen as helping to elevate a far-left anti-Israel candidate.
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), the target of AIPAC’s spending in New Jersey, in an op-ed released on Thursday, said that Democratic leaders should “collectively … refuse [AIPAC’s] support” and reject its endorsements and assistance — arguing that the group’s biggest donors are Republicans, even while acknowledging most AIPAC members are Democrats.
Fingerhut called on states to opt in to a tax credit that would provide funds for Jewish day school and yeshiva education
JFNA
JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut delivers the inaugural State of the Jewish Union address in Washington, Feb. 19, 2026.
As antisemitic incidents continue to roil Jewish communities nationwide, Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut called on Congress to increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion annually and to “make the program more flexible and simpler to use.”
Fingerhut also called on governors to support an educational tax credit on Thursday during JFNA’s inaugural “State of the Jewish Union” address at the organization’s Washington headquarters.
Fingerhut urged lawmakers to provide federal support for security personnel so that schools and synagogues don’t need to cover the costs; expand the FBI’s capabilities to detect and disrupt domestic terrorism; increase support for state and local law enforcement protecting Jewish institutions; hold social media companies accountable for antisemitic hate and incitement to violence through their platforms; and prosecute hate crimes “aggressively.”
The call for increased security comes as American Jews have faced several high-profile hate crimes in the past year, including the recent arson attack at Mississippi’s largest synagogue. Less than two weeks after the attack on Congregation Beth Israel in Jackson, Congress put forward a budget of $300 million for NSGP for 2026. While that figure is a small increase from the funding provided in 2024 and 2025, it is lower than the allocations initially proposed by both the House and Senate and the amount requested by Jewish leaders.
American Jews have responded to the increase of hate and the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in what JFNA coined as “the surge,” describing a rise in Jews engaging or seeking to engage more in communal life.
According to the organization, enrollment in Jewish schools and camps remains high. “This is why we strongly support the new federal education scholarship tax credit and urge all 50 states to opt in so the funds can reach the families and schools in every community,” Fingerhut said on Thursday.
JFNA confirmed to Jewish Insider that the group plans to hold sideline meetings with state leaders on Friday during the National Governors Association summit in Washington to encourage Democratic governors to participate in the education tax credit, which would create supplemental funding for scholarships for Jewish day school and yeshiva education.
Though the anti-Israel encampments and disruptive protests that plagued college campuses in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7 and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war have largely died down, a larger percentage of Jewish college students report having experienced antisemitism than ever before. Fingerhut encouraged passage of the bipartisan Protecting Students on Campus Act, which would require federally funded colleges and universities to inform students of their civil rights under Title VI and provide accessible information on how to file discrimination complaints.
“The state of the Jewish union in America is strong, but it is being tested,” said Fingerhut. “We are united in our commitment to America and to Jewish life, even as we worry about the real threats of violence and the growing acceptance of antisemitic rhetoric.”
Following Fingerhut’s address, three heads of local federations shared challenges in addressing security and social needs in their communities. Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles; Scott Kaufman, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation; and Miryam Rosenzweig, president and CEO of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation echoed that — despite varying degrees of antisemitism in their communities — there is a significant “antisemitism tax,” an increased financial burden to protect Jewish institutions.
“Every dollar we’re spending [on security] we can’t spend on the ‘joy’ part of being Jewish,” said Kaufman.
AIPAC’s super PAC has recently thrown its support behind his opponent, Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin
Campaign website
Jason Friedman
Jason Friedman, a prominent real estate developer and longtime leader in the Jewish United Fund, Chicago’s Jewish federation, is making waves in a crowded primary for Congress in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, long represented by retiring Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL).
Friedman is facing off against candidates including Davis’ preferred successor, state Rep. LaShawn Ford; Kina Collins, a Justice Democrats-backed third-time candidate with an anti-Israel record; attorney Reed Showalter, also running on an anti-Israel platform; and Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who previously ran for the seat as a strong supporter of Israel.
Friedman, who has been the strongest fundraiser in the field, is also running as a stalwart ally of the Jewish community. But AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, is backing Conyears-Ervin’s campaign, airing a blitz of positive television ads this week promoting her candidacy.
In a statement seemingly responding to the UDP ads, Friedman said that he “joined this race to fight and deliver results for everyone. The people of the 7th District deserve a representative with integrity, not career politicians with ethical baggage who sell out their constituents to the highest bidder.”
Conyears-Ervin has faced several scandals in recent years, and paid tens of thousands of dollars in fines for ethics violations including misuse of city resources.
Friedman added that he “won’t be bullied and I won’t back down from doing what’s right — not now, not ever.”
Friedman told Jewish Insider in an interview last week he has “dedicated … my philanthropic life, to our Jewish community here in the city of Chicago. I’m really, really proud of it,” having served on the JUF board for years and at one point as head of government affairs.
He said that his Jewish faith has instilled the values of tzedakah and tikkun olam, as well as empathy and compassion, which have inspired him to be a good servant and steward of the community.
“It’s repairing the whole world, and that means being there for every community, not just the Jewish community … and fighting for them,” Friedman said. “That’s something that really guides me.”
He said the U.S.-Israel relationship is “very important to me” and that Israel “is a very important part of my Jewish identity” and “something that I will be engaged on” if elected. He has visited Israel at least a dozen times, including leading five JUF missions, and his son was bar mitzvahed in the Jewish state.
Asked how he would approach Israel policy as a member of Congress, Friedman said the JUF is a “big tent, as it relates to our Jewish community,” both in terms of politics and religious observance. He said that his involvement in JUF “forced me to be in a situation where I was consensus-building and using collaboration,” an approach he said would carry through to his work as a congressman, including in the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Friedman described himself as a “firm believer” in aid to Israel which has “proven incredible benefits over the years,” and that he is a “big believer and supporter” of the memorandum of understanding on military aid between the U.S. and Israel.
“For those that want to talk about ‘conditions’ — there already are conditions, the Leahy Law, and the State Department places conditions on all foreign aid. That already exists,” Friedman continued. “To the extent the State Department reviews that every single year. That’s something I support. You know, Israel should not be uniquely targeted or positioned [compared to] any other country that gets foreign aid.”
He said he would “exercise my oversight” as a member of Congress to ensure Israeli compliance “like every country that receives foreign aid should be in compliance.” Asked whether he believes the war in Gaza has included breaches of that compliance, Friedman said he wasn’t prepared to judge without access to State Department assessments of the war.
Asked about his reflections from leading JUF missions to Israel, Friedman said that he sees a trip as a success as when “the left-wing guys come back more right wing, [and] the right-wing people come back more left wing,” explaining that his goal is “to really try to expose people to many different ideas and thoughts,” to challenge their “preconceived notions of how things are supposed to be.”
“When they get there, they realize the complexity of what they see. This is not a black and white issue. It’s multi-layered,” Friedman said. “It’s multi-layered on the Israeli side. It’s multi-layered as it relates to the Israeli Arabs. It’s multi-layered as it relates to Israelis and Palestinians. It’s multi-layered as it relates to the regional actors in the region. It’s multi-layered as it relates to the religious complexity.”
When asked about accusations of genocide levied against Israel, Friedman said, “Here’s what my Jewish faith tells me: when I’m on the stump, this is what I say … innocent people shouldn’t be killed, they shouldn’t be beheaded, they shouldn’t be raped, they shouldn’t be taken hostage, and women and children shouldn’t starve.”
“The way you conduct the war matters, and Israel has a right of self-defense. I will always defend that, but this was a really tough thing for everyone involved, and there’s a lot of lessons to be learned,” he continued.
He also emphasized that the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing war have been “really, really challenging” for the global Jewish community and for Israel, from the attacks themselves, the antisemitism they unleashed and the war for which Israel seemed ill-prepared.
Friedman also said that Israel “has to move on” from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take itself seriously as a vibrant democracy.” He said that what the next government entails is up to Israeli voters, but that he has “no confidence” in Netanyahu or President Donald Trump to push toward peace.
Friedman said the U.S. should “stay consistently engaged in the region” to push the parties to “take risks for peace” in pursuit of a two-state solution. He acknowledged that both sides see such a deal as “very far-fetched” or even “pollyanish … but it doesn’t mean we still can’t be optimistic,” emphasizing the need to maintain hope and engage, alongside regional partners.
He said that Iran can “never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons” and that the collapse of Iran’s regional proxies provided a “once in a long time opportunity” for the U.S. to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities last summer. But, he added, “time will tell about whether or not that was the right decision or not. I had concerns over it.”
He said his biggest current concern is finding ways to help support the Iranian people looking for freedom from the regime. As the administration continues to mull strikes, Friedman said military action “should be a last resort” and that the U.S. would have to “be very thoughtful and careful that doesn’t backfire.”
He said he also wants to see greater public support for protesting Iranians, noting, “it’s not lost on me that I haven’t seen a single campus protest in support of the Iranian people.”
As the father of a current junior at Barnard College in Manhattan, Friedman had direct personal exposure to some of the most vitriolic anti-Israel protests that roiled campuses nationwide.
As the protests accelerated, he said his daughter, a freshman at the time, called him and said that she was afraid on campus, and asked him to come pick her up.
“What I saw was shocking. And I was disheartened, not just as a father, but as a Jew, and [to] see that campus metastasize into what that became was heartbreaking,” Friedman said. “I saw members of Congress within my own party whipping up that encampment into a frenzy. I saw the [House] speaker come out on Low Steps and throw gasoline on a fire.”
“What gave me hope is I looked over at the Kraft Hillel Center and I saw people like [Reps.] Dan Goldman and Josh Gottheimer and Ritchie Torres, who were there for our community, who were trying to say, ‘What better place to have constructive dialogue and open dialogue than a university?’” he continued.
He said that his daughter’s courage in returning to campus helped inspire him to run for Congress.
He added that, while Barnard “really, really struggled, and it infuriated me many, many times,” the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on campus antisemitism by cutting science research funding were “taking a howitzer to a knife fight” — particularly when more of the antisemitism issues emerged from humanities programs.
Democrats, he said, “could have done more and should have done more” to call out the antisemitism that was proliferating on campuses at the time, condemning those who created an unsafe environment for Jewish students, attacked them and vandalized campuses.
Friedman said he has also faced antisemitism in his congressional campaign. “It’s not lost on me that much of the vitriol I see in online comments to us or being publicly protested at places I show up is because I’m Jewish, and it’s very disheartening, and it’s tough to see,” he said.
Those attacks, he emphasized, have been based on “a perceived notion of who they think I am,” rather than his actual policies or platform, and that they have been difficult for him as a candidate and his staff.
“It’s a real challenge out there running as a Jewish candidate right now,” he said, while also emphasizing that these issues are not front-and-center or the ones he’s focusing on in conversations with most voters in the district. “I’m definitely up for the challenge.”
Asked about remedies the federal government can offer to address surging antisemitism, Friedman noted that, from his time at JUF, he has seen the importance of the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program to protect Jewish community organizations, including the Jewish day schools his children attended.
And he expressed support for the long-stalled Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify the Department of Education’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
Friedman began his career with an ambition to work in politics, starting as a 13-year-old canvasser for then-Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL), attending the Democratic National Convention in 1992 at age 18 and working for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). He dreamed of working for Al Gore in the White House, but ended up working for Rahm Emanuel and ultimately moving back to Chicago and transitioning out of politics.
He said he sees Davis’ retirement from Congress after nearly 30 years as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to return to politics. “I could either sit on the couch and keep complaining, or I could stand up and do something.”
Friedman described the district as one of contrasts — including both thriving areas of downtown Chicago and under-invested areas of the city and its suburbs. He said his priorities include public safety, quality education, affordability and pushing back against the Trump administration and its immigration enforcement activities in particular.
A white businessman, Friedman cuts an non-traditional profile for the district, which has historically been majority-Black and represented by Black leaders, though the district’s demographics have shifted in recent years with new development downtown.
Friedman argues that “my story is the 7th Congressional District story.”
His great-grandfather was a peddler on Maxwell Street, a hub for Jewish immigrants, his grandfather owned a hot dog stand and Friedman and his father have helped develop the district’s up-and-coming River North neighborhood.
He said that regardless of community, people in the district are looking for a candidate to stand up to the administration, are tired of career politicians and want to see real results, which he has delivered in his real estate business. He said that his family’s real estate business prides itself on its accessibility and that he would be similarly accessible to his potential constituents.
“If they’ve got a problem, pick up the phone, give me a call.”
Crystal Rhoades, the clerk of the District Court in Douglas County, is running on an unapologetically pro-Israel platform
Courtesy
Crystal Rhoades
Democrat Crystal Rhoades, the district court clerk of Douglas County, Neb., is running for Congress in the state’s 2nd District on an unapologetically pro-Israel platform, with the explicit goal of blocking a progressive, whose record on Israel has attracted scrutiny in the pro-Israel community, from becoming the party’s nominee in the critical swing district.
Asked by Jewish Insider in an interview last week why she’s running for Congress, Rhoades answered simply, “to stop John Cavanaugh,” referring to the Democratic state senator seen as the front-runner in the race.
Rhoades, who said she’s been involved in Democratic politics in the area for two decades, during which she has held three elective offices and served as the county Democratic chair, said that “it was just not a good idea to allow him to emerge as the nominee” in the swing district. “What’s best for this district is for someone other than John Cavanaugh to represent it.”
“With everything that is happening right now, with the Trump administration, there’s too much risk in his candidacy,” she continued, noting that if Cavanaugh wins, the state’s Republican governor would appoint his replacement in the state Senate, potentially giving Nebraska Republicans enough votes to redraw the district and move to a winner-take-all system in the presidential election, rather the current arrangement in which the state’s two congressional districts are allocated separate electoral votes.
The Omaha-area 2nd district has, in recent presidential elections, voted with Democrats.
“That, combined with his position on Israel — which I find to be abhorrent, and frankly, very inconsistent with American values and national security — were strong motivators for me to get into the race, because I do have a long history of service here. I’m well known to these voters, and the only one that can compete with his family legacy,” Rhoades said.
Cavanaugh is a progressive state senator who hails from a Nebraska political dynasty. He was one of only a handful of lawmakers who declined to sign on to a letter in the state Senate expressing support for Israel on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, and at a recent candidate forum swore off accepting any support from AIPAC or Democratic Majority for Israel.
“I support Israel and believe Israel has a right to exist. And I also believe a two-state solution is the only way to secure lasting peace,” Cavanaugh said in a statement to JI in response to Rhoades. “Democrats in NE-02 want a candidate who will fight the Trump agenda and bring positive ideas to fix our economy, lower health care costs, and end the corruption we see from Trump and Washington. That’s why I’m running for Congress.”
In her interview with JI and a position paper she authored on Israel, Rhoades expressed a deep commitment to the Jewish state, its security and the U.S.-Israel relationship, and offered significant criticism for fellow Democrats who are critical of Israel.
She traced her support for the Jewish state to her time as a teenager working in a nursing home, where she helped take care of a Holocaust survivor and first learned about his story, antisemitism and the Holocaust.
“For me, this is very cut and dry and not at all controversial or confusing,” Rhoades said. “I just fundamentally disagree with the position that some of the members of the party have taken [against Israel]. … It’s really sad and it makes me quite angry.”
“I knew someone who described unspeakable evil and horror. This was a man who, in the ‘90s, was still hiding [extra] food,” a practice he took up in the concentration camps, Rhoades said. “It’s really difficult for me to express how much of an impression it actually made, but it was an incredibly powerful experience, knowing a survivor and having the opportunity to talk with them about what had happened.”
She saved her money from that job and used it for a trip to Europe, during which she visited a concentration camp. She went on to study terrorism in college in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, which she said further enhanced her understanding of the threat of global terrorism and Israel’s stabilizing presence in the Middle East.
“For me, this is very cut and dry and not at all controversial or confusing,” Rhoades said. “I just fundamentally disagree with the position that some of the members of the party have taken [against Israel]. … It’s really sad and it makes me quite angry.”
She said that she believes fellow Democrats are falling for misleading or false narratives pushed by online algorithms. She added that those who would support divestment from Israel, cutting off U.S. support or anti-Israel slogans like “from the river to the sea” have a fundamental lack of understanding of Israel’s role in the world and in combating terrorism.
“It is, quite frankly, shocking to me that so many people are taking this position,” she continued. “I really can’t make sense of it. I just do not understand it.”
In her position paper, Rhoades argued that Democrats who aren’t standing with Israel are betraying Democratic values and vowed not to cave to anti-Israel pressures in the party.
“These principles: democracy, equality, and freedom from persecution, are supposed to be the foundation of our core values as Democrats,” Rhoades wrote. “So why are so many ignoring them when it comes to Israel? I won’t bend my values to appease a social media mob. I won’t apologize for standing up for our ally. And I won’t stop calling out double standards when I see them. That’s not weakness … it’s leadership.”
She said that she hopes her first trip as a member of Congress would be to Israel, a signal “to my colleagues and my constituents that these issues are of moral importance to me.”
Rhoades told JI she believes the U.S.-Israel relationship has helped prevent terrorist incidents at home and elsewhere, and benefitted the U.S. in a variety of other ways — in technology, commerce, defense and intelligence.
She also emphasized that it’s the only democracy in the Middle East and the only country in the region where women, LGBTQ people and minorities enjoy equal rights.
Rhoades said she hopes the ceasefire in Gaza holds, and that a two-state solution can eventually be reached, but that it must be negotiated between the parties and that Hamas cannot be allowed to continue to hold any authority.
She emphasized in her paper that the “eradication of Hamas” was the only reasonable response to the Oct. 7 attacks and that a two-state solution must guarantee Israel’s security, demilitarize any future Palestinian state and end support for terrorism.
“While compassion for Gazan civilians is well-intentioned, it too often misses the point that they are oppressed by the same terrorist regime that insists on harming their own civilians to try to turn public opinion globally against Israel,” she said in the position paper. “All leaders, but particularly Democratic leaders, should be calling that out as a betrayal of our core values.”
Rhoades also expressed deep skepticism of the Palestinian Authority, writing that its “weakness and corruption facilitated Hamas’s ascension.” She called for “permanent enforcement,” on an international basis, of the Taylor Force Act — which bars U.S. support for the PA until the governing body ends its payments to terrorists.
Rhoades did not attend a candidate forum in January where most candidates, including Cavanaugh, swore off pro-Israel support and several said they would have voted against a government funding package that included funding to Israel and maintained a ban on funding for UNRWA.
She told JI that if she had been there, she would have pushed back on the premise of the questions posed by audience members, which she said provided a “fundamental misframing of the issue,” and conflated anger with Israel’s leadership with all Israeli and Jewish people.
She vowed to vote in support of any and all resources Israel needs to defend itself, and oppose any legislation imposing new conditions on aid to Israel.
Rhoades told JI she would have supported the U.S. strikes on Iran last summer, but emphasized that the Trump administration should be consulting Congress before engaging in military operations in foreign countries. If presented to her for a vote as a member of Congress, she said she would have supported the U.S. operation.
Looking ahead, she said that Congress should be involved in any decisions regarding further action against Iran, but that she is “very supportive of looking for ways to help the Iranian people, who, very clearly, are unhappy with their leadership.”
“The problem is that people conflate [Israel and Jews], and in doing so, it always kind of ends up being antisemitic. The idea that Israel does not have the right to exist, in my mind, is just inherently antisemitic,” Rhoades told JI.
In her position paper, Rhoades said that Iran cannot maintain any nuclear weapons or enrichment capacity, and additionally emphasized the need to work with other U.S. partners to “snuff out” Iran’s proxy forces.
She also argued that the debate over whether anti-Zionism is antisemitic “is the wrong debate” and that in practice, anti-Zionist rhetoric veers into antisemitism “almost immediately.” She said “it is insane” that the idea that Israel has a right to exist in safety could be considered controversial.
“The problem is that people conflate [Israel and Jews], and in doing so, it always kind of ends up being antisemitic. The idea that Israel does not have the right to exist, in my mind, is just inherently antisemitic,” she told JI.
When political leaders endorse or refuse to condemn rhetoric like “globalize the intifada” or “from the river to the sea,” Rhoades said that she sees those officials as empowering antisemitism.
She expressed strong support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and for the Antisemitism Awareness Act that would codify the use of that definition in education.
“I’m not at all interested in any other definition,” Rhoades told JI, warning that spikes in antisemitism like the one currently happening in the U.S. have historically presaged authoritarian and oppressive regimes.
The 2nd District is currently represented by moderate Republican Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), himself an outspoken supporter of Israel and prominent voice against antisemitism. Bacon, who has managed to fend off a series of Democratic challengers, is not running for reelection, and the Cook Political Report rates the district as “Lean Democratic.”
Internal polling by Rhoades’ campaign has put her in second behind Cavanaugh, 25%-17% with 53% undecided, but there are also several other candidates in the race. Polling by Cavanaugh’s campaign in mid-January had him with a commanding lead, with 43% to Rhoades’ 15%.
Rhoades said she’s the only candidate in the race from a working-class background, and understands the challenges that voters who have been disillusioned with the Democratic Party face. She said she thinks she can bring those voters back to the Democratic Party.
Outside of Israel policy, Rhoades said her top priorities include implementing mandatory retirement ages for members of Congress, eliminating gerrymandering and strengthening checks and balances; investing in infrastructure to provide economic stimulus and better-paying jobs; and helping to lower health-care costs, including by de-linking health insurance from the workplace.
Pretoria angered after Israel offers parched region water management aid; Jerusalem declares South African diplomat serving Palestinians persona non grata
Amb. David Saranga/X
King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo, the monarch of the AbaThembu people, and Amb. David Saranga.
South Africa and Israel banished each other’s highest-ranking diplomat serving in each country, after a video of Israel offering water technology and medical aid to minority tribes angered Pretoria last week.
The diplomatic row took place days before Congress is expected to vote on renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which would allow many products from the continent to enter the U.S. duty-free. The Trump administration has considered removing South Africa from the program because it is a “unique problem,” as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer described it in December. Removal from AGOA would adversely affect about half of South Africa’s exports to the U.S., its second-largest trading partner, Bloomberg reported.
Pretoria declared Israel’s chargé d’affaires, Ariel Seidman, persona non grata on Friday, and hours later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar expelled South African envoy Shaun Edward Byneveldt, whom they called “the senior diplomatic representative of South Africa.” Byneveldt is South Africa’s “ambassador to Palestine,” but he was based in Tel Aviv, and diplomats serving the Palestinians are accredited by Israel.
Israel and South Africa have not exchanged ambassadors in recent years. South Africa announced in 2019 that it had downgraded its embassy in Tel Aviv to a liaison office. Israel maintained an ambassador in Pretoria until South Africa petitioned the International Criminal Court to arrest Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in 2023.
However, with an active Jewish community of over 50,000, Israel has dispatched Amb. David Saranga, the Foreign Ministry’s director of digital diplomacy and a former ambassador to Romania, to be a kind of ambassador-at-large, visiting South Africa for specific meetings and projects.
Saranga visited South Africa’s Eastern Cape last Sunday, as a guest of King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo, the monarch of the AbaThembu people. The group is part of the Xhosa nation, the second-largest tribe in the country. Dalindyebo had visited Israel weeks earlier. The largest tribe, the Zulu, dominates South African politics through the African National Congress, the largest party in the country’s parliament.
In a post on X, Saranga characterized the Eastern Cape as “a region rich in heritage, poor in infrastructure,” noting that in some areas, “access to clean drinking water remains a luxury rather than a given” and “healthcare challenges are equally severe.” Saranga helped arrange partnerships between Innovation:Africa, Israel’s Sheba Hospital, Dalindyebo and other traditional leaders in the region.
Saranga and Dalindyebo held a joint press conference with other traditional leaders outside the tribal leader’s home during the Israeli diplomat’s visit last week, videos of which were posted to social media by the Israeli embassy. In one of them, Dalindyebo said of the South African government’s opposition to cooperation with Israel: “They can go to hell if they wish.” Saranga can be seen chuckling next to him.
“As a king, I am a bona fide head and owner of the land. If any government, if any constitution disputes that, someone must educate me afresh,” Dalindyebo said, asserting his authority to accept aid from Israel if he so chooses.
Days later, the Eastern Cape province’s premier, Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane, expressed “shock and concern” that Israel acted without consulting his office, calling it “a clear breach of diplomatic protocol.” Israel argued to the South African Jewish Report that it was acting within diplomatic norms.
On Friday, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) gave Seidman a 72-hour deadline to leave the country following what it called “unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty.” According to DIRCO, the violations included a failure to inform the department of visits by “senior Israeli officials” and insults to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on official Israeli social media accounts.
South African political news site The Common Sense reported that the ANC, of which Mabuyane is a member, was “panicked by an Israeli effort to expand a service delivery programme in the Eastern Cape and the positive reception to that programme by communities,” and “feared that positive imagery of ordinary South Africans cooperating with Israelis would be very damaging to the government’s hostile foreign policy towards Israel.”
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies contrasted DIRCO’s actions against Israel with its “willful blindness toward ongoing international atrocities [in Sudan and Iran] … This glaring inconsistency exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of DIRCO’s actions.”
“Given the dire lack of basic services for countless South Africans, it is striking that just days after Israel offered water solutions to a desperate community in the Eastern Cape, DIRCO expelled the Israeli charge d’affairs, diverting attention from real domestic issues,” the SAJBD added.
The South African Zionist Federation said that the expulsion of Seidman “is an act of staggering moral bankruptcy — a choice that exposes a ruling party more committed to ideological hostility than to the welfare of the people it has so profoundly failed.”
SAZF argued that DIRCO’s actions were “never truly about process, protocol, or sovereignty.”
“A diplomat was declared persona non grata not for espionage, not for misconduct, not for breaching protocol — but for the unforgivable crime of helping South Africans get water. Clean water,” the organization stated. “In a country where taps run dry, where children walk kilometers with buckets, where elderly women queue for hours at communal pumps, and where the state has normalised collapse, neglect, and decay, the ANC chose to punish the one party actually delivering solutions. … When water flowed where excuses had ruled, the ANC did not respond with humility or gratitude. It responded with expulsion.”
SAZF also accused the government of corruption: “What the ANC cannot tolerate is … aid that bypasses the patronage machine. Help that cannot be claimed, captured, or corrupted. … The message sent by this government is as obscene as it is clear: if assistance cannot be politically owned, it must be destroyed, even if people suffer.”
U.S. military assets have moved into the region in recent weeks amid escalating rhetoric from President Trump
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) speak to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on January 07, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY), leading voices in the Senate on war powers issues, introduced a war powers resolution on Friday to block military action against Iran without congressional approval.
The resolution comes after weeks of threats by President Donald Trump against the Iranian regime to intervene on behalf of anti-regime protesters, and amid a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East.
Kaine and Paul can force a vote in the Senate on the resolution, as Kaine has done with resolutions related to a series of other military actions taken by the Trump administration, including last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
The Senate blocked that resolution by a 53-47 vote; Paul voted with most Democrats in favor of the resolution while Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted with most Republicans against it.
Most recently, five Senate Republicans voted with Democrats for a procedural motion on a resolution to block further military action against Venezuela, but two ultimately flipped, under pressure from the Trump administration, on the final vote, blocking its passage.
Republicans were generally supportive of the U.S. strikes on Iran last summer, and some Democrats did praise the action after the fact, even as they expressed concerns about the administration’s unilateral action without congressional approval.
Trump has cited presidential self-defense authorities in carrying out various military actions around the world, including last summer’s strikes in Iran.
Plus, can Saudi keep its $1 trillion pledge to Trump?
LM Otero/Associated Press
Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III speaks to reporters on Feb. 1, 2024, in Dallas, Texas
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on a sermon blasting Israeli “apartheid” given the day after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks by a Texas pastor now running for Congress, and talk to former Rep. Elaine Luria about her bid for her old Virginia congressional seat. We have the scoop on a call from a bipartisan group of senators for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “surge resources” to restore internet access in Iran, and look at how Saudi Arabia’s economic challenges are sowing doubt that it can maintain its fiscal commitments to the U.S. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Masih Alinejad, Amir Tibon and Carl Kaplan.
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
- Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman is in Washington today and tomorrow to meet with senior Trump administration officials as the White House weighs strikes on Iran. Earlier this week, White House officials met with Israeli military intelligence chief Gen. Shlomi Binder in Washington, who briefed the administration on intelligence regarding Iran.
- The Hudson Institute is hosting a briefing with Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg on the Trump administration’s AI-focused Pax Silica initiative. During Helberg’s trip to the Middle East earlier this month, he participated in signing ceremonies with officials from Israel, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which have all joined the pact in recent months.
- Elsewhere in Washington, Gov. Josh Shapiro is speaking about his new memoir, Where We Keep the Light, at the Sixth and I Synagogue.
- More than two dozen European foreign ministers are meeting today in Brussels to discuss the potential designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization, as well as to move forward with the implementation of sanctions on Iranian entities in response to the Islamic Republic’s crackdowns on protesters in recent weeks. France, which had previously expressed reluctance to designate the IRGC, yesterday reversed its opposition to the designation — which will require a unanimous vote to be implemented.
- Ahead of the meeting, Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) led a bipartisan group of legislators urging the EU to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
A week after President Donald Trump took office for the first time in 2017, the White House ignited a political and media firestorm by releasing a statement commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day that failed to mention Jews.
The omission was covered in major media outlets including CNN and Politico; the Anti-Defamation League called it “puzzling and troubling.”
Nearly a decade later, Trump released another Holocaust Remembrance Day post this week, with a far more specific message: “Today, we pay respect to the blessed memories of the millions of Jewish people, who were murdered at the hands of the Nazi Regime and its collaborators during the Holocaust,” the statement read, “as well as the Slavs and the Roma, people with disabilities, religious leaders, persons targeted based on their sexual orientation, and political prisoners who were also targeted for systematic slaughter.”
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance’s post commemorating the day, which marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz by Allied Forces, did not mention Jews or antisemitism, leading political rivals on the left to pounce. (Democratic Majority for Israel called it “indefensible.”)
But despite the visibility of Vance’s tweet — which his defenders pointed out included pictures of him and his wife at Dachau, standing in front of a sign that said “Never again” in Yiddish — he was far from the only politician that failed to mention the fact that the Holocaust targeted Jews. Among them were: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA), both of whom pledged to remember the victims of the Holocaust without referring to Nazis’ targeting of Jews.
Multiple presenters at the U.K.’s BBC also failed to mention Jews in their coverage of Holocaust Remembrance Day — drawing backlash and a subsequent apology from the national broadcaster.
Does it matter that these politicians or media don’t reference Jews if they are still highlighting the significance of the Holocaust? It’s possible to argue that, definitionally, the Holocaust was about Jews, so one could assume that any reference to the Holocaust is itself a reference to the killing of Jews and the antisemitism that led to it.
“If I talk about the potato famine, do I have to say Irish? How many other potato famines were there?” asked Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian who served as President Joe Biden’s antisemitism envoy. “But this is part of a greater whole in an age of rising antisemitism.”
For years, Americans’ knowledge of basic facts about the Holocaust has been declining, particularly as fewer Holocaust survivors are alive each year to share their stories. A 2023 survey conducted by the Claims Conference found that 21% of Americans believed that 2 million Jews or fewer were killed. Eight percent of Americans, and 15% of 18- to 29-year-olds, said the number of Jews who were killed during the Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated.
RAMMING ATTACK
A man drove a Honda Accord sedan “intentionally and repeatedly” into an entryway of the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed. The NYPD responded to an 8:46 911 call on Wednesday at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, the home and center of leadership of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, now a major spiritual, symbolic and organizational hub for Chabad. No persons were injured in the incident, captured on video, and police took the driver into custody, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Under investigation: “We’re grateful to the Almighty that no one was hurt,” said Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for Chabad, adding that damage initially appeared limited. “It houses one of the most significant synagogues in the Jewish world.” Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch went to the scene in the hours following the incident, and a Chabad source told JI that the White House reached out and reported that it was monitoring the situation. Tisch said at a press conference outside 770 later Wednesday night that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime and that the NYPD bomb squad had searched the vehicle, finding no explosive devices. Chabad’s social media editor, Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, whose son was in the synagogue at the time of the incident, said, “Antisemitism does not appear to be a factor in this.”
PATOR’S POLEMIC
Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, the longtime pastor at the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas who is running to replace Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in her Dallas-area House seat, delivered an anti-Israel polemic from the pulpit on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ attack on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, and has a record of other anti-Israel comments since then.
Notable quotable: “The Palestinians, who don’t have the weaponry of Israel, the Palestinians don’t have the financial backing from the United States that Israel has, and so they throw their rocks and shoot their arrows, and Israel is able to bomb them and kill them,” Haynes said. “Watch in the news a disparity between Palestinians being killed and Israelis being killed,” he continued. “It is totally unfair, but this country is going to stand on the side of apartheid because that’s its track record. It stood by apartheid in South Africa, because it created apartheid in this country.”
COMEBACK BID
As she launches a bid to reclaim her seat in the House, former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) said that she wants to help lead the effort to push back against anti-Israel voices in the Democratic Party, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What she’s saying: “Having more people like me who are willing to speak up on that issue, in support of maintaining security assistance through the memorandum of understanding and continuing to maintain a strong relationship with Israel is important,” Luria said, adding that she wants to be a “leader” among new members and former colleagues “to show that the support [for Israel] remains strong.” Luria also said that she’d support any action necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but warned that the administration had overstated the efficacy of its strikes last summer.
exclusive
A bipartisan group of senators wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urging him to “surge resources to quickly enable critical internet freedom support” to protesters in Iran, noting funding cuts that have stretched resources for such programs thin, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “Today, many of the NGOs and technology providers that maintain these tools are facing closure due to funding cuts and more importantly, fewer Iranian citizens can share their videos and messages with the world and each other,” the letter warns. “Without the continuous operation of internet freedom programming carried out by the State Department and Open Technology Fund, millions of Iranians will lose their last secure window and voice to the outside world.”
State of play: Rubio said at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the Iranian regime is historically weak due to serious economic troubles, but also said that Tehran’s violent crackdown on protesters has appeared to have successfully quelled the demonstrations that have swept the country in recent weeks.
CASH CRUNCH
Saudi Arabia’s growing economic struggles have raised doubts among foreign policy experts about whether Riyadh can fulfill its sweeping monetary commitments to the United States. During Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House last November, the crown prince pledged to increase his country’s investments in the U.S. to nearly $1 trillion, committing funds to projects spanning artificial intelligence, energy, defense and infrastructure. But the kingdom is now facing significant financial strain, driven by persistently low oil prices and the immense funding demands of its domestic development agenda, including Saudi Vision 2030, a major government initiative taken on a decade ago to diversify Saudi’s economy, society and culture, which has since been downsized, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Oil issue: “It’s an economic challenge, and frankly, crisis is a word which works for it,” said Simon Henderson, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The Saudi economy requires $100 barrels of oil, and although the price of oil has gone up a bit in recent days, it’s still low and way short of $100.” Henderson emphasized that while Saudi Arabia remains a wealthy country due to its hydrocarbon reserves, declining revenue has forced the government to scale back or cancel marquee projects.
Bonus: Former Masters’ champion Patrick Reed announced he is departing the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and rejoining the PGA Tour, following formerly top-ranked golfer Brooks Koepka, who is returning to the PGA Tour following his departure from LIV earlier this month. The Saudi-backed golf league is now planning to sell minority stakes in its teams.
ON THE AGENDA
The White House’s Religious Liberty Commission, which was formed by President Donald Trump last spring, plans to hold its first hearing focused specifically on antisemitism next month. The daylong public hearing will be held on Feb. 9 at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, and members of the public are able to testify, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
In the room: Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, an Orthodox rabbi from New York, is the only Jewish member of the commission, but its advisory board includes four other rabbis, all of whom are Orthodox: Tikvah Fund CEO Rabbi Mark Gottlieb; Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the Coalition for Jewish Values’ executive vice president; Princeton Chabad Rabbi Eitan Webb; and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel. Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, is a legal advisor to the commission. The commission is chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican.
IHRA adopted: The Chicago City Council unanimously voted to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into the city’s declaration of human rights this week, an effort spearheaded by two local university students with no prior political experience, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Worthy Reads
Ran’s Home, Grief Lingers: In The Free Press, Rachel Goldberg-Polin reflects on the repatriation of the body of Ran Gvili as she continues to mourn the death of her son, Hersh, who was killed by Hamas in 2024. “On Day 843, Ran Gvili’s body was returned to his family. In a bag. I know the experience of having a child returned that way. For me, when Hersh came home, it was not a happy day. At all. It changed the rest of my life forever, and every day is sodden with grief and pain. So it was confusing for me yesterday to receive many messages telling me how happy I must be. But as more and more texts and emails swam to me, I began to understand the messages were because this specific agonizing mission, to get every hostage home, has concluded. … But for us bereaved families, the eternal hurdle is figuring out how to wake up each morning with part of our souls elsewhere. It is doable, because millions of people around the world do it every day. But sadly, this lazy-eight infinity symbol does not end for us; it keeps looping.” [FreePress]
Past is Prologue: In The Washington Post, photographer David Burnett, who covered the 1979 revolution in Iran, reflects on the Islamic Republic’s “full-circle” moment as those who led the fall of the shah nearly half a century ago now find themselves the targets of the country’s anti-government protests. “The protesters of the revolution have become the regime. But the street terror is the same. During the revolution, long before the internet and cellphones, demonstrators and the military alike relied on telephones and the occasional radio to spread word amid the chaos. In the 2020s, word of a protest can spread instantly — unless the internet is cut and the cell network has been shut down. … Now, almost a half-century later, a volatile and angry country ponders where things go from here. The revolutionaries have turned gray, but judging by the deadly serious way they are reacting to the uprising of a new generation, I imagine they still recognize the approach of change when they see it.” [WashPost]
New Regional Rivalry: In Foreign Policy, Firas Maksad posits that two new regional alliances are forming in the Middle East: a moderate grouping led by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and an Islamic coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan. “Tehran is no longer a principal actor shaping the region’s strategic trajectory. Instead, the Middle East is entering a new phase defined by competition between two emerging blocs: an Abrahamic and an Islamic coalition. How this rivalry evolves—rather than Iran’s next move—will do more to determine the region’s future and the U.S. role in it.” [FP]
Qatar on the Quad: In The Wall Street Journal, Ken Marcus, the founder of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, raises concerns about the degree to which Qatari influence is playing a role in hiring decisions at American universities, citing a recent lawsuit by Jewish student Yael Canaan at Carnegie Mellon University that alleged she was the target of antisemitism. “Qatari interests in particular contributed to the salary of Elizabeth Rosemeyer, the university’s assistant vice provost for DEI and Title IX coordinator. In light of Qatari investments, Carnegie Mellon was required to ‘consult’ with the Qatar Foundation before hiring her. … At least three other DEI-related officials at Carnegie Mellon involved in Ms. Canaan’s complaints of antisemitism had work-related visits to Qatar, according to the December court order. These included Wanda Heading-Grant, the chief diversity officer, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when she was asked about Ms. Canaan’s complaint. Ms. Arscott also worked in Qatar for a time and received funding from Qatar.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
The White House is continuing to weigh the possibility of military strikes targeting Iran, as Tehran threatened to hit the “heart of Tel Aviv” if the U.S. were to mount an attack…
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is speaking in Saudi Arabia this week at the Real Estate Future Forum, met on Wednesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh…
The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, whose campus was destroyed in last January’s Eaton fires, is suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility company’s negligence failed to follow security protocols that would have mitigated the spread of the fire…
A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in an assassination plot targeting Iranian dissident and activist Masih Alinejad…
Gamma co-founder Larry Jackson met with Black and Jewish employees of the record label prior to signing Kanye West, also known as Ye, to discuss the rapper’s history of antisemitic and racist comments…
Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow on Wednesday with Rabbi Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia, and Rabbi Alexander Borodaon, president of the Federation of Communities…
A new report published by UNESCO found that three-quarters of the more than 2,000 teachers in the European Union who responded to a survey from the agency said that they had encountered antisemitism in the classroom, including 61% of respondents who said that Holocaust denial or distortion had been present among students…
A day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pope Leo XIV, speaking to a group of Italian visitors to the Holy See, called for “a world without any more antisemitism, prejudice, oppression or persecution of any human being”…
The Palestinian Authority reportedly paid $200 million in salaries in 2025 to terrorists who committed attacks against Israelis, as well as their families, despite a pledge from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last year to end the PA’s “pay-for-slay” program…
Israel’s Knesset approved the first of three readings of the government’s 2026 budget; if the budget is not passed by the end of March, the Knesset will dissolve, sending the country to elections…
Israeli journalist Amir Tibon was awarded this year’s Wingate Prize for his book, The Gates of Gaza, which recounts his family’s experiences surviving the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
The IDF accepted Hamas’ estimate that approximately 71,000 people were killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war…
Airlines operating under the Lufthansa group are extending their cancellation of night flights to and from Israel through Feb. 3 due to ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran…
Bloomberg spotlights the “sprawling investment empire” of Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of and possible successor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose business dealings are conducted by Iranian businessman Ali Ansari…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the split in Washington over the White House’s support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa following his takeover of Kurdish-held areas of the country, where the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces had been a key component of the U.S.’ strategy to counter ISIS…
Deann Forman was named the executive director of the JCC Association of America’s Center for Innovation and Impact…
Carl Kaplan, the founder and managing director of Koret Israel Economic Development Funds, is retiring more than three decades after founding the organization…
Pic of the Day
Shira Gvili mourned at the casket of her brother, slain IDF soldier Ran Gvili, at his funeral in Meitar, Israel, yesterday, two days after his body was recovered by the IDF in a cemetery in the Gaza Strip. Gvili was killed in battle on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was brought to the enclave, where it remained after every other living and dead hostage was repatriated to Israel.
Birthdays
Israeli multi-platinum record producer and songwriter specializing in pop, hip-hop, dance and electronic music, Yonatan “Johnny” Goldstein turns 35…
Rabbi, mohel and public speaker, he is the author of the best-selling Maggid series, Rabbi Paysach Krohn turns 81… Author and first woman ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso turns 79… Singer-songwriter, he is a two-time gold medal winner in the Maccabiah Games (1985 and 1989) in fast-pitch softball, Steve March-Tormé turns 73… Regional director in Houston for the American Jewish Committee, Randall Czarlinsky… Louisiana resident, Jerry Keller… CEO of the Westchester Jewish Council, Elliot Forchheimer… Senior writer for JCCs of North America, a.k.a. Jane the Writer, Jane E. Herman… Actress known for her role as Amy MacDougall-Barone on the TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Monica Horan turns 63… Former member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 2003 and 2013, Ruhama Avraham turns 62… Physician and an author of four New York Times best-selling books, he is a professor of medicine and engineering at USC, as well as a CBS News contributor, Dr. David Agus turns 61… Former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (R-WI), Paul Ryan turns 56… Robyn Cooke Bash… Writer and occasional Bollywood film actor, he is known for his writing of the popular Jewish children’s comic book series “Mendy and the Golem,” Matt Brandstein turns 54… Israeli documentary filmmaker, photojournalist and film producer, winner of two Emmy Awards, Oren Rosenfeld turns 50… Chief impact officer at The Conduit, Denielle Sachs… Former president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, now a D.C.-based philanthropic consultant, Kari Dunn Saratovsky… Israeli actress, model and television host, Yael Bar Zohar turns 46… Former chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, Laura Rosenberger turns 46… Ethiopian-born Israeli fashion model and actress, Esti Mamo turns 43… Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, Yasha Moz… U.S. Representative (D-MA) since 2021, Jacob Daniel “Jake” Auchincloss turns 38… Mayor of Holyoke, Mass., for nine years starting at age 22, he is now the town manager of Provincetown, Alex Morse turns 37… Associate software engineer at BlackRock, Martha Baumgarten… Swimmer for Israel at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, Andrea “Andi” Murez turns 34…
Singer told JI that his alignment with the GOP has been shaped by his Jewish faith
Courtesy
Boca Raton, Fla., Mayor Scott Singer
As Boca Raton, Fla., Mayor Scott Singer aims to unseat pro-Israel stalwart Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), the Republican is hoping that the region’s conservative shifts will help propel him to victory.
Singer told Jewish Insider last week he’s running for Congress because he “love[s] public service” and he sees the country at a “critical point … where we can go back to the failed policies of four years ago or continue to advance the gains that President Trump has made,” and he wants to help push Trump’s agenda forward. That includes Trump’s Middle East policy, which Singer lauded.
Singer, who is running in a traditionally Democratic district, emphasized his three-decade history of public service in the region, and said that he’s “seen a renewed enthusiasm and resurgence in terms of conservative, common sense policies,” particularly among Jewish voters, “as the Democratic Party has grown more and more left.”
“We’re seeing the Republican Party under President Trump becoming the party that really represents more of the issues that a lot of Jewish voters tend to care about,” Singer argued.
He also noted that the district, Florida’s 23rd, has seen a growth in conservative voters coming from out of state, many from states or cities led by Democrats. Trump came within two points of carrying the district in 2024, losing to former Vice President Kamala Harris, 50-48%. That was one of the bigger political shifts in the country, given that in 2020, Trump lost the district to Joe Biden by 13 points.Meanwhile, Moskowitz won his reelection bid 52%-48%.”
Whether Moskowitz and Singer actually end up facing each other in November remains somewhat of an open question, however, pending the outcome of Florida’s upcoming redistricting process.
Singer told JI that his alignment with the GOP has been shaped by his Jewish faith.
“Judaism places a value on individual rights and opportunity, responsibilities, education and freedom,” Singer said. “For hundreds of years, Jewish people were often excluded from Western society and had to make their way — often, as entrepreneurs or self employed, as generations of my family have been — finding ways for them to advance through society.”
“The promise of America is so great because anyone can come here and achieve great things,” he continued. “I’ve always leaned toward the right, because I found that this was a party that valued people’s individual opportunities, merits and contributions, and a natural home that’s consistent with the values that inform my faith.”
Singer argued that Trump has been the strongest advocate and champion of the U.S.-Israel relationship of any U.S. president and a “strong voice against antisemitism, and people are realizing this,” leading to shifts among Jewish voters toward the GOP.
He said that he “personally and spiritually [has] deep connections to the State of Israel and our ancestral home.” And he said that a continued strong U.S.-Israel relationship serves both countries’ interests.
“Israel has been taking a leading edge, fighting terror and fighting enemies who want to see the destruction of Western culture, Western values and the United States,” Singer said.
“What concerns me is in the Democratic Party — and I think it’s concerning a lot of voters, including historic Democratic voters and mainstream voters — is the outrageous and moral failings of Democratic leadership to to confront or contradict claims of genocide when Israel was brutally attacked by terrible terrorists who created committed horrific crimes against women and children — murdering, raping, strangling, kidnapping and torturing,” Singer continued, referencing the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.
He downplayed anti-Israel trends among some on the right as “a few fringe commentators who seem to have lost semblance of what it means to be a conservative and do not represent the conservative movement.”
Singer emphasized that those voices are out of step with Trump.
“What concerns me is in the Democratic Party — and I think it’s concerning a lot of voters, including historic Democratic voters and mainstream voters — is the outrageous and moral failings of Democratic leadership to to confront or contradict claims of genocide when Israel was brutally attacked by terrible terrorists who created committed horrific crimes against women and children — murdering, raping, strangling, kidnapping and torturing,” Singer continued, referencing the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.
Asked how he’d describe Moskowitz’s own record on these issues — the two-term Democratic lawmaker has been vocally supportive of Israel and has broken with many in his party on the issue — Singer offered little direct criticism for Moskowitz, instead arguing that he has limited power against what Singer described as a dominant anti-Israel current in the Democratic Party.
“You have to go back to the party and where you are,” Singer said. “When you’re a junior congressman and beholden to some of the increasingly hostile attitude of the Democratic Party and Democratic leadership, including statements by leaders in the House of Representatives that call Israel’s self defense a genocide. When they’re running the party, it’s very hard for any junior member to really stand out and make an effective difference in policy.”
Moskowitz responded in a statement to JI, “I guess the people who are trying to assassinate me over my support for Israel — they obviously think I’m pretty effective,” adding, “By [Singer’s] own logic, I guess there’s no reason for him to run for Congress because he won’t be able to help the district, because he’ll be a freshman.”
Moskowitz has stood apart from most Democrats on various issues relating to Israel, including voting for a controversial bill providing aid to Israel while cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, voting to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric, voting to override President Joe Biden’s holds on certain arms sales to Israel and calling for stronger action by the Biden administration on a range of areas related to Israel policy, Iran and antisemitism.
The Democratic congressman has regularly crossed party lines to cosponsor legislation to support Israel and combat Iran with Republican colleagues.
Moskowitz is also facing a progressive primary challenger who has focused significantly on attacking his support for Israel.
Singer said that the U.S.’ current focus, when it comes to Israel, should be disarming and removing Hamas from Gaza. He expressed support for the Trump administration-led ceasefire plan, and said it’s “too hard to speculate” what might come after that, including whether the U.S. should support a two-state solution.
Singer said that, as a member of Congress, he would be vocal against antisemitism, and said that “Congress needs to codify gains that are coming from the Trump executive orders and reevaluate its approach to universities and other institutions at all levels of education” due to what he said was their failure to protect Jewish students’ civil rights.
“There’s still a constant and present danger to people who love freedom, the Israeli people, and also the people who’ve been oppressed by 20 years of a brutal regime,” Singer said.
He praised Trump’s “bold and necessary action” to strike Iran’s nuclear program last June, and said that the U.S. needs to “stand strong” against the Iranian regime amid its violent crackdown on protesters.
“What we’ve seen over the last few weeks with the terrible slaughter — the extent of which we don’t quite fully know because of blackouts — of people longing for peace may hopefully send a signal of an end to this harmful regime,” Singer continued. “We need to continue to work through our diplomatic, economic and military channels to ensure the safety of our nation, the safety of allies, and hopefully bring relief to people in various lands who’ve been threatened by this rogue regime.”
Singer said that, as a member of Congress, he would be vocal against antisemitism, and said that “Congress needs to codify gains that are coming from the Trump executive orders and reevaluate its approach to universities and other institutions at all levels of education” due to what he said was their failure to protect Jewish students’ civil rights.
He said he would be open to bills to “increase standards” for schools receiving federal funding and to revoke funds to ensure that students’ rights are protected.
He said that Congress also “needs to continue to work in terms of fighting antisemitism, in terms of definitions, training, support for institutions — at the state level, we have strong support for religious schools — and ensuring religious freedom for all people.”
Singer said Congress should consider enhancing protections, such as the FACE Act, for religious institutions to allow people to worship freely and without fear, if necessary.
Singer argued that voices in the GOP that have been attempting to mainstream antisemitic ideology are confined to the “fringe,” emphasizing that he sees the issues as more within the mainstream in the Democratic Party.
“There are fringe voices who seem to have lost the thread of the conservative movement and even in some cases, the pro-America movement, by their unfounded criticisms,” Singer said. “And these loud voices should [continue] to be disregarded. Good speech drives out bad speech, and we need to continue to stand strong on all sides of the political spectrum.”
Sources said the Illinois Democrat had also sought AIPAC’s support before launching his campaign, and then turned against the pro-Israel group; Biss denies the allegation
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Evanston, Ill. Mayor Daniel Biss on March 6, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.
Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss, who has expressed support for cutting off some military aid to Israel during his campaign for Congress in the Chicago suburbs, had expressed support for continued aid to Israel earlier in the campaign, according to a position paper Biss himself released Friday.
Biss released the position paper amid scrutiny of his relationship with and outreach to AIPAC and the group’s supporters in the Chicago area. Sources told Jewish Insider that Biss had sought out AIPAC’s support prior to formally launching his campaign, which Biss has repeatedly denied. Evanston Now, a local outlet, reported Friday that Biss had submitted a policy paper to AIPAC early in the campaign and communicated at multiple points with its representatives.
Evanston Now reported that, days after outreach from AIPAC to Biss in the late summer, he came out in support of a series of more hardline anti-Israel positions, including blocking offensive weapons.
Responding to the reports, Biss said Friday that he had met with local AIPAC representatives to lay out his positions, but that he does not share AIPAC’s views and met with the group in the interest of open communication and in hopes “they might decide not to direct [their] MAGA donors to support [his primary opponent, state Sen.] Laura Fine. Perhaps naively, I wanted to show them that, while we disagree on Israel and Palestine, I have family in Israel who I care about deeply, that I take the issue of antisemitism seriously, and that I can engage respectfully with people who have views that are very different from my own.”
Biss said that AIPAC had indicated it wanted to support him “if I was willing to parrot their views.” He went on to share what he said was the text of a position paper he had provided to AIPAC — which included views that do not diverge significantly from those of other AIPAC-backed candidates.
Most notably, the paper stated that Biss supports continued aid to Israel under the terms of the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, and that he would support another MOU in the future.
“Daniel recognizes the importance of the safety and security of a Jewish homeland in the State of Israel. As Israel’s closest friend and ally, the United States must always be committed to providing for Israel’s defense,” the paper reads. “As a member of Congress, Daniel will support continued aid to Israel in accordance with the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, and looks forward to seeing a renewed, expanded Memorandum of Understanding in the coming years.”
The paper also notes, “Daniel believes all military aid to every nation must be compliant with U.S. law.”
Biss now supports efforts to impose an offensive weapons ban on Israel — a direct contradiction to the MOU — and the Block the Bombs Act, which critics characterize as effectively an arms embargo on Israel for many key systems.
In the paper, Biss also called for expanding funding for the Iron Dome missile-defense system and condemned the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, stating that he would continue to oppose it in Congress, “while also opposing efforts to criminalize free speech or political activity.”
He also called for a long-term “transition to fully autonomous Palestinian governance once agreed upon conditions are met.”
Biss now supports preemptive American recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Biss offers support in the paper for the United Nations and other existing humanitarian mechanisms in Gaza — though he does not specifically mention the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Though AIPAC has been critical of UNRWA, it has endorsed lawmakers who have supported the agency’s continued work.
“Daniel will also advocate for U.S. humanitarian assistance, delivered in partnership with civil society, established NGOs, and the United Nations to address the needs of the Palestinian people,” the paper reads.
In the paper, Biss also calls for diplomatic efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program, making no mention of support for military action or other means to do so. AIPAC opposed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, though the group has endorsed and supported many Democratic lawmakers who voted for that deal.
The total falls short of what Jewish leaders were advocating for, amid a rise in antisemitic attacks
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
A law enforcement vehicle sits near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on January 16, 2022 in Colleyville, Texas.
With worshippers at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., still reeling from a Jan. 10 arson attack that severely damaged the historic synagogue, Congress appears poised to provide $300 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program for 2026, a small boost from the funding provided in 2024 and 2025.
But that figure is lower than the allocations initially proposed by both the House and Senate, even as antisemitic events, such as the arson in Jackson, continue to rock the Jewish community. And it is significantly less than the target level of $500 million to $1 billion for the program requested by congressional advocates and Jewish groups.
Lauren Wolman, senior director of government relations and strategy at the Anti-Defamation League, said the allocation “acknowledges the very real threats facing houses of worship and other at-risk nonprofits.”
“But [the $300 million] falls far short of what is needed and represents a step back from the bipartisan funding levels previously secured in both chambers,” Wolman continued. “Demand for NSGP continues to dramatically outpace available resources, and underfunding this program leaves vulnerable communities exposed. We will continue working with Congress to secure increased funding in the next funding cycle to ensure at-risk communities have the protection they need.”
The funding, part of the Homeland Security budget, may also suffer from additional friction amid Democratic opposition to the package, linked to concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations throughout the country. It is not yet guaranteed that the package will actually pass, with key Democrats, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee, announcing their opposition to the bill.
The program was funded at $274.5 million in both 2024 and 2025, with an extra infusion of $400 million as part of the 2024 National Security Supplemental bill. In 2024, the $274.5 million allocation funded just 43% of applications, which totaled nearly $1 billion in funding requested. The 2025 funding still has not been distributed amid ongoing delays at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the program.
The House voted last year to approve a 2026 funding bill with $335 million for the program, while Senate Republicans proposed $330 million. The final level of $300 million is just shy of the $305 million provided in 2023, the highest annual funding level ever provided for the program. That $305 million covered 42% of applications — before the post Oct. 7, 2023, global surge in antisemitism.
Jewish groups that advocate for the NSGP praised the allocation while also saying that they would continue to fight in future years for additional funding to meet the community’s full needs. Some noted that the funding boost was particularly significant at a time when DHS is overshooting budget targets and funding for many DHS grant programs is being significantly constrained.
Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said that the $300 million “is not the overall number we were pushing for, but in the context of the DHS bill being more than $1 billion over their topline number, and lots of other things getting cut … we got an increase for NSGP. It’s a result we can work with.”
Diament also noted that the OU hopes that the funding for the NSGP can “go further” this year with $5 million in Justice Department grant funding earmarked to support local law enforcement in protecting religious facilities, funds he said will relieve expenses that communities have traditionally paid out of pocket to off-duty police to protect their institutions.
He also noted that if the bill fails to pass, there could be opportunities for further negotiations on the NSGP funding.
Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said that the funding boost over 2024 and 2025 “is an important step in the right direction.”
“Still, threats to the Jewish community are more frequent, visible, and normalized than ever before, and while Federations invest heavily in our communal safety, the cost for securing our community alone stands at an estimated $775 million a year. We look forward to working with Congress to use any vehicle possible to further increase funding for this life-saving program,” Fingerhut continued.
Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), co-chairs of the Senate task force on combatting antisemitism, proposed that the Senate advance a package of legislation to protect religious communities, including supplemental funding for the NSGP.
Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, said SCN is “pleased to see renewed funding for this program, alongside critical funding for law enforcement and public safety through the State Homeland Security and Urban Areas Security Initiative programs. With recent attacks on Jewish museums, events, and synagogues, these programs are vital to allowing people of faith to gather in peace.”
“Continued investment in the Nonprofit Security Grant Program — which has allowed for life-saving physical security solutions to be installed in houses of worship, schools, and community centers — is critical to the safety of the Jewish community, faith communities, and nonprofits throughout the country,” Masters continued.
Rabbi Avi Schnall, director of federal education affairs for Agudath Israel of America, said that Agudath Israel is “happy that the [NSGP continues] to be funded. We look to the future and feel as if a much greater amount needs to be allocated.”
He continued: “$300 million is an improvement from last year’s $274.5 million, but it falls very short of the $500 million ask that’s been brought up by [Senate] Minority Leader [Chuck] Schumer (D-NY) and others over the last couple of years. And we’re hopeful, as Congress resumes the negotiations for the next budget, that hopefully a significant increase will be included in that one. As hate incidents in general … increase, and particularly in the Jewish community that’s seeing an unprecedented increase in attacks, now’s the time to increase protection and prevention more than ever.”
Schnall said Agudath Israel “look[s] forward to working with Congress to ensure that future budgets [reflect] the needs of the broader community.”
The explanatory report accompanying the Homeland Security funding bill also instructs the administration to release a report within 90 days on how DHS is implementing the Trump administration’s executive order on antisemitism and the U.S. national strategy on antisemitism, formulated under the Biden administration.
The Homeland Security funding package was also paired with the 2026 defense funding package, which includes $500 million for cooperative missile defense programs with Israel, as expected under the U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, as well as increased funding for other cooperative programs such as $80 million for the counter-tunneling program, $75 million for counter drone and directed energy programs and $47.5 million for developing military applications of emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing.
Crosswell, a former Republican who also served as a federal prosecutor, is touting his pro-Israel bona fides as he fights for the Democratic nomination against Rep. Ryan Mackenzie
Marc Levy/AP
Ryan Crosswell, former federal prosecutor who quit the Department of Justice in protest, speaks at a campaign event for his run for Congress, Dec. 4, 2025, in Allentown, Pa.
Former federal prosecutor and Marine veteran Ryan Crosswell is hoping his military and professional background — as well as his past registration as a Republican — will provide a road map to winning the Democratic nomination and ultimately flipping a critical swing district in Pennsylvania.
The 7th Congressional District centered around Allentown and Easton and rated by the Cook Political Report as a toss-up is held by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA), who himself flipped the seat in 2024. It was previously held by former Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA).
Crosswell, in an interview with Jewish Insider, characterized himself as a lifelong public servant and patriot, both as a Marine and as a federal prosecutor, who “always put my country first, even when it came at personal costs, as when I resigned from the Department of Justice because I felt I was being asked to do something that was inconsistent with my oath.”
Crosswell left the DOJ last February in protest of the Trump administration’s decision to drop corruption charges against former New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
He’s running for Congress because “this administration is dangerous,” and he wants to fight for affordability and safety for his constituents. He said his experience as an anti-corruption prosecutor makes him “uniquely suited to rebuild some of the guardrails that have been torn down.” He said that restoring those guardrails, including the public corruption section at the DOJ, is critical to having a “functioning democracy.”
Though he’s running in the Democratic primary, Crosswell was a registered Republican until after the 2024 election. But he said he’s voted consistently for Democratic presidential candidates since 2016.
“[We’re] at a point right now, there is one party that’s clearly on the right side of history, and one party is clearly on the wrong side of history,” Crosswell said.
Crosswell argued that he’s the best-placed candidate to flip Republican voters in November: He said a key takeaway from last year’s New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections is that Democratic veterans are attractive candidates. He added that his background as a former Republican will help him connect with independent and GOP voters to “explain that the Republican Party is not what it once was.”
He also said that his experience as a veteran and federal prosecutor addressing a series of sensitive and high-profile issues makes him best prepared to address a range of subjects as a member of Congress in what he predicted “will be the most challenged Congress in American history.”
Croswell said that he’s “uncomfortable with cutting off aid” to Israel, as some in the Democratic Party are advocating for, “because Israel is surrounded by historical enemies and I don’t want to put the Israeli people in danger by cutting off aid.”
Crosswell is facing off against a series of other more liberal candidates in the primary, most notably Bob Brooks, the leader of the firefighters’ union who was endorsed by Gov. Josh Shapiro last month. Though Crosswell led among Democrats in fundraising as of the end of September, Shapiro’s endorsement and a fundraiser the popular governor held for Brooks last month are expected to help Brooks close the gap.
Crosswell described Israel as “an important ally to the United States” and the “only true democracy in the Middle East.” He visited Israel and the West Bank shortly before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. He said that he was “just so impressed by the Israeli people, their innovation and technology,” and their resilience in the face of both inhospitable environmental conditions and the enmity of surrounding nations.”
He said that he’s “uncomfortable with cutting off aid” to Israel, as some in the Democratic Party are advocating for, “because Israel is surrounded by historical enemies and I don’t want to put the Israeli people in danger by cutting off aid.”
He added that “no country is ever entitled to unconditional military aid from the United States under any circumstances, but I’m not willing to cut off aid now.”
Crosswell emphasized the need for the ceasefire in Gaza to continue, adding that those responsible for the Oct. 7 attack should be held accountable “through surgical special forces operations with a ceasefire in place.”
Asked about the U.S. strikes on Iran last summer, Crosswell said he’s “uncomfortable with direct military engagement in Iran at this time,” while adding that Israel must make its own decisions about “what the Israelis believe is necessary in their own interest.” Crosswell spoke to JI prior to the wave of public protests in Iran, which have led the Trump administration to contemplate renewed U.S. attacks.
“I would prefer to avoid U.S. engagement until it’s absolutely necessary,” he continued.
He said that, from his conversations in Israel and the West Bank during his visit, he believes both sides want peace, and emphasized the importance of continuing to pursue a two-state solution.
“It’s been frustratingly hard getting there, but it is the only solution and we can’t give up on it,” Crosswell said. “We need to demonstrate that we are advocates for peace, and that we’re advocating for both sides. We need to demonstrate that through our actions, that we’re committed to this, that we’re willing to have both sides at the table and to work through this, and we need to engage the other Arab nations.”
“I was a Justice Department prosecutor, and we have laws on the books to prosecute those who engage in hate crimes, and we should do that,” Crosswell said. “But I think also members of Congress — we need to be outspoken voices, and we need to speak out against it. And so I’d be in favor of any law that or any efforts to expand education on Jewish history, on the Holocaust, antisemitism, certainly any measures that can be taken to ensure the security of Jewish institutions and synagogues.”
He said that the U.S. should not, however, preempt direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and recognize a Palestinian state. And he said that removing Hamas from leadership in Gaza is also a critical step to facilitate peace.
At home, Crosswell called the rise in domestic antisemitism “sickening” and said that it was “heartbreaking” to see armed guards outside a synagogue that he visited recently for an event.
“I was a Justice Department prosecutor, and we have laws on the books to prosecute those who engage in hate crimes, and we should do that,” Crosswell said. “But I think also members of Congress — we need to be outspoken voices, and we need to speak out against it. And so I’d be in favor of any law that or any efforts to expand education on Jewish history, on the Holocaust, antisemitism, certainly any measures that can be taken to ensure the security of Jewish institutions and synagogues.”
He added that, “more than anything else, it’s just being voices of moral clarity against hate against anybody, and in particular now, the antisemitic rhetoric and behavior that in some cases we’re seeing from both sides.”
Major Jewish advocacy organizations told JI that they will continue to push for issues including Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding and combating antisemitism online
Worawat/Adobe Stock
U.S. Capitol Building
Going into 2026, Jewish community groups say their advocacy priorities for Congress and the federal government remain largely consistent, with a focus across many of the major advocacy organizations on bolstering community security through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and tackling antisemitism online.
While Congress has increased its attention to Jewish communal issues in the years since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, including a string of high-profile hearings on antisemitism and several bills passed to support Israel and combat Iran, many key legislative priorities for the Jewish community — including bills on antisemitism and substantial increases to annual security funding for nonprofits — have remained stubbornly intractable.
Highlighting the expansion of congressional scrutiny of unions, academic associations and tech platforms for their fostering of antisemitism, top Anti-Defamation League officials said that advocating for such oversight work will remain a priority in the coming year, particularly in an environment in which it is difficult to pass any legislation, regardless of the subject.
“We’ll continue focusing on tough oversight, on bipartisan legislation and targeted appropriations,” Lauren Wolman, the ADL’s senior director of government relations and strategy, told Jewish Insider. “The big buckets are that we’ll be pushing Congress to confront antisemitism wherever it appears, including within one’s own party; protecting houses of worship with increased security funding; demanding real transparency and accountability from tech platforms; advancing comprehensive federal legislation to counter antisemitism and taking action to ensure that Jewish students are safe on campus.”
Asked about how the organization plans to ensure progress on legislation that has been difficult to achieve in past years, Wolman emphasized that there had been “historic momentum” this year for increased security funding, and said that ADL would “focus on levers that move policy, so oversight, legislation, appropriations” and leverage “the value of transparency, bipartisanship and coalitions.”
Max Sevillia, the ADL’s senior vice president of national affairs, said that the organization will focus on must-pass legislation such as appropriations and the National Defense Authorization Act, and emphasized that “legislating on any issue, including fighting antisemitism, oftentimes, is not a one-session effort. So we don’t give up on our priorities.”
He said that, even if major legislation did not pass this session, the group is “better positioned” to advance key priorities with the additional attention they’ve received since Oct. 7.
Sevillia said that the HEAL Act, examining Holocaust education; the Protecting Students on Campus Act, which aims to facilitate Title VI discrimination complaints; and the Pray Safe Act, which would create a central database of security resources for institutions, will remain priority bills in the new year.
ADL is also supporting the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA), a bipartisan Senate bill that would require social media companies to share additional data with the public and with researchers, including regarding hate incidents and policies, and how platforms are responding to them.
“Congress really needs to require platforms to provide meaningful transparency into content moderation practices, algorithmic amplification and enforcement of their hate speech policies,” Wolman said.
Wolman said the ADL also continues to pursue a “comprehensive … whole-of-government” package of legislation on antisemitism, a prospect that has remained elusive. The Countering Antisemitism Act, a package along those lines, received bipartisan support in the previous Congress, but ultimately proved unwieldy — facing opposition on both sides of the aisle in both chambers.
Wolman said that ADL will be pressing Congress to focus on college campuses, K-12 education, academic professional associations, health care and technology platforms, including Wikipedia and artificial intelligence, in its oversight capacity and for potential hearings next year.
Sitting down with JI on Capitol Hill earlier this month, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said that his organization’s priorities for the remainder of 2025 included urging lawmakers to stand with the Jewish community and attend menorah lightings in the wake of the Sydney, Australia, shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach.
Going into 2026, the group is also focused on pressing lawmakers to tackle antisemitism online, particularly ensuring social media companies are addressing the foreign actors driving much of that content, as well as the antisemitism that has proliferated in AI-generated posts.
The new X policy disclosing users’ locations “confirm[ed] what we all know, which is there is this ongoing effort by malign actors around the world to influence what happens here, to stoke antisemitism, to polarize our community,” Deutch said.
Deutch said that AJC also looks forward to working with Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, who was confirmed this month as the Trump administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. Additionally, the group is pressing the Department of Justice to take action to address protests that block access to religious institutions. He said AJC is open to supporting new legislation on the subject, if necessary.
In his interview with JI, Deutch also urged Jewish communal organizations to come together around a common agenda, arguing that the current security environment demands a unified message and a coordinated push.
The Jewish Federations of North America will be focused on the six-point security plan laid out by many major Jewish groups following the Capital Jewish Museum shooting earlier this year, which includes massive increases to security grant funding and efforts to address antisemitism online, as well as antisemitism in K-12 and higher education and mental and physical health care spaces; the Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program and social safety net programs such as SNAP and Medicaid.
“I think security and combating antisemitism are top of mind across our community, and that’s clearly reflected in our aggressive work to increase nonprofit security funds, tackle hate on social media, and advance our six-point security plan,” JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut told JI.
“But we aren’t forgetting other critical issues that we care about, including legislation supporting Holocaust survivors and protect[ing] the most vulnerable in our communities,” Fingerhut continued. “With our new flagship public affairs office up and running, we are also expanding our investment to ensure local Federations come to Washington regularly to strengthen our relationships on the Hill.”
Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, said that OU’s priorities will include additional NSGP funding, allocating resources from the Department of Justice for Jewish community security, implementing the Educational Choice for Children Act — legislation passed in this year’s reconciliation bill creating tax credits for educational scholarships — and, like AJC, urging the Department of Justice to “aggressively prosecut[e] those who mount ‘protests’ at Shuls.”
In the pro-Israel space, a source familiar with AIPAC’s plans told JI that the group’s general priorities next year will include expanding U.S.-Israel collaboration in security, technology and economic spaces; supporting U.S. aid to Israel; highlighting the ongoing security threats to Israel, including Iran’s efforts to rebuild its missile arsenal and nuclear program and its support for proxies; and working to achieve Hamas and Hezbollah’s disarmament.
The source said AIPAC will release a more comprehensive agenda early next year.
The Connecticut senator said he was ‘struck by the severely heightened anxiety’ among local leaders about threats to places of worship
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fair Share America
Sen. Richard Blumenthal speaks at a rally at the Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Tuesday pushing for additional information about Nonprofit Security Grant Program allocations, as well as criticizing the funding allocation proposed last week by Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“As I travel around Connecticut and hear from community leaders here and around the country, I am struck by the severely heightened anxiety and apprehension about physical threats to places of worship and community centers involving hate-based violence,” Blumenthal said. “One of the most important tools at our disposal to combat such hate and protect religious institutions and minority communities is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP).”
Blumenthal said it is “critical for Congress to have fulsome data” about the program as it works to finalize 2026 government funding, and requested data on grant applications and acceptances, the reasons why FEMA has provided less funding than requested to some institutions and the resources FEMA provided to unsuccessful applicants for each year from 2023 to 2025.
He asked Noem to submit the data by Jan. 6, 2026.
Blumenthal also said he’s “disappointed” by the proposed funding level of $330 million for the program in 2026 offered by Senate Republicans, which falls “far short of my request and the program’s clear need, with reports indicating recipients requested approximately $1 billion from FEMA in 2024 alone.”
A source familiar with the legislation noted to Jewish Insider the Senate bill includes a 20 percent increase over its 2025 funding level, a greater increase than provided for other grant programs in the bill that generally saw increases of 11 percent to 15 percent.
The explanatory report accompanying the Senate GOP bill also includes language requesting more specific data from FEMA about past grant applications and acceptances.
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