Amid an increasing storm of controversy, President Donald Trump announced Thursday he was removing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from her post, replacing her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).

Noem has come under fire for a series of issues, including her handling of immigration enforcement operations, her response to immigration agents’ shootings of two U.S. citizens, an alleged affair with a senior aide and what critics have characterized as self-promotion. Most recently, Noem claimed under oath this week that Trump had personally approved a $200 million ad campaign starring Noem herself, something that Trump has since publicly denied.

Trump said on Truth Social that the switch would take place effective March 31 — though Mullin will still need to face Senate confirmation proceedings.

Mullin could face a contentious path to confirmation. DHS remains without full funding in a partial shutdown — a result of  Democratic outrage over immigration operations. Democratic lawmakers will likely grill Mullin during confirmation proceedings, and many would likely vote against him in protest of Trump’s immigration policies. But Mullin’s stature in the Senate and familiarity with his colleagues could give him an inside track to confirmation, as opposed to other potential picks.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce and Regulatory Affairs, told Jewish Insider on Thursday that he would vote to confirm Mullin. Fetterman, who was one of seven Democrats who voted to confirm Noem last January, publicly urged Trump to consider firing Noem and nominating Mullin in her place earlier Thursday. 

Fetterman was the only Democrat to immediately commit to supporting Mullin’s nomination, and expressed skepticism that many of his Democratic colleagues would consider doing the same in a post on X announcing his plan to vote for Mullin.

The sometimes-combative Mullin could face some issues on his own side of the aisle as well — the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which would oversee his confirmation, is chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), whom Mullin recently called a “freaking snake,” saying he had told Paul he understood why a neighbor attacked the Kentucky senator in 2017, breaking several of his ribs.

Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt similarly cheered the news of Mullin’s nomination, saying in a statement, “Markwayne Mullin has been a fighter for Oklahoma and will fight to keep our nation secure. There isn’t a better choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security..”

Stitt, who is responsible for appointing Mullin’s replacement in the Senate to serve through the next election, added that he “will be looking to appoint a strong, small government conservative voice to support President Trump and protect Oklahomans’ way of life.” Under Oklahoma law, his appointee will not be permitted to run for the seat in the next election.

With the central role of immigration in Trump’s messaging and political agenda, immigration enforcement would likely remain at the top of the priority list for any DHS director he selects. But the war in Iran has raised concerns about homeland threats linked to or inspired by the Iranian regime.

Noem told senators in a hearing this week that the administration was preparing for potential homeland attacks by Iran, including “revetting” individuals who entered the country during the Biden administration.

Mullin, in the Senate, has been hawkish on Iran and its proxies, and is a stalwart supporter of Trump, but has been less involved in discussions related to antisemitism domestically — though he indicated he would have been supportive of the Antisemitism Awareness Act. 

He said after a House hearing where three college presidents refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews would be banned under their policies, “The rise of antisemitism on college campuses was on full display yesterday as Ivy League presidents refused to say whether calling for the mass murder of Jewish people constitutes harassment on their campuses. This vile, hateful, and cowardly behavior is completely despicable.”

The 48-year-old senator took office in 2023, after serving a decade in the House. 

“We look forward to working with Mr. Mullin when he takes the helm at DHS to support the security of the Jewish community and all American faith communit[ies],” Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, told JI.

Noem is the first Cabinet official to leave her post during the second Trump administration. Observers generally see Trump as less eager to remove top aides during his second term, an effort to counter the perception of chaos that pervaded his first term in office from frequent high-level turnover.

Under Noem, DHS has repeatedly come under fire for its handling of issues related to antisemitism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Jewish community groups, though it’s not clear to what extent Noem was directly involved in those issues.

The department added new conditions to Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding which may compel religious institutions to agree to eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts in order to qualify for funding.

NSGP funding itself has also repeatedly been delayed and waylaid, with unclear deadlines provided to grantees and the state agencies that administer the grant program. Lawmakers have said that they also have not received information usually provided to them about the program. It remains unclear whether grants from the 2025 grant cycle have been awarded yet.

Applications for 2025 grants also opened months late, and funding from supplemental grant rounds that organizations applied for in 2024 was delayed by months, well into 2025.

Noem instituted a policy at DHS that required her personal signoff on any expenditures of more than $100,000, which may have contributed to the slowdowns in NSGP funding.

Mullin, as a member of the House, voted with a majority of Republicans against the bipartisan Nonprofit Security Grant Improvement Act, which proposed increased funding for the program and a dedicated structure at DHS to oversee and manage the growing program, but does not otherwise appear to have been actively involved in discussions around the program.

Separately, DHS has repeatedly come under scrutiny over guidelines issued by the Coast Guard regarding displays of swastikas and nooses. Previous policy had described such displays as banned hate symbols, whereas a new policy first reported in November characterized them instead as “potentially divisive” and mandated a lesser investigation.

The Coast Guard assured lawmakers that the policy would be corrected, but weeks later, the Guard apparently broke that pledge and instituted the “potentially divisive” language anyway. Days later, it again walked back the policy change.

Throughout, Noem and the department denied any wrongdoing and attacked critics.

Noem, a former South Dakota governor, is now rumored to be considering a primary challenge to Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), a moderate Republican and pro-Israel stalwart. She is also believed to have presidential ambitions. For now, Noem will become special envoy to a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere being launched by Trump on Saturday, the president said in his Truth Social post.

The long-simmering controversy over whether mohels can perform ritual circumcisions in Belgium broke dramatically into international public view this week, over a case involving the prosecution of three mohels.

The controversy, which touches on sensitive religious, legal and diplomatic matters, has ensnared the only Jewish lawmaker in Belgium, Michael Freilich, as well as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, who accused the country of antisemitism over the legal action. And it stretches from Antwerp, home to a large Orthodox Jewish community, to Washington, to Jerusalem, where Israel’s foreign minister has weighed in.

In an X post on Monday addressed to Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke:, White wrote: “You must make a legal provision to allow Jewish religious MOHELS to perform their duties here in Belgium. It’s done in all civilized counties as legal procedure. … Stop this unacceptable harassment of the Jewish community here.” He then received a reprimand from Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, saying White’s interference in a judicial matter was a breach of diplomatic norms.

But much of the fallout landed on Freilich, who is Orthodox. It comes after Belgian police arrested the mohels, Jewish religious authorities who conduct circumcisions, during a series of raids last May in Antwerp, home to a large Orthodox Jewish community. The individuals have been charged with performing a medical procedure without a license.

While Brussels has not specifically outlawed ritual circumcision, it requires a doctor to perform the procedure. There are no mohels who are also doctors in Belgium, a source close to Freilich told Jewish Insider, and Jewish law requires a mohel to be Jewish. Muslims have no requirement for ritual circumcision to be performed by a coreligionist.

Freilich has become the target of accusations from his fellow lawmakers, in light of a recent interview to a Yiddish-language newspaper Der Yid, in which he recounted raising the matter at a roundtable discussion with members of Congress during a visit to Washington.

Belgium’s Green Party demanded an ethical investigation into Freilich. Sammy Mahdi, the head of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party, said Freilich’s behavior was “totally inappropriate” and compared it to a “member of parliament with a Muslim background lobbying in Morocco or Qatar to influence a court case in Belgium.” 

Freilich, for his part, has said he was not looking for the U.S. to pressure Brussels, but rather support for his effort to institute regulations that would balance freedom of religion and medical standards by allowing Belgian mohels to receive government-recognized certification without being doctors.

Germany, Sweden and the U.K. have such laws; Israel also requires mohels be certified, and Israeli Chief Rabbi Kalman Bar recently suggested that the EU recognize mohels ordained in the Jewish state to resolve any legal issues.

Vandenbroucke has declined to meet with Freilich on the matter, the source said. White wrote that Vandenbroucke plans to do nothing and that his “sneaky tactic” is to wait for the mohels’ trial to end without confronting the matter. 

Freilich and his party have been instructed not to speak to the media, but a source close to the lawmaker told Jewish Insider, “We need a dialogue with the minister, but he has been refusing. That is why the ambassador was upset and said the only reason [Vandenbroucke] could be doing this is that he is an antisemite and doesn’t want a solution.” 

The source compared the backlash against Belgium’s sole Jewish legislator to the persecution of Alfred Dreyfus, the French military officer jailed for false treason charges at the turn of the 20th century.

Freilich is “not speaking against the state, he is reaching out his hand to find a solution, and being accused of disloyalty to his own country,” the source said. “He is uniquely placed as the only Jewish MP, and understands the necessities for the Jewish community but also the necessity of addressing questions raised by the public at large … which needs a high-level of hygiene and medicine.”

In his initial controversial post, White also said that Vandenbroucke refused to shake his hand “because it was clear that [Vandenbroucke] dislike[s] America, the country that fought and where tens of thousands of our nation’s sons died for Belgium’s freedom twice — in WWI & in WWII.”

Prévot said that White’s “personal attacks” against Vandenbroucke are unacceptable and that “any suggestion that Belgium is antisemitic is false, offensive and unacceptable. … The fight against antisemitism, and all forms of hatred and discrimination, is an absolute priority for our country.” 

“Belgian law permits ritual circumcision when performed by a qualified physician under strict health and safety standards. The specific case referenced is subject to a judicial investigation. I refrain from commenting on ongoing proceedings,” he added.

White doubled down and said the matter is “absolutely a case of antisemitism. You either have to make a change to the procedural accreditation, or you have to call prosecution of these three beautiful, religiously qualified, and wonderful men antisemitic. No other way around it!” 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar weighed in, noting a sharp increase in antisemitic attacks in Belgium over more than five years and citing an Anti-Defamation League study that found antisemitism is two to three times more common in Belgium than in other European countries.

“Suddenly, after thousands of years of Brit Milah being performed, the Mohel community is being targeted,” Sa’ar added. “Dear Minister, I understand that the mirror Ambassador Bill White has held up to you is unpleasant, but one might want to take this opportunity to take a hard look in that mirror and acknowledge reality.” 

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chief rabbi of the Conference of European rabbis, said that “circumcision and kosher slaughter are not optional customs; they are core obligations, absolutely central to Jewish life. Efforts to restrict them in Belgium are not fair regulatory processes, but are direct attacks on Jewish religious rights. A country that cannot allow Jews the right to live fully Jewish lives is oppressing its Jewish citizens and violating its democratic principles.”

Belgium has long been one of the European countries most hostile to Israel. It joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in December, joining Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico, Spain and Turkey. Last month, Prévot announced a ban on weapons exports to Israel, and Israeli military flights were also banned from Belgian airspace. 

Sa’ar noted, “Jewish Belgian citizens living in Judea and Samaria are denied consular services, while Belgian Muslims are welcomed,” referring to a recent decision to no longer have the Belgian Embassy in Israel and consulate in Jerusalem serve Belgian-Israelis residing in the West Bank, such that they cannot receive birth certificates or passports or vote, while no changes have been made for Belgian Palestinians. 

In addition, Belgium is one of only four countries in the 27-state European Union that does not have a national plan and coordinator to combat antisemitism.

As New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani draws increased scrutiny for picking some top appointees whose past incendiary social media comments have provoked controversy and raised questions over his vetting process, Jewish community leaders are now watching closely for signs of how the administration will make staffing decisions on key issues connected to Israel and antisemitism.

One person to keep an eye on is Josh Binderman, who served as Mamdani’s Jewish outreach director during the campaign and transition. He has largely maintained a low profile in his time working for the candidate and now mayor, garnering just a small handful of mentions in the press, despite his critical position leading engagement with a community that in many ways remains deeply skeptical of Mamdani’s hostile stances on Israel and commitment to implementing a clear strategy to counter rising antisemitism.

Binderman, most recently a communications manager for New Deal Strategies, an influential progressive consulting firm, served until 2024 as a PAC manager and a senior associate for J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

While Mamdani notably refused to work with the organization when he led a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine as an undergraduate student at Bowdoin College, the mayor has since developed a friendlier rapport with J Street, which has defended him amid charges that he tapped transition advisors who engaged in anti-Zionist activism that crossed a line into antisemitism.

Mamdani’s decision to employ a former top J Street staffer during the election suggests he could follow a similar approach to key Jewish community posts for his developing administration. If so, it could help to at least dampen some concerns from Jewish leaders who fear the mayor will end up hiring even harder-left members in his coalition such as activists associated with Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Israel advocacy group that aggressively promotes boycotts targeting the Jewish state.

It is still an open question, however, how Mamdani will move forward on such issues. His decision last week to revoke two executive orders linked to Israel and antisemitism was widely seen as a discouraging maneuver that eroded goodwill among mainstream Jewish leaders — even as Binderman had reportedly given some advance warning to leaders about the effort before the inauguration.

Mamdani otherwise chose to retain an office to combat antisemitism established by former Mayor Eric Adams. He has not disclosed who will steer the office now, though a person recently in touch with his team told Jewish Insider this week that Phylisa Wisdom, the executive director of New York Jewish Agenda, a progressive Zionist group, was floated as a possible candidate.

For his part, Binderman, who as a student was involved with BBYO, continues to be an unofficial “point person” for Jewish community outreach in the administration, according to one Jewish leader who has heard from him recently. Binderman is still feeling out a potential role in City Hall, according to other Jewish community leaders. He did not return a request for comment from JI.

Dora Pekec, a Mamdani spokesperson, told JI on Tuesday that the mayor’s team would have more to share on related appointments in the coming weeks and that such decisions “are still being worked out.”

Jewish leaders who have engaged with Binderman told JI their interactions with the young Mamdani aide have been largely positive. But they expressed some lingering doubts about his ability to influence the mayor himself. “He does seem eager and willing to help,” said one Orthodox community leader. “He does want to work together.”

“To what extent and how much freedom he has remains to be seen,” the leader explained to JI.

Another Jewish community leader who has spoken with Mamdani’s team echoed that view. Binderman, he told JI, has “always appeared to be level-headed, fair and reasonable. The question is, will the admin listen to his guidance?”

“Only Josh and Ali Najmi,” a top Mamdani advisor who maintains close ties to the Jewish community, “can land the Jewish plane,” the Jewish leader said. “But Zohran has to decide if he wants to land it.”

In the last decade and a half, Hungary has gained a reputation as the most conservative European nation, a distinction happily touted by the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has been in office since 2010. 

In building that reputation, Orbán has courted controversy — with inflammatory comments about racial minorities and the LGBTQ community, by taking measures that critics say erode the country’s democracy and by adopting a more pro-Russia stance than most of the rest of the European Union. His hard-line policies are part of why Orbán and President Donald Trump have been able to cultivate a close relationship, with the U.S. and Hungary now far more aligned than they were during the Biden administration.

“That’s an understatement,” János Bóka, Hungary’s minister for EU affairs, told Jewish Insider with a laugh during a visit to Washington last week. 

But if Trump has taken a page from Orbán’s conservative governing playbook, bringing the two countries closer together, Bóka said there is one political trend playing out among American conservatives that he hopes Hungary avoids: the rise of antisemitism on the political right. 

“I am aware of the discussion that you are now having in the States on the reviving of antisemitism on the right. One of the added values of my trip in the U.S. is that I can study this firsthand and can discuss this with people so I have a better understanding,” Bóka said. “This phenomenon is something that is very difficult for me to understand, because at least in Hungary and in most parts of Europe, it doesn’t have a parallel, or at least not yet.”

That’s because Bóka says Hungary has all but eliminated right-wing antisemitism and the lingering vestiges of Nazi ideology, or at the very least that the country has made it “politically irrelevant.” 

“I cannot pretend the 20th century did not happen,” said Bóka, who as of May also serves as Hungary’s special commissioner tasked with fighting antisemitism. But, he added, “this government has basically expelled political antisemitism from the political discourse.” 

The situation in Hungary is more complicated than Bóka let on. Orbán has faced criticism from Jewish organizations for years over his targeting of Hungarian Holocaust survivor and financier George Soros, with the Anti-Defamation League writing in 2018 that the Hungarian campaign against Soros is “chilling.” Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust historian who served as the State Department’s antisemitism envoy during the Biden administration, said in 2022 that Orbán’s rhetoric warning against racial mixing “clearly evokes Nazi racial ideology.” 

Bóka, who was in Washington to meet with American Jewish communal leaders, said Hungary has adopted a “zero-tolerance policy toward antisemitism,” and said the allegation that Orbán is antisemitic is “wrong” and “a misunderstanding of what he does.”

Similar to Trump, Budapest has adopted the stated goal of combating antisemitism, even if its approach is controversial and targeted toward one particular political ideology. And like Trump, Bóka views the fight against antisemitism as tied to the country’s broader efforts to limit migration. 

“We see some elements coming from the far left and as a part of a European network that is becoming more active and vocal in Hungary as well in the past few months. But I think this is very limited,” said Bóka. “We haven’t seen violent incidents that are in any way similar to what we see in some Western European cities because of the strict migration policy we have in place. And also because of the zero tolerance policy on antisemitism, we don’t see radical Islamism as a political factor in Hungary.” 

Because his job description includes Hungary’s relationship with the EU, Bóka sees his purview as broader than just antisemitism in Hungary. He called it a “European challenge” that must be addressed together. “Antisemitism exists in all EU member states, including Hungary,” Bóka acknowledged. He thinks he — and Hungary — have something to offer other European nations as they seek to combat antisemitism. 

His first lesson to them is about Israel: If you are serious about fighting antisemitism, Bóka argues, attacking Israel’s actions in Gaza in EU forums will undermine that goal. Israel has leaned heavily on Orbán as a pro-Israel bulwark in the EU. Hungary announced earlier this year that it would leave the International Criminal Court to protest its treatment of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an arrest warrant from the body. 

Jewish communities “will never believe that you are credible, that you have a real political commitment for fighting antisemitism, if at the same time you send very mixed messages as far as your relationship with the State of Israel is concerned,” said Bóka. “If you start speaking the language of isolation, sanctions and so forth, then you will lose the opportunity to cooperate with the State of Israel on fighting antisemitism in Europe, which is indispensable.” 

During his time in Washington, Bóka met with Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. antisemitism special envoy. Kaploun had his Senate confirmation hearing last week but has not yet been confirmed. Bóka also met in New York with Jeff Bartos, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for management and reform. He said he is “convinced” that the U.S. and Hungary can collaborate on fighting antisemitism. 

“I believe that we have a very similar strategic view on objectives and the ways and means to get there,” said Bóka. “I think there’s a lot of openness on both sides to cooperate.”

A book that centers on Palestinian identity is drawing controversy from some Jewish parents in the Montgomery County, Md., public school system after it was assigned to first grade students as required classroom reading, Jewish Insider has learned. 

The book,“Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale,” written by Margaret Read MacDonald, aims to convey a message to children that there are consequences for taking things that don’t belong to them. It tells the story of a woman who “prayed to Allah” for a child and received a pot as her child. The pot, too young to know right from wrong, had a tendency to steal honey from the marketplace and jewels from the king — until she got caught. As punishment, she was filled with muck. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” the pot’s mother tells her. “You cannot take things that do not belong to you.” 

While the book does not mention Israel, local Jewish leaders and parents voiced concern that the required book’s subtext sends an anti-Israel message to elementary schoolers and that the reference to “Allah” does not belong in a public school setting. 

A syllabus notes that students can receive supplemental reading materials if “any instructional material conflicts with your family’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The book’s lesson that “‘you cannot take things that do not belong to you’ echoes activist rhetoric that falsely casts Israel as an oppressor and the Jewish people as imperialist rather than indigenous,” Dana Stangel-Plowe, chief program officer at the North American Values Institute, a nonprofit that monitors antisemitism in K-12 schools, told JI.

“It reinforces a false narrative that erases the historic Jewish connection to Israel. It sends a troubling message to Jewish families during a time of rising antisemitism,” Stangel-Plowe told JI.

Not all Jewish communal leaders agreed that the book was problematic. Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, argued that Jewish families should embrace the book.  

“If the only complaint about this book is that it’s sharing a Palestinian folktale that teaches children not to take things that don’t belong to them, I can’t see what the problem with the book is,” Franklin Siegel told JI. “It will be a shame if Jewish people wind up objecting to books only because they have protagonists who happen to be Palestinian.” 

“There may well be books and materials that do misinform students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we always monitor that work,” said Franklin Siegel. “If we turn this into a back and forth where parents are requesting opt-outs for any material that they don’t see eye-to-eye with, we’ll wind up in a situation where we’re seeing a significant number of students whose parents are requesting opt-outs for things like Holocaust speakers.” 

Meanwhile, Margery Smelkinson, a parent of four MCPS students, told JI that she would have preferred the district find a children’s book that teaches not to steal “without causing controversy.” 

“The real problem is that MCPS chose a book that even requires an opt-out form — why not just pick another book?” 

Smelkinson called on the school district to prioritize helping students get up to speed in reading, math and science instead of “creating more barriers to learning.”

“I’m concerned and curious if my child was introduced to [similar rhetoric] last year,” Diana Tung, the parent of an MCPS second grader and kindergartener, told JI. “I assume in a public school setting there’s going to be pretty diverse spiritual beliefs [but] the context of the tale itself [concerns me]. The themes should be taught using a different folktale, I’m pretty confident there are plenty.”  

“Books and materials approved to be available for use in classrooms, beyond being in alignment with curriculum standards, are selected to be representative of our very diverse community,” Christopher Cram, a spokesperson for the suburban Washington school system, which is the 15th-largest school district in the country and educates a significant number of Jewish students, told JI. “Students and families expect to be able to see themselves in the materials we use.” 

The school system has faced several antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, leading to the school board president, Karla Silvestre, being subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing in May 2024. Weeks after the hearing, at least six MCPS school buildings — including three elementary schools — were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. 

The assignment of the Palestinian folktale as required reading comes two months after the Supreme Court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor that MCPS must allow parents to opt their children out of lessons and books that feature LGBTQ+ themes if the material conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Good Thursday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at Jim Moran’s lobbying work on behalf of Qatar amid a long record of controversy in his relationships with the Jewish community, and report on Sen. Susan Collins’ criticism of 2026 challenger Graham Platner, who called AIPAC “weird” and has accused Israel of committing genocide. We report on Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s condemnation of the antisemitic rhetoric espoused by staffers for Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, and cover a new Anti-Defamation League report highlighting a white supremacist online forum that has inspired school shooters. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Greg Landsman, Yael Nativ and Daniel Loeb.Ed. note: The next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday, Aug. 25.

What We’re Watching

• The American Jewish Committee is holding a web event this afternoon with the founders of The Dinah Project focused on justice for the victims of the sexual violence that took place on Oct. 7, 2023.
• The Milken Institute’s Hamptons Dialogues kick off this morning on the East End of Long Island. What we’re looking out for: On Friday, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman will speak about K-12 education and the Alpha School, a project he has promoted in recent months that eschews DEI programming and focuses on AI-driven education.
• Later on Friday, former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are speaking on a panel about the U.S.’ economic advantages.
• On Saturday morning, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his son Alex are hosting a breakfast during which Witkoff and Michael Milken will speak in conversation about global challenges and opportunities.
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is slated to speak on a Sunday morning panel focused on U.S. economic security, followed by back-t0-back sessions about the future of American cities, featuring NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein and Related Companies’ Stephen Ross.
• Rubenstein will again take the stage Sunday afternoon for a conversation about sports investments, which will also feature Len Blavatnik.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

It’s notable that Democrats are still relying on experienced, brand-name candidates a bit past their political prime as top recruits for key Senate races. 

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, now 72, is seeking a political comeback after losing his reelection bid last year in Ohio. Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is pursuing a career change to the Senate at 68 years old. Maine Gov. Janet Mills is being recruited into the Senate race against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) even though she’s 77.

To be sure, these are the strongest challengers Democrats could muster in these three must-win battleground states. All are popular statewide officials with a history of winning support from outside the party base. It’s hard to name any other Democratic candidate more capable of flipping these GOP-held seats than the aforementioned recruits. 

But there’s another more uncomfortable reality that is drawing the Democrats towards their stars of yesteryear. In today’s fractured media environment, it’s incredibly hard for a new face to emerge and get the type of publicity rising stars would generate from “earned media” on television and in the press, as was common in the recent past.  

And given the declining influence of such mainstream platforms, the best way to get attention is by playing to the party’s activist base on social media. It’s how Zohran Mamdani broke through a comparatively dull field of challengers in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Going viral is becoming a prerequisite in today’s politics, and the best way to go viral is to play to the extremes — or to, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, emulate President Donald Trump’s online bullying and trolling.

If you don’t have name identification built up from a career in politics, it’s hard to register any other way these days. And it’s exceptionally hard to break through the noise if you’re a thoughtful moderate.

It’s why we’re seeing a slew of Democratic candidates popping up who are looking to capture the anti-establishment mood within the party amid the desire for a younger generation of leadership. At the same time, most of these change-focused candidates also hold political views that are well out of the mainstream. 

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

MORAN’S MORASS

Qatar’s Washington lobbyist invokes old antisemitic tropes in push for influence

During Jim Moran’s 24 years in Congress, the Virginia Democrat had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, particularly when it came to his Jewish constituents. In 2003, he blamed the Jewish community for President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, prompting several local rabbis to call for his resignation. Four years later, he blamed AIPAC for the war. The blowback was so strong that when then-Sen. Barack Obama accepted Moran’s endorsement of his presidential campaign in 2008, he stated plainly that he disagreed with Moran’s views of the Jewish community. Moran retired from Congress in 2015, but the 80-year-old still walks the halls of Capitol Hill. Now, he’s there as a lobbyist — primarily as a registered foreign agent lobbying on behalf of the government of Qatar, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Influence wars: It is notable that one of the people tasked with advocating for a country that is close to both America and Hamas seems to have a deeply rooted hostility to Israel and even to American Jews, particularly at a moment when Qatar’s dealings in the U.S. are facing greater scrutiny — like when Trump said earlier this year that the U.S. would accept a Qatari gift of a luxury jet to use as Air Force One. Moran and his team have held dozens of meetings with members of Congress since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in 2023 that spurred the ongoing war in Gaza, mainly to talk about “Qatar’s role in the Middle East peace process.” At the same time, he has questioned Jewish involvement in the American political system, including just days after Oct. 7. 

Read the full story here.

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WEIRDING OUT

Susan Collins hits newly minted challenger over his anti-Israel rhetoric

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is criticizing Graham Platner, a Democrat running against her in next year’s election, for singling out AIPAC as a “weird” interest group in remarks to a local newspaper in which he also pledged to reject support from the organization. “Sen. Collins is a strong supporter of AIPAC, a bipartisan organization that promotes stronger ties between the United States and Israel,” a spokesperson for Collins told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel. “Nothing about their work is ‘weird’ — in fact, it has never been more important given the aggressive antisemitism that we have seen around the world since the appalling Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.”

‘Very simple’: In his comment, Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer, Marine veteran and political newcomer who launched his bid to challenge Collins on Tuesday, said he would reject backing from corporate super PACs and donations from interest groups such as AIPAC that he called “weird.” “My view here is very simple,” Platner told JI on Wednesday when asked to elaborate on his remark. “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide; I refuse to take money from AIPAC or any group that supports the genocide in Gaza.” In other interviews this week, Platner has similarly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and endorsed efforts to block U.S. arms sales to Israel.

Read the full story here.

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DELAYED DENUNCIATION

Klobuchar rebukes Fateh campaign staffers who glorified Oct. 7 attacks

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is rebuking a top mayoral candidate in Minneapolis, far-left state Sen. Omar Fateh, who has recently faced criticism for employing campaign staffers who have glorified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and called for Israel’s destruction, among other extreme comments. In a statement to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Klobuchar, who is backing Fateh’s chief rival, Mayor Jacob Frey, said the senator “strongly and immediately condemned the Hamas terrorist attack, and condemns any statements to the contrary.” 

Breaking the silence: “These comments are outrageous and have no place in our politics,” the spokesperson, Jane Meyer, said of the staffers’remarks, which were unearthed by JI last week. “She has spoken out against antisemitism for years. She has endorsed the mayor and did so months ago.” Klobuchar, who along with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is the most high-profile Democratic official supporting Frey’s campaign, had until now remained silent with regard to Fateh, a 35-year-old democratic socialist whose insurgent bid has drawn comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor.

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TRIP TALK

Greg Landsman: Israel is ‘close’ to ending Gaza war

Following his recent trip to Israel, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) says he believes that the Jewish state is “as close as I’ve understood it to be to ending” the war in Gaza. “The language around aid has changed. [Israel talks] about surging aid and they talk about ending this war quickly,” Landsman, who discussed his trip on Wednesday with Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs, said. The Ohio Democrat told JI that he believes “everyone should be putting pressure on all parties to end the war. I think it is entirely appropriate to put pressure on the Israeli government to end this war. I also think it is necessary for people to put pressure on Qatar and Egypt to end this war, to use all of the leverage they have, particularly with the senior Hamas leaders that are in Qatar.”

Support system: Landsman, one of 14 House Democrats who took part in a delegation to the Jewish state last week, told JI that the Israeli officials and citizens he spoke with urged him and others on the trip to continue supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship during moments when they took issue with some of the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They remind you that they would never want anyone to abandon them, as we would never want anyone to abandon us. It’s an important reminder that being critical of the government when you disagree is part of democracy, it’s why democracy and freedom are so important,” he said. “There’s a line. In terms of having the strength and courage to both stand up to and criticize your partners, while also having the strength and courage to not abandon them, especially a partnership like this one and in an existential moment such as this.”

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ONLINE RADICALIZATION

New ADL report highlights white supremacist forum inspiring school shooters

A new report from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism suggests that an online community of white supremacists is increasingly recruiting and inspiring school shooters, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Violent videos: The research, published Thursday as an interactive timeline, analyzes two school shootings that occurred weeks apart. Despite happening in different states, the report found overlapping online activity between the young perpetrators. In the months leading up to the shootings, both perpetrators were active on the website WatchPeopleDie, a forum where users can post and view real images and videos of violence. ADL researchers found that extremist material — such as white supremacist and antisemitic manifestos and videos of white supremacist and antisemitic mass murders — was widely accessible on WPD.

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PRESIDENT’S POV

Trump: Iran would have had nuclear weapons in four weeks at time of U.S. strikes

President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Mark Levin on Tuesday that at the time of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, he believed Tehran “would have had nuclear weapons in a period of four weeks,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. Calling in to Levin’s radio show, Trump said that, “if we didn’t [strike Iran], they would probably by this time, just about this time, have a nuclear weapon and they would have used it.”

Taking on Tehran: “The Atomic Energy Commission said, this place is gone. [Iran] can maybe start up, but they’re not starting up there,” Trump said of the Iranian nuclear facilities targeted in the operation. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission found that the U.S. strike on the Fordow nuclear facility “destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure” and rendered it “inoperable,” though reports differ on the extent of the damage. The president also boasted about his peacemaking abilities, saying, “I’ve settled six wars and we did the Iran night, wiped out their whole nuclear capability, which they would have used against Israel in two seconds if they had the chance.”

Read the full story here.

Bonus:The New York Times does a deep dive into the U.S. strikes on Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility in June.

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Worthy Reads

Trump Card: The Times of Israel’s founding Editor David Horovitz considers how President Donald Trump could hasten the end of the Israel-Hamas war. “Trump’s opening here is to broker a deal — not between Israel and Hamas, which will never sign off on its own path to oblivion, but between Israel and the regional actors who have indicated willingness in principle to step in and rehabilitate the Strip. Netanyahu doesn’t want the PA there. Regional players and Israel’s (now unreliable) international allies have demanded a role for the PA, while stressing the imperative that it be reformed and closely overseen. Washington should strive to produce a viable accommodation, paving the way for non-Hamas governance, negotiating a security mechanism that enables Israel to intervene when necessary, and conditioning the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza on its demilitarization.” [TOI]

Foreign Green on the Green: In Mosaic, Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, proposes a crackdown in foreign funding of American universities to address antisemitism on college campuses. “Is Qatar the only driver of campus anti-Semitism? Absolutely not. The resurgence of Marxist thought, critical race theory, and the ‘intersectionality’ that demands that Jews must be reviled along with racism, fossil fuels, ‘settler colonialists,’ and social conservatives deserves a significant chunk of the blame. But there should be little doubt that, in a campus environment hostile to Israel, Zionists, and Jews, the contributions of a country well known for its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its Hamas progeny is a significant factor. And Qatar isn’t going away any time soon. If American universities are to become more welcoming places for Jews — indeed, if they are to become better institutions altogether — federal and state governments will have to crack down thoroughly on foreign funding, and administrators will have to exercise some restraint and just say no to money that fosters Jew hatred.” [Mosaic]

The Case for Diversity: In recent remarks to Yale’s incoming law school class that were published in The Free Press, Danielle Sassoon, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, reflects on the diversity of opinions among her classmates at the law school 15 years prior that bolstered opportunities for conversation and dialogue. “Ideological familiarity might provide comfort, but don’t take the lazy way out. Recognize that conditioning social acceptance on ideological conformity is the weapon of the intellectually weak. Don’t insulate yourself in an artificial circle of only like-minded peers, or permit others to dehumanize your classmates, whatever their race, religion, or creed. And don’t fall prey to the arrogance of turning analytical questions into moral judgments unworthy of debate. Otherwise, you don’t stand a chance — whether against a hostile judge, a room full of aggressive lawyers 20 years your senior, or as a leader of an institution with people of diverse views and talents.” [FreePress]

Word on the Street

The Trump administration announced sanctions on four International Criminal Court officials over the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant…

The State Department fired a contractor and onetime National Iranian American Council intern who clashed with officials over the department’s language around relocating Gazans outside of the enclave, expressing condolences over the death of a Palestinian journalist Israel has claimed was a member of Hamas… 

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into Haverford College, three months after the President Wendy Raymond dodged questions regarding antisemitism on the Pennsylvania university’s campus at a congressional hearing…

The New York Times looks at the logistical and bureaucratic challenges facing international students — approximately 1 million of whom study in the U.S. every year — amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on student visa holders…

An advisor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams who was also a volunteer on his reelection campaign was suspended after giving more than $100 in cash to a journalist who reported the exchange to her superiors…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim interviews outgoing Revson President Julie Sandorf about her foundation’s approach to funding projects and initiatives in New York City, as well as her own questions about how Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani intends to address antisemitism and anti-Israel activity in the city…  

Eighteen people were arrested at a two-day worker-led protest at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters as the software giant pledged to review the IDF’s use of its technologies…

An Israeli academic is suing the University of California, Berkeley, alleging that the school, where she had taught a class in 2022, had invited her to apply for another teaching position and rejected her application because she is Israeli; in the lawsuit, Yael Nativ said that the chair of the school’s theater department told her that she would not be offered a position because “[t]hings are very hot right now and many of our grad students are angry” over the political situation in Israel and Gaza…

Third Point founder Daniel Loeb was named chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s board of trustees, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…

A group of 80 Modern Orthodox rabbis signed on to a letter calling for Israel and its supporters to act with “moral clarity” in regards to the humanitarian situation in Gaza…

The New York Yankees drafted a shortstop who in 2021 had scrawled a swastika on the dorm room door of a Jewish student; Core Jackson, whose acquisition despite the incident was approved by Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, has expressed remorse for his actions, telling The Athletic he was “blackout drunk” at the time and had no memory of the incident… 

Brandon Korff, the son of Shari Redstone, recently applied for Israeli residency…

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry criticized what it called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “clumsy intervention” and “inflammatory and provocative” comments made in the wake of Canberra’s cancelation of a visa for hard-right Israeli MK Simcha Rothman; in response, Netanyahu lambasted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”…

B’nai Brith Canada issued an open letter calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to reverse his plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly next month…

Netanyahu is reportedly mulling the creation of a satellite party to woo right-wing voters disillusioned with his Likud party and its far-right coalition members; the new party would attempt to block former Likud voters from backing former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett or Avigdor Liberman…

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nassirzadeh said that Tehran had built missiles “with far greater capabilities than previous missiles” and would use them in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran…

Iranian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said that current circumstances are preventing “effective negotiations” between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear program…

The Iranian Navy launched its first drills in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean since its 12-day war with Israel in June…

Seventy-nine Afghans who had been forcibly returned from Iran were killed in a bus crash in Afghanistan; Tehran has sought to deport more than 1 million Afghans in the country as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration…

A senior Catholic cleric in Lebanon said that Pope Leo XIV was considering a trip to the country as his first overseas trip since becoming pontiff…

British tech pioneer Stephanie Shirley, who fought for women’s inclusion in the field as an adult after fleeing Nazi Europe on the Kindertransport as a child, died at 91…

Psychiatrist Warren Brodey, who coupled his field with the advent of modern technology, died at 101…

Pic of the Day

Former Israeli hostage Andrei Kozlov met with several dozen Holocaust survivors on Tuesday at the Adolph and Lotte Rosenberg Summer Retreat for Holocaust survivors in Kerhonkson, N.Y., hosted by The Blue Card. Read more from eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher here.

Birthdays

Mexican writer, playwright and journalist whose work is related to diversity and its obstacles, Sabina Berman Goldberg turns 70… Retired owner of Effective Strategy Consultants, South Florida resident, Irwin Wecker… Senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit (with chambers in Chicago), the first woman appointed to this court, Judge Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner turns 87… President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until the end of 2022, L. Rafael Reif turns 75… Former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, he was the first Jewish chief justice in Ohio history, Eric S. Brown turns 72… Israeli-born pawnbroker and star of the reality television series “Beverly Hills Pawn,” Yossi Dina turns 71… Businessman and collector of modern and contemporary art, he is a partner in the NFL’s Washington Commanders, Mitchell Rales turns 69… U.S. senator (D-MT) for 18 years, ending earlier this year, Jon Tester turns 69… Israeli physician who was a member of the Knesset, he now serves as mayor of Ashdod, Dr. Yehiel Lasri turns 68… Photographer best known for his fashion and celebrity images, Jerry Avenaim turns 64… Israeli career diplomat who served for six years as consul general in New York, Ido Aharoni turns 63… United States secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent turns 63… President at Maimonides Fund, Mark S. Charendoff… Co-founder of BlueLine Grid, he was previously an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and a member of the Los Angeles City Council, Jack Weiss turns 61… Member of the philanthropic leadership group for the UJA-Federation of New York, Chavie N. Kahn… Partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts-KKR where he is the global head of public affairs and a co-head of global impact, Ken Mehlman turns 59… President of Berger Hirschberg Strategies, Rachel Hirschberg Light… Co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin turns 52… MLB pitcher for nine teams in a 16-season career, he was the starting pitcher in three of Team Israel’s first four games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, all of which the team won, Jason Marquis turns 47… District attorney of San Francisco, elected in 2019 and recalled in 2022, Chesa Boudin turns 45… Head coach of the Temple University Owls men’s basketball team, Adam Fisher turns 41… President at Bold Decision, Adam Rosenblatt turns 40… Missions manager for domestic and overseas travel at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Erica N. Miller… Communications director at Breakthrough Energy, David Abadian Heifetz… Pop singer and songwriter, Madeline Fuhrman turns 32… Associate editor at Simon & Schuster, Tzipora (Tzippy) Baitch… An Argov fellow at Reichman University and a Lauder fellow at the World Jewish Congress, Noa Rakel Perugia… Lynn Sharon… James Barton…

After a video surfaced last week of Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the House minority whip, referring to Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, Clark walked back the remark on Monday — and maintained her endorsement from AIPAC amid the controversy, a spokesperson for the group told Jewish Insider. 

“Last week, while attending an event in my district, I repeated the word ‘genocide’ in response to a question,” Clark told the Jewish News Syndicate on Monday. “I want to be clear that I am not accusing Israel of genocide. … We all need to work with urgency to bring the remaining hostages home, surge aid to Palestinians and oppose their involuntary relocation, remove Hamas from power and end the war.” 

AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told JI on Monday that the organization will stick by Clark, the second highest-ranked Democrat in the House.

“We appreciate that the congresswoman clarified her remarks, as Israel is fighting a just and moral war against a barbaric terrorist enemy. Our endorsement is unchanged and based upon her long standing support for the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Wittmann said. 

In a video from an event hosted on Thursday by the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Cambridge, Mass., Clark made a passing reference to Israel’s actions in Gaza. “We each have to continue to have an open heart about how we do this, how we do it effectively, and how we take action in time to make a difference, whether that is stopping the starvation and genocide and destruction of Gaza, or whether that means we are working together to stop the redistricting that is going on, taking away the vote from people in order to retain power,” said Clark.