For a few hours, Israel’s deeply polarized political arena, just a month before the elections, found rare unity. It came following the news that Neria Leiter, son of Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, was critically injured in a car-ramming terror attack in the West Bank. Neria chose to continue his reserve duty, including serving in Lebanon, even after his brother Moshe fell in battle in northern Gaza in November 2023. 

Ambassador Leiter was on his way to a CNN interview ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.N. General Assembly, set to take place this afternoon, when he received the news about his son, and quickly departed for Israel. That speech will likely now take a turn following the attack. 

But even beforehand, Netanyahu’s trip to New York was set to be entirely different from anything seen before. The prime minister’s brief video message about his speech on Tuesday referenced only one individual: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Not Iran, not Hamas, nor Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Of all the adversaries facing Israel, Netanyahu singled out just one. 

Sources close to the prime minister claim Mamdani is the reason for Netanyahu’s unprecedented brief visit: a quick stop of just a few hours in New York, and nothing more. The concern, his aides claim, stems from potential protests or political posturing by Mamdani, despite him admitting he has no authority to arrest Netanyahu, a key campaign pledge of the mayor’s. However, a former official involved in coordinating prime ministerial trips offered a different explanation: As long as Netanyahu remains in New York for only a few hours, the absence of a meeting with President Donald Trump becomes far less conspicuous.

This is not how the prime minister envisioned his annual U.N. trip, especially a month before an election. He hoped to schedule a meeting with Trump, which would have been their ninth since January 2025 — but it did not materialize. He wanted to visit Texas, meet Elon Musk, and talk about AI, but that too fell through. And Netanyahu, who recently predicted that the Iranian regime would soon be toppled, certainly did not expect that a day before his arrival, U.S.-Iran negotiations would resume, with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi. 

“In his address to the General Assembly, Prime Minister Netanyahu intends to speak about both the challenges and the opportunities facing the region. The prime minister will call for continued pressure on Iran, the primary exporter of terrorism in the Middle East,” Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, told Jewish Insider.

When asked whether the prime minister’s speech is aimed at a domestic Israeli audience or an international one, Danon offered a diplomatic response: “The U.N. General Assembly provides an opportunity for the State of Israel to make its voice heard before hundreds of leaders from around the world, particularly at such a sensitive time.”

Netanyahu promised some surprises in his upcoming speech, which, Danon said, may be connected to Israel’s relationship with the Arab world.

“Netanyahu will also address the diplomatic opportunities emerging in the Middle East, as we mark six years since the Abraham Accords and following the signing of the agreement with Morocco last week,” Danon noted, referring to the deal whereby the two countries upgraded their diplomatic ties.. 

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, while there will be no meeting with U.S. administration officials during his short stay, the prime minister will meet with the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama and Ethiopia, as well as the vice president of Colombia and the prime ministers of Greece, Slovenia and Papua New Guinea. “Many world leaders requested to meet with the prime minister during the visit, but due to a tight schedule and the need to return before the onset of Sukkot, the prime minister was only able to accommodate some of them,” the Israeli PMO said.

Danon described the overall atmosphere during the UNGA as almost festive, with delegations gathering from around the globe, yet overshadowed by deep friction between the Israeli delegation and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has historically been exceedingly critical of the Jewish state. Unfortunately, that atmosphere has become even more complicated following the latest terror attack in the West Bank that looms over the entire Israeli delegation to the U.N.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the U.S. should take a “very tough position” if Israeli voters reelect the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s upcoming elections, but said a new Israeli government could provide opportunities for more constructive progress.

“If the Israelis want to vote for that again, then I think the United States has to take a very tough position,” Clinton said during an appearance on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe.” “I think we could work with a new government.”

She argued that it “really does make a difference” who leads the Israeli government and who is in the coalition, highlighting the issue of settler violence in the West Bank.

“There should be no impunity for that kind of violence. It is not just about the death and destruction of the Palestinians, their property, and all the rest of it,” Clinton said. “Any time you let people have that level of violence in a society that you don’t stop, that creeps into the whole society. So it’s unfair, bad and wrong for the Palestinians, and it’s also very dangerous to Israel.”

"If the Israelis want to vote for [Netanyahu] again, then I think the United States has to take a very tough position," former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe.” “I think we could work with a new government.”

Read more: https://t.co/xVSAkOpe90 pic.twitter.com/ksUIsfWclQ

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) September 10, 2026

The former secretary of state highlighted a report this week in Haaretz that alleged that Netanyahu had been warned that Hamas was planning an attack, and said that Netanyahu “either … didn’t believe it or he — it’s horrible to say — he wanted to see what they could plan so that he could then come down hard and it would enhance his position.” Netanyahu has vehemently denied the reporting. 

She called the result a failure of “imagination,” “leadership” and to protect the Israeli people.

Clinton emphasized, “I love Israel and I hate Netanyahu’s government and his policies,” arguing that the current state of affairs is bad for both Israel and the United States.

She said that securing peace would require “tough love” from Washington, “not rejection and not total agreement.”

Clinton also emphasized efforts by her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to broker agreements between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which were consistently rejected by the Palestinians.

“We did a lot over many years to try to resolve this very difficult situation,” Clinton said, pointing to her husband’s efforts to broker a two-state solution which were rejected by Yasser Arafat, the late chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and her own work to secure a settlement freeze during her time in office which was met largely with silence from the Palestinians.

“They could not figure out how to take advantage of this opportunity, like they couldn’t figure out how to take advantage of a state that would have been in existence now for 25 years,” she continued.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads toward what could be one of the most consequential elections of his career next month, a new book is offering an unusually candid look at the decision-making that will define how history — and Israeli voters — judge him. 

In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis, by Jerusalem Post military correspondent Yonah Jeremy Bob and Wall Street Journal editorial writer Elliot Kaufman, draws on two years of interviews with Israel’s political, military and intelligence leadership to reconstruct the internal battles that shaped the war — battles that often pitted Netanyahu against his own defense establishment.

Both Bob and Kaufman criticize some of Netanyahu’s choices, from the delayed ground invasion of Gaza to the “unforced error” of the 2025 aid blockade, though each credits him with historic gains against Hezbollah, Iran and Syria.

The authors sat down with Jewish Insider on Tuesday, the book’s publication day, to talk about what their reporting reveals about Netanyahu’s wartime leadership, and what it might mean for how he’s remembered at the ballot box.

Jewish Insider: In your view, what is the most impactful revelation in your book that has not previously been reported on?  

Yonah Jeremy Bob: This is the first book that’s an inside story about the war. There are a lot of books about Oct. 7. There hasn’t been a book that’s covered the full war from the inside. We really got deeply into the beepers and walkie talkies [Israeli operation against Hezbollah] of September 2024. There had been coverage of these issues but in terms of the depth, IDF sources, Mossad sources in Israel, in the U.S., we tell the story — there was actually a debate, should they go first with the beepers or should they go first with the walkie talkies? The things that we learned were stunning: what could have been done differently, how they accomplished it.

Elliot Kaufman: I would point to just how much it took to convince Prime Minister Netanyahu to launch a ground invasion of Gaza at all. You’d think after Oct. 7, of course, Israeli troops are going to roll into Gaza, but in fact Netanyahu was very hesitant, worrying — with good reason, by the way — that Israeli troops could be walking into a death trap. More than that, he had certain Israeli generals telling him, “Don’t do it, the IDF isn’t ready.” He had all the top American generals, sent by President [Joe] Biden, telling him the same thing. He really had to gain confidence in the plan. We tell that story, which I think most people, the way they think about it, would rush right over. But it did take Israel 20 days from the Oct. 7 attack until Oct. 27 to be able to invade Gaza. 

JI: You write that nearly the entire Israeli defense establishment wanted the war to end well before it actually did. Why did it keep going?

YJB: This was one of the remarkable things we found in doing this book. At the beginning of the war, you have Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and most of the Israeli military high command all wanting to invade Gaza faster. The first two rounds [of invasions] the defense chiefs and for some amount of time Benny Gantz, an opposition leader who becomes a war minister, all want to go in and go in faster. Netanyahu is more worried about how things are going to go. 

In March/April 2024, it shifts and Netanyahu gains confidence that continuing the war longer will reduce the Hamas threat. The defense establishment is concerned about wear and tear on the military, the opportunity to normalize with the Saudis. If you go back to October 2023, Netanyahu is the one who is most concerned about losing U.S. support, and that shifts. The defense officials become more concerned about losing U.S. support. Summer 2024 the vast majority of the defense establishment wants to end the war and get all of the hostages back. Netanyahu is thinking he needs to push the war longer to defeat Hamas. He’s also afraid he’s going to lose his government. For Netanyahu, there’s a mix of ideology and politics. 

EK: I would just add that in summer 2024, there were several things in this war that still hadn’t happened yet. Israel had not really taken the fight to Hezbollah so that the northern threat was still looming over Israel. You hadn’t dealt with Iran and its nuclear program, the 12-day war [with Iran in June 2025] hadn’t happened yet. In Gaza, the reason that Israel right now can still hold half of Gaza is because it took some 75% of the territory and then was able to trade that in the final hostage deal, which certainly took me by surprise. I did not think Israel was going to be able to do that. A lot of the most important things in the war actually happened after that point. 

YJB: My understanding based on interviews is that Netanyahu did not have some sort of master plan in extending so that he could take care of Hezbollah at Point A and Iran at Point B. A lot of it sort of ended up being luck. There is a Netanyahu philosophy that sometimes he keeps things going looking for luck. 

EK: Right. Netanyahu understood after the immense failure of Oct. 7 that he needed total victory. The country may have needed it too — but certainly he knew he’d need it if he was ever going to come back from this. So keeping those options open to “solve” the various fronts, yes, that was part of it as well.   

JI: You write that you disagreed as co-authors on terms like “judicial overhaul” versus “judicial reform.” How did covering this as a Jerusalem Post military correspondent versus a Wall Street Journal editorial writer lead you two to different readings on the same events? Yonah, you write that some of your personal views were “watered down” through the bipartisan process of co-writing. Can you give an example of an assessment you’d have stated more sharply if you’d written the book alone? 

YJB: There is so little dialogue and debate between people with different views. I hope more people will try to work together in dialogue. I probably would have been more critical about the decision to extend the war in summer 2024. Not because I’m sure that would have gotten all of the hostages back — and when we spoke to everyone across the board, including [former National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan, he wasn’t sure either. It was not clear exactly when Hamas would say yes. Even though it’s an uncertainty, Netanyahu could have pushed further. Most of the negotiators I spoke to think that he could have cut a deal earlier, the hostages could have come home earlier, Israel’s reputation in the world [would maybe be better]. 

JI: A substantial percentage of Democrats and a small but growing number of Republicans are calling for the U.S. to reduce military support for Israel — which Netanyahu has proposed phasing out completely over the next decade. After reading your book, do you think these elected officials — and their constituents — would be more or less willing to revisit their position and seek to increase military support for the Jewish state?

YJB: I hope that after reading our book they’ll be willing to reconsider their position. I think a lot of the positions in the U.S. right now about Israel, Hamas and Iran are based on emotional considerations, not really understanding the context of the situation. That’s not new with Israel but it’s a whole different level. I hope people will see that Israel tried very hard to get things right. I hope that whoever is running Israel after Oct. 27, whether it’s the same government or a new government, there’s been a lack of diplomacy and I hope whoever is running Israel next will lean into diplomacy hard. As important as military power is — and it’s very important in this neck of the woods — diplomacy is crucial. If you ignore diplomacy for too long, you can get into the situation Israel is in right now. 

EK: So much of the anti-Israel critique during this war, especially the hardline anti-Israel critique alleging genocide, has succeeded only by systematically covering up Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the real miltary threats that Israel was confronting. If our book can help in one regard to combat that way of looking at it, it is to lift that veil and really show who Israel was fighting and the real military and strategic dilemmas Israel was facing. Once you seriously engage with those, I don’t see how you can look at it and say Israel was just trying to kill Palestinians.   

JI: In the book you criticized Israel’s two‑month aid blockade in 2025: “Blocking humanitarian aid … was an unforced error … It failed to squeeze Hamas … and led to substantial food insecurity.” Do you believe Israel — as an innovation powerhouse — could have come up with better, more novel ways to reduce food insecurity without compromising its own security? Can you offer some examples?

YJB: I do think Israel could have done better. We highlight in the book that it was one of the largest errors of the war. It’s not that there was actually famine in Gaza. There was a fear of famine and a hike of food insecurity. The Israeli government astronomically elevated the amount of food aid. But the fact that it happened at all allowed those who had been critiquing Israel to label Israel with the famine thing. The clearest points, already in 2024, some in the Biden administration suggested neighborhood to neighborhood to put out pilot programs. This was attempted with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in mid-2025, but if they had tried it in early 2024 it may have actually succeeded. When they tried it it was too little too late. 

EK: Yup, Israel started too late. It would have been nice to roll out the GHF even a few months earlier instead of waiting to the point food insecurity had risen. Why do it then and start in an impossible situation? When in agreement with the U.S., Israel began facilitating aid to Gaza in October 2023, President Biden announced it saying if Hamas steals the aid it will end. That seemed to make sense. Once that began actually happening, the U.S. response was not that aid will end, it was that aid will increase. Much of Israel’s war room raged at the seeming injustice of that. And yet, if Israel wasn’t willing to offer a practical alternative, what did they want the Biden administration to say? The only way to keep going was to make sure there wasn’t a humanitarian catastrophe. They were constantly shooting themselves in the foot. 

JI: With [former Syrian dictator Bashar al-]Assad gone and Hezbollah weakened, how real is the opening for a changed Lebanon and Syria? 

EK: I remain skeptical that the Lebanese government is going to seize the opportunity, and there are good reasons it doesn’t. It’s afraid of civil war. However, there are opportunities here for the situation [to improve]. Hezbollah isn’t going to be thrown out of the country. But you can have it pressured in different ways. Israel can retain a sort of buffer with the standing offer that when Hezbollah will be seriously disarmed, that territory will be relinquished. Israel has dramatically improved its own security situation. Can Israel save Lebanon? I don’t think so. I don’t even think America can save Lebanon. Lebanon is going to have to save itself, and that is a much more difficult question. 

YJB: Another point is the Lebanese government is working directly with Israel for the first time. That’s good. A negative, according to my sources, is the Lebanese army has been less effective now in pushing Hezbollah out than it was in 2025.  

The variable is Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria. If he is able to change his colors enough from being a jihadist, if he is able to work with Israel on the basis of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend,” to shut down Hezbollah’s ability to rearm, that could be a gamechanger. If he doesn’t and Israel and Syria remain hostile, it will be difficult to reduce Hezbollah’s threat. 

JI: Turning now to the present campaign against Iran, how long do you believe the regime can hold out with the “Economic D-day” being imposed recently by the Treasury Department on top of the monthslong naval blockade?

YJB: This is one of the most unpredictable points in the last three years of war. It’s so complicated. I’ve been speaking to a ton of high-up Israeli officials and the damage to Iran is real. The regime in many ways has been weakened, and yet at the same time, it would seem like a paradox but the regime is more confident than it’s been in years because it has this leverage of the Strait of Hormuz and the nuclear program isn’t gone. The ballistic missile program certainly isn’t gone.

When you put all of that together, it’s a question of who breaks first — the American public who is mad about their gas prices or the Iranians who have a much worse situation but their government doesn’t care about how much they suffer. If the regime is willing to let their people suffer, maybe they end up winning the standoff. If Iran gives up first then you can solve the nuclear weapons issue. If the U.S. gives up first it’s going to be problematic. There’s no easy solution.

EK: If you’re Iran looking at the broad sweep of this war — which you were involved in planning, although Hamas didn’t consult you on the timing or decision — you would have wanted the war to go very differently. What [late Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar set in motion, you can see not only Hamas losing half of Gaza and being truly smashed but Hezbollah losing territory, leadership and its massive missile arsenal. Iran itself is attacked directly multiple times, its nuclear program is in rubble, it’s facing its greatest economic pressure it has ever faced, it’s under a U.S. naval blockade.

In this recent war, Iran can claim real accomplishments and has gone part of the way to restoring its deterrence. But when you look at that broad sweep, the currency is now trading over 2 million to the dollar — you would have to say this has been a disaster for the Iranian regime, on all fronts. This latest war has not gone as planned for the U.S. or for Israel. And yet, when it looks at the broader Iranian axis I still think we can say it has been substantially weakened. Israeli security is in a much better place vis-à-vis Iran than it was before all of this. 

JI: Anything else you’d like Jewish Insider readers to know about the book?

YJB: One of the things we showed was that this was a complex war. The three central characters for the first 8-13 months — Netanyahu, Gantz and Yallant — sometimes couldn’t stand each other and had very different ideologies. The war room shifts, but there’s still disagreements. It’s harder to paint Israel as this war-mongering country [when you see] that the war room is this complex place with hard decisions. When you see them struggling with those issues, maybe people will be able to humanize Israelis. 

LAS VEGAS — Asked how he thinks the Republican Party can stop antisemitic figures from being elected in the Republican Party, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) said the GOP should continue continue to “beat the s**t” out of them — electorally.

McCormick, speaking to Jewish Insider on the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference this weekend, pointed to Rep. Randy Fine’s (R-FL) decisive victory over a neo-Nazi candidate in Florida last month as one such example.

“We live in a country where you get to express your ideas, no matter how horrific and hateful those ideas are, and where anybody can run for office,” McCormick said. “That’s the country I want to live in. But the way that you ensure those ideas don’t get a foothold is you beat the s**t out of them. You beat them in elections. You beat their ideas with better ideas. … Within the Republican Party, we need to have that discipline.”

He said he applies the same logic to beating “these horrible antisemitic ideas on the left with better ideas on the right.” Speaking to the RJC, he argued that the Democratic Party, up to and including its leaders, have made excuses for antisemitism and given it a home in their party, as well as become consumed with an obsession with Israel.

McCormick, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, told JI that the U.S. should continue to use “any tools at our disposal” against Iran, particularly keeping economic pressure on the regime.

“I think this is all hopefully coming to a fork in the road where the leadership can choose a path to giving up a path to a nuclear weapon and giving up any nuclear weapon program, or continued pressure,” he said.

If Iran refuses to concede, he said the U.S. should continue its campaign with a focus on economic tools and use military force “selectively,” for instance if Iran attempts to place more mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

“It’s a combination of economic and military tools, just with the explicit goal of putting added pressure on the leadership,” McCormick said. 

He acknowledged that the war is having impacts at home, particularly at the gas pump, but said he tells constituents that there’s no doubt that Iran would have had a nuclear weapon and the ability to utilize it if the U.S. didn’t take action, so he supports President Donald Trump’s decision to strike.

“There’s trade-offs involved, but I think it was the right step to take,” he said.

During his remarks to the RJC, referencing the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), McCormick made a case for continued U.S. engagement in the world as a source of American strength, an idea that he said is under attack from figures on both sides of the aisle.

“Our commitment to freedom is therefore not simply an ideal; it’s a source of national power,” McCormick said. “That doesn’t mean we impose freedom on the world by force, but it does mean we should cherish it everywhere and support it when prudent in the coldest realpolitik terms. A freer world makes America stronger.”

And, he said, “a strong America also requires a commitment to take threats seriously, and when necessary, use force to eliminate them.” He said that the U.S. must take its adversaries seriously when they threaten the country and warned such actors that doing so invites American retaliation.

“Credible deterrence requires the willingness to act,” McCormick continued, “and when all other options are exhausted, it requires us to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way.”

He also argued that the U.S.’ commitment to strong alliances has been a source of strength. McCormick said that Israel has been a “model ally” but that even close allies can and will have disagreements, and described “tough love” as an important element of any relationship with an ally.

Asked by JI whether he was referring to any specific disagreements with Israel, McCormick said he was not but explained that “we shouldn’t misunderstand a deep-seated friendship and alliance where we’re deeply committed to one another with agreement on everything,” going on to suggest that the “media or the narrative” will take any disagreements out of proportion.

He said that such disagreements should not undermine overall confidence in the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

McCormick indicated that he supports the effort to phase out U.S. military aid in the coming years, but said that increased cooperation going forward in the next generation of warfare, including drones and AI, will be crucial.

“There’s no better wingman in some of the operations that we’ve undertaken than the State of Israel,” McCormick said. “So I think the the next step will be to figure out how to ensure that coordination is happening in the most effective way possible — and I’ve read some of the criticisms around this discussion — in a way that doesn’t sacrifice any autonomy or independence on the part of the United States or on the part of Israel for that matter.”

The Pennsylvania senator said one of his key priorities for the rest of the year is trying to secure energy permitting reform, which he called “the single most important thing we could do for the U.S. economy, global security and the AI revolution” to ensure the U.S. can keep pace in computing power. He said the issue crosses multiple domains, including his work on the Middle East subcommittee.

The countdown to Israel’s October elections has begun, bringing with it a central question: Will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who, against all odds, remains in office three years after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks took place under his tenure — remain Israel’s leader?

Israeli governments have often faced political upheaval after major wars or security crises, but Netanyahu’s current government completed a full term —  the first time a government has done so in nearly four decades. But Netanyahu is not out of the woods yet.

“Oct. 7 serves primarily as a reminder that the stakes are genuinely high. Israel is a country where elections are fought over matters of life and death in the most literal sense,” Shmuel Rosner, a pollster and analyst for Israel’s Channel 13, told Jewish Insider.

The leading candidates of the major parties all have defense bona fides: Netanyahu, who has been out of power for only a single year in the last 15 years, has overseen wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran; Gadi Eisenkot, who is projected to lead the largest party according to most polls, served as IDF chief of staff from 2015 to 2019 and lost his son, Gal, in Gaza combat; and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who served as a cabinet minister for nearly a decade.

So how is it that the average Israeli voter — with plenty of experience at the ballot box, having endured six election cycles in a decade — is largely maintaining the same voting pattern?

“The discussion is always framed in terms of alternatives. People used to say: ‘What, rockets are being fired at Sderot again and again, and people still vote for Likud?’ It seems crazy, but the answer is yes, indeed,” a political strategist who has worked for Likud and several other parties told JI. “Ultimately, right-wing voters tend to be pragmatic. As a result, they assess the available alternatives. When the alternative is perceived as worse, they will go with the option that feels more natural to them, despite their anger.”

Many Israelis view the upcoming election in this frame of tradeoffs: What is more concerning — another term under a Netanyahu-led government that includes the ultra-Orthodox parties as they continue to push for draft exemptions for their constituents, or a new government that might rely on Arab parties to reach the magic number of 61 members of Knesset needed to form a coalition?

“First, there’s the question of whether a potential voter wants the current coalition to return in an identical or similar composition. Next is whether they want the prime minister to continue in his role. And as usual, there’s the element of fear: How much do they fear the ‘other side’, meaning the possibility of an alternative coalition forming?” Rosner explained. “‘A coalition with Arab parties is the demon of the right; a coalition of ‘extremists’ is the demon of the smaller centrist parties; a ‘coalition with the Haredim’ is the demon of many voters, particularly in the anti-Netanyahu camp, and so on.”

If there is one thing both the Israeli right and left agree on, it is that security issues will dominate this election. In a poll conducted last July and published by Kan 11, voters were asked what key issue would determine their vote in the October elections: One-quarter of respondents cited security issues, while an almost equal share (24%) cited the Oct. 7 failures and the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the terror attacks. 

Economic matters trailed in third place at 22%, while judicial reform — an issue that dominated Israeli politics just a few years ago — stood at just 12%.

“Economics isn’t playing a major role in these elections. Security definitely is,” Rosner noted. “Netanyahu faces a challenge partly because he made far-reaching promises that even his supporters realize were not delivered on. If he could show Hamas raising a white flag, or Iran doing the same, or boast a stable peace agreement with Lebanon without Hezbollah on the horizon, he would have something to sell.”

Yossi Tatika, a pollster and strategic consultant at Tatika Consulting and Research, also believes that defense issues remain “the top priority for the Israeli voter, but their meaning has shifted. In my view, the Israeli voter is prioritizing security figures who are not directly tied to Oct. 7. There is a strong appetite for figures perceived as ‘fresh faces.'”

One new candidate on the scene is Ofer Winter, a former high-ranking IDF officer who historically maintained ties with Netanyahu, Avigdor Liberman and Bennett (though some of those relationships have cooled) and has a strong animosity towards Eisenkot, who refused to promote him to a general when he was the IDF chief of staff. Winter announced the launch of his new right-wing party, People of Israel, last week, and some polls project the new contender winning between four and six seats. In an election campaign that feels increasingly unpredictable, he could emerge as the wild card.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has publicly urged his far-right Cabinet ministers, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to merge their parties to hopefully gain more seats in the election, but they have remained defiant.

Still, Netanyahu remains a powerful brand among large segments of the Israeli public, and his entire campaign rests on what he markets as Israel’s achievements over nearly three years of war, including, the assassinations of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, while touting deterrence this has brought Israel in the region. 

Can the Israeli electorate overlook the fact that Netanyahu was in charge during the Oct. 7 massacre and was responsible for some of the mistakes leading up to it? That is precisely what Likud is betting on. The answer will begin to come clear at 10 p.m. on Oct. 27, when the exit polls are released.

The Democratic Socialists of America notched another win this week in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary, with the shock victory of state Rep. Angie Nixon, a DSA member, over a much better-funded, establishment-backed challenger. 

The far-left group has also notched at least six new victories in deep-blue House districts where its members are all but guaranteed to be elected, and could lead four major U.S. cities — New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington, D.C. — after the midterm elections.

But some of the group’s more overlooked victories have happened at the state level, where the DSA members could wield significant power if they win. A new study by the Brookings Institution, released Wednesday, found that of the 104 state legislative candidates endorsed by national or local DSA chapters in 2026, 76 have won their primaries or advanced to the general election without a primary. 

At the local level, another 64 of the 99 DSA-endorsed candidates are moving on to the general election. By comparison, at the congressional level, only 20 of the 64 total DSA-endorsed candidates have made it to general election races.

In New York City, already a comparative bastion of DSA representation in the state Assembly and Senate, eight DSA endorsees have advanced to the general election, including state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, who downplayed the 9/11 attacks, as well as seven state Assembly candidates. In total, the group is expected to have at least 15 members in Albany next year.

Sara Forman, the former executive director of the New York Solidarity Network, a state-level Jewish advocacy organization, said that after New York City Zohran Mamdani’s victory, the DSA seems to be emboldened to “flex their muscles” nationwide, after previously taking a more “surgical” approach at the state and local level.

Forman, who is now a senior advisor at Optimistic Labs, said she thinks the group learned lessons from the Mamdani race, including targeting highly engaged communities and neighborhoods. She also emphasized that the group has spent two decades building out the infrastructure that fueled the recent victories highlighted in the Brookings data.

“The Jewish community needs to take a hard look at this and really decide whether or not we’re willing to break bread” with a group that only looks at the Jewish community for “how they can use us,” she continued, while adding that Jewish community members will likely need to engage with some DSA elected officials in some capacity..

The national DSA organization endorses only a small subset of the DSA-affiliated candidates running nationwide. But outside of New York, five of its endorsees have advanced to general election races in state assembly seats around the country, with some set to coast to election and others facing competitive general election races: Robert LeVertis Bell in Kentucky, Tammy Carpenter in Oregon, Chris Gilmer-Hill in Michigan, Luke Alfaro-Jungmann in New Mexico and Mathewos Samson in Georgia.

Local DSA groups have racked up many more wins, such as state Rep. Maryam Khan’s ouster of an incumbent in a recent Hartford, Conn.-area state Senate seat.

“It’s interesting to me that the places where you’ve seen a lot of the newer elected officials pop up were a little unexpected, Connecticut being one example,” Forman said.

The state-level wins carry the potential to advance the DSA’s agenda, particularly in places such as New York, where the DSA expects its endorsees to work as a bloc in coordination with DSA leaders.

The Brookings study found that most DSA candidates hailed from already liberal areas — 111 were from California and New York alone — and most from districts that heavily favor Democrats. And DSA candidates contested and were nominated in a small fraction of the 7,386 total legislative seats around the country.

“From one perspective, the story of DSA candidates’ influence is overblown. The scarcity of candidates and their lack of strong success rates overall make this look more like a skirmish than a war,” the study’s authors conclude. “Nonetheless, the high-profile wins, fueled by young, white, educated voters, represent a warning to the rest of the party. They signal that unhappiness with the Democratic establishment and, in the post-Biden world, opposition to elderly officeholders can be leveraged by young, charismatic DSA candidates — and reflect an impatience with party leadership that transcends ideology.”

The rapid rise of the far left has alarmed Jewish leaders, who have seen candidates aligned with the DSA or affiliated with other virulently anti-Israel groups and in some cases, embracing antisemitic views. Those ties haven’t stopped them from winning deep-blue primaries across the country.   

“Just judging on Missouri, it’s worse than people are realizing,” said Stacey Newman, a former Democratic state lawmaker who now leads the Missouri Alliance Network. 

She emphasized that St. Louis-area Democrats elected a growing number of far-left candidates — albeit most not formally DSA-endorsed — and others hostile to Jewish community interests to the Legislature even while reelecting a close Jewish community ally in Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO). “They all have the same anti-Israel, anti-Jew platforms,” she said.

Forman said that Jewish advocates and their allies at the state level “need to be prepared for what I’m assuming is going to be the incoming push to try to make Israel a state and local issue,” as Mamdani and other DSA members did in New York State with legislation such as the Not On Our Dime Act.

“We really need to be making sure that our advocates and our allies are prepared to push back on that narrative,” Forman said, “but second of all, to remind people that state and local office has nothing to do with foreign policy.”

She said that the existing Jewish educational infrastructure needs to have the “toolkit to be able to say and push back hard and aggressively that this has no place in the state legislature,” and have its messaging clear and prepared.

Newman, whose group led advocacy for an antisemitism bill in the Missouri Legislature, said she feels that the Jewish community increasingly can’t rely on Democrats in Missouri’s legislature to support their priorities. And, she emphasized, much more policy work happens at the state level than the federal level.

“As a former Jewish state legislator, I’m petrified, because we’re all watching what’s happening around the country,” Newman said. “We’re watching Michigan, Wisconsin, we’re watching the Democratic Party throw caution to the wind.”

Addressing one of the leading foreign policy think tanks in the United States, former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid presented his case on Monday for Israel’s diplomatic future should his opposition bloc form the country’s next government after the upcoming elections. 

Speaking at the Atlantic Council in Washington, Lapid argued that Israel is increasingly isolated diplomatically and feuding with its allies — which he blamed primarily on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition — and he recommended that Jerusalem adopt a more measured and bipartisan approach going forward. 

Lapid is visiting Washington this week, concurrent with Netanyahu; both of them are set to attend the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday.

Lapid said that a new government, primarily made up of current opposition members, would remove officials who advocate for nuking Gaza or who mock detained activists. He said the government should also apologize for the accidental deaths of children in war and express greater empathy more generally, as well as deploy police and soldiers to address what he characterized as Jewish terrorism in the West Bank.

He also said that Israel can’t act on the world stage with the same impunity that the United States can, that it needs to listen to its friends around the world instead of writing them off, should never fund digital influence operations against American leaders, should stay out of American partisan politics and must rebuild its relationships with Europe.

“Iran is an enemy. Hezbollah is an enemy. Hamas is an enemy,” Lapid said. “France is not the enemy. Sweden is not the enemy. [Sens.] Elizabeth Warren [D-MA], Jon Ossoff [D-GA] and Tim Kaine [D-VA] are not the enemy. The Democratic Party is not the enemy. [Vice President] JD Vance is not the enemy.”

He said that the next Israeli government should communicate to the U.S. and the world that “this was a crazy period, but it is over” and, going forward, “stay out of American politics,” as well as “firmly encourage” both AIPAC and J Street to move away from partisanship.

“To be pro-Israel is to be bipartisan to build a broad coalition of support. Do not boycott people who dislike us. Insist on meeting them and presenting our case,” Lapid said.

Military capabilities and tactics, he continued, cannot stand apart from Israel’s place in the world, its relationship with the United States and its economic situation. Military strikes must come with “a moral, legal and strategic framework that Israel can defend with confidence,” with the ultimate goal of peace, rather than perpetual conflict, he continued.

Lapid asserted that the U.S.-Israel relationship had been damaged primarily by Netanyahu, describing his government as responsible for nearly all of the issues in the relationship. He suggested that the relationship would turn around with the opening provided by a new government.

He claimed that Israelis will vote accordingly in the upcoming elections, realizing that Netanyahu is damaging Israel’s international relations.

Lapid did not substantively address how the unity party led by himself and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett would approach an increasingly likely situation in which Gadi Eisenkot leads the largest opposition party after the election. Instead, he suggested Eisenkot would be the defense minister in a coalition government with Bennett as prime minister and Lapid as foreign minister.

Bennett and Lapid announced in April that they had decided to merge their parties and run as a joint party called “Together,” led by Bennett.

Though Lapid’s previous governing coalition included the Arab party Ra’am, he predicted that his bloc would not need the support of Arab parties to form a government after the next election and claimed that MK Mansour Abbas, who leads Ra’am, “seems to understand this better than some of my Jewish friends, the fact that maybe it’s time for a coalition that will be made only of Zionist parties.” 

But he said that such a government would address the needs of Arab citizens and address “Jewish racism against peaceful Arab citizens of Israel.”

Lapid said Israel should pursue direct negotiations with as many regional states as possible, including Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia and leverage various regional forums to pursue greater ties and to isolate Iran.

He also said that Israel should work with the Palestinian Authority, arguing that doing so doesn’t necessitate recognizing a Palestinian state or ignoring issues inside the PA. 

“It was almost ridiculous to me the fact that the current government was … incapable to admit the fact that they’re doing business with the Palestinian Authority — as they do in the West Bank and as they do in Gaza now,” Lapid said. 

He said Israel will, over time, need to work to make Gaza livable, and that the Israeli government’s failure to show empathy over the situation in Gaza had “destroyed our international stature in huge groups” as well as stymied necessary and honest conversations in Israel about the costs of the war. But he rejected the idea that the war in Gaza had been a genocide.

Lapid took a hard line toward the Haredim, saying that they should not receive financial support if they do not serve in the military, that their schools should not receive government support if they do not provide a basic education and that they should not receive public assistance if they do not work.

“When you live in a democracy, you don’t only have rights; you also have duties, and these have to do with each other,” Lapid said.

Lapid also sought to position himself in a more hawkish stance on Iran than the current government, arguing that Israel should have, as early as 2024, bombed Iranian energy facilities, including Kharg Island. He said he still supports such a course of action.

He acknowledged that such an approach would carry political and economic pain for the United States ahead of the midterms, but said that it would be the “right thing to do in the long term” and would lead the Iranian regime to collapse.

Though he praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and expressed hope for expanding the Abraham Accords, Lapid raised serious concerns over the Trump administration’s recent deal with Saudi Arabia that would allow nuclear enrichment on Saudi soil — an effort that Trump, after signing the deal, conditioned on the Gulf state joining the Abraham Accords.

Lapid said he’d clashed with Graham, who worked for years to secure normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, over the subject, calling it “unacceptable” and “a huge mistake.”

A Saudi enrichment program, Lapid warned, would prompt a nuclear proliferation race throughout the Middle East and beyond. And he said any Saudi-U.S. deal should include Israel as well.

Lapid, once one of the Israeli leaders more amenable to the idea of a two-state solution, said that the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the support for them in the West Bank had changed his view of the situation. He said that any Palestinian state under the current circumstances would immediately become a launching pad for Hamas.

“Politics or policies are not a zero-sum game. There are so many things we can do in order to improve the lives of everybody, of Palestinians, of Israelis, of the security of everybody,” Lapid continued.

Lapid said that the pilot effort to turn over territory in Lebanon to the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm Hezbollah is a strong idea in concept, but requires that Hezbollah actually be disarmed. He said Israel should continue to fight Hezbollah as necessary but also pursue diplomatic efforts with the Lebanese government.

He declined to back a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, saying that Israel should not withdraw from areas where it knows Hezbollah would immediately return to because the terrorist group had been preparing to carry out an Oct. 7-style attack on northern Israel.

He also said he was disappointed that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa had begun discussing reclaiming the Golan Heights from Israel, explaining that he’d initially seen the new Syrian government as “an opportunity to solve a problem that looked unsolvable for a long time.”

ASPEN, Colo. — Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro argued on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum last week that without new leadership in Israel — meaning a defeat for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s elections — he does not know how Israel can repair its reputation in the United States.

“I don’t see a path to repairing Israel’s deteriorating standing in the United States on both sides of the aisle without a change of leadership in Israel,” Shapiro told Jewish Insider in an interview, a sentiment he repeated during a panel on Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship at the conference.

Shapiro said that a “wise Israeli government” would pay attention to its “deteriorating standing in the United States” and that the “Israeli public might want to bear that in mind too as they prepare to go to the polls in October.”

Asked whether he thinks some in the U.S. are pinning broader criticisms of Israel on Netanyahu personally, Shapiro emphasized that there’s “a lot of history and a lot of emotion and a lot of associations with the prime minister,” who is “very present in our media, in our politics.”

Netanyahu, he said, is associated with many of the biggest flashpoints in U.S.-Israel relations including opposition to former President Barack Obama and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the wars in Gaza and Iran and the rise of his far-right Cabinet ministers.

“Probably a very healthy thing for the U.S.-Israel relationship would be if 95% of Americans do not know the name of the Israeli prime minister, and that’s a possible outcome out of this election,” Shapiro said. “That doesn’t guarantee it fixes everything by any stretch. There’s work to do, but that’s a different starting point.”

Israel, he continued, won’t be able to placate all of the critics of its continued efforts to defend itself, but he said there are other steps it can take to improve attitudes in the U.S., including cracking down on “the Jewish terror wave against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank,” providing withheld funds to the Palestinian Authority, stopping settlement expansion and moving more assertively to implement the U.S.-led 20-point peace plan for Gaza.

Speaking to JI shortly after more than 100 House Democrats voted to cut off U.S. military aid to Israel, Shapiro said that, while there’s “legitimate ground for concern and for criticism” of Israel’s operations in Gaza, cutting off all $3.3 billion wholesale is not “a very thoughtful way” to address concerns about civilian harm. He also emphasized the responsibility Hamas bears for intentionally endangering Palestinian civilians.

“We have an ongoing U.S. interest in ensuring Israel can defend itself from a lot of very dangerous enemies who are also our enemies,” Shapiro said. “There are much more thoughtful and much more careful and nuanced ways of trying to get at the real problem, which is ensuring that U.S. equipment — which Israel may need, and which we’ve made some commitment to, to defend themselves where they legitimately have a need to do so — is not used in a way that produces unacceptable civilian casualties.”

He said the current debate, at its heart, touches on the fundamental question of whether the U.S.-Israel relationship continues to serve American interests, which he strongly believes it does.

“If we were to see a real deterioration and distancing of the U.S. and Israel, for the long term, we’d find that our own interests and our own ability to defend our own influence and our own ability to defend our interests in the Middle East would be significantly compromised,” Shapiro said. 

He said that severing the U.S.-Israel relationship would embolden Iran and its proxies — which are also enemies of America — to undermine the regional defense architecture that the U.S. has spent years building, leading U.S. allies to pull away from the Washington and hedge with Iran.

Shapiro said during the panel that those calling for a total dismantling from the U.S.-Israel relationship should be asked to address that policy’s second-order effects on U.S. interests and American influence in the region.

While Shapiro acknowledged that polling has shown that many in the U.S. have a negative impression of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, he does not necessarily believe that means that most Americans want to see the U.S.-Israel relationship severed entirely.

Shapiro argued to JI that there’s a “broad middle” of the Democratic Party, on both sides of the Israel aid vote, that continues to support Israel’s right to exist and has reasonable conversations about the future of the party. On the extremes, however, there are some, including prominent leaders, who do not believe Israel has a right to exist, which Shapiro called strategically wrong, morally wrong and a political mistake.

“I think we’ll end up losing in the swing areas and swing districts and states if we marry ourselves to that most extreme attitude on this issue,” Shapiro, who served under former President Barack Obama, said, emphasizing that extreme anti-Israel candidates have so far only succeeded in deep-blue districts.

Shapiro predicted that the U.S. looks to be on the path toward ending assistance to Israel, whether that be immediately or over time, depending on negotiations between the two sides over the next memorandum of understanding.

“If there’s going to be an MOU, that should [include] some sort of review process or some sort of consultation process to ensure that [U.S.] standards are met, as well as the regular enforcement of U.S. law and U.S. requirements,” Shapiro said.

He predicted that ending U.S. aid to Israel would also lead to an end to the U.S.’ financial support for the Egyptian and Jordanian militaries — other top recipients of U.S. military financing — which could lead those countries to look elsewhere for military weapons, including U.S. adversaries.

Shapiro was critical of the Trump administration’s approach to the war in Iran — in contrast with his support for the strikes in 2025 on Iran’s nuclear program — describing the administration as stuck in a spiral of repeated threats without a focused or sustained strategy. 

He said that the U.S. could plausibly have claimed victory in the first few weeks of the war, but missed the opportunity to do so, and “all the leverage swung over” to Iran once it closed the Strait of Hormuz.

“I knew that to end it would require a very weak deal, and I supported a very weak deal to end a very dumb war. I just didn’t expect the MOU to be as weak as it was,” Shapiro said. “It was absurdly so. It gave away massive sanctions relief even before beginning discussions on the nuclear program. It left Iran with the clear impression that they did have permanent authority to control the strait.”

He said there is no clear end strategy for the conflict now, adding that he generally agrees with the basic strategy laid out at the Security Forum by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — to “let the Iranians stew in the juice of the sanctions.”

On the panel, Shapiro also argued that Vice President JD Vance’s comments on Joe Rogan’s podcast blaming an Israeli influence campaign for undermining the MOU with Iran leaned into antisemitic tropes.

“It was frankly an attempt to cast blame on somebody else for the really unsuccessful MOU following an unsuccessful war and trying to blame it on a third party — who was a party to the war, but not really to the negotiation on the MOU,” Shapiro said. “I really think that was uncalled for.”

The far left is gaining traction in its electoral battle against the mainstream pro-Israel political community, notching a recent string of victories in high-profile Democratic primaries as it now finds itself on stronger financial footing compared to past campaign cycles.

Thanks in part to a range of new super PACs created to counter AIPAC’s political spending, the far left has elevated several anti-Israel Democrats in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California to the nomination in key congressional primaries, with its sights set on closely contested upcoming matchups in New York City and Michigan.

In some cases, the anti-Israel left — buoyed by public opinion that has swung against the Jewish state in the wake of the war in Gaza — has been at parity or outspending pro-Israel groups, marking a significant change.

The most prominent vehicle for such spending is the recently launched American Priorities super PAC — which has pledged to spend at least $10 million during the midterms. The group most recently helped lift Randy Villegas, a progressive vying to unseat Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), in California. He claimed victory in the primary over Jasmeet Bains — a state lawmaker supported by pro-Israel activists and national Democatic leaders. American Priorities had invested heavily on behalf of Villegas, going toe to toe with Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm — whose $500,000 for Bains failed to help her advance to the November election.

The anti-Israel PAC also played a role in securing wins for Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, who faced scrutiny for pushing an antisemitic conspiracy theory before his House primary in Philadelphia last month, and Adam Hamawy, a retired Army surgeon who claimed the Democratic nomination in a central New Jersey district despite past controversial links to a convicted terrorist. American Priorities spent over $1.5 million in the crowded race to bolster Hamawy’s campaign.

Notably, AIPAC’s well-funded super PAC, United Democracy Project, chose to stay on the sidelines in all three of those races, as the far left has capitalized on the pro-Israel group’s unpopularity within the Democratic Party, particularly in heavily progressive districts where American Priorities is engaging most significantly.

AIPAC’s relatively cautious approach to Democratic races this cycle reflects a changing political landscape for the formidable pro-Israel group, which has flexed its financial resources in consequential primaries that meaningfully shaped the House Democratic caucus.

Just two years ago, UDP and DMFI PAC had both engaged in a well-resourced effort to defeat two of the most prominent Israel critics in the House, Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO), who were ousted by pro-Israel Democrats currently sitting in Congress.

By contrast, UDP has now been absent from major primaries where AIPAC-endorsed incumbents are facing serious challenges from the far left. In New York City’s June 23 primary, Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) are preparing to defend their seats in tough reelection fights against outspoken critics of Israel, backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who have highlighted their ties to AIPAC as a top vulnerability.

American Priorities, in a joint effort with Justice Democrats — the far-left, incumbent-challenging group that helped propel the Squad to Congress in 2018 — is now investing aggressively in Espaillat’s race to help Darializa Avila Chevalier, a community organizer and anti-Israel activist whose past deleted extremist online posts have recently fueled attacks against her from super PACs backing the incumbent. 

Justice Democrats, which had struggled to raise money last cycle as it found itself on the defensive in primaries against UDP, has rebounded and become a driving force behind far-left candidates in the current election cycle — powered in part by a major donation from an anti-Israel dark money group also connected to American Priorities.

The super PAC, led by a progressive strategist who was previously the independent expenditure director for Justice Democrats, has raised about $5.4 million primarily through a small network of Arab American donors who have contributed significant amounts. It entered June with $1.2 million on hand, according to its latest filing — a total that is greatly overshadowed by UDP’s nearly $95 million war chest.

But even critics of American Priorities and affiliated groups in its loose fundraising network acknowledge that the super PAC is spending wisely in races where it believes it can have a potential impact — especially as AIPAC has ceded some ground to its opponents by staying out of contested primaries in places including New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“They took a page out of the AIPAC playbook over the past 30 years, in terms of recruiting and maintaining relationships with members of Congress,” Sara Forman, a longtime Democratic operative and Jewish community activist, told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “They understood that this was all about funding.”

In many ways, American Priorities in particular has imitated UDP in both style and strategy, down to its vaguely patriotic-sounding name. The group has also accepted contributions from several donors who have given to Republicans, even as it has criticized AIPAC, which is bipartisan, as a Trojan horse advancing GOP interests in Democratic strongholds.

One donor, Hussein Mahrouq, a Texas businessman who has contributed $625,000 while also supporting far-right Republicans, told JI that he is “not affiliated with any political party,” and believes that “decisions affecting our country should be made based on what is best for the United States, independent of pressure from any foreign government, foreign interest group or partisan agenda.”

American Priorities is also involved with a new super PAC called Fighting for Michigan, which vowed this week to invest in “a multimillion-dollar” campaign to boost Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left Israel critic gaining momentum in the state’s three-way Senate primary set for Aug. 4.

“We know big-money groups representing the Israel lobby, corporate interests and AI billionaires are going to spend heavily against Abdul in the coming days,” Connor Farrell, a progressive strategist who is working with the super PAC, told Axios of its effort.

While AIPAC is viewed as a lightning rod in Michigan’s competitive Democratic Senate primary, UDP notably jumped into the race this week with an initial ad buy of around $2 million to help Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a pro-Israel moderate also favored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). 

It remains to be seen if AIPAC and other pro-Israel organizations will be matched or outnumbered by opposing groups amid a surge of new spending in the race, which is among the most closely watched in the country.

With the anti-Israel left emboldened by a growing Democratic skepticism of the U.S. relationship with Israel and a national political environment favorable to anti-establishment views, some Jewish and pro-Israel Democrats are raising concerns that their community is not meeting the moment in response.

“This should be a wake-up call to the Jewish community,” said Kenneth Baer, a former Obama administration staffer who leads a communications firm.

Sam Lauter, a veteran pro-Israel strategist in the San Francisco Bay Area and a DMFI board member, said simply that the “playing field has gotten bigger” over the past several years.

But he also attributed the left’s ascendance to a strategic miscalculation in the pro-Israel activist community that had long been a dominant force in elections.

“Where our community failed is seeing that our opposition has been building and preparing and getting ready for the moment where they could take the fight to us, and our community neglected to pay close attention to that,” Lauter told JI.

Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight the Los Angeles mayoral race, where Mayor Karen Bass is locked in a close three-way race against Republican Spencer Pratt and DSA-affiliated Democrat Nithya Raman ahead of tomorrow’s primary, and cover yesterday’s Israel Day on Fifth parade in New York City. We report on Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s trip to the United Arab Emirates last week, where he met with UAE National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed, and talk to Theo Baker about his new book about power structures at Stanford, where he’s a student. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Shmuel Ben Ezra, Ilan Shchori and Andy Baker.

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

• We’re keeping an eye on the escalation in Israel’s north and in southern Lebanon as the IDF and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire. Efforts to reach a ceasefire over the weekend following an hours-long meeting on Friday between Israeli and Lebanese security officials fell short, with Hezbollah rejecting a proposal from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the Iran-backed group end its missile and drone attacks against Israel in exchange for Israel agreeing not to resume attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut. The escalation comes amid a deeper Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, and the IDF’s capture of the Crusader-era Beaufort Castle.
• On Capitol Hill,  the House is expected to vote on war powers resolutions on both Iran and Lebanon later this week, while the Senate is likely to vote on final passage of an Iran war powers resolution that cleared a procedural vote before the Memorial Day recess.
• The American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum continues today in Washington. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, author Dara Horn and historian Jonathan Sarna are slated to speak at this morning’s plenary, while JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar will address attendees this afternoon alongside Axios’ Barak Ravid and Kan’s Gili Cohen for a panel about the upcoming U.S. midterms and Israeli elections.
• The Israeli Embassy in Washington is holding a memorial this morning for slain staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were killed in a terror attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum last May.
• This afternoon, the Israeli Embassy in Washington will host an event with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the Isaac Accords Fund.
• In Israel, the Knesset is holding its first reading of a bill to dissolve the body and trigger elections. The Michigan Democratic Party’s Jewish, Black, senior and faith caucuses are jointly holding a debate this evening for the state’s open Senate seat. Democrats Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and physician Abdul El-Sayed are all expected to participate.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

The latest revelations that Graham Platner, the Democrats’ anti-establishment, far-left standard-bearer in the Maine Senate race, was sending sexually explicit texts to as many as a dozen women while he was married — an issue his wife raised to campaign staff as a potential liability — is another sign that the candidate’s extensive baggage may be too much for the party to handle. (As commentator Haviv Rettig Gur posted on X: “I’m starting to think that SS tattoo might have been a red flag.”)

Meanwhile, a New York Times interview, published over the weekend, with leading New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate Adam Hamawy about his past affiliations with Islamist extremists is going to raise more red flags for Democrats.   

Asked about his travels with Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who was connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy downplayed the spiritual leader’s jihadist sermons. “He wasn’t preaching death and destruction all the time,” Hamawy said. “He had certain views that he spoke in certain forums, but that’s not what he did every single day.”

With the calendar now turned to June, it’s yet another reminder that Democrats are on the verge of nominating some truly radical and damaged candidates for congressional office as a critical mass of primaries take place this month.

Many of the races are taking place in safely blue seats, so Democrats haven’t raised that much concern over candidates such as Hamawy, whose terror ties (including volunteer work for what was later revealed as an al-Qaida front group) at the very least, raise questions about suitability for public office.

But others, such as Platner, are running in battleground Senate seats where the stakes couldn’t be higher. In California and Montana, candidates are running in swing districts where the battle for the House majority will be fought. 

If May was the month that tested President Donald Trump’s power over the Republican Party (lesson: he’s still firmly in control of GOP voters), June will be the month that determines whether the Democratic Party is going to abandon its moderate moorings and nominate a roster of radicals.

The stakes couldn’t be higher — especially for Jewish Democrats, who have been among the leading voices alarmed by the rise of these candidates, who, not surprisingly, often hold virulently anti-Israel views and don’t have a problem mainlining antisemitic rhetoric. 

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

ANGELENO AFFAIRS

Wide-open Los Angeles mayoral race could hinge on support from Jewish voters

In the closing weeks of the Los Angeles mayoral primary, the two candidates challenging incumbent Mayor Karen Bass — from both the left and the right — had a lot to say on areas of interest to Jewish Angelenos, which was particularly notable in a race in which those issues have, for much of the campaign cycle, not been front and center. The race features an embattled Mayor Karen Bass facing a spirited challenge from her right in reality TV star Spencer Pratt, and from her left in City Councilmember Nithya Raman, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Community issues: In a race that appears to have the three leading candidates bunched together in a three-way tie, the winning votes could come from anywhere, and recent outreach by Pratt to the Jewish community suggests he knows that winning over Jewish Democrats could help him make it to the general election. The Los Angeles metro area is home to roughly 560,000 Jews, although not all of them live in the city of L.A. That means that a pressing question facing moderate Jewish voters who have supported Bass, a liberal Democrat and former member of Congress, is whether taking a chance on Pratt is worthwhile.

Read the full story here.

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PRIDE AND PROTECTION

Israel Day parade marked by celebratory crowd and large police presence

As an estimated 50,000 New Yorkers stretched along Fifth Avenue waving Israeli and American flags and Hebrew music echoed through the streets, this year’s annual “Israel Day on Fifth” parade carried a palpable sense of relief. For the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, attendees could swap out their hostage pins and “Bring Them Home Now” signs for simple flags — marking the first parade since the attacks in which all hostages held by Hamas have been released and Israel’s war in Gaza has ended, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Pulse check on Fifth: For the first time in more than six decades, the city’s mayor was notably absent from the bipartisan tradition. While Zohran Mamdani’s boycott was intended to make a strong statement, attendees appeared largely unfazed. Instead, attendees seemed focused on the notable figures marching — from politicians from both parties to social media influencers and the largest-ever delegation from the Knesset, including Speaker Amir Ohana and members of both the governing and opposition parties. 

In the crowd: Spotted on the Jewish Agency’s float were Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, an Israeli American IDF officer killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. State Assemblymember Alex Bores, who is running in the Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional District, was in attendance, as were Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and former New York City Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Eric Adams. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), flanked by city and Jewish communal leaders — including New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric Goldstein — addressed attendees.

Read the full story here.

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BOOKSHELF

21-year-old author Theo Baker says he feels more Jewish as a result of antisemitism at Stanford

In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen, 21-year-old author Theo Baker discussed his new book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, in which he reflects on his turbulent college years and lays bare an elite university corrupted by Silicon Valley’s pursuit of power. Weeks away from graduation, Baker spoke with JI about his past four years on campus, the role that technology plays in rising antisemitism —  and what the future might hold for universities.  

Turning point: “In fall 2022, I went home for Thanksgiving and said, ‘There’s so much antisemitism at Stanford.’ I was shocked by that … As soon as I arrived at Stanford — even in the first week — someone asked me, ‘Why are all Jews so rich?’ By the end of that year — and this is before Oct. 7 —- someone in my dorm, a kid who was Jewish, talked about being Jewish for the first time and someone put a bunch of swastikas and an image of Hitler on his door later that day. So Jewishness is an identity and not one I would have placed much investment in prior to coming to college … Certainly, I, like many college students in the last few years, have been made to feel more Jewish just by the circumstances around us.”

Read the full interview here.

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FOLLOW THE MONEY

Anti-Israel super PAC’s funding bolstered by GOP-linked donors

A recently launched super PAC positioning itself as a progressive counterweight to AIPAC’s involvement in Democratic primary elections has accepted financial contributions from a number of individuals who have also donated to Republicans, campaign filings show. The financial support for American Priorities PAC, created in February, has come even as AIPAC and its super PAC have faced backlash from critics on the left who accuse it of meddling in Democratic primaries as a sort of front group for GOP-funded attacks against anti-Israel candidates in safely blue districts, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

PAC picks: American Priorities is investing significantly in New Jersey’s 12th District race on Tuesday on behalf of Adam Hamawy. The super PAC, in another race in California, is boosting Randy Villegas, a progressive critic of Israel running for a red-leaning seat held by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), who is endorsed by AIPAC. Those investments have been fueled, most notably, by at least $525,000 from Hussein Mahrouq, a Texas businessman who has backed far-right Republicans including the recently ousted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), both of whom have been accused of using antisemitic tropes about Jews and Israel.

Read the full story here.

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TRIP TALK

Gottheimer meets with top officials in UAE

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) visited the United Arab Emirates in his capacity as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last week, meeting with National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Readout: “The United States and the UAE are close partners, and I am grateful for the warmth our hosts extended throughout this trip,” Gottheimer said in a statement to JI. “The UAE has stood firm throughout Iran’s relentless missile and drone attacks on Emirati cities and demonstrated the enduring strength of the Abraham Accords by engaging in a deeper partnership with Israel than ever before. We are completely aligned that Iran cannot continue threatening its neighbors.”

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

The Ties That Fray: Matthew Schmitz, the religion editor of The Washington Post’s opinions page, warns that “Democrats’ traditional Jewish alliance is fraying as never before” as anti-Zionist activism has crossed boundaries into antisemitism. “Antisemitism is rising on the left and the right, but its presence in the Democratic Party is particularly jarring. Jewish support for the Democratic Party was sealed during the New Deal era, when Jews rallied to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jonah Goldstein, a leader in New York’s Jewish community who made the mistake of running for mayor as a Republican in 1945, joked in Yiddish that Jews had three veltn, or worlds: di velt (this world), yene velt (the other world) and Roosevelt.” [WashPost]

Calling on Congress: In Fox News, Ruby Chen, whose son, Itay, was killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and his body held in captivity, calls on Congress to create a bipartisan committee to investigate the attacks, in which dozens of Americans were killed. “We are seeking justice, but not only for those who carried out the murders. Also for those who financed, enabled and armed them as well. … When Americans are killed in a war zone, Congress has a duty to determine what happened, why it happened and who bears responsibility. That duty does not disappear because geopolitics are complicated. It does not pause because allies may be implicated. American lives cannot be subject to selective accountability. For decades, the United States has operated on a clear standard: kidnapping and killing Americans must carry consequences.” [FoxNews]

MBS’ Brotherhood Two-Step: In Alhurra, Abdulaziz Alkhamis observes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s opposition to Muslim Brotherhood elements inside Saudi Arabia while backing Muslim Brotherhood offshoots in conflicts in the region and in Africa. “When the state wages war on the Brotherhood’s discourse at home while aligning with its affiliates abroad, it hands critics a potent argument: Why is political Islam considered a threat in Riyadh but a necessary partner in Yemen or Sudan? That question alone is enough to complicate Saudi Arabia’s new national narrative, weaken the rhetoric of the modern state, and create an opening for advocates of ‘reconciliation,’ ‘accommodation,’ and political reintegration.” [AlHurra]

Syria As the New Strait: In Foreign Policy, the Middle East Institute’s Charles Lister looks at Syria’s efforts to position itself as a “transformational corridor” and logistics hub in the region amid the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. “Syria could become one alternative overland artery in a network of new ones, spanning from the Gulf, to Egypt, to Jordan. This would be of enormous global significance — to regional states and Gulf energy producers, to customers in Europe, and, of course, for Syria itself. Iran’s shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz has also surged maritime shipping insurance rates, which, even if peace returns, are not expected to return to pre-conflict levels, thereby making overland transit structurally competitive.” [FP]

Word on the Street

The U.S. struck several sites in Iran over the weekend after Iran downed an American MQ-1 drone, while Kuwait said early Monday that it was being targeted by missiles and drones that triggered sirens across the Gulf nation…

U.S. officials told The New York Times that American forces had helped some 70 vessels transit through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks as the key waterway remains largely closed amid stalled talks between Tehran and Washington…

The report comes days after President Donald Trump reportedly asked senior officials to make some changes to a draft ceasefire proposal with Iran, prompting a new back-and-forth with Tehran over the reworked items, which largely focus on Iran’s nuclear program…

The Financial Times spotlights Operation Jailbreak, a recent hackathon convened by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll during which defense firms and startups worked to build inter-operative weapons systems; FT reports that Driscoll wants to send some of the solutions from the hackathon to CENTCOM’s areas of operations in the Middle East within the next month to assist in countering Iranian drone threats…

The office of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said that the Syrian leader spoke by phone to Trump on Sunday about regional developments and the Syrian economy…

Reps. Jefferson Shreve (R-IN) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) introduced legislation to prohibit funding for UNIFIL, which has faced criticism for its inability to deter Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, after Oct. 1, 2027…

Reps. Danny Davis (D-IL), Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Jim Clyburn (D-SC) introduced legislation to establish a National Park honoring Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and the network of schools for Black students that he founded…

Politico reports that the New York chapter of the Working Families Party declined to endorse Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) in his reelection bid over his failure to support the Block the Bombs Act as the New York Democrat faces a primary challenge from democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier…

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, signed an executive order requiring the state’s public schools and universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in investigating complaints and directing the state’s Board of Education to provide educational materials about antisemitism, Israel and American Jewish history…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul formally signed the state’s buffer zone bill, which enacts a 50-foot security perimeter around religious institutions, into law on Sunday at the Met Council’s annual legislative breakfast…

PBS interviews the father of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky on the anniversary of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting in which Lischinsky and his partner were killed, about how he plans to honor his son’s legacy…

The Washington Post spotlights the “enduring mystery” of the post-World War II lives of Louis “Speedy” Weber and his wife, Frances, whose letters to each other while Louis was stationed in Europe during the war were recently digitized by the USO…

In The Wall Street Journal, Gil Troy reflects on the origins of anti-Zionism on the 81st anniversary of Iraq’s Farhud, the pogrom that marked a turning point for Iraqi Jews and initiated the mass exodus of the country’s Jewish community…

Far-left streamer Hasan Piker and Young Turks co-founder Cenk Uygur said they were both banned from the U.K. ahead of their scheduled upcoming appearances at London’s SXSW convening; Piker accused London of acting at “the behest of Israel,” while Uygur, who is Piker’s uncle, said the U.K.’s Home Office called him a “serious risk to the public order”…

Italian authorities canceled a Kanye West show scheduled for July in Emilia-Reggiano — as well as a concert by rapper Travis Scott slated for the following day — amid concerns from the country’s Jewish community over West’s past antisemitic rhetoric; West was previously slated to perform in the U.K., France, Switzerland and Poland at concerts that have since been canceled, with some countries revoking his entry visa…

Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal 4-3 in the UEFA Champions League match on Saturday night in Budapest, Hungary, the second year in a row the Qatar-owned team has won the league’s championship…

Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism in the country rejected an effort by the government to keep confidential official minutes from Cabinet meetings between 2020-2025 that pertain to the government’s budget for counterterrorism enforcement…

Far-right attorney Abelardo de la Espriella will face off against far-left activist Ivan Cepeda in Colombia’s presidential runoff next month after Sunday’s election in which no candidate reached the requisite 50%…

The Financial Times profiles Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, the son of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed who is being groomed to lead the Gulf nation…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of Shmuel Ben Ezra to serve as national security advisor and head of the country’s National Security Council; Ben Ezra, who oversaw the development of Israel’s Arrow 3 missile-defense system, will replace Gil Reich, who had been in the role in an acting capacity since October 2024 after Netanyahu fired Tzachi Hanegbi from the position…

Historian Ilan Shchori was named the senior vice president of B’nai B’rith International; Shchori, who is based in Tel Aviv, will also serve as the organization’s lead historian…

Longtime Newsday journalist Cara Trager died at 71…

Marion Miliband, a Holocaust survivor whose sons, David and Ed, went on to become leading figures in U.K. politics, died at 91…

Pic of the Day

Rabbi Andrew Baker, who is retiring as the American Jewish Committee’s director of international Jewish affairs after 47 years with the organization, was honored by AJC Board of Governors Chair Melanie Nelkin at last night’s plenary session at the AJC Global Forum in Washington.

Birthdays

Comedian, writer, actor, director and producer, Amy Schumer turns 45… 

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist and conductor, he has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard, Yehudi Wyner turns 97… Holocaust survivor as a child, he served as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel for 10 years and twice as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau turns 89… NYC-based attorney, author of two books regarding the history and operations of El Al, owner of 40,000-plus pieces of memorabilia related to El Al, Marvin G. Goldman turns 87… Grammy Award-winning classical pianist, Richard Goode turns 83… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Shimon Ohayon turns 81… Retired attorney in Berkeley, Calif., Thomas Andrew Seaton… Pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area, longtime AIPAC activist, Elliot Charles Lepler, MD… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui and the Hilonit Tzionit parties, Eti Livni turns 78… Founding editor of The American Interest, a bimonthly public policy magazine that is on hiatus since 2020, Adam M. Garfinkle turns 75… Former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News and co-author with Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler turns 71… Senior business editor at NPR for 25 years until his scathing review of liberal bias at the network in 2024, now a contributing editor at The Free Press, Uri Paul Berliner… Founding rabbi of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, N.Y., Rabbi Moshe Weinberger turns 69… Former IDF officer and now a London based political scientist and journalist, Ahron “Ronnie” Bregman turns 68… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party for 16 years ending in 2015, Amnon Cohen turns 66… Owner of MLB’s Athletics, his parents were the co-founders of Gap, Inc., he is a board member of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation, John J. Fisher turns 65… Poet, performance artist and essayist, Adeena Karasick turns 61… Founding editor and publisher of the Dayton Jewish Observer, Marshall J. Weiss… Television personality and matchmaker, Sigalit “Siggy” Flicker turns 59… Actor, voice actor and film director, Danielle Harris turns 49… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer, Spencer J. Ackerman turns 46… Partner in Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, Daniel Tannebaum… President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Yael Eckstein turns 42… Musician, songwriter, author, actor and blogger, Ari Seth Herstand turns 41… Former CEO of The Good Food Institute, Ilya Sheyman turns 40… Political reporter for NBC News until last year, now a newspaper editor in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald… Senior writer at Barron’s covering the Federal Reserve, Nicole Goodkind… Head of responsible AI policy at Palantir, Naomi S. Kadish… Executive business partner at Lyft, Isabel Keller… NYC-born Israeli pair skater, she competed for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hailey Esther Kops turns 24…

For years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has relied on a small, passionately loyal inner circle of advisors — Ron Dermer foremost among them — to provide a sounding board on some of the country’s thorniest security matters.

Now, with Dermer (mostly) gone, new elections looming and Israel fighting a multifront war and isolated on the world stage, that inner circle is nearly empty. And the departures of key security advisors have left the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history arguably more alone than ever.

​The position of head of Israel’s National Security Council has been unfilled on a permanent basis since October 2025, when Netanyahu dismissed Tzachi Hanegbi from the role. It is currently held in an acting capacity by Gil Reich, a former senior official at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, who will move to a different role within the defense establishment on Monday. 

Just a day later, the director of the Mossad, David Barnea, will also step down after completing a full five-year term. He is set to be replaced by Netanyahu’s military secretary, Gen. Roman Gofman.

​However, in the Israel of 2026, nothing is straightforward. High Court justices must soon rule on whether Gofman’s sensitive appointment for the Mossad will be approved. This comes after the head of the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee — the Israeli version of a Senate hearing for high-ranking civil service roles — opined that Gofman’s appointment was flawed on ethical grounds.

Netanyahu believes Gofman has been wronged, and that right now, amid a “seven-front war,” as he noted in a recent press release, this appointment is critical.

​But Gofman’s departure will mark a farewell to one of Netanyahu’s closest advisors and currently the most influential security figure in his orbit — and at a time when Netanyahu’s post-Oct. 7 relationship with the military echelon remains exceptionally complex. 

​”The role of the national security advisor and head of the NSC is critical and central for shaping, planning and overseeing the execution of Israel’s national security policy,” Eyal Hulata, who served as head of Israel’s NSC from 2021-2023, told Jewish Insider. 

“The fact that the prime minister is not appointing a replacement for this role is, unfortunately, yet another example of a disregard for organized staff work and another blow to the professionalism required when working with the defense establishment,” Hulata continued. Sources close to the prime minister told JI that Netanyahu intends to fill these soon-to-be-empty positions shortly.

​So, who are the candidates for head of the Israeli NSC? According to sources familiar with the matter, there are two front-runners: Reuven Azar, Israel’s ambassador to India, and Col. (res.) Gabi Siboni, a hawkish commentator on military strategy. 

Azar, who previously served as Netanyahu’s foreign policy advisor, was involved in the brokering of the Abraham Accords and is considered a highly professional diplomat. As President Donald Trump has made a priority of advancing the Abraham Accords 2.0, now with additional countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Azar’s experience could be an asset to the NSC. 

Siboni is a military strategy expert who frequently provides commentary in the Israeli media, and is known for his hawkish views. He has a significant vulnerability, however: He is close friends with former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, who is running against Netanyahu in the upcoming elections. 

​An Israeli source who worked for the current government claimed that while Netanyahu has other candidates in mind to be the next NSA, they don’t stand a real chance. “There are a little over three months left until the elections in Israel. Stepping into such a role when you know your tenure is about to end simply makes no sense,” the source told JI. “Moreover, Netanyahu is deeply suspicious when it comes to choosing the people he lets into his inner circle.” 

​Until recently, Netanyahu could rely on his loyal confidant Ron Dermer to serve as a de facto national security advisor, even though he held the title of minister of strategic affairs. Dermer left the role this year after an exhausting stretch of public service, but Netanyahu continues to invite him to security briefings, including highly classified ones.

​While the Prime Minister’s Office promises that the vacant positions will be filled soon, Netanyahu likely won’t be looking for another trusted figure like Dermer. Instead, he will be seeking someone like the Israeli version of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, an official who can juggle multiple roles at the same time without causing the boss any political headaches.

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.

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

POLICY PRIORITIES

Rosen, Lankford introduce bill championed by Jewish leaders to address antisemitism

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.

Read the full story here.

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EIGHTH TIME’S THE CHARM

Cassidy joins Democrats in passing procedural vote aiming to restrict Trump’s war against Iran

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. 

Read the full story here.

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.

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LEAVING FINGERPRINTS

Secretive GOP-linked super PAC Lead Left boosting antisemitic Dem candidate in Texas

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.”

Read the full story here.

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.”

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MENDING FENCES

Israeli think tank warns erosion of American Jewish support could weaken U.S.-Israel alliance

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. 

Read the full story here.

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DEM DISCUSSIONS

Center-left think tank’s conference avoids the elephant in the room: Israel

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.”

Read the full story here.

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FLOURISHING FRIENDSHIPS

Iran war is leading to stronger alliance between Israel, India and the UAE, experts say

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.

Read the full story here.

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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… 

Despite being banned from campus, UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter is actively lobbying candidates to influence upcoming student government elections, Jewish Insider has learned. 

SJP contacted candidates and asked them to complete an attached questionnaire in order to secure the group’s endorsement, according to an email reviewed by JI. SJP is permitted to endorse in the race as an “external organization” since it is no longer officially recognized on campus, according to the election board’s guidelines. 

“This is more proof that the anti-Jewish movement — even when banned from our campus — continues to break the rules to intimidate their fellow UCLA students,” UCLA Hillel’s executive director, Daniel Gold, told JI. “Student government should honor premier student leaders — and should be free of any influence by those banned for bad behavior.”

A UCLA student affairs spokesperson told JI, “Students for Justice in Palestine is not recognized as an official organization at UCLA nor receives any university resources. We want to make clear that candidates for student government may choose to ignore questions as they see fit.” 

UCLA banned SJP as a campus organization indefinitely in March 2025 after the group led a demonstration outside the home of UC Regent Jay Sures, who is Jewish. SJP members left red handprints on Sures’ garage door, accusing him of having “blood on his hands” amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Last month, UCLA’s student government condemned a campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, labeling the speaker selection as “selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence” and “a troubling disregard for Palestinian life.”   

Sures, who is also vice chairman of United Talent Agency, told JI at the time that UCLA’s student government was “shortsighted, antisemitic or both,” and called its members “lunatics” for condemning Shem Tov’s speech.