Plus, a Hamas disarmament deal — with caveats
Alex Wong/Getty Images
A visitor holds an AIPAC folder in an elevator in Rayburn House Office Building on March 12, 2024 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover comments by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel that she will not attend the state Democratic convention due to fears over antisemitic harassment and report on an anti-AIPAC campaign against Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss — even though AIPAC has not endorsed him in his bid for Congress in a Detroit-area Democratic primary. We also report on President Donald Trump’s announcement that a deal has been reached for Hamas’ disarmament, and talk to analysts about Iran’s efforts to exploit Sudan’s civil war to deepen ties with Islamist factions. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Maor Shlomo, Boy George and Harriet and Mark Levin.
We also have a new on-demand Live Briefingthat you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Jewish leaders worried about Michigan’s prime position on Dems’ 2028 calendar; How Debra Band revives a dying Jewish artform; and Family, friends of slain Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner launch foundation in her memory. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Tensions are high in the Middle East going into the weekend, as Iran has continued to strike U.S. assets around the region this week and Saudi Arabia has also faced attacks by Tehran’s proxies.
- We’re keeping an eye out for word from Jerusalem on its stance on Trump’s announcement of a deal for Hamas’ “complete disarmament” announced last night, which requires complete IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. See more below.
- Amid the global developments, Trump will hold the 13th Cabinet meeting of his second administration this morning at the historic Camp David retreat in Maryland.
- The Democratic Socialists of America kicks off its three-day annual organizing conference today in Chicago. One programming track is set to focus on “anti-imperialist and pro-Palestine organizing strategy” to end the “U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine.”
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S WILL BREDDERMAN
In chatting with plugged-in Democratic strategists currently working on congressional campaigns, I was shocked — but not all that surprised — at the acceptance that the party has been all but dominated by the socialist faction, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), that has gotten more radical since his presidential campaign in 2016 and has played a key role in many Democratic primaries across the country.
Two Democratic operatives involved in Michigan and other targeted races bluntly told JI that left-wing candidates endorsed by Sanders and his band of far-left allies can now expect to win about one-third of the primary vote from the start if given the Sanders seal of approval. And far from being contained to deep-blue urban districts in New York, the trend is spreading into swing-district primaries and statewide nomination fights.
That’s certainly shaping up to be the case in Michigan’s 7th District, one of the biggest battleground districts in the country long held by now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Despite two candidates with cross-partisan credentials running — former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink — the Sanders-endorsed socialist activist William Lawrence is the front-runner, according to new polling conducted in the race.
And the socialist wave is building in statewide races in two of the biggest Midwestern battlegrounds, with Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed Francesca Hong running away with the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin’s governorship, despite her recent embrace of politically toxic views like supporting funding cuts to the police.
And as we’ve extensively covered in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed’s virulently anti-Israel and left-wing platform in the Senate race doesn’t appear to be stunting his primary campaign against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), even with popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s endorsement of Stevens.
IDENTITY POLITICS
In battle for Haley Stevens’ House seat, AIPAC dominates a race where it hasn’t even endorsed
Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss has a lot of endorsements in his campaign for Congress in a Detroit-area Democratic primary — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and several other state and local officials — but AIPAC is not one of them. That has not stopped Don Ufford, one of Moss’ opponents, from trying to tar the Jewish lawmaker as a pawn of the pro-Israel group in the final days of the race, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
You’ve got mail: A mailer that Ufford’s campaign sent to the homes of voters in the district described Moss as a “career politician who has taken thousands from AIPAC-linked donors.” A website operated by Ufford’s campaign, titled “AIPAC Jeremy Moss,” said that Moss is “for them, not for working Michiganders like you.” Moss told JI in an interview on Thursday, “The language on his mailers was very clear to say AIPAC-linked donors. One more dig deeper than that is just — it’s Jews.” Some of Moss’ donors have also supported AIPAC, but he does not think their involvement in the political system should be suspect.
SAFETY CONCERNS
Michigan AG Dana Nessel to skip Democratic convention over antisemitism fears
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat whose eight years in office will conclude at the end of December, said at an event in Lansing on Thursday that antisemitism in the state — and in the statewide Democratic Party — has gotten so bad that she will not attend the party’s nominating convention next month, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
What she said: “I don’t feel safe going,” Nessel said at the Thursday event, which was organized by the Anti-Defamation League and featured other Michigan Jews speaking about their own experiences of antisemitism. “I feel like my presence is not going to be welcomed. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. And I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen.”
ORGANIZING EFFORT
Jewish community works to turn out votes in Wesley Bell’s rematch against Cori Bush
Members of Missouri’s Jewish community are working to turn out voters in Rep. Wesley Bell’s (D-MO) St. Louis-area congressional district as he faces down a rematch with former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) on Tuesday. The Jewish Democratic Council of America has rallied its national membership, particularly in Bell’s district and the broader Midwest region, for an in-person canvassing effort as well as several phone-banking events, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Boosting Bell: “We are mobilizing our network across the Midwest to help get out the vote for Wesley Bell,” Jacob Spiegel, JDCA’s communications director, told JI. “We’re continuing to mobilize our awesome network of volunteers to get out the vote for the candidates that represent our values.”
DONE DEAL?
Trump announces deal for ‘complete disarmament’ of Hamas
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the Board of Peace had reached a “historic” agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, calling it a “monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the agreement would be “carried out carefully in structured phases,” and that the IDF would withdraw when Hamas’ disarmament is “completed.”
Briefing: Following the announcement, a senior U.S. official said in a call with reporters that the document is “an agreement by Hamas to follow through on the decommissioning” of its weapons as well as its terror tunnels. The official noted that Iran tried to “convince [Hamas] not to do this deal,” but in the end, “the final communication came through the mediators that Hamas has agreed.”
Word of warning: A senior U.S. official told reporters, “We’re not asking Israel to do anything that isn’t in the 20-point plan that they agreed to initially, and so we’re very confident they will adhere to it. If they don’t, President Trump would be very, very disappointed.”
Yes, but: A Hamas source told Reuters the “draft agreement” says heavy weapons would only be stored and kept under the control of a Palestinian administration. Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas figure, told Al Jazeera, “We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip.” Meanwhile, Reuters cited an Israeli official as having said, prior to Trump’s announcement, “Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a precondition for any process.”
POWER PLAY
Iran’s Sudan strategy raises fears of new jihadist hub
As Sudan’s devastating civil war drags through its third year, experts warn the conflict could become an arena for Iranian strategic expansion and Islamist extremism in Africa, as Tehran and the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood revive a long-standing alliance and threaten to turn the embattled nation into a staging ground for transnational jihadist operations, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Iran’s involvement: Under the cover of Sudan’s official military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), armed Islamist brigades — most notably the U.S.-sanctioned Al-Bara ibn Malik Battalion (the armed wing of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood) — have mobilized to fight alongside state forces led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Supported by funding, weaponry and training pipelines linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, these factions have effectively embedded themselves within the state apparatus, raising alarm among counterterrorism officials and regional foreign policy experts.
SURVEY SAYS
Israeli faith in Trump continues to erode, new poll shows
The share of Israelis who believe President Donald Trump is “highly committed” to protecting Israel’s security interests has dropped to a new low, according to a new survey from Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Downward trend: The organization’s July 2026 National Security Survey found that only 14% of Israelis believe the country’s security interests are a top concern for Trump, representing a significant drop from the 35% recorded in March. This continues a downward trend observed as the conflict with Iran drags on, following an Israel Democracy Institute poll released earlier this month that found just 26% of Jewish Israelis believed Israel’s security was a key consideration for Trump – another record low at the time.
Worthy Reads
El-Sayed’s Villains: The Atlantic‘s Jonathan Chait argues that far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s brand of anti-Israel rhetoric is uniquely dangerous. “But if El-Sayed’s anti-Zionism is obsessive, it is not a singular obsession. He talks about the Israel lobby the way he talks on the stump about nearly any other political issue. The El-Sayed formula is to describe just about any policy as a conspiracy by a corporate entity or wealthy cabal to enrich itself at the expense of the people. The villains in his stories are motivated by pure greed, and trade-offs do not exist. This is a rhetorical style that has long existed on the populist left. The trouble is that, when you apply it to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and especially to the question of why some Americans do not share El-Sayed’s position on it, his approach grows paranoid and menacing.” [TheAtlantic]
Take the Win: In her Substack, “Insight,” journalist Frida Ghitis posits that Iran is “overplaying its hand” by continuing to engage in hostilities against the U.S. “Instead of consolidating what it sees as a victory, Tehran continues to test Washington, seemingly inviting another round of war. It’s unclear what’s motivating Iran’s provocative actions after the U.S. had agreed to pause strikes against Iran. It may reflect overconfidence, ideological zeal, or even the belief among some regime hardliners that an apocalyptic confrontation will hasten the return of the Mahdi and usher in a global Islamic order. I’m inclined to believe the moves are not about the world to come but about the immediate future. Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) leaders not only see that they have won the first round, but they believe time is on their side because they pay close attention to Western politics and media. Another round, they may conclude, will solidify their gains.” [Substack]
The Iran Split: Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen argues that President Donald Trump’s military, intelligence and economic teams have delivered real results against Iran while the negotiated ceasefire, which he attributes to Vice President JD Vance, has trapped Trump in a repeating cycle of Iranian violations followed by U.S. strikes and renewed talks. “Case in point: Last weekend, as Trump was on the verge of ordering a resumption of major combat, he was told that the Iranians were desperate for a deal. So he paused to give peace a chance. Result? Iran fired five ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan. This cycle has repeated for months. Like Lucy and the football, Trump keeps getting told that this time the Iranians are finally ready to make a deal — only to be set up for failure yet again. Indeed, by elevating a deal as the definition of victory, Vance has given Iran a veto over America’s ability to declare victory. All it has to do is refuse to agree — which it is doing.” [WashPost]
Netanyahu v. Mamdani: In The Free Press, constitutional law professor Jed Rubenfeld lays out the legal case for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sue New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for libel. “Mamdani specifically named Netanyahu and explicitly accused him of heinous crimes, including genocide and the maiming of children. As a result, while Netanyahu v. Mamdani would be an uphill battle, it could be won. … There is, however, an important limit on this immunity. It applies to Mamdani only if his statement concerned matters ‘within the ambit of [his] duties.’ There’s a strong argument that foreign policy is no part of the duties of a mayor. Indeed, despite Mamdani’s personal desire to arrest Netanyahu, the mayor himself has now admitted he has no legal authority to do so. It seems plausible, therefore, that Mamdani strayed far outside the ambit of his official duties in his attack on Netanyahu. If so, he forfeited New York’s absolute immunity.” [FP]
Word on the Street
The IDF carried out a “massive operation” on Thursday evening using approximately 700 tons of explosives to blow up a tunnel system in southern Lebanon that was “a central part of the Hezbollah terror organization’s invasion plan” into northern Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said…
The American Association of University Professors issued its first-ever political endorsement in its 110-year history on Thursday, backing far-left Abdul El-Sayed ahead of next week’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan. The professional organization has repeatedly faced criticism from Jewish groups and faculty members for straying from its mission by engaging in anti-Israel advocacy…
Columbia University’s student workers’ union dropped its demand that the university divest from Israel during a bargaining session on Tuesday, the Columbia Spectator reports, in a reversal of the union’s pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions advocacy…
Columbia will open a global center in Tel Aviv later this summer, reviving a plan first floated in April 2023 that drew faculty petitions and student protests…
A fire at the AgriStar meat and poultry plant in Postville, Iowa, one of the largest kosher meat processing plants in the country, “means a significant portion of kosher beef and chicken … will not enter the kosher supply chain,” Rabbi Moshe Elefant, the CEO of OU Kosher, said in a statement. Elefant warned that kosher consumers “will feel the impact of the tightening supply with reduction of availability”…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) argued on Thursday that, without regime change in Iran, the U.S. will likely need to continue to conduct periodic military operations against Iran’s nuclear program to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The Senate narrowly blocked another push by Democrats to force an end to the Iran war, 50-49, with the vote falling along now-predictable lines. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rand Paul (R-KY) broke with their party to vote for the resolution with most Democrats, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted against it…
The Iran-backed Houthi terror group, based in Yemen, reportedly attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory, potentially with the assistance of militias in the country working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in an indication of the growing coordination between Tehran’s proxies…
Facing renewed attacks by both Iran and the Houthis, Saudi Arabia hosted dozens of global military officials, including from the U.S., for a meeting on Thursday to establish a maritime defense alliance, the Saudi Defense Ministry said. Thirteen countries joined Riyadh in signing a statement of support for the effort: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia…
Meanwhile, Yemeni sources told The Guardian they believe Saudi Arabia is gearing up for a major military offensive against the Houthis in Yemen — by sea and possibly also by land — aimed at breaking the group’s grip on oil exports through the southern Red Sea…
Iranian hackers may have been behind a cyberattack on dozens of municipal water systems this week in Minnesota, state and federal officials told The New York Times…
The Treasury Department sanctioned Iranian airline Mahan Air, calling it the IRGC’s “airline of choice for moving weapons, military personnel, and equipment,” as well as an IRGC-affiliated front company that has sought the locations of American and Israeli equipment in the region…
A group of Democratic House and Senate lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announcing they are opening an investigation into the deaths of six U.S. service members in Kuwait, who were killed in an Iranian drone strike earlier this year, to determine whether the troops were adequately protected during the war…
The Wall Street Journal reports on how the Iran war has impacted the U.S.-Kuwait relationship and caused the U.S. to reconsider the scale of its military presence in the Gulf country…
Egypt confirmed that an explosion at a port on its Mediterranean coast on Wednesday, which set fire to two ships, including a U.S. gas-storage tanker, was caused by a drone attack. Egypt reportedly attributed the attack, which was not claimed by any country or group, to Iran. It marks the first time the country has been targeted during the war with Iran…
The U.S. has informed Israel that it is deploying additional military refueling aircraft to the country, amid growing concerns over a security escalation in the region, raising fears of major disruptions at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s N12 news site reports…
Elon Musk has authorized his super PAC, called America PAC, to spend more than $100 million to help Republicans in eight states in the midterm elections, The New York Times reports, including key Senate battleground races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Ohio…
The Hackney Council in the U.K. gave initial approval to begin ending the city’s 58-year partnership with its sister city Haifa…
British singer Boy George withdrew from a West End production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” in which he had been set to play Herod, following the release of his pro-Israel song “We Will Dance Again.” Without directly mentioning the song, which drew backlash, Boy George’s manager said: “In this instance, I felt it was right [for Boy George] to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill”…
Base44 founder Maor Shlomo launched a cancer research fund and has already backed seven treatment startups after losing his mother to the disease…
Wine of the Week
JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the La Forêt Blanche Ariel Red 2021:
This week I had the honor of attending a dinner held in tribute to the memory of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Every guest at the table was a devoted friend of the senator, who was a steadfast friend of Israel, and the evening carried the quiet weight of remembrance and gratitude in equal measure. I wanted to pour something bold and unflinching, a wine in the senator’s own spirit, drawn from a corner of Israel he loved. The La Forêt Blanche Ariel Red 2021, its grapes raised in the storied heights of Mount Hebron in the Judean Hills, was the perfect answer.
The Ariel Red is 85% petit verdot and 15% syrah. The first sip delivers the firm grip one hopes for from a petit verdot of the Judean Hills: assertive, unapologetic, rooted in the soil that made it. The mid-palate softens, and the finish arrives with an elegance earned over 18 months in French and American oak. This is a wine that will only deepen over the next five years. Serve it beside a well-marbled rib steak hot off the fire, and raise your glass in a toast to the memory of the great senator from the great state of South Carolina.
Pic of the Day
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spoke yesterday evening to Harriet and Mark Levin — the parents of U.S.-born IDF “lone soldier” Michael Levin, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War on Aug. 1, 2006 — at the 20th memorial ceremony for Levin alongside his grave on Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Judah Ari Gross reports.
During the ceremony, Huckabee praised Levin for his sacrifice and “giving his life, not just for Israel, but … for America as well.” Huckabee also hailed Levin’s parents, whom he said took their grief and channeled it into building a network of organizations to support “lone soldiers,” service members without families who care for them in Israel.
“They could have taken their grief and buried it in their souls and lived the rest of their lives in anguish and even bitterness. But they didn’t do that,” Huckabee said. “They took their love for Michael and the grief, and they did something that has now benefited thousands upon thousands of lone soldiers who have served and have had support that Michael never had. … I cannot help but think that, in so many ways, nothing could have been done more powerfully for Michael’s memory, for his sacrifice, than what his parents have done in their sacrifice to honor their son.”
Birthdays
CEO of Goliath Records and former CEO and chairman of Def Jam Recordings, best known as the manager of Eminem, Paul D. Rosenberg turns 55 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: British judge and barrister, he served as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and later as Master of the Rolls, John Anthony Dyson turns 83… Actor, who went on to become CEO of Paramount Pictures and president of production at 20th Century Fox, Sherry Lansing turns 82… Nobel laureate in economics in 1997, known for his quantitative analysis of options pricing, longtime professor at both Harvard and MIT, Robert C. Merton turns 82… Scholar, professor, rabbi, writer and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust, Michael Berenbaum turns 81… Co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, in 2015 he bought a 16th-century copy of the Babylonian Talmud for $9.3 million, Leon David Black turns 75… Software entrepreneur, he was president of Ameinu, which merged with Americans for Peace Now in 2024 to form New Jewish Narrative, and serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, Kenneth Bob… Author of more than 30 best-selling mystery novels, many with Jewish themes, Faye Kellerman turns 74… Manhattan-based criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, radio talk show host and television commentator, Ronald L. Kuby turns 70… Chairman at Haifa-based Twin Digital Healthcare, Guido Benjamin Pardo-Roques turns 70… Owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks until its partial sale to Miriam Adelson in 2023, he was a “shark” investor on the ABC reality program Shark Tank from 2011 until May 2025, Mark Cuban turns 68… Israeli attorney, real estate developer and entrepreneur, Ilan Shavit turns 68… COO at Leenie Productions, she serves on the board of directors of the Northbrook, Ill.-based Haym Salomon Center, Helene Miller-Walsh turns 67… Technology investor and social entrepreneur, he is the founder and chairman of Tmura, Yadin B. Kaufmann turns 67… Israeli libertarian politician and activist, he was previously a member of the Knesset, Moshe Zalman Feiglin turns 64… Adjunct professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine, he was previously the director of the Los Angeles office of the American Jewish Committee, Dan Schnur… Born into a practicing Catholic family in Nazareth, Israel, billionaire investor and owner of the Detroit Pistons, Tom Gores turns 62… General manager of MLB’s Miami Marlins, he was an MLB outfielder for 13 seasons, Gabe Kapler turns 51… Author, actor and comedian, Benjamin Joseph (BJ) Novak turns 47… Founder and CEO at Wide Eye Creative, Ben Ostrower… The representative of the World Zionist Organization Executive in North America, Michal Slawny Cababia… Political activist and the founder and president of Stand Up America, a progressive advocacy community, Sean Simcha Eldridge turns 40… Head of global communications, social and film at Zipline, Danielle Meister Lurie… Technical Account Manager at CREW, Aryeh Samet Canter… Adam Rosenberg… David Goldenberg… Richard Rosenstein…
SATURDAY: Culver City, Calif., resident, Allene Prince… Formerly CEO of multibillion-dollar travel and hotel franchisor Cendant Corporation, then CEO of 54 Madison Partners, Henry R. Silverman turns 86… Founder and principal of NYC-based Midtown Equities, a major developer of nationwide real estate projects, Joseph Cayre turns 85… U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York, now on senior status, Judge Jed S. Rakoff turns 83… Former president of Brandeis University, now president and CEO of the Cleveland-based Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, Jehuda Reinharz turns 82… British businessman, he has been described as “the father of British venture capital,” Sir Ronald Mourad Cohen turns 81… Israeli-born businessman and film producer, later CEO of Marvel Studios, he won the 2019 Academy Award for best animated feature, Avi Arad turns 78… Second-generation owner of a Los Angeles flooring business, Eric Kalman Biren… Immediate past president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Rhoda Smolow… Founder and president of Greystone Hotels, the IHA Group and Markev Realty Corporation, Eric Horodas 73… Media analyst and former host of “MediaBuzz” at Fox News, now a Fox News contributor, Howard Kurtz turns 73… Director of New York government relations at Agudath Israel of America, Yeruchim Silber… U.S. career diplomat who served as ambassador to South Korea during the Biden administration, Philip Seth Goldberg turns 70… United States secretary of the interior, Douglas James Burgum turns 70… Attorney, political strategist and former president of the American Jewish Congress, Richard Scott Gordon… Former CEO of Atlanta’s Jewish Family & Career Services, where she served for six years, she served for 11 years in the Minnesota state Senate, Terri E. Bonoff turns 69… Professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Rachel Yehuda, Ph.D. turns 67… Policy director in the D.C. office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Andrew C. (“Drew”) Littman… Former senior rabbi of the British movement for Reform Judaism, now a rabbi at London’s Bromley Reform Synagogue, Laura Naomi Janner-Klausner turns 63… U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Daniel B. “Dan” Shapiro turns 57… Producer for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Shachar Bar-On… Professor of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton and at Hebrew U, he was the winner of the 2010 Fields Medal, Elon Lindenstrauss turns 56… CEO of NYC’s Quantum Media Group, he is a HAFTR and YU graduate, Ari Zoldan… Israeli film director, writer and producer, Asaf Epstein turns 48… Venture partner in Leap Forward Ventures, she is also chief marketing and revenue officer at Blue Flame, Jessica Alter… Founder and CEO of Moishe House (now known as Mem Global), David Cygielman… Chief Jewish life officer at the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Sheila Katz … Chief community relations officer at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Noam Gilboord… SVP of communications at Burford Capital, David Helfenbein… Board-certified family physician, Mor Toledano Shapiro, M.D…. CEO of PeaceWorks Foundation Roey Kruvi… Cross-country skier who competed for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in 2014 (Sochi) and 2018 (Pyeongchang), now serving as an assistant attorney general fellow in the Consumer Protection section of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Noah Hoffman turns 37… Client relations specialist at Pacific Libra Insurance Agency, Yael Rabin… Television, stage and film actor, Benjamin “Ben” Rosenfield turns 34…
SUNDAY: Co-founder and chairman of NYC-based real estate development firm, Rockrose Development Corporation, Henry Elghanayan turns 86… Professor emeritus of Bible at London’s Leo Baeck College, Jonathan David Magonet turns 84… Former member of Knesset for 28 years, he then served as chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems until 2023, Uzi Landau turns 83… Retired colonel in the U.S. Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor and seven other medals, he serves as a military analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, Jack H. Jacobs turns 81… Longtime librarian, Irene Seff… Nationally syndicated radio talk show host, author and public speaker, Dennis Prager turns 78… Former ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations, Robert Keith Rae turns 78… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, he is international writer-at-large for The New York Times, Roger Cohen turns 71… U.S. senator from Nevada, Jacklyn Sheryl “Jacky” Rosen turns 69… Psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and brain researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yoram Yovell turns 68… Strategic advisor at Breaking Through, Inc., Amy Aronoff Blumkin… Mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., for eight years until 2022, now executive vice president and principal of the U.S. Cities Practice at Shumaker Advisors, Richard David “Rick” Kriseman turns 64… Owner of Newton, Mass.-based MPG Promotions, Elliot Mael… Senior vice president of operations and general counsel of Yeshiva University, Andrew J. “Avi” Lauer… Professional tennis player, who was once ranked No. 6 in the world, now the director of tennis at St. Andrews country club in Boca Raton, Fla., Aaron Krickstein turns 59… Former member of the Knesset, first for the Labor party and then the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Leon Litinetsky turns 59… Senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Steven A. Cook turns 58… EVP for Hearst Television and past chair of the NBC Television Affiliate Board, Eric J. Meyrowitz… Senior director for global trade and public affairs at confectionery, food and pet care firm, Mars Inc., Jay Eizenstat… Professional golfer, he won a PGA tournament in both 2003 and 2004, Jonathan Andrew Kaye turns 56… Pulitzer Prize-winning, D.C.-based national security reporter for The New York Times for 13 years until 2024, now doing investment research, Matthew Rosenberg turns 52… Senior executive communications lead at Adobe, Stephen L. Rabin… Labor law attorney in the Nashville, Tenn., office of Holland & Knight, he served on the national board of JFNA, Aron Zwi Karabel… Program director at the Jewish Fertility Foundation, Tamar Poupko Smith… CEO of Make It Real, he is also the co-founder and chair of The Jewish Entrepreneur (a mentoring program), Isaac William “Zevy” Wolman… Director of philanthropy (Israel) at The Paul E. Singer Foundation, Julia Nayfeld Schulman… Vice president of the United States, James David (JD) Vance turns 42… Actor best known for her 1999 “Pepsi Girl” role as a 7-year-old, and later for subsequent teen roles, Hallie Kate Eisenberg turns 34… Baseball pitcher, he played for Team Israel in 2017 and now manages a baseball training facility for young players in Philadelphia, Kenny Koplove turns 33… CEO of Petra Power in Solon, Ohio, Aaron Goodman turns 32…
Plus, 2025 NSGP grants come in low and slow
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on new allegations of an antisemitic culture at the Heritage Foundation and cover New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s response to questions over the absence of Jews from his Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. We report on a conversation between Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a close associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah, during Tuesday’s funeral service in Washington for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and spotlight an announcement by the rabbinic arm of the Conservative movement to further welcome interfaith families. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Roger Wicker, Adm. Brad Cooper and Erica Schwartz.
We also have a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- CENTCOM said it conducted a “heavy wave of strikes” against Iran on Wednesday night, as a “powerful response” to Tehran’s attempted attacks on U.S. forces on Tuesday. The military said it struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites and maritime capabilities.
- Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump had warned that the U.S. would “beat the f**king sh*t out of” Iran following the attempted attack by the IRGC, even as he signaled a willingness to keep diplomatic channels open. “We’ll be hitting them hard,” Trump told Fox News’ Trey Yingst. “They’re going to get a beating.”
- The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote this morning on a war powers resolution seeking to end those U.S. operations in Iran, after it was postponed yesterday.
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to be CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
- This morning, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is speaking at the Hudson Institute for a conversation on global threats.
- In the afternoon, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is co-hosting an antisemitism roundtable with the Anti-Defamation League to hear from Jewish community leaders about recent antisemitic incidents in the state.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S WILL BREDDERMAN
The morning after a double hate crime targeted an Asian American and a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke in Manhattan, during which the attacker allegedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” and “Justice for Islam” while passing a synagogue and stabbing the second victim, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine offered what may prove a eulogy for a political era in America’s greatest metropolis.
“There is no New York without us,” the Jewish Democrat said at a press conference outside The Jewish Center, the Modern Orthodox synagogue where the Jewish victim worshipped, invoking the deep history and contributions of Jews to the Big Apple.
But Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the lone citywide official not to attend the gathering, seems to wager that he can govern New York City without much support from the dense web of religious and civic organizations that historically shaped Jewish life there and helped guide the choices of his predecessors. Mamdani received only about one-third of the Jewish vote in the mayoral election, but little support from legacy Jewish groups.
One need only look to the state Assembly district covering the site of the assault to see how Mamdani is at odds with the mainstream Jewish leadership. As mayor, he endorsed an opponent of Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay, the favorite of local Jewish Democratic leadership, as she sought the seat in June. The rabbi serves as associate dean of Jewish Theological Seminary, and is the daughter-in-law of retired longtime UJA-Federation of New York CEO John Ruskay. In doing so, Mamdani even spurned one of his most vocal Jewish supporters, former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, long a standard-bearer of a Jewish liberalism rooted in communal institutions.
LOSING YOUR HERITAGE
Heritage Foundation under fire over new allegations of antisemitic culture
Nine months after the Heritage Foundation came under fire for defending Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with a neo-Nazi, the conservative think tank is facing fresh scrutiny over accusations that it has enabled an extreme culture in which new hires feel free to question the Holocaust and to engage in historically revisionist debates about World War II, with no apparent internal policing from leadership, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Internet influence: Andrew Hale, a trade policy analyst at Heritage who left in January to join a rival think tank launched by former Vice President Mike Pence, recalled that prior to departing he had found new hires were fixated on antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Holocaust and Israel of the sort popularized by Nick Fuentes, Carlson and Candace Owens, the extreme-right podcast host. Hale confirmed to JI in an interview on Wednesday that new, particularly younger, staffers at Heritage “openly said things which were antisemitic, whether they realized it or not,” crediting their views to an obsession with far-right social media channels.
HOT SEAT
Mamdani says exclusion of Jews from judiciary panel was not deliberate
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani continued to face questions on Wednesday about how he managed to appoint a panel of attorneys to recommend city judges that did not include a single Jewish member. The absence of any Jewish representation on the Advisory Committee on the Judiciary came despite a vow from the mayor’s chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, that the panel was “truly representative cross-section of the legal profession in New York City,” Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
What he said: The mayor, at an unrelated event on Wednesday, maintained he had not inquired about nominees’ religious affiliations. “Any suggestion that there would be any decision made or motivated by religion, it does bother me,” Mamdani told reporters. “Any suggestion that the composition of the advisory committee was motivated by religion is false.”
RIYADH X REZA
Top Saudi official greets Reza Pahlavi at Lindsey Graham’s funeral
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the powerful head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and a close associate of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was seen greeting and conversing with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah, during Tuesday’s funeral service in Washington for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Zoom in: In video footage first published Tuesday by the Christian Broadcasting Network, the two men shared an embrace and spoke briefly during the service. The interaction marked a rare public exchange between a top Saudi official and one of the most prominent Iranian opposition figures. Al-Rumayyan holds several key leadership roles across Saudi state interests, including as governor of the Saudi Public Investment fund and chair of oil giant Saudi Aramco, English football club Newcastle United and Riyadh Air.
SECURITY CONCERN
FEMA approves only 27% of 2025 Nonprofit Security Grant applications
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced on Wednesday that 1,600 out of 6,000 applications received for the long-delayed 2025 Nonprofit Security Grant Program cycle were approved, meaning that less than 27% of organizations that applied received any funding — a significant dip from previous years, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Details: The grants were approved nearly a year after applications opened for the 2025 cycle on Aug. 13, 2025, and after applications for 2026 NSGP funding were already due last week. FEMA indicated that state agencies responsible for administering the grants on the state level and repeated Department of Homeland Security shutdowns relating to immigration enforcement disputes were responsible for the delays.
DEFENSE DOLLARS
Senate Republicans say more defense money needed in House-passed reconciliation bill
Senate Republicans said this week that a House-passed budget reconciliation bill does not contain enough defense-related funding and that they want to significantly increase it, setting up a clash between GOP lawmakers in the two chambers, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told JI, “I’d rather it be much bigger.” The bill passed by House Republicans includes $73 billion in defense-related funding, designed to largely cover the administration’s $87.6 billion supplemental funding request for the Iran war. But the administration has said it needs an additional $350 billion, separate from the Iran war funding, to help bring to fruition the $1.5 trillion defense budget it envisions for 2027.
Scoop: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Ronny Jackson (R-TX) are set to introduce legislation on Friday to investigate whether the Iran-linked Polisario Front, a paramilitary group that claims sovereignty over parts of the Western Sahara, can be designated as a terrorist organization.
RABBINIC RULINGS
Conservative rabbis further welcome interfaith families — but keep weddings off the table
Eight months after the Conservative movement apologized to interfaith couples for treating them as if their relationships were a threat to Jewish survival, the rabbinic arm of the movement announced a new set of Jewish legal rulings to provide concrete ways congregations and rabbis can better welcome interfaith families. But the new reforms stop short of allowing Conservative rabbis to officiate at interfaith weddings, eJewish Philanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports.
Majority vote: The announcement came in the form of a publication titled, “Gateways Into Jewish Living: Guiding the Conservative/Masorti Rabbi in Supporting Families with Non-Jewish Loved Ones,” authored by the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. The nine rulings were voted on by 23 rabbis from the committee, with most passing by a wide margin. The most contentious issue — passed with 14 votes in favor, five against and four abstentions — dealt with offering a Hanukkat Habayit, a dedication of the Jewish home, for interfaith families who are building an “exclusively” Jewish home.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
Who Fills the Void? The Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim examines the scramble to succeed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), weighing the candidacy of former Gov. Mark Sanford against Graham’s own sister, Darline, drafted into the race by a Trump endorsement she didn’t seek. “Lindsey Graham and Mark Sanford were once close; so much so that Mr. and Mrs. Sanford, as they then were, named Graham godfather to their youngest son. Still I strongly suspect Mr. Sanford, a quasi-libertarian at heart, would view the hawkish policies advocated by Graham in narrowly fiscal terms and deem them too expensive … Will Ms. Graham carry on her brother’s ‘legacy,’ as her campaign literature claims? The task of replacing the ubiquitous Lindsey Graham seems undoable, but his sister signals the right attitude.” [WSJ]
Why Now? In his Substack, “It’s Noon in Israel,” Amit Segal explores the reasoning behind Iran’s renewed attacks on the U.S. “The logic is simple. Both sides are running out of time, but on different clocks. Iran’s runs on resources; [President Donald] Trump’s — whatever the reports of munitions shortages suggest — runs on patience. Iran can afford to lose resources if the spending drains Trump’s patience faster. Quiet slows his clock. Silence is Iran’s worst enemy. That is also why [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is not pushing for another military campaign. Such a campaign would drain Trump completely — and if the regime survived, as it is certain it would, then even amid the rubble it would have won. Iran thinks it can out-stubborn Trump. Netanyahu is working around that bet rather than trying the strategy himself.” [Substack]
Friends and Foes: In The Free Press, Elliott Abrams, the former diplomat who now serves as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington this week as the two allies bearing the heaviest burden for U.S. interests — yet still uncertain whether President Donald Trump will fully commit to backing them. “The issue this week is not so much the personal relationships, though those matter far more than they should to Trump. Instead, the issue is how Trump sees friends, partners, allies, and democracies, versus opponents and enemies. Trump continues to treat Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping with remarkable deference and respect despite the direct threats they pose to U.S. interests. There’s every reason to believe that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence helping it hit U.S. bases in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the U.S. is pampering an ally with far less skin in the game than Israel and Ukraine. Last week, the Trump administration announced its acceptance of a nuclear energy deal that will allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium, without subjecting it to inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency.” [FP]
Word on the Street
In an interview with ABC News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he discussed with President Donald Trump various options to proceed with handling the conflict with Iran, but ultimately, “It’s his decision.” Netanyahu said, “The truth is, we’re partners. We’re allies. He’s the senior partner. It’s the United States of America, let’s not forget. And I’m a junior partner. But I’m the prime minister of Israel, and when I have to stand up for the interest of my country and the security of my country, I do so”…
Addressing Vice President JD Vance’s comments to podcaster Joe Rogan this month that American politics are being swayed by Israeli “influence campaigns,” Netanyahu said he “had a very good conversation with the vice president this morning, and I think we straightened that out because we’re not. That’s not our policy”…
Netanyahu also met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at Blair House on Wednesday morning. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Israeli National Security Advisor Shmuel Ben Ezra participated in the meeting, along with Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, and Sean Parnell, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs…
The late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) worked privately with Netanyahu just before the 2024 election to organize a bipartisan group of senators to denounce the International Criminal Court‘s investigation of the Israeli leader — coordination captured in footage from filmmaker Alex Holder, in which Graham joked he should be paid “tons of shekels” for his help…
Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman traveled to Washington and met with Trump and Vance at the White House on Wednesday, according to Axios, where Prince Khalid told them that, despite Riyadh having engaged in joint strikes with the U.S. on Iranian proxies, the kingdom still wants to see hostilities with Iran de-escalate…
CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper has prepared a two-week intensive bombing campaign against Iran as an option for Trump to consider, The Wall Street Journal reports, outlining a strategy to cripple Tehran’s missile capabilities in order to reduce the strain on U.S. defensive munitions…
The Treasury Department sanctioned the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, which are backed by the IRGC, for running “insurance” schemes in the Strait of Hormuz, whereby the terror group creates threats to commercial shipping and then charges vessels for insurance coverage…
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met on Wednesday in Ankara with new Hamas head Khalil Al-Hayya…
A Brooklyn federal judge sentenced Dan Sohail to serve six months in jail and pay $19,000 in restitution for ramming his car into Chabad’s world headquarters in Brooklyn in January…
The New York Times profiles Reihan Salam, the conservative Manhattan Institute president working to make the think tank the “intellectual engine of the resistance” to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani…
The New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast on Wednesday spotlighted AIPAC and the role it is now playing in U.S. politics, describing it as a once-bipartisan organization that has now become partisan and a polarizing force in the Democratic Party. During the conversation, among other statements that drew the ire of AIPAC, guest Jonathan Mahler said the advocacy group’s actions “have provided an opening, honestly, for bad actors, but in particular, in a sort of worrying sense for people who are not just criticizing Israel but who are criticizing Jews and Jewish influence”…
In an X thread responding to several of the accusations made against it during the podcast, AIPAC said, “This is an outrageous accusation. Suggesting that politically active pro-Israel American citizens are to blame for antisemitism is shameful. Antisemites are responsible for the rise in antisemitism”…
The Associated Press spotlights a fringe group of Israeli settlers, the Pioneers of Bashan, who have repeatedly breached the border with Syria, with the ultimate goal of establishing Jewish settlements inside the country — despite condemnation from the IDF…
Opposition lawmakers in Israel filibustered an 11-hour Knesset Finance Committee session yesterday to block NIS 392 million ($127 million) for Haredi education and West Bank settlements…
The Forward tells the story of Nik Jakobs and his family — namely his grandmother, Edith, who was hidden by the entire Dutch town of Stadskanaal to survive the Holocaust, a story which the town recently restaged as a play — as Jakobs is now building a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield from the salvaged remnants of shuttered American shuls…
Jewish summer campers who were headed home to Baltimore during Tuesday night’s storms hauled a fallen tree off a Washington road, clearing the way for a blocked ambulance…
The Associated Press examines the growing far-left media ecosystem, including Drop Site News and Hasan Piker’s stream, that has helped to boost a range of progressive candidates during this primary cycle…
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) declined to answer questions from a Drop Site News reporter, responding, “Oh, you’re Drop Site! It’s like a race between who’s the more pro-Hamas: Drop Site or Zeteo?” Fetterman went on to reiterate his support for Israel and said he wanted Drop Site viewers to know “how much I love to watch Israel eliminating the Hamas leadership”…
A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 3 in 4 Democrats would consider backing a socialist for president, but only 39% of overall respondents would do the same…
Boston University’s Conference on the Jewish Left has rescinded its invitation to Curt Mills, editor of The American Conservative magazine and a prominent voice in MAGA’s anti-Israel wing, after backlash over his inclusion in the March 2027 program, reports Jewish Currents, a magazine associated with the anti-Zionist Jewish left…
CBS News announced that Wall Street Journal correspondent Dov Lieber will join its team in September as a senior reporter based in Israel…
The American Jewish Committee named Andrew Gross, who was previously director of international innovation and partnerships at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, as director of its New York regional office…
Frances “Fran” Belzberg, a Vancouver philanthropist and Order of Canada recipient whose family founded Israel’s OneFamily terror-victims organization, died last Shabbat at 99…
Pic of the Day
Erica Schwartz, founder of The Well, a new Jewish dating app, mingled with prospective users at the app’s launch event on Tuesday in Manhattan. The Well — named for the biblical story of Eliezer finding Isaac’s wife, Rebecca — is slated to launch in the coming weeks. The app matches Jewish day school alumni using AI and matchmakers, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Birthdays
Commissioner emeritus of Major League Baseball, his 2019 memoir is For the Good of the Game, Allan Huber “Bud” Selig turns 92…
Retired attorney from the firm of Hatton, Petrie & Stackler in Aliso Viejo, Calif., Ronald E. Stackler turns 89… The first woman justice on the Nebraska Supreme Court, as a teen she won two gold medals and a silver medal as a swimmer at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman turns 79… Actor, director and producer, Ken Olin turns 72… Philanthropist and investor, of Uzbek Bukhari background, known as the “King of Diamonds,” Lev Leviev turns 70… Sports executive, attorney and president of Paris Basketball, David Kahn turns 65… Former mayor of Arad and then a member of the Knesset for the Kulanu and Likud parties, Tali Ploskov turns 64… President of C&M Transcontinental, he served as COO for the first two Trump campaigns, Michael S. Glassner turns 63… Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian and producer, Lisa Kudrow turns 63… Head coach of men’s tennis and director of tennis operations at Columbia University, Howard Endelman turns 61… Best-selling nonfiction author, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines, he is a co-creator of the HBO series “Vinyl,” Rich Cohen turns 58… District chief of staff for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Robert M. Gottheim turns 55… Assistant attorney general for antitrust at the DOJ during most of the Biden administration, Jonathan Seth Kanter turns 53… Motivational speaker, author and entrepreneur, he served as a law clerk in 2008 for Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg, the first blind person to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court, Isaac Lidsky turns 47… President of MS NOW, Rebecca M. Kutler… Member of the Knesset for the Otzma Yehudit party, Limor Son Har-Melech turns 47… Senior producer at Vox and host and producer of the podcast of the Association for Jewish Studies, Avishay Artsy… President and founder in 2014 of Dallas-based ECA Strategies, Eric Chaim Axel… Pittsburgh-based therapist, Lewis Sohinki… Author of Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered: One Woman’s Year in the Heart of the Christian, Muslim, Armenian and Jewish Quarters of Old Jerusalem, Sarah Tuttle-Singer turns 45… Former director of policy and public affairs for the Jewish Community of Denmark, now in the renewable energy and offshore wind industry, Jonas Herzberg Karpantschof… Attorney and member of the Los Angeles County GOP Central Committee for Assembly District 42, which includes Pacific Palisades, Elizabeth Barcohana turns 43… Former head of digital operations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Tamar Schwarzbard… Managing principal of West Egg Development, a New York-based real estate development firm, Samuel Ezra Eshaghoff turns 34… Former trade officer at Israel’s economic mission to the South and Midwest U.S., Joshua Weintraub… Winner of the Miss Israel pageant in 2014, she is now an international businesswoman, Mor Maman turns 31… Actor, as a 10-year-old she starred in the comedy film “Ramona and Beezus,” and since then in many movies and television shows, Joey Lynn King turns 27…
A former trade policy analyst at the conservative think tank said that many new hires were fixated on conspiracy theories about the Holocaust
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Nine months after the Heritage Foundation came under fire for defending Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with a neo-Nazi, the conservative think tank is facing fresh scrutiny over accusations that it has enabled an extreme culture in which new hires feel free to question the Holocaust and to engage in historically revisionist debates about World War II, with no apparent internal policing from leadership.
Former Heritage employees, who had been part of a mass staff exodus stoked by its president’s refusal to disavow Carlson for hosting the neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on his podcast last October, told The New York Times Magazine in a newly published investigation that they encountered troubling debates during their time at the organization over issues like “whether the Holocaust happened or not” and “who was the bad guy and who were the good guys” in the war against Hitler.
Andrew Hale, a trade policy analyst at Heritage who left in January to join a rival think tank launched by former Vice President Mike Pence, recalled that prior to departing he had found new hires were fixated on antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Holocaust and Israel of the sort popularized by Fuentes, Carlson and Candace Owens, the extreme-right podcast host.
Hale confirmed to Jewish Insider in an interview on Wednesday that new, particularly younger, staffers at Heritage “openly said things which were antisemitic, whether they realized it or not,” crediting their views to an obsession with far-right social media channels.
“The Heritage Foundation had an opportunity to combat antisemitism and misogyny but instead they chose to hire people with these views,” Hale argued, while claiming that the think tank’s “original goals have been subverted under the current leadership” and is now “a force for antisemitism and misogyny.”
Brian Phillips, a Heritage spokesperson, called Hale’s claim about the Holocaust debate “absurd” but did not address related allegations from former staffers, whom the think tank sought to discredit as “self-serving, bitter and vindictive” in a statement to the Times Magazine.
“There is no debate at the Heritage Foundation whether the Holocaust happened and our record opposing antisemitism is long, consistent and public,” he said in a brief email statement to JI, sharing a link to a page on Heritage’s website detailing such efforts.
The foundation, which had long been influential to Republican administrations, has found itself on the defensive after its president, Kevin Roberts, posted a controversial video to social media last fall in which he dismissed Carlson’s critics as part of a “venomous coalition,” among other terms widely interpreted as antisemitic tropes.
“Heritage is catering to a conspiratorial streak popular with Gen Z Republicans, perhaps out of the belief that it’s the future of the party,” Daniel Samet, a fellow with the conservative American Enterprise Institute who focuses on U.S.-Israel relations and Middle East policy, told JI. “It’s one thing to have serious heterodox views. It’s another to spew dreck about Jews. Heritage is failing to draw a line in the sand.”
Among those who left the organization over their discomfort with Roberts’ decision and handling of the fallout were the leaders of an antisemitism task force that opted to sever ties with the think tank last November, even as they voiced hope to “collaborate” again.
Late last month, Luke Moon, a conservative Christian activist and co-chair of the task force, returned to Heritage as a part-time visiting fellow to support its “efforts to combat antisemitism,” the organization said in a statement.
Moon has said he chose to join the organization after Yoram Hazony, an Israeli American political theorist and national conservative leader who has denounced Carlson as antisemitic, became a member of its board in May.
But Moon said on Wednesday his recent experience had been “the opposite” of the internal culture that former staffers had described to The Times. “They’re almost a little overzealous to have me there,” he told JI. “There’s a real frustration in the reputation being tarnished.”
Still, others who left the think tank said that they remained unconvinced Roberts had meaningfully reckoned with his remarks. Yaakov Menken, the executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values who resigned from the antisemitism task force last year, said that Roberts had not distanced himself from the rhetoric he used in his defense of Carlson.
“Anyone who thinks I belong to a ‘venomous coalition’ either doesn’t understand antisemitism or is a part of spreading it,” Menken told JI. “Heritage cannot combat antisemitism and endorse it at the same time.”
Josh Blackman, a legal scholar who also resigned from Heritage last year, said he had “not seen any public or private action taken by” the think tank “to adequately address” concerns over antisemitism that precipitated departures. “Until changes are made, I’m not sure how Heritage can be seen as a credible partner in the fight against antisemitism,” he told JI.
While Moon acknowledged that there were “certainly” issues at Heritage last fall, he said the think tank no longer employed problematic staffers like the former chief of staff who had written Roberts’ scripted comments about Carlson.
“There’s an explicit and very clear expectation on me to take on antisemitism on the right,” he said, adding that Heritage had also hired a researcher to help him with such work. “They’ve been very clear to me where they stand on antisemitism.”
Luke Moon said he returned to Heritage to fight antisemitism from within, calling himself as ‘part of [the] change’ skeptics have been waiting for
Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for End Jew Hatred / The Lawfare Project
Luke Moon speaks onstage during the Allied to Fight Extremism panel at Unite Against Extremism on April 29, 2026 in New York City.
Luke Moon, a conservative Christian activist who has emerged in recent months as an outspoken critic of antisemitism on the right, has joined the Heritage Foundation as a part-time visiting fellow supporting the think tank’s work to combat antisemitism.
Moon, who recently founded an organization called Gen Zion to build ties between Christians and Jews in support of Israel, once worked closely with Heritage on antisemitism-related issues. He helped draft a 2024 report called Project Esther, which outlined a conservative framework for fighting antisemitism.
But he publicly disaffiliated from the prominent conservative institution in November after its president, Kevin Roberts, released a controversial video defending Tucker Carlson following the podcast host’s friendly interview with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
At the time, Moon was one of four co-chairs of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which had been responsible for the Project Esther strategy. One of the co-chairs — Victoria Coates, a former national security official in President Donald Trump’s first term — remained at Heritage, where she has served as vice president of its national security institute since 2023.
It was Coates who announced Moon’s hiring on Monday.
“It’s an honor to have [Moon] join Heritage’s efforts to combat antisemitism and support the Jewish people in the United States across the political spectrum,” Coates said in a statement. “Regardless of its source, Jew hatred cannot be tolerated in a healthy society.”
Soon after the task force spun off from Heritage last fall, it hosted a daylong convening in Washington on the topic of right-wing antisemitism. In a speech that day, Moon described an impending battle against antisemitism on his side of the aisle.
“It’s the early days of this war. I don’t feel like we did win the last battle, but we didn’t lose yet either,” said Moon.
Moon told Jewish Insider in an interview on Monday that he believes the conservative movement has begun to make progress in fighting back against antisemitism within its ranks.
“It’s a war where we lose some battles and win some battles, and I think I’m winning more than I’m losing,” Moon said. “What I didn’t have a year ago was enough allies and tools, and now I have a lot more allies, and I think I have a lot more tools, and so I’m actually optimistic.”
Heritage first reached out to him about the position in January, Moon said, but he was not sure at the time if “there was a real desire to change.” He decided to join the organization after it tapped Yoram Hazony, an Israeli scholar and advocate for political nationalism, to join its board in May.
“One of the things that I get from people is, ‘We haven’t necessarily seen enough change from Heritage,’ and I’m like, ‘I think I’m part of that change,’” said Moon.
Even though Moon has seen improvements on the right, he said he still sees a lot of ignorance about Israel and the Jewish community from conservatives — particularly, he said, those who do not know any Jews personally.
He said that Vice President JD Vance, who has been highly critical of Israel this month in his role as the public face of U.S. negotiations with Iran, at times uses rhetoric that falls into that category.
“The problem is that the way JD talks about it is probably like I would have talked about it in 2009 before I knew any Jews, before I had anything to do with this space at all, and the challenge is that it’s probably [how] a lot of people would talk about it,” said Moon.
Moon spent 12 years, most recently as executive director, at the Philos Project, an organization that promotes Christian engagement with the Middle East.
“I don’t think JD is on the antisemite side. I think he’s also not been in the pro-Israel space at all,” said Moon. “I wish he would frame things differently. I think that some of the stuff he frames is not helpful at all, and can certainly be perceived as being antagonistic towards Israel, but I mean, if you had asked me in 2009 what do you think about Israel and Jews, I would have said nothing.”
Moon has built close ties with members of the Jewish community, and he said that allows him to feel “the anxiety of the moment.”
“Unfortunately, because most people don’t know any Jews, they just don’t see that. They don’t feel it,” said Moon. “Most of that’s going to go straight over the head of most people, and I think JD doesn’t realize the kind of existential angst that I think a lot of Jews are feeling.”
The move marks a major step in the White House’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department and significantly reduce or distribute its work
Win McNamee/Getty Images
A person walks past the U.S. Department of Education on March 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it will transfer many of the responsibilities of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, the division that investigates civil rights violations at American schools and universities, to the Justice Department.
The move marks a major step in the White House’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department and significantly reduce or distribute its work. The policy was first discussed in the Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 blueprint for the Trump administration, which was released in April 2023 during the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
“The Department of Education will also team up with the DOJ to ensure stronger, more coordinated civil rights enforcement and robust protections for student privacy,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement on Tuesday. An Education Department press release said the new agreement is “designed to reduce federal bureaucracy and improve the efficient delivery of federally funded programs and activities.”
The formal agreement hands to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division the core of OCR’s work: investigating and attempting to resolve discrimination complaints against schools and universities. It leaves OCR with the authority to refer cases out and sign off on the results, but has DOJ handling nearly every aspect of the investigation.
OCR has been a crucial tool for Jewish students who experienced antisemitism on their campuses, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and over the course of the ensuing war. Through Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the office’s remit includes complaints of discrimination on the basis of one’s national origin, a broad category that encompasses antisemitism. Jewish organizations have for years encouraged Jewish students and parents to file complaints with the agency.
Now the civil rights office’s mandate and scope — already diminished because of widespread layoffs at the department last year — will for the most part move to the Justice Department. It is not clear whether the OCR staffers will move to DOJ.
The move sparked criticism from the left and praise from more conservative voices.
Kenneth Marcus, the founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law who ran OCR during President Donald Trump’s first term, called the move a “promising” step from the White House.
“Much will depend on implementation,” Marcus said in a statement. “But if done right, this could mark a critical step forward for students whose rights have gone unprotected on campuses across the country.”
An Education Department press release said the new agreement between the DOJ and OCR, which accompanied related agreements from DOJ and the Department of Health and Human Services, is “designed to reduce federal bureaucracy and improve the efficient delivery of federally funded programs and activities.”
Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick said that the push to move OCR to DOJ “is weakening one of the most effective mechanisms for protecting Jewish students and for enforcing civil rights protections on campus.”
Most Jewish organizations have so far not commented on the announcement.
I can roll with policy changes, but what I can't roll with is a tolerance or an overlooking of antisemitism or any form of bigotry,’ Andrew Hale told JI
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
A senior Heritage Foundation staffer has been hired by Advancing American Freedom, joining more than 20 other former Heritage employees who have departed the conservative think tank for AAF over criticism of President Kevin Roberts’ refusal to disavow Tucker Carlson for platforming neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes and Roberts’ handling of the broader fallout.
Andrew Hale, who joined Heritage in 2023, served as the Jay Van Andel senior policy analyst in trade policy at the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. He began at AAF, former Vice President Mike Pence’s policy shop, on Tuesday as a fellow specializing in economics, trade policy and international relations. Prior to his time at Heritage, Hale, a dual U.S. and U.K. citizen, worked for both nations’ governments.
“I can roll with policy changes, but what I can’t roll with is a tolerance or an overlooking of antisemitism or any form of bigotry,” Hale told Jewish Insider in an interview. “I’ve worked for Democrats, Republicans, Labour and Conservative in the U.K., on both sides of the Atlantic. I can roll with policy changes. This is not about that. For me, I feel obligated because I have the freedom to do so and the means to do so. I’m calling out a problem that exists at Heritage and exists in the conservative movement, and we need to exorcize it in a way that the Left has not done well.”
“As someone who used to work for the late holocaust [sic] survivor and human rights advocate Congressman Tom Lantos, I have zero tolerance for any form of bigotry, and I believe most of my fellow Americans feel the same,” he added in a subsequent written statement. “As a student of history, I believe antisemitism has recently been normalized in some quarters on the right and we are right back in the 1930s – and everyone should be aware of where that led.”
Hale cited Roberts’ unwillingness to take down a video posted to Heritage’s social media accounts in late October lashing out at Carlson’s critics, as well as what Hale described as retaliation against those who spoke out against antisemitism at an all-staff meeting in November amid controversy over the video, as reasons for his departure from the think tank.
At the staff meeting, Hale said, “I bit my tongue and I watched others stand up and challenge, and I witnessed those people suffer dearly for that.”
“It was just like they were persona non grata after that,” he added, “And then we had people go around the building saying afterwards that any sort of dissent of any kind will not be tolerated. Those people suffered retaliation. Then we were all threatened and warned never to do that.”
“Afterwards, we were warned not to do that. And if we had a problem and there was a disagreement, we should leave,” he continued. “That offending video that caused all this a couple months ago is still up, and the offending individual hasn’t taken it down. … I just don’t know how that video remains up when it has caused so much damage.”
Hale says he believes the organization “went absolutely off the rails very quickly” following the death of Heritage founder Edwin Feulner last July. He cited the elevation of Ryan Neuhaus to the role of chief of staff, a role Neuhaus has since stepped aside from as a result of the controversy surrounding Roberts’ original video defending Carlson, for which Neuhaus wrote the script. Hale also pointed to Mario Enzler’s appointment as a senior adviser to the president and chief advancement officer despite the fact that Enzler resigned as dean of the business school at the University of St. Thomas, in Houston, Texas, in 2022, amid allegations he had faked several degrees; and Scott Yenor’s appointment as director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies despite his well-documented antifeminist record.
Hale noted that he put forward numerous candidates for roles throughout the organization who were rejected because “they didn’t pass vetting, but Mario Enzler passed freaking vetting. As did Scott Yenor. How is that defensible?”
“How did they [Neuhaus, Enzler and Yenor] pass vetting?” he asked. “Who’s allowing this to get through the system? Is it being pushed through? Is there patronage? Is there unfair influence? These are questions that need to be asked.”
He also said that, as a Christian himself, he took issue with the way young Heritage staffers quoted scripture in policy meetings without backing up their proposed arguments otherwise.
“I’m deeply concerned when we have someone very young, I’m talking about people sometimes in their early 20s, pushing policy and being just like the woke left or woke right, where basically, if you don’t agree with them, you’re evil and they’ll try to cancel you,” Hale told JI. “Someone walking into meetings, be it policy meetings or staff meetings, and quoting scripture at people in a very hostile way, like almost weaponizing scripture.”
“To come into a room in a very mean spirited fashion, yelling Bible verses, I think that’s weaponizing faith and holy scriptures in a sacred text in a very unhealthy way and an offensive way,” he added. “It’s not conducive to interfaith dialog and harmony.”
Hale argued that there was a difference between how Feulner and Roberts allowed their respective faiths to influence their roles leading Heritage.
“I never knew what Ed Feulner’s religion was. I discovered what it was when he had his funeral at a Roman Catholic Church. I’m also a practicing Christian. I’m Anglican, and my faith is very important to me, but I don’t wear it on my sleeve,” Hale said. “When Ed Feulner was there, he really was about conservatism and he was very philosophical. I know his faith did inform his policies and how he conducted himself, but I find that when there are problems at Heritage and some other organizations, they’re glossed over by simply people quoting a Bible verse or talking about how God told them to do this.”
Hale said he wasn’t concerned about facing career or political repercussions for leaving Heritage for an organization led by Pence, instead asserting that his former employer had lost its influence in D.C. policy circles.
Asked why he chose to join AAF specifically, Hale said, “They seem to have a much more secure footing. I was very clear when I talked to them that I had no tolerance for this sort of bigotry and they assured me that they didn’t either. I just feel that the atmosphere was just not toxic at all, it was actually all goodness and light, so I’m happy to land there. It’s a great team of people. The fact of the matter is that so many good people whom I knew and worked well with at the Heritage Foundation had left.”
Richard Stern, a vice president at AAF who left Heritage late last month, said in a statement that he was “overjoyed that we were able to persuade Andrew Hale to join our team. He is literally a physical embodiment of the transatlantic relationship with vast economic and foreign policy service in government and business sectors. What is the Heritage Foundation’s loss will now be AAF and the Conservative movement’s gain.”
AAF, founded by Pence in 2021 to advocate for classical conservative principles as President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement cemented its hold on parts of the Republican Party, has hired more than 20 people from Heritage since the controversy began with Roberts’ Oct. 30 video. AAF President Tim Chapman told JI in late December that he expects to continue poaching unhappy Heritage staffers, and revealed at the time that the think tank had nearly completed a $15 million fundraising campaign that they began the month before.
Reached for comment, a Heritage spokesperson told JI,““Heritage is proud to be a leader in the fight against antisemitism and has been for years. Under Dr. Roberts’ leadership, our organization has led more campaigns not just to fight, but to defeat antisemitism than at any other time in Heritage’s history. We have built a world-class team dedicated to our unchanged mission and our leadership is strong and decisive. We are committed to delivering, not for yesterday’s fights, but for tomorrow’s victories. We are united, disciplined, and ready. Onward and upward.”
Advancing American Freedom hired 15 staffers from the Heritage Foundation, with its president predicting more defections
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence participates in a television interview outside of the funeral service of former Vice President Dick Cheney at the National Cathedral on November 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Tim Chapman, the president of former Vice President Mike Pence’s think tank, said on Monday that he expects his Advancing American Freedom organization to poach more staffers from the Heritage Foundation after announcing the hiring of 15 individuals from the embattled conservative organization.
Advancing American Freedom, founded by Pence in 2021 to advocate for classical conservative principles as President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement cemented its hold on parts of the Republican Party, announced on Monday that 15 Heritage staffers, including three senior officials from the think tank’s legal, economic and data teams, would be moving to AAF at the start of the new year. Chapman, who has been leading the recruitment effort, predicted more Heritage staffers would resign amid continuing frustration over Heritage President Kevin Roberts’ refusal to disavow Tucker Carlson for his platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.
“Why I’m so excited about this big move today is because it really supercharges our efforts to be able to be a policy leader on the Capitol Hill and helps us create an institution that will be valuable to policy entrepreneurs,” Chapman told Jewish Insider in an interview on Monday. “These 15 hires that came today will not be the last 15. We expect to see other people leave Heritage and go to AAF and other places as well. We are happy to welcome them.”
Richard Stern, who led Heritage’s economic policy group, and Kevin Dayaratna, who served as Heritage’s chief statistician, were two of the senior officials from the embattled think tank joining AAF along with some members of their team. They are being joined by John Malcolm, Heritage’s vice president of its Institute for Constitutional Government and director of the organization’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, who will relocate the center, named for former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, to AAF.
Chapman helped launch and lead Heritage Action, the think tank’s grassroots advocacy arm, and served as chief of staff to the late Heritage cofounder Edwin J. Feulner during part of his 36-year tenure as the organization’s president. He told JI that AAF began a $15 million fundraising campaign last month to cover the expenses of hiring the outgoing Heritage staffers and raised $13 million within two weeks.
“We viewed this as a big opportunity to accelerate our growth plans, to become that institution that we’re building. It all happened very fast,” Chapman said.
Chapman said AAF’s quick success with fundraising suggested to him that “there is a market out there amongst conservative philanthropists for reorganization on the right. There were a lot of new donors who came in because they saw the value in the project and the importance of having an institution like the one I’m describing, and a lot of our current donors who stepped up and gave more.”
“It also says to me that there is a very heightened awareness of the downfall of institutions like Heritage, who have shifted their focus,” he explained.
“I look at it as the conservative movement reorganizing itself. The Heritage team that we are bringing over today, these are principled conservatives more in the traditional conservative camp. They wouldn’t think of themselves as nationalist conservatives, or not even necessarily MAGA conservatives,” Chapman said of the Heritage recruits. “There are a lot of things that MAGA fights for that we might be aligned on, but they would view themselves that way [from a more traditional standpoint], and they very much had been feeling stifled over the last two years at the Heritage Foundation.”
“Heritage had been creating an environment internally where the organization’s role as a traditional think tank that stood outside of the Republican Party was not the business plan for the future of the Heritage Foundation,” he added. “They started to think of themselves more as an outside enforcer for the MAGA nationalist perspective, and really began to orient themselves around personalities, whether it’s President Trump or [Vice President] JD Vance or other personalities that hold significant cachet on the right.”
Pence accused the Heritage Foundation of “abandoning its principles” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on AAF’s recruitment effort. “Why these people are coming our way is that Heritage and some other voices and commentators have embraced big-government populism and have been willing to tolerate antisemitism,” Pence told the outlet.
A Heritage spokesperson did not respond to JI’s request for comment on Chapman’s comments or on AAF recruiting more than a dozen of their staffers, though Andy Olivastro, Heritage’s chief advancement officer, was critical of the former employees in a statement to the Journal.
“Our mission is unchanged, and our leadership is strong and decisive,” Olivastro said. “Heritage has always welcomed debate, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are non-negotiable. A handful of staff chose a different path — some through disruption, others through disloyalty.”
Plus, Ben Shapiro raps Heritage's Tucker ties
President Bush presents Norman Podhoretz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, June 23, 2004. Podhoretz is a neoconservative author and longtime editor of Commentary, the American Jewish Committee magazine. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to friends and former colleagues of Norman Podhoretz, who died on Tuesday, and report on Ben Shapiro’s call for the Heritage Foundation to distance itself from Tucker Carlson. We interview Rory Lancman, who is positioning himself as a centrist looking to rehabilitate the Democratic Party’s brand on Long Island as he mulls a state Senate run, and have the scoop on the House of Representatives’ reintroduction of the Protecting Students on Campus Act. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Daniel Flesch, Jared Isaacman and Benjamin Lee.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider 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
- Turning Point USA’s AmFest kicks off today in Phoenix, Ariz., and runs through Sunday. Speakers at the conference, the group’s first major gathering since the assassination of its founder, Charlie Kirk, in September, include Vice President JD Vance, Erika Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr., Ben Shapiro, Jesse Watters, Megyn Kelly, Glenn Beck, Vivek Ramaswamy, Matt Walsh, Russell Brand, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Roger Stone, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Jack Posobiec and Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Mike Collins (R-GA).
- The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is holding the last in its series of “Lox and Legislators” events. This morning’s gathering will feature remarks from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, as well as panel discussions with local councilmembers and nonprofit leaders.
- In New York, the Brooklyn Nets, who face off against the Miami Heat tonight, will pay tribute to those killed in the terror attack on Sunday in Sydney, Australia. A nephew of slain Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger will participate in the tribute.
- German and Israeli defense officials are signing an expanded agreement today that will see Berlin purchase an additional $3.1 billion worth of Arrow 3 interceptors and launchers.
- We’re tracking events in Sydney, Australia, after police in the New South Wales capital detained seven men earlier today who were believed to be connected to what a police department spokesperson said was “information received that a violent act was possibly being planned.”
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL
Norman Podhoretz, the pugnacious editor and neoconservative pioneer who died on Tuesday at the age of 95, charted a protean trajectory through American politics and intellectual discourse, rising to prominence as a leading champion of a muscular foreign policy vision conjoined with a fierce support for Israel that influenced such presidents as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
Despite his early political conversion from staunch liberal to conservative trailblazer, Podhoretz — the always-ambitious son of a Yiddish-speaking milkman from Eastern Europe who was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn — remained consistent in his commitment to defending Israel as well as promoting the Jewish ideals that guided his social and professional ascent.
During his 35-year tenure helming Commentary — from 1960 to 1995 — he established the periodical as a lightning rod of disputatious ideas that helped drive the conservative movement, while at the same time building his reputation as an estimable thinker in Jewish American debate of the mid-20th century.
Under his editorial stewardship, Podhoretz transformed the magazine — then published by the American Jewish Committee — into a pro-Israel force that significantly shaped American foreign policy in the Middle East while helping steer the GOP to a more instinctive embrace of the Jewish state as a key ally.
“The neoconservatives played a pivotal role in providing the intellectual firepower for the case for Israel,” Jacob Heilbrunn, the author of a book about the movement Podhoretz founded, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, told Jewish Insider in an interview on Wednesday. “They did that not only by arguing that Israel was a vital outpost in opposing the spread of communism in the Middle East, but also in forging and defending the rise of the evangelicals who supported Israel.”
Absent Podhoretz and his ideological comrades including Irving Kristol, another neoconservative leader, “I don’t think that you would have had the intellectual justification for defending Israel inside the GOP,” Heilbrunn said, noting that the party had previously been “hostile to Israel.”
FRIENDLY FIRE
At Heritage HQ, Ben Shapiro calls on think tank to draw red line against Tucker Carlson
When Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts posted a controversial video in October defending Tucker Carlson and his interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, Ben Shapiro quickly became one of the most prominent conservative voices criticizing the venerable conservative think tank. Shapiro furthered that criticism in a fiery speech on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation’s Washington headquarters, where he called on the institution to draw lines against Carlson and ensure that the right-wing podcaster is not considered to be part of the conservative movement, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Taking on Tucker: Carlson, Shapiro said, “has become, by any honest assessment, an opponent of conservatism, an outsider masquerading as an insider and destroying the character of the conservative movement in the process.” Shapiro laid out exactly why believes Carlson and his conspiratorial worldview run counter to the ideals of American conservatism: Carlson called on America to ally with Russia; Carlson “has unending critiques of the free market, mirroring Marxist thinkers”; Carlson “promotes a conspiracy theory by which the American people have lost total control of their lives and thus have no real ability to shape policy”; Carlson has spoken of Iran with admiration and treated Qatar “as America’s foremost ally in the Middle East”; and he has hosted “America’s foremost Hitler apologist,” Nick Fuentes.
SELF REFLECTION
Amid Carlson controversy, Heritage staffer sounds alarm on right-wing antisemitism
Amid the fallout from the Heritage Foundation’s embrace of Tucker Carlson after his controversial interview with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, Daniel Flesch — a senior policy analyst at the conservative think tank — has emerged as a critical voice raising the alarm on right-wing antisemitism from within the institution. On Monday, Flesch received the Young Maccabee Award from Young Jewish Conservatives, a political group founded in 2011 as a political home for Jewish conservatives in Washington. In a brief speech, Flesch warned of the dangers of growing antisemitism on the American right, and urged fellow conservatives to do more to take a stand against it. Otherwise, Flesch said gravely, the survival of America is at stake, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
What he said: “The last couple of years, really for longer than that, the threat of antisemitism has largely been the domain of the left,” Flesch said. “Now, in some ways, the call is coming from inside the house … And those like Tucker Carlson and others present the greatest threat, I think, on the right. They are anti-conservatives in the conservative movement, seeking to destroy our movements, and in so doing, destroy the future of the United States.”
JERUSALEM’S CALL
Following Sydney attack, Israel urges Western governments to get serious about rising antisemitism
In the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday in which 15 people were killed, Israel is imploring Western governments to heed its warnings about the potential for violent acts of antisemitism. One of the recurring themes in Israeli officials’ statements after the attack on Bondi Beach, following condolences to the community, was “we told you so.” While Israel did not have intelligence pointing specifically to Sunday’s attack, it had provided information to Canberra about threats to the Australian Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Official statements: In a video statement on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide. They would be well-advised to heed our warnings. I demand action from them now.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that “the Australian government, which received countless warning signs, must come to its senses.” President Isaac Herzog recalled that Israel “repeat[ed] our alerts time and again to the Australian government to seek action and fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.”
CENTER PUSH
Moderate N.Y. Democrat Rory Lancman hoping to reinvigorate party’s centrist wing in the suburbs
While the Democratic Party’s far-left wing has gained ground in New York City — an ascendance reflected in Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory — in the moderate-minded suburbs outside of the city, Democrats are reeling from the party’s embrace of its radical elements. Rory Lancman, a civil rights attorney and former state assemblyman, is among the moderate Democrats looking to showcase the other side of the party. He launched an exploratory committee on Monday in a heavily Jewish state Senate district in Long Island, which is currently held by Republican state Sen. Jack Martins, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Notable quotable: “The Democratic brand has been severely damaged by Mamdani and others, particularly [for] those Democrats like myself who are deeply committed to the safety and security of Israel, and deeply committed to the safety and security of the American Jewish community — whether it’s in our synagogues or on college campuses,” Lancman told JI in an interview. In addition, Lancman said, “I confess to being disappointed that Democrats aren’t making a bright line litmus test out of whether someone supports the existence of the Jewish state,” adding that his work at Brandeis Center since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks has “reinforced” the belief that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism and that if you hate the Jewish state, you hate the Jewish people.”
EXCLUSIVE
Bipartisan House group reintroduces bill to aid Title VI complaints on campus antisemitism
A bipartisan group of House members is re-introducing the Protecting Students on Campus Act on Thursday, legislation that aims to assist students facing discrimination in filing federal civil rights complaints and requiring greater transparency from colleges about complaints they receive, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The latest version of the bill in the House is being led by Reps. Lois Frankel (D-FL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Lucy McBath (D-GA), Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) and Haley Stevens (D-MI).
What is does: Formulated as a response to antisemitism on campus, the legislation would require colleges to prominently display on their homepages a link to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights page where students can file Title VI discrimination complaints, and to display informational materials in high-traffic locations on campus. Any schools receiving federal funding would also be required to report annually to the Department of Education’s inspector general about the number of Title VI complaints they received in the previous year and the actions taken by the school.
SCOOP
House resolution calls for safeguards to address antisemitism in artificial intelligence
A bipartisan group of House members is introducing a resolution that sets out recommendations for tackling the spread of antisemitism through artificial intelligence models and highlights the ways those programs have been used to spread a variety of forms of anti-Jewish hate, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The goal: The resolution states that combating antisemitism is a national priority and that technology companies have a “responsibility to implement robust safeguards” including transparency measures, working with antisemitism experts and taking steps to prevent the spread of antisemitism or violent content targeting Jewish people. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), the resolution’s lead sponsor, told JI in an interview this week that AI is accelerating conditions of rising antisemitism and danger for the Jewish people “with the rapid creation, spread and amplification of antisemitic content that makes us actively less safe.”
Bonus: Asked about how leaders should address rhetoric around the war in Gaza that has helped drive some recent attacks on the Jewish community, Jacobs — who has been a vocal critic of Israeli operations in Gaza — said that “it’s incredibly important that we separate out the very real criticisms that people have with the government and state of Israel from the very real rise of antisemitism that we’re seeing. I don’t believe that all anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic, and I actually think that when we say that it is, we feed into the narrative that all Jews are responsible for the actions of the State of Israel, which is, I believe, making us less safe.”
Worthy Reads
The Dem Divide: In The Atlantic, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro warns about elements of the Democratic Party that are shifting toward the fringe left’s stance on Israel, citing recent criticism of the party’s position on Israel by his former colleague, Obama administration official Ben Rhodes. “But there is a darker danger to the approach that Rhodes and others endorse. Nearly by definition, calls for ending all U.S.-Israel security cooperation draw those making them into alignment with others on a much more extreme fringe—those for whom it is not enough to end U.S. military assistance to Israel, who fundamentally believe that there is no legitimacy for Israel to exist as a Jewish state. They have found their voice and are making it heard. If the test of fealty for the Democratic Party becomes supporting international efforts to pressure Israel to define itself out of existence, or expressing indifference to the campaign of Israel’s enemies to destroy it, we will be in a much uglier place.” [TheAtlantic]
No-show of Support: In The Washington Post, Alon Meltzer, the associate rabbi of Sydney’s Bondi Mizrachi Synagogue reflects on the lack of mass gatherings opposing antisemitism and showing support for the Jewish community, compared to large-scale shows of support for Palestinians. “In August, an estimated 100,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbor Bridge to protest a conflict thousands of miles away. Many marched out of genuine concern for human suffering. … If 100,000 people can mobilize for a distant war, surely a million could rise up today and say: enough. Not with flowers alone. Not with thoughts and prayers. But with action. With a collective demand that antisemitism — in all its forms — is wrong and must stop now. This needs to occur in every country claiming to live by Western democratic values. We need to hear your voice! I fear that such a vision exists only in my imagination.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
The Senate confirmed Jared Isaacman to be the administrator to NASA in a 63-30 vote; read our profile of Isaacman here…
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced that he will depart the agency next month…
A spokesperson for Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), a co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Wednesday that the Coast Guard had assured Lankford that the service would be correcting its policy to make clear that swastikas would be banned — before reverting this week to a previous policy that had prompted criticism from Lankford and other lawmakers…
The Qatar Investment Authority is purchasing part of philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs’ stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Washington Wizards, the Washington Mystics, the Washington Capitals and the G League’s Capital City Go-Go…
Elliott Investment Management has amassed a stake of more than $1 billion in Lululemon Athletica as it works to position former Ralph Lauren senior executive Jane Nielsen as a potential successor to the athleisurewear company’s CEO Calvin McDonald, who is stepping down next month…
Police in San Francisco arrested a man in connection with a suspected arson attack at San Francisco Hillel earlier this month that significantly damaged the structure…
Time interviews U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner about Paris’ response to antisemitism in the country…
In the wake of the Bondi Beach attack, popular Sydney bagel shop Avner’s, owned by Australian Jewish celebrity chef Ed Halmagyi, announced its closure, citing “two years of near constant antisemitic harassment”; a note posted to the door of Avner’s said that “[i]n the wake of the pogrom at Bondi, one thing has become clear – it is no longer possible to make outwardly, publicly, proudly Jewish places and events safe in Australia”…
Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the occasion of the holiday season; a readout from the Vatican said the pontiff restated the “Catholic Church’s firm condemnation of all forms of antisemitism, which, throughout the world, continues to sow fear in Jewish communities and in society as a whole”…
The police forces of London and Manchester, U.K., announced their officers would arrest demonstrators who use the term “globalize the intifada,” saying in a statement, “Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed — words have meaning and consequence”…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on a $37 billion deal with Cairo that will see Israel supply natural gas to Egypt…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Israel plans to open an embassy in Fiji next year, months after the Pacific island nation opened an embassy in Jerusalem…
Israel denied entry to the West Bank to a delegation of Canadian officials whom Israeli officials said were linked to the NGO Islamic Relief Worldwide, which Jerusalem classifies as a terror group…
Sweden confirmed Iranian reports that a Swedish national had been arrested in Tehran on suspicion of spying for Israel…
The Washington Post does a deep dive into Israel’s Operation Narnia, the June 2024 effort to assassinate top Iranian nuclear scientists…
The New York Times reports on recent speeches by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledging that he is unable to fix the country’s mounting problems, including a struggling economy, water-deficit issues and corruption…
Benjamin Lee has been tapped to serve as the international media advisor for Israeli President Isaac Herzog; Lee succeeds Jason Pearlman, who is concluding his second stint in the position…
Pic of the Day
Rabbi Levi Shemtov spoke at yesterday’s Capitol Hill Hanukkah event hosted by Jewish legislators. Behind Shemtov, from left to right: Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Craig Goldman (R-TX) and Steve Cohen (D-TN).
Birthdays
Film critic, historian and author of 15 books on cinema, Leonard Maltin turns 75…
Founder of supply chain firm HAVI, active in over 100 countries, in 2019 he and his wife Harriette pledged $25 million to BBYO, Theodore F. Perlman turns 89… Professor emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University, Moshe Sharon turns 88… Winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine, he served as director of NIH for seven years and then director of the National Cancer Institute for 15 years, Harold Eliot Varmus turns 86… Office manager in the D.C. office of Kator, Parks, Weiser & Wright, Ramona Cohen… Co-founder of DreamWorks Studios, Academy Award-winning director of “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” plus many other box-office record-setters including “E.T.” and “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg turns 79… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (R-FL) from 2009 until 2025, William Joseph “Bill” Posey turns 78… Former CFO of the Pentagon in the Bush 43 administration, he is presently a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dov S. Zakheim turns 77… Winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in economics, he is a professor at Stanford and professor emeritus at Harvard, Alvin Eliot Roth turns 74… Network engineer sometimes called “the mother of the Internet” for her inventions of the spanning-tree protocol (STP) and the TRILL protocol, Radia Joy Perlman turns 74… Diplomat and ambassador, David Michael Satterfield turns 71… Television writer, producer and director, best known as the co-creator and executive producer of the award-winning series “24” which ran for eight seasons on Fox, Joel Surnow turns 70… Labor leader and president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten turns 68… Founder and chief executive of Third Point LLC, Daniel S. Loeb turns 64… Retired editor of The Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard turns 61… Member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Gael Grunewald turns 61… Associate director of development at Ohel Children’s Home, Erica Skolnick… Partner at the communications firm 30 Point Strategies, Noam Neusner… Former special envoy of Israel’s Foreign Ministry to combat antisemitism and member of the Knesset, Michal Cotler-Wunsh turns 55… Motivational speaker and teacher, his book about his own coping with Tourette syndrome was made into a Hallmark movie, Brad Cohen turns 52… Member of the House of Representatives (D-FL), Jared Moskowitz turns 45… Director of policy for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul until earlier this year when he successfully ran for the state Assembly, now running to succeed his former boss, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Micah Lasher turns 44… Manager of public policy and government relations for Wing, Jesse Suskin… Executive producer at CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rachel Streitfeld… Multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator, known for his double bass performances, Adam Ben Ezra turns 43… Winner of four straight NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championships while at UCLA, Jillian Amaris Kraus turns 39… AVP of external affairs at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Marc Ashed… Eliezer H. “Elie” Peltz… Consultant at Brussels-based Trinomics, Jessica Glicker… Intelligence lead at ActiveFence, Emily Cooper…
Belated birthday (was last week): Founding national campaign director for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, he was a presidential appointee to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council from 2008-2013, Joe Brodecki turned 78 last Friday…
‘If the Heritage Foundation wishes to retain its status as a leading thought institution in the conservative movement, it must act as ideological border control,’ Shapiro warned
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Ben Shapiro walks the red carpet at the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on January 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.
When Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts posted a controversial video in October defending Tucker Carlson and his interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, Ben Shapiro quickly became one of the most prominent conservative voices criticizing the venerable conservative think tank.
Shapiro furthered that criticism in a fiery speech on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation’s Washington headquarters, where he called on the institution to draw lines against Carlson and ensure that the right-wing podcaster is not considered to be part of the conservative movement.
“I want to begin by acknowledging the elephant in the room. The conservative movement is in flux. It’s in flux because of the systemic failure by conservative leaders to do what any good leaders must do: define and maintain the foundations of that movement,” said Shapiro, who had previously called out Heritage in a November episode of his podcast. “This is our job.”
Shapiro, who has supported President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut down on immigration, used immigration enforcement as an analogy for how the conservative movement should define the acceptable boundaries of debate.
“No country can exist without borders and no conservative movement can exist without principles it will defend against those who degrade them, even from within,” Shapiro argued. “The Heritage Foundation has always been the institution defining the contours of conservatism. If the Heritage Foundation wishes to retain its status as a leading thought institution in the conservative movement, it must act as ideological border control. It must continue to draw the contours of legitimate, real conservatism. This is what the institution exists to do.”
Shapiro, who has been affiliated with Heritage for years, described the think tank as “perhaps America’s leading institution in helping to define and shape the contours of conservatism.” But what followed was a word of warning, cautioning Heritage that continuing to align with people like Carlson will ruin the conservative movement.
“If, as the Heritage Foundation proclaims, our goal ought to be to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom and traditional American values and a strong national defense,” Shapiro stated, “then we must stand up against those who would pervert and twist the conservative movement into a movement without principles, or worse, a movement that promotes the very opposite of the principles that conservatives hold dear.”
Over the next 20 minutes, Shapiro laid out exactly why believes Carlson and his conspiratorial worldview run counter to the ideals of American conservatism: Carlson called on America to ally with Russia; Carlson “has unending critiques of the free market, mirroring Marxist thinkers”; Carlson “promotes a conspiracy theory by which the American people have lost total control of their lives and thus have no real ability to shape policy”; Carlson has spoken of Iran with admiration and treated Qatar “as America’s foremost ally in the Middle East”; and he has hosted “America’s foremost Hitler apologist,” Nick Fuentes.
“The term ‘American conservatism’ has a meaning. That meaning is embodied in the Heritage Foundation’s mission statement,” said Shapiro. “Those who oppose those principles definitionally oppose American conservatism. That is just definitional. Such people are not ideological allies. They are not part of the rich debate that is constantly ongoing between various strands of conservatism. They are opponents, and they ought to be treated that way.”
Welcoming those opponents as if they are part of legitimate debate over conservative ideas does a disservice to the political cause, Shapiro argued.
“Which brings us,” he added, “to Tucker Carlson, who has become, by any honest assessment, an opponent of conservatism, an outsider masquerading as an insider and destroying the character of the conservative movement in the process.”
At the end of his speech, Shapiro talked about what he described as “the promise of conservatism and the promise made by the Heritage Foundation,” that Americans should consider themselves lucky to be in this country and that they have agency to chart their own destiny.
“That promise only exists if conservatives do our job to draw lines, to create borders, to protect our principles, to defend those principles, to conserve,” he said.
Afterward, Roberts joined Shapiro onstage for a moderated conversation. He did not address the content of Shapiro’s speech, or anything he said about Carlson.
“You and I agree far more than we disagree on things, and the disagreement is truly friendly,” said Roberts, who has been navigating internal dissent and staff defections following his video defending Carlson.
Later, before the conversation wrapped up, Roberts said to Shapiro: “Count on Heritage to fight with you.”
‘The call is coming from inside the house,’ Daniel Flesch said on Monday
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An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Amid the fallout from the Heritage Foundation’s embrace of Tucker Carlson after his controversial interview with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, Daniel Flesch — a senior policy analyst at the conservative think tank — has emerged as a critical voice raising the alarm on right-wing antisemitism from within the institution.
On Monday, at a Hanukkah party steps from the White House, Flesch, who is Jewish, received the Young Maccabee Award from Young Jewish Conservatives, a political group founded in 2011 as a political home for Jewish conservatives in Washington. In a brief speech, Flesch warned of the dangers of growing antisemitism on the American right, and urged fellow conservatives to do more to take a stand against it. Otherwise, Flesch said gravely, the survival of America is at stake.
“The last couple of years, really for longer than that, the threat of antisemitism has largely been the domain of the left,” Flesch said. “Now, in some ways, the call is coming from inside the house.”
Flesch led the drafting of Heritage’s Project Esther report, a plan released in 2024 outlining ways to counter pro-Hamas antisemitism on the left. He also served as Heritage’s point person for the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a coalition of conservative groups that were involved in writing the Project Esther report.
After Heritage President Kevin Roberts posted a video defending Carlson and his choice to host Fuentes, the task force disaffiliated from Heritage. Flesch remains both a Heritage staff member and a task force member, but he warned at a staff meeting days after the video was released, “We are bleeding trust, reputation, perhaps donors.”
“Right now, the issue we’re facing is a threat to the West. We see it on the left. Now we’re seeing it to the right. And those like Tucker Carlson and others present the greatest threat, I think, on the right,” Flesch said on Monday. “They are anti-conservatives in the conservative movement, seeking to destroy our movements, and in so doing, destroy the future of the United States.”
Roberts has apologized for the video, in which he called Carlson a “close friend” and said he would not give in to calls to “cancel” Fuentes. But he has not distanced himself from Carlson.
“Israel will be fine. The question is, will we be fine here?” said Flesch. “If you have the left captured, you’ll have the right captured. What is there? Jews, obviously, we’re always left in the middle, we’ve got the State of Israel. Thank God, Israel will be strong. But this is a moment to say hineni [“here I am”] for each and every one of us.”
The resolution also criticizes Paul Ingrassia, a Trump administration official who said in a group chat that he has a ‘Nazi streak’
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks at a press conference following recent elections as the government shutdown continues in Washington, DC on November 5, 2025.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and nearly all Senate Democrats are set to introduce a resolution on Monday condemning neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson for hosting Fuentes on his show.
The legislation also highlights that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defended Carlson and Fuentes and notes that the Trump administration nominated an official who expressed affinity for the Nazis, referring to Paul Ingrassia.
The resolution comes weeks after Carlson’s friendly sit-down with Fuentes prompted a reckoning in the conservative movement over antisemitism on the far right and its normalization in certain circles. Schumer reportedly sought Republican backing for the resolution, but no Republicans have signed on at this point.
The resolution outlines Fuentes’ long history of overt antisemitic activity, as well as the series of antisemitic comments that Fuentes repeated on Carlson’s podcast. It highlights Carlson’s failure to “push back on or reject the claims made by Fuentes” and that Carlson “at times even validat[ed] his framing.” It also notes that Carlson was a keynote speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
The legislation states that the Senate “strongly rejects the views of and platforming of Nick Fuentes” and “condemns the effort by Tucker Carlson to platform and mainstream Nick Fuentes.”
The resolution also specifically highlights that Roberts posted a video defending Carlson and attacking those criticizing him — accusing Roberts of employing “antisemitic dog whistles” — as well as for refusing to take down the video even as he as apologized for portions of it.
It calls on “all elected officials, thought leaders and community leaders to reject and condemn white supremacy and antisemitism whenever and wherever they occur.”
And it highlights that President Donald Trump nominated Paul Ingrassia — who said in an unearthed group chat that he has a “Nazi streak in me from time to time” — for an administration post and has since named him to a different role in the administration after his nomination was withdrawn. The resolution does not specifically name Ingrassia.
The resolution is being sponsored by every Senate Democrat.
The legislation has been supported by a series of Democratic-affiliated and progressive-minded Jewish groups, including Democratic Majority for Israel, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Jewish Women International, the Union for Reform Judaism, Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women.
“The platforming of individuals who promote hateful, antisemitic, and white supremacist rhetoric is dangerous and entirely at odds with American values,” JWI CEO Meredith Jacobs said in a statement. She said that Congress “must forcefully condemn any attempt to mainstream antisemitism” and other hatred and “the fact that such condemnation is not universal underscores the very real and present danger that these ideologies are gaining ground in our society.”
JCPA CEO Amy Spitalnick said that antisemitic and white supremacist extremism “threatens every single one of our communities and the core of our democracy – yet we’ve seen political leaders continue to embrace and platform this deadly hate and those who peddle it, like Nick Fuentes” and urged all senators to support the resolution.
DMFI urged the Senate to “send a powerful message that there is no place for these hateful ideologies in our society by passing this measure.”
Halie Soifer, the CEO of JDCA, condemned Republicans for not signing onto the resolution.
“This issue should not be partisan, yet not one Republican has joined this resolution, and the President of the United States has refused to condemn Fuentes, Tucker Carlson’s platforming of Fuentes, and the hate they’ve espoused,” Soifer said in a statement. “We’re deeply concerned about Republicans placing politics above efforts like this one to combat white nationalism, antisemitism, and hate, and strongly encourage them to join this effort.”
UPDATE: This article was updated to reflect that the legislation’s findings highlight Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts’s defense of Carlson and Fuentes but the resolution does not specifically condemn him.
Robert George, who reportedly lobbied the board to remove President Kevin Roberts, said he ‘could not remain without a full retraction’ by Roberts of his defense of Carlson
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An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Robert George, a prominent board member of the Heritage Foundation, said on Monday that he was resigning from the conservative think tank, in the latest sign of continued fallout over its president’s controversial defense of Tucker Carlson after his friendly interview last month with a neo-Nazi influencer.
“I could not remain without a full retraction of the video released by Kevin Roberts, speaking for and in the name of Heritage, on October 30th,” George said in a Facebook post Monday morning, referring to the group’s president. “Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse.”
His decision to step down indicates that Roberts is likely secure, for now, in his role atop Heritage, as its board remains split about his future, according to a former Heritage staffer familiar with internal discussions.
“It’s a good sign for Kevin, that’s for sure, because Robbie was clearly upset about the mistake Kevin made and thought there really needed to be drastic action to correct it,” the former staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue, told Jewish Insider on Monday. “This means there’s now one less vote on the board for removing Kevin.”
George, a Heritage board member since 2019 who serves as director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals & Institutions at Princeton University, reportedly lobbied for Roberts’ removal behind the scenes.
In his announcement on Monday, George called Roberts “a good man” and said that he had “made what he acknowledged was a serious mistake,” but added, “What divided us was a difference of opinion about what was required to rectify the mistake.”
He said that he was “sad to be leaving the” think tank and still had “great affection and esteem for” his “board colleagues,” wishing Heritage “the very best.”
He did not respond to a request for comment from JI.
“We are thankful for Professor George and his service to Heritage,” a spokesperson for Heritage said in a statement Monday. “He is a good man, and we look forward to opportunities to work together in the future. Under the leadership of Dr. Roberts, Heritage remains resolute in building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish. We are strong, growing and more determined than ever to fight for our republic.”
George had argued in a social media post last month, in response to Roberts’ defense of Carlson, that “American conservatism today faces a challenge” from “those who reject our commitment to inherent and equal human dignity,” adding, “I will not — I cannot— accept the idea that we have ‘no enemies to the right.’”
“The white supremacists, the antisemites, the eugenicists, the bigots, must not be welcomed into our movement or treated as normal or acceptable,” he wrote.
Roberts, for his part, has apologized for his video remarks standing behind Carlson and refusing to “cancel” Nick Fuentes, whom the former Fox News host had interviewed in an amiable discussion that failed to challenge his admiration for Adolf Hitler, Holocaust denialism and other antisemitic views.
The Heritage president has also voiced regret for dismissing Carlson’s critics as part of a “venomous coalition,” claiming that he did not intend to invoke an antisemic trope, and denounced Fuentes. But he has otherwise continued to back Carlson, a personal friend, and declined to delete the video featuring his initial comments on the matter.
Some conservatives criticized the foundation on Monday for contributing to George’s departure.
Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said in a social media post that George “was the head of the ‘Kevin Roberts showed terrible judgment and there need to be consequences’ camp, which has apparently lost out to ‘everything is well, nothing to see here’ camp.”
“Heritage will now decline as an institution (or we will decline as a nation). Sad,” Shapiro lamented.
George’s resignation marks the latest defection from Heritage in recent weeks, as the think tank continued to face backlash over Roberts’ handling of the controversy. Last week, for instance, a legal expert resigned from his role as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, citing Roberts’ video and “subsequent interviews, videos, and commentary.”
Earlier this month, an antisemitism task force that worked with Heritage cut ties with the organization, saying it “cannot allow the conservative movement to be corrupted and destroyed by those consumed with attacking America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and values, thereby distracting us all from the real challenges facing our nation.”
The former Heritage staffer told JI that there are still “a lot of conservatives inside the” foundation “who are not comfortable with the trajectory of the organization,” noting that George’s departure could fuel further resignations. “It feeds the narrative that movement conservatives feel they’re being squeezed out.”
“What you’re not yet seeing is a mass exodus in terms of the scholars inside the organization, but that could be coming,” the former staffer predicted.
In his resignation note on Monday, George expressed hope that “Heritage’s research and advocacy will be guided by the conviction that each and every member of the human family, irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion or anything else, as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, is ‘created equal’ and ‘endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.’”
“The anchor for the Heritage Foundation, and for our nation, and for every patriotic American is that creed,” he wrote. “It must always be that creed. If we hold fast to it even when expediency counsels compromising it, we cannot go wrong. If we abandon it, we sign the death certificate of republican government and ordered liberty.”
Adam Mossoff wrote to President Kevin Roberts that his continued embrace of Tucker Carlson ‘reflects a fundamental ethical lapse and failure of moral leadership’
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An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, resigned on Thursday from his position as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation in response to the organization’s president refusing to disavow Tucker Carlson for his platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.
In an email to Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and John Malcolm, director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at Heritage, Mossoff cited Roberts’ Oct. 30 video lashing out at Carlson’s critics and his “subsequent interviews, videos, and commentary” on the subject as the reason for his resignation from the Meese Center.
Mossoff wrote in the email, obtained by Jewish Insider late Thursday, that the video, in which Roberts called out the “venomous coalition attacking” Carlson, and the Heritage president’s comments after the fact “reflects a fundamental ethical lapse and failure of moral leadership that has irrevocably damaged the well-deserved reputation of Heritage as ‘the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement’ (your words in your October 30 video).”
He explained that Roberts’ handling of the fallout of the original video had “made it clear to me that Heritage is no longer the storied think tank that I was proud to join in 2019.”
After accusing Carlson of “quickly following Candace Owens down the very dark path of Jewish conspiracy theories and defenses of Nazis,” Mossoff then accused Roberts of sending “mixed messages … about the lesson you have learned” from the fallout to his Oct. 30 video.
“Although you told us in the [staff] townhall last Thursday that you made a mistake in your October 30 video, you have not retracted or withdrawn the video. It remains on your X account with more than 24 million views to date. Thus, it remains unclear precisely and specifically what you regard as your moral mistake and failure in leadership,” Mossoff wrote.
“You have continually reiterated, for example, your claims in your October 30 video that we should not ‘cancel’ our ‘friends,’ and that Tucker ‘always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.’ As far as I’m aware, you have not disavowed this claim,” he continued. “But you falsely conflate here the struggle sessions and cancelation campaigns that the woke left inflict on their apostates and heretics with the proper and steadfast moral condemnation of nihilism, collectivism, Nazism, and Jew hatred.”
Mossoff also wrote that he “waited two weeks to send my resignation notice” because he “did not wish to act in haste, and I wanted my decision to be the result of a considered judgment, not a reaction based on the passions of the moment.”
Mossoff announced his resignation publicly in a post on X on Thursday morning, in which he wrote that his decision was “based on my considered judgment of Dr. Kevin Roberts’ October 30 video and the subsequent commentary, interviews, and meetings in the past two weeks. I look forward to continuing my research in patent law and my work in innovation policy as a professor and fellow at other think tanks, in addition to my new part-time position at the USPTO [U.S. Patent and Trademark Office].”
Mossoff is a vocal advocate for the U.S.-Israel relationship and is one of two Jewish law professors at George Mason who began needing permanent police protection last year because of an increase in threats. His decision to give up his visiting fellow position marks the latest in a string of resignations in protest of Roberts’ refusal to disavow Carlson. The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a Heritage-aligned operation, also cut ties with the conservative think tank last week. Former Rep. Michele Bachmann resigned from the task force over the weekend, citing the response by Heritage leadership to the controversy.
“I resigned from the Heritage antisemitism task force because Heritage leadership failed to stand against the voices of antisemitism on the political right,” Bachmann told Newsmax. “Inexplicably, consistent voices of antisemitism on the political right were embraced and, worse, defended by the leadership of Heritage Foundation.”
“This is the biggest PR disaster in Heritage’s history,” she added. “Heritage leadership shot a cannon through their brand.”
Reached for comment, a Heritage spokesperson told JI, “We’re thankful for every member of our team and appreciate Adam’s work as a visiting fellow at Heritage. We wish him the best. Heritage remains focused on our vital work to revive the American family, protect the dignity of work, safeguard our national sovereignty, and revitalize the role of citizenship.”
The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will expand its focus to include antisemitism on the right, now that it is independent from the Heritage Foundation
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An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
An antisemitism task force affiliated with the Heritage Foundation announced on Thursday that it would cut ties with the conservative institution, as the prominent think tank has come under fire for its defense of Tucker Carlson after the firebrand podcaster hosted neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes for a friendly interview.
The co-chairs of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced in a Thursday email, viewed by Jewish Insider, that they will continue their work “outside the Heritage Foundation for a season.”
A member of the task force told JI that its members had not ruled out working with Heritage again if the organization improves. “We hope that one day we’ll be able to collaborate with Heritage again,” said the member, who requested anonymity to talk about confidential discussions.
The task force was formed following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and was instrumental in the drafting of Project Esther, Heritage’s signature counter-antisemitism framework released last year in response to the Biden administration’s national strategy to combat antisemitism.
The Project Esther report made no mention of antisemitism on the political right. In their Thursday email, the co-chairs of the task force said they can no longer ignore it.
“The NTFCA will also now expand our work to fight the rising scourge of antisemitism on the Right, beyond our previous work combating the pro-Hamas movement on the Left,” wrote the co-chairs, announcing that they will co-host a conference on “Exposing & Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Right” on Nov. 18 in Washington, in partnership with the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel.
The task force’s leaders are Mario Bramnick, a Florida pastor and president of the Latino Coalition for Israel; Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation; Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy antisemitism special envoy in the first Trump administration; and Luke Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project.
The Heritage Foundation has been awash in controversy since its president, Kevin Roberts, released a video last week defending Carlson as the conservative commentator faced criticism for his interview with Fuentes.
In a staff meeting on Wednesday, Roberts apologized for the video, which remains on X. He acknowledged the video did not go far enough in making clear that although he is opposed to “canceling” anyone, including Carlson, he is not thereby “endorsing everything they’ve said.”
Still, he has resisted requests to remove the video, according to a source familiar with the deliberations. Deleting the video was one of the recommendations made earlier in the week by the task force members.
The four task force co-chairs pledged to continue the work they had started with the support of the Heritage Foundation, which played a major role in the task force’s launch and operations, according to the task force member. The organization gave the task force access to meeting rooms, publishing resources and research assistance, as well as paid administrative and policy staff members. The task force co-chairs did not say where the group would go next.
“The future of the Conservative movement will include a broad coalition of people that love America and all she stands for,” the co-chairs wrote. “We cannot allow the Conservative movement to be corrupted and destroyed by those consumed with attacking America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and values, thereby distracting us all from the real challenges facing our nation.”
This story was updated at 6:31 p.m.
The Heritage Foundation president sidestepped the full-throated denunciation of Tucker Carlson that several Heritage staffers sought in a private staff meeting
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Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts in Washington, D.C. on October 19, 2022.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts apologized in a staff meeting on Wednesday for his video last week defending Tucker Carlson and refusing to “cancel” neo-Nazi leader Nick Fuentes, saying that the video was the result of internal failures of communication and consultation that left too few people involved in its production.
Roberts and other Heritage leaders also repeatedly made reference to a plan under development for how Heritage will approach its relationship with Carlson going forward, amid strong pressure from numerous staff members to forcefully disavow the right-wing podcast host and his activities, but provided little clarity about what that approach will entail and sidestepped the full-throated denunciation of Carlson that several Heritage staffers sought.
In opening remarks, Roberts said ultimate responsibility for the video lay with him, but that Heritage’s former chief of staff, Ryan Neuhaus, who recently resigned, was responsible for writing the script. Roberts also criticized Neuhaus for retweeting a post saying that those upset by Roberts’ video should resign.
Roberts said that he himself was willing to resign but that he also felt a “moral obligation” to stay on to clean up the “mess” he created.
Roberts said that the video was the result of a “short circuited” process which violated Heritage’s “one voice” policy, adding that he wrongly believed the script had been approved by others in Heritage’s leadership, but that he should have personally checked in with colleagues.
“Some of the substance, maybe most of the substantive points, are things that I and I think we believe, but there are a couple of pain points that I want to address specifically,” Roberts said.
He said that the intention of the video was to address public and private pressure on Heritage to disavow Carlson as well as to denounce the antisemitic and otherwise “grotesque” stances maintained by Fuentes, the latter of which he addressed in a separate post following backlash to his video.
But Roberts also largely pleaded ignorance about both Carlson and Fuentes’ views and content in the staff meeting. Roberts’ video remains on his X profile.
“About ‘no cancelation,’ is there a limiting principle to that? I should have said that there was, especially in light of Tucker hosting not just Fuentes, but a handful of other people,” Roberts said. “You can say you’re not going to participate in canceling someone — a personal friend, an institutional friend — while also being clear you’re not endorsing everything they’ve said. You’re not endorsing softball interviews. You’re not endorsing putting people on shows. And I should have made that clear.”
At the same time, Roberts also indicated that he had engaged privately with Carlson about objectionable content on his show in the past, including Carlson’s hosting of Holocaust revisionist Daryl Cooper.
Roberts repeatedly alluded to plans in development to clarify the relationship between Heritage and Carlson, and said that a variety of senior Heritage staff will be involved in developing those plans. He said he does not approve of much of Carlson’s recent activity, but generally withheld direct rebuke.
“I made the mistake of conflating too much the personal friendship I have with Tucker — although I want to be really clear, I don’t think that everything, or maybe even most, of what he does now is helpful or good — but conflating that with, particularly the word ‘always,’ as the institution,” Roberts said. “Even the institution can say, ‘Tucker will be a friend,’ but that’s different than saying that you endorse everything your friend does.”
Addressing revelations that Heritage had a paid partnership with Carlson, Roberts noted that the partnership ended this summer, and that Heritage had similar arrangements with various other media figures including Fox News commentator Mark Levin, who has spoken out against Carlson’s antisemitism.
Roberts said that his approach in the video and going forward was and will be driven, in some capacity, by a desire to appeal to and “drive a wedge” between Fuentes and followers of his who might be persuadable or do not share Fuentes’ bigotry.
“Fuentes … has an audience of several million people. At least some of that audience might be open to be converted. My video didn’t do that, although the intention was to open that idea — not to endorse what Fuentes was saying, but quite the opposite, to appeal to them,” Robert said. “There’s a segment of that audience who might be with us, and they really are not Nazis and antisemites, then maybe we can eventually bring them into the fold.”
Roberts offered an apology for the specific terminology he used in describing Carlson’s critics as a “venomous coalition,” saying he did not intend to invoke antisemitic tropes.
A staffer later pressed him on his description of Carlson’s critics as a “globalist class and their mouthpieces,” which the staffer said also seemed to be an antisemitic trope. Roberts apologized for those comments as well, and said his use of “globalist” was meant differently.
“I misread the situation and the advice that I got,” Roberts said. “I took the advice. I didn’t stop. I own that. [It] was bad, and I should have been better in that moment.”
During a Q&A with Heritage staff, Roberts faced frustration and disappointment from a series of Heritage staffers, some of whom said they had lost confidence in his leadership and argued that both the initial video and his subsequent response and belated apology had been insufficient and wrongheaded. Many said that Heritage needed to make a clear and unequivocal statement disavowing Carlson in order to move forward.
“Only after it became clear that Ryan falling on his sword would be insufficient to quell the outrage, both inside and outside of this building, did we finally see you manage the courage to utter the words, ‘I made a mistake,’” Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Heritage, said. “It took you four days to say that, and even then, the mistake was couched largely in terms of, ‘Well, I’m sorry you guys just didn’t really understand the words that were coming out of my mouth, and maybe I should have spoken better, but also maybe try to listen better.’ With all due respect, Dr. Roberts, we all understood what you said in the video and in the ensuing response.”
Swearer also charged that Roberts has continued to avoid going after Carlson directly.
“We watched you seem perfectly willing to attack all of our friends and allies on the right, but say nothing about the guy who just said he dislikes nothing more than Christian Zionists,” she continued. “We watched this sort of incoherent defense for days of, ‘Well, we can’t participate in cancel culture, and anyone who attacks Tucker is participating in cancel culture, but also we’re going to attack the people who are participating in that cancel culture, and that’s not cancel culture.’”
Several staffers said that the video and the fallout from it had severely damaged Heritage’s reputation and partnerships with other institutions, that serious work would be needed throughout the organization to repair that damage and that Heritage had thus far failed to articulate any such plan or clearly disavow Carlson after nearly a week.
“It has been six days, almost a week, where we as an organization have been unable to utter the words … ‘Tucker’s an antisemite and we as Heritage do not want to associate with him,’” Daniel Flesch, a senior policy analyst at Heritage involved in its Middle East and antisemitism work, said. “We still do not have a statement about that. … We are bleeding trust, reputation, perhaps donors, who knows what else — support.”
“If the Heritage Foundation and you do not dump Tucker Carlson publicly, we are not going to repair that damage,” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior fellow at Heritage, said, adding that it would be unworkable to make a public distinction between Carlson being a personal friend of Roberts versus being a friend of Heritage as an institution.
While the majority of those who raised questions during the meeting were deeply critical of Carlson, a pair of staffers stood out as taking a different stance
One, describing herself as a member of Gen Z, said that she and many young staffers agreed with Roberts’ video. She also claimed that charges of antisemitism against Carlson were driven by his opposition to foreign intervention.
“Gen Z has an increased unfavorable view of Israel, and it’s not because millions of Americans are antisemitic,” the staffer said. “It’s because we are Catholic and Orthodox and believe that Christian Zionism is a modern heresy. We believe it does go against church doctrine and the teachings of the early church fathers to use Christianity as a defense for a secular nation.”
Roberts responded that Heritage must be “agnostic” on theological questions of Christian Zionism.
Derek Morgan, Heritage’s executive vice president, added that Heritage’s institutional position is that, “Israel has been a great ally of the United States” and that, “When it’s in the American interest to support the nation of Israel, we will do so.”
Another staffer, Evan Myers, raised particular concern about a request from the Heritage-aligned National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, that young Heritage staffers be offered the opportunity to attend Shabbat dinners as a space for education.
Myers said that doing so would violate his and others’ religious beliefs and that he was concerned that attendance at such events would be used as a “litmus test.” He further suggested that those involved in the task force would leak to the media the names of those who declined to participate.
Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at Heritage and a board member of the task force, said she took offense with Myers’ characterization of the request.
“This was a recommendation … That was an open offer from the task force. It was made in generosity of spirit and in the hopes of increased dialogue on this issue,” Coates said. “And Evan, I’m deeply sorry that you could not see that as a generous offer, but rather a personal attack on you. It was not.”
Roberts expressed frustration that communications between himself and members of the antisemitism task force had been shared with the press.
“It’s hard for me and for this institution to consider recommendations when we can’t do that privately,” Roberts said. “I just want to let you know as we move forward on a detailed plan … it’s got to be under the terms that we get to have the conversations privately.”
The task force co-chairs sent a letter to Heritage President Kevin Roberts with their demands; ‘If the terms aren’t met, we will take the NTFCA elsewhere,’ co-chair Luke Moon told JI
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
President of the Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington D.C., Sept. 2, 2025.
Less than a day after an antisemitism task force aligned with the Heritage Foundation pledged to stand by the embattled conservative organization, the group’s co-chairs are now demanding concrete reforms from Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts — and warning that they may cut off ties with Heritage if their requests are not met.
In a Tuesday afternoon email to members of the conservative National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which was viewed by Jewish Insider, the task force co-chairs shared the text of an email they sent to Roberts earlier in the day. They asked Roberts to remove the controversial video he posted to X last week defending firebrand commentator Tucker Carlson, in which Roberts alleged that Carlson’s critics are part of a “venomous coalition” and that “their attempt to cancel him will fail.”
“Many of us on the NTFCA are among those who believed you called us part of a ‘venomous coalition’ and implicitly questioned our loyalty to the United States. It makes collaboration with Heritage difficult for our members,” wrote the co-chairs. Roberts’ video came after Carlson faced criticism for hosting neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes on his podcast.
The email to Roberts, which the co-chairs said was drafted in collaboration with other task force members, contained five other “recommendations.”
They asked for an apology “to those Christians and Jews who are steadfast members of the conservative movement and believe that Israel has a special role to play both biblically and politically,” and for a condemnation of Carlson’s antisemitic content. In Roberts’ video last week, he said “conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government,” even under pressure “from the globalist class.”
The task force co-chairs also requested that Heritage host a conference about understanding the boundaries of the conservative movement and discussing “how best to keep unity without needing to include the worst among us.” They asked Heritage to hire a visiting fellow “who shares mainstream conservative views on Israel, Jews and Christian Zionists” to win over young people. Lastly, they said they would like to host Shabbat dinners with Heritage’s interns and junior staff members to educate them about Judaism.
The task force’s leaders are Mario Bramnick, a Florida pastor and president of the Latino Coalition for Israel; Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation; Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy antisemitism special envoy in the first Trump administration; and Luke Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project.
The task force co-chairs said in the email that if an agreement is not reached soon, their relationship with Heritage “will be irrevocably harmed.”
“If the terms aren’t met, we will take the NTFCA elsewhere,” Moon told JI on Tuesday. The task force’s members played a major role in the drafting of Project Esther, an antisemitism plan published by the Heritage Foundation last year.
A spokesperson for the Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several organizations have already pulled out of the task force to protest Heritage following the release of Roberts’ video last week, including the Zionist Organization of America, Young Jewish Conservatives, the Coalition for Jewish Values and Combat Antisemitism Movement.
In a Monday night speech, Roberts said Heritage “will never, ever, ever stop fighting against antisemitism in all its forms.” He offered an apology to his “Jewish friends” without addressing the controversy over Carlson directly.
Plus, Moulton turned on AIPAC after seeking its endorsement ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Tucker Carlson speaks at his Live Tour at the Desert Diamond Arena on October 31, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview the elections to watch today, and report on the wait-and-see approach that the chairs of an antisemitism task force affiliated with the Heritage Foundation are taking in the wake of Heritage President Kevin Roberts’ recent defense of Tucker Carlson. We talk to GOP senators about the parallels between the right’s embrace of Carlson and left-wing antisemitism, and report on Rep. Seth Moulton’s about-face on AIPAC over the summer after the group failed to guarantee support for his Senate bid. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rahm Emanuel, Walt Weiss and Tulsi Gabbard.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a towering figure in Republican politics who led the “war on terror,” died last night, his family said in a statement. Cheney, who was vice president for both of President George W. Bush’s terms, previously served as White House chief of staff, congressman representing Wyoming and secretary of defense. He was 84.
- It’s Election Day in a number of states and cities around the country. In New York City, voters head to the polls today to cast their ballots for mayor and city council. We’re also watching the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as the redistricting ballot initiative in California and the mayoral races in Minneapolis and Seattle. More below on the races to watch.
- In New York City, the World Zionist Organization and Temple Emanu-El are holding an event marking the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin’s grandson Jonathan Benartzi, Shalom Hartman Institute President Yehuda Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick and peace activist Alana Zeitchik are slated to speak.
- Elsewhere in New York, the La’Aretz Foundation is holding its third annual benefit to support Israeli families in crisis. Israel’s consul general in New York, Ambassador Ofir Akunis, is slated to give remarks at the event, which will include food by Eyal Shani and will include Israeli “spokeskid” Ben Carasso and a performance by an IDF soldier in an elite unit who is known only as “M.”
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar
The stakes for Jewish voters are high for today’s off-year elections. All the major contests — in New York City, New Jersey, Virginia and California — are taking place in parts of the country where Jews make up a significant constituency. At a time when both parties are facing rising antisemitism in their own midst, we will be keeping a close eye on the results for trends affecting the Jewish community.
Here’s what we’ll be watching most closely:
New York City mayor: Polls consistently show Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani with a comfortable lead, but there’s less consensus on how decisive his winning margin will be. Most polls show Mamdani under 50%, though a few show him hitting a majority. Some show the combined anti-Mamdani vote — represented by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa — outpacing Mamdani’s share.
Whether Mamdani surpasses a 50% majority will go a long way in determining how big his mandate will be. A narrower victory would mean that downballot Democrats — from members of Congress to local city council members — would have less to fear in response to the Mamdani movement.
President Donald Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Cuomo on Monday night could help the former Democratic governor pick off some Republican voters that had been leaning toward Sliwa. But for Cuomo to score an upset victory, he’d need to win over the vast majority of those Sliwa voters.
Pay close attention to the results in Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-NY) heavily Jewish Manhattan district for signs of where the progressive-minded Jewish vote ends up landing. Cuomo won the first round of balloting over Mamdani in the district (37-33%), which includes the Upper East and Upper West Sides, but Mamdani narrowly prevailed in the final round of ranked-choice voting. Nadler notably backed Mamdani after his victory in the primary, but his district featured a significant share of backers for Brad Lander, the progressive city comptroller, as well. Cuomo will need a solid showing in Nadler’s district to do well.
New Jersey governor: The race between Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Republican Jack Ciattarelli is competitive, though Democrats hold a small edge, according to public polls. The county we’ll be watching closely as a bellwether is Bergen County in north Jersey, which has one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the state and saw a significant pro-Trump swing from 2020 to 2024.
It’s also home to Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), the pro-Israel stalwart in Congress who carried the county in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and campaigned with Sherrill at a Jewish event in his home base last month.
Former President Joe Biden won 57% of the vote in Bergen, while former Vice President Kamala Harris barely won a majority (51%). New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, won 53% of the Bergen County vote in his narrow victory over Ciattarelli in 2021. Ciattarelli would probably need an outright win in suburban Bergen to secure a victory.
scoop
Co-chairs of conservative antisemitism task force stand by Heritage — for now
The leaders of an antisemitism task force closely affiliated with the Heritage Foundation said on Monday that they would stand by the conservative institution for now as its president faces backlash for defending Tucker Carlson, following the conservative podcaster’s controversial interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes. The co-chairs of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a right-wing group that played a key role in drafting Heritage’s Project Esther antisemitism plan last year, said in a Monday night email to task force members that they had spoken with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts earlier in the day, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Working it out: “He shared his apology about how he has handled this issue, and was very open to our counsel,” the task force co-chairs wrote in the email, which was obtained by JI. “Because of this we are asking the members of the taskforce to give us additional time to work out the practical steps moving forward.” The four co-chairs are Mario Bramnick, a Florida pastor and president of the Latino Coalition for Israel; Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation; Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy antisemitism special envoy in the first Trump administration; and Luke Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project. At least two organizations resigned from the antisemitism task force earlier Monday: Young Jewish Conservatives and the Zionist Organization of America.
NOT IN MY TENT
More GOP senators sound alarm on right-wing antisemitism
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) warned on Monday against the mainstreaming of antisemitic figures within the conservative movement in response to Tucker Carlson’s platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes. Hawley, an ally of the national conservative movement who has advocated for the Trump administration to take an aggressive approach to combating campus antisemitism, made the comments while speaking to Jewish Insider about the controversy surrounding Fuentes’ appearance on Carlson’s podcast late last week, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
What he said: “I just think on the substance of what he says, I mean, it’s antisemitic. Let’s just call it for what it is, let’s not sugarcoat it,” Hawley said of Fuentes. “That’s not who we are as Republicans, as conservatives. Listen, this is America. He can have whatever views he wants. But the question for us as conservatives is: Are those views going to define who we are? And I think we need to say, ‘No, they’re not. No. Just no, no, no,’” he continued. “We need to be really clear, and I say that not only as a conservative, but also as a Christian. There is no place for antisemitic hatred, tropes, any of that stuff. I just think we’ve gotta say that stuff.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Rick Scott (R-FL).
The X FACTOR
Conservatives resist blaming Musk for reinstating Nick Fuentes on X
Conservatives are largely giving Elon Musk a pass as criticism mounts over the spread of antisemitic content on X — where white nationalist Nick Fuentes, reinstated to the platform last year, is once again in the spotlight after a friendly interview with Tucker Carlson. X is the only mainstream social media site where Fuentes is still allowed to have an account, after being banned on Meta’s platforms and on YouTube for a long history of hateful rhetoric targeting Jews, women, Black people and many other minority groups. Many conservatives, even those who have sharply condemned Carlson for hosting Fuentes, believe banning people because of their beliefs, no matter how hateful, is wrong, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Content questions: “I believe that Nick Fuentes is odious and despicable, but I’ve never called for his cancellation, and in fact, I’ve called for his restoration to those services, despite the fact that I think he’s odious and despicable,” Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro said on Monday in a podcast. “The issue here isn’t that Tucker Carlson had Nick Fuentes on his show last week. He has every right to do that, of course. The issue here is that Tucker Carlson decided to normalize and fluff Nick Fuentes, and that the Heritage Foundation then decided to robustly defend that performance.”
SCOOP
Before denouncing AIPAC, Moulton sought group’s endorsement for Senate campaign, source says
Before making public denunciations and rejections of AIPAC an early pillar of his Senate campaign against Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) spent months seeking a promise that the group would endorse him upon the announcement of his Senate campaign, a source familiar with the situation said, Jewish Insider Marc Rod reports.
Behind the scenes: The source said that Moulton — who has been endorsed by AIPAC in previous races — began courting AIPAC leaders in Massachusetts in the spring this year and then made multiple explicit requests for an endorsement throughout the summer. AIPAC leaders were ultimately unwilling to provide such a guarantee before the race began, the individual said. On the second day of his nascent primary campaign, Moulton released an announcement rejecting AIPAC and saying that he would return any donations he had received from its members. He has continued to hammer the group since then, saying in a recent interview that his break with AIPAC was “a long time coming.”
PARTNERSHIP PROBLEMS
Rep. Jerry Nadler, state Sen. Liz Krueger silent as Mamdani entertains Cornell Tech boycott
As mayor, Zohran Mamdani has said he would reassess the partnership between Cornell University and Israel’s Technion, potentially kicking the joint Cornell Tech campus out of its home on Roosevelt Island in New York City. But two Jewish Mamdani backers who represent Roosevelt Island and have supported the project have been silent about his plans, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: Mamdani’s campaign told The New York Times and Ynet that he would reassess the partnership if elected. As mayor, Mamdani would have the authority to appoint new members to Roosevelt Island’s governing board, giving him influence over management of the island. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and state Sen. Liz Krueger, both of whom have been supporters of Mamdani, as well as active backers of the Cornell Tech campus, did not respond to requests for comment. Both have appointees on the community task force that supported the construction of the campus, which is within their districts.
BIRTHDAY BASH
Birthright Israel Foundation celebrates 25 years with $220M raised toward new $900M campaign
In 1999, with the lofty goal of bringing every young Jewish adult to Israel free of cost, the nascent Birthright Israel Foundation launched its first trip to the Jewish state. Over the next 25 years, the organization would bring over 900,000 young Jews from some 70 countries to Israel. Last night, at a gala marking a quarter century of activity at Manhattan’s Pier Sixty, Birthright Israel Foundation’s CEO Elias Saratovsky announced two new goals: a $900 million fundraising campaign aimed at securing the organization’s future and bringing 200,000 participants to Israel over the next five years, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports for Jewish Insider.
Saratovsky’s sights: The campaign has already secured more than $220 million in commitments, Saratovsky said — $132 million toward its $650 million goal for trips, and $90 million toward its $250 million goal for legacy commitments. “We have a solid foundation of gifts,” he said. “We’re grateful to everyone who has given so far, and now the opportunity we have in front of us is to ask the entire Jewish community to support an organization that has impacted the entire Jewish world over the last two and a half decades.”
Worthy Reads
Hamas’ Miscalculation: In The Wall Street Journal, Ophir Falk, who was a member of Israel’s hostage negotiation delegation, posits that Hamas’ decision to take hostages on Oct. 7, 2023, was ultimately what led the terror group to agree last month to a ceasefire that demands its disarmament. “The hostage-taking prevented the conflict from dissolving into the traditional false narratives about ‘occupation,’ ‘resistance’ and ‘apartheid.’ Despite strenuous efforts to turn reality on its head, including through bogus international lawfare, many saw the truth — innocent people being held hostage by a genocidal terrorist organization committed to murdering Jews. Even Israel’s harshest critics struggled to argue that a nation should abandon its captive citizens. The hostage-taking provided what decades of legitimate Israeli grievances couldn’t: a broadly recognized imperative that eventually overcame the propaganda. The Palestinians’ greatest weapon — the ability to manipulate international sympathy — turned against them.” [WSJ]
What BDS is Really About: In Real Clear Policy, John Finley, the senior managing director and chief legal officer of Blackstone, argues that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has reached an “inflection point” in the U.S. “The goals of BDS, in addition to seeking an end to the ‘occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall,’ are often cloaked in terms of either support for an undefined Palestinian liberation or Palestinian’s inalienable rights such as equality and an inclusive democracy that celebrates diversity. … The acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state is foundational to peace in the region because the rationale for Israel’s existence is inseparable from it being a Jewish state. There is no Israel without Zionism and there is no Zionism without Israel.” [RealClearPolicy]
Israel at a Crossroads: The New York Times’ David Halbfinger does a temperature check on the national mood in Israel, which just marked the 30th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. “In conversations with ordinary Israelis, there is a palpable sense that the nation is at a crossroads — and not just over what to do about Gaza. Tens of thousands more people emigrated from Israel over the past year than immigrated to the country. Many Israelis across the political spectrum say they believe the election to be held sometime in the coming year will be climactic and decisive, with its outcome determining the future character of the country and whether more citizens will choose to stay or leave. … Much will hinge on what Mr. Netanyahu decides in the coming months: what he is pressured into doing or accepting, what he prioritizes above all else and what, at 76, he wants his legacy to be.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
The U.S. is circulating a draft U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the establishment of an international security force in Gaza that would operate in the enclave through the end of 2027…
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard met with senior Israeli military officials during a surprise two-day visit to the country earlier this week…
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) blasted the New Jersey Education Association over plans for an anti-Israel “Teaching Palestine” session scheduled during the union’s conference taking place this week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed a wide range of security challenges facing Israel, outlining his long-term vision for confronting Iran, expanding regional defense cooperation and managing Gaza’s postwar recovery. Speaking at a web event hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Gantz called Iran a “global challenge and threat to the State of Israel” and proposed a five-point plan to ensure Iran’s abandonment of its nuclear ambitions by 2028, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Reps. Andy Barr (R-TN) and Jefferson Shreve (R-IN) called for the U.S. government to designate the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad, also known as the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, as an affiliate of Hamas and a Specially Designated Terrorist group, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) said yesterday he would not seek reelection next year; Garcia’s chief of staff, Patty Garcia, filed paperwork to run for the seat hours before the Monday filing deadline, in what critics said was an effort to deny voters in the Illinois district a fair open primary…
A new poll released Monday by the Democratic Majority for Israel finds Democrats broadly support the ceasefire and hostage-release deal reached between Israel and Hamas and a majority of them think President Donald Trump played at least a “somewhat important role” in reaching the agreement, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports…
The Atlanta Braves named Walt Weiss as the team’s new manager, while the Miami Marlins promoted Gabe Kapler to become the team’s new general manager…
Far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is visiting Israel this week, received Pentagon press credentials, after the Defense Department instituted new, more stringent policies regarding press access…
The Washington Post reviews Jane Eisner’s biography of Carole King, which does a deep dive into the singer’s Jewish upbringing…
The World Zionist Congress reached a new tentative power-sharing deal that would see an even split between the center-left and center-right blocs in the control of the World Zionist Organization and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, said that 5 million of the approximately 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust have now been identified by name…
The Washington Post looks at the disagreement between Israel and the U.S. over Turkey’s potential role in post-war Gaza…
Israel released the bodies of 45 Palestinians on Monday following Hamas’ repatriation of the bodies of three Israeli soldiers who were killed on Oct. 7, 2023…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, who has led Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen for more than a decade as he has evaded multiple assassination attempts and directed the terror group’s destabilizing activity across the region…
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that nuclear negotiations with the U.S. would not be possible as long as Washington supports Israel and maintains military bases across the region…
Pic of the Day
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel addressed attendees at the opening VIP reception at the Nova Music Festival exhibition in Chicago last night. The traveling exhibition, which has run in New York, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, opens to the public today.
Birthdays
Professor at UCSF and winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in medicine, David Jay Julius turns 70…
Professor emeritus of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, Daniel Sperber turns 85… Vice-chairman emeritus of AllianceBernstein, he is a former chairman of the Tikvah Fund, Roger Hertog turns 84… Political scientist who has published works on grand strategy, military history and international relations, Edward Luttwak turns 83… Member of Congress and chair of the House Budget Committee until 2023, he was Kentucky’s first Jewish congressman, John Yarmuth turns 78… Former chief of the general staff of the IDF, then minister of defense and member of Knesset for Kadima, Shaul Mofaz turns 77… Uruguayan biologist, he served as mayor of Montevideo and then as a national cabinet minister, Ricardo Ehrlich turns 77… Professor of medicine at England’s University of Birmingham and a leading British authority on organ donation and transplantation, James Max Neuberger turns 76… Board member of Jewish Funders Network and a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, Dorothy Tananbaum… Marketing and communications consultant focused on Israel advocacy and the Jewish community, Robert L. Kern… U.K. politician who served as a Conservative party MP and cabinet minister, he was chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel, Baron Richard Irwin Harrington turns 68… Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 2013, Kenneth I. Gordon turns 66… Ombudsman at CBS and Japan chair at the Hudson Institute, Kenneth R. “Ken” Weinstein turns 64… Author of five books, comedic actress and television host, Annabelle Gurwitch turns 64… Professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, she is known for her expertise on feminist theory and modern Jewish thought, Claire Elise Katz turns 61… CEO and Chairman of RXR Realty, he also serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Board of Directors, Scott Rechler turns 58… Israeli screenwriter and film director, Eran Kolirin turns 52… Partner at Paragon Strategic Insights, a consulting firm for non-profits, Jeremy Chwat… Co-founder of Semafor, Benjamin Eli “Ben” Smith turns 49… MLB pitcher who appeared in 506 games over his nine-year career, John William Grabow turns 47… Global head of strategic communications at McKinsey & Company, Max Gleischman… Opinion columnist at The Washington Post, she is also a commentator for CNN and a correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour,” Catherine Chelsea Rampell turns 41… Heavily favored to be elected to Congress tomorrow from New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, Maggie Goodlander turns 39… Founder and CEO at Denver-based Fresh Tape Media, Jared Kleinstein… Founder and CEO of a health organization working for early detection and prevention of cancer, Yael Cohen Braun turns 39… Acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Addar Weintraub Levi… Senior coordinator for management at the Office of Management and Budget, she is a White House nominee as a CFTC commissioner, Julie Brinn Siegel turns 38… Former White House special representative for international negotiations, Avi Berkowitz… Recording artist, songwriter and entertainer known as Yoni Z, Yoni Zigelboum turns 34… Israeli professional stock car racing driver, he is the first Israeli to compete in one of NASCAR’s top three touring series, Alon Day turns 34… Founding editor of Healthcare Brew, a vertical of Morning Brew, Amanda E. Eisenberg… Bob Rubin…
X is the only mainstream social media platform where Fuentes is allowed to have an account; he was unblocked in May 2024 and now has over 1 million followers
Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Nick Fuentes, the leader of a Christian based extremist white nationalist group speaks to his followers, 'the Groypers.' in Washington D.C. on November 14, 2020
When Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts responded to the latest controversy roiling the Republican Party — podcaster Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes — it was a touch ironic that Roberts’ chosen venue to defend Carlson was on the social media platform X, where Roberts posted a video on Thursday calling Carlson a “close friend.”
That’s because X is the only mainstream social media site where Fuentes is still allowed to have an account, after being banned on Meta’s platforms and on YouTube for a long history of hateful rhetoric targeting Jews, women, Black people and many other minority groups. The far-right conspiracy theorist was once banned from X, too, but owner Elon Musk allowed Fuentes back onto the platform last year.
“He will be reinstated, provided he does not violate the law, and let him be crushed by the comments and Community Notes,” Musk posted on X in May 2024. “It is better to have anti whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness.”
Now, Fuentes has more than a million followers on the platform and a wider reach than ever before. His interview with Carlson, where he said a “big challenge” to unifying the country is “organized Jewry,” has more than 17 million views on X and 5 million views on YouTube.
Their interview — and the fact that Heritage, one of the most venerable conservative institutions in the country, is defending Carlson — has sparked a reckoning in the Republican Party about a growing strain of antisemitism on the right. It has also reignited a debate about “cancel culture” and social media, and whether platforms like X have a responsibility to police the content that appears there.
Many conservatives, even those who have sharply condemned Carlson for hosting Fuentes, believe banning people because of their beliefs, no matter how hateful, is wrong.
“I believe that Nick Fuentes is odious and despicable, but I’ve never called for his cancellation, and in fact, I’ve called for his restoration to those services, despite the fact that I think he’s odious and despicable,” Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro said on Monday in a podcast. “The issue here isn’t that Tucker Carlson had Nick Fuentes on his show last week. He has every right to do that, of course. The issue here is that Tucker Carlson decided to normalize and fluff Nick Fuentes, and that the Heritage Foundation then decided to robustly defend that performance.”
(Roberts pledged to stand against antisemitism and offered an apology to his “Jewish friends” in a Monday night speech.)
Tal Fortgang, a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank, argued that banning Fuentes in the first place gave him the oxygen he craved — which increased exponentially when Musk then publicly allowed him to return to the platform after reversing the content moderation policies of X’s prior management, when he purchased the company in 2022.
“These underground counter-cultural movements thrive on being policed. They see that internally as a sign that they’re winning,” Fortgang told Jewish Insider. “What does empower people like Fuentes is saying, ‘Only certain people are going to be allowed to post on X. We’re going to have ill-defined content moderation policies, and we thought he was forbidden, but turns out, he’s permitted.’ That sends a message that he is within the window of acceptable discourse.”
Fuentes is still banned on other social media sites, even as other popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have rolled back some of their own content moderation policies this year.
“They’re doing less than they used to do, but they’re still doing more than X,” Yfat Barak-Cheney, director of international affairs and director of technology and human rights at the World Jewish Congress, said of the other major social media platforms. X is “absolutely” the mainstream social media site where antisemitism is most visible and most tolerated, she said. A September report from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs found that antisemitism is “thriving in plain sight” on X.
“Research has definitely shown that since the takeover [by Musk], between a change in the consequences or the sanctions on hateful speech, the reduction of the size of the teams working on this and the general atmosphere on the platform, we’ve definitely seen a lot more right-wing extremism and antisemitism, and also from the left,” Barak-Cheny told JI. “It’s just a platform that’s easier to work on without being sanctioned.”
X’s policies still prohibit abuse and hateful content, particularly when targeting users directly. But enforcement of those policies is at best inconsistent and at worst near-nonexistent. (A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment.)
“We are concerned about the spread of antisemitism and extremism, on social media platforms, including X, where antisemites and extremists are operating largely unchecked,” a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League said. “We continue to urge these platforms to invest in their trust and safety teams and engage in meaningful content moderation to ensure Jewish and all users are safe.”
Some Fuentes critics tried to walk a fine line between expressing concern about his reinstatement and reiterating their opposition to censorship.
“Musk went too far in opening up his venue,” said David Bernstein, founder of the North American Values Institute, which fights left-wing antisemitism. “Those who have tried to regulate speech have gone too far in the opposite direction.”
Karen Paikin Barall, chief policy officer at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a nonprofit legal center, suggested that allowing Fuentes back on X may have been a mistake, though she did not call for his removal.
“Free speech must never be hindered. It’s one of the core principles on which our nation was founded. But platforms like Discord, Steam, Twitch, Reddit, Meta, X and TikTok need to enforce their own rules consistently, without double standards when it comes to Jews,” Barall told JI, before adding: “Allowing someone like Nick Fuentes back on a major platform raises real concerns about consistency and accountability.”
If Fuentes were once again removed from X, it might give those who oppose his hate-filled ideology some relief. But one Jewish official at a different technology company, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to press, cautioned that it is Fuentes’ interlocutor Carlson — who has given a platform to prominent right-wing antisemites over the past year — who offers a warning for what happens when institutional guardrails are removed.
“Everyone who thought Tucker was a problem when he was at Fox and saw him trending in this direction saw some comfort in the fact that he was going to be off Fox News. And what did that do? It liberated him,” said the tech company staffer. “It didn’t, like, de-platform him. There’s no such thing as de-platforming anymore. You can’t do it, not really. They’ll find a way.”
American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Danielle Pletka wrote in a blog post on Monday that “silence is complicity” as she called for fellow conservatives to call out Roberts’ actions at Heritage, and to condemn Carlson and Fuentes. But she told JI that the answer is not kicking Fuentes off X again.
“Censorship is not the right tool. It really isn’t. And censorship doesn’t make bad people go away. To the contrary, it makes them go underground,” Pletka said. “I’d rather know who these people are.”
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, in speech at Hillsdale College: ‘We will never, ever, ever stop fighting against antisemitism in all its forms’
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
The leaders of an antisemitism task force closely affiliated with the Heritage Foundation said on Monday that they would stand by the conservative institution for now as its president faces backlash for defending Tucker Carlson, following the conservative podcaster’s controversial interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.
The co-chairs of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a right-wing group that played a key role in drafting Heritage’s Project Esther antisemitism plan last year, said in a Monday night email to task force members that they had spoken with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts earlier in the day.
“He shared his apology about how he has handled this issue, and was very open to our counsel,” the task force co-chairs wrote in the email, which was obtained by Jewish Insider. “Because of this we are asking the members of the taskforce to give us additional time to work out the practical steps moving forward.”
The four co-chairs are Mario Bramnick, a Florida pastor and president of the Latino Coalition for Israel; Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation; Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy antisemitism special envoy in the first Trump administration; and Luke Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project.
In the email, Bramnick, Coates, Cohanim and Moon, all staunch supporters of President Donald Trump, said the “conservative movement” is at an “inflection point.”
“We can allow the movement to elevate the most base identitarian elements within the movement or we can choose to build on the wins of the last year under President Donald Trump’s leadership,” they wrote. “When we started the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism the challenges before us were from the pro-Hamas radical Left. More recently, forces have begun to come together to aggressively push antisemitism on the Right. Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes are the most notable, but not the only voices we need to contend.”
The four co-chairs urged their task force members to “stick with us.” They said they will “work closely” with Roberts and the Heritage leadership “over the next several days.”
Roberts has faced significant backlash for defending Carlson and his choice to host Fuentes, including from some Republican senators. Amid the criticism, he has made clear his disavowal of Fuentes’ racist and antisemitic beliefs while standing by Carlson.
In a Monday night speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan, Roberts took a sharp line against antisemitism and offered an apology to his “Jewish friends.”
“Let me say loud and clear: The Heritage Foundation, which has always not only stood against antisemitism — and I, if you know anything about my career, have done the same — we will never, ever, ever stop fighting against antisemitism in all its forms,” he said.
At least two organizations resigned from the antisemitism task force earlier Monday: Young Jewish Conservatives and the Zionist Organization of America.
“While we understand that many pro-Israel, pro-America conservatives remain at the Heritage Foundation, the buck stops with Dr. Roberts. As long as he remains at the helm and Heritage continues its alliance with a vocal purveyor of antisemitism in the United States, Young Jewish Conservative[s] has no choice but to withdraw its membership in the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism,” Young Jewish Conservatives announced in a statement.
ZOA National President Morton Klein said the organization would quit its involvement with Project Esther “unless Heritage President Kevin Roberts publicly and immediately condemns Carlson’s actions and statements, apologizes for Roberts’ video statements and ends Roberts’ and Heritage’s relationship with Tucker Carlson.”
The senator’s comments at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering came after the Heritage Foundation defended Tucker Carlson and refused to disavow neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes
WADE VANDERVORT/AFP via Getty Images
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 19, 2022.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized Republicans who refuse to disavow prominent antisemites in the conservative movement as “cowards” after the Heritage Foundation and its president, Kevin Roberts, defended Tucker Carlson and his friendly interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.
Cruz warned during a half hour address at the opening of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit in Las Vegas on Thursday evening that young Christians were turning away from supporting Israel, something he argued was the result of pro-Israel Christians being maligned by leading voices in the America First movement.
The Texas Republican senator did not mention the Heritage Foundation, Roberts, Carlson or Fuentes by name, though he accused anyone who uncritically promotes Adolf Hitler of being “complicit” in spreading virulent antisemitism.
Fuentes has praised Hitler on multiple occasions; in his statement, Roberts said he “disagree[s] with” some of Fuentes’ views, “but canceling him is not the answer.”
“The last year, we’ve seen three prominent people on the right publicly muse, ‘Gosh, maybe Hitler’s not all that bad.’ No. He is the embodiment of evil, a grotesque bigot. And if you’re confused by that, you’re an imbecile,” Cruz said on Thursday. “Too many people are scared to confront them. I want to ask you, how many elected Republicans do you see standing up and calling this out? How many do you see willing to take on the voices in the anti-Israel right?”
“More than a few of my Republican officeholders are terrified of upsetting people with really big megaphones,” he explained.
Cruz warned that antisemitic ideas are spreading among young Americans through social media and argued that rising support for isolationism and the pro-Israel community’s failure to adequately explain the benefits of the U.S.-Israel relationship accounted for the broad ideological shifts on the issue — but he noted that there “is also a theological argument” being made on the Christian right against Jews.
“We are seeing young Christians and young evangelicals turning against Israel, and they are being pitched lies,” Cruz said. “One particular lie is something called replacement theology, and replacement theology is a twisted view that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, that the promises in the Old Testament no longer apply and that Christians have replaced Jews. Now in my Bible, I believe every word of it is true, and I believe every promise that God made to the people of Israel remains a promise that is made to the chosen people.”
After noting that he was “proud to be a Christian Zionist,” Cruz noted Carlson’s recent comments expressing his disdain for people who identify as such while appearing to note his protected status in the Trump administration. Carlson attacked Cruz and other pro-Israel conservatives, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, by name in his podcast conversation with Fuentes, where Carlson claimed that those who identify as Christian Zionists have been infected by a “brain virus.”
“There are some people who are embraced at the highest level of government who said there is no one they hate more than Christian Zionists,” Cruz said. “Well, I’ll tell you what, there’s no one I hate more than communists and jihadists who want to murder us. Now is the time for choosing. Now is the time for courage.”
“If you sit there and nod adoringly while someone tells you that Winston Churchill was the villain of World War II, if you sit there and nod while someone says, ‘Well, there’s a very good argument that America should have intervened on behalf of Nazi Germany in World War II.’ If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing, then you are a coward, and you are complicit in that evil,” he added.
Omri Ceren, Cruz’s legislative director and longtime advisor, criticized Heritage directly in a post on X on Friday morning, writing that: “I mean, if Republican Jews don’t have a place at @Heritage that’s a choice its current leadership is institutionally empowered to make, but it sits uncomfortably with the organization’s history.”
Cruz’s comments were met with praise from Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special antisemitism envoy during the Biden administration, who posted a message on X commending the Texas Republican.
Plus, RJC celebrates 40th anniversary in Vegas
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Tucker Carlson speaks at his Live Tour at the Desert Diamond Arena on October 31, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Heritage Foundation head Kevin Roberts’ decision to stand by “close friend” Tucker Carlson, and cover the advancement of a graduate student government resolution at Cornell accusing Jews of “weaponizing antisemitism.” We look at the frequently ignored role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the conflict in Sudan, and talk to legislators on Capitol Hill about recent Iranian moves to rebuild the country’s ballistic missile program with support from China. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Elise Stefanik, Morris Katz and Rebecca Taibleson.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve. Have a tip? Email us here.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Scott Wiener, looking to succeed Pelosi, balances progressive politics with Jewish allyship; The highest ideals and pettiest politics of the World Zionist Congress; and Ackman sees Gaza truce easing Saudi path to Abraham Accords. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- The Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit kicks off today in Las Vegas. Attending the conference? Keep an eye out for JI’s Matthew Kassel.
- In Detroit, Yeshiva Beth Yehudah is hosting its annual dinner on Sunday evening. This year’s featured speakers are Detroit Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
- The IISS Manama Dialogue kicked off in Bahrain earlier today. Speakers at the weekend-long confab include U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and senior Emirati official Anwar Gargash.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL
The Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit kicks off tonight at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas with much to celebrate.
President Donald Trump’s recently brokered ceasefire and hostage-release agreement is certain to be among the administration’s accomplishments touted by a range of high-profile speakers including Cabinet officials, congressional leaders, pundits and media figures.
The RJC is also celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and the proceedings will feature “content about where we came from and where we are today,” said Sam Markstein, the group’s national political director.
“It’s come a long way from its humble beginnings,” Markstein told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday.
Hanging over the three-day conference, however, is the specter of rising antisemitism on the party’s far right, an issue that Markstein said the RJC does not intend to avoid.
It’s a particularly timely, and urgent, subject as the RJC prepares to convene days after Tucker Carlson hosted the neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on his podcast for a friendly interview. Carlson has faced backlash for not only inviting Fuentes onto his show but for failing to challenge any of his viciously antisemitic views — including admiration for Adolf Hitler and Holocaust denial.
During the interview, Carlson himself also expressed his disdain for Christian Zionists including Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, whom he accused of being “seized by this brain virus.” (More below on the Heritage Foundation’s defense of Carlson and the subsequent response from the RJC.)
Huckabee, for his part, is slated to give remarks, via livestream, during the RJC’s confab. Other outspoken critics of Carlson’s antisemitic turn, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Fox News host Mark Levin, will also be in attendance.
The summit will also feature House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, among others. The four Jewish Republicans serving in the House are joining as well: Reps. Craig Goldman (R-TX), Randy Fine (R-FL), Max Miller (R-OH) and David Kustoff (R-TN).
team tucker
Heritage Foundation president refuses to disavow ‘close friend’ Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes over antisemitism
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts doubled down on the influential conservative group’s support for Tucker Carlson, who has been leaning into increasingly explicit antisemitism and opposition to Israel on his podcast, and expressed unwillingness to “cancel” neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Chain of events: Roberts’ comments come after a friendly Carlson interview with Fuentes, in which Carlson described Christian Zionists as infected by a “brain virus.” Carlson said he dislikes Christian Zionists “more than anybody. Because it’s Christian heresy, and I’m offended by that as a Christian,” pointing to conservatives including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has repeatedly sparred with Carlson over Israel and antisemitism, and Ambassador Mike Huckabee. On Wednesday, reports arose that Heritage had scrubbed references to Carlson from one of its donation pages. Roberts, in a video posted on X on Thursday amid online discussion of Heritage’s relationship with Carlson, said he refused to cancel Carlson or Fuentes and that the group would “always” defend Carlson from the “pressure” of the “globalist class.”
Communal concern: Jewish conservatives, including the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, condemned Roberts’ defense of Carlson. RJC CEO Matt Brooks said that Heritage’s defense of Carlson and Fuentes “is a total abrogation of their mission and what it means to be a conservative today.” Brooks said there will now be a “reassessment” of the RJC’s relationship with the Heritage Foundation.
WEAPONS WORRIES
Iran’s moves to rebuild missile program, supported by China, raise concerns on Capitol Hill
Iran’s recent moves to rebuild its ballistic missile program, with materials imported from China in circumvention of international sanctions, are prompting concerns on Capitol Hill, with multiple lawmakers saying that the efforts should be met with a strong response from the United States, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, during which he agreed to cut U.S. tariffs on Beijing in exchange for a series of steps by China, including pausing export controls on rare earths and agreeing to a sale of TikTok. Trump also halted the implementation of a measure that would have banned Chinese firms that are partly owned by sanctioned companies from obtaining U.S. technologies.
Hill reactions: No measures relating to China and Chinese firms’ continued evasion of Iran sanctions — either in supplying materials to Iran or receiving a majority of Iran’s oil exports — were announced by either side. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they had not seen the CNN reporting, which cited European intelligence that Iran was importing components of ballistic missile fuel from China, on the issue, but expressed concerns. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said he’s “not surprised” by the news because “we all have to understand that Russia, Iran, China, North Korea — they’re all working together to demolish our way of life.” He said that he expects that the U.S. and Israel are going to have to take further military action against Iran in the future.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), James Lankford (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
SELECTIVE SUDAN OUTRAGE
Anti-Israel activists, lawmakers ignore Muslim Brotherhood, Iran links to Sudan’s SAF
In recent days, a chorus of left-wing lawmakers in Congress has ramped up its ire towards the United Arab Emirates, accusing the Gulf country of helping fuel the yearslong civil war in Sudan by reportedly backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the non-Islamist Arab force fighting the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. The U.S. government, under former President Joe Biden, determined the RSF was committing genocide and found both the RSF and SAF guilty of committing war crimes.
SAF supporters: Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence with the Sudanese Armed Forces has alarmed experts, who warn that the SAF’s deepening ties to Islamist networks threaten regional stability and could pose a risk far beyond the eastern African nation. “The Muslim Brotherhood has had a strong presence in Sudan since the 1940s and that presence has evolved over the years,” Norman Roule, a former senior U.S. intelligence official, told JI. “It’s important to note that this presence is also why Iran is such a strong supporter of the Burhan [head of SAF] government.”
Read the full story here.
new approach
NAVI’s Bernstein calls for reclaiming classical liberal values as a bulwark against antisemitism
The current level of antisemitism in the U.S “is a political problem, not an educational problem” that “requires a new set of organizations” to solve, David Bernstein, founder of the North American Values Institute, said on Thursday. “A group of radicals have seized control over some of the key institutions, from higher education to K-12. It didn’t happen overnight, it happened over a number of years, but it sort of reached a tipping point,” in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, Bernstein said during an online conversation hosted by Tikvah Ideas, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Community challenges: The discussion addressed the reemergence of antisemitism in American life, the Jewish community’s efforts to confront it and the effectiveness of legacy organizations trying to do so. The event also featured historian Jack Wertheimer — who earlier this month published a Mosaic essay on the rise of antisemitism in America, in which he interviewed some 40 Jewish community professionals. The talk was moderated by Mosaic‘s editor, Jonathan Silver. Bernstein continued, “In order to fight against radical ideology, we have to ask, what’s the opposite of that? And to me, that’s Western values, enlightenment values, classical liberal values. We like to call them American civic values, right? These are the values of pluralism, free expression of ideas, or in Jewish terms, it would be machloket l’shem shamayim, arguments for the sake of heaven. Equality of opportunity, the rule of law. This is the core of the American creed. And I believe it is that core has kept America safe and has sort of pushed the radicals to the margins of society.”
CAMPUS BEAT
BDS resolution accusing Jews of ‘weaponizing antisemitism’ advances in Cornell grad student union
A BDS resolution that accuses Jewish students of “weaponizing antisemitism” and blames labor disputes on “Zionist interests” is advancing in the Cornell University Graduate Student Union — where unlike many other unions, dues are mandatory, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What it says: The draft resolution, which was published earlier this month and obtained by JI, states that “the dismantling of unions in higher education based on Zionist interests is not only to the detriment of graduate worker unions — it threatens the working class and labor unions nationwide.” The resolution also says that a September Senate Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Committee subcommittee hearing focused on antisemitism within unions “succinctly crystallizes how autocrats are weaponizing antisemitism charges against unions in higher education to undermine labor unions nationwide.”
show of solidarity
Overhauled Kennedy Center takes on the mantle of combating antisemitism
Artist and curator Josef Palermo has lived in Washington for nearly two decades, but he wasn’t aware that the Kennedy Center had an Israeli lounge until he joined the venerable cultural institution as its curator of visual arts and special programming this summer. The Israeli Lounge has been underutilized in recent decades and largely unknown, even among the many Jewish patrons of the arts at the Kennedy Center. Yitzhak Rabin, then Israel’s ambassador to the United States, dedicated the lounge — a small room designed to visually tell the history of Jewish and Israeli music — as Israel’s gift to the United States in 1971, when the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors alongside the Potomac River. Now, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s takeover of the institution, the walls of the Israeli Lounge are covered with paintings by American-Israeli artist Marc Provisor as part of a special monthlong exhibit commemorating the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel. Provisor’s son survived the Nova music festival, and the paintings are meant to bear witness to the brutality of what happened there, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
A picture’s worth: The exhibit, the opening of which was tied to the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, marks the beginning of what Kennedy Center leaders say is an institutional commitment to combating antisemitism through the arts, first and foremost by spotlighting the works and contributions of Jewish artists. “This will not be the last time that we see some work related to antisemitism, or just celebrating the Jewish American community experience,” Palermo, who curated the Oct. 7 exhibit, told JI in an interview last week.
Worthy Reads
Battering Rahm: The Atlantic’s Ashley Parker profiles former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel as he mulls a 2028 presidential bid. “The case against Rahm Emanuel, according to critics: He’s not progressive enough. His only ideology is winning. He’s more of a tactician, less of a principal (though he’s long exuded main-character energy). He’s too short (he claims 5 foot 8) or too old, at least for voters who want to get away from septuagenarian presidents (he’ll be 69 on Inauguration Day 2029). He has a problem with Black voters, stemming from his mayorship (more on that in a bit). He’s too Jewish; his middle name is Israel, though he has called Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘collective punishment’ of Gazans morally and politically ‘bankrupt’ and previously confronted the prime minister over Israeli settlements (Haaretz reported that Netanyahu dubbed Emanuel a ‘self-hating Jew,’ though the prime minister has denied this).” [TheAtlantic]
Losing Our Voice: In The Washington Post, Ilan Berman, the senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, raises concerns about the Trump administration’s gutting of the U.S. Agency for Global Media and its sub-agencies and outlets. “And the situation is significantly worse at present: China, Russia and Iran are ramping up informational activities in places where the United States is now noticeably absent, like Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. … The Trump administration is not even acknowledging this trend, far less ramping up a strategy to counter it. Nine months in, the White House remains focused simply on dismantling USAGM and its functions. There is little evidence that any administration official has thought deeply about how to best promote core U.S. information priorities: honestly telling America’s story and explaining its priorities and policies while effectively countering the distortions and falsehoods being spread by others.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
The U.S. plans to present a plan in the coming weeks for an international stabilization force in Gaza, with U.S. Central Command taking the lead in drafting the plan…
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is planning to launch her bid for governor, challenging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, soon after next Tuesday’s elections…
The Senate confirmed Rebecca Taibleson to a seat on a federal appeals court; Taibleson’s nomination had initially faced resistance from conservative groups over her and her husband’s donations to some Democrats as well as the Milwaukee Jewish Community Foundation…
Vanity Fair spotlights political strategist Morris Katz, who is a key advisor to both New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner…
Maryland state Sen. Dalya Attar was indicted on federal extortion and conspiracy charges in connection with allegations that Attar was involved in an effort to place tracking devices and record two political opponents without their knowledge…
Hamas returned the remains of Israeli hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch; both men, residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Be’eri, respectively, were alive when taken hostage and died in captivity…
Doron Ben-David, Itzik Cohen, Marina Maximilian and Daniella Pick Tarantino are starring in “Frequency of Fear,” a thriller about Israel’s 2024 pager operation against Hezbollah that is currently in post-production…
Israel offered safe passage to Hamas members in the Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip to parts of the enclave still under the terror group’s control…
Several hundred thousand Haredi demonstrators in Jerusalem protested efforts to enforce a Haredi draft law that attempted to enlist some 80,000 members of the Haredi community…
The U.K. sanctioned Iranian businessman Aliakbar Ansari, citing the banker’s fiscal support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…
The International Olympic Committee and Saudi Arabia nixed a 12-year deal for Riyadh to host the Esports Olympics; the cancellation comes weeks after the Saudi sovereign wealth fund inked a $55 billion deal to acquire Electronic Arts…
Al-Qaida is nearing a full takeover of Mali, amid the terror group’s push through western Africa; a U.N. report published over the summer found that jihadists affiliated with Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin looked to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously led an al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria, as a model…
Rabbi Meyer May is joining Aish Global as executive vice president after 47 years as the executive director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; May will remain on as a special counsel to the CEO of the SWC…
Taiwanese singer Na Tang, a co-founder, with her husband, of the Jeffrey D. Schwartz NaTang Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association, died at 59…
Pic of the Day
Former Israeli hostage Bar Kupershtein and his father, Tal, participated in a tefillin ceremony this morning at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.
Tal Kupershtein, who lost his voice and ability to walk following a stroke five years ago, relearned to speak in an effort to advocate for his son, who spent more than two years in Hamas captivity.
Birthdays
Founding partner at Lanx Management, former president of AIPAC and past chairman of the Orthodox Union, Howard E. (Tzvi) Friedman turns 60…
FRIDAY: Actor with a lengthy career in film, television and theatre, Ron Rifkin turns 86… British historian, born in Baghdad, emeritus professor of International Relations at Oxford, Avraham “Avi” Shlaim turns 80… CEO of Feld Entertainment, which operates the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Disney on Ice, Kenneth Feld turns 77… Co-founder and co-chairman of Heritage Auctions, James L. Halperin turns 73… Author, historian and writer-at-large for the U.K.-based Prospect Magazine, Sam Tanenhaus turns 70… Staff writer for The New Yorker, her 1998 book was made into the award-winning movie “Adaptation,” Susan Orlean turns 70… Managing partner of Arel Capital, Richard G. Leibovitch turns 62… PAC director at AIPAC, Marilyn Rosenthal… British lawyer who has served as CEO of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and COO of World ORT, Marc Jonathan (Jon) Benjamin turns 61… Former MLB pitcher, now a managing director at Rockefeller Capital Management in Boca Raton, Fla., Steven Allen Rosenberg turns 61… Director of development for Foundation for Jewish Camp until this past April, he defined his role as a “gelt-shlepper,” Corey Cutler… Chief brand and innovation officer of Ralph Lauren, David Lauren turns 54… Founder and CEO of MercadoLibre, the eBay and Amazon of Latin America, Marcos Eduardo Galperin turns 54… Film, television and theater actor, Assaf Cohen turns 53… Film and television director and producer, Ruben Fleischer turns 51… Professor, attorney, author, political columnist and poet, Seth Abramson turns 49…Member of the California State Assembly since 2016, Marc Berman turns 45… Actor Eddie Kaye Thomas turns 45… CEO at Clarasight, he is the founder of Pencils of Promise, Adam Braun… Rabbi and outreach coordinator at the Leffell Lower School in White Plains, N.Y., she is the founder of Midrash Manicures, combining Jewish education and creative nail art, Yael Buechler turns 40… Global strategy and capability development contractor at PwC, Spencer Herbst… Director of institutional advancement at Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, Masha Shollar… Wheelchair basketball player and social media personality, Peter Berry turns 24…
SATURDAY: French economic and social theorist, he is the author of The Economic History of the Jewish People, Jacques Attali turns 82… Rabbi-in-residence of Baltimore’s 3,500-member Beth Tfiloh Congregation after more than 43 years as senior rabbi, Mitchell Wohlberg turns 81… Pioneering investor in the personal computing industry, founder of Lotus and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mitch Kapor turns 75… Founding rabbi, now emeritus, at Beit T’Shuvah, a nonprofit Jewish addiction treatment center and synagogue community in Los Angeles, Mark Borovitz turns 74… Retired management analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy, Les Novitsky… Serial entrepreneur, Warren B. Kanders turns 68… Philanthropist and Canadian real estate developer living in Israel, Sylvan Adams turns 67… Special assistant to New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, Pinchus Hikind… President of an eponymous auctioneering firm specializing in the appraisal and sale of antique Judaica, Jonathan Greenstein turns 58… CEO at AIPAC, Elliot Brandt… Actress, best known for her roles on “All My Children” and “General Hospital,” Alla Korot turns 55… Principal at Calabasas, Calif.-based CRC-Commercial Realty Consultants, Brian Weisberg… Israeli director, screenwriter and actress, Dikla Elkaslassy turns 46… Member of the Knesset, she is the first Ethiopian-born woman to hold a Knesset seat and the first to serve as a government minister, Pnina Tamano-Shata turns 44… Associate in the D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Clare F. Steinberg… Israeli video blogger, journalist and business executive, Idan Matalon turns 37… Chief advancement officer at The Leffell School in Westchester County (N.Y.), Annie Peck Watman… Reporter for CNN, Marshall J. Cohen… Associate at Katten Muchin Rosenman, Mitchell Caminer… Pitcher for Team Israel, Gabe Cramer turns 31… Derek Brody… Actor since childhood, Max Burkholder turns 28…
SUNDAY: Former NASA astronaut who made five flights in the space shuttle and is currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, he was one of NASA’s first two Jewish astronauts, Jeffrey A. Hoffman turns 81… County Executive of Montgomery County, Md., Marc Elrich turns 76… Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink turns 73… Former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and vice chair of the DNC, Susan Wolf Turnbull turns 73… Professor emerita of Jewish studies at the University of Virginia, Vanessa L. Ochs turns 72… Research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Alan D. Abbey… CNN special correspondent, Jamie Sue Gangel turns 70… Former head of school for 29 years at Weizmann Day School in Los Angeles, Lisa Feldman… Professor of Jewish history at UCLA and immediate past president of the board of the New Israel Fund, David N. Myers turns 65… Deputy commissioner of Maine’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, Joan F. Cohen turns 63… Financial planner at Grant Arthur & Associates Wealth Services, he is the author of a book on the complicity of Lithuania in the Holocaust, Grant Arthur Gochin… President of global content at Viva Creative, Thomas Joseph (Joe) Talbott… Marc Solomon… Head of U.S. public policy at Workday, John Sampson turns 59… Actor, director and producer, best known for playing Ross Geller in the sitcom “Friends,” David Schwimmer turns 59… Assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Justice Department during the Trump administration, now a partner at Latham & Watkins, Makan Delrahim turns 56… Professor of economics at MIT, she won a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship in 2018, Amy Nadya Finkelstein turns 52… Founder and CEO of Spring Hills Senior Communities, Alexander C. Markowits… Journalist and bestselling author, he is the publisher of The Lever and a columnist at The Guardian, David Sirota turns 50… U.S. executive vice president of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, Michael Cohen… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Alexander Kushnir turns 47… Deputy editor of “The Morning Newsletter” at The New York Times, Adam B. Kushner turns 45… President and CEO of Birthright Israel Foundation, Elias Saratovsky turns 45…Marc B. Rosen…Former director of government relations at the Israel Policy Forum, now a staffer on Capitol Hill, Aaron Weinberg… Two-time Emmy Award-winning video producer, now working as a messaging editor for The New York Times, Celeste B. Lavin turns 35…
‘I am appalled, offended and disgusted that [Kevin Roberts] and Heritage would stand with Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes,’ Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks told JI
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
An exterior view of The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Conservatives, including the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, condemned the Heritage Foundation and its president, Kevin Roberts, for Roberts’ defense of his “close friend” Tucker Carlson amid criticism of Carlson’s friendly interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes and his general antisemitic and anti-Israel turn.
Roberts also declined to fully disavow Fuentes, saying that “canceling him is not the answer.”
“Watching the statements from Kevin Roberts today, as somebody who has been involved and supportive of the Heritage Foundation since I came to Washington in 1987, I am appalled, offended and disgusted that he and Heritage would stand with Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes as somehow being acceptable spokespeople within the conservative movement,” Matt Brooks, the RJC CEO, told Jewish Insider.
Brooks said that Heritage’s defense of Carlson and Fuentes “is a total abrogation of their mission and what it means to be a conservative today.”
He said that RJC has worked with Heritage in various ways over the years, particularly its foreign policy team, “but obviously there’s going to be a reassessment of our relationship with Heritage in light of this.”
Brooks said that “we’ve seen Heritage moving further in this direction,” but that he believes that it is still “well outside of the mainstream of where the conservative movement in the Republican Party is.”
“They’re becoming more like Tucker Carlson and less like Ronald Reagan. Tucker Carlson represents the Barack Obama-Bernie Sanders wing of the Republican Party,” Brooks said. “I believe that there’s still a vibrant Trump-Reagan wing of the Republican Party, and Heritage continues to position itself away from that — I think to their detriment.”
Richard Goldberg, a former Trump administration official, told JI that his “heart goes out” to Heritage staff who have “worked for years tirelessly in defense of both the United States and Israel, and in the defense of both Christians and Jews, and … certainly deserve better than this.”
Their work, he continued, “is fundamentally disconnected from the video that Kevin put out,” which is “really vile” and “filled with canards and straw men in order to try to bait opponents into some sort of imagined conflict that does not exist — I think to create such conflict.”
Goldberg said that unless Roberts plans to conduct mass firings at Heritage of those working on national security and foreign policy issues and the group’s Project Esther antisemitism program to bring the organization in line with the isolationist Quincy Institute, “there is a great deal of disconnect between what he is saying and doing and what his organization is saying and doing.”
The enemies of both America and Israel, “would like nothing more than to see this kind of messaging succeed. This is very much in line with a Marxist-Islamist ideology that really only benefits China, Russia, terrorists and their sponsors,” Goldberg argued.
“I hope we don’t allow this strain to try to break what is core to American values and core to American interests, and that’s Christians and Jews sticking together, and America and Israel sticking together,” Goldberg said.
Joel Griffith, a co-chair of Young Jewish Conservatives and a former research fellow at Heritage, called for Heritage members and donors to speak out against Roberts. Griffth is currently a senior fellow at Advancing American Freedom, the think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.
“As a former Heritage fellow who’s both patriotically American and proudly Jewish, I’m deeply disheartened by Kevin Roberts continued support for Tucker Carlson even as he ridicules allied Christians who believe in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their homeland, slanders Israel as genocidal, supports removal of citizenship for young Americans who serve in the IDF, and platforms a Holocaust denier,” Griffith told JI. “I’m hopeful that Heritage members and donors will make their voices heard. Kevin Roberts does not speak for me as a Heritage alum, nor does he represent the views of many allies of Israel who remain on staff at Heritage.”
In his video, Roberts cited comments by Vice President JD Vance at a Turning Point USA event on Wednesday that no other country should come “before the interest of American citizens.” Vance’s comments had come in response to an openly antisemitic question accusing Jews of persecuting Christians, a notion Vance did not directly dispute.
“I wish that Vice President Vance had answered the question differently,” Brooks told JI. “He should know — and if he doesn’t, I am sure there are a number of people who will make the information available to him — that the Israelis have not limited access to any of the Christian holy sites or persecuted Christians in Israel. In fact, things couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“It has been Israelis, since the founding of the State of Israel and even before, that have protected the Christian heritage sites, and have always talked about having Israel as the home to the three major religions and having freedom of access and freedom of religion throughout the country,” Brooks continued.
Goldberg said that Vance’s recent visit to Israel and his trips to Christian holy sites in Jerusalem were “outstanding” and “important for Christians … around the world.”
He urged Vance “not to be afraid to be very direct in shutting down Jew hate and antisemitic tropes when the appear when he is out on the stump or campaigning” — noting that TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk had a record of responding forcefully to antisemitism at his own public events. “I think it would honor Charlie to emulate that style as well.”
Noah Pollak, who is serving in the Trump administration as a senior advisor to the Department of Education, said on X, “I’m genuinely curious what Roberts and people promoting this line of innuendo think they are responding to. Did someone ask you not to be loyal to your faith and country? Who? Can you post a screenshot or something?”
Far-right influencer Laura Loomer, a close ally of President Donald Trump, claimed Roberts’ statement was part of a coordinated “psyop” to “kneecap Trump” before the 2026 midterms.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values — one of the few Jewish groups that had partnered with Heritage on combating antisemitism — said that “Heritage has chosen to vocally stand with an antisemite, call his Jewish critics a ‘[venomous] coalition,’ and slander organizations like CJV as if we were slandering Carlson rather than standing up for his victims. The consequences will be far-reaching indeed.”
Strategist and commentator David Reaboi said that it should be “obvious” to anyone who has watched Carlson’s show that his commentary on Israel and other issues goes beyond criticism to “grotesque lies and bad faith distortions” and likewise questioned what “globalists” are “preventing discussion about Israel, or (as you claim) attempting to bully others into supporting it.”
“Are we allowed to take Carlson’s ‘criticisms’ of Israel and its supporters seriously — I mean, as issues of fact to be debated or debunked?” Reaboi continued. “If so, I haven’t seen any evidence for it. All his lies and slander just go into the category of ‘his truth,’ like the leftists with whom he agrees on every foreign policy question.”
Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, praised the work that Heritage has done on Iran, Israel and antisemitism, but said that “this video is disappointing and lacks moral clarity” given that Carlson is “obsessed with Jews and traffics in antisemitism.”
Kevin Roberts said he would always defend Carlson from the ‘pressure’ of the ‘globalist class’
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
President of the Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington D.C., Sept. 2, 2025.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts doubled down on the influential conservative group’s support for Tucker Carlson, who has been leaning into increasingly explicit antisemitism and opposition to Israel on his podcast, and expressed unwillingness to “cancel” neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.
Roberts’ comments come after a friendly Carlson interview with Fuentes, in which Carlson described Christian Zionists as infected by a “brain virus.” Carlson said he dislikes Christian Zionists “more than anybody. Because it’s Christian heresy, and I’m offended by that as a Christian,” pointing to conservatives including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has repeatedly sparred with Carlson over Israel and antisemitism, and Ambassador Mike Huckabee. On Wednesday, reports arose that Heritage had scrubbed references to Carlson from one of its donation pages.
Roberts, in a video posted on X on Thursday amid online discussion of Heritage’s relationship with Carlson, said he refused to cancel Carlson or Fuentes and that the group would “always” defend Carlson from the “pressure” of the “globalist class.”
“When it serves the interest of the United States to cooperate with Israel and other allies, we should do so with partnerships on security, intelligence and technology. But when it doesn’t, conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or from their mouthpieces in Washington,” Roberts said. “The Heritage Foundation didn’t become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won’t start doing that now.”
He said the group would “always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains — and as I have said before — always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.”
Roberts rejected those criticizing Carlson as a “venomous coalition” and said that “their attempt to cancel him will fail.”
He added that it is the responsibility of Heritage to attack the left, not to criticize those on the right. “I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer either,” Roberts continued.
Roberts, whose group assembled the Project Esther plan to combat antisemitism — focused on anti-Israel left-wing groups — also said in the video, “I want to be clear about one thing, Christians can critique the State of Israel without being antisemitic. And of course antisemitism should be condemned.”
Roberts quoted a statement by Vice President JD Vance at a Turning Point USA event on Wednesday: “What I am not OK with is any country coming before the interest of American citizens. And it is important for all of us, assuming we are American citizens, to put the interest of our own country first. That’s where our allegiance lies, and that’s where it will stay.”
Roberts’ comments come amid an uproar from pro-Israel conservatives about Vance’s response to an antisemitic question he faced from a member of the audience at that event.
The questioner declared that Judaism does “not agree with [our religion] but also openly supports the [persecution] of ours,” to enthusiastic applause from the crowd.
Vance said in his response, “When people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the president of the United States — they’re not controlling this president of the United States, which is one of the reasons why we’ve been able to have some of the success that we’ve had in the Middle East.”
He said that the Gaza peace deal was only possible because President Donald Trump was “actually… willing to apply leverage to the State of Israel.”
The vice president also said that ensuring Christian access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is an “obvious area of common interest” and that he is “fine” with working with Israel on the issue. “What I am not OK with is any country coming before the interests of American citizens,” he continued.
Vance did not address or condemn the questioner’s accusations that Jews are attempting to persecute Christians.
Fuentes has been celebrating the recent developments, posting on X, “The Groypers have taken over. We run this” in response to questions posed to Vance at the TPUSA event.
Responding to Roberts, Fuentes said, “I don’t know what exactly you ‘abhor’ about my views, but we can all agree that free speech, Christ, and America First should be the pillars of our movement. Thank you for your courage in standing up for open discourse and defending Tucker against the Israel First Woke Right.”
DMFI says the plan is tied to ‘a dangerous trend: the lure of isolationism’
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
A Trump banner hangs on the side of The Heritage Foundation ahead of the Inauguration on January 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Pro-Israel Democrats are pressing Republicans to disavow the Heritage Foundation’s report calling for the U.S. to phase out U.S. military aid to Israel over the next 20 years, arguing that a failure to do so would undermine their claims of supporting Israel.
“I’ll always oppose anti-Israel proposals, whether they come from the left or the right,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) said on X. “I hope my Republican colleagues will join me in denouncing this plan from their side of the aisle to fully cut off U.S. support for Israel, one of our closest allies.”
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said in a statement that “everyone — no matter their party — who claims to be a friend of Israel and the Jewish community needs to reject this report in the strongest possible terms.”
He said the report’s recommendations would undermine Israel and the United States, and that its very existence emboldens Iran and its terrorist proxies.
“Ensuring Israel’s security, and our own, is not a political issue,” Hoyer continued. “We must not let Heritage and the far right turn it into one.”
Robert Greenway, the director of the Allison Center for national security at Heritage, responded to Hoyer, saying “Your concerns are as gravely misplaced as your mischaracterization of our proposal,” and blasted recent Democratic presidents for having “throttled aid to Israel while appeasing our common enemies.”
Victoria Coates, the vice president of Heritage, added, “The only time a congressional Democrat will express support for Israel is when they think they can take a shot at Heritage.”
In a statement, Democratic Majority For Israel argued that the Heritage Foundation’s stature and influence in the conservative movement makes the proposal a serious concern for the pro-Israel community.
It noted that the think tank was responsible for the Project 2025 plan laying out an agenda for a Republican presidential term, which DMFI accused the Trump administration of implementing.
““The Heritage Foundation occupies a unique space in Washington, D.C., which is why this proposal must be taken seriously,” the organization’s CEO Mark Mellman said. “As the authors of Project 2025, which the Trump Administration has swiftly implemented, the Heritage Foundation is a leading right-wing think tank that sets the agenda for Republican elected officials and policymakers. The proposal should not only be rejected outright, but it must also be strongly condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike who are committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.”
It also tied the proposal to “a dangerous trend: the lure of isolationism.”
“The U.S.-Israel relationship is stronger than any single partisan initiative, and it is essential that we continue to support and strengthen this alliance for the benefit of both nations,” DMFI continued.
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