Mai Vang, the far-left challenger aiming to oust longtime Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), is set to campaign alongside a series of other far-left and anti-Israel figures including streamer Hasan Piker and a group of other Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates, according to Politico.

A progressive operative, quoted anonymously, told the news outlet that Melat Kiros, Adam Hamawy, Chris Rabb, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez and Donavan McKinney, other progressive Democratic congressional nominees who’ve won insurgent victories around the country in recent months, are set to collectively endorse Vang.

Politico also reported that Vang is expected to join Piker for a fundraising stream early next month, citing an unnamed person familiar with the plans.

The far-left Justice Democrats, which helped propel several of the other candidates to victory, is also fundraising on behalf of Vang, as well as Angela Gonzales-Torres, who is challenging Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), and Justin Pearson, who is running in a deep-red, newly redistricted Tennessee House seat.

The Justice Democrats fundraising appeal specifically cites Chevalier, Kiros, Rabb and Hamawy’s presence at a protest outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s United Nations General Assembly speech last week, during which Chevalier was arrested.

Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker is scheduled to speak at a University of Texas campus event on Wednesday. Despite the event’s backing from the student Democratic Party group on campus, most Texas Democrats running for office in the historically conservative state have been silent when it comes to speaking out against the far-left influencer. 

Texas is one of the most prized political battlegrounds in the fight for control of Congress, hosting a hotly contested governor’s race, a neck-and-neck Senate race and four House races rated by the Cook Political Report as highly competitive. All of the close races are taking place in conservative-leaning constituencies, where candidates are typically incentivized to distance themselves from extremists or ideologues. 

So far, among Texas Democrats, only Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) has spoken out against Piker, saying that leaders shouldn’t remain silent “when someone has a history of hateful comments about Jewish Americans, 9/11, and Hamas terrorism.” Cuellar, a leading moderate Democrat, is running for reelection in a redrawn district that President Donald Trump carried by a double-digit margin. 

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin condemned Piker in an interview with Fox News this month: “Let me just say that I think it’s absolutely disgusting and deplorable the things that Hasan Piker has said, right? But he does not represent the Democratic Party, and he certainly doesn’t represent the viewpoints of almost every one of our candidates and our elected officials.” But aside from Cuellar, none of the other Texas Democrats on the ballot have volunteered the same criticism. 

While the DNC generally supports all Democratic entities, the University of Texas’ party chapter is an independent organization and the DNC has no oversight or authority over their events.

Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have spoken out against the event, but it hasn’t become a significant issue on the campaign trail. University leaders have also remained silent, declining interview requests from Jewish Insider and Axios to talk about the upcoming event. 

Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), who co-chairs the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, has not responded to multiple requests for comment about Piker.

Piker, who has an extensive history of anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric, recently drew more scrutiny for telling Axios that he believes the United States conducts more terrorism in the world than al-Qaida. Piker, as part of a college tour this month, spoke last week about the “end of Zionism” at Cornell University to a packed auditorium. But the Cornell event, like many other Piker events on campus, was hosted by a number of far-left, anti-Israel groups. The UT event, by contrast, is sponsored by College Democrats.

Jews make up less than 1% of the Texas electorate, but could end up being a key swing bloc in the unusually close governor’s race between Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa and the battleground Senate race between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. 

Several far-left Democrats expected to be elected to the House of Representatives in November attended a protest on Thursday organized by Jewish Voice for Peace that blocked the streets outside United Nations headquarters during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the body’s General Assembly.

Dozens of protesters, including New York Democratic congressional nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier, were arrested by the NYPD for refusing to comply with an order to disperse.

Other congressional nominees seen in photos and video from the protest were Adam Hamawy, a New Jersey Democrat who has faced scrutiny for his past testimony in support of terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel-Rahman and work for a charity later shuttered as an al-Qaida front; Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb; and Colorado Democrat Melat Kiros. 

Far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who recently said the United States conducts more terrorism in the world than al-Qaida, was also in attendance.

New York Congressional nominee Brad Lander, who ousted Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in part by attacking the congressman’s support for Israel, said he attended the JVP protest as well as a protest hosted by T’ruah and J Street and one held by Israelis for Peace.

“We can’t allow a war criminal to roam through the streets of our city, he needs to be tried at the Hague,” Chevalier said in a brief clip shared by a reporter on the ground during her arrest.

“I’m here to stand up against genocide. I’m here to protest Netanyahu being allowed into this country, not being arrested, and allowed to speak in the United Nations, which is supposed to be the international body upholding international law,” Hamawy said.

Rabb told reporters that Netanyahu “is a war criminal and should be in the Hague” and that “We have to make a decision about where our taxpayer dollar goes, and it should not be funding atrocities overseas.”

Kiros, the Colorado Democrat who drew criticism for refusing to call the firebombing of a hostage rally in Boulder antisemitic, said she was marching for “humanity.”  “I will always stand with the people that are standing against a genocide. This is about humanity, making sure our tax dollars are not complicit in these atrocities,” she said.

Others visible in photos and video from the event included New York City CouncilmembersChi Ossé, Shahana Hanif and Alexa Avilés; State Reps. Emily Gallagher and Diana Moreno; DSA leader Gustavo Gordillo; actors Elliot Page, Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, Hannah Einbinder, Mary Beth Barone and Caleb Hearon; anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour; musicians Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker; and government leaker Chelsea Manning.

In her new book, Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov advocates for constructive disagreement — “acknowledge without accepting,” or hearing someone out, hard as it may be, without torching the relationship or one’s own beliefs.

In an interview with Jewish Insider ahead of Tuesday’s release of I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends, Tarlov pointed to her closely watched sit-down last year with far-left streamer Hasan Piker as evidence that her framework holds even when strained against its limits. Piker was “incredibly nice and gracious,” she recalled, arguing that calls for him to be shut out of Democratic circles are misguided.

The exchange highlights the balancing act central to both Tarlov’s book and her on-air image as the primary liberal co-host on the Fox News talk show “The Five.” But in her conversation with JI, Tarlov, who is Jewish, noted that there is sometimes discomfort in that instinct to engage across lines — the thesis of her book. She said she finds unease in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign appearance with Columbia University anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, accusations that Israel committed “genocide” and just how much attention Piker’s commentary is getting in a divided Democratic Party.

“How much the discourse is dominated by Hasan Piker and those kinds of discussions is just a general turnoff” of the Democratic Party, Tarlov told JI, “and people don’t necessarily feel like we’re getting the news because there’s so much focus on the infighting.” She pointed to Michigan’s upcoming Senate race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) as a key test of just how deep those divisions run. “It will be a really interesting test as to how divided the party actually is along the lines of this issue — and who comes around to El-Sayed, who goes through with voting for Mike Rogers, or sitting home.”   

Despite her willingness to engage with Piker, Tarlov argued the wall-to-wall focus on him has become its own kind of distraction from the issues actually most important to voters. 

“I do think the discourse being about him 24/7 is really ignoring what most people are concerned about in their lives,” she said. “They’re thinking ‘my gas prices are up’ and we’re like, ‘Hasan Piker.’ That’s just really missing the mark.”

Last November, when Tarlov found herself seated next to Piker on a panel at Crooked Media’s Crooked Con, she said she was “nervous” going in, given how divisive of an issue his past rhetoric — including justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and saying America deserved 9/11 — had already become. But she found him friendly, and even took some of his feedback under consideration: “The one thing he did say to me, which did resonate, was that the only criticism of what I do is that I’m too hard on the progressive left. I spent a lot of time thinking about that and ultimately I do think that he’s right.” 

“It had been much easier for me to insult AOC for instance and it was kind of low-hanging fruit and there are enough people now who aren’t even necessarily in the far-left party who want things like universal health care. The center part of the party hasn’t been talking about affordability issues in a way that is connecting like Mamdani did in the mayoral election, or that we’re not talking enough about building affordable housing. I thought that was a good note,” she added. 

Asked if Democrats should more vigorously condemn Piker — who has over 3 million Twitch followers — or banish him from party circles, Tarlov rejected the premise.

“The idea of us deciding who has legitimacy or platforming when someone has a platform of that size already is really missing the point,” she said. “I show up everyday and talk to people who I disagree with, in some cases people who believe in things I am deeply against. If you don’t engage you leave open this chasm for other people to fill it. I’m not running to be on Hasan’s stream — I wasn’t invited either — but I do think this idea of we’re not going to platform him when he has a bigger platform than most of the people who are saying they have no interest in having him is a little bit embarrassing.” 

“In terms of being more culturally Jewish, I do think Oct. 7 changed everything for many nonpracticing Jews in this country, where it became such a bigger part of our identity, where we’re more attuned to discussions around Judaism and Israel in general and it has made us more interested in being affiliated with the religion. It just becomes a more prominent part of your identity when something like that happens,” Tarlov said.  

Tarlov’s prominent role as the only Jewish panelist on “The Five” has coincided with Fox News catching the eye of some liberal-leaning American Jews who felt that in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, much of the mainstream coverage was biased against Israel. 

Tarlov said she brings up her Jewish background on air, including her family’s history of fleeing Europe ahead of the Holocaust and her own run-in with rising antisemitism as a student in London two decades ago, “because I think it is relevant and I have a pretty mainstream Jewish perspective on what’s going on in the Middle East and what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has done and the aftermath of Oct. 7,” she told JI. “I draw on it explicitly because I think it’s important for viewers to know there is a Jewish person who is saying this who is not just someone with an opinion and that I have real connective tissue to the religion and to Israel.” 

“In terms of being more culturally Jewish, I do think Oct. 7 changed everything for many nonpracticing Jews in this country, where it became such a bigger part of our identity, where we’re more attuned to discussions around Judaism and Israel in general and it has made us more interested in being affiliated with the religion. It just becomes a more prominent part of your identity when something like that happens,” she continued.  

While her cultural connection to Judaism deepened after Oct. 7, Tarlov is no stranger to antisemitism. In her book, she recounts heated politics over Israel during her time at the  London School of Economics and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s controversial rhetoric during his 2012 campaign to reclaim the office. Tarlov told JI that the period “shaped my current political perspective” and felt like a foreshadowing of the current climate on U.S. college campuses. 

“You can draw a straight line from those experiences to what happened at Columbia,” she said. “If there had been an igniting event like Oct. 7 you could easily see how it would spill over into something like that. I’m a little bit embarrassed that I didn’t understand the gravity of it in full back when it was going on. But I definitely see important comparisons — and as someone who likes to look at politics from a sociological lens — how much writing was on the wall. This was really an international movement that got so powerful in what feels like a short period of time.”

“And then working on [then-Mayor] Boris Johnson’s 2012 campaign and following Ken Livingstone, the labor candidate, and seeing him speak at town halls and mosques and how much widespread acceptance there was for antisemitism, was very jarring for me,” said Tarlov. “That stuck with me.” 

Tarlov is seeing similar dynamics play out where she lives now, in Manhattan. She writes in her book that “making Jewish New Yorkers feel safe” was on her checklist for the city’s mayoral candidate, and Mamdani didn’t meet it. Eight months after he moved into Gracie Mansion, Tarlov told JI she’s “conflicted” about that view.  

“I think he’s been better than a lot of people expected,” she said. “I’m close with a lot of people in the Modern Orthodox community of Riverdale and I pay a lot of attention to how they’re feeling and where they’re going for their information. If you ask them, they’d say there are [good policies like] universal childcare, not related to the Jewish community. But they feel he’s fallen short when it comes to [other issues]. I’m in the realm of neutral based upon my expectations.”

Still, she noted that “one of the difficult moments for me in his campaign was when he campaigned with Mahmoud Khalil.”

“Khalil represents somebody that infringed upon Jewish students at Columbia’s civil rights,” she said. “I was overwhelmed by the feeling that if that happened to Black students, trans students, any other protected sect that would never have been tolerated. So to see him as a campaign surrogate was very difficult for me. I understand that the Trump administration unfairly targeted [Khalil with deportation threats] and I know that’s the thrust of why he was part of the campaign, and he’s been to Gracie Mansion since then, but that was quite jolting to me.” 

Asked whether she agreed with Jewish leaders who’ve blamed Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel for fueling New York’s rise in antisemitism, Tarlov pushed back, framing the criticism as part of a broader pattern she sees playing out with Piker. “This gets back to the Hasan Piker discourse,” she said. “Everyone is going crazy about his comments and then there’s a lot of footage of other people saying similar things, and people said Hasan was antisemitic for saying that.” 

She traced the surge in antisemitic rhetoric more broadly to the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks rather than to any one figure. “I wouldn’t put it at Mamdani’s feet like that,” she said, though she added she understood the impulse among Jewish leaders trying to reassure anxious congregants: “People are trying to manage a congregation full of people who are afraid and angry, and a lot of them are disappointed that there wasn’t a candidate that they were excited about.”

The book’s core idea is “acknowledge without accepting,” something Tarlov has proven she can do across many political subjects. But does that framework still work when the disagreement is about something like Israel’s right to exist? 

Tarlov’s advice is to “find a way to slide in your perspective without making it a knockdown, drag-out fight.” She pointed to a recent appearance by Ryan Grim — the co-founder of the Hamas-sympathetic outlet Drop Site News —  on “Raging Moderates,” the podcast that she co-hosts with Scott Galloway. On air, Grim referred to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.

“The point of my book was for people to have a longer-term perspective on these tough issues and tips and tricks that could help them do better in these fraught conversations,” Tarlov told JI. 

“When he was finished talking, I said, ‘I don’t use that term, I don’t see it that way,’ and then moved on,” Tarlov recalled. “So there are ways to acknowledge without accepting, as per the book, but to make sure it doesn’t cut off all conversation.”   

“I think you should always have the conversation — I believe in that,” she continued. 

“Understanding other people’s point of view is really of value. I also understand how deeply personal [Israel] is for people. It’s a little different than hearing someone’s view of immigration, let’s say, where they want mass deportations. Saying there should be a one-state solution in the Palestinian direction feels different than that.”

“The point of my book was for people to have a longer-term perspective on these tough issues and tips and tricks that could help them do better in these fraught conversations,” Tarlov told JI. 

“That absolutely does apply to being able to dialogue with people over something like Israel and its right to exist. On an emotional level, I think it is more complicated than your average policy issue but I still think the framework applies, and I did have it in mind as I was writing the book. It’s up there as a top five difficult issue for people to talk about and was pulling my political party — and relationships — apart.” 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized Democrats in Texas for their muted reaction to far-left streamer Hasan Piker being invited by the University of Texas’ College Democrats chapter to speak on campus later this month — despite his record of antisemitic rhetoric. 

Cruz told Jewish Insider in a statement on Thursday that Piker’s upcoming appearance at UT Austin and the lack of condemnation from Democrats in the state was indicative of the broader state of the Democratic Party. 

“Hasan Piker is an America-hating Marxist who has said that America deserved 9/11 and celebrates political violence against Republicans,” Cruz told JI. “Americans are entitled to free speech, but it is incumbent upon good people to condemn Piker’s incitement.”

“Instead, some Democrats are bringing him to college campuses, while almost all other Democrats are conspicuously silent or worse. It says everything about the state of their party,” he continued.

Cruz has led the charge in urging the GOP to disavow antisemitic figures within the conservative movement such as commentators Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, and has criticized fellow Republicans who refuse to weigh in on the subject as “cowards.” 

Allies of the Texas senator launched a political organization in July to support his efforts to counter antisemitism in the Republican Party and prevent the GOP from mimicking what Cruz has repeatedly described as the Democratic Party’s anti-Israel turn. 

On the school’s Austin campus, the Piker event has sparked concern among Jewish students, faculty and parents, including several who have pushed to have the appearance canceled. Several Jewish University of Texas students told JI this week that Piker’s appearance could be a black eye for a school that they say has been one of the most welcoming in the country for Jewish students in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. 

Piker’s appearance is scheduled for Sept. 30, amid the final stretch of Texas’ high-profile Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, and Democrat James Talarico, a state representative. The state is also holding a competitive gubernatorial contest between GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa.

Talarico’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from JI about Piker’s invitation to appear at the state’s flagship public university. A spokesperson for Hinojosa did not address Piker’s invitation in a statement to JI.   

Jewish Insider news reporter Haley Cohen contributed reporting.

In Tuesday’s newsletter, we wrote that four major Democratic primary races — in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Connecticut — would be key tests of the depth of the anti-establishment, anti-Israel left’s staying power.

So far, the left of the party won three of the four contests, with the notable exception of Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, who fell short against Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley — in the night’s most high-profile race testing whether a socialist can win the Democratic nomination for an executive role in a pivotal battleground state.

Hong, who drew criticism from leading Democrats over her record of comments attacking Thanksgiving, support for defunding the police and overall embrace of the DSA’s radical platform, underperformed the primary polls showing her with a substantial lead in the race. But as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and leading Democratic officials warned that her nomination could cost Democrats the governorship, her lead dissipated amid concerns about her electability come November.

Of note: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the two leading members of the ideological left in Congress, declined to endorse Hong’s campaign. 

The establishment’s unified — and effective — show of force against Hong offered a stark contrast to party leaders’ efforts in Michigan to stop far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed from winning the nomination. In that race, party leaders were more equivocal in their support of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), with Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) declining to support Stevens’ candidacy despite their similar political backgrounds. Even Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who offered a late endorsement to Stevens, didn’t go after El-Sayed’s electability like Evers has in his comments speaking out against Hong.

The socialist speed bump in Wisconsin, however, was seemingly the only exception to an overall dominant showing from progressive candidates, highlighted by the left’s successes in Minnesota. 

In the pivotal Minnesota Senate race, progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan comfortably outdistanced moderate Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) by nearly 20 points. Flanagan is one of Minnesota’s most progressive statewide officials, and campaigned as a strident critic of Israel. Flanagan will be facing former NBC Sports sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who easily won the Republican nomination. Republican leaders believe Tafoya has broad appeal given her national television work, but winning a blue state like Minnesota given the GOP headwinds will be a very difficult task — even against a less-electable challenger like Flanagan.

The left is also celebrating the results in Craig’s suburban Minneapolis district, where the most anti-Israel and furthest-left candidate, former state Sen. Matt Little, easily outpaced two more-moderate challengers, including pro-Israel state Sen. Matt Klein. Little will be facing GOP state Sen. Eric Pratt in the general election, and will be favored in a district that Kamala Harris carried by six points in 2024.

In Connecticut, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) was handily defeated by a younger political challenger in former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who moved to Larson’s left on Israel during the campaign, but was broadly seen as the more future-oriented candidate. The seat, with the largest Jewish constituency in the Nutmeg State, is a safe Democratic district.

On the Republican side, Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) will be squaring off against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) in a special election runoff later this month to fill the full term of her late brother Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat. Graham won 33% of the Republican vote in the crowded race, while Norman won 25%. Norman outpaced Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) — the other sitting member of Congress in the race — by five points. 

Norman is a hard-line fiscal conservative who was one of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) biggest antagonists in his battle to remain as House leader. He also endorsed Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential campaign, a factor that could lead President Donald Trump to redouble his backing for Graham’s candidacy.

Michigan will take center stage this week as it holds its marquee Senate primary and consequential downballot races that showcase the divide between the Democratic mainstream and its left-wing, anti-Israel activists.

But Missouri is playing the role of the must-watch undercard, with the rematch between Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) and Democratic Socialists of America-aligned former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) marking another significant bellwether contest between the center and the left.

Bell, a stalwart supporter of Israel who was championed by AIPAC in both of his congressional campaigns, is facing a changed political environment within the Democratic Party with public opinion turning against the Jewish state. 

Bell defeated Bush by five points in 2024, but the race could end up being closer this time around given the ascendance of socialist candidates in urban, deep-blue districts like Missouri’s First District. 

Bush, however, has myriad other vulnerabilities beyond her far-left policy views, from missed votes during her time in Congress to ethical questions surrounding her handling of campaign funds. 

Bell is also being boosted by outside groups,  led by the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC, which has spent over $2.6 million in the race hitting Bush, along with the New Democrat Coalition-affiliated super PAC, which has poured in just over $1 million on Bell’s behalf. Bell has also outspent Bush on the airwaves by about a ten-to-one margin, according to the Cook Political Report.

Jewish groups, both locally and nationally, are also organizing get-out-the-vote efforts on Bell’s behalf. The Jewish Democratic Council of America has been rallying its national membership for an in-person canvassing campaign, and Agudath Israel’s Missouri office mobilized its volunteers to help boost nonpartisan Jewish turnout.

The Cook Political Report gives Bell the advantage in the race, noting that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (despite endorsing Bush) hasn’t campaigned on her behalf and underscoring the spending disparity which appears to be stunting Bush’s ability to grow support in the St. Louis-area district. 

But given the overall momentum in Democratic primaries for anti-Israel candidates, the race is still expected to be worth tracking closely.

Far-left Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros backtracked on Sunday from her conciliatory tone in a PBS interview on the need for progressives to formulate a policy on Israel that does not engage in antisemitism.

Appearing on “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover” on Saturday morning, Kiros, who ousted incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) in a Denver-area district in June, said her “greatest concern right now is that the State of Israel is losing support all across the political spectrum” and that progressives are “leaving a vacuum” for far-right commentators like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens to fill by “pretending to care about Palestinian safety when really it’s just masking their overt hatred for Jewish people.”

“If we are not presenting our vision of what we believe in with our democratic values — that extends not to the Palestinian people but to the Israeli people and the Jewish people — you know, that land has a distinctly Jewish character, a distinctly Christian character, a distinctly Muslim character,” she said. “We, I think, are doing a disservice to the people of that region by not offering our progressive vision in a way that isn’t immediately swatted down as, you know, bigoted or antisemitism.”

Kiros’ comments marked a short-lived departure from her stances on the campaign trail, where she had been vocally critical of Israel and was criticized for refusing to deem the 2025 firebombing attack on a march raising awareness for Israeli hostages in Boulder as antisemitic. Her candidacy came after she was fired from the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for writing a public letter denouncing the hundreds of law firms that signed a petition calling on law schools to do a better job addressing antisemitism on their campuses, a letter she said wrongly conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

The 29-year-old doctoral student, who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America in her campaign, quickly reversed course after the interview aired. Responding on Sunday to criticism on X from Al Jazeera producer Sana Saeed, Kiros said she “fumbled this line, plain and simple.”

“To be clear, my foreign policy priority is ending Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine. I also reject the notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and it’s important that we distinguish the two in order to combat actual antisemitism,” she continued.

Kiros said she had been trying to express that as the Democratic Party “refuses to lead morally on this issue, they are letting antisemites on the right co-opt the movement for Palestinian liberation while giving fodder to AIPAC talking points.”

“But Sana is right, a movement for liberation must center the Palestinians being oppressed, occupied, and systematically exterminated — and the islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism used to justify genocide is too often ignored.”

In the concluding weeks of the primary season, AIPAC is drawing in part on a messaging strategy used successfully by pro-Israel groups in previous cycles to thwart the far left, which is facing a new set of political tests after a series of recent victories in heavily progressive congressional districts.

From Michigan to Missouri, where tensions between the Democratic Party’s moderate and far-left factions are playing out in high-profile contests for the House and Senate, AIPAC is hitting its anti-Israel opponents for their past criticism of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris in an effort to portray the candidates as hostile to mainstream policy goals.

The tactic, which UDP also deployed last election cycle in key races, dates back to at least 2021, when DMFI PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm, had relentlessly attacked Nina Turner — a former Ohio state senator running for an open House seat in Cleveland on a platform that was critical of Israel — for remarks in which she had compared voting for Biden to eating a “bowl of s**t.”

Mark Mellman, the veteran Democratic pollster who founded DMFI and died in November 2025, was the brainchild of the anti-Turner strategy. His attack ads were effective in emphasizing what became a liability for Turner, particularly among Black voters, helping to elevate a lesser-known moderate rival with ties to the establishment, Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), to a come-from-behind upset.

The race served as an early venue for the Democratic proxy fights over Israel shaping a growing number of primaries in the wake of the war in Gaza and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

Now, UDP is reviving Mellman’s playbook as it takes on former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who is seeking a rematch against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) after she lost her St. Louis House seat in 2024. 

In recent attack ads, UDP, which has spent over $2.5 million to boost Bell, is hitting Bush over past comments criticizing Biden and Harris, as well as her vote against the bipartisan infrastructure package while in Congress in 2021. Its strategy is reminiscent of messaging it deployed two years ago to help oust the former Squad member who was among the harshest critics of Israel in the House.

“Cori Bush’s attacks helped Trump,” one of the UDP ads claims, citing interview clips in which she voiced misgivings about voting for Harris shortly before the 2024 election.

It remains to be seen if such ads will resonate amid a national political environment favorable to left-wing populists who are now casting themselves as strident opponents of the establishment and claiming wins in recent competitive congressional primaries.

The playbook has had mixed results in other races, including a 2022 primary in Pittsburgh where UDP failed to block Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) even as the group spent heavily on ads depicting her as disloyal to Biden’s agenda.

More recently, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), a close AIPAC ally, lost his House seat early last month to an anti-Israel challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier, who drew scrutiny over controversial deleted social media posts in which she had called Biden a “rapist” as well as a “war criminal,” while also dismissing Harris with an expletive.

Both Espaillat and his allies sought to draw attention to the comments in the final stretch of the race, to no avail. UDP was not directly involved in the New York City primary but did contribute over $1.5 million to a pro-Espaillat super PAC that hit his opponent for her past remarks, according to campaign disclosures filed after the race had concluded. Avila Chevalier has said she regrets her rhetoric attacking Biden and Harris.

For her part, Bush, rather than leaning into her reservations with Harris tied to the war in Gaza as the former vice president keeps the door open for a White House bid in 2028, has indicated she sees the attacks as a possible vulnerability.

During a recent joint media appearance, Bush, who endorsed Harris soon after she had announced her campaign to replace Biden in July 2024, accused Bell of equivocating on whether he had immediately done the same.

In a statement to Jewish Insider, Patrick Dorton, a spokesperson for UDP, criticized Bush as “a terrible member of Congress who didn’t do her job and didn’t deliver for St. Louis.” 

“We are going to educate every Democratic primary voter in St. Louis about how bad and ineffective Cori Bush was in Congress,” Dorton said on Monday when asked to explain how UDP believes its repeat strategy will again persuade voters in the Aug. 4 primary race.

Meanwhile, in Michigan’s closely watched Senate primary set for next Tuesday, Abdul El-Sayed, an anti-Israel insurgent who is facing AIPAC-backed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), has sought to downplay his role in promoting the “uncommitted” movement that urged Democratic primary voters to leave their ballots blank as a protest against Biden’s support for Israel during the war in Gaza.

In a recent campaign ad, for example, El-Sayed boasted that he was “the first Muslim American leader to endorse Kamala Harris for president,” a claim that fact-checkers have deemed inaccurate.

While Stevens has highlighted El-Sayed’s support for “uncommitted,” UDP, which is spending aggressively in the primary, has been focused more broadly on his perceived hostility to popular Democratic leaders.

In its first negative ad, released earlier this month, UDP attacked El-Sayed for what the group called his “long history of disrespecting women,” citing harshly worded past criticisms of former First Lady Michelle Obama as well as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the latter of whom announced a late endorsement of Stevens last week.

Elsewhere in Michigan, a far-left Democrat who is seeking the nomination to claim a Republican-held Lansing swing seat, Will Lawrence, has faced recent attacks for his comments denigrating Black political leadership and calling Harris a “warmonger,” as well as his support for the “uncommitted” movement. He has said his remarks have been taken out of context.

The race is expected to be close as Lawrence, a vocal critic of Israel, has gained endorsements from several prominent progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Crush MAGA PAC has spent nearly $1 million on attack ads against Lawrence that have cited his affiliation with “uncommitted,” among other things.

While Lawrence’s allies have accused AIPAC of funding the ads, UDP has denied involvement in the race, calling such claims “pure fiction and dishonest.”

So far, the success of far-left, anti-Israel candidates has been confined to Democratic primaries in deep-blue districts largely in big cities or college towns. The biggest test ahead for the socialist movement is whether it can prevail in primaries outside its geographic base, and more importantly, if such candidates can win general elections in battleground states or districts. 

All of the available evidence and recent history suggests that nominating extreme candidates in enough key races would threaten Democrats’ chances of winning a Senate majority and would dampen the party’s pickup potential in the House.  

Indeed, the victories by radical nominees in recent House primaries — combined with the high-profile collapse of the like-minded Graham Platner’s Maine Senate campaign — are already doing damage to the Democratic Party’s brand.

Looking at the big picture: In poll after poll, Democrats are now underperforming expectations on the generic congressional ballot — and have lost notable ground over Republicans in the last month alone. 

In his analysis of congressional polling, Nate Silver documented that the Democrats’ advantage on the generic ballot in the polling average declined by one point since June, from seven points to six. At this point in the 2018 cycle, the Democrats’ generic ballot advantage was close to eight points, according to Silver’s analysis. 

Democrats still hold a decided edge, but the massive blue wave that could have emerged in this year’s midterms is now looking a bit more modest. That means it’s much more difficult for Democrats to overcome their partisan disadvantage in the red states they need to retake the Senate, while Republicans may have some outside hope that redistricting and enough flawed Democratic candidates could keep the House majority in play.

CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein also notes that Democrats are failing to win over as many voters who disapprove of President Donald Trump as they did during the 2018 midterms — another signal that the party’s negative image and leftward lurch is costing them among the swing-voting suburbanites who formed a critical mass of the anti-Trump movement in the president’s first term. 

Recent history also points to candidates significantly underperforming if they are ideologically out of step with their constituents. In the 2018 midterms, Democrats swept the vast majority of competitive battlegrounds, riding the wave of anti-Trump sentiment even in some districts that had long been held by Republicans. 

There were two notable outliers in that year’s Democratic wave — very winnable races that Democrats lost because they nominated progressives in swing districts. In that election, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) faced a challenger (Kara Eastman) who ran what Politico called a “Brooklyn-style campaign” in the Omaha-based district that former President Joe Biden comfortably carried. Bacon prevailed by three points. 

The other missed opportunity that year for Democrats was in a Syracuse-area district that favored their party. Despite the blue wave, the party’s decision to nominate an outspoken progressive (Dana Balter) cost them a victory against a vulnerable House Republican, former Rep. John Katko.

This year, the party has lurched further to the left and is likely to nominate more ideologically extreme candidates in even bigger races. 

Michigan is a swing state, but Democrats are at risk of handing their Senate nomination to Abdul El-Sayed, a Bernie Sanders acolyte whose incessant animus against Israel has defined his campaign message. If he’s the nominee, some Democrats believe their shot at a Senate majority could be lost. (The RealClearPolitics polling average shows that El-Sayed, in a general election, is statistically tied with expected GOP nominee Mike Rogers — a notable underperformance given the national environment.)

In the state’s biggest swing district, which is currently held by Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI), Democrats are so concerned about the far-left candidacy of Will Lawrence that even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) snubbed him at the El-Sayed rally this past weekend. Two other mainstream candidates — former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam — are splitting the moderate vote.

And there are numerous other contests, from the Senate races in Maine and Minnesota to House races in California, Colorado and Maine, where left-wing candidates threaten to jeopardize the party’s prospects.

Ultimately, the most consequential political test of the anti-Israel movement will come in this November’s general election. The anti-Israel activists have certainly captured a faction of the Democratic Party, but their ties to so many unpopular views and causes make the whole movement politically toxic in middle America. 

The second-quarter congressional fundraising reports, which were posted on Wednesday, paint a picture of far-left, anti-Israel candidates drawing financial fuel from a growing small-dollar donor network of like-minded individuals. 

Nearly all of the Democratic Socialists of America-aligned or virulently anti-Israel candidates were among the Democrats’ leading fundraisers, including lawmakers (like Reps. Rashida Tlaib [D-MI] and Ilhan Omar [D-MN]) who are not facing particularly competitive races. 

The highlights: Abdul El-Sayed raised $4.6 million between April and June in the Michigan Senate primary, more than double the $2.1 million that Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) brought in. Disgraced former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner took in a whopping $9.1 million before dropping out amid allegations of rape, outpacing Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) $5.7 million haul.

On the House side, the DSA duo who won New York City congressional nominations last month — doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier and state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez — nearly hit the million-dollar mark in fundraising.  

Avila Chevalier raised $952,000 in the run-up to her primary against Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), coming close to matching the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman’s fundraising. Meanwhile, Valdez brought in $942,000 for the quarter, significantly more than the party-backed progressive favorite Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president.

The list goes on: Adam Hamawy’s past ties to Islamist radicals didn’t prevent him from winning the nomination in New Jersey’s 12th District, and certainly didn’t stunt his fundraising. Hamawy raised $987,000 in the second quarter, a staggering sum for a low-profile open-seat race. That’s well more than double the total of his nearest fundraising rival.  

Melat Kiros, the 29-year-old DSA-backed insurgent who ousted Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), also outraised the longtime lawmaker in the homestretch of the campaign. Kiros brought in $712,000 between April and June, while DeGette only raised $694,000.

What does this say about the state of our politics? 

In the recent past, radical candidates faced significant hurdles, not just because their message generally turned off moderate-minded voters but because they lacked institutional support, which limited their ability to raise money and be financially viable. 

It was once common for party leaders and other aligned outside groups to flood favored candidates with donations and leverage their financial advantage to create institutional guardrails.

But in our decentralized political environment, it’s easier than ever for a critical mass of ideologically committed small-dollar donors to power insurgent, ideologically driven campaigns. And with party-aligned organizations (like labor unions and EMILY’s List) atrophied and the impact of pro-Israel money diminished in Democratic primaries as the party turns against the Jewish state in the wake of the war in Gaza, the establishment has lost a lot of its juice.

As important, the victory of Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York City opened up the pocketbooks of a growing roster of Muslim and Arab donors whose top political issues include their deep antipathy towards Israel. 

The notion of a socialist, anti-Israel candidate winning in New York City sounded fanciful before the rise of Mamdani. His victory proved that if like-minded individuals mobilize behind favored candidates, they can have an outsized impact in the political process — especially given the Democratic public’s declining support for the Jewish state.

The rise of an anti-Israel super PAC like American Priorities to compete against AIPAC in Democratic primaries wouldn’t have been possible without Mamdani’s victory. The time when pro-Israel groups could rely on their financial firepower — without facing a countering force in competitive primaries — is now over.

It’s a reminder that money alone can only go so far in politics, and that strategy, tactics and message are just as important in determining electoral success. If the far-left forces face their comeuppance, it’s going to be because their message is unappealing to average Americans, not because they’re going to be outspent by the establishment. 

Left-wing candidates, including several members of the Democratic Socialists of America, rode a wave of anti-Israel sentiment — and donor cash — to victory in primaries in New York and New Jersey in June.

The latest fundraising filing period highlighted the diverse donor bases backing some of the most outspoken critics of Israel and capitalism, with candidates raking in hundreds of thousands from executives and entrepreneurs in tech, medicine and finance:

Here’s a round-up of how some of the most prominent figures got that windfall — and what they did with it:

• Darializa Avila Chevalier, the radical grad student who defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), reported nearly $350,000 in donations in the last three weeks of June. Among the many medical professionals to cut checks to Avila Chevalier was Dr. Mohammed Hadi, a Long Island-based physician charged in 2015 with conspiring to defraud Medicare and distribute oxycodone. Hadi ultimately pleaded guilty in 2024 to misdemeanor theft of government funds. Another filing the former Columbia encampment leader submitted on Wednesday lists among the campaign’s expenses $7,000 in compensation to Avila Chevalier herself on June 1. Federal law allows for candidates to pay themselves salaries out of their donor dollars.
• Another candidate getting revenue from their campaign is Adam Hamawy, who in early June became the Democratic nominee to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). The candidate paid $23,700 of the $504,855 his campaign brought in during the latest filing period to his own plastic surgery practice, continuing a pattern Jewish Insider first reported on in May. The Federal Election Commission also allows candidates to purchase goods, services and working space from themselves and family members so long as the transactions are market-rate. The Hamawy campaign — which has leaned into the candidate’s military record and fierce criticism of Israel while downplaying his past ties to Islamist figures — told JI in May that an outside consulting firm arrived at the $7,900 monthly rent paid to Princeton Plastic Surgeons.

• Assemblymember Claire Valdez reported just shy of $293,000 in campaign contributions for her bid to succeed Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). One of her most notable donors was Shanti Singham, the sister of Shanghai-based Maoist tech mogul Neville “Roy” Singham, currently under federal investigation in connection to his bankrolling of far-left nonprofits that promote pro-Iran, pro-Russia and pro-Chinese propaganda. Shanti Singham — who gave Valdez $2,000 in the most recent filing period, bringing her total contributions to her fellow DSA member to $3,500 — has her own ties to China, having held a post at state-run East China Normal University and promoted the country’s controversial Confucius Institutes in Africa. The Marxist academic’s daughter, Alicia Singham Goodwin, served as political director for the anti-Zionist group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and is a leading activist in DSA’s electoral efforts, having even helped shape New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s platform in 2025.

• A key cash-raising tool for both Avila Chevalier and Valdez has been their joint fundraising committee, which raised $165,551 in less than a month, and disbursed most of it to their campaigns. One of its largest contributors was prominent Jewish Democratic donor Morris Pearl, chairman of Patriotic Millionaires, a group that advocates heavier taxes on high earners such as himself. The former BlackRock managing director, who has in past years advocated for peace processes in the Middle East, donated $7,000 to the fundraising committee.

• The biggest winner of all this cycle may be Mamdani himself: not just for getting his slate of House candidates elected, but for raising more than $300,000 for his reelection campaign, even though he is three years away from a reelection bid. The haul was big enough that the campaign told local outlet City & State that it will abstain from the city’s matching funds program, which provides public cash to amplify small-dollar donations but caps donation size and spending. And Mamdani is already spending his war chest, contributors to which include tech investor Omer Hasan, who also underwrote his 2025 super PAC and new anti-AIPAC super PAC American Priorities. On July 10, the campaign paid more than $9,500 to longtime DSA activist Nadia Tykulsker. In 2023, it fell to Tykulsker to defend her organization’s decision to promote a celebratory rally in Times Square one day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks — a gathering even Mamdani, then a state lawmaker, condemned.

Good Tuesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at efforts by Democrats in Michigan to block a far-left congressional candidate over his past racist comments, and report on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement that the Trump administration will launch a significant diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court. We cover the introduction of bipartisan legislation from Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mike Lawler to dismantle and replace UNRWA, and cover New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pledge to continue to work with scandal-plagued consultant Morris Katz. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Dara Horn, Eli Vered Hazan and Ronald Lauder.

We have also launched 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 JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• President Donald Trump will meet this morning with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, whom he backed in the country’s elections earlier this year amid an effort to push Baghdad to crack down on Iranian militias operating in Iraq. The meeting comes as the U.S. continued to strike Iranian military targets overnight, including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa and Bandar Abbas, “to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said.
• Earlier in the day, CENTCOM announced that U.S. forces would today resume blockading Iranian ports. Trump also declared that the U.S. would institute a 20% fee on all cargo transiting the waterway. Read more here.
• The Aspen Security Forum kicks off this afternoon in Colorado. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker are set to speak later today on a panel titled, “The State of the World in 2026.”
• Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), will be sworn in to her brother’s Senate seat today at 2:30 p.m. ET, after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced his decision on Monday to appoint her to serve the remainder of Graham’s term. Trump threw his support behind Graham Nordone, saying that appointing her “would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly.” Read more here.
• Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is set to testify before the House Financial Services Committee this morning — the first time Warsh will appear before the Congress since assuming the role.
• The two-day Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, hosted by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), will kick off at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., with a keynote address from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will host some GOP members of Congress for dinner tonight, as the Trump administration seeks more than $67 billion for the Pentagon in its supplemental funding request.
• Lebanese and Israeli officials are meeting today at the U.S. Embassy in Rome to discuss the implementation of a framework agreed to by the countries last month that would see the disarmament of Hezbollah, a withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon and an end to the hostilities between Beirut and Jerusalem.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSa weiss

In the span of five days, one of Washington’s most vocal champions of the U.S. relationship with Israel died, while two prospective 2028 Democratic presidential contenders traveled to the Jewish state to define their approaches to the country. Though a coincidence of timing, those events, when taken together, underscored something much more significant: the passing of one generation of American politics vis-a-vis Israel and the opening contest over what will succeed it.

The events of the last week have distilled concerns that have repeatedly emerged at Jewish and Israeli gatherings, over Shabbat meals and in breakfast meetings: As the far left gains traction within the Democratic Party, and as the isolationist right increasingly finds support among Republicans, what does that mean for American Jews and U.S. support for Israel?

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died suddenly on Saturday, represented a generation of politicians — across the political spectrum — for whom support for Israel was tied to deep, long-standing relationships with the Jewish state’s leaders, the belief in the country’s strategic positioning as a key ally and the ability of Israel’s friends in Washington to challenge Jerusalem without imperiling the relationship. 

His death sent shockwaves across the Jewish community at a time when U.S. support for Israel — including among Republicans — is on the decline.

Days before Graham died, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel was in Israel, where he delivered a speech — his own version of tough talk to Israelis — at Tel Aviv University on the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Speaking to reporters ahead of his speech, Emanuel, who served as White House chief of staff from 2009-2010, said that declining U.S. support for Israel “is not a Democratic Party problem. This is an American problem, and a generational problem.”

Separate from Emanuel’s trip, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) also traveled to Israel last week, gaining attention for an incident in the West Bank in which local security forces stopped Khanna, who was accompanied by aides and an activist from Breaking the Silence, after the congressman entered what had been until recently a closed military zone. He has since called for Israel to investigate the incident, even as Israeli officials denied the congressman’s account. Khanna has not provided any evidence to back up his claim of being detained by settlers.

In his public comments and meetings, Emanuel conveyed a desire to halt the growing daylight between future generations of Israelis and Americans. Khanna, who a decade ago was a staunch supporter of close ties with Jerusalem, has adopted a different political calculation, leaning into the growing anti-Israel sentiment in his party as a launching pad for a national campaign.

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

MICHIGAN MATTERS

Mainstream Democrats rally to block far-left candidate from nomination in swing Mich. district

William Lawrence, a virulent Israel critic gaining momentum among progressives in Michigan’s battleground 7th Congressional District, is facing a wave of criticism over past comments denigrating Black political leadership, attacking former Vice President Kamala Harris. As a result, Lawrence is now facing the opposition of an outside group aiming to block him from winning the Democratic nomination, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

On Israel: On the campaign trail, Lawrence has called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and accused the country of genocide, something that the other Democratic candidates, former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, have declined to do. During a candidate forum, Lawrence said that Israel “has refused every other form of accountability and we continue to arm them.”

Read the full story here.

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DIPLOMATIC BLITZ

Marco Rubio launches sweeping diplomatic offensive against ICC

The Trump administration plans to launch a major diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court, furthering the White House’s long-running battle against the international organization, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

Rubio’s remarks: “For 250 years, Americans have governed ourselves as a free and sovereign people,” Rubio said in a video, which was accompanied by an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. He described America’s legal system as “the essential and indispensable feature of our form of government,” but cautioned that “powerful people in far away places want to take that away from us.” He warned of shadowy “unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited,” unless the U.S. acts quickly.

Read the full story here.

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RESET BUTTON

Democrats denounce Trump’s return to Iran war

Democrats on Monday slammed President Donald Trump’s resumption of hostilities against Iran, as well as the notion, implicit in Trump’s notification, that the operations mark a new conflict and therefore reset the 60-day window for military operations launched by the executive branch without congressional approval, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Pushing back: Critics of the war have argued consistently that the operations that began in February never actually concluded during the since-terminated ceasefire, despite the administration’s assertions otherwise. “Trump’s rinse and repeat approach to the Iran war isn’t a strategy, it’s a recipe for utter disaster,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Monday. “It’s incredible what a fiasco this war is. Trump’s so-called understanding — lot of bull — with Iran fell apart faster than the ink could dry.”

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA).

Windfall: Iran netted nearly $5 billion in the 22 days after Washington and Tehran signed their memorandum of understanding on June 17, according to a new report from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.

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UNDOING UNRWA

Reps. Lawler, Gottheimer introduce bill to dismantle and replace UNRWA

Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced a bill on Tuesday that directs the State Department to work with U.S. allies to dismantle and replace the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Details: The “Replace UNRWA with Real Humanitarian Assistance Act” would give the secretary of state 180 days to submit a “comprehensive strategy, coordinated with international partners and allies,” to dismantle UNRWA, including a detailed timeline for the wind-down, identification of governmental or non-governmental entities responsible for taking over UNRWA’s portfolio, a funding plan and a transition plan. The secretary would be required to begin implementing the plan within a year of submitting the strategy.

Read the full story here.

Flight risk: Airstrikes on Yemen’s Sanaa International Airport on Monday were intended to stop Iran and the Houthis from breaking a decades-long air blockade and opening an uncontrolled air link between Tehran and its Yemeni proxy, regional analysts said — a corridor they warn could let Iran resupply the Houthis directly with weapons for future campaigns against Saudi Arabia and Israel, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.

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CLOSING RANKS

Zohran Mamdani stands by embattled Graham Platner advisor

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed on Monday to maintain ties with a controversial political operative behind the imploded campaign of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, whom a former romantic partner accused of rape, leading him to drop out of the race, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

Mayor’s stand: Morris Katz and his consulting firm Fight Agency gained a reputation as political wonder-workers after assisting in Mamdani’s 2025 campaign and then in the socialist sweep of New York’s congressional primaries last month. But following the high-profile collapse of Platner’s candidacy, members of the Democratic Socialists of America began circulating a petition calling for a boycott of Katz’s services. But Mamdani, one of DSA’s most prominent national figures, declared he would not participate in the proposed blacklist. “I will continue to work with Morris Katz,” Mamdani told reporters at an unrelated event. “He remains a top advisor of mine.”

Read the full story here.

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SEEKING SUCCESSORS

In his final term as WJC president, Ronald Lauder looks for the next generation to step up

Nearly every surface in Ronald Lauder’s office on the 42nd floor of the General Motors Building in Midtown Manhattan has a clock on it. Some are brass, some are gold, and there’s a large wooden one with a shining pendulum hanging on the wall. And all of them were ticking away as he spoke with eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross about his past, the Jewish community’s troubling present and his hopes for its future, while sitting on his distressed leather furniture, looking out over the southeast corner of Central Park, in one of his first extended interviews in years.

Ticktock: The clocks, of course, are also a metaphor. Lauder, 82, announced earlier this year that he will not seek reelection when his term as president of the World Jewish Congress ends in 2029, and his mind is occupied with both finding a specific successor for that role and, more broadly, encouraging the next generation of Jewish leaders to step up, particularly in Jewish education. He was also explicit that this is the reason why he agreed to a rare interview. “I believe very strongly that we must have young philanthropy. I would say that 80% of philanthropy today is from people over 60,” he told eJP.

Read the full interview here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil here.

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Worthy Reads

The Loneliness of Chuck Schumer: The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn posits that even as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) serves as one of his party’s most prominent voices, antisemitism of the kind Schumer rails against has gained traction among Democrats. “Today’s party is nothing like the one Mr. Schumer grew up in. Those who regard Israel as a genocidal enemy are ascendant, and though the first Jewish Senate minority leader may cast individual pro-Israel votes, he certainly isn’t leading in Congress on Jewish or Israeli issues. His position is like that of the young babysitter in the 1979 horror film ‘When a Stranger Calls.’ After a series of disturbing phone calls, she calls the police. They get back to her with this chilling message: ‘The calls are coming from inside the house.’” [WSJ]

Poison PEN: The Atlantic’s Gal Beckerman observes the “meltdown” taking place at PEN America, following the resignation of the group’s president over an article that looked at the isolation faced by Israeli and Jewish writers. “Thursday’s article nodded to the curtailed freedoms of Israeli and Jewish writers without taking any ideological side. It was far from a battle cry or a shift in priorities. … This reality does not neutralize the cause of pro-Palestinian writers or the suffering in Gaza and elsewhere. The fact that the article was perceived that way, and that it led to the resignation of a president, tells us all a great deal about the hair-trigger moment we live in, and about the precarity of the liberal principles on which PEN America was founded.” [TheAtlantic]

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?: In “Moral Clarity,” Israeli writer Nachum Kaplan reflects on a recent dinner party in which Israel was a main topic of conversations among guests, most of whom were strident critics of Israel. “I walked home reflecting on the strange burden of being pro-Israel in polite society. One is expected to arrive with evidence, history, nuance, empathy, military expertise, legal precision and a detailed alternative strategy for every available course of action. The other side need only arrive with adjectives. Colonial. Genocidal. Apartheid. Brutal. … The ignorance would be less irritating if it were accompanied by humility. Yet ignorance among the educated rarely travels alone. It brings status, vocabulary and the confidence of belonging to a moral majority. Its possessors do not merely lack knowledge. They regard knowledge as faintly disreputable, particularly when it interferes with the emotional clarity of their conclusions.” [MoralClarity]

A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.

Word on the Street

The Jewish Federations of North America offered its support for the Stop the Fakes Act, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), requiring the labeling of AI-generated content online. “By strengthening transparency and accountability online, the Stop the Fakes Act would help protect Jewish communities, and all vulnerable groups, from AI-enabled antisemitism, hate, impersonation, and targeted harassment,” Omer Yarden-Oppenheim, director of government relations at JFNA, said…

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) urged colleagues to block procedural motions to move ahead with the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act without votes to strip U.S.-Israel military and intelligence cooperation out of the bill…

The Congressional Jewish Staff Association announced its 2026-2027 board, naming Zachary Freiman as president, Lindsey Rubin as vice president of member outreach, Tessa Cate as treasurer, Gabe Feiner as vice president of social programming, Louie Kahn as communications director and Joshua Lash, Max Seltzer and Sasha Frank-Stempel as members-at-large…

Federal officials charged a Texas man with transmitting threatening communications through means of interstate or foreign commerce, alleging he threatened to kill Jewish employees of a security camera company in Georgia…

The New Yorker visits Russ & Daughters with a duo from the Netherlands who are self-styled experts on pickles, as they explore the history of the popular sandwich accompaniment in New York…

U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that the country designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization, with those found guilty of supporting the group facing up to 14 years in prison; the government also banned the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, which No. 10 Downing St. said was behind a number of attacks on British Jewish sites…

The New York Times does a deep dive into a yearslong Mossad effort to groom former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into an Israeli intelligence asset and, potentially, a successor to the Iranian regime; the plot, which included a meeting in Hungary between Ahmadinejad and then-Mossad head David Barnea, ultimately failed following an Israeli attempt to remove the former Iranian president from government surveillance on the first day of the war… 

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the U.S.’ use — for the first time — of drone boats in the war with Iran, as the military increasingly relies on unmanned technologies in battle…

The Financial Times reports on efforts by U.S. adversaries to use cyber attacks to obtain location information about U.S. forces and contractors in the Middle East in the lead-up to the war with Iran…

Dubai-based port operator DP World is planning to build a new port near the city of Fujairah on the United Arab Emirates’ east coast, in an effort to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and decrease the Gulf state’s reliance on the Jebel Ali hub near Dubai…

Israeli Ambassador to Singapore Eli Vered Hazan was named the world chairman of Keren Hayesod, succeeding Sam Grundwerg…

Pic of the Day

Author Dara Horn (right) discussed her work researching and writing about contemporary antisemitism with Anila Ali, board chair and president of the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council, at AMMWEC’s conference in Washington on Monday about antisemitism and hate. Other speakers included Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ), as well as Luke Moon, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the head of Generation Zion.

Birthdays

U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council during the last three years of the Biden administration, she is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Ambassador Michèle Taylor turns 60… 

Past president of Congregation B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield, Ill., Sandee Holleb… Architect and urban designer, he is identified with Habitat 67, a housing complex built in conjunction with Expo 67 (the 1967 Montreal World’s Fair), Moshe Safdie turns 88… MLB pitcher for 11 seasons, now a sportscaster and author, he won the Cy Young Award and was an MLB All Star in 1980, Steve Stone turns 79… Los Angeles resident, Susan Farrell… Film producer, best known for the “Lethal Weapon” series, the first two “Die Hard” movies and the “Matrix” trilogy, Joel Silver turns 74… Film and theatrical producer, in 2012 he became the first producer to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award, Scott Rudin turns 68… Co-founder and managing director of Beverly Hills Private Wealth, Scott M. Shagrin… United States secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick turns 65… Media columnist for the Chicago Tribune until 2021, Phil Rosenthal turns 63… Illustrator and author best known as the writer of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick turns 60… Principal at Oakland, Calif.-based Full Court Press Communications and a past president of the Oakland Hebrew Day School, Daniel Eli Cohen… Member of the Washington State Senate until 2023, David S. Frockt turns 57… President and CEO at the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, Renee Wizig-Barrios… Rapper and record producer from Brooklyn known as “Ill Bill,” he is the producer, founder and CEO of Uncle Howie Records, William “Bill” Braunstein turns 54… Professor in the department of genetics at the Harvard Medical School, David Emil Reich, Ph.D. turns 52… COO at Aish Global, Elliot Mathias… Fashion designer and cast member on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” Dorit Kemsley turns 50… Retired mixed martial artist, now a life coach, Emily Peters-Kagan turns 45… Co-founder and executive chairman of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann turns 44… Interior designer and owner of Tribe By Design, Tehillah Braun… Professional golfer with four tournament wins in the Asian and European tours, David Lipsky turns 38… Founder at Bashert Group and head of a NYC-based family office, Daniel B. Jeydel… AVP for grantmaking at Hillel International, she is on the board of the Siegel JCC of Delaware, Rachel Giattino… Reporter covering housing and the home building industry for The Wall Street Journal, Nicole Friedman… Director of Chabad Georgetown and rabbi at the Pentagon, Rabbi Menachem Shemtov turns 36… Creator of the Instagram feed called Second Date Shadchan, Elizabeth Morgan “Lizzy” Brenner… Collegiate basketball star for Princeton and Maryland, now playing for Perfumerías Avenida of Spain’s Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, Abby Meyers turns 27… Attorney and founder of In Every Generation, David Rosenberg-Wohl…

James Fishback, the GOP candidate for Florida governor whom critics call “openly racist” and “openly antisemitic,” ostensibly sits at the opposite end of the political spectrum from the likes of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

But the far-right and far-left politicians share more than just an aversion to Israel — they also overlap in donors, Jewish Insider has found. 

As a candidate, Fishback has embraced and celebrated neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes’ “groyper” movement, propagated the “white genocide” and “great replacement” conspiracy theories, told a Black Floridian they should be lynched and repeatedly taunted Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) — his rival to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis — over his race. The radical right candidate has also called the Western Wall “stupid,” referred to fast food as “goyslop,” promised Tucker Carlson he would dump the Sunshine State’s holdings in Israeli bonds, blamed the Iran war on AIPAC and released an ad vowing that no one would be “convicted of antisemitism” for criticizing the Jewish state under his leadership.

But his campaign has proven a magnet for donors to progressive candidates, who have poured tens of thousands of dollars into a PAC supporting his election.

Among the 27 donors to give the maximum $3,000 contribution to Fishback’s bid for Tallahassee is New York-based philanthropist and financier Amed Khan. A longtime associate of the Clinton family and contributor to former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as to the Democratic National Committee, Khan’s public commentary and political giving has pivoted leftward since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.

Besides maxing out to Fishback, this cycle the investment banker and Quincy Institute board member has kicked $7,000 to former Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner, the progressive Democrat whose tirades against “oligarchs” and “the establishment” — not to mention his rhetoric on Israel — made him a favorite of the online left before a rape allegation derailed his campaign. In March, Khan donated the maximum $5,000 to Peace, Accountability, and Leadership PAC, an arm of the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, a dark money nonprofit dedicated to advancing pro-Palestinian narratives and candidates.

And just weeks before contributing to the Republican Fishback in February, Khan gave $3,500 to Gaza flotilla activist Greg Stoker, who is running against Rep. John Carter (R-TX) and Democratic candidate Justin Early on the Green Party line. On the same day he cut a check to the far-right Floridian, Khan donated $3,500 to another Green House hopeful: former Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contractor Anthony Aguilar, who has accused his former employer and the IDF of war crimes.

Khan also gave $3,500 in January to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), part of a pattern of support for the increasingly anti-Israel lawmaker that stretches back to 2019.

In the 2024 cycle, Khan gave $5,000 to Justice Democrats, and donated smaller amounts to Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and then-Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), all figures linked to the Democratic Socialists of America and the left-wing “Squad” in Congress.

But Khan has also maintained support for more mainstream liberal figures, donating $7,000 in June 2025 to former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink’s bid for Congress in Michigan, and $14,000 that March to committees affiliated with Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), a Jewish Democrat who has lately clashed with AIPAC and opposed military aid to Israel. 

Another of Fishback’s max-out donors is similarly a historic backer of Democrats who lately has ventured into supporting figures on the fringes of both parties: Parviz Tayebati, a Port Biscayne-based tech investor. 

Tayebati has donated a total of $19,000 to committees linked to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and $6,600 to former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), both hard-right figures who have increasingly leaned into an anti-Israel identity toward the end of their tenure. He has also donated $3,500 to a PAC supporting one of Greene’s unsuccessful replacements, former state lawmaker Colton Moore, who once was a firm supporter of Israel but more recently became the lone Republican in the state Senate to oppose adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

In May, Tayebati gave $2,000 to Platner and another $1,000 to Effie Phillips-Staley, a left-wing Democrat who picked up an anti-Israel drumbeat in her failed bid to become the Democratic nominee against Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY).

One of the few donors to comment for this story, Tayebati told JI he donated to Fishback after seeing a social media video of him criticizing Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip. However, he called his decision to give money to the candidate “short sighted,” and pleaded ignorance of Fishback’s full views at the time of the donation in January.

“After I found out how extreme and actually antisemitic he is I regretted my support,” Tayebati wrote in a text message, adding that he has changed parties several times in the years since he arrived in the U.S. from Iran. “I am an American citizen and believe anyone who becomes a citizen [in] this country must have their loyalty only to America first and view anyone who is a U.S. citizen but uses their rights and freedom to promote another country as traitors and should be deported.”

Tayebati has also supported a few less extreme candidates, including Dr. Annie Andrews, a Democratic challenger to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).

Fitting a similar pattern is physician Mohamad Naem of Tampa, Fla., who has given the maximum to Fishback while also donating $7,450 to El-Sayed’s campaign in Michigan, blowing past the $7,000 campaign contribution ceiling. The Senate candidate’s team told JI they would refund the over-the-limit funds, but declined to comment for this piece beyond vowing they had never shared any donor list or had other contact with Fishback. 

A longtime supporter of Tlaib, in late 2023 Naem began also sending cash to her Squad colleagues Lee, Bowman, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). Also in the 2024 cycle, he donated $2,000 to Pervez Agwan and $1,000 to Preston Nouri, both left-wing upstarts who made criticism of Israel and AIPAC a central theme in their campaigns.

Last year, he contributed $3,333.34 to the committees of Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) and $1,500 to Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), both key backers of legislation that would sever military aid to the Jewish state and of resolutions condemning its actions, while keeping up his support for Omar and Tlaib. 

In recent months, along with donations to El-Sayed, Naem has given smaller amounts to Phillips-Staley and to Eric Yonce, another unsuccessful Israel critic who ran for Congress in Florida.

As with Khan and Tayebati, Naem has made a few donations to candidates supportive of Israel, including Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) and Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL). He also gave $1,000 in 2025 to Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), who in June proposed winding down U.S. aid to Israel, although the congressman has aligned his position with that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But Fishback’s other underwriters have shunned centrists in favor of candidates on the party’s margins. Another of his contributors is Hassan Shibly, who left his position as the head of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in 2021 following domestic abuse allegations from his wife. 

On the federal level, Shibly has given this cycle to Aaron Baker, running as a right-wing, anti-Israel alternative to Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) and to Mussab Ali, who challenged Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) as an AIPAC-bashing left-wing insurgent. And beginning in November 2023, Shibly has donated $200 each month to Omar in Minnesota.

In an email to JI, Shibly fiercely disavowed all of Fishback’s controversial stances — save one.

“One of the most significant reasons for my support is his stated position that American taxpayer dollars should be prioritized for the needs of Americans rather than funding foreign governments,” Shibly wrote. “I have been outspoken in opposing continued U.S. funding for the Israeli government’s military campaign in Gaza because I believe Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people. Ending or substantially reducing U.S. taxpayer funding for that campaign is an issue of profound moral importance to me.”

Current CAIR-Florida director and attorney Mohammad Mubarak gave $1,000 to Fishback, but at the federal level has given thousands more to El-Sayed, Tlaib, Omar and Carson. Radiologist Nabeel Hamoui gave the GOP gubernatorial contender the full $3,000 allowed under law in May, three months after maxing out to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign. In recent cycles, he’s given to Carson, Omar, Bowman, Lee, Bush and Tlaib. 

Tampa investor Ramsy Dahla gave the maximum to Fishback, but has never donated to a federal official other than Tlaib. Another longtime Tlaib backer from Tampa, Ymad Elabed, appears to have given double the largest legally permitted contribution to Fishback by donating from two separate addresses. 

Meanwhile, another Tampa businessman, Yasin Saad, gave $3,000 to Fishback but has favored Tlaib and recurring Palestinian American congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar at the federal level.

Texas supermarket magnate Salah Nafal is also a member of Fishback’s $3,000 club, even as he’s given strictly to left-wing Israel critics for national offices, including El-Sayed, Platner, Omar and Tlaib, as well as Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-NJ), Michigan democratic socialist Aisha Farooqi and failed Texas congressional candidates Zeeshan Hafeez and Tanya Lloyd.

Meanwhile, Florida First PAC — a state committee dedicated to backing Fishback for governor — picked up a $35,000 contribution in June from Jacksonville law office Farah & Farah. The firm’s founding partner, Eddie Farah, has given $6,000 this cycle to Tlaib while also kicking $2,000 to the committees of Georgia’s Greene. In 2024, he backed Cornel West for president, while also donating to the PAC Counter Coalition, which subsequently ran a small independent expenditure for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Oil distributor Basem Ali gave Florida First $5,000 in May, nearly a year after he gave to the Tlaib campaign. Ali has given tens of thousands to the Michigan congresswoman over the course of her career, and also supported Omar and Campa-Najjar, though he has also donated to Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), a strong Israel supporter.

Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) is facing a serious primary threat from state Rep. Donavan McKinney, a left-wing challenger backed by several anti-Israel groups including Justice Democrats and TrackAIPAC.

Those groups are riding high, coming off of a recent wave of congressional primary victories in New York City and, most recently, Colorado, which they say point to a desire for a leftward shift in the Democratic Party and, in particular, rejection of support for Israel and pro-Israel groups among the Democratic base. Thanedar is one of their next top targets.

Thanedar is one of the few Democrats who has gotten more supportive of Israel during his tenure in Congress, even as the party has become more hostile to the Jewish state. As a state legislator in 2021, he co-sponsored a resolution calling for a halt in U.S. aid to Israel, which described Israel as an “apartheid state” and accused it of “countless human rights violations.”   

Thanedar sought to walk back his support for the resolution during his 2022 primary, but the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project backed his opponent, then-state Sen. Adam Hollier, in that race. The independently wealthy Thanedar was able to counter with millions in his own spending.

After comfortably winning the contested 2022 primary, Thanedar met with supporters of Israel and traveled to the Jewish state, ultimately reinventing himself as a strong pro-Israel voice and picking up support from the Jewish community. That stance has since cost him support among progressives.

McKinney was the first challenger to an incumbent endorsed by Justice Democrats this cycle, and is also supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) — all anti-Israel voices. (Former Rep. Brenda Lawrence, who was strongly pro-Israel during her time in office, is also endorsing McKinney’s campaign.)

Thanedar may be particularly vulnerable, given that he represents a district with a large Black population in and around Detroit with a history of Black representation. He’s also built something of an odd public persona in Washington, including an effort to force a vote on impeaching President Donald Trump earlier this year, which he ultimately walked back after pressure from House Democratic leadership.

“We haven’t seen any publicly available polling in this race yet in this primary, but Shri has to be feeling at least somewhat vulnerable here in that today he’s been able to avoid a heads-up primary against a Black Detroiter and now he’s got a heads up primary against a Black Detroiter,” Adrian Hemond, a Michigan political strategist, told Jewish Insider.

Given his district is in an “overwhelmingly majority Black city,” which had at least one Black member of Congress since the 1960s and now has none, “Congressman Thanedar is going to have some work ahead of him to get those folks to pull the lever for him and not to have Black representation in Congress.”

Hemond — who has been publicly critical of Thanedar as ideologically flexible — said that Thanedar isn’t necessarily disliked at home, but has a “reputation as being odd,” and has faced criticism over poor constituent services — often an Achilles heel for Democratic lawmakers who’ve lost primaries in recent years — in part because he has struggled to maintain staff in his office.

But, Hemond argued, McKinney — who has gone on the road visiting other states and districts to stump for fellow progressive candidates — shouldn’t be “confident at all” in victory because “Shri’s got a lot of money, and it’s not like this hasn’t been attempted before.”

McKinney, Hemond said, may be somewhat to the left of the district as a whole, but his views are largely aligned with the Democratic primary voter base, more so than Thanedar’s own. In order to win the district, he continued, McKinney will need to out-organize Thanedar on the ground, particularly in ensuring his supporters return their absentee ballots, which are set to go out at the end of the week.

“If you have a better absentee program than Shri Thanedar does, you should win this election,” Hemond continued, adding that “it looks like they’ve got the pieces in place to be able to run a really strong absentee chase effort, and if they do, it’s going to bode real well for him come 9 o’clock on election night.”

Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover the results of yesterday’s Democratic primaries in Colorado, where the momentum for far-left, anti-Israel candidates in the party continued. We talk to House Democrats about whether they think Israel’s right to exist in safety and security should continue to be a policy position of their party and highlight the division within their party over a push by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to slash $3.3 billion in military aid the U.S. is set to provide Israel. We also report on a failed effort, which most House Democrats voted for, to block U.S. support for Israeli operations against Hezbollah. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ellie Cohanim, Bruce Pearl and Mark Isakowitz.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI 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

• Technical delegations from the U.S. and Iran are meeting separately with Qatari and Pakistani mediators in Doha, but have no plans to meet directly. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that the focus of ‌the discussions is the release of Tehran’s frozen funds and the Strait of Hormuz, while President Donald Trump indicated on Monday that the negotiations would focus on Iran’s nuclear program.
• The Wall Street Journal reveals that after Saudi Arabia blocked U.S. military access needed for Project Freedom — Trump’s operation to crack open the Strait of Hormuz — and prompted the White House to threaten to withhold missile interceptors from the kingdom, the confrontation triggered a widening rift in the U.S.-Saudi relationship, with the U.S. now considering reducing its military footprint in the kingdom. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Gulf last week but skipped a visit to Saudi Arabia; the week before, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman declined an invitation to attend the G7 summit in France, reportedly in protest of the U.S.’ handling of the war with Iran.
• Some of the most prominent figures in U.S.-Israel diplomacy, Israeli national security and the American Jewish community are gathering at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, to help train a new generation of leaders confronting Israel’s evolving strategic challenges, as part of a pilot program that ends on Thursday. Among the faculty is former Ambassador Dennis Ross, the veteran Middle East negotiator who advised four U.S. presidents; Howard Kohr, the former longtime executive director of AIPAC; and Malcolm Hoenlein, who for decades served as executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Read more in eJewishPhilanthropy.
• The Herzliya Conference wraps up today in Israel: Among the many top national security and political officials speaking are former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid; former Israeli Ambassadors to the U.S. Danny Ayalon and Michael Herzog; former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro; EU Ambassador to Israel Michael Mann; Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot; Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman; Democrats party leader Yair Golan; Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas; and Nadav Tamir, executive director of J Street Israel.
• And the Aspen Ideas Festival concludes today in Colorado. Jeff Flake, the former U.S. senator and former U.S. ambassador to Turkey; the Atlantic Council’s Ian Brzezinski; and the Stimson Center’s Emma Ashford will speak on a panel about the “next chapter of the trans-Atlantic relationship.”

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Progressives in Colorado scored a number of key victories Tuesday night, including Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidate Melat Kiros’ defeat of Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) in the state’s 1st Congressional District.

The Colorado results suggest that, far from being contained to a few scattered congressional districts in New York City, the momentum for far-left, anti-Israel candidates is only growing within the Democratic Party, especially within urban population centers.

Kiros, a 29-year-old doctoral student, campaigned on her hostility to Israel and faced scrutiny when she declined to call the firebombing attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., antisemitic. DeGette, despite a long-standing progressive record in Congress, struggled to satisfy a critical mass of Democratic voters who preferred a more radical choice, especially when it came to opposing Israel.

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) survived a scare from a little-known socialist challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, but only won renomination with less than 60% of the Democratic vote. Even in the vote-rich Denver suburbs, the far-left challenger came within striking distance of the state’s well-known senator and former governor.

Former state Rep. Shannon Bird, a moderate championed by Democratic Majority for Israel, lost badly to state Rep. Manny Rutinel for the Democratic nomination in Colorado’s swing 8th District, currently held by Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO). With most votes counted, Rutinel holds a 28-point lead over Bird, 62-34%.

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

PLATFORM PUNT

Top Democrats won’t commit to supporting Israel’s security in party platform

The official 2024 Democratic Party Platform, released by the DNC for former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, stated that party leaders “believe a strong, secure, and democratic Israel is vital to the interests of the United States” and that the party’s “commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, its right to defend itself … is ironclad.” Several House Democrats, including in leadership and top progressives, however, remain divided or noncommittal over whether Israel’s right to exist in safety and security should continue to be a policy position of the Democratic Party, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

What they’re saying: When asked on Tuesday whether support for Israel’s right to exist in safety and security should continue to be an official policy position of the Democratic Party moving forward, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) instead told JI that Democrats are “continuing to focus on driving down the high cost of living, fixing our broken healthcare system and cleaning up corruption in an environment where the Trump cartel is the most corrupt administration in American history.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also did not provide a concrete answer, telling JI she is “less concerned with slogans” and more interested in “what it would mean in terms of policy.”

Read the full story here with additional comments from Reps. Greg Casar (D-TX), Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Jim McGovern (D-MA).

Breaking away: Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said she’ll no longer accept support from AIPAC, a major break with the pro-Israel group by one of the key power players in the House, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

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DEM DEBATE

Democrats remain divided over push to eliminate Israel aid amid House floor gridlock

House Democrats remain divided over a push by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to slash $3.3 billion in military aid the U.S. is set to provide Israel in the 2027 State Department funding bill, and top Democratic leaders are continuing to keep their own positions vague, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Consideration of the amendment is now delayed until at least July 13, after hard-right Republicans again brought proceedings on the House floor to a halt.

Where things stand: House Democratic leaders on Tuesday declined to say how they plan to vote or advise other members to vote following a closed-door caucus meeting. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said, “Those conversations are ongoing,” while No. 3 House Democrat Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) suggested that U.S. “aid and support” for Israel may not “go on forever.” Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, joined colleagues on other national security committees in saying he’ll oppose the amendment, but progressive leaders maintained that many members will support the effort.

Read the full story here.

War powers play: Nearly all House Democrats voted for a war powers resolution on Tuesday that aimed to block U.S. support for Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, though the legislation failed to secure a House majority, with nearly all Republicans and 22 Democrats voting against the measure.

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RED SCARE

Democratic leaders brush off Avila Chevalier’s posts praising communism, say she’s changed

Asked about New York City congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier’s reported past comments supporting communism, House Democratic leaders suggested this week that she had changed and moderated her views,Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Jeffries’s defense: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said, when asked about Avila Chevalier’s previous comments supportive of communism, that Avila Chevalier is “going to have to speak for herself in terms of what she said in the past” but said she has been “pretty clear that she’s walked away from many of the things that have been unearthed, and has pretty clearly indicated that she’s a different person, but that’s for her, ultimately, to communicate, and I’m confident that she will, as best she can.”

Read the full story here.

Party problem: New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin — the first Jewish person to hold her role — slammed a newly elected Brooklyn Democrat’s promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories, but declined to call her commentary disqualifying, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.

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BORN IN THE USA

Several Jewish groups celebrate Supreme Court ruling protecting birthright citizenship

Several Jewish groups celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday to uphold birthright citizenship and strike down a Trump administration executive order that aimed to eliminate citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and those in the U.S. on temporary visas, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Weighing in: The American Jewish Committee, HIAS and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism all joined an amicus brief against the executive order with various other religious groups, and praised the Supreme Court’s decision. The National Council of Jewish Women and Jewish Council for Public Affairs also weighed in in support of the justices’ ruling.

Read the full story here.

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PEARL OF WISDOM

Bruce Pearl won’t commit to backing JD Vance in 2028 unless the VP breaks from Tucker Carlson

Bruce Pearl, the veteran former Auburn University men’s basketball coach, told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that Vice President JD Vance needs to “make a decision” about his continued association with far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, warning that his support of Vance’s expected 2028 presidential bid will be contingent on the vice president severing ties with the antisemitic podcaster.

‘Enemies of the state’: Pearl, who is currently splitting his time between pro-Israel political advocacy and serving as an analyst for TNT and CBS Sports, made the comments in an interview with JI on Monday while discussing the rise of right-wing antisemitism and the prominence of Carlson, neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and other commentators who promote antisemitic ideas within the America First right-wing movement. Pearl argued that Carlson and Fuentes “are absolutely enemies of the state. What they’re doing is treasonous, it’s disgusting and it’s not based on fact. It’s based on lies and propaganda and antisemitism. They’re bought and paid for, but they’ve got huge followings.”

Read the full interview here.

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COHANIM COMEBACK

Former antisemitism official Ellie Cohanim tapped as advisor to U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz

Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism in President Donald Trump’s first term, recently joined his administration as a senior policy advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, Waltz announced on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. Cohanim was born in Tehran and left Iran as a child in 1979, following the Islamic Revolution. She came with her family to New York.

Waltz’s words: “Ellie’s story is the American story,” Waltz said in a statement. “Her family fled persecution in Iran, built a life in New York, and she has spent her career looking for ways to serve America, fighting for freedom, standing with the persecuted, and calling out antisemitism wherever it hides. That is exactly the kind of conviction and courage we need at the United Nations.”

Read the full story here.

Scoop: As Washington prepares to host a weekend of July Fourth hoopla on the National Mall, senior Trump administration officials, diplomats and Jewish communal leaders will gather on Friday evening across from the Lincoln Memorial for a Shabbat dinner celebrating America’s 250th birthday.

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Worthy Reads

When the DSA Came for Lander: Park Avenue Synagogue Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove penned a letter dated two years from now, published in the New York Daily News, to New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, predicting that he will be ousted by a Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate in the next primary. “They told you it was never about being a Jew — only about being a Zionist — as if the two could be peeled apart, as if your Jewishness had nothing to do with the nation they demanded you disown. There’s an old teaching about the man who thinks he can ride the tiger and dismount whenever he likes. You didn’t tame the coalition you joined. You were, for one term, useful — until the moment it decided to disown you. You could renounce the policy, the lobby, even Zionism, but you could not renounce being a Jew.” [Daily News]

Drone Prone: Foreign Policy’s John Haltiwanger unpacks Israel’s “Hezbollah drone problem.” “After the fighting resumed in March, it wasn’t long before explosive drones were a leading cause of battlefield deaths for Israel in Lebanon. As a result, Netanyahu established a team of experts to address the issue and pledged to give the IDF an unlimited budget to address the Hezbollah drone threat. But there are no simple solutions. … In ancient Rome, gladiators used nets to entangle opponents before moving in for the kill. Today, Israeli troops are using the same primitive tool to defend against drones and intercept them before they reach their targets. The situation is indicative of how militaries have struggled to find countermeasures to drones and have been forced to adapt, particularly as the technology evolves at such a rapid pace.” [FP]

Separate But Equal: Hannah Rosenthal, former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism under the Obama administration, argues in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency against the proposal of combining the role of the antisemitism envoy with that of the special envoy on Holocaust issues. “The office of special envoy on antisemitism and the special envoy on the Holocaust are complementary, but not duplicative. The former works to address contemporary antisemitism, hate crimes, extremism and government policy around the world. The latter focuses on historical justice, restitution, remembrance, archives and Holocaust-era accountability. The United States deliberately created separate offices because both missions are full time responsibilities.” [JTA]

Jews Turning on Israel: Actor and Jewish commentator Jonah Platt argues in a post on X against the trope of the young, “self-hating” Jew in an essay on X. “It’s maddening. It’s dangerous. It’s irresponsible. It’s shameful. But it isn’t nefarious. It isn’t Jew-hatred, it isn’t self-hatred, and honestly, it isn’t that hard to understand. These are disconnected, uneducated people, surrounded by like-minded peers, all reinforcing one another in a disconnected, uneducated worldview — one they’re not especially invested in anyway, and focus on only because progressive society says they’re supposed to.” [X]

Word on the Street

President Donald Trump is considering returning to a full-scale military conflict with Iran and has discussed the idea with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reports, but has decided to continue on the diplomatic track for now…

In an analysis of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that the Trump administration is “evidently not applying [the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act’s] requirements and restrictions to the MOU, apparently on the basis of an opinion from the Department of Justice,” but the White House and DOJ “have apparently not shared this surprising opinion, or its arguments, with either Congress or the public”…

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Monday that he did a “happy dance,” after Iran was knocked out of the FIFA World Cup, telling reporters that Iranian officials tried to bring into the U.S. individuals with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and that accommodating the team while protecting national security had demanded incomparable attention…

The Terrorist Financing Targeting Center — a coalition comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the U.S. — announced joint sanctions against five entities and 16 individuals tied to Hezbollah’s financial network…

Oman has submitted a proposal to the U.S. for Muscat and Tehran to collect service fees from shipping companies seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz, according to The New York Times. One of Iran’s deputy foreign ministers, Kazem Gharibabadi, said on Monday if Iran was unable to come to an arrangement with Oman it would move forward on its own…

A person close to the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC told CNN many of its contributors weren’t very politically active until New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign victory, which was the “moment that inspired them and brought them into the fold”…

Former Vice President Kamala Harris called Mamdani last week, and is holding lengthy, closed-door meetings with Palestinian activists in the run-up to a possible presidential campaign, Axios reports…

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, warned of the “tremendous danger and fear” for American Jews as they are being “dehumanized” and antisemitism is “becoming normalized”…

Phylisa Wisdom, the liberal activist appointed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as executive director of his Office to Combat Antisemitism, got a harsh reception at a Holocaust memorial event in Brooklyn on Sunday. Video from the event shows a small group of hecklers booing, calling Wisdom a “kapo” and shouting that she was supportive of Adolf Hitler, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…

Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed dismissed a question on CNN about the Democratic Party’s “embrace” of antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker as a “ridiculous way to think about politics”…

Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) who went on to found the center-left Searchlight Institute think tank, urged Democrats to “just say no to AIPAC,” arguing the pro-Israel organization has “evolved from a group to a ‘Group,’” in the pejorative sense…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited southern Lebanon on Tuesday for the first time since the U.S.-brokered security agreement was signed last Friday. Netanyahu told IDF troops, “We will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat is removed”…

“Pod Save America” co-host Jon Lovett said the harassment of California state Sen. Scott Wiener at a transgender pride march last week was “as pure antisemitism as you can see”…

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Daniel Grand, an Orthodox Jewish man from Ohio who was barred from holding Shabbat prayer meetings in his home without a “special use permit” and later faced harassment from city officials who encouraged neighbors to watch his home for signs of religious activity…

Haaretz tracks the carbon footprint of FIFA President Gianni Infantino as he has traveled between World Cup matches across North America on a Qatari private jet, racking up 47,337 kilometers (29,000 miles) from the tournament’s opening days through the first knockout match, after championing the body’s sustainability strategy…

Ellie Gottheimer and Larra Mullin, the children of Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, are releasing Shmoo & Ozzie Go to Washington today, a children’s book on bipartisanship. Proceeds from the book will go to support homeless children…

Mark Isakowitz, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA)’s chief of staff, is set to release a book in January about his personal journey following the loss of his father, who immigrated to America after surviving Auschwitz, and Isakowitz’s daily practice of reciting the mourner’s prayer at a synagogue in Washington, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports…

Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner tapped Carolin Hulshoff Pol to serve as CEO of Telegraph Media Group following the German media company’s completion of its £575 million acquisition of the British publisher, ending a three-year ownership transition…

Former Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Amikam Norkin is a leading candidate to head Anduril’s operations in Israel, as the American defense tech company explores a major expansion into the Israeli market, Calcalist reports…

The Iranian regime plans to take over St. Peter Evangelical Church, the oldest Protestant church in Iran, and evict the 20 families living there, The Free Press reports. The theocratic regime had thus far left it alone in fear of the U.S.’ retaliation, according to the outlet…

The Washington State Democratic Party adopted into its platform during its June convention an amendment blaming the “dramatic resurgence in antisemitism … in part [on] actions taken by the Israeli government,” Jewish News Syndicate reports…

Pentagon official Jason Olson has departed his position as the director of deradicalization for the Gaza Board of Peace, an official from the body told The Times of Israel, as the BoP is convening for discussions in Cyprus…

Tuesday marked the end of Steffen Seibert‘s four-year term as German ambassador to Israel. In a farewell social media video, he paid tribute to the country by listing 25 things he will miss. Seibert is succeeded by Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who most recently served as the German Ambassador to Moscow…

Judah Gribetz, who as a top aide to Gov. Hugh Carey helped negotiate New York City‘s rescue from financial collapse in the 1970s and later devised a distribution plan for $1.25 billion in restitution to Holocaust survivors in a landmark class-action suit against Swiss banks, died Friday at 97…

Pic of the Day

Comedian Judy Gold spoke at an event hosted by the Israeli Embassy in Washington, “A Zionist LGBTQ+ Celebration,” at Adas Israel Congregation on Tuesday — a night of solidarity in memory of Sarah Milgrim, the embassy staffer murdered alongside her partner, Yaron Lischinsky, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in May 2025. Milgrim spent her time at the embassy building bridges between Israel and marginalized communities, including D.C.’s LGBTQ+ Jewish community.

Birthdays

Television, film and theater actor, including early career roles in Yiddish theater, Michael Burstein turns 81…

Applied mathematician, statistician and physicist, professor emeritus at both MIT and Harvard, Herman Chernoff turns 103… Former U.S. assistant secretary of education and former research professor at NYU, Diane Silvers Ravitch turns 88… Nobel laureate in economics for 1997 and co-creator of the Black-Scholes model for valuing options and other derivatives, Myron Scholes turns 85… Noted British art dealer and founder of an eponymous London art gallery, Victoria Marion Miro turns 81… Born in a DP Camp to her Holocaust survivor parents, she was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Canadian Supreme Court, Rosalie Silberman Abella turns 80… Israeli-Russian businessman, with holdings in energy and international real estate development, Shalva Chigirinsky turns 77… Partner in the Encino, Calif.-based law firm of Nolan Heimann, Douglas E. Mirell… Campaign, communications and fundraising consultant, Robert Kaplan turns 69… Hall of Fame player and coach in the WNBA and now an NBA broadcaster, Nancy Lieberman turns 68… Attorney and longtime Democratic activist in Pittsburgh, he is a regional chair of the ADL, Steven D. Irwin turns 67… Senior columnist at The Forward and former CEO of the A-Mark Foundation, Rob Eshman… President emeritus of the Orthodox Union and a retired partner at Ropes & Gray, Mark “Moishe” Bane… Under secretary of state for political affairs during most of the Biden administration, Victoria Jane Nuland (family name was Nudelman) turns 65… Journalist, filmmaker and educator, he is the co-founder of Aish[dot]com, Shraga Simmons turns 65… Professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, Benjamin Brown turns 60… Member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2014, Marcus Bertram Simon turns 56… U.S. senator (R-IA), Joni Ernst turns 56… Screenwriter, producer and film director known for romantic comedy films, Marc Silverstein turns 55… Los Angeles resident, Adam B. Siegel… NASA astronaut, on her 2019 trip to the International Space Station she took novelty socks with Stars of David and menorahs, Jessica Meir turns 49… Co-founder of Edgeline Films, Elyse Steinberg… Hasidic musician mixing elements of dancehall, reggae, hip-hop and R&B, known by his stage name DeScribe, Shneur Hasofer turns 44…

The wave of victories for Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates in New York City on Tuesday is buoying the hopes of progressives that the far left can pull off upsets against two Democratic incumbents in Colorado’s Tuesday primary elections.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) is facing a challenge from Melat Kiros, whose campaign has attracted substantial national attention and backing from several anti-Israel organizations and individuals including the Justice Democrats, DSA, Sunrise Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, TrackAIPAC, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Chris Rabb, Hasan Piker and, most recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). 

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) is also facing a DSA-aligned challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, though her campaign hasn’t garnered as much attention as Kiros’.

Just this week, in an interview with the local channel 9News, Kiros declined to call the firebombing of a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo. last year antisemitic.

“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator. All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed, and I don’t even know what the people that were at that protest believed too,” she said. “I don’t know what his intentions were.”

The House voted unanimously last year to condemn the attack as an antisemitic incident. Only Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), two of the leading anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress, voted present.

Kiros lost her job at the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for publishing a column denouncing hundreds of top law firms that called on law schools to do more to address antisemitism on their campuses. The column argued that calling for the elimination of Israel is not antisemitic and defended Hamas and those who have expressed support for it.

Kiros has made a complete arms embargo on Israel a central part of her campaign and has described the war in Gaza as a genocide and Israel as an apartheid state.

“I believe that our selling of arms to Israel, defensive or offensive, gives them the cover to continue the genocide that’s taking place in Palestine, and now the ethnic cleansing that’s taking place in Lebanon,” Kiros said in the local interview.

Kiros said in the interview that she did not agree with Piker that Hamas is a “lesser evil” than Israel, and denied that she thought the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks were justified.

Jim Carpenter, a Democratic political strategist in the state, predicted that DeGette “will ultimately win” but “this is certainly the toughest primary challenge she’s had in a really long time, if ever, since she was elected — lots of visibility, lots of interest.”

A poll commissioned by the Justice Democrats found Kiros leading DeGette 41-36%.

Multiple local venues recently declined to host a rally led by Kiros and Piker, which Kiros blamed on pressure from DeGette’s donors — something DeGette’s campaign has called “ridiculous.” Piker and Gonzales, citing security threats, declined to appear at a rescheduled rally in front of the state Capitol.

DeGette has been blasting Kiros over her affiliation with Piker, highlighting the streamer’s comments — supporting Hamas, dismissing sexual violence on Oct. 7, claiming that the U.S. deserved 9/11 and that he “hate[s] this country so much.”

“If Melat Kiros wants to campaign with someone who said America deserved 9/11 we’d do nothing to stop her,” a DeGette spokesperson told Colorado Newsline.

Carpenter highlighted the Sanders endorsement of Kiros as particularly valuable, noting that the senator has been popular in the state. But he also highlighted the significant influx of outside spending that has flowed into the race in favor of DeGette and targeting Kiros.

One group, Pro-Choice Majority Action, has spent more than $1.5 million boosting DeGette and attacking Kiros. Some observers have tied that spending to AIPAC, noting that the group took in close to $900,000 from EDW Action Fund, which in turn received $1 million from the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project in May.

A UDP spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. DeGette has not been consistently supportive of Israel, including signing a letter calling for unilateral U.S. recognition of Palestinian statehood and opposing additional offensive aid to Israel, but UDP has at times supported candidates not fully aligned with AIPAC’s policies in the interest of defeating others with more extreme records.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), a former Progressive Caucus chair, also recorded a last-minute video offering support for DeGette, describing her as critical to advancing Medicare for All.

Meanwhile, Justice Democrats has spent more than $500,000 supporting Kiros and opposing DeGette, and the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC has spent $150,000 in support of Kiros.

Carpenter told Jewish Insider that, particularly in the wake of a party delegate vote earlier this year when DeGette was badly beaten by Kiros and came close to falling short of the threshold to appear on the ballot, the congresswoman has been campaigning aggressively.

Carpenter said that the anti-DeGette vote might ultimately come out split: University of Colorado Regent Wanda James is also challenging DeGette, and is likely to win support from some Black voters. 

Though some in the progressive sphere have interpreted the New York City victories as a sign of momentum for an ascendant far left nationwide, Carpenter said that the results in New York don’t necessarily reflect Colorado’s own voting base.

“Colorado’s politics are very different,” he said. “All politics are local. I get the enthusiasm, and I get everybody trying to point to a trend and all of that. I just don’t think that’s going to hold in Colorado. Denver is very liberal but it’s a different kind of Democrat than the DSA.”

Gonzales is less likely to pose a serious challenge to Hickenlooper, the state’s former governor, having trailed significantly behind him in fundraising. “Gonzales just hasn’t had the resources really to compete statewide,” Carpenter said.

She’s been visible on social media and active in the Denver media market but “she just hasn’t had the ability to do paid advertising in a way that I think is any kind of real threat to Hickenlooper,” Carpenter said. Hickenlooper’s biggest vulnerabilities may be his age, 74, and a perception of him as an establishment Washington Democrat.

But Hickenlooper has also “taken this very seriously” and has been campaigning actively, reminding voters of his record during his two terms as senator and one term as governor, Carpenter said. The state also allows unaffiliated voters to choose the party’s primary in which to vote, and such voters have typically been a boon for Hickenlooper in the past, Carpenter added.

From the start of her campaign, Gonzales has made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of her bid, accusing Israel of genocide, supporting an arms embargo and fundraising based on her opposition to Israel and AIPAC. TrackAIPAC also endorsed Gonzales.

Also on Tuesday, state Rep. Manny Rutinel faces former state Rep. Shannon Bird in a primary for a key swing seat held by Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO). Carpenter said that the race is difficult to predict and both have been strong candidates with built-in advantages and key endorsements.

Democratic Majority for Israel is supporting Bird and called the race one of its top priorities for the cycle. Bird has long been a strong supporter of Israel and vocal in opposition to antisemitism. Rutinel’s views on Israel have been less clear, and his past as a campus activist has worried some pro-Israel Democrats. 

As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, according to a local news report, Rutinel attended a demonstration co-organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, but a Rutinel spokesperson, in a statement to JI, denied that Rutinel had any affiliation with SJP and said the demonstration was focused on police brutality in the U.S.

“Manny supports Israel’s right to exist and supports a two-state solution with secure borders to bring peace,” a campaign spokesperson said. Rutinel also “supports U.S. security assistance to Israel in line with the Obama administration’s 2016 memorandum of understanding,” the spokesperson added.

Carpenter said that Bird has a longer political record and deeper roots in the district, which she has leaned on in her campaign, but also may face headwinds from a perception of her as a moderate Democrat. Rutinel might benefit from the substantial Latino vote in the district.

“Bird is making the argument that because it’s a swing district that is more moderate … that’s what’s going to appeal” in the general election, Carpenter said. “That’s a harder message in a Democratic primary.”

Rutinel leaned into more of a progressive posture but “it seems to me like he’s trying to moderate that a little bit, and has gotten tripped up in a couple of debates on some of the more left progressive positions that he had taken in the past. It’s not a simple progressive-versus-establishment divide there, but it is kind of shaking out that way,” Carpenter continued.

Bird is also backed by moderate groups including the NewDems, Blue Dog PAC and Welcome PAC, as well as EMILY’s List and Elect Democratic Women.

Rutinel is backed by an array of both moderate and progressive lawmakers including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Lou Correa (D-CA), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), Emily Randall (D-WA), Luz Rivas (D-CA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA) and Pat Ryan (D-NY).

The state’s gubernatorial primary is also set for Tuesday, where recent polling shows Attorney General Phil Weiser taking the lead for the first time against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO). The poll was conducted by a group supporting Weiser and showed that a significant portion of the voting base is still undecided.

Carpenter said that Weiser’s last-minute surge might signal that Bennet’s longtime service in Washington is being seen as a negative on the campaign trail, and he’s been tagged as not being anti-Trump enough in his time in the Senate.

But he said he didn’t think that the anti-establishment mood would necessarily be sufficient to oust DeGette or Hickenlooper, noting that Weiser himself is a well-known quantity and popular among Colorado Democrats going into the race.

“I think he benefits a little bit more from that than Gonzales or Kiros would,” Carpenter said.

An activist that two politicians from the Democratic Socialists of America helped elevate to a leadership position in the Brooklyn Democratic Party on Tuesday posted a vitriolic antisemitic screed to her Instagram last year — declaring as “the truth” a notorious work beloved by Adolf Hitler that describes a Jewish world conspiracy.

Carmella Charrington was part of an army of left-wing insurgents who captured office on Tuesday: in her case, the role of district leader in the Brooklyn Democratic Party, an unpaid but important position that elects the party’s influential chairperson and plays a significant role in nominating judges and filling jobs at the city Board of Elections. 

Although the DSA itself did not formally endorse Charrington for the post, two of its most important local figures campaigned with her and helped her make the ballot: state Sen. Jabari Brisport and state Assembly candidate Eon Huntley, who defeated an incumbent lawmaker in a closely watched race earlier this week. 

Charrington’s candidacy was part of a broader campaign to depose the present centrist leadership of the official party organization. But in November 2025, Charrington shared a video to her Instagram account — which features various photos and videos of herself at Brisport and Huntley’s joint campaign headquarters — promoting the “hidden history” in industrialist Henry Ford’s notorious 1920s series of conspiracy pamphlets, The International Jew.

“This better be the topic at the table#dad #deedtheft #ceo #love #ericadams #brooklyn #lovers #lovers #corruption #diddy #nyc ##cardio#cardib #trump,” Charrington captioned the since-deleted post, adding in the comments: “The only way to change is understanding the truth!”

The video itself is a summary and update of Ford’s century-old conspiracy theories, presented by a wellness influencer.

“You find out who owns all the social media, and then who also owns the tobacco industry, the cotton industry, the banking industry, the theater, the newspaper, the radio, and then we can clearly see who owns the government as well,” the speaker in the video says. “This is why in school things like reading the Bible, praying, celebrating Christmas, got to get rid of all that. Then it gets deeper when you find out who brought in all the liquor and all the drugs, and also made people into drunks during the Great Depression, because the same people caused the Great Depression.”

The video further asserts that Jewish people created plastic surgery to “blend in,” “brought the slaves” to America, established the gay rights movement and plotted the infamous 1921 massacre of Black residents of Tulsa, Okla. It asserts Jewish people are “always changing their names” and variously call themselves Zionists, Communists and Bolsheviks.

It then pivots to the issue that propelled Tuesday’s socialist sweep: Israel.

“It gets deeper when you talk about Palestine and the takeover of that with the Rothschilds, same people, and the whole Palestine thing connects back to the Rothschilds, who are the bankers, who then control everything, including the schools,” the speaker continues. “All the media and the newspapers and the radios are owned by a small group of people who control everything.” 

The video concludes with an image promoting the Swedish neo-Nazi film series “Europa: The Last Battle,” the conspiracy tome The Curse of Canaan: A Demonology of History, the Holocaust denial tracts of Fred Leuchter and the anti-Israel pamphlet Zionism: The Terrible Secret of the Cold War.

Reached by Jewish Insider, Charrington maintained that she was not prejudiced, but also insisted the video “was some facts.” She repeatedly told the reporter to “get your rabbi,” as she intended to hold a future “roundtable” on what she called a “bullying community.”

“There’s so much harm that your community has done to me,” she said. “It’s a problem in our community and it needs to be addressed.”

Charrington rose to prominence as part of a legal fight over possession of her family’s brownstone in the historically Black but fast-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. She alleged in numerous media appearances that she was the victim of deed theft, a form of fraud, but New York state Attorney General Letitia James’ office determined it was a complicated but legal inheritance dispute.

In one of several phone calls with JI, Charrington railed against Jewish investors she accused of gaining access to her home and a Jewish judge who sentenced her to six days on Rikers Island for contempt of court.

Helping to promote her cause has been another leading DSA official: New York City Councilman Chi Ossé, who was arrested demonstrating outside the home in April. The incident inspired New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to create a new Office of Deed Theft Prevention.

Ossé, for his part, stressed in a phone conversation with JI that he had not endorsed Charrington for district leader and was unfamiliar with her posting history.

“We condemn this antisemitism and bigotry in the harshest possible terms,” Ossé said in a subsequent written statement to JI. “There is no room for this kind of hate in Brooklyn. I reject it completely.” 

Brisport similarly said he was unaware of Charrington’s views but repeatedly refused to answer whether he would have supported her for party office had he seen the video she shared — or if he considered such beliefs disqualifying for a person to hold power in the Democratic Party. Huntley, the nominee for Assembly, did not respond to repeated calls or emails.

However, the two DSA leaders subsequently sent a joint statement denouncing the content of the video, and harping on the right-wing elements of its message.

“The antisemitic post that Carmella shared has no place in our movement. This incident illustrates exactly what antisemitism does — it misdirects the justified anger of working people and oppressed communities away from systems of power and onto Jews,” they wrote. “We are committed to working with all constituents and fellow electeds alike to unlearn and dismantle these deeply antisemitic, anti-LGBT, and anti-communist narratives which hurt and divide our communities.”

JI also contacted Mark Hanna, a Mamdani ally and Brooklyn district leader who served as election attorney for the insurgent slate on which Charrington ran. Hanna is also the treasurer of American Priorities PAC, a committee dedicated to combatting the influence of AIPAC and uplifting anti-Israel candidates.

“Any kind of antisemitism or Islamophobia or hatred I’m not going to be supportive of,” Hanna said in an initial phone conversation.

After JI sent him the video, he wrote back that he hoped the post “can be a teachable moment.”

“I will have to speak with her about it,” he wrote. “I want to work with Carmella on issues related to deed theft and the other concerns she has in her community, and I think calling her in to learn and ensure inclusivity, rather than calling out for a repost, will be more fruitful.”

Hitler reportedly kept German translations of The International Jew in his office, where he also displayed a portrait of Ford. He praised the American industrialist in Mein Kampf, and in 1938 awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle, a medal the Nazi leader created to honor foreign allies of his genocidal regime.

There’s little doubt that socialism is on the march within the Democratic Party after the latest  primaries, with extreme candidates who would have been dismissed as nonviable prevailing in numerous congressional primaries and mayoral contests from coast to coast. 

Factor in the political resilience of far-left Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner despite numerous scandals and the momentum of anti-Israel Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a contested Michigan primary despite facing well-funded opposition, and there’s the potential of radicals toppling mainstream candidates well outside the deep-blue confines of major urban centers. 

Ultimately, that’s a major question looming for the Democratic Party’s future — and the health of our democracy. Is the rise of socialism primarily a product of urban angst and college-age naivete, or does it have staying power beyond the most-progressive precincts in the country?  Can left-wing candidates prevail in swing districts, far away from the urban progressive centers that make up its base? Or will they end up being more of a noisy but powerless faction in Congress?

Either way, socialist candidates have gone from a curiosity that rarely won any congressional seats to riding a Democratic Socialists of America-organized grassroots wave that now has to be reckoned with. You could count the number of Squad members on one hand when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) and her like-minded allies were first elected in 2018 and 2020. Now their representation is poised to double from its previous peak — and AOC now counts as downright pragmatic, compared to several of her soon-to-be-colleagues.

So far, nearly all of the major victories from the far-left candidates are in the most left-wing constituencies in the country — in big cities and college towns. We first saw the socialist stirrings last year in three prominent mayoral races: New York City, Seattle and St. Paul, Minn., and flagged the three contests as an early bellwether of socialism’s standing in the party. The socialist candidates won two out of three contests, led by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s shocking success against far more established and mainstream Democratic Party leaders. 

Mamdani’s out-of-nowhere victory fueled the rise of like-minded anti-Israel, DSA-aligned candidates, proving that radical records weren’t necessarily an obstacle to success in Democratic primaries. The DSA-endorsed Chris Rabb’s primary victory in a Philadelphia congressional district in May was at the leading edge of how far-left candidates were making inroads with Black voters who have typically been skeptical of ideologically driven campaigns.

Even more shocking was the nomination of Adam Hamawy in a largely urban New Jersey district with a large Jewish population. Hamawy was a former associate of the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, and previously held ties with Islamist extremist groups. Not only did he prevail with a plurality in the crowded race, but many of his Democratic opponents didn’t bring up his obvious vulnerabilities.

The commanding victory of Janeese Lewis George, a socialist candidate in the D.C. mayoral primary, and Mamdani’s ouster of two well-respected New York City Democratic leaders in Congress (Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat) — in no small part over their support for Israel — was the capstone to the tidal wave occurring in Democratic Party, at least in the urban centers that make up its geographical base. 

It’s also worth noting that while more-competitive districts have tended to nominate traditional center-left Democratic candidates, there have been some notable outliers that underscore the rising tide of radicals within the party. Democratic Party leaders had to furiously organize to stop an outright antisemitic candidate, Maureen Galindo, who broadcast deeply disturbing conspiracy theories about Jews, to prevail in a battleground Texas district.

And in New Jersey, partly as an unintended result of AIPAC spending against a more-traditional front-runner, a Bernie Sanders acolyte and left-wing activist (Rep. Analilia Mejia) prevailed in the heart of the state’s wealthy suburbs. Hamawy’s New Jersey district, too, contained many affluent suburban pockets that nonetheless swung in his direction.

These are the signals that raise the possibility that far-left Democratic candidates, like Platner and El-Sayed, can prevail in larger, more ideologically diverse battlegrounds. If neo-Nazi tattoos, anti-American sloganeering and antisemitic signaling doesn’t move the needle for a critical mass of Democratic voters, it’s fair to wonder how much damage they will cause in a general election. 

In all too many of these races featuring extreme anti-Israel candidates, Jewish voters — left without any moderate allies — were the only Democratic constituency who swung away from backing the radical Democratic nominee. Mamdani got record-low support from Jewish voters, but it didn’t matter. Mejia badly underperformed her moderate Republican challenger in Jewish communities, but it barely made a dent in a Democratic-friendly district. 

So, the Michigan Democratic Senate primary in August — featuring Israel-bashing Democrat El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a long-standing ally to the Jewish community — is ultimately the more consequential test of whether this unapologetic brand of socialism can find political purchase outside its home turf.

If it does — and if Platner prevails in Maine despite his significant baggage — it will serve as a five-alarm fire for American Jews and their place in American society.

Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has bear-hugged Mayor Zohran Mamdani as he seeks to unseat Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) — but got a primary day cold shoulder from New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji.

The left-wing illustrator posted an Instagram story Tuesday flashing an “I Voted” sticker and encouraging her followers to support the two congressional candidates endorsed by both her husband and the Democratic Socialists of America: Assemblymember Claire Valdez and doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier. 

Valdez is battling Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso for the seat of retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) while Avila Chevalier hopes to oust Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY).

“today’s the day NYC!!!” she wrote in a story on her personal account. “vote @claireforny @darializaforny”

The post excluded Lander, who alone among Mamdani’s candidates identifies as a Zionist — albeit as one who has accused the Jewish state of genocide in its military campaign in the Gaza Strip and even Lebanon — and who renounced his DSA membership after the group promoted an anti-Israel rally one day after Hamas’ 2023 attacks. Mamdani, then an unwed state lawmaker, denounced the event at the time. 

Duwaji had liked Instagram content from the Oct. 8 gathering and the assault itself, as reported in Jewish Insider; The mayor has dismissed criticism of Duwaji’s social media activity by asserting his wife was a “private person,” although she has featured prominently at public events and granted interviews to magazines.

Lander, for his part, has attracted some fire from online leftists in recent days for declining to endorse Avila Chevalier and appearing in a video from the progressive Working Families Party with Reynoso — despite his also appearing in an ad aired during the NBA finals with the mayor and his other endorsed candidates.

2026 has been the year of the democratic socialist, with numerous far-left, anti-Israel candidates winning mayoralties and congressional primaries in cities up and down the Northeast corridor, from New York to Washington, D.C — and beyond. 

Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor who proved that radicalism can win hearts and minds among voters in deep-blue jurisdictions, is now trying to utilize valuable political capital by electing three like-minded congressional candidates in primaries in the Big Apple on Tuesday — backing two challengers running against well-funded incumbents, and a third against a well-established progressive borough president.

The outcomes of these three races will go a long way in determining whether Democratic Party voters still draw any red lines around candidates holding views and values that fall outside the party mainstream. 

Let’s be clear: The main difference between the three candidates backed by most Democratic leaders and Mamdani’s favored challengers is the challengers’ hostility to Israel. 

Mamdani handpicked Darializa Avila Chevalier, a doctoral student with no obvious congressional credentials who protested against Israel the day after it suffered the worst terror attack in its history, to run against Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a progressive supporter of the Jewish state. 

Avila Chevalier has a laundry list of recent social media posts in which she called for abolishing the police and voiced anti-American and pro-Russian sentiments, while sharing a post saying “Israel doesn’t exist.” That hasn’t disqualified her, in the eyes of a critical mass of the district’s voters. 

Mamdani recruited state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez to challenge Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, despite the latter’s backing from party leaders. Valdez, a sculptor, has made her opposition to Israel a central part of the race, even falsely accusing AIPAC of being involved in the race when the outside spending against her came from a major teachers’ union. Reynoso, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, hasn’t made the Middle East a central part of his candidacy.

And Mamdani convinced former City Comptroller Brad Lander to run against pro-Israel Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), even working to clear the field of other challengers who threatened to split the anti-Israel vote against Goldman. Despite calling himself a progressive Zionist, Lander spent his final debate attacking the congressman for not calling Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza a genocide and for supporting aid to the Jewish state. 

As JI’s Will Bredderman has documented, all three of Mamdani’s picks have made their opposition to Israel a major part of their closing messages. And while polls show Goldman as the underdog in a progressive district, the other two races are highly competitive. Outside groups representing mainstream forces have mobilized on behalf of Espaillat and Reynoso in the final weeks of the race, giving them a fighting chance to prevail. 

There’s no doubt that pro-Israel forces within the Democratic Party are facing uphill challenges, especially in deeply progressive districts where voters are increasingly open to far-left candidates. The outcome in New York’s primaries this week will indicate whether the establishment has the ability to slow down the radicals’ momentum. 

Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, suggested at an event on Friday that the Trump administration had indicted a group of anti-Israel demonstrators at the University of Michigan for their beliefs, rather than their actions.

The eight defendants, including a former staffer on El-Sayed’s campaign, who were indicted Friday have been accused of a campaign of intimidation against university officials they saw as pro-Israel and vandalism of local Jewish organizations.

“It’s a lot more about what you’re advocating for that gets you indicted or not indicted, rather than what you did,” El-Sayed said, at a Friday campaign event, according to The Detroit News.

Speaking to reporters after the event, El-Sayed said that it’s “just wrong, full stop” to target families, businesses and property as the indicted individuals alleged did, but also drew a contrast between the treatment of the eight indicted individuals and the Trump administration’s mass pardon of those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“I believe in justice, because I believe that when you break the law, you should be held accountable, but I don’t love watching our justice system treat people differently based on what it is that they were advocating for,” El-Sayed said. “Targeting people, families, properties, businesses is wrong, of course it’s wrong, but it’s also wrong when Jan. 6 terrorists do it. To watch the same Trump administration use these terms in certain ways — I think we all need to be asking the questions.”

El-Sayed previously faced criticism for his response to the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., which some saw as excusing or rationalizing the attack.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) on X condemned El-Sayed for his “equivocation.”

“The reported planned violence and intimidation at the University of Michigan is wrong. This is simple and any leader should be able to say so,” she said. “The fact my opponent cannot bring himself to say that is concerning.”

In remarks to reporters, she said that she was “concerned about [El-Sayed’s] repeated patterns of embracing political violence and being out of step with Michigan voters,” pointing also to his decision to rally with far-left influencer Hasan Piker at the University of Michigan.

“We need leaders who are going to showcase leadership and be the leaders that we deserve, not continue to divide us and compensate for when people commit violence or threaten violence for political purposes,” she said.

Her comments have prompted scorn from El-Sayed’s campaign and allies.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) responded to Stevens’ X post by copying Stevens’ wording to criticize Stevens for refusing to describe the war in Gaza as a genocide.

Roxie Richner, El-Sayed’s communications director, accused Stevens on X of “sid[ing] with the Trump administration” and said she “can’t string two coherent sentences together.”

“Leadership requires that you have moral clarity and can say words that make sense when put in order,” Richner continued.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Justice Democrats PAC, the outside group best known for elevating the congressional Squad to power in 2018, has become the driving force behind this cycle’s slate of far-left primary candidates. 

And powering the Justice Democrats this year is a dark-money machine operating out of a PostalAnnex in a strip mall near Anaheim, Calif: the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a fierce critic of Israeli policy, and its new political arm, the IMEU Policy Project. 

A review of financial disclosures from these three groups reveals that just as the Middle East conflict has become a defining issue for insurgent candidates on the left, it has also become increasingly crucial to Justice Democrats’ outreach and finances.

With Israel at the center of this year’s primary debates, Justice Democrats has lent considerable resources — cash, staff and know-how — to an array of socialist-minded candidates and smaller committees, including American Priorities super PAC. And helping bankroll it is the IMEU Policy Project, which formed just five months after the Oct. 7 attacks and quickly took in $400,000 from its parent organization.

That $400,000 figure is the exact amount IMEU Policy Project has since pumped into Justice Democrats’ accounts. There is no record of the Policy Project supporting any other federal PAC, just as there is no record of the decades-old Institute for Middle East Understanding providing financial assistance to another organization besides its new political spin-off.

Neither group responded to questions from Jewish Insider. Federal rules prohibit using money raised by organizations with the IMEU’s tax designation for political purposes. The funding from the institute makes up about half of the Policy Project’s budget in its most recent tax filings, meaning it has other revenues from which to pay for its electoral efforts, even as the start-up cash from its progenitor set it on its mission “to educate elected officials, policy-makers, and voters.”

But the original donors behind all of the Policy Project’s income remain hidden from public view.

“Either way, we don’t know where it came from, so it’s dark money being pushed into a PAC,” said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at pro-transparency group OpenSecrets. “People being targeted with content don’t know who’s trying to influence them.”

Progressive politicians and advocates have long decried dark money for enabling the ultra-wealthy to influence elections while concealing their involvement from public view. But Justice Democrats has historically defended its acceptance of such funds to avoid being “outgunned,” in the words of former spokesman Waleed Shahid, now a top aide to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

For the first 21 years of its existence, IMEU promoted Palestinian narratives in media and the arts but avoided the electoral fray. That changed beginning with the formation of the IMEU Policy Institute in March 2024, and when it made its first gift to Justice Democrats three months later.

But California records show that despite using the same shopping center maildrop address in Tustin, Calif., as the original institute — and despite taking $250,000 in the form of a charitable grant for “Palestine Awareness” from its parent organization, plus a $150,000 loan — the IMEU Policy Project has never registered to operate in the Golden State, the state attorney general’s office confirmed. 

That hasn’t stopped the Policy Project from fundraising, or from running multiple ad campaigns in key electoral battlegrounds criticizing elected officials it deems pro-Israel: attacking Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in his swing district, lambasting Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in New Hampshire and blasting Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) in Iowa. It also has run ads and a petition site supporting the Block the Bombs Act to deny military aid to Israel.

It also operates PunishGenocide.org, backing a resolution proposed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to declare the Jewish state guilty of genocide, and NoWarForIsrael.com, which explicitly blames Israel for President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran.

“This is not America First. This is Israel First,” the webpage reads.

The group also runs the Peace, Accountability and Leadership Political Action Committee, PAL-PAC, which has raised tens of thousands from figures affiliated with the institute and the Policy Project and dumped into the campaigns of such candidates as New York’s Darializa Avila Chevalier and Texas’s Rev. Frederick D. Haynes. Leading the PAC is Amira Hassan, former political director and current board member for Justice Democrats. Its webpage prominently features an endorsement from Tlaib, who calls it “only PAC exclusively committed to justice and accountability for the Palestinian people.”

But the Policy Project’s largest recorded intervention in the political process is the $400,000 it has injected directly into Justice Democrats’ coffers. It is the single biggest donor to Justice Democrats this cycle, outstripping even the left-wing PAC’s principle patron of past years, the Tlaib campaign. The Policy Project also works closely with the congresswoman, platforming her on its social media channels, boosting her bills and lending quotes to her press releases.

Tlaib did not answer questions from JI regarding her relationship with Justice Democrats and the IMEU Policy Project, and whether she had any role beyond providing money for one and publicly supporting the other. The Michigan congresswoman was part of Justice Democrats’ freshman class of elected officials in 2018.

In March, a writer for the left-wing media outlet Zeteo posted that the IMEU Policy Project and Justice Democrats had spent $100,000 on an ad campaign attacking congressional candidate and former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) and pushing her ultimately unsuccessful anti-Israel opponent Junaid Ahmed. In late May, Justice Democrats uploaded an ad to Instagram boosting Philadelphia congressional contender Chris Rabb, who went on to win the nomination, a spot the PAC reported having “put $260,000 behind” as part of a “partnership” with IMEU Policy Institute. 

The Policy Institute affirmed this figure in a joint statement with Justice Dems when Rabb triumphed on primary night last week. The two also boasted of spending $200,000 on mail ads promoting the campaign of Adam Hamawy, who carried a plurality of the vote in a crowded Democratic contest to replace Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).

The Justice Democrats and IMEU Policy Project did not respond to questions about the cost breakdown for these ad efforts, or whether the Policy Project solicited contributions for Justice Democrats to help pay for them.

Justice Democrats has also coordinated closely with American Priorities super PAC, the professed anti-AIPAC committee, which at its launch described itself as part of a “partner network” that included the IMEU Policy Project and Justice Democrats. That same press release also identified American Priorities’ independent expenditure director as Hannah Fertig, who previously held the identical title at Justice Democrats.

Justice Democrats’ support for the younger organization has come mainly in the form of in-kind donations of digital production services. However, reports of the value and purpose of those services that the two PACs have made to the Federal Election Commission differ radically.

According to Justice Democrats’ most recent FEC reports, it has provided $23,500 worth of production costs to American Priorities, mostly for ads attacking Bean and supporting Ahmed in March.

But in American Priorities’ submissions to the commission, this support is nowhere to be found. Rather, American Priorities recorded $50,000 in donated production costs from Justice Democrats in February, in support of Nida Allam’s failed challenge to Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC). It did not report any help from Justice Democrats in the Illinois race.

Neither American Priorities nor Justice Democrats responded to questions from JI about these discrepancies. Glavin, of OpenSecrets, noted that the FEC has repeatedly flagged problems in Justice Democrats’ disclosures, including over in-kind contributions, compelling it to file multiple amended filings in recent months.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with their reporting,” the campaign finance expert said. “We expect to see some things that aren’t here.”

The bulk of American Priorities’ funding has come from three individuals: tech investors Omer Hasan and Tariq Afaq Ahmed, who gave $1 million and $500,000 respectively; and e-commerce executive Mohammad Waqas Javed, who chipped in an additional million. Waqas Javed is also one of Justice Democrats’ largest donors after the IMEU Policy Project and the Tlaib campaign, having contributed $50,000 to the PAC.

This same trio provided much of the money for the New Yorkers for Lower Costs super PAC that helped propel Mamdani into City Hall. 

Mamdani attended the institute’s gala in April.

Mamdani’s office — including Shahid, the former Justice Democrats spokesman — did not respond to questions about their awareness of the IMEU Policy Project and its relationship with Justice Democrats.

The Policy Project shares the original institute’s longtime executive director, Margaret DeReus. Early in the institute’s existence, DeReus penned an editorial for the Houston Chronicle calling for immediate recognition of and engagement with the then-newly elected Hamas leadership on the Palestinian Legislative Council.

“When Palestinians in the occupied territories gave Hamas a resounding victory, they sent the world a message. The status quo of Israeli colonization and denial of Palestinian rights is unsustainable,” she wrote under her maiden name Zaknoen. “Hamas earned people’s trust by providing social services, hospitals and schools, and running municipal governments free of corruption. Ironically, Hamas may provide the Palestinians with the good governance and true political reform Fatah denied them.”

The two IMEU groups also share a policy director: Georgetown University adjunct Josh Ruebner. A co-founder of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel, which eventually merged into Jewish Voice for Peace, Ruebner blasted then-Georgetown President John DeGioia just days after Oct. 7 for his “one-sided condemnation of Hamas.”

Randy Villegas, a left-wing Democrat running to unseat Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) in California, claimed victory on Tuesday in the jungle primary over Jasmeet Bains, a moderate Democrat who had been favored by pro-Israel leaders as well as the party’s national leadership.

“Voters in the Central Valley have spoken and they have declared that the Valley is not for sale,” Villegas, a progressive activist and political science professor, said in a statement a week after the state’s primaries. “Despite the onslaught of outside corporate money spent against us, we have shown that working people are ready for change.”

While the race in California’s 22nd Congressional District has not yet been officially called for either Democrat, Villegas had 31% of the vote with nearly three-quarters counted as of Tuesday, leading Bains by four points. Valadao, a vulnerable Republican incumbent, claimed 42% of the vote in the top-two primary election.

Democratic Majority for Israel’s super PAC had spent heavily to help Bains, a doctor and assemblymember, investing in a $500,000 TV ad buy opposing Villegas, according to federal filings. (The group also opposed a Democratic candidate, Ammar Campa-Najjar, who lost to a pro-Israel Democrat in a San Diego congressional race.)

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had included Bains on its “Red to Blue” program and launched a joint ad buy with her — efforts that stoked ongoing tensions with leading progressive lawmakers who had backed Villegas.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, the House Republican super PAC, also intervened in the primary to boost Villegas — in an apparent effort to elevate a Democrat viewed by party leadership as weaker than Bains in the general election. 

The Cook Political Report has rated the district as a toss-up.

In contrast with Bains, who expressed support for “Israel’s right to exist, defend itself and live in peace as a secure nation,” Villegas called Israel a “genocidal regime” and vowed to vote against additional military funding to the Jewish state if elected.

American Priorities, a new super PAC launched to counter AIPAC’s involvement in congressional races, invested aggressively to bolster Villegas’ campaign.

Villegas was also endorsed by Track AIPAC, the controversial social media account that supports anti-Israel candidates and has faced accusations of antisemitism.

Morris Katz, a progressive consultant who advised Villegas’ campaign, called the candidate “exactly the kind of voice we need in Congress.” Katz has played a pivotal role in elevating candidates with antagonistic views towards Israel into office. 

“He’s going to flip this seat and lead the fight against a corrupt political establishment,” Katz predicted in a social media post on Tuesday.

Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) said on Tuesday that they believe antisemitism is worse on the left than on the right, arguing that the electoral success of far-left candidates with antisemitic records in Democratic primaries distinguished the left from the right, as similarly controversial candidates have struggled in GOP primary contests.

The Pennsylvania senators spoke to Jewish Insider on the sidelines of the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, where they headlined the closing plenary alongside AJC CEO Ted Deutch with a discussion on promoting bipartisanship amid expanding domestic political divisions. 

While both men acknowledged on stage and to JI that antisemitism exists within the conservative movement, they rejected the notion that it had taken hold of the GOP, arguing that the rise of Graham Platner’s Senate campaign in Maine and Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb’s nomination for a Philadelphia-area House seat showed that the Democratic Party had already normalized antisemitism within their party. 

Last month, Republican voters in Kentucky’s 4th District ousted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the few anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, largely because President Donald Trump endorsed his primary opponent, Ed Gallrein. The outcome was cheered by the Republican Jewish Coalition as an example of party leaders showing no tolerance for antisemitism within the party. 

“Look at the people that are winning the primaries in our party right now and look at their views on Israel. We’re old enough to remember that if somebody had a Nazi tattoo, they’re a Nazi sympathizer, but now it’s like, that’s OK. People will defend that, or they’ll just kind of explain that away,” Fetterman said of Platner and Rabb. “In our state, too, Rabb. He won, and he ran on being very, very anti-Israel. So that’s the one thing that’s not just acceptable, it’s actually a virtue.”

“Candidates and Democrats will campaign and proudly stand with Hasan Piker. This is an individual [who said] that Hamas is 1,000% better than Israel and all other kinds of things, [including that] America deserved 9/11. They will campaign with this guy, it’s like their new mascot,” he continued. 

Fetterman told JI there is nothing “more damaging a Democrat can believe in” than the right of Israel to fight its enemies, and that, “For me, it’s probably the biggest concern, these people who are winning in the Democratic Party.”

Fetterman said that there is “no daylight” between the two senators on Israel or opposing antisemitism, while McCormick said they have been “joined at the hip.” Both argued Israel and the Jewish community face greater challenges from the left than the right.

“My party has a more significant problem with Israel and standing up for it, although there are fringe elements in his party as well,” Fetterman said. “I’ve isolated myself more in my party, but if you witness who is winning a lot of these primaries, even Chris Rabb in our state and the tattoo guy [Graham Platner], these are intensely anti-Israel people that are part of the primary crowd.”

McCormick echoed that, pointing out Platner’s standing in primary and general election polls and saying, “It’s certainly, I think, more pervasive on the left right now, but we have to fight back on both sides.”

“But I don’t think we can have equality there,” the Pennsylvania Republican continued. “We don’t have many people in the Republican Party who are running for office with Nazi tattoos on their chests, with mainstream Democrats going to Maine to campaign for Graham Platner, so I do think that this problem has really gained traction and become a very significant part of the Democratic Party.”

“[Neo-Nazi] Nick  Fuentes is a good example. When he’s speaking out, I’m saying, ‘No, no, that’s not part of my party, that’s not part of my values, that’s not someone I want to have to Thanksgiving dinner, and we shouldn’t platform those voices as well,’” he explained. “But I would differentiate between social media, where there’s certainly a lot of that, and what’s happening on the ground.”

McCormick, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, argued that the Jewish people faced two attacks in recent years, the first being Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel and the second being a “second surprise attack” in the form of surging global antisemitism.

“What came after — on the campuses of University of Pennsylvania, on the streets of Philadelphia, in Pittsburgh, where a young campaign worker on my campaign was attacked — was this rise of antisemitism and hatred and hateful rhetoric,” the GOP senator said on stage. “That also strengthened my conviction that we need to stand up.”

Asked by JI about what concerns him regarding right-wing antisemitism, McCormick pointed to the platforming of voices like Fuentes by prominent podcasters in the conservative movement, though he did not mention any podcast hosts by name. 

“I believe in free speech, but anyone who promotes pro-Hitler, pro-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theories should not be platformed,” he said.

McCormick told JI that he’s “skeptical that diplomacy can work” with Iran, and said that if the efforts are unsuccessful, Trump or a future president will need to take military action against Iran again. 

Fetterman warned that Iran would only become more powerful with a nuclear weapon and have more leeway to impede transit in the Strait of Hormuz and drive up global energy prices.

“I am outraged at the lack of condemnation of our allies or everyone collectively demanding Iran has to relinquish its nuclear materials. I mean, every democracy, every one of our allies, we should be demanding that,” he continued.

In spite of recent Saudi hostility toward Israel and the United Arab Emirates, McCormick said he remains “optimistic that Saudi Arabia and other countries will eventually join the Abraham Accords, especially after seeing the threat of the Iranian regime.” 

“If you look at the UAE and Bahrain, which have openly embraced the Abraham Accords and deepened their relationships with Israel in a short period of time, the demonstrated value of those partnerships have been born out through their collaboration during Operation Epic Fury. Only time will tell if they’ll come to the table, but I’m optimistic,” he said.

New Jersey, the state with one of the largest Jewish populations in the country, has become something of a political nightmare for Jewish voters who have seen Democrats turn to far-left, virulently anti-Israel candidates in this year’s primaries. 

That trend continued Tuesday night as Democratic voters in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District nominated plastic surgeon Adam Hamawy, despite his past affiliations with Islamist extremists, who prevailed with about 28% of the vote in a crowded Democratic primary field. 

Hamawy, with the support of left-wing groups, some progressive lawmakers and the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC, prevailed over his opponents with regional bases but limited support outside their local communities. No pro-Israel groups or other moderate-minded outside PACs decided to spend money on anti-Hamawy attack ads, allowing him to consolidate enough backing from his base to prevail with a relatively small plurality. 

Hamawy was a former associate of Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheikh, who was convicted of inspiring the terrorists who engineered the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy later served as a defense witness during Abdel Rahman’s 1995 trial, and volunteered around the same time in Bosnia with a group later shuttered as a front for Al-Qaida. 

Despite his baggage, Hamawy is expected to win election to Congress in the November general election, given the central New Jersey district’s heavily Democratic electorate. 

Democratic voters in the neighboring 11th Congressional District also overwhelmingly renominated left-wing Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-NJ), who was the surprise winner in a special election primary earlier this year after AIPAC’s super PAC spent money attacking the more moderate former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ)

But while Mejia won a whopping 82% of the Democratic vote against her long-shot opposition, there was a significant protest vote against her in the towns with a large Jewish constituency: Livingston and Millburn.

In more favorable news for pro-Israel moderate voters, Democrats nominated former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett, who flew missions over the Straits of Hormuz, to run against Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in a major battleground district.

“I just feel very strongly that Israel has a right to defend itself and has a right to exist, and that the United States needs to be able to support Israel, and it shouldn’t be partisan,” Bennett told Jewish Insider last August. “I think we should be supporting Israel as an ally, regardless of political party.”

She also told JI she supports continuing U.S. aid to Israel without restrictions or conditions.

Kean, who has represented the 7th Congressional District since 2022, has been missing from Congress for the last several months with an undisclosed illness. His uncertain personal circumstances have made Democrats bullish of their prospects in the swing district, which Kean only won by five points in 2024.

Meanwhile, Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-NJ), a pro-Israel Democrat, comfortably brushed back a challenge from far-left, anti-Israel candidate Mussab Ali, winning 70% of the primary vote. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

While Platner’s expected nomination and Hamawy’s potential one are generating the most attention, several under-the-radar races will have a direct bearing on the Democrats’ midterm prospects. 

In California’s congressional races, the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel has been involved in two swing-district races where the group fears left-wing candidates could jeopardize the party’s chances of a pickup. In the seat held by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), the group endorsed Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains and has been airing ads on her behalf in the Central Valley-based district. 

Bains is facing a Democratic challenge from school board trustee Randy Villegas, who has landed endorsements from many of the leading anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress and who many Democrats fear could cost the Democrats a seat if he’s the nominee against the battle-tested Valadao. 

In the race to succeed retiring Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) in a San Diego-area district, the pro-Israel group has endorsed San Diego Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert, who is running against Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is of mixed Palestinian and Mexican American descent and has twice unsuccessfully run for Congress. The district was redrawn to elect a Democrat, but it still remains a competitive battleground. 

In Iowa, Democrats will be choosing whether to nominate the party-favored state Rep. Josh Turek, the more moderate candidate, or go with a true-blue progressive in state Sen. Zach Wahls. The nominee is expected to face Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) in a state that Democrats hope will become competitive, given the rough national environment for Republicans.

And in Montana’s 1st District, in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Jewish leaders are alarmed by several candidates in the Democratic primary field over their anti-Israel rhetoric and online antisemitic activity. Army veteran Matt Rains appears to be the most mainstream Democratic candidate of the four in the race, but lags behind in fundraising. 

The district has been solidly Republican since its creation, but in a Democratic wave, it’s competitive enough that it could flip. Given the extreme rhetoric of some of the Democratic candidates, however, that prospect would be less likely. 

Also of note: Los Angeles voters will be determining which two candidates will square off in a runoff for mayor. Assuming embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass finishes in the top two, her opponent will either be running further to her left (Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman) or to her right (reality star Spencer Pratt). The matchup will determine whether the campaign focuses more on catering to progressive voters or moderates disenchanted with the direction of the city. 

Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat, said at an event with Jewish supporters last week that he struggles to answer questions about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.

At his “Jews for Abdul” event last week in Pontiac, Mich., a recording of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, El-Sayed, in response to a question from an audience member about him sidestepping inquiries about Israel’s right to exist, said, “I often struggle with the question that people ask in this particular scenario, because what they now ask is, ‘Do you believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state,’ which, to me, forces the question of a definition of what a Jewish state means.”

SCOOP | Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat, said at an event with Jewish supporters last week that he struggles to answer questions about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.

“I often struggle with the… pic.twitter.com/ugjbXgxUvr

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) May 27, 2026

El-Sayed continued: “I need folks who want to ask me that question [to explain] what it is that they mean by that, and how that is consistent with any form of liberal values that we say we believe in here in the United States.”

He accused Israel of “bypassing” the issue of Palestinian rights and maintaining a Jewish majority in Israel by implementing apartheid in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, and said that the question of Israel’s right to exist overlooks “the rights of people who’ve been displaced by Israeli action” dating back to 1948.

He said that U.S. support is “funding leadership” in Israel that is opposed to a two-state solution while Palestinians do not have a voice in that conversation, and said “it’s not actually our job to decide what the peace looks like there.” 

“[Israel] exists as it stands, but nobody ever asked me about the right of Palestine to exist, because it doesn’t exist. And so I just push back on the characterization here,” El-Sayed said. 

MORE EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Abdul El-Sayed says “I need folks who want to ask me that question [to explain] what it is that they mean by that, and how that is consistent with any form of liberal values that we say we believe in here in the United States.”

Read more:… pic.twitter.com/8kaWUqwYCK

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) May 27, 2026

El-Sayed’s candidacy, positions and affiliations — particularly his campaigning with streamer Hasan Piker, who has repeatedly shared antisemitic sentiments and support for terrorism — has drawn concern from the sizable Jewish community in Michigan and nationally.

Photos from the event shared by El-Sayed’s campaign appear to show around a few dozen people in the audience, at least one of whom — who raised the question about Israel’s right to exist — said she was not Jewish.

A new series of Emerson College polls of three closely watched New York Democratic congressional primaries shows a strong left-wing, anti-establishment sentiment coursing through the party. 

The polls, commissioned by WPIX-TV, find that a sitting congressman, party-backed borough president and experienced state assemblyman championed by local political leaders are either trailing or barely leading their insurgent challengers.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel liberal and fierce critic of President Donald Trump, is badly trailing by 34 points (57-23%) his left-wing challenger Brad Lander, who most recently served as New York City comptroller and has been deeply critical of Israel. 

Lander, who was endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, holds a substantial advantage among voters under 40, winning 73% of the younger constituency. Mamdani, who comfortably carried the district in last year’s mayoral election, holds a 79% approval rating among Democrats in the progressive district.

Goldman’s campaign manager, Simone Kanter, questioned the poll’s methodology in a post on X: “Emerson is assuming an electorate that looks exactly like the once-in-a-generation turnout Mamdani mobilized when he was on the ballot.”

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, the poll finds Assemblymember Claire Valdez, the Democratic candidate backed by Mamdani and the local chapter of Democratic Socialists for America (DSA), holding a narrow lead (23-21%) over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the candidate endorsed by retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). A near-majority of Democratic voters (43%) are still undecided.

And in the race to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), state Assemblymember Micah Lasher has a small advantage over Assemblymember Alex Bores, and a larger lead over social media influencer Jack Schlossberg and attorney George Conway. 

Lasher holds more institutional support in the race, boasting the endorsements of Nadler, Gov. Kathy Hochul and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but that backing hasn’t automatically led into widespread party support. Still, this poll shows Lasher leading, in contrast to other recent public and internal polls that found Bores with a narrow edge.

On Tuesday, a gilded ballroom inside a Washington hotel served as a soapbox for more than a dozen Democrats — many with national ambitions — to pitch their vision for America to a room full of liberal donors, staffers and funders. 

The setting was the Center for American Progress’ IDEAS Conference, a convening put on by the Democratic think tank that pledged to bring together “the broad center-left’s leading thinkers and doers” to offer ideas on a range of policy topics.

American foreign policy was, naturally, one of those topics. In the two sessions on national security, each of which devoted significant discussion to the Middle East, one topic was notably absent: Israel. 

Democratic support for Israel has shifted dramatically since the Oct. 7 attacks and the resulting war in Gaza. Over the last few months, particularly since the war in Iran began, that policy shift has quickly solidified. Forty out of 47 Senate Democrats voted last month to block some arms sales to Israel, and the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street has urged Democrats to move toward ending all U.S. aid to Israel. 

Democrats’ attitude toward the U.S.-Israel relationship is in flux, and is almost certain to be a major point of contention in the 2028 primary campaign. But if CAP’s conference is any indication, many mainstream Democrats — the ones who are not pushing firebrand far-left views on Israel — would rather avoid the topic if they are not forced to discuss it. 

Certainly, it made clear that they no longer see Israel as the kind of ally that will earn applause in the same way that Taiwan and Ukraine garner cheers from rank-and-file Democrats.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) kicked off the gathering with an address billed as “National Security Ideas for the Future.” He cited his own experiences as a member of the Marine Corps who served in Iraq, arguing that the war in Iran is misguided and harming Americans. 

”I’m here today because right now our country is in danger. Will this president continue to drag America into another endless Middle East war?” Gallego said. “This is a war that wasn’t planned, wasn’t authorized and is not making us safer. [Donald] Trump got his war, and working families got stuck with the bill every day.”

Gallego made clear that his opposition to the Iran war does not mean he thinks America should step off the world stage. The U.S., he argued, should still come to the defense of Taiwan and Ukraine.

“I see on Twitter all the time, ‘Well, if you’re against the war in Iran, why do you support the war in Ukraine?’” Gallego said. “Let me be clear: The Ukrainian people are fighting for their independence, and it’s in our strategic interest to make sure that they win, that Europe wins and that we all win and defeat Russia.”

He extended the argument to Taiwan, calling for Washington to continue arms sales to the country and to help it grow its self-defense capabilities.

“We have allies that have fought with us and will continue to fight with us, but not if we abandon Taiwan, Ukraine and NATO,” said Gallego. He did not mention Israel in his speech.

Later in the day, a conversation on the future of American policy featured Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), former Secretary of State Tony Blinken and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Like Gallego, they slammed Trump’s campaign against Iran as illegal.

“This is not a situation where we should normalize the idea that a president can start a war on their own, and then it’s up to Congress later to disapprove of it, right?” said Kim. “Just from the outset, this is wrong. This is an illegal, unconstitutional war.”

The only mention of Israel in their 30-minute conversation was a brief aside from Blinken, as part of a broader point he was making about Iranian missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates. All three speakers doubled down on U.S. support for Ukraine and for Taiwan, particularly in the face of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.

At the end of the day, CAP President Neera Tanden said she hopes attendees walk away with a sense of where the Democratic Party is going. “To win the future we have to tell people where to go, what the path is, what the path is forward,” Tanden said. 

Other speakers included California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will appoint Rabbi Miriam Grossman — a veteran of various far-left and anti-Israel organizations, and one of the few Jewish religious leaders to back his campaign — to a taxpayer-funded post in his newly created “Office of Mass Engagement,” Jewish Insider has learned.

Multiple sources confirmed that Grossman, a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College who formerly led the independent congregation Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, will take on the role of “faith liaison” inside the new department, which has imported personnel and outreach strategies from the Democratic Socialists of America into City Hall. 

A listing for the position posted on May 1 shows a salary in the $90,000 to $110,000 range, and indicates Grossman will be responsible for engaging the city’s Jewish religious community, the world’s largest outside Israel.

The listing indicated that Grossman will also be responsible for maintaining key relationships with Jewish religious leaders and organizations, representing Mamdani at community events and acting as the primary link between the community and City Hall.

Grossman, however, is well to the left of even some of the most progressive-minded Jews when it comes to Israel. A self-identified “member-leader” of far-left Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and a veteran of the rabbinical council of the pro-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions group Jewish Voice for Peace, in a 2021 NPR interview she referred to her father as an “AIPAC rabbi” and recounted turning against Zionism while protesting construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota as an Oberlin College student in 2008. 

“I was really specifically taught not to trust or empathize with Palestinians and how to dismiss charges of anti-Zionism or criticism of Israel as antisemitism,” she said of her youth. “I was beginning to criticize the United States and I was starting to feel that way about Israel as well.”

Seven months before the Oct. 7 attacks, she participated in a march on the Brooklyn home of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to protest U.S. military aid to the Jewish State. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ atrocities, Grossman doubled down, joining a JFREJ protest demanding a halt to military aid to Israel and speaking with the Islam Channel on YouTube at a demonstration outside the White House. 

“We are here to take it to the White House to tell the White House and Congress it is in our power to prevent a genocide to stop this cycle of death for all of us — for Palestinians and most especially this moment for the people of Gaza who are suffering and crying out for help, and the world is watching,” she said.

She also participated in multiple DSA-led events protesting the Israeli response to the assault. She later appeared in a JFREJ “New York Rabbis for Mamdani” video, endorsing the anti-Israel democratic socialist’s campaign.

Grossman did not respond to requests for comment, and Mamdani’s administration would not remark on the record about the hire. The faith liaison role is distinct from the executive directorship and deputy directorship of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, to which the mayor has appointed Phylisa Wisdom of New York Jewish Agenda and J Street veteran Josh Binderman, respectively.

Binderman and Wisdom’s groups are also critical of Israel, but identify as Zionist.

One Orthodox Jewish leader, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid antagonizing Mamdani, despaired at the news.

“If true it would send a terrible signal and would be one more indication that this mayor is not a friend to the Jewish community,” he said. “JVP is a radical fringe group that does not represent the views of the overwhelming majority of Jewish New Yorkers.”

As the Democratic Party lurches left in the run-up to the midterms — and amid the rise of high-profile, far-left Senate candidates such as Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan — candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have gradually been making inroads and positioning themselves to win nominations in several key House races. 

This has happened without much protest or opposition from Democratic Party leadership. And given that the urban districts where the DSA-endorsed candidates have the most support are so heavily Democratic, there hasn’t been much incentive for party groups to set red lines against radicals looking to disrupt the party in these lower-profile races. 

One of the most insidious aspects of the advocacy of many DSA chapters is the demand that its endorsees cut ties with any Jewish group that recognizes the State of Israel. Some chapters celebrated or justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel. 

“They are trying to do in America what [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] seems to do internationally, which is to make being Jewish unacceptable in polite society,” Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, recently said on a webinar of D.C-area Jewish leaders. 

But despite the group’s radical views, DSA-endorsed candidates have a real shot at prevailing in several upcoming Democratic primaries in major cities. 

Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, one of several Democrats looking to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA) in his Philadelphia district, has the notoriety of recirculating an Instagram post blaming the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that killed 14 Jewish Australians on “Zionists,” insinuating the terror attack was a false flag. (His campaign later blamed a former staffer for reposting the item.)

Rabb, who has been endorsed by many of the leading anti-Israel progressives in Congress, also recently campaigned with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker. His far-left views and virulent criticism of Israel has alarmed Gov. Josh Shapiro, according to Axios, and the popular Pennsylvania governor has worked behind the scenes to oppose his campaign. 

Democratic sources familiar with the primary, however, suggest that any behind-the-scenes efforts aren’t having much effect in derailing the DSA candidate’s campaign. Rabb’s two leading opponents — surgeon Ala Stanford and state Sen. Sharif Street — are both mainstream Democrats and may potentially split the more-moderate vote. The primary is on Tuesday.

Next month, a similar clash between the Democratic mainstream and socialist wing of the party is taking place in New York City, where state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who is backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York’s DSA chapter, is squaring off against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the progressive establishment’s favorite. 

The race, in one of the most left-wing districts in the city, which covers part of Brooklyn and Queens, will mark a major test of Mamdani’s political capital — and whether the DSA brand is more compelling to progressives than the endorsement of Reynoso by retiring liberal stalwart Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY).

Reynoso, in an interview with The New York Editorial Board, proclaimed himself the underdog in the race despite boasting endorsements from organized labor, the outgoing congresswoman, state Attorney General Letitia James and the left-wing Working Families Party line. “Zohran Mamdani is a celebrity-status, inspiring figure at the levels of AOC and Bernie Sanders. He is a movement and is deeply important,” Reynoso said.

Meanwhile, in Denver, another DSA hotbed, Rep. Diane DeGette (D-CO) faces a primary threat from DSA-backed challenger Melat Kiros, a 28-year-old attorney. Kiros has made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of her campaign, accusing Israel of genocide, and she supports an arms embargo against the Jewish state. Kiros dominated DeGette at a districtwide party convention filled with activists in March, and the congresswoman has been airing ads touting her progressive record, in anticipation of a competitive June primary.

And in St. Louis, the local DSA chapter is again backing former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who was one of the most extreme anti-Israel lawmakers when serving in Congress, in her attempt at a comeback against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO).

(The other major contest featuring a DSA-endorsed contender is next month’s D.C. mayoral primary, where Jewish groups have been alarmed by Janeese Lewis George’s rhetoric around Israel and antisemitism.)

All told, there could be at least four Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed lawmakers in the next Congress, with limited party efforts to marginalize the extremists from within. It underscores how fast the Democratic Party is evolving, and how quickly the guardrails that kept the party centered — and largely free of antisemitism — are falling out of place.

Ahead of Tuesday’s primary in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District in the heart of Philadelphia, Chris Rabb seems to be surging, local political analysts said, in spite of recent controversies surrounding the far-left state lawmaker.

Rabb is facing off against state Sen. Sharif Street, a former state Democratic Party chair, and Ala Stanford, a physician and activist. Rabb has most recently come under scrutiny for sharing an Instagram post blaming “Zionists” for the massacre at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, a post Rabb’s campaign claimed came from an unidentified former staffer.

Rabb closed last quarter as the top fundraiser in the race, bringing in nearly double what either of his rivals raised. 314 Action, a Democratic pro-science group that was a major outside backer of Stanford, pulled its ads off television last week following polling showing her support had “declined precipitously in recent weeks,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

A previous 314 Action poll last month had found Stanford, seen as the favorite for much of the race, with a strong lead. But she and her campaign have suffered a series of high-profile and largely self-inflicted stumbles in recent weeks — including recent scrutiny of her finances, a fumbled interview about immigration enforcement and her withdrawal from a televised debate.

“A month ago, it looked like Dr. Stanford was surging, from someone who had never run for office to being a first time candidate and winning a congressional seat,” J.J. Balaban, a Pennsylvania Democratic strategist, told Jewish Insider. “And then you’ve seen, kind of remarkably, a series of self-inflicted errors that some think have made it a lot less likely that she’s going to win.”

Balaban said that Rabb has benefited from the fact that both Stanford and Street have “seemed to accumulate a significant amount of baggage.” 

“I think Rabb has been able to take advantage of opposition that … was surprisingly weak, and present himself as new and different and a break from the local Democratic machine which had largely coalesced around Sharif Street,” Balaban said.

He said Rabb had also been “very fortunate that he has, for the most part, escaped serious scrutiny because it was thought that Dr. Stanford was on a path to win,” allowing him to gain steam and seize the opening when her campaign struggled. Rabb has not faced significant attacks in the race, according to Balaban — including over the Bondi Beach controversy.

“He’s probably peaking at the right time,” Balaban said.

Larry Ceisler, a public affairs executive who lives in the district, said that the state of the race is hard to judge, but agreed that with national backing from a host of prominent left-wing leaders and the progressive lane to himself, Rabb seems to have the momentum in the lead-up to Tuesday’s election. Ceisler is a former Rabb supporter, and said he had donated to both Street and Stanford in this race.

Street has the strongest organizational support from local Democratic officials and union groups, but has at times had strained relations with other members of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, making it unlikely, in Ceisler’s view, that other Democratic leaders in the state will intervene in the race on his behalf.

Balaban noted that Street has faced a significant amount of criticism for working with Republicans in the 2021 redistricting cycle on a map that would have given Street a strong chance to win a seat, while potentially hurting other Democrats. That episode set him at odds with Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), who represents a neighboring district.

Balaban said that Street’s time as state Democratic Party chair is also not well-regarded.

Reflecting Rabb’s increasing chances of victory, Gov. Josh Shapiro quietly urged a local trade union backing Street not to run negative ads against Stanford, for fear of elevating Rabb, according to an Axios report.

Rabb and Shapiro have long clashed at the state level over immigration and other issues, and Rabb has also made anti-Israel activism a centerpiece of his campaign and faced accusations of antisemitism.

Both Ceisler and Balaban were skeptical of the extent of Shapiro’s involvement or that it would have any significant impact on the race, and did not expect Shapiro to get involved publicly.

Rabb’s campaign has focused heavily on his opposition to Israel and AIPAC in its messaging. In addition to the Bondi Beach post, Rabb also rallied with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has come under fire from a range of Democrats for antisemitism and support for terrorism.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is set to visit Philadelphia on Friday for a rally with Rabb.

Rabb and outside backers asserted, with shaky evidence, that AIPAC was funding 314 Action’s pro-Stanford independent expenditure effort. But AIPAC on Tuesday took the rare step of openly denying any involvement in the primary.

“Millions of Americans want to help tough, principled Democrats defeat extremist candidates. Despite conspiracy theories, not every dollar spent in that effort comes via AIPAC,” the group said on X.

314 Action, which critics have claimed is operating as an AIPAC cutout, also publicly denied taking any funding from AIPAC.

“[Rabb] spent his entire campaign running on a lie — and voters should not believe a word he says. We have not taken a dime from AIPAC in two years. Period,” 314 Action Executive Director Erik Polyak said on X.

Ceisler, who is Jewish, called the focus on Israel and AIPAC in the race upsetting and distressing, and said rhetoric has at times “crossed the line into antisemitism and dual loyalties.”

“This is a relatively poor district, lower-middle income district on the whole, and the fact that Israel and AIPAC is talked about so much in this race, when, if you probably did a poll, it might not hit the first 15-20 issues, is really disconcerting to me, and and I think that there’s been just a lot of untruths that have been that have been thrown around,” he told JI.

Balaban said that the environment has made it “easier for a loudly anti-Israel candidate like Chris Rabb to get traction,” but said that it was “surprising and disappointing that more attention wasn’t given to his very ugly accusation that the Bondi Beach massacre was a false flag operation.”

The Open Society Foundations, the major international philanthropy founded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, has pledged $30 million over three years to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate, directing those funds to a number of progressive groups, some of which are at odds with the mainstream Jewish establishment.

Jewish recipients of the funding include progressive Jewish groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Nexus Project and Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Alexander Soros, George Soros’ son, was also a founding chair of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, another grantee. The younger Soros is a longtime donor to progressive Jewish causes and chairs OSF’s board of directors. 

The OSF has also come under fire within the Jewish community for funding initiatives seen as hostile to Israel, including providing grants for Jewish Voice for Peace — which has spearheaded anti-Israel campus demonstrations. 

Asked about the OSF’s support of anti-Israel groups, a spokesperson for the organization told Jewish Insider, “We’re a human rights organization and we were created in part to counter discrimination and hatred which are contrary to ideas an open society needs to flourish. Everything we fund is aligned with those values but a lot of the work is focused on many other issues [unrelated to antisemitism].”  

The commitment, announced Wednesday, marks an alternative approach to the community’s fight against rising antisemitism, which has traditionally focused on legacy organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federations of North America that have historically been at the forefront of combating antisemitism. The spokesperson told JI that the commitment “supports organizations on the frontlines standing against antisemitism and other forms of hate — not by challenging another organization.”

JCPA, one of the grantees, is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — the umbrella organization of mainstream American Jewish groups. “JCPA is​ a legacy Jewish organization [that] already collaborates with other legacy Jewish organizations, including on campus and broader education-related issues,” the group’s CEO, Amy Spitalnick, told JI. 

“No grantee of any foundation agrees with every position of every other grantee,” said Spitalnick. “We’ve been a clear voice calling out antisemitism wherever it exists across the ideological spectrum and underscoring that our legitimate concerns should not be exploited to attack democratic norms and institutions, including university research funding.”

But other organizations selected, such as Nexus, are newer and use a more left-wing lens to combat antisemitism than the approach taken by the largest Jewish organizations. Nexus released the Nexus Document to challenge the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, specifically arguing that double standards targeting Israel are not inherently antisemitic. The IHRA definition is largely embraced among mainstream Jewish organizations. 

Nexus also faced backlash after it defended a recent New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof that alleged widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security forces. The Israel Foreign Ministry and AJC called the column a “blood libel.”  

Nexus wrote on Tuesday that “Kristof’s article is a challenging and important read. It takes courage and care to expose sexual violence” and accused Israel of “weaponiz[ing] the term ‘blood libel’ to dismiss Kristof’s thorough reporting.” 

Other recipients of the foundation’s funding include Jewish Social Justice Roundtable — a coalition of 60+ progressive member and partner organizations focused on humanitarian and social justice — and Bend the Arc, a national progressive Jewish group, which offers a guide and trainings focused on dismantling antisemitism, focused primarily on right-wing antisemitism. 

Open Society’s commitment comes amid broader conversations in the Jewish world about the efficacy of legacy Jewish institutions’ efforts to combat antisemitism. In February, at Manhattan’s 92Y, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens called to “dismantle the Anti-Defamation League,” arguing Jewish philanthropy’s allocation of funds to fight antisemitism were “mostly wasted.”

Recent moves by the ADL, including their creation of a “Mamdani monitor” after the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the organization’s initial collaboration with the second Trump administration, have raised the ire of left wing Jewish groups.

An OSF spokesperson told JI that organizations were selected based upon ones “we knew were doing great work in this space, which is certainly already underway.”

“Some of these organizations have been on our radar for a long time; either we had a relationship with them or we had been aware of their work for a while,” the spokesperson said.  

A left-wing group aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and fiercely critical of Israel has backed Assemblymember Alex Bores in the race to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in a heavily Jewish Manhattan district.

Our Revolution, an advocacy group spun off Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, endorsed Bores on Wednesday, news first reported by Politico and subsequently shared on both Bores’ and Our Revolution’s social media pages. Following Sanders, Our Revolution has aligned with student anti-Israel protesters and advocated against military aid to the Jewish state.

The group’s endorsement of Bores emphasized his signature issue: regulating artificial intelligence.

“While billionaire-backed tech interests spend millions trying to block oversight and accountability, Alex is actually taking them on,” Our Revolution wrote on X. “He’s leading the fight for some of the strongest AI regulations in the country and is running on taking on corporate power, political corruption, and concentrated wealth — not empty personality politics.”

AI firms have poured massive sums into opposing Bores, a former employee of Palantir whose wife works in the AI division of Microsoft. 

Nadler’s district is heavily Democratic and liberal, but many of its synagogues and social organizations have strong ties to Israel, and particularly to Labor Zionism. Far-left activist Cameron Kasky, who has put criticism of Israel at the center of his online persona, dropped out of the race for the congressional seat after failing to gain traction.

As a result, a left-wing lane in the race has opened up, and observers suggested Bores has sought to shift into it. However, influencer and Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg — who has led in most polls to date — has taken a harder line on Israel than Bores. 

At a candidate forum Wednesday night at Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Schlossberg endorsed Sanders’ effort to limit further U.S. military assistance to the country. Candidates George Conway and Micah Lasher both said they oppose halting military aid. Bores was slated to appear at the forum, but withdrew the day prior, citing a schedule conflict in Washington.

While Bores has not commented directly on Sanders’ measure, he said in a questionnaire for the Working Families Party about another legislative effort to condition arms sales to Israel, “I think the strategy of determining foreign policy through legislation that targets individual countries has overall not been beneficial for achieving universal rights. If changes of US aid policy are needed, it should be through broad pieces of legislation that tighten our requirements around governmental aid to all countries.”

A House resolution set to be introduced on Wednesday by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) condemns far-left streamer Hasan Piker and far-right podcaster Candace Owens for spreading antisemitism.

The resolution denounces “antisemitic hate-filled rhetoric and content disseminated by prominent online personalities, and urg[es] social media platforms and public leaders to denounce and address such conduct.” 

Piker, the resolution states, “has often used antisemitic rhetoric, including expressing support for Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization,” outlining a series of antisemitic and pro-Hamas comments by the far-left influencer, who has campaigned with and hosted several progressive Democratic congressional candidates and lawmakers on his stream.

Owens, the resolution states, “has employed rhetoric that has included conspiracy theories accusing Israel of controlling the United States Government, promoting false claims that Jews are taught by ancient religious texts to hate non-Jews, and casting doubt on the truth of the stories of Holocaust survivors.”

The resolution outlines a series of antisemitic comments by Owens, including that the United States is composed of “satanic pedophiles who work for Israel,” dismissing Nazi atrocities and promoting the blood libel against Jews.

It states that online influencers have a “responsibility” to avoid promoting antisemitic views, urges social media platforms to enforce policies against hate speech and stop the spread of antisemitism and calls on leaders to “unequivocally condemn antisemitism, including when it is propagated by high-profile media figures and influencers.”

“Efforts to downplay or excuse antisemitic rhetoric under the guise of political commentary should be rejected,” the resolution continues. Some on the far-left have defended Piker along such lines.

The legislation highlights that antisemitism online can contribute to and fuel violence in the physical world including intimidation and harassment against Jews, citing social media platforms as a significant driver of the recent rise in antisemitic incidents.

Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said in an interview with CNN that aired Sunday that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas.

Responding to a question from CNN anchor Manu Raju on that issue, El-Sayed answered in the affirmative, adding, “Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil. It’s not, ‘How evil is this one versus that one?’ Hamas — evil. Israeli government — evil. We can say both,” he said.

He also said that he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and responsible for a genocide.

El-Sayed also defended his decision to campaign with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, brushing off criticisms of Piker as “cancel culture.”

“My understanding of America is, it’s a place where we have freedom of speech. My understanding of America is, it’s a place where we’re willing to have conversations with folks with whom we disagree,” El-Sayed said. “I went on ‘Fox and Friends’ this morning. Is it un-American to go and speak on ‘Fox and Friends’? Or are we drawing certain kinds of lines? And it’s that penchant for cancel culture that I think people hate about Democrats.”

He said that Piker is “having a conversation with a number of folks who feel locked out.”

El-Sayed also said that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) should replace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the Democratic leader in the Senate, due to Schumer’s continued support for U.S. aid to Israel. Van Hollen is among the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate.

Michigan has been a closely watched bellwether of the direction of the Democratic Party, and El-Sayed’s candidacy — defined by his virulent anti-Israel rhetoric — will test how hostile Democratic partisans have become toward Israel.

At the state’s Democratic nominating convention on Sunday, which all three Senate candidates attended, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) was booed by a contingent of left-wing activists hostile to her longstanding support for Israel. 

Also receiving heckles from a loud contingent of Democratic delegates: a speaker supporting Jordan Acker, who is seeking reelection to the University of Michigan Board of Regents. Acker has been targeted by the university’s anti-Israel activists, facing harassment and vandalism of his home that Michigan leaders have called plainly antisemitic.  

Former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a party event the day prior to the convention, where she said President Donald Trump “got pulled into” the war in Iran by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that the war “has always been [Trump’s] feeble attempt to distract from the Epstein files.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The leader of a newly launched progressive campus advocacy group affiliated with More Perfect Union, a prominent left-wing media organization, liked social media posts justifying the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and expressed similar sentiments in at least one now-deleted X comment.

Elise Joshi, a Gen Z activist and influencer, is taking the helm of a new campus organization, More Perfect University, that is casting itself as a populist left rival to Turning Point USA, the right-wing advocacy group that has played a key role in pulling younger voters to President Donald Trump and promoting conservative values at colleges and universities across the country.

More Perfect University, which was announced on Wednesday, is the creation of More Perfect Union, founded in 2021 by Faiz Shakir, a senior advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In a splashy video, Joshi said the new group will extend More Perfect Union’s “fight to campuses,” vowing to equip students “with the tools to unrig our broken economic system” and stressing the “responsibility to speak truth to power falls on us.”

But while Shakir has long been known as a vocal critic of Israel, his own record of commentary on such issues does not appear to have gone as far as Joshi, whose past social media activity has notably sought to excuse the violence perpetrated by Hamas.

In one since-removed X comment from Oct. 7, 2023, for instance, Joshi suggested the Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages were an act of justified resistance linked to a broader movement including violent efforts to oppose slavery, apartheid and colonialism.

“It seems a lot of people forgot how slavery abolition, South Africa’s apartheid, and every independence movement against colonization was achieved,” Joshi wrote in the post, a screenshot of which was reviewed by Jewish Insider.

Joshi, who at the time was a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she emerged as an outspoken youth activist with a sizable following on TikTok, also liked some comments posted on the day of the attack that expressed similar views, other screenshots show — including by one user who had asked, “What did y’all think decolonization meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.”

In another post liked by Joshi, a user wrote, “Folks start really fighting back and all of a sudden everyone is a pacifist. Real revolution and decolonization is not fun. It is painful and violent.”

It is unclear when Joshi’s post alluding to the Hamas attacks was deleted. She did not respond to a request for comment from JI about her social media activity.

Elsewhere, Joshi, a former executive director of Gen-Z for Change, has summarized her negative views on Israel, reflective of the waning support for the Jewish state seen among younger voters on both sides of the aisle.

“A Jewish state in Palestine requires and has always required the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians so a Jewish majority is possible,” she wrote last June. “It requires a siege on Gaza and apartheid in the West Bank to prevent 5 million+ Palestinians from having equal rights.”

In a follow-up post to X, Joshi added that “Israel’s existence requires the subjugation of the indigenous Palestinian people who have inhabited that land for thousands of years.”

“The status quo is violent, from routine bombing to home demolition. To start and end with condemning Hamas only fuels the widely recognized apartheid state,” she said just two days after the Oct. 7 attacks.

Joshi, who has proudly identified on social media as an “anti-Israel activist,” has not indicated how More Perfect University will approach questions about the Middle East on college campuses, where protests and related forms of student activism have grown quieter in recent months, even amid ongoing war with Iran.

“My top issues are climate and unions, but I see the genocide in Gaza (not ‘conflict in the Middle East’) as a moral issue that’s fundamental to being human,” she said in a May 2024 post, commenting on polling results suggesting the war in Gaza and accompanying campus demonstrations did not rank among the most important concerns of college students. 

“GENOCIDE IS NOT RANK-ABLE,” she argued.

More Perfect Union did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

In a sign of the coalition she is seeking to build as the new leader of More Perfect University, Joshi shared a complimentary social media post from Hasan Piker, a controversial far-left Twitch streamer who has drawn criticism for frequently using antisemitic rhetoric and doubling down on his support for Hamas over Israel.

“Incredibly stoked for this!” Piker enthused in an X post on Wednesday about More Perfect University, which Joshi amplified on her social media accounts.

Hasan Piker, the far-left, antisemitic streamer, was recently asked by Politico who his favorite presidential candidates are for the Democratic nomination in 2028. He offered a few unsurprising names: progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain… and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), the mild-mannered purple-state senator up for reelection this year.

Piker, in the interview, called Ossoff, “my dark-horse pick, depending on how he presents himself if he has ambitions for higher office.”

But does Ossoff, a Jewish senator who is facing a tough reelection in a state President Donald Trump carried twice, return Piker’s affections? His team has been unresponsive about his views on Piker, even as some leading Democrats have spoken out against the influencer and kept their distance.

Multiple spokespeople for Ossoff didn’t respond to several inquiries this week from JI. 

Ossoff’s silence about Piker could strain his already rocky relationship with Georgia’s Jewish community. Key Jewish leaders and donors have repeatedly expressed outrage with the senator over his votes in favor of resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, and some have threatened to withhold support from his presidential campaigns.

Piker’s record is well-documented at this point. He said America deserved the 9/11 attacks, repeatedly described Orthodox Jews as inbred, downplayed sexual assault on Oct. 7, said he supports Hamas over Israel, hosted a friendly interview with an alleged Houthi terrorist and laughed at Jewish students who faced antisemitism on college campuses. 

It’s a record that’s led a number of Ossoff’s colleagues in Congress to speak out. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, called Piker an “unapologetic antisemite.” 

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Michigan Senate candidates Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow have also condemned Piker. Leaders of major Jewish groups have also denounced the streamer, urging lawmakers to keep their distance from him.

It may be hard for Ossoff to remain silent on an issue that is separating more mainstream Democrats from the far left. And Georgia isn’t just a swing state, but one with a sizable Jewish population. 

Ossoff and his staff’s silence is surprising, given the growing salience of the issue of Piker’s extremism within the party. We’ll let you know if we hear back from the senator’s team. 

Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee and a former Democratic congressman, said that Democratic lawmakers and candidates should not associate with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has a record of antisemitism and support for terrorism.

His comments come at a time when a small but growing group of Democrats has begun speaking out against Piker, particularly as he’s set to join a far-left Michigan Senate candidate on the trail. 

Deutch drew parallels between Piker on the far left and white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes on the far right.

“In both cases, each party should make clear that voices that aren’t representative of their parties have no place in an official campaign setting — shouldn’t be welcomed, shouldn’t be welcomed in to share their views,” Deutch said. “In Piker’s case, his record speaks for itself, the same with Nick Fuentes. I don’t need to go into details about who they are or what they represent. Neither one of them belongs in the middle of the political process as a result of candidates choosing to put them there.”

He said he’s expressed that view to candidates on both sides of the aisle and would keep those conversations private, but “my hope is that we’ll see some clarity on that issue going forward.”

“The challenges that we’re facing now with increasing polarization and the rise of extremism on the edges of both political parties is bad enough. Injecting the views of antisemites into that mix and welcoming those views is dangerous,” Deutch said.

👋 Good Wednesday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on a call from Rep. Brad Schneider, the head of the New Dems, for the party to distance itself from far-left streamer Hasan Piker, and cover the criticism from Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie over a pledge by rival Janeese Lewis George to boycott Zionist events. We report on a call from a senior Department of Homeland Security official for increased vigilance for Jewish communities ahead of Passover and several major summer events, and talk to Senate Republicans about the Trump administration’s efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: King Charles III, Steven Fulop and Nickolay Mladenov.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• President Donald Trump will give the keynote address tonight at the NRCC’s annual President’s Dinner.
• The president’s speech comes amid efforts to secure a meeting in Pakistan tomorrow between senior U.S. and Iranian officials, amid a looming deadline to reach an agreement with Tehran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and after the U.S. sent Iran a 15-point proposal to wind down the war. Tehran, for its part, has denied talks with the U.S., with an Iranian military spokesman saying the U.S. is “negotiating with itself.”
• The House Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing this morning on the impact of the Department of Homeland Security’s shutdown.
• FII PRIORITY kicks off in Miami today, with Trump expected to speak on Friday afternoon. Other speakers at the three-day Saudi-organized gathering include White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, White House advisors Jared Kushner and Massad Boulos, Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Ilan Goldfajn, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, developer Stephen Ross and FIFA head Gianni Infantino.
• Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, who last week held a private meeting with local Jewish leaders to apologize for her response to a Democratic Socialist of America questionnaire in which she pledged to boycott Zionist events, is appearing at a Metro DC DSA rally tonight with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
• The Middle East Institute is holding its 80th anniversary gala tonight in Washington, honoring Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of industry and advanced technology.
• Elsewhere in Washington, Ruth Wisse is slated to deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities tonight at the Kennedy Center.
• Jonah Platt will host tonight’s 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards Gala in New York City.
• The annual CPAC conference begins today in Dallas.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

You would think the media wouldn’t need to twist Democratic candidates’ views on Israel, given the challenges pro-Israel supporters are already facing within the party. But in a Politico story suggesting that Democrats are running away from AIPAC, the publication misrepresented the views of two leading presidential contenders — and ignored the latest pro-Israel comments made in its own pages by a top-tier candidate. 

The story leads by noting pro-Israel Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said he’s not taking PAC money from anyone and then twists his comments to suggest that he had shifted his views on AIPAC or his support for Israel. The omission (buried at the end of the story) is particularly egregious because in the same interview, Booker told Politico that he was troubled by the “singling out of AIPAC” compared to other American advocacy groups.

“Somehow, AIPAC seems to be drawing a lot of attention, and that’s problematic to me,” Booker said. That doesn’t sound like an example of someone turning on the pro-Israel advocacy group.

The story then cites Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, one of the leading supporters of Israel in the party, as someone who’s flip-flopping on AIPAC for noting that as a governor, he’s never taken or solicited money from AIPAC. (Which is true, as a matter of fact, because AIPAC only spends money in federal races, not statewide campaigns.)

But that narrow, semantic statement was taken as evidence that Shapiro has changed his tune, when in reality he’s been speaking on left-wing podcasts in defense of the Jewish state, testing a measured, pro-Israel message as he mulls over a presidential campaign. 

And perhaps most notably, the story avoids referencing Politico’s own interview with California Gov. Gavin Newsom published the same day, where he backtracked from his anti-Israel comments on the “Pod Save America” podcast earlier in the month. In the interview, Newsom said he “revere[s]” Israel and is “proud to support the state.” And he walked back his earlier comments that seemingly called Israel an apartheid state, saying he was only referencing a column by the New York Times’ Tom Friedman.

This latest article appears to fit a pattern of anti-Israel content from Politico that stands in contrast to the pro-Israel stance of its parent company, Axel Springer.

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

strait talk

Senate Republicans express confidence, but say they haven’t heard plan for reopening Strait of Hormuz from admin

Multiple Senate Republicans said Tuesday that they haven’t heard from the administration specific plans for restoring free trade through the Strait of Hormuz, though most emphasized that doing so is a critical goal, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Diverging views: “I can just tell you, the Pentagon has, for years, been playing out their plans,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told JI. “The question is which plan is next, and that’s based on conditions — the same thing with Kharg Island,” he said, referring to potential U.S. military operations against the Iranian regime’s primary petroleum export hub. “I’m sure that when the time comes, we’ll all know.” One Republican, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), however, argued that the onus is not on the United States to reopen the strait, despite the closure’s impact on global, and domestic, oil prices, but instead on the countries in the region that rely on it.

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Tim Kaine (D-VA).

War of words: President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States had achieved “regime change” in Iran through the killing of Iranian leaders and teased a “very significant prize” provided by Iran to the U.S. in the course of ongoing negotiations, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports.

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GUARDING THE GATES

Rep. Brad Schneider, New Dems chair, urges Democrats to disavow Hasan Piker

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), who chairs the moderate New Democratic Coalition, called on Democrats on Tuesday to reject and distance themselves from Hasan Piker, the far-left media figure boosted by an increasing number of Democrats and Democratic candidates, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Notable quotable: “Hasan Piker is an unapologetic antisemite,” Schneider said on X on Tuesday. “Democrats risk losing our credibility to condemn those on the right who traffic in bigotry, antisemitism, & hate when our own Members of Congress & candidates are celebrating or, worse yet, platforming those who espouse hate of any kind.”

Read the full story here.

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PARTY RECKONING

Michael Sacks calls out ‘double standard’ of AIPAC criticism in Democratic Party

A prominent Jewish Democratic donor in Chicago is raising alarms that growing efforts to demonize AIPAC and its engagement in political campaigns are part of a more sinister effort to make pro-Israel Jews feel unwelcome in a party they have long called home, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

What he wrote: In an opinion piece published in The Chicago Tribune on Tuesday headlined “Why I support AIPAC and a big tent Democratic Party,” Michael Sacks, an asset manager and longtime ally of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, pointed to what he called a “double standard” for AIPAC’s political involvement, and warned of “a coordinated effort to make support for Israel a litmus test for Democratic primary candidates in 2026 and beyond.” He wrote: “Let’s be clear: The campaign against AIPAC is not a policy discussion. It’s a thinly disguised effort to make support for Israel politically toxic in the Democratic Party, to chase Jews and their allies out of our big tent coalition.”

Read the full story here.

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DEM DIVIDE

Third Way calls out Abdul El-Sayed’s embrace of Hasan Piker

A prominent moderate Democratic think tank is continuing to call out Democratic candidates for being “too cozy” with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, who has been embraced by several left-wing Democrats in recent months, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports. 

Cozying up: In his latest statement, Jonathan Cowan, president of Third Way, condemned Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his upcoming rallies with Piker, first reported by Politico, set to take place on April 7 at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan alongside Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA). “It is morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating for Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed and Members of Congress like Summer Lee to cozy up to antisemitic extremists like Hasan Piker,” Cowan said.

Read the full story here.

Risk management: El-Sayed is taking flak over comments in an internal campaign call that issuing a statement on the attempted terrorist attack on Temple Israel in the Detroit suburbs was a “risk,” Punchbowl News reported Tuesday. In both the original statement and the internal comments, El-Sayed condemned the attack while also suggesting that it ultimately could be blamed on Israel’s operations in Lebanon, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

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PRIMARY POLITICS

D.C. mayoral candidate slams opponents for pledging to boycott some Jewish events

Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie criticized his Democratic primary opponents for pledging to avoid campaigning with elements of the Jewish community — an apparent jab at Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed rival Janeese Lewis George, who is facing backlash from Jewish leaders over her pledge to boycott events she described as promoting Zionism, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

What he said: “Recent reporting has raised serious concerns about how some candidates for office in DC have pledged not to engage with the majority of Jewish organizations in exchange for political support,” McDuffie wrote in a campaign email on Tuesday. “That is wrong. Full stop.” McDuffie did not mention Lewis George or any specific candidates in his email. 

Read the full story here.

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COMMUNITY CONCERNS

DHS official calls for increased vigilance for Jewish communities ahead of Passover, World Cup, America’s Semiquincentennial

Matthew Kozma, under secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, called on Tuesday for continued vigilance “given the threat that’s stemming from Iran, particularly in the Middle East, but also here at home,” in comments at a security briefing webinar hosted by the Secure Community Network, a leading Jewish security organization, ahead of the Passover holiday,  Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

High alert: Kozma said that Americans should remain cautious of threats from “malicious actors, particularly ones encouraged by or empathetic to Iran,” as two upcoming events in the country — the 2026 FIFA World Cup and America’s 250th anniversary — bring an influx of visitors into the U.S. The briefing was held during what Michael Masters, CEO of SCN, described as “an elevated threat environment from Iran and its proxies,” ahead of the start of the Passover holiday next week.   

Read the full story here.

Exclusive: A first-of-its kind leaderboard evaluating how major video game companies address antisemitism and extremism in online games was released on Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned.  

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Worthy Reads

Oy, Canada!: In The Atlantic, Jesse Brown reflects on rising antisemitism in Canada and Ottawa’s reticence to address the issue. “The awkward reality is that a main driver of these incidents is a very Canadian aversion to causing offense: The deference of many politicians and institutions to the views of a rapidly growing minority community is too often leading them to reject another minority community. … Among my Jewish friends and family, these efforts to intimidate and alienate Jews, to exclude them from civil society and from public life, and to close down private Jewish spaces are discussed with far more concern and frequency than the regular reports of graffiti and name-calling.” [TheAtlantic]

Tehran’s Calculus: In Foreign Affairs, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Matthew Levitt posits that Iran could seek to attack soft targets in the West as it feels it has little to lose. “With its leadership badly damaged and its security establishment humiliated by deep Israeli and U.S. intelligence infiltration, Iran sees little downside in greenlighting a wide variety of attacks, from small scale plots to potential mass-casualty events, with little regard for potential repercussions. It is likely wagering that the American public and its politicians lack the stomach to withstand civilian losses, and that, should it successfully carry out a mass casualty event, the political cost of continuing the war will become prohibitive for the Trump administration.” [ForeignAffairs]

Mideast Muscle: The Free Press’ Eli Lake argues that despite Israel’s public image, the Jewish state is on “a generational run” in terms of military and diplomatic hard power. “In the recent past, American presidents have asked Israel to hold fire, fearing its participation in the previous Gulf wars against Iraq would poison cooperation with Arab allies. Under the old rules, Israel was the underdog, surrounded by enemies, protected and subsidized by America. Now Israel’s air force is helping shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at the Gulf States that once refused even to recognize its existence.” [FreePress]

Word on the Street

For the third time in a month, Senate Republicans on Tuesday evening blocked an effort by Democrats to halt U.S. operations in Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports… 

The Pentagon ordered the deployment of several thousands paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division as the U.S. mulls a possible escalation in the Middle East…

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly been pressuring President Donald Trump to continue the war against Iran, amid speculation that Riyadh is considering taking a more active role in the fighting…

The Wall Street Journal reports that Israel struck a naval outpost in the Caspian Sea as part of an effort to disrupt a weapons smuggling route between Russia and Iran…

Lebanon expelled the Iranian ambassador in Beirut amid deteriorating relations between the countries owing to Iran’s backing of Hezbollah in Lebanon…

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said at the annual Hill & Valley Forum in Washington on Tuesday that the Iran war gives lasting Middle East peace “a better chance in the long run”…

Trump and the Republican National Committee are likely to select Dallas as the location for a midterm convention that will be held sometime after Labor Day and serve as a pre-Election Day rally for the GOP…

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wrote to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday questioning if a city-run health agency was using federal resources in its initiative aimed at responding to the “ongoing genocide in Palestine,” JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report…

Cassidy, in a letter to the president of San Jose State University, also raised concerns about threatening graffiti on the campus, saying the school has “done little to allay fears among Jewish students”…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights former Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop as he takes on a new role as head of the Partnership for New York City, countering Mamdani’s proposed tax hikes…

The Board of Peace’s Nickolay Mladenov presented to the U.N. Security Council a framework agreement for disarming Hamas that has been agreed to by the U.S., Egypt, Turkey and Qatar…

A Justice Department task force announced last year by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Hamas, the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and antisemitism in the U.S. is struggling to conduct its work following the firing or reassignment of a number of the dozens of staffers initially tapped for the task force…

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is facing criticism for visiting a N.J. mosque last week and meeting with an imam who has called for a “new intifada” against Israel and who was convicted by an Israeli court of membership in Hamas…

The New York Times reviews “Giant,” the play about author Roald Dahl that opened on Broadway earlier this week…

The century-old Middletown, N.J., estate built by Macy’s heir Herbert N. Straus was listed for $10 million…

The U.K.’s Department of Health and Social Care is taking initial steps toward significant reform within the country’s General Medical Council, a move that is expected to result in an increase in suspensions of employees who use racist or antisemitic language or share social media posts containing antisemitic content…

Authorities in London arrested two men in connection with the arson attack earlier this week targeting Hatzolah emergency vehicles in the heavily Jewish suburb of Golders Green…

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party suspended a mayoral candidate who suggested that members of local Jewish security patrols were “cosplayers” who resembled “Islamics on horseback”…

The Community Security Trust, the major British Jewish group advising organizations on security issues, said that King Charles III accepted the group’s invitation to serve as the patron of the organization…

Officials in Antwerp, Belgium, arrested two teenage suspects in connection with the torching of a car that is being investigated as an antisemitic incident…

The arson in Belgium comes as investigators across Europe work to determine whether a string of recent attacks targeting Jewish communities on the continent are isolated incidents or the work of Iran or its proxies after a previously unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility for some of the attacks…

Volkswagen is in talks with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to convert the German car manufacturer’s Osnabrück factory to produce components for Rafael’s missile-defense systems…

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israeli forces planned to continue its hold on territory in southern Lebanon, saying that residents of the area south of the Litani River will not return “until the security of northern [Israel] residents is assured”…

Pic of the Day

As 150 Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis gathered at a luxury Palm Beach, Fla., resort this week for the third annual “Zionism: A New Conversation” conference, several described the event as a pivotal shift from “defense to offense” on Israel-related issues, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports for eJewish Philanthropy.

Birthdays

Retired film and book critic, with regular appearances on NBC’s “The Today Show” from 1973-2010, Gene Shalit turns 100…

Feminist, journalist and social activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Gloria Steinem turns 92… Former mayor of Las Vegas, she was elected in 2011 and reelected in 2015 and 2019, Carolyn Goodman turns 87… Actor and director, best known for his role as Det. David Starsky on the 1970’s television series “Starsky & Hutch,” Paul Michael Glaser turns 83… Senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, after 24 years at the U.S. Department of State, Aaron David Miller turns 77… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party and then Israel’s ambassador to Belarus, Yosef Shagal turns 77… Chairman of Eastern Savings Bank in Hunt Valley, Md., and board officer at The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, Beth H. Goldsmith… Internationally recognized Orthodox rabbinic leader, Rabbi Asher Zelig Weiss turns 73… Property manager and CPA in Los Angeles, Glynis Gerber… Founding director of the initiative on communication and sustainability at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, Andrew C. Revkin turns 70… Columbus, Ohio-based consultant in the sleep medicine field, Cynthia S. Levy… Executive director at Plum Community Center in Pittsburgh, Karen Hochberg… CEO and co-chief investment officer of Kintegral Asset Management, Mony Mordehai Rueven turns 69… Film producer, she formerly served as co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Amy Pascal turns 68… Senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News, Arthur Allen… Retired IDF major general, from 2014-2018 he served as the coordinator of government activities in the territories, Yoav “Poli” Mordechai turns 62… Emmy Award-winning actress, producer and designer, best known for her leading role on the HBO television series “Sex and the City,” reprised in two later films, Sarah Jessica Parker turns 61… Founding director of ATID and its WebYeshiva program, he is the editor of the Rabbinical Council’s journal Tradition, Rabbi Jeffrey Saks turns 57… Former prime minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett turns 54… East Side director and fellowship director at the Manhattan Jewish Experience, Rabbi Avi Heller turns 53… Managing director of ARI Investment Partners, in 2002 he founded Jconnect in Los Angeles devoted to creating Jewish connectivity, continuity and unity, Cheston David Mizel… Partner at D.C.-based Mehlman Consulting, focused on health care policy, Lauren Aronson… VP of public engagement at Oxfam America, Alissa C. Rooney… YouTube personality, filmmaker, co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, and founder of 368, a space for creators to collaborate, Casey Neistat turns 45… Actress, comedian and author, Jenny Slate turns 44… Washington correspondent at the Associated Press, Steven Sloan… Founder and editor of The Free Press and editor-in-chief of CBS News as of October 2025, Bari Weiss turns 42… Iraqi-born Chaldean Catholic, her husband is Jewish, she formerly served as counselor to President Trump and interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba turns 42… Communications strategist based in Chicago, Meredith Shiner… Chief political officer of Democratic Majority for Israel, Joel Wanger… Legislative director for U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Grant Cameron Dubler… Senior manager of pricing strategy at American Express, Jordan Rossman… Winner of the 2025 Academy Award for Best Actress, known professionally as Mikey Madison, Mikaela Madison Rosberg turns 27…

Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is taking flak over comments in an internal campaign call that issuing a statement on the attempted terrorist attack on Temple Israel in the Detroit suburbs that placed blame on Israel for the attack was a “risk” he felt he had to take, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday.

In both the original statement and the internal comments, El-Sayed condemned the attack while also suggesting that it ultimately could be blamed on Israel’s operations in Lebanon. The alleged attacker was the brother of a Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike, the IDF said.

The Punchbowl report linked to a minute-long unlisted YouTube video of El-Sayed, which appears to have been recorded on Zoom.

“I want us to understand that we have to work toward a world where none of this happens, no war, no bombing of apartment buildings, no antisemitism, no attacks on synagogues in schools, like we need to be opposed to all of it and and I think that that’s the kind of leadership that I’m hoping I can offer,” El-Sayed said in the video.

“We put out a much longer statement on this,” he continued. “I hope folks will check it out, and I hope it resonated. And, you know, it was a risk. All of our team was really worried about saying something, but leadership is being willing to say the thing, if you believe it to be true, that nobody else is going to say.”

El-Sayed clarified in an X post that the “risk” he was referring to “that these cowards will NEVER take is having the courage to call out an illegal and unjustified war that’s killing children, wasting our tax dollars, and spiking gas prices, too.”

While El-Sayed spoke, one person in the Zoom meeting, identified as “Mauricio” appeared to justify the attack, saying in a comment, “The synagogue raised funds for the IDF.”

In the initial statement, El-Sayed offered a condemnation of the attack, emphasizing that it would leave scars on the community and that it recalled “centuries of trauma,” while affirming his support for Jews’ right to practice their faith in safety.

But, while condemning the attacker and saying his actions could not be justified, El-Sayed also suggested that the perpetrator’s actions ultimately traced back to Israel and its reported killing of his family members.

“Hurt people hurt people. Violence is a cycle,” El-Sayed said. “Ayman Ghazali lost family, including two children in an airstrike in Lebanon last week. They were innocent people, and then, in an evil act of displaced rage, he tried to take it out on innocent children who had nothing to do with the loss of the innocent children he lost, except that they share a faith.”

“A week earlier, an airstrike killed his niece and nephew. Imagine if that had never happened. Imagine there was no war in Iran. Imagine if there were no air strikes in Lebanon. Imagine if his family had never died. Imagine there was never an attack on Temple Israel. That’s the world that we want to live in,” El-Sayed continued.

Spokespeople for El-Sayed’s Democratic opponents did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But Republicans have pounced on the comments.

Mike Rogers, the likely GOP nominee for the Senate race, condemned El-Sayed over his remarks in the internal campaign call.

“If you’re having a moral crisis over whether to condemn terrorism, you’re unfit for office,” Rogers said in a statement. “There’s no justification for it, but here Abdul is sympathizing with the attacker. It’s an absolute slap in the face to the families of these kids, and to Michigan’s entire Jewish community — and only serves to inflame antisemitism.”

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called his comments “pathetic.

“The contrast couldn’t be more clear in Michigan: radical terrorist sympathizers like Abdul El-Sayed or America First heroes like Mike Rogers,” Scott said.

El-Sayed has shrugged off criticisms of his comments.

El-Sayed is also facing attacks from Republicans and the Democratic group Third Way over his participation in a pair of events with far-left influencer Hasan Piker, who has repeatedly made antisemitic comments and expressed support for terrorism.

Far-left challengers to Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) are picking up support in internal party proceedings in what some progressives are touting as a sign of the incumbents’ vulnerabilities. 

But local experts say those developments shouldn’t necessarily be read as signs that the two establishment Democrats are on their way out — the state’s Democratic Party processes tend to favor more progressive candidates, and both Hickenlooper and DeGette still have strong advantages going into the primary later this year.

In the Senate race, Hickenlooper, facing state Sen. Julie Gonzales, dropped out of the Democratic caucus nominating process, choosing to qualify for the June primary through petition signatures instead, a sign he’s facing resistance from  typically left-wing party activists.

In the 1st Congressional District, far-left candidate Melat Kiros won nearly two-thirds of the Democratic Party delegates’ votes in Denver last weekend, nearly doubling DeGette’s support, and calling DeGette’s spot on the ballot into question.

Gonzales is a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America who was elected to the state Senate with the help of the group, but left the organization ahead of her run for Congress. 

From the start of her campaign, she’s made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of her bid, accusing Israel of genocide, supporting an arms embargo and vowing, “I will never vote to send U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel. Especially when communities here at home are being told there’s no money for schools or healthcare.”

Gonazales has also fundraised off of her opposition to Israel and AIPAC, calling the group’s support of Hickenlooper “repulsive and immoral,” and accusing Hickenlooper of funding “a genocide in Palestine” with taxpayer funds while depriving Americans of social services.

Another lesser-known candidate in the Senate, University of Colorado Professor Karen Breslin, is, like Gonzales and Kiros, endorsed by the extreme anti-Israel group Track AIPAC.

Kiros, 28, is running with the backing of the far-left Justice Democrats and the local DSA. Kiros has made an arms embargo on Israel one of her primary talking points, as well as described the war in Gaza as a genocide and Israel as an apartheid state. She said she was inspired to run for office in part by the defeats of anti-Israel Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO) last cycle.

Kiros lost her job at the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for publishing a column denouncing an open letter signed by hundreds of top law firms that called on law schools to do more to address antisemitism on their campuses. The primary premise of the column was that calling for the elimination of Israel is not antisemitic and that “conflat[ing] [antisemitism] with the geo-political question of Israel’s legitimacy is one of the greatest travesties in this conflict.”

In the op-ed, which she published a month after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, Kiros wrote, “By conflating ‘calls for the elimination of the Israeli state’ with anti-Semitism, you delegitimize any solution that forces Israel to reckon with its colonial role in Palestine, including one-state solutions called for by Palestinians and Israelis alike,” she continued.

She also appeared to defend Hamas, and those who have expressed support for it, in the piece. Though she said that there was “no justification” for Hamas’ attacks, she also said that “it cannot be forgotten that violence does not occur in a vacuum” and questioned the description of “acts of Palestinian resistance” as “terrorism.”

“There has never been, in the history of the entire human race, a people whose land was violently taken from them, whose freedoms and rights were relegated to second-class citizenship, and whose very existence was systematically threatened by its occupier, who did not resist with violence in kind,” Kiros wrote. “And yet, acknowledging the seemingly obvious symptom of violent resistance to violent colonialism has led to the loss of employment and freedom to numerous individuals, particularly in places that claim to value freedom of speech.”

The piece is rife with factual errors and misrepresentations, including that Hamas only operates in Gaza and not the West Bank. It also described Israel’s founding as an act of colonialism imposed by a “brutalizing imperial power” to aid “a minority of Jewish people who subscribed to Zionism” and an effort to “discredit the indigeneity of the Palestinians and the existence of Palestine itself.”

While not as extreme as Kiros, DeGette has taken stances critical of Israel as well, including signing a letter calling for unilateral U.S. recognition of Palestinian statehood and opposing additional offensive aid to Israel.

“I have been saying for months that I would not support additional offensive weapon sales to Israel that could be used against innocent Palestinians,” she said in December. “More weapons are the last thing we need in the region. We need a permanent ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid, and lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.” 

Local political strategists said that, while these party processes should be a signal for both incumbents to take their opponents seriously, they aren’t necessarily a sign that either is likely to be defeated in the upcoming election. The delegates and activists who participate in such votes are generally more progressive and politically engaged than the electorate at large.

“It’s always been very much an insider game,” Jim Carpenter, a longtime Colorado political strategist, said of the process. “It’s always been … relatively easy to get your supporters into that and make an awful lot of noise that then kind of fades out in the primary. … The people who participate in the caucuses [are] a very different set of people than vote in the primary.”

“That reflects the party insiders, not the broader party rank-and-file,” Carpenter said.

The Denver area in particular has a large and active DSA contingent and progressives have tended to do well in internal proceedings in recent years, but those results have been a poor predictor and rarely reflective of the primary voting base, Carpenter said. If anything, finishing in the top spot in the internal process has sometimes been a poor omen for campaigns.

“If you’re putting money on this in Polymarket, you wouldn’t really want to use the caucuses as a leading indicator,” Rick Ridder, a longtime Democratic political strategist and pollster in Colorado, told Jewish Insider.

Ridder also emphasized that, with significant financial advantages over their opponents, both Hickenlooper and DeGette are positioned to win, noting that for more than 50 years, the candidates who have spent the most on television and digital ads have won in federal and statewide races.

Carpenter echoed that view, saying that as long as the two incumbents continue to raise money and remain active on the trail to emphasize their records and turn out their base, they should be well-positioned to win, though they have to take the challenges seriously, particularly when some Democrats are looking for generational change.

“Political prognostication is a dangerous business but I think they’ll be fine once the primary campaign really starts, and they can then more directly communicate with voters, and there’ll be a much bigger pool,” he said, noting that independents, with whom Hickenlooper has long been popular, can also vote in Democratic primaries in Colorado.

Carpenter said that Gonzales has a minimal statewide profile and has not proven to be a strong fundraiser so far, potentially leaving her with few resources to take on Hickenlooper. He added that the DSA and Justice Democrats, backing Kiros, are vocal and active, but “don’t have a constituency here.”

Hickenlooper, who also achieved ballot access through the petitioning process in 2020, has already collected the signatures necessary to qualify for the primary election, and framed his participation in the caucus process as aimed at energizing supporters.

“The campaign has already submitted the petitions needed to get on the ballot so our focus in participating in the process up to this point was to help energize the base, meet with voters, and support the work of our county parties,” Hickenlooper’s spokesperson said. “The Senator appreciates everyone who participated in the process and really enjoyed having conversations with folks across the state.”

Gonzales claimed that Hickenlooper’s decision was an attempt to avoid voters. 

“How you show up matters, not just when things are easy, but especially when things are hard. I’ve spent my career walking picket lines, organizing tenants + teachers, and listening to working people across Colorado. That’s what you do when you actually want to earn people’s trust,” she said on X.

Like Hickenlooper’s campaign, DeGette’s campaign similarly downplayed the results of the delegate vote in a statement.

“Diana DeGette has worked hard for Denver for over 30 years and is grateful she is on track to make the ballot through the assembly process, despite the major technical issues with the party’s software platform and serious questions about the process,” a DeGette spokesperson told Colorado Politics, addressing the results of the delegate poll. “She enjoyed connecting with Democrats about the issues that matter to them.”

Kiros told the Denver Post the results were “a testament to the organizing we were doing and the lack of organizing [DeGette] was doing on her part — and her thinking she would coast through.”

The recent caucuses were also plagued by technical issues related to a new app-based voting system.

Hickenlooper had $3.9 million on hand as of the end of 2025, dwarfing Gonzales’ $161,000 war chest. Degette finished the year with $535,000, as compared to Kiros’ $64,000. Hickenlooper is also well ahead of Gonzales in polling.

As the Democratic Party debates how to improve its brand and sharpen its messaging ahead of the midterm elections, one progressive strategist is emerging as an influential behind-the-scenes casting agent pushing a style of unvarnished left-wing populism, notably combined with aggressive criticism of Israel and its standing as a U.S. ally.

Morris Katz, an ad maker in his mid-20s widely seen as a political wunderkind on the far left, has been instrumental in helping to elevate outspoken detractors of Israel in a range of key congressional contests — serving as a sort of anti-Israel whisperer for candidates seeking to fine-tune their messaging about one of the most potent sources of Democratic division in the current election cycle.

Katz, who is Jewish and grew up in a wealthy neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, has attributed his jaundiced view of Israel to the pro-Israel group AIPAC, which he called “the main accelerator that radicalized me” in an interview with Haaretz last November. In 2022, he worked on the House campaign of Erica Smith in North Carolina, where she was defeated thanks in part to outside spending from AIPAC’s super PAC, an effort Katz characterized as “sinister and bad faith.”

“I started to see what was happening with clear eyes. My eyes were open to the realities of apartheid in Israel,” Katz told Haaretz, arguing AIPAC “poses the single biggest existential threat to democracy in America out of any group.”

Since then, Katz has advised, among others, the insurgent Senate campaign of Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Maine Democrat whose masculine image, gravelly voice and status as a Marine veteran aptly embodies the sort of rough-hewn features that Katz insists are well suited to energize voter turnout — even for swing seats crucial to the party’s strategy to reclaim majorities in both chambers.

But Platner, who has drawn scrutiny in recent months for promoting extremist content online as well as a freshly covered tattoo on his chest whose Nazi symbolism he claims to have not been aware of, has otherwise gained prominence for his strident opposition to Israel, a marked contrast with rhetoric traditionally heard from candidates in battleground states. Platner, 41, has accused Israel of commiting genocide in Gaza, vowed to block U.S. arms sales to Israel and pledged to reject donations from AIPAC.

Earlier this week, Platner notched a high-profile endorsement from Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who called the Maine oyster farmer “the only candidate” capable of defeating Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), even as Platner faces Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, in the primary. For his part, Gallego, also a former Marine, stirred some controversy this week after suggesting the U.S. had only gone to war with Iran at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “So much for America First,” he wrote on social media, stoking accusations he invoked an antisemitic trope while referencing partial comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Gallego, who had previously demonstrated a broadly pro-Israel record during his time as a congressman, is seen as a potential presidential contender in 2028. He was elected to the Senate in 2024 with the help of Rebecca Katz, a progressive strategist who recently launched a new consulting firm, called Fight Agency, that also employs Morris Katz (no relation). 

The consultancy has signed on as clients several far-left candidates who have made Israel a central focus of their campaigns, including Platner; Abdul El-Sayed, running for Senate in Michigan; and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a close friend of Morris Katz. It is also working with one unexpected candidate, Tom Steyer, the billionaire businessman and former presidential contender now seeking the Democratic nomination in California’s crowded race for governor. 

While Steyer said at a recent forum that he is committed to deepening California’s partnership with Israel and fighting boycotts of the Jewish state, he also sat for a lengthy interview this week with the far-left streamer Hasan Piker, whose popularity has remained strong among progressives even as he has frequently voiced antisemitic views and pro-Hamas sentiments.

Fight Agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Morris Katz rose to political fame last year as a top advisor to Mamdani, who drew some criticism for speaking with Piker — and whose disinterest in visiting Israel is a notable exception to every New York City mayor over the past 75 years, who all traveled to the Jewish state .

During the mayoral campaign, Katz also reportedly served as an unofficial liaison to Jewish leaders who were suspicious of Mamdani’s anti-Israel record — though one well-placed Jewish community activist familiar with such outreach said he did not interact with the strategist and was not aware of others who had.

His own views on Israel would have been unlikely to reassure Jewish leaders. Katz has called Netanyahu “the existential threat to Israel’s existence” and said AIPAC is “spending hundreds of millions of dollars defending a fascist in Israel,” among other things.

More recently, Katz has worked for Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Democrat who is defending a heavily Jewish House seat that includes parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Lander, a critic of Israel, is echoing other left-wing primary candidates in seeking to highlight Goldman’s ties to AIPAC as a sign he is not aligned with Democratic sentiment on Middle East policy.

In addition to Lander, Katz is now advising Claire Valdez, an anti-Israel state assemblywoman who is competing in a hotly contested Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) in a safely blue district covering Brooklyn and Queens.

Meanwhile, he is also reportedly working to help consolidate progressive backing for Micah Lasher, a Jewish state assemblyman with a record of support for Israel, who is running in a crowded Democratic primary for the House seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in Manhattan. Lasher had endorsed Mamdani during the general election, in a move that sparked blowback from some Jewish leaders.

Until Mamdani, Katz’s most consequential work had included advising on the Senate campaigns of Dan Osborne, an independent from Nebraska who lost his race, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who has disappointed his former progressive backers for promoting staunchly pro-Israel stances since taking office. Fetterman recently dismissed Platner as “the guy with the Nazi tattoo,” after the Maine candidate had said the senator should lose his seat for backing the war with Iran.

Not all of Katz’s clients have become stars of one sort or the other. Earlier this month, for instance, one of his clients, Nathan Sage, a scruffy Democrat who was competing for an open Senate seat in Iowa, announced that he was ending his campaign, citing a lack of fundraising.

Still, some of his better-known clients have gained momentum in their respective races, most notably including Platner, who has continued to maintain a commanding lead over Mills — in spite of controversies that have engulfed his campaign in the past weeks.

In a sharply worded social media post this week, Katz accused Republicans as well as Democrats of “lying about” Platner’s background “to uphold an oligarchy, and the military industrial complex it rests on.”

The left-wing philanthropist Alex Soros on Monday boosted a social media post from Max Blumenthal, a prominent anti-Israel conspiracy theorist who has spread misinformation questioning Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, while promoting sympathetic coverage of Iran and Russia as well as the toppled Assad regime in Syria, among other authoritarian countries.

While the content of Blumenthal’s X post was relatively benign, citing a Washington Post report on concerns over American military casualties in the ongoing Iran war, Soros’ decision to elevate a known conspiracy theorist raises questions about the media sources he consumes, as he now leads a multi-billion-dollar grantmaking network that has funded a range of groups and causes shaping views on the Middle East.

Soros, one of the progressive movement’s most influential donors, has been outspoken against President Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to attack Iran in a joint operation with Israel, praising Spain for refusing to allow the U.S. to use bases on its soil and reprimanding other European countries for not doing the same. 

“Why aren’t more Europeans standing up to an illegal war! Same with Canada! They make nice speeches at conferences, but do little,” Soros wrote on X on Monday, saying Spain is “becoming the leader of the free world.”

The Open Society Foundations, which Soros, 40, inherited in 2023 from his father, the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, recently contributed $250,000 to establish a Middle East desk at Drop Site News, a media outlet that frequently publishes hostile coverage of Israel and credulous interviews with Hamas leaders. Drop Site has also amplified Blumenthal’s commentary.

Blumenthal, for his part, has spread false claims about the Hamas attacks — denying widespread evidence of sexual violence and suggesting Israel killed most of the victims during the massacre. He has pushed propaganda denying Syrian war crimes and China’s genocide of its Uyghur population. He regularly promotes pro-Kremlin talking points and appears on Russian television. A top editor for The Grayzone, his website, has received payments from Iranian media, according to The Washington Post.

After this story was published, a spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations told Jewish Insider that Soros had been unaware of Blumenthal’s background when he shared the post and was trying to highlight the Post’s reporting. He has since deleted the message from his X profile and shared a separate link to the same article.

A fact sheet posted to the Open Society website explicitly states the network does “not support Hamas,” saying “false accusations that are being repeated in some media circles in the United States” are “untrue.”

In January 2024, Soros, who is Jewish, wrote in an essay on his efforts to counter antisemitism that Open Society “has supported a diverse group of partners” with “different views on Israel and Palestine and what the peaceful resolution of the historic conflict might look like.”

“Their common bond: their belief that antisemitism — and also the disingenuous weaponization of the term to silence debate — presents a grave threat to democracy,” he added.

In addition to J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group that is among the network’s top Middle East-related recipients, Open Society has given to organizations that have backed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, according to NGO Monitor. 

More recently, Soros has voiced support for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a vocal critic of Israel who has long endorsed BDS campaigns.

Blumenthal, meanwhile, has also previously aimed his conspiratorial eye at Soros himself, claiming in a social media post shortly after the 2024 presidential election that the philanthropist “might have been an X factor in Trump’s victory.”

Story updated on March 4 at 9:55 a.m.

Graham Platner, a far-left Senate candidate in Maine, amplified a social media post on Thursday from a far-right conspiracy theorist well-known for viciously antisemitic commentary — before quickly deleting the statement.

In a comment to X late Thursday morning, Platner approvingly boosted a remark from Stew Peters, an extremist radio host who has frequently promoted antisemitic tropes and engaged in Holocaust denial, calling a war with Iran “the only thing Republicans and Democrats have both given a standing ovation for.”

“As always, there’s one thing that brings Republican and Democratic politicians together: sending other people’s children to die in stupid wars in the Middle East,” Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran turned oyster farmer who has sharply criticized U.S. military engagement abroad, wrote in his own post.

He deleted the post an hour or so after it had been flagged by online observers who noted that he was elevating a problematic figure with a long record of hostile rhetoric toward Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League has described Peters as a “prolific antisemite” who blames “‘the Jews’ for everything he believes is wrong with society,” while the Southern Poverty Law Center has said his radio show has “become a central hub for antisemitic and conspiratorial content.”

He has said Judaism is “satanic” and a “death cult,” promoted blood libels, called for a “final solution” to mass-deport American Jews and questioned the existence of gas chambers that exterminated Jews during the Holocaust, among other conspiratorial assertions.

In a statement to Jewish Insider, a spokesperson for Platner said the post had been published due to an oversight. “We were reposting a C-Span clip of Trump speaking about the potential war with Iran and didn’t realize that the video had been posted by a despicable account,” the spokesperson said. “When we learned who the poster was we immediately deleted the post.”

The social media blunder is a particularly sensitive issue for Platner, who earlier in his campaign faced scrutiny over a Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he had covered up last October. He has insisted he was not aware the tattoo closely mirrored a Totenkopf, a skull-and-crossbones icon used by an infamous Nazi SS unit, even as a former acquaintance told JI that he had years ago specifically identified it as such. He has denied such claims.

“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner said in a podcast interview last year, while calling himself “a lifelong opponent” of “Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general.”

Despite such baggage, polling has shown Platner holds a commanding lead in the Maine Democratic primary race, where he is facing Gov. Janet Mills to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents up for reelection in the midterms.

Far-left Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, appearing at the Web Summit conference in Doha on Tuesday, alleged that Israel’s conduct played a meaningful role in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks, continuing his long-standing pattern of hateful rhetoric targeting Israel and the Jewish people. 

“What I care about is maintaining my editorial independence and speaking truth to power, and the example I always go back to is in the aftermath of Oct. 7,” Piker said to a packed room. “People were not ready, especially in Western audiences, for someone to say that Israel played a significant role in how Oct. 7 took place.”

Speaking at an event labeled “Defending truth in a post-truth world,” Piker noted that he had lost viewers at the time over his extremist statements, but said he “stuck to [his] guns” and did not tone down his commentary. 

“A lot of people were understandably horrified by the images that they were seeing on their screens, and they said, ‘This is not for me. I’ve enjoyed your commentary up until this point.’ And they left,” said Piker. “If I cared about viewership, I would have stopped right then and there, and maybe even reconfigured my commentary.”

“But I didn’t do that,” Piker added. “I knew what the truth was, and I kept covering what was going on in Gaza every single day for two years, and eventually the audience came back.” 

Piker has previously argued that Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 were a form of “resisting,” referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and Zionists as Nazis and has praised former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “pretty brilliant person.” Piker has also described the conflict in Gaza as a “livestreamed Holocaust.” 

The streamer has faced several bans from Twitch over his commentary, most recently on Jan. 29, when his account was taken offline after he alleged that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were targeting anti-Israel protesters. He also referred to critics as “rabid ultra-Zionist pigs.” 

In response, Piker posted a statement on X listing what he alleged are permissible phrases for use on Twitch, but singled out that “you CANNOT say zionist pig.” 

“The ADL, which is an arm of Israel’s suppression in the west that works with law enforcement & does espionage has made it a bannable offense,” Piker wrote. 

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.

To that end, moderate Democrats are stepping up in key races, aggressively distancing themselves from the far-left wing of the party — and hoping the taint doesn’t affect the party’s brand at large heading into next year’s midterm elections. 

Rory Lancman, a civil rights attorney and former state assemblyman, is one of those moderate candidates looking to showcase the other side of the Democratic 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.

“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 Jewish Insider. 

Lancman, 56, previously served as a member of the New York State Assembly, representing the 25th District in Queens from 2007 to 2013. He then served in the New York City Council from 2014 until 2020, where he was among the sponsors of a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. 

Currently, he serves as director of corporate initiatives and senior counsel at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, where he oversees lawsuits alleging antisemitism in the workplace, in labor unions and on college campuses. 

Lancman’s interest in returning to the political arena is driven by a desire to counter “the kind of anti-Israel agenda that Mamdani has committed himself to,” he told JI, referring to the incoming mayor’s hostile views about Israel, including his refusal to denounce the phrase “globalize the intifada” and pledge to discontinue the New York City-Israel Economic Council, a new joint initiative between the two governments aimed at building economic ties. 

“There’s a lot the state legislature could do,” Lancman continued. “It’s important for New York state to adopt the definition of antisemitism that is clear to be applied in circumstances all across the state, that’s the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition which many states have adopted. It’s hard to solve a problem if you lack a basic definition of what that problem is.” (The definition is recognized and used by specific local governments, state entities and institutions within New York, but has not been universally adopted by the state.)  

Lancman also called for reform to New York anti-discrimination laws “to make it easier for Jewish students to bring claims of discrimination under state law and to make it easier for Jewish businesses experiencing BDS to bring claims under state law.”

“We need to protect our houses of worship by adopting a New York State version of the Federal Faith Act, which is a law that can be strengthened and made useful in New York,” said Lancman. “I would like to see New York state explicitly prohibit any film production company that is engaged in BDS from being eligible for a New York state film tax credit.” 

“We need to take real steps to protect our houses of worship and protect us from violence on the street. All of these tools are the ones I’ve used in the last two years [at the Brandeis Center] to protect Jews who have experienced antisemitism.”  

For example, he’d like to see New York’s longstanding anti-mask laws, which were abolished during the COVID pandemic, reinstated. “If someone is walking around in a protest and covering their face, whether it’s with a white hood or a keffiyeh, it’s probably because they’re up to no good. We had a mask law in New York for decades and everyone understood its value.”

“We need to protect our houses of worship by adopting a New York State version of the Federal Faith Act, which is a law that can be strengthened and made useful in New York,” continued Lancman. “I would like to see New York state explicitly prohibit any film production company that is engaged in BDS from being eligible for a New York state film tax credit.” 

Identifying himself as a centrist, Lancman said he is well-placed to earn the trust of Democratic voters, many of whom cite their primary issue as the high cost of living in Nassau County. Like many Democrats, Lancman is “disturbed by things coming out of Washington,” but also has a “lingering mistrust about whether the Democratic Party is committed to defending Jewish life in this country.” 

The state Democratic Party chair, Jay Jacobs, who has spoken out against Mamdani, backed Lancman’s effort to flip the seat, saying earlier this week that “Rory’s lifetime of service to New York and record of delivering for Long Islanders would make him an excellent candidate, and we’re enthusiastic at the prospect of him running.” 

Martins’ office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from JI. While representing Nassau County’s District 7, which has a sizable Jewish community, Martins has advocated for increased security funding for Jewish (and other nonpublic) schools through the Nonpublic School Safety Equipment Grant. In February 2023, the NYS Senate Republican Conference appointed him to chair the Antisemitism Working Group, which produced a report on the rise of antisemitism in 2024.

The campaign arm of the state Senate Republicans called Lancman the product of “extreme City Council policies that drove up costs.”

“We can’t sacrifice one of our two major political parties to the antisemitic leadership and agenda, that would be catastrophic for the Jewish community in the United States and I refuse to surrender my party to the Zohran Mamdanis of the world,” said Lancman.

“My record, my consistent views, my outspoken opposition to Mamdani, will earn people’s trust on the issue of Israel and combating antisemitism,” Lancman told JI. “From there, we can talk about the things that clearly favor Democrats, which are making life more affordable from property taxes to energy costs, those are our issues. In a district like this though, a Democrat has got to establish a real connection and trust on defending Jewish life in this country.”  

In the state Assembly, Lancman said he would draw on a mantra he’s adopted from his time at the Brandeis Center: “That civil rights laws also protect Jews and that those laws need to be exercised to their fullest and need to be expanded and made robust as possible to address the antisemitic threats we are experiencing at this moment in time,” he said. 

“We can’t sacrifice one of our two major political parties to the antisemitic leadership and agenda, that would be catastrophic for the Jewish community in the United States and I refuse to surrender my party to the Zohran Mamdanis of the world,” continued Lancman. “Being able to convert one’s beliefs and point of view into actual legislation and policy, and have an effect on protecting Jews, is not easy. The job is not just proclamation. The job is making people’s lives better, and in the case of the Jewish community, it is quite literally protecting our place in this country.”

“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,” said Lancman, 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.” 

“We see that played out every day in this country and around the world. We cannot let that ideology take hold in the Democratic party, and I’m committed to defeating anti-Zionism and antisemitism in the Democratic party. You don’t need to bend the knee to antisemitism or socialism to be a Democrat.”

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) said on Friday that there is a concerted network, on both the right and left, pushing antisemitic and anti-Israel ideology to the point that it has become “pervasive,” particularly among younger people.

Speaking at a Hudson Institute conference on antisemitism, Mast, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he does not have a “silver bullet” to address the problem because of how widespread it has become. He recounted a recent speech in a class at a military academy where he saw “probably a 50/50 divide about why we have this [U.S.-Israel] relationship, what is the benefit of this relationship?”

The Florida Republican said that he sees a “very specific network that is in place that works together to sow antisemitism that is now, in many cases, working on the left and right across the media, to go out there and put this wedge in this relationship.”

Mast described the effort as “pervasive, systematic, planned out, orchestrated” and a “very, very serious global threat across multi-national organizations, media across the globe and adversaries and terrorist organizations.”

Mast said that in response “we need to do a really good effort of showing the pervasive effort to drive this wedge — through antisemitism, is my opinion — between the United States of America and one of our greatest allies anywhere in all of these spheres — military capabilities, relationships, intelligence sharing, geography, signals intelligence, geospatial intelligence, human intelligence — all these different things that we are so close in, beyond the trust that we have.”

The Foreign Affairs Committee chair said that Europe is one of the U.S.’ “biggest adversaries” in the fight against antisemitism, describing its actions post-Oct. 7, particularly several states’ decisions to recognize a Palestinian state, as “the most unhelpful thing that could possibly be done.” He said that those efforts emboldened the terrorist groups fighting Israel.

Mast said he had not interacted much with Tucker Carlson, one of the most prominent anti-Israel voices on the right, but had a direct conversation with Carlson after the commentator attacked the congressman for his time in the Sar-El program, where he volunteered in a support capacity alongside the Israeli Defense Forces. Mast said he told Carlson he was overlooking that Mast’s ultimate loyalty is to the United States, not to Israel. 

“You never bothered to ask the question of, ‘How many countries have I taken an oath to support and defend?’ Just one: the United States of America,” Mast said he told Carlson, going on to emphasize he took that oath five times as a member of the military and an equal number as a member of the House, in addition to nearly losing his life three or four times in U.S. military service. “You’re connecting dots that don’t exist because you failed to ask some really fundamentally important questions which is, ‘Where do your allegiances lie?’”

Mast said he decided to sign up for the IDF volunteer program during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when he faced down anti-Israel demonstrators in Boston following his time in the military.

“Some of these people draping themselves — like we see on our college campus here — draping themselves in Palestinian flags, chanting, rallying, whatever, they started harassing me and my family for being a U.S. service member,” Mast said. “At the end of that night, we got home and I told my wife, ‘I don’t know what it’s going to look like, I’m going to find a way. I’m going to show my support for Israel against this hypocrisy and against these pricks that we encountered.’”

Jewish Insider senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch contributed reporting.

If there’s a lesson for Democrats from the GOP’s nine-point victory in the Tennessee special election on Tuesday night, it’s that the type of left-wing politics that can play in the city is a political turnoff for persuadable suburban voters. Nominating a telegenic candidate with ideologically radical views — à la Zohran Mamdani — might not matter to many urban Gen Z voters, but it does matter everywhere else.

In the big picture, Republican Matt Van Epps’ single-digit margin of victory in a district that President Donald Trump carried by 22 points is a sign of a strong Democratic environment heading into the midterms. Democrats should feel confident about their chances of winning back control of the House, even with increased gerrymandering. But look a little more closely at the results, and there are signs of an urban-suburban divide in the district, indicating that Democrat Aftyn Behn’s outspoken progressivism cost her badly in the affluent, conservative-minded suburb of Williamson County.

Take a look at the stark urban-suburban divide by the numbers: Behn won by 56 points in the city of Nashville, outperforming Kamala Harris’ margin in the country by a whopping 20 points. But in the Nashville suburbs, Behn barely outperformed Harris, losing Williamson County by 23 points (while Harris lost the county by 30 in 2024).

Behn was tagged as the “AOC of Tennessee” by Republicans, and she didn’t shy away from that comparison during the campaign, even inviting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to participate at a virtual rally for the Democratic candidate. Her anti-police rhetoric, antipathy towards her home city of Nashville, along with her record of hostility against Israel all underscored she was on the far left wing of her party.

Just as New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Israel and left-wing views were toxic enough that suburban New York City Democratic lawmakers — like Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Laura Gillen (D-NY) — spoke out against his mayoral campaign, Behn’s suburban struggles underscore that swing-district Democrats who adopt the agenda of their party’s far-left activists will face consequences at the ballot box.

At the same time, Behn’s appreciable gains in Nashville and small inroads in the heavily Republican working-class rural counties of the district indicate that the Democratic message of affordability is outranking other more-ideological issues for voters facing challenges paying their bills. With fears of rising prices amid a volatile economy, Republicans risk losing a little support from their working-class base that could prove costly in the 2026 midterms — and beyond.

All told, the results should be encouraging for Democrats, even as their overly exuberant expectations led them to invite polarizing figures like Harris and AOC to boost turnout, despite the district’s strong conservative bent. But a more moderate nominee would likely have improved the party’s standing in the suburbs, and taken better advantage of the favorable overall political environment for the opposition party. It’s another reminder that moderation is the winning formula for the party to win back power in the future.

Far-left Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn, making a bid for the open 7th Congressional District seat in next week’s special election, has staked out strongly anti-Israel positions during the course of her campaign and political career.

Behn’s race in the deep-red seat, against West Point graduate and military veteran Matt Van Epps, a Republican, has long been seen as a long shot, but it has attracted significant interest and support from national Democrats hoping for a show of Democratic strength in an upset victory.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris rallied with Behn in Tennessee earlier this month, and Behn has outraised Van Epps, $1.2 million to $993,000. Former Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who vacated the seat earlier this year, won in 2024 by 20 points, but polls show Van Epps leading by just 8.

Behn called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and described the war in Gaza as a genocide as early as Oct. 29, 2023, weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, shortly after she was elected to the statehouse.

“I can’t sit on the sidelines, as so many of our elected officials have done the past few weeks. Their silence is deafening. Our struggles are global and inextricably linked as our liberation is bound together,” Behn said. “The United States is funding a genocide in Gaza right now, and this is a moment when we, as Tennesseans, need to care loudly for Palestinians as we do for marginalized communities in Tennessee.”

She expressed support for a House resolution led by far-left lawmakers calling for an immediate ceasefire.

“If you don’t live in Memphis, continue showing up to rallies and vigils in support of Gaza and Palestine, stand in solidarity with our Jewish allies who are, through their grief and loss, are calling for an end to the occupation, and link arms with our Muslim neighbors whose suffering is being unrecognized by those in power. None of us are free until we’re all free,” she continued.

In April 2024, Behn opposed a resolution expressing support for Israel and its right to defend itself and condemning the Oct. 7 attacks. “Israel is committing genocide, funded by the United States, and this resolution condones genocide,” Behn said in debate on the resolution.

She also visited the anti-Israel encampment at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, describing it as “well organized, grounded in liberation politics.”

“Solidarity with these students and all of those across the country standing up to state violence and calling for the end of genocide,” Behn wrote on X.

Last summer, Behn signed onto a letter calling on the Democratic National Convention to host a Palestinian speaker.

“The pain and suffering of hostage families have been rightfully highlighted and acknowledged on national platforms,” the letter reads. “We believe that it is equally important to create space for the Palestinian experience, which has been marked by decades of hardship, loss, and displacement.”

Behn also received an endorsement from Track AIPAC, an anti-Israel group that conditions its support for candidates on rejection of support from pro-Israel groups and support for declaring Palestinian statehood, among other criteria.

Her campaign has also been supported by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Behn’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.