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.”

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.

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.

As next year’s midterm elections approach, New York City is quickly emerging as an epicenter of Democratic conflict, with a growing number of left-wing primary challengers targeting pro-Israel congressional incumbents as well as an expanding roster of candidates vying for an open House seat that is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the country.

In races spanning the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, new challengers are eyeing primaries to take on the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, which now finds itself on defense after Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory elevated a staunch democratic socialist and critic of Israel to executive office.

But even as challengers seek to capitalize on the momentum fueled by Mamdani’s rise, it remains to be seen if the mayor-elect will choose to weigh in on the upcoming primaries as he manages a diverse coalition to help advance his affordability agenda, which he has indicated is his top priority. 

While Mamdani has publicly discouraged one fellow democratic socialist in Brooklyn from a brewing campaign to challenge House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who endorsed Mamdani in the final weeks of the election, “the big unknown is the role that Mamdani is going to play” in the June primary elections, Chris Coffey, a Democratic strategist, told Jewish Insider.

It also is unclear whether pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel will engage in the upcoming primaries. A spokesperson for AIPAC declined to comment. DMFI’s political arm, for its part, is closely monitoring the emerging races and regards the challengers with varying degrees of concern, a person familiar with the group’s internal deliberations told JI.

The activist left, meanwhile, is also confronting its own organizational issues, including the prospect of some split primary fields that threaten to divide the opposing vote, as well as messaging struggles. 

With Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) announcing on Thursday that she will not seek reelection, a crop of candidates is also sure to engage in a spirited competition for her deeply progressive district in Brooklyn and Queens.

Here’s a rundown of the races to watch in New York City as the primary cycle continues to take shape.

NY-10 

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Jewish Democrat, is preparing to defend his seat against two rival candidates who have been weighing bids. Brad Lander, the outgoing city comptroller and ally of Mamdani, has told associates that he is planning to challenge the congressman, according to people familiar with the discussions, after he was boxed out of a top job in the mayor-elect’s administration. Mamdani, a staunch critic of Israel, has reportedly urged Lander to run for the seat and promised to support him in a primary. 

Polling has shown that Lander, a Jewish Democrat who has long identified as a “progressive Zionist,” would be a formidable opponent in the left-leaning district — which is heavily Jewish and extends from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn neighborhoods including Park Slope and Borough Park, a Hasidic enclave. Mamdani performed better in the district than any other in the city, according to data collected by The Center for Urban Research at The CUNY Graduate Center. With 60% of the vote, he nearly doubled his top rival in the race, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a moderate pro-Israel Democrat who ran as an independent after badly losing the June primary.

But Lander could face competition from the far left as a city councilwoman, Alexa Avilés, mulls her own challenge to Goldman, with likely plans to highlight the incumbent’s support for Israel. Avilés was recently endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, setting up a potential clash with Mamdani, who has long been a member. Yuh-Line Niou, a former state lawmaker who narrowly lost to Goldman when he first ran for the seat in 2022, is also mulling a challenge, sources have told JI. 

Among the challenges, DMFI PAC is now taking the Goldman race the “most seriously,” according to the person familiar with its deliberations, particularly if the left manages to coalesce behind one candidate.

NY-15

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of the most stalwart allies of the Jewish community in the House, is already facing two left-wing challengers attacking his support for Israel. The most recent entrant, Dalourny Nemorin, is an attorney and DSA member who joined the race last week. Michael Blake, a former assemblyman, is a better-known rival in the Bronx district, due to his past campaign for the seat in 2020. He launched his campaign earlier this month.

While he had once identified as pro-Israel and appeared at a number of  AIPAC events, Blake is now positioning himself as a staunch critic of the Jewish state and is accusing Torres of focusing on “AIPAC and Bibi,” at the expense of local issues. His reversal has raised questions about the authenticity of his positions, and threatens to alienate a sizable Jewish. constituency in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale, where Torres remains popular. It is also unclear if Blake’s message “makes sense” to voters, even in a district where Mamdani won a majority of the vote, according to Coffey, pointing to issues like affordability and public safety as more galvanizing. 

“He has a chance — everyone does — but not a great one,” a pro-Israel strategist who could engage in the primaries said of Blake.

NY-06

Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) is another House member facing an insurgent challenger who is criticizing her donations from AIPAC as well as corporate donors. Chuck Park, a former City Council aide and foreign service officer, announced his campaign to unseat Meng on Monday, largely echoing the rhetoric used by other challengers in New York City. 

But he is facing an uphill battle in the Queens district that includes a large Asian American population and that Cuomo won with 50% of the vote, underscoring the community’s moderate politics.

NY-08

In an unusually public display of tension on the left, Mamdani has been actively working to shut down a looming challenge to Jeffries from Chi Ossé, a city councilman who filed paperwork this week to run for the Brooklyn seat and is courting the DSA’s endorsement. Mamdani said on Thursday he does “not believe it’s the right time” for such a fight, but clarified that “was not a sweeping statement” about other races such as Goldman’s, where he is backing Lander. 

Ossé, for his part, has indicated that he does not see a path forward without the DSA’s support. While he has built a large social media following and notched some popular legislative successes, his campaign to unseat a possible future speaker of the House would likely be a long shot, even if pro-Israel leaders have not dismissed it. DMFI, for instance, is monitoring the race and has been in touch with Jeffries’ team, according to the person familiar with its outreach.  

Jeffries, who after a monthslong delay endorsed Mamdani in the general election despite profound disagreements over Israel, remains popular in his Brooklyn district, which includes such historically Black neighborhoods as Bedford-Stuyvesant. Still, Mamdani won the district with 52%, suggesting an appetite for political change that Ossé is now hoping to channel if he ends up officially launching a House campaign. 

NY-13

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) became the latest incumbent in New York City to draw a challenger this week. Darializa Avila Chevalier, an organizer in Harlem with a long history of anti-Israel activism, launched her bid to take on Espaillat on Thursday, with backing from Justice Democrats, the far-left group that is credited with helping Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in her insurgent bid against a powerful House member in 2018. 

Like other rivals, Avila Chevalier, a first-time candidate, is accusing the congressman of taking “money from the very institutions that are making life harder for New Yorkers here,” citing AIPAC as a top example. 

Espaillat, a veteran Democrat, endorsed Cuomo in the primary and then backed Mamdani during the general election. The mayor-elect won the district, which covers Upper Manhattan and a portion of the Bronx, with overwhelming support, claiming 65% of the vote.

NY-12

In the open primary to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in the heart of Manhattan, no fewer than 10 contenders have launched bids, with more likely to  come. The top candidates include three established state and city lawmakers: Assemblymen Micah Lasher and Alex Bores and City Councilman Erik Bottcher. But some wildcards could complicate the dynamic — including an insurgent campaign from a politically untested Kennedy scion, Jack Schlossberg, and a possible bid from George Conway, a former Republican lawyer and critic of President Donald Trump. 

In contrast with Goldman’s district, the heavily Jewish constituency on the Upper East and West Sides leans more moderate and pro-Israel, favoring Cuomo with 50% of the vote in the mayoral election. With progressives now seeking to defeat moderate Democrats, the crowded primary to claim Nadler’s seat is drawing more pro-Israel voices and is shaping up as a prominent exception to prevailing political trends in New York City.    

In recent days, a chorus of left-wing lawmakers in Congress have ramped up their ire towards the United Arab Emirates, accusing the Gulf country of helping fuel the yearslong civil war in Sudan by reportedly backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the non-Islamist Arab force fighting the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). 

The UAE has long denied allegations of involvement in the war. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that, according to sources, recent assessments by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department’s intelligence bureau purport to show the UAE sending Chinese drones to the RSF. 

On the other side, Iran, Russia, Egypt and Turkey have provided support to the SAF, according to conflict monitors and reporting by Bloomberg and The Washington Post.

The war in Sudan has wrought havoc upon the eastern African nation, with both warring factions committing crimes against humanity. The conflict has killed as many as 150,000 people and has displaced around 12 million. 

Over the more than two-year long conflict, both militias have been accused of widespread sexual assault, mass killings of civilians, torture and deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure. On Monday, the RSF captured the city of El Fasher after an 18-month blockade which saw the group effectively devastate the city, with reports of mass killings, sexual violence and the destruction of hospitals and displacement camps.

The U.S. government, under former President Joe Biden, determined the RSF was committing genocide and found both the RSF and SAF guilty of committing war crimes.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence with the Sudanese Armed Forces has alarmed experts, who warn that the SAF’s deepening ties to Islamist networks threaten regional stability and could pose a risk far beyond the eastern African nation.

“The Muslim Brotherhood has had a strong presence in Sudan since the 1940s and that presence has evolved over the years,” Norman Roule, a former senior U.S. intelligence official, told Jewish Insider. “It’s important to note that this presence is also why Iran is such a strong supporter of the Burhan [head of SAF] government.” 

Liam Karr, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, who has condemned actions on both sides of the conflict, says the ties date back to former Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for several decades before the SAF overthrew him in 2019. 

“The SAF is working with several Islamist brigades that consist of former Bashir-era army, police and intelligence personnel,” Karr told JI. “This includes the al Baraa Ibn Malik Brigade, which is widely associated with the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood and Bashir and has an estimated 20,000 fighters.” 

In recent months, the SAF has received explosive attack drones from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to aid in the conflict, while Egypt, one of their key backers, arrested a key Islamist militia leader aligned with the group — signaling that even staunch regional supporters of the group are “growing wary of its Islamist factions,” according to Foundation for Defense of Democracies Research Fellow Hussain Adbul-Hussain. 

Roule said Iran has a vested interest in providing the SAF with weaponry in order to reestablish a presence in the region and revitalize their “broken proxies,” following Israel’s degrading of its military capabilities and of its proxy Hezbollah, as well as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. 

“This is of extreme importance to the U.S. and its partners in the region, because if the Quds Force [IRGC] is able to establish a presence it lost in Syria, it would be able to reestablish training camps it operated a decade ago for Hamas smugglers, routes for weapons that it could send back into Gaza and revitalize Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as provide a transshipment location of weapons to the Houthis,” said Roule. “The Muslim Brotherhood presence in Khartoum is of serious concern for the United States and deserves much greater attention. It is a significant threat to the United States, Israel and the region.” 

Anti-Israel lawmakers, including some of the Jewish state’s most vocal critics in the House, have sounded the alarm on the RSF, but have notably glossed over the SAF and its increasingly Islamist alignment. 

“Sudan is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and a genocide,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in a post on social media on Tuesday. “The UAE and other arms dealers to the RSF and RSF-aligned militias must be held accountable.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) echoed the same sentiment, saying she is “horrified” by the RSF’s “mass killings of civilians.”

“We must do everything in our power to stop this genocide, including cutting off all weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates who are arming and funding this ethnic cleansing,” said Tlaib on social media on Wednesday.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) followed suit and similarly directed his criticism at the Emirates. 

“I am incredibly concerned about the deepening humanitarian crisis in Sudan, and the atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces,” Castro wrote on social media on Wednesday. “The United States must put pressure on the RSF and those who back it — including the United Arab Emirates — to end these atrocities.”

A number of far-left activists online have also singled out the RSF and its reported Emirati ties for condemnation. 

Kenneth Roth, a virulent critic of Israel and former head of Human Rights Watch, posted on Tuesday, “British arms sold to the United Arab Emirates are being found in Sudan, where the UAE is arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as they commit genocide.” 

“Both the Biden and Trump administrations refused to hold the UAE accountable as it armed Sudan’s RSF, despite massacre after massacre, atrocity after atrocity,” wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, adding, “Members of Congress are showing more responsibility and initiative.” 

House Democrats, led by Reps. Gregory Meeks and Sara Jacobs, released a statement in April marking the two year anniversary of the conflict. “External actors like the UAE must immediately stop fueling the conflict by arming the warring parties,” the statement said notably only listing the UAE and omitting any mention of Turkey, Iran, Russia, and other countries who have sent arms to factions in Sudan.

A bi-partisan group of senators, including Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, released a statement on Thursday breaking in tone from the other lawmakers – condemning both sides and making mention of all nations reportedly backing the war. 

“Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have committed atrocities against civilians and pursued a zero-sum war at any cost,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “Foreign backers of the RSF and SAF-including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, Iran, China and governments in the immediate region-have fueled and profited from the conflict and legitimized the monsters destroying Sudan,” the senators continued. 

Secular forces in Sudan have called for the country’s Islamist movement to be classified as a terrorist group, according to Hussain. Sudan’s Civil Democratic Alliance of Revolutionary Forces (Sumud) has stated that the “Islamist movement sees no pathway for ending the fighting other than the complete submission of the Sudanese people to its terrorist regime, an arrangement that has never achieved peace.” 

Karr says the Trump administration and the SAF’s own partners have put “heavy pressure” on the group to “distance itself politically from the Islamist groups.” Karr also believes pressure should be applied to the RSF.

In his second term, President Donald Trump voiced support for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Various members of congress have introduced legislation that would require the secretary of state to use this designation, though Congress has yet to move forward with the legislation. 

Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol.

Speaking with Tommy Vietor on the “Pod Save America” political podcast, released on Monday night, Platner, 41, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied.

“I am not a secret Nazi. Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general,” said Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer in Maine who has faced scrutiny over past online posts. “I would say a lifelong opponent.”

But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a Totenkopf, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II.

“He said, ‘Oh, this is my Totenkopf,’” the former acquaintance told Jewish Insider recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. “He said it in a cutesy little way.”

The exchange occurred in 2012 at Tune Inn, a popular dive on Capitol Hill where Platner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while he attended The George Washington University on the G.I. bill, according to the former acquaintance. He would often take his shirt off drinking with friends late at night at the bar, and on at least one occasion had stated he knew what the tattoo represented, the former acquaintance recalled.

Platner gave varying accounts of the image during this time, saying at one point he was aware it was a Totenkopf when he had first gotten the tattoo several years prior and at another time claiming he had not known, according to the former acquaintance.

The mixed accounts indicate that Platner has at least long been aware of the symbols’s connection to Nazism, even as he said in the podcast interview he was not familiar with any such association when he chose to get the tattoo.

Platner, who is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said he had gotten the tattoo in Split, Croatia, in 2007, when he and a group of “very inebriated” fellow Marines had time off while on deployment and decided to step into a parlor. “We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall, because we were Marines, and skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” he explained on the podcast.

“We got those tattoos, and then we all moved on with our lives,” he added, emphasizing he had later served in the Army and received a security clearance to work as a contractor for the State Department in Afghanistan. “I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it,” he continued, “I’ve not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years.”

In a statement shared with JI on Tuesday, Platner said he did not know about the tattoo’s connection to Nazi imagery until recently. “It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” he said. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that  — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”

Platner’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who resigned from his campaign last week over her objection to his recently unearthed incendiary Reddit comments, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that “Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest.”

“He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff,” McDonald wrote in the post, which was reviewed by JI. “Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”

McDonald said that Platner’s campaign “released it themselves to some podcast bros, along with a video of him shirtless and drunk at a wedding to try to get ahead of it.”

A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement to JI that Platner’s tattoo “appears to be a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo, and if true, it is troubling that a candidate for high office would have one.”

“We do understand that sometimes people get tattoos without understanding their hateful association,” the ADL spokesperson added. “In those cases, the bearer should be asked whether they repudiate its hateful meaning.”

Platner, a political newcomer who is facing Gov. Janet Mills and other candidates in the Democratic primary, launched his campaign in August and has raised more than $4 million while promoting a left-wing populist message — including staunch criticism of Israel and opposition to “fascists” — that garnered a high-profile endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). 

The Senate race is widely viewed by Democratic leadership as a major pickup opportunity in the midterm elections, as the party works to regain a majority in the upper chamber.

But Platner’s campaign has lost momentum in recent days amid the revelations that he had made several controversial comments while posting in Reddit forums. In a range of comments published anonymously, Platner, who has acknowledged that he wrote the posts and apologized for some of them, described himself as a “communist,” called all cops “bastards” and dismissed sexual assault in the military, among other remarks facing backlash.

In previously unreported posts reviewed by JI, Platner defended a man with a Nazi SS lightning bolt tattoo who later admitted to impersonating a federal officer at a Black Lives Matter protest in Las Vegas in 2020. “I will be sure to inform the black guys I know with bolts that they’re Nazis now and not USMC Scout/Snipers,” Platner said in a deleted Reddit post, referring to the Marines.

“Bolts were a STA icon since the ’80s at least, if not longer,” he wrote in another, using military jargon. “It was never official, but it sure as shit was tattooed on almost every HOG I knew between 2004-2012.”

Platner has also drawn scrutiny for appearing in a photo this summer with a white supremacist agitator in Maine, Richard Ward, who is running for a Bangor City Council seat.

Ward, a far-right activist who frequently spreads neo-Nazi rhetoric and imagery, wrote on Facebook in late August that he met and shook hands with Platner during an encounter at a Maine fair, posting a photo in which they are both seen standing side by side.

“Shaking hands with Graham Platner today at Blue Hill Fair,” Ward said. “Check out Graham Platner for U.S. Senate. We have a lot in common.” 

In the photo, Ward is pictured wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the number “88,” an apparent reference to a widely recognized neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler.” The post, a screenshot of which was obtained by JI, has since been deleted from Ward’s Facebook page.

A spokesperson for Platner’s campaign confirmed the encounter had taken place but said that he had quickly ended the conversation. “Graham promptly told Richard to f*** off and get the f*** away, like he would tell any Nazi,” the spokesperson told JI last month.

Zohran Mamdani isn’t the only far-left, anti-Israel candidate running for mayor in a city with a notable Jewish constituency in November. As we’ve noted in these pages, socialist Katie Wilson is vying to unseat Mayor Bruce Harrell in the Seattle mayoral race. And far-left challenger Omar Fateh is running competitively against Mayor Jacob Frey in a closely watched Minneapolis mayoral contest.

But one lower-profile race featuring a Democratic Socialists of America activist with involvement in anti-Israel groups has flown under the radar. In the progressive city of Somerville, Mass. — just outside Boston and bordering Cambridge — City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr. advanced to a runoff against another city council member, Jake Wilson. 

In the city’s first round of balloting, which ousted the city’s sitting mayor, Katjana Ballantyne, Wilson finished first with 42% of the citywide vote, but Burnley wasn’t far behind with 34%. Ballantyne, facing a backlash to the city’s rising housing costs, lagged in third place with just 23% of the vote.

If Burnley prevails, he would be the city’s first Black, openly queer and polyamorous mayor, according to Axios.

But Burnley’s unconventional self-identification pales in comparison to his radical record. He’s been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and has been active in the organization for at least the last several years. He has participated in anti-Israel protests, including one where he is standing in front of a protester holding a sign with a Nazi swastika flag next to an Israeli flag. At a Tufts University anti-Israel protest last year, he posed in front of posters reading “Glory to the martyrs.”

He has touted his endorsement from the anti-Israel group “Somerville for Palestine” and walked out on a Jewish constituent objecting to the city council’s consideration of a measure that would require Somerville to divest city funds business from companies that do business with Israel. In 2018, he was pictured being involved with the anti-Israel group IfNotNow.

Unsurprisingly, Burnley holds extremist views on other major issues of consequence, most notably supporting efforts to defund the police and describing the founders of the United States as “genocidal, racist, rapists who stole this country because they wrote some nice words.”

Burnley’s surprising advancement to the general election is another sign of the growth of far-left politics within the Democratic Party — particularly in urban centers. While the first round of results suggests that the more-experienced Wilson starts as the favorite, the fact that someone with Burnley’s extreme politics is in the running and could win one-third of the vote is alarming.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), speaking to a gathering of Jewish activists on Capitol Hill, highlighted concerns about rising left-wing antisemitism and the ways that antisemitic narratives are being spread to and by college students.

“We’re used to the right-wing side. What is new and what I think has so many in the Jewish community on our heels is that new left-wing antisemitism and how to approach it,” Slotkin said at a pre-High Holidays security briefing organized by several Jewish communal organizations. “How do we counteract it? How do we protect against it? How do we educate?”

“And certainly, we’re watching, on many college campuses, a lot of young people who actually maybe didn’t grow up with the Jewish community at all, get to campus and maybe repeat what they’re hearing, sometimes not even understanding or knowing,” she continued. “I would just say that one of our responsibilities as Jewish leaders and Jewish activists is to try and really parse through how to deal with antisemitism on the left, since antisemitism on the right isn’t good, but it’s more of a well-known threat.”

The freshman Michigan senator, who is working to establish herself as a leader in the chamber on national security issues, recently backed efforts to stop at least some offensive weapons shipments to Israel and emphasized that she hadn’t accepted endorsements from “Jewish group[s],” naming AIPAC and J Street.

Slotkin said at the Wednesday event that she “[doesn’t] think there’s been a more complicated and dicey time to be Jews in America, period, maybe since World War II.”

Speaking in support of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, Slotkin said that one of the “most powerful moments that I had” during her time as a member of Congress was when a mosque in her district faced threats, and she worked with the local Jewish federation and her synagogue to help the mosque apply for an NSGP grant.

An emotional Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) referenced the killing of her friend, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the mass shooting at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis as she discussed the rise of violent extremism across the country, including various incidents targeting the Jewish community.

“We have been through this each and every time, but the babies keep dying,” Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar said that in conversations with administration officials immediately after the Annunciation shooting, her top priority was pushing for increased NSGP funding, in addition to gun control measures and action to address extremism and incitement on social media platforms.

She highlighted that the Annunciation Church shooter had left a manifesto spreading hate against a range of targets including Jews, Muslims, Black people and Hispanic people, and emphasized that he and other mass shooters have been “performing for the internet.”

While she noted that data shows that political violence has been coming more from the right than the left, “I don’t want to go tit-for-tat. I care about what we’re doing now and going forward, and words matter right now for bringing America together,” Klobuchar said.

Speaking about threats to the Jewish community specifically, Klobuchar noted the rise in antisemitic hate crimes nationally, saying that “something is seriously wrong in our country.” She said that 25 Jewish facilities had received bomb threats in Minnesota in the past year.

“This has completely shattered people, kids are scared,” Klobuchar said.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) said, referring to a string of recent antisemitic attacks, “I don’t care what fringe it comes from. This kind of extremism, hate and violence is unacceptable and needs to be condemned. … Foreign policy debates are complicated. Condemning antisemitism is not.”

She added that, as the generation that survived and witnessed the Holocaust shrinks, “we have to decide as a country if we will let their lessons pass.”

Hassan continued, “We can’t afford inaction. We can’t afford indifference, nor should we feel the need to offer qualification or apology, to simply say that the world’s oldest hate should be denounced as loudly as any other.”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) also delivered remarks at the event, as did Rev. Russ McDougall, a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who was invited in part to discuss the Annunciation Church attack. Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) delivered video remarks.

The session also featured a panel with Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations CEO William Daroff, Secure Communities Network CEO Michael Masters, Orthodox Union Executive Vice President Moshe Hauer and Anti-Defamation League director of government relations Carmiel Arbit.

Fingerhut told Jewish Insider there is “a domestic terror crisis” in the country “and we need comprehensive, strong action.”

“[Members of Congress] didn’t create the COVID problem either, but they responded with a crisis-level response, and that’s the level of response we need,” Fingerhut said.

He emphasized the need not only for increased NSGP funding but stronger funding for local law enforcement, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to fight domestic terrorism. He said that resourcing and funding at those agencies for the counterterrorism mission isn’t sufficient.

“We’re in an era now of a trillion-dollar defense budget that is aimed at fighting terror and protecting America all over the world,” Fingerhut said. “We have a domestic terror crisis here, and it needs the level of attention and coordinated leadership by the federal government that we get in national defense.”

The House Oversight Committee asked the Trump administration on Monday to investigate if far-left billionaire Neville Roy Singham’s bankrolling of “extremist organizations fueling division and civil unrest across the United States” would qualify him for federal sanctions or make him eligible for criminal or legal penalties.

Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who chairs the Declassification of Federal Secrets Task Force, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, requesting the Treasury look into “certain far-left entities, organized and funded by” Singham, as well as his failure “to register as a foreign agent under FARA.”

The lawmakers describe Singham as “a U.S. citizen with ties to the CCP” who has reportedly “been funding and supporting various extremist entities in the United States with the aim of causing destruction and division in our country.”

Singham is a financier who has been accused of funding groups to advance Chinese talking points as well as a network of anti-Israel protest groups responsible for unrest on college campuses, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute. 

“Neville Singham has spent millions funding militant organizations that have orchestrated violent riots and launched targeted hate campaigns against Americans with different beliefs,” Luna wrote on X.

The lawmakers noted in the letter that they are investigating efforts by the Chinese Communist Party “to sow discord in the United States,” writing: “It is imperative that we expeditiously halt the continued flow of funds and material support for malign activities conducted at the behest of the CCP.”

The letter cites reporting from the New York Times, the Free Press and a letter sent to former Attorney General Merrick Garland last year by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while still serving as senator from Florida, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “raising concerns about Mr. Singham’s activities on behalf of the CCP.”

“It does not appear that the Biden Administration addressed this potential source of civil unrest,” the lawmakers wrote, citing reporting from data scientist Jennica Pounds alleging that Singham’s activities had recently “expanded to include the foment of unrest and civil disobedience in Los Angeles — prompting President Donald Trump to call in the National Guard to counter attacks on federal law enforcement officials.”

They added that, “It has been reported that Mr. Singham is ‘the main backer behind’ the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which has organized nationwide protests, including riots in Los Angeles.”

Singham, who resides in China, “created an elaborate dark money network which allows him to send funds to a series of non-profits,” the letter stated, later adding: “Mr. Singham has expanded his network to include not only far-left, pro-CCP entities, but also radical, antisemitic entities. One such organization is Shut It Down for Palestine (SID4P), an entity established in October 2023.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Tuesday that federal investigators were looking into the funding sources for left-wing groups behind organized protest movements that have resulted in rioting on city streets and civil rights violations on college campuses. 

Patel made the comments while appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a marathon oversight hearing, where he faced dozens of questions from Democrats and Republicans about the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk last week. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) urged Patel to investigate the financing of far-left groups that the Texas senator said may have influenced the suspected shooter and supported protests in recent years that saw instances of rioting or other illegal activity.

“As I’ve always said, Senator, money doesn’t lie. We’ve been following the money, and that’s what we’re doing, issuing a lawful process to organizations involved with criminal activity because the money has got to come from somewhere,” Patel told Cruz. 

Cruz stressed his belief that the bankrolling of these political efforts has led to the riots in major cities and the surge of campus antisemitism in recent years, and the importance of identifying the individuals and organizations responsible.

“I want to encourage you in the course of this investigation, absolutely go after anyone who aided and abetted, but I want to more broadly encourage you: follow the money. The violence we are seeing is not purely organic. There is, I believe, significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence,” Cruz said. 

“Both the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots of a couple of years ago, and the pro-open borders riots in Los Angeles and other cities of this past year, I believe there was significant money behind those riots. I’m not the only person who noticed at the antisemitic protests and violent protests on college campuses last year, that many of the tents all matched,” he added.

Cruz, who introduced legislation in July to add rioting to the list of predicate offenses under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act — which targets organized crime — added that he believes the money “should be tracked and prosecuted under RICO.”

Following a series of questions about the suspect’s motive in killing Kirk and reports that others had prior knowledge of the suspect’s plans, Cruz urged Patel to probe the funding sources of Antifa specifically in connection with the shooting, and called on the Trump administration to designate the far-left political movement as a terrorist organization. 

“I would encourage the administration to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization and go systematically after Antifa. They’ve committed acts of violence all over the country, and the shell casings [found with the weapon used to kill Kirk] have multiple references to slogans that Antifa has popularized. I believe there is considerable money funding it,” Cruz said. 

The Texas senator noted in the context of some online celebration of Kirk’s killing that while free speech remains protected under the First Amendment, violent activity does not. 

“Nazis and Klansmen can march in the streets and even though their speeches are bigoted and horrible and racist, the First Amendment protects it. Conduct, however, is not protected by the First Amendment, particularly conduct that is violent,” Cruz said. “Violent conduct — that is threatening to others, that is harassing others, that is injuring or in this case murdering others — is most assuredly not protected by the First Amendment, and so I would encourage you and the FBI to focus on conduct. Now, speech can direct, speech can guide you to those who engaged in conduct.”

Earlier in the hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Patel discussed their shared view that social media is “one of the instruments radicalizing America and inciting violence” and their support for repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the legal provision that shields social media platforms from legal liability for the content their users post.

“After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there seems to be one refrain from everybody, and that’s about the effect of social media,” Graham said. “These companies are taking content that makes you sick, that could get you killed, get you poisoned, and there’s nothing we can do about it under our law … because of Section 230. If your child is being sexually groomed online or bullied online, and you go to the social media company and ask them to take it down [and if] they refuse, you have like zero rights.”

“My belief is based on the data, and the data shows that social media is wildly out of control when it comes to radicalizing,” Patel said. 

Graham went on to press Patel about how he would characterize “the state of threats to our homeland by foreign terrorist groups,” which the latter replied to by pointing out that such organizations were working to adapt technologically.

“Foreign terrorist organizations have adapted and started utilizing online platforms and so has the FBI. While they are adapting [and] expanding how they harm our country, we have as well. They have not stopped. There’s been a resurgence [of terrorist threats] in places like West Africa and elsewhere of foreign terrorist organizations and also the newly emboldened drug trafficking organizations in Mexico,” Patel said, adding that addressing this surge was “going to take a whole-of-government approach.”

Patel responded affirmatively when asked if his previous comment could apply to Hezbollah, and concurred with Graham’s assessment that “Hezbollah is involved in not only terrorism but narcoterrorism.”

At another point in the hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked Patel if Jeffrey Epstein was “an intelligence asset for the U.S. government or a foreign government.” Online conspiracy theories have alleged, without evidence, that Epstein worked for the Mossad.

“I can only speak to the FBI, as the director of the FBI, and Mr. Epstein was not a source for the FBI,” Patel replied, later vowing to provide Congress with “all records I am legally permitted to do so under the court orders.”

A new poll commissioned by a left-wing advocacy group is raising hopes among progressive activists eager to enlist a challenger to take on Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Democrat whose House district leans heavily to the left, in next year’s June primary election.

The poll, released this week by Demand Progress Action, shows Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, leading by 19 points in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with Goldman, who wins just 33% of the vote. Lander, who served as a longtime city councilman in the district, claims 52% among likely Democratic primary voters, while also boasting a higher favorability rating, according to the poll.

While the survey was meant to coax Lander into entering the primary, it remains unclear if he has the appetite to compete in what would likely be a bitter race for the seat covering Lower Manhattan and a swath of Brooklyn, including such progressive enclaves as Park Slope.

Lander, a well-known progressive who has not explicitly ruled out a congressional bid after losing in the New York City mayoral primary, is more widely expected to accept a senior role in a potential administration of Zohran Mamdani, the far-left Democratic nominee for mayor whose upset in June lent renewed energy to progressive activists who have eyed challenges to several mainstream House Democrats in New York City.

Still, Lander had been looking at Goldman’s seat since before the primary concluded, according to a political consultant familiar with the situation, who suggested the city comptroller could be “serious” about a campaign.

Lander’s team, several members of which have joined Mamdani’s campaign, has also reportedly clashed with the nominee’s aides, fueling speculation about his prospects for securing a position in a potential future administration. A person familiar with some of the internal tensions said broadly that they stem in part from a lingering Brooklyn political dispute involving Lander and grudgingly recalled by some close aides to Mamdani.

“I think that Lander can beat Goldman, but I thought that even before the poll came out,” said a political consultant who worked to elect Goldman during his first primary in 2022, when the former Trump impeachment prosecutor beat a crowded field of progressives to clinch the nomination with a plurality of the vote.

A spokesperson for Lander did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider on his plans for a challenge. His team has otherwise said that “there is no drama between Brad and Zohran or their ‘camps.’”

If Lander chooses to run for the seat held by Goldman, a two-term Jewish Democrat whose strong support for Israel and refusal to endorse Mamdani have sparked backlash among left-wing voters, he would be a formidable candidate, experts say, citing his widespread popularity in a district he has long called home.

“I think that Lander can beat Goldman, but I thought that even before the poll came out,” said a political consultant who worked to elect Goldman during his first primary in 2022, when the former Trump impeachment prosecutor beat a crowded field of progressives to clinch the nomination with a plurality of the vote.

The potential matchup would also set up a unique primary between two Jewish Democrats who both identify as Zionists but have differing approaches to what that label means, particularly in the aftermath of Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Goldman, for his part, has continued to back U.S. military aid to Israel, even as he recently said the “crisis in Gaza shocks the conscience” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “personal and political interests are guiding Israel’s actions, rather than what is best for” the Jewish state.

The 49-year-old lawmaker has also withheld an endorsement of Mamdani until he takes “concrete steps” to address concerns raised by Jewish voters over his anti-Israel rhetoric, including his refusal to explicitly condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” a phrase many Jews view as antisemitic. Mamdani has said he does not use the slogan and that he will discourage its usage.

Goldman’s largely left-leaning House seat “is probably one of the biggest changes in terms of pro-Israel to not pro-Israel districts in the city,” said Chris Coffey, a veteran Democratic strategist who lives in the district and helped advise former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid during the primary.

Lander, who has long identified as a progressive Zionist, is a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza and has called for pulling aid to Israel. The 56-year-old comptroller has faced criticism from the organized Jewish community for divesting from Israel bonds while in office, though he has said the decision was not political. Lander was a key Jewish validator for Mamdani in the primary, cross-endorsing with the 33-year-old democratic socialist and assemblyman from Queens. Mamdani won Goldman’s district in June.

Speaking at a Jews for Racial and Economic Justice event earlier this week, Lander said he had not done enough “to speak out against Israel’s war crimes, against ethnic cleansing, against forced starvation of Palestinians.”

Chris Coffey, a veteran Democratic strategist who lives in the district and helped advise former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid during the primary, said that Goldman is not likely to find himself in a vulnerable position unless Lander chooses to run, an outcome he does not anticipate with Mamdani well poised to win the general election.

Still, Goldman is now in a “precarious place,” Coffey told JI, “where he’s a pro-Israel Democrat in a time when it’s been harder to be a pro-Israel Democrat.”

Goldman’s largely left-leaning House seat “is probably one of the biggest changes in terms of pro-Israel to not pro-Israel districts in the city,” he added, noting the shift had occurred in recent years amid growing Democratic divisions over Israel and Gaza.

Some observers recently speculated that Goldman could switch districts and run for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-NY) seat further north in Manhattan, where he would likely face a more friendly electorate. But his team has dismissed that idea as unfounded and said Goldman had no plans to run for another seat.   

“Dan Goldman isn’t a moderate, he’s definitely left of center,” said the political consultant close to Goldman, who is now working on a super PAC to oppose Mamdani. “Brad may win because of his name ID and reputation but any other opponent would likely lose.”

The poll released on Wednesday underscored that view, showing that Goldman would win with 41% of the vote against an unnamed Democratic candidate. His lead evaporated after the poll had, among other things, linked him to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which had quietly funded a local super PAC three years ago to help boost his first primary bid.

AIPAC, whose political arm endorsed Goldman in February, did not return a request for comment on a potential primary.

“Dan is laser-focused on rooting out government corruption, defending our democracy from Donald Trump and leveling the playing field for all New Yorkers.” Simone Kanter, a senior advisor to Goldman, told JI. “Anyone who would like to throw their hat in the ring is more than welcome to.”

David Greenfield, a former city councilman who leads the Jewish anti-poverty group Met Council, said the results of the poll were unsurprising, even as he dismissed the survey for posing a “misleading” question. “Everyone knows Brad is not running for Congress,” he told JI, “because he’s slated to join a Zohran Mamdani administration.”

It was unclear if the poll had surveyed respondents about other potential candidates. Demand Progress Action did not return requests for comment, nor did Data for Progress, a progressive firm that conducted the poll.

Simone Kanter, a senior advisor to Goldman, told JI the congressman’s team is “not paying any attention to agenda-driven push polls.”

“Dan is laser-focused on rooting out government corruption, defending our democracy from Donald Trump and leveling the playing field for all New Yorkers.” Kanter said on Thursday. “Anyone who would like to throw their hat in the ring is more than welcome to.”

While a competitive primary would likely attract spending from outside groups, Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune whose estimated net worth is up to $250 million, could also self-fund his bid as he did in 2022 — when he prevailed with 26% of the vote in a crowded field of well-known politicians. 

Yuh-Line Niou, a former state assemblywoman who came in second in 2022 with 24%, has said privately she plans to run again and has been making calls to feel out support, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Niou, an outspoken progressive who faced backlash in the last race for backing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, declined to comment on the record when reached this week by JI. 

Goldman is also likely to face a repeat challenger from his 2024 primary, Evan Hutchison, who won 24% of the vote last cycle and has recently sent out fundraising texts saying that the incumbent “won’t condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” But strategists said they do not see his campaign as a serious threat to Goldman, who claimed 66% in his last primary.

President Donald Trump came into office with a promise to make tackling antisemitism a priority of his second term. So far, the focus of that effort has been almost exclusively on addressing left-wing and Islamist antisemitism, primarily tied to anti-Israel extremism — while leaving out antisemitism emerging from the political right. 

Now, a group of staunch Trump allies from within the evangelical Christian community is urging Republicans to also focus on countering what they describe as a growing threat of antisemitism from within their own camp. They see prominent MAGA-aligned figures such as podcast hosts Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens platforming overtly antisemitic views, and worry that those voices — with massive social media followings — could play a role in shaping the direction of the Republican Party.

Last month, an organization called the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel hosted a meeting to discuss the topic at the Family Research Council, a powerful Christian advocacy group. Billed as a “private roundtable for key Christian leaders,” according to the event invitation, it identified right-wing antisemitism as a high-stakes challenge: “It is vital that Christian leaders counter the forces on the right who are demonizing the state of Israel, its leadership and the Jewish people,” stated the invitation, which was obtained by Jewish Insider. 

“We’ve been very concerned about the progressive leftist [antisemitism],” Mario Bramnick, a pastor in South Florida who is the president of the Latino Coalition for Israel, told JI on Tuesday. He is also the founder of the Christian Conference, and he organized last month’s event with Luke Moon, the executive director of the Philos Project. “But some of the statements coming out on the right, to me, are possibly more brazen and more troubling and clearly, clearly, do not represent President Trump or his administration,” added Bramnick. 

The meeting was attended by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, Trump’s nominee to serve as the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, as well as Mark Walker, a former congressman from North Carolina who is Trump’s pick to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Yair Netanyahu, the eldest son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the group virtually.

“Antisemitism is a bipartisan issue and needs to be condemned anytime, anyplace,” Kaploun told JI. “It is imperative that all parties educate their members about  the  dangers of antisemitism.”

The Christian group is concerned about a small but growing anti-Israel faction within the Republican Party. In a press release on Tuesday, Bramnick called out Carlson and Owens, as well as two figures who remain close to Trump: Steve Bannon and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). A Trump administration spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

“It’s almost like we have more of an onus to handle this, because it’s our own camp, our own family. Imagine something goes wrong with someone in your family, you feel more of an obligation,” Bramnick told JI. “Who better than us to be able to handle it?”

Bramnick met last week with Justice Department senior counsel Leo Terrell, the chair of the federal government’s antisemitism task force, to raise the issue of antisemitism on the right. 

“They are clearly on this and following it, from my understanding, and wanting to work with us,” Bramnick said. A spokesperson for Terrell did not respond to a request for comment.

The Conference of Christian Presidents has ties to influential conservative groups in Washington. Hours after the meeting at the Family Research Council, the Conference co-hosted an event on the Trump administration’s policies in the Middle East with the Heritage Foundation. The event featured video remarks from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and a keynote speech by evangelical leader Rev. Johnnie Moore, executive chair of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 

Last year, the Heritage Foundation released a policy document focused on antisemitism, called Project Esther, which identified left-wing antisemitism as the main form of antisemitism in the U.S., without mentioning any issues on the right. An inquiry to the authors of the Project Esther report did not garner a response. 

Christians United for Israel, the largest Christian pro-Israel group with more than 10 million members, is not part of the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel. But Sandra Hagee Parker, chair of the CUFI Action Fund, told JI that the organization agrees with the need to combat antisemitism on the right.

“One cannot be a Christian and antisemitic. The two are mutually exclusive,” Parker said in a statement. “Just as liberals must condemn those who use human rights as cover for their Jew-hatred, conservatives must call out those who drape themselves in the flag or the banner of the cross while bastardizing the former and defiling the latter.”  

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks said antisemitism is “percolating out there at the extreme ends of the far right, well outside of the mainstream of the Republican Party.” 

“I don’t know that it’s growing. It’s gotten a little louder,” he told JI. “Our challenge and our effort going forward is to ensure that it doesn’t take hold in the Republican Party as it did in the Democratic Party.”

Based on the latest wave of Democratic primary results, it’s looking more likely that the hard-left “resistance” faction of the Democratic Party, which was muted in the aftermath of the 2024 election, is reasserting itself in a consequential way — especially in the deep-blue cities that make up much of the party’s voting base. 

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s come-from-behind victory in the New York City mayor’s primary was a major wake-up-call for party leadership. His success came after a surge of progressive discontent with the Democratic establishment, a sentiment fueled by the Trump administration’s aggressive (and at times, unlawful) deportation push, the imposition of tariffs and the general sense that party leaders in Washington weren’t doing everything they could to oppose President Donald Trump’s polarizing policies.

The reason the Democratic Party brand is polling at historic lows is because a sizable share of younger, progressive voters are expressing their discontent with their own party leadership — even as most still plan to vote Democratic in a general election. We’re seeing the growth of the left-wing faction within the party, in real time. 

The fact that Mamdani’s radical views on the economy, crime and antisemitism did little to dissuade a critical mass of rank-and-file Democrats is a sign of the changing mood of the party. 

That same dynamic that drove New York City Democrats was apparent in the first round of results in Seattle’s local primaries Tuesday night. 

In the early returns from the city’s all-party primary, moderate incumbents — serving as mayor, city attorney and council president — were all trailing left-wing challengers. The moderate city officials were elected in 2021, largely as a backlash to the crime, homelessness and disorder in the city under progressive leaders. 

In the most high-profile race, Mayor Bruce Harrell is trailing progressive activist Katie Wilson, 46-45%. “Wilson’s campaign generated new excitement when Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, won the mayoral primary in New York City in June,” Seattle’s NPR affiliate reported. 

In Washington, the primary results aren’t determinative; the top two vote-getters compete against each other in the general election. But they suggest moderates will be facing an uphill battle against left-wing insurgents.

The same dynamic is at play in Minneapolis, where conventionally liberal Mayor Jacob Frey decisively lost the Democratic Party endorsement to a democratic socialist state senator, Omar Fateh. 

Frey still can win reelection in November, when all candidates appear on the general election ballot regardless of party, but the rebuke from the Democratic delegates is another sign that the party is facing a revolt from its left-wing activists.

Right now, this looks more like the party of Bernie Sanders, Mamdani and AOC. Those are the candidates that are energizing the grassroots and driving social media engagement— especially when it comes to the party’s urban voters. 

These results send a strong signal that the Democratic Party vibes have shifted. In the first few months of Trump’s second term, party leaders were desperately trying to distance themselves from the ideological baggage of the left. More recently, they’re coming to terms with the possibility that the left is taking over the party.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), in a private meeting with House Democrats in Washington on Wednesday, avoided confronting Zohran Mamdani, the far-left Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, over his controversial defense of calls to “globalize the intifada” and fierce opposition to Israel.

Gottheimer, a moderate Jewish Democrat who is among the most outspoken supporters of Israel in the House, has not been shy about publicly calling out members of his own party when disagreements over Israel and antisemitism have arisen in recent years.

But during the breakfast meeting this week, Gottheimer did not bring up his objections to the 33-year-old democratic socialist, according to a House aide familiar with the matter, even as his views on Israel have raised alarms among Jewish voters and faced pushback from Democratic leaders who have so far withheld endorsements in the New York City mayoral race. 

In a statement, Gottheimer reiterated his concerns about Mamdani’s progressive policy proposals and his acceptance of rhetoric that Jewish leaders have condemned as antisemitic. But the New Jersey congressman suggested he was willing to hear from the mayoral nominee about his stunning primary upset that has rattled the political establishment.

“I don’t think higher taxes, anti-job creating socialism, and an acceptance of antisemitic rhetoric is the right direction for America,” Gottheimer told Jewish Insider, echoing comments he shared in an interview with CNBC on Thursday morning and elsewhere in recent weeks. “That said, I am always open to learning how I can reach more people with my commonsense, problem-solving approach.”

He declined to comment further on the meeting to JI on Thursday. “I don’t have anything to say beyond what I put out,” the congressman said.

Later on Thursday, Gottheimer announced he was introducing a bipartisan resolution condemning the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which Mamdani has refused to condemn. The motto chanted frequently at anti-Israel demonstrations is “hate speech, plain and simple,” the congressman wrote in a statement that did not mention Mamdani, arguing such words “incite violence, fuel hate and put Jewish families at risk.”

Still, Gottheimer voiced no such disapproval in the Wednesday breakfast hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — which included several progressive House Democrats and was promoted as a “communication and organizing” session as the party rethinks its messaging strategy ahead of next year’s midterms.

Gottheimer’s reticence to speak out directly during the in-person meeting stands in contrast with his past denunciations of Mamdani, whose defense of the “intifada” phrase — seen by critics as a violent provocation to target Jews — he has called “insane and unacceptable” amid rising antisemitic activity.

The divisive slogan “is a well-known antisemitic chant that calls for the eradication of Israel and violence against Jews,” Gottheimer said in a social media post a week before the primary last month. 

“Zohran Mamdani’s pathetic, hateful lies are a blatant slap in the face of the Jewish community,” he added. “He must apologize immediately. I also suggest that he visit the Holocaust Museum in the coming days and learn why these words are so dangerous.”

Even as no discussion of Israel or antisemitism was raised at the Wednesday gathering, top Democrats have continued to signal their hesitation regarding Mamdani’s approach to such issues, particularly his stance on the “intifada” slogan that he has defended repeatedly as an expression of Palestinian rights.

For his part, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who did not attend the breakfast but is expected to meet with Mamdani in New York City on Friday, has said that the nominee’s comments about the phrase will be a part of their discussion — suggesting that his support is likely contingent on a change in tone.

Mamdani, who has faced questions about the phrase in other meetings this week, has privately indicated he plans to take a more calibrated stance with regard to the matter, a key point of tension as he now works to expand his coalition in a crowded race that includes Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both running as independents. 

The Democratic mayoral nominee said in a private meeting with business leaders earlier this week that he would “discourage” use of the phrase but still did not go so far as to condemn it himself, according to reports of the closed-door discussion on Tuesday.

Additional reporting contributed by JI senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod

Jewish Voice for Peace, a far-left anti-Israel advocacy group that has built a growing profile in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, is pivoting to a new organizational structure that will soon allow it to engage more forcefully in electoral politics.

The group recently began the process of consolidating its membership and organizing in an affiliated but lesser-known political nonprofit called Jewish Voice for Peace Action, devoting the bulk of its resources to lobbying and political activities, such as supporting and opposing candidates that had not traditionally been a part of its core focus.

As a nonpartisan tax-exempt group, JVP, which has been at the forefront of campus anti-Israel protests and promotes efforts to divest from Israel, has been legally prohibited from taking sides in campaigns — a limitation the new structural change is designed to address.

The shift comes as the activist left has felt newly emboldened by Zohran Mamdani’s shocking victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary in June, fueling debates over the ideological direction of the party as it gears up for next year’s midterms.

JVP Action, which recently changed its public name to Jewish Voice for Peace to match its sister organization, was an early supporter of Mamdani and has cited his outspoken opposition to Israel as a sign of evolving voter attitudes about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

“There is unprecedented, mass support for Palestinians. Our movement has already grown larger, and more quickly, than many of us thought possible. But it’s clear we have not begun to tap our full potential,” JVP writes in a detailed new page on its website about the decision-making behind its shift. “The U.S. government has not budged from its commitment to sponsor Israel’s genocide. Public polling and public displays of opposition alone will not shift U.S. policy. Our movement must contend for real power.”

JVP, which until now had been the primary home for the group’s organizing work, will become a “supporter-based” rather than a “membership-based” organization renamed JVP Leadership & Culture Lab — with a focus on educational training and arts and culture programming to help promote “anti-Zionist Jewish” advocacy, according to its tentative mission statement.

The change was approved in a recent membership vote and will be implemented by Oct. 15, according to a lengthy agenda from a virtual meeting last week shared with Jewish Insider.

JVP Action’s board, for its part, had already voted to change its name and structure independently of the recent all-members meeting, in anticipation of the organizational inversion.

During the meeting, a recording of which was reviewed by JI, one member raised a concern that the change could “lead to a deemphasis” on JVP’s involvement in “mobilizing of protests and direct action” in favor of “electoralism and support for progressive Democrats.” The member was reassured by leadership that such approaches are complementary and that electoral work is a “key tactic inside a set of tools” including “civil disobedience” and divestment campaigns.

In moving to now operate primarily as a political nonprofit, “the barriers between the work of JVP and JVP Action organizations will be removed,” JVP further explains on its website.

“This has long been a challenge, creating silos and firewalls in our respective work that keep us from drawing clear connections between the political, electoral, cultural and financial forces that uphold the U.S.-Israeli relationship,” the group adds.

JVP, which is closely aligned with American Muslims for Palestine, a leading pro-Palestinian advocacy group that has faced legal scrutiny for alleged ties to terror organizations such as Hamas, has significantly bolstered its fundraising in recent years. 

The organization raised a record $11 million in revenue from July 2023 to June 2024, according to its latest tax filing, far outpacing previous figures. It is not required to share the names of its donors as a 501(c)(3) to which contributions are tax-deductible.

As a so-called “dark money” group, JVP Action, a 501(c)(4) that is not tax-exempt, can also shield its contributors from the public, even as it engages in elections — unlike political action committees that must disclose their donors. 

JVP Action pulled in $800,000 in revenue from July 2022 to June 2023, its most recent tax filing shows, marking its strongest showing since it was established in 2020.

A smaller PAC affiliated with JVP raised only $133,000 last election cycle and does not seem to be part of the new restructuring. The Anti-Defamation League filed a complaint last year accusing the PAC of engaging in a pattern of misrepresentations that violate federal campaign finance law. 

In its efforts to stake out a more prominent role in elections, JVP Action is borrowing a page from one of its primary adversaries, the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which launched a super PAC as well as a political action committee in 2021 to wield its more considerable resources in congressional races where divisions over Israel have drawn significant outside spending.

“For a century, our opposition — the American Zionist establishment — has employed a long-term multipronged strategy to build U.S. support for Zionism and genocide and they have used all the tactics in the book,” JVP says in its recent meeting agenda. “They have a cultural strategy, an electoral strategy, a lobbying arm, youth organizations, mass movement organizations and funding vehicles.”

But the group argues that its opponents are “now experiencing a crack in their power.”

JVP Action, which has previously endorsed a range of Squad members in the House, has not indicated how it plans to approach the upcoming midterms in its more streamlined role.

The group did not return a request for comment on Wednesday, nor did JVP.

A poll released in February by The Jewish Majority, a pro-Israel research group in Washington, showed most Jewish Americans oppose the confrontational protest tactics used by JVP and regard anti-Zionist movements as antisemitic, among other findings.

Jonathan Schulman, the executive director of The Jewish Majority, said that JVP’s “decision to more vigorously engage in electoral politics signals their growing ambition to influence policy in ways that undermine Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state.”

“As they pursue this goal,” Schulman said in a statement to JI on Wednesday, “the pro-Israel community must make it clear to both the public and policymakers that the rhetoric and tactics of anti-Zionism undermine any prospects for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and contribute to the rise in violent attacks against Jews in America. JVP seeks to disprove any connection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. We must expose that anti-Zionism is fundamentally opposed to peace.”

But with Mamdani’s resounding win over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had touted his staunch support for Israel and opposition to rising antisemitism in the primary, JVP now claims to see evidence its “movement work” is gaining traction.

“It is no longer popular for the U.S. to be sending endless weapons and funding to Israel,” the group said in its meeting agenda. “People are questioning the U.S.’ support for genocide and violence against the Palestinian people. Our movement is growing! And we still have a long way to go to break open this crack and end U.S. support for Israel.”

The latest Democratic primary battle between the left and center where Israel has emerged as a point of division is playing out in a special House election in Tucson, Ariz., later this month, as five candidates vie to replace former longtime Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), who died in March.

The July 15 primary in Arizona’s dependably blue 7th Congressional District has kept a relatively low profile, even as it features ideological tensions over Middle East policy that could hold implications for the party’s increasingly fractious approach to Israel in the lead-up to next year’s midterm elections.

Adelita Grijalva, 54, a former Pima County supervisor, is viewed as the heavy favorite to win the seat in what is expected to be a low-turnout race, owing in part to her significant name recognition in the area represented by her late father for over two decades. 

She has also consolidated endorsements from top establishment Democrats, including Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), while securing the backing of progressive leaders such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), among other high-profile critics of Israel in Congress.

But her limited record of commentary on Israel has raised questions among pro-Israel activists rallying behind one of Grijalva’s chief primary rivals, Daniel Hernandez, a former state lawmaker who identifies as a pro-Israel progressive and claims support from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and the political arm of Democratic Majority for Israel.

The 35-year-old Hernandez, recently named the board chair of the Zionist LGTBQ organization A Wider Bridge, has pitched himself as a “consistent champion” of pro-Israel causes, in contrast with the late Grijalva, who during his long tenure embraced hostile positions toward Israel — most prominently when he joined a small handful of House Democrats to oppose additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system in 2021.

Like her father, the younger Grijalva appears more skeptical of Israel amid its war in Gaza, even as she has yet to publicly clarify her own views on a range of key issues, such as continued U.S. security aid to Israel, which has faced vocal resistance from some of her supporters on the left.

Grijalva called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas 10 days after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. In her role as a county supervisor, she also reluctantly voted for a resolution that condemned Hamas, while voicing frustration that she “couldn’t talk about peace and humanitarian aid” for Gaza.

More recently, Grijalva has struggled to clearly articulate her approach to Israel and the broader Middle East, suggesting in a recent discussion with a progressive organization that speaking candidly about her views could draw outside spending from pro-Israel advocacy groups such as AIPAC, which has targeted Israel critics in Democratic primaries, into the race.

“The frustration for me, and it will always be, I think, is that there were some things that my dad could get away with that a lot of these organizations that come in and try to influence races and stuff, he predated them,” Grijalva explained during a Zoom call in May with Progressive Democrats of America, an anti-Israel group that is backing her campaign.

Her father, who died at 77, “was like this mountain in the middle, like no one’s moving him one way or the other,” she continued on the call, some portions of which were recently reviewed by Jewish Insider. “But I do think that in this environment, when we are not in normal times and you can’t negotiate with terrorists, there is a difference here, where walking in, I know it’s going to be a different experience for me than it was for my dad.”

A spokesperson for AIPAC said on Wednesday that the group is “not involved” in the race. DMFI PAC, which has also engaged in several House primaries in recent cycles, has so far refrained from investing in the race, despite backing Hernandez. The group did not respond to a request for comment about its plans for the final days of the election, now less than two weeks away.

Elsewhere in the Zoom discussion, Grijalva dodged a question about her position on sending U.S. arms to Israel amid its war against Hamas in Gaza, which she called an “atrocity,” while echoing a section on her campaign site calling for “an immediate release of the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity” and “rapid and complete restoration of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip” to set “the foundation for a two-state solution.”

“The surest way to bring them home, defeat Hamas and begin the process of rebuilding Gaza for the Palestinian people,” Grijalva said on the call, “is through a long-term, just and peaceful resolution, which the United States has a responsibility to work towards.”

Still, she suggested that U.S. involvement in the ongoing conflict “has not been helpful at all,” and vaguely argued that “the United States has been a part of interfering with this process and trying to aid in different ways.”

Pro-Israel activists in Arizona, none of whom would agree to speak on the record over concerns of antagonizing a likely future member of Congress, have voiced apprehension about Grijalva’s comments on Middle East policy, pointing to a lack of general clarity on major issues.

During a Zoom conversation this week with the Arizona Democratic Party Jewish Caucus, for example, Grijalva was asked about her “understanding of the term ‘intifada,’” a recent subject of heated debate as Zohran Mamdani, the far-left Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, has faced backlash for doubling down on defending calls to “globalize” the Palestinian uprisings against Israel — which critics have interpreted as stoking violence against Jews.

Grijalva, who has condemned recent antisemitic attacks, indicated that she was unfamiliar with the term, according to a brief recording of the Zoom discussion shared with JI on Wednesday. “I don’t really know in this case what that means,” she said in response.

Grijalva’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Limited public polling on the primary has shown Grijalva leading the field, which includes Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old political influencer who says she has raised $500,000 as her campaign has continued to gain some traction. On Wednesday, Foxx notched an endorsement from David Hogg’s political action group, which said “she has translated her story to represent a new vision of generational change that speaks truth to” President Donald Trump’s “cruel policies.”

An internal poll commissioned by Foxx’s campaign and publicized earlier this week reportedly showed her in second place behind Grijalva with 35%, marking a major improvement over her standing in a previous survey, released in April, where she claimed 5% of the vote. 

Foxx has rarely addressed developments in the Middle East, but she has indicated that she would be among the more outspoken critics of Israel if elected. In a video she shared on social media late last month, Foxx is seen addressing voters about the war in Gaza, arguing that “this is the issue that has politicized my entire generation.”

“We have watched devastation unfold on our screens as we have come of age,” she said in her remarks, while adding, “I want to be really clear that in one of the richest countries in the world, it is unconscionable that we send money abroad for weapons that disproportionately hurt women and children and families when families right here do not have food or insurance or housing.”

Jose Malvido Jr., a longshot candidate who has appeared in debates, has for his part repeatedly called Israel’s military actions in Gaza a “genocide,” an accusation his opponents have at least publicly avoided.

In perhaps a rare moment of unity on Middle East policy, both Grijalva and Hernandez have suggested that they would support an impeachment inquiry on Trump’s unilateral decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities last month. Foxx forcefully condemned the attacks, saying that the U.S. “should not be dragged into another endless war by a reality TV president.”

Mike Noble, a pollster and political analyst in Arizona, said Grijalva is “in the driver’s seat” as the primary enters its final stretch, noting it is “her race to lose.” Foxx, he speculated, could potentially peel support from Grijalva’s progressive base, but said it is unlikely that even a split vote would amount to a meaningful change in the outcome. “I’m less bullish on Hernandez,” he told JI, even as he acknowledged that the former state lawmaker could “pull off some votes.”

Grijalva’s ambiguous comments addressing Israel, meanwhile, do not appear to have tangibly stunted her path to the nomination — particularly as recent political developments have shown that embracing firm pro-Israel positions may no longer be as strong a prerequisite for a winning Democratic campaign amid declining voter sympathy for the Jewish state.

Pro-Israel activists are also preparing for a Grijalva victory, while continuing to voice reservations over the direction she will take on key Middle East policy issues if she is elected to succeed her father in the House. 

No such questions surround Hernandez, said Alma Hernandez, his sister and a top campaign surrogate, who is an outspoken defender of Israel in the state Legislature. 

“His record speaks for itself,” she told JI, saying that he “will always fight for what’s right and bring principled leadership to Congress.”

Mainstream political and business leaders in New York City, including the organized Jewish community, will soon need to decide whether to coalesce against far-left presumed Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani — by rallying behind the candidacy of scandal-plagued Mayor Eric Adams despite his significant political baggage.

Adams, who is running as an independent in the race, appears to be the only alternative candidate capable of putting together a campaign rallying anti-socialists across the city to stop Mamdani. It won’t be easy, given Adams’ own low approval ratings and record of alleged corruption, but the makings of an anti-Mamdani coalition are there — at least on paper.

For Adams to win plurality support in a general election, it would require most Republicans to put partisanship aside and vote for Adams to stop the socialist, and hold onto most of the Black, Jewish voters and moderate Democratic voters who voted in large numbers for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary. Adams benefits from the name recognition of incumbency, and the potential to receive support from outside centrist groups spending on his behalf.

Keeping a bipartisan coalition of that nature will be challenging, especially given the mayor’s own unpopular record. It would require a number of lucky breaks, from Cuomo opting not to run in the general election (he appears to be staying on the ballot without an active campaign) to Republicans effectively nudging their voters to back Adams when there’s a Republican already on the ballot. But if the campaign is less about Adams and more about stopping left-wing radicalism on crime, the economy and antisemitism, it’s not implausible to see a campaign coalescing around a “block socialism, vote Adams” type of message.

Here’s the political math: Adams would have to win over most New York City Republicans — President Donald Trump won 30% of the citywide vote in 2024 — while remaining competitive with Democrats and winning over independents who weren’t eligible to participate in the Democratic primary. 

An Emerson College poll conducted amid Mamdani’s surge in late May offers some empirical evidence that such a coalition has an outside shot at victory in a general election, with a broader, more-moderate electorate. The survey found that with Mamdani as the Democratic nominee, he leads with 35%, Republican Curtis Sliwa finishes with 16%, Adams holds 15% and independent Jim Walden tallied 6%. 

Put together the Sliwa, Walden and Adams votes, and you’ve got yourself a competitive race. 

There’s already a lot of rumbling that Trump administration officials, eager to see Sliwa off the ballot, are looking at offering him a job in the administration to help nudge GOP voters into the Adams column to stop Mamdani. But Sliwa has given every indication so far that he’s not dropping out, which would force Republican leaders to more subtly nudge GOP partisans towards Adams. 

The big red flag for anti-Mamdani moderates? Adams’ favorability rating in the same poll was a dismal 19%, with 69% viewing him unfavorably. That said, given the changed nature of the contest, the perception of Adams could change amid the shifting strategic environment. He’s already running a more energetic campaign than Cuomo did in the primary. (And it’s a safer bet to hope Adams’ numbers improve as an anti-Mamdani vehicle than betting on a total outsider with minimal name ID to play that role, as a few business leaders have suggested.)

There is some precedent for mainstream forces working to block a far-left or far-right candidate after an unexpected primary outcome. One of the most recent examples is socialist India Walton’s out-of-nowhere upset against Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in a 2021 Democratic primary. Many analysts attributed her victory to a left-wing surge; it turned out to be a mirage of a low-turnout election before a broader array of voters really had a chance to scrutinize her record and background. Brown easily won the general election — as a write-in candidate.

There’s also former Sen. Joe Lieberman winning as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic primary, with Republicans signaling to their voters to back the senator over the also-ran GOP nominee on the ballot. And there’s the 1991 Louisiana governor’s election where scandal-plagued Democratic Gov. Edwin Edwards beat David Duke, whom Republican voters knowingly nominated. Edwards’ slogan? “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important.”

To be sure, any anti-Mamdani effort will be something of a long shot. Mamdani is now winning support from elected New York Democratic leaders all too willing to accommodate his radical record, and he generated strong turnout in the primary that underscores his natural charisma and strength as a politician. He’s got more starpower than many of the other aforementioned extreme nominees.

But if Jewish leaders believe Mamdani would pose a serious threat to Jewish life and safety in the city if elected, you’d expect they would make every effort to stop his candidacy — especially since there’s a chance, albeit a small one, that his momentum could be stunted as his record draws closer attention.

In his campaign for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a far-left Queens state assemblyman polling in second place behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has indicated he would not visit Israel if he is elected, saying he does not believe that such a trip is necessary “to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers.”

“I believe that to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers means that you actually meet Jewish New Yorkers wherever they may be, be it at their synagogues and temples or their homes or on the subway platform or at a park, wherever it may be,” Mamdani, a fierce critic of Israel, reiterated in comments at a mayoral forum hosted by several progressive Jewish groups on Sunday night.

By contrast, in a 2020 Zoom discussion with the Adalah Justice Project, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, Mamdani said he was planning to organize a trip to the Palestinian territories, suggesting that he would make an exception for an issue he has upheld as one of his top causes during his tenure in Albany.

“Once COVID is over, I am planning on finding a way to coordinate a trip with other legislators to Palestine,” Mamdani said at the time. “We’ll figure that one out. I’ll probably get to the border and get turned away, but at the very least I’m going to organize it and go myself.”

It is unclear if Mamdani organized such a trip. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The comments, however, broadly underscore how Mamdani’s past remarks on the Israel-Palestinian conflict have become a source of growing tension as he confronts basic questions on the issue during his mayoral campaign. 

Several of Mamdani’s Democratic opponents in the June 24 primary have said they would visit Israel if elected — in keeping with a long-standing tradition for New York City mayors who represent the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. Cuomo, who is leading the primary, has vowed it would be his first trip abroad, as have other candidates.

Mamdani, for his part, has suggested he would not visit any foreign country as mayor, saying he would instead “stay in New York City,” as he confirmed at the first mayoral debate last week. “My plans are to address New Yorkers across the five boroughs and focus on that,” he said.

During the mayoral forum on Sunday evening, he also raised doubts about whether he would be able to enter Israel at all, citing Israeli legislation barring non-citizen backers of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement from visiting the Jewish state.

Despite his long-standing support for BDS, Mamdani, who has faced scrutiny for declining to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, did not provide a direct answer about whether he would continue to endorse the movement as mayor when asked at the forum, saying only that he would seek to “bring New York City back into” compliance with international law.

“I think ultimately, the focus of our mayor should be on the issues of New York City at hand,” he insisted, even as he had argued in the Zoom conversation five years ago that BDS is a salient “local” issue and said that mayoral candidates should be pressured to join the movement to boycott Israel.

Elsewhere in that discussion, Mamdani voiced hostility to resolutions in the state Legislature to “disavow BDS” or “stand in solidarity with Israel,” which he dismissed as promoting Israeli interests. 

“They use all of these hasbara propaganda talking points in the resolutions,” Mamdani said, using the Hebrew word for Israeli public diplomacy. “That is one place to fight is to stop such resolutions from being passed, to pass different kinds of resolutions.”

Mamdani has faced scrutiny for not signing on to several resolutions commemorating the Holocaust and honoring Israel during his tenure in office. He has defended his decision as consistent with what he now describes as a general policy against joining any such measures.

“In January, I told my Assembly staff not to co-sponsor any resolutions that were emailed to our office,” Mamdani said in a video last month. “It had nothing to do with the content of the resolution. But I understand this has caused pain and confusion for many.”

He said he had “voted every year for the Holocaust Remembrance Day Resolution, including this year, to honor the more than 6 million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis.”