Plus, moderates speechless in Seattle
Shmulik Almany
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter addresses Rosh Hashanah reception at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Sept. 18th, 2025
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Thursday afternoon!
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that Israel “prefer[s] that Turkey not receive F-35s from the U.S.,” breaking with Washington over the move that President Donald Trump indicated he was open to during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in September.
But Leiter dismissed concerns around Saudi Arabia potentially acquiring F-35s, which is currently under negotiation ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House next week. “There’s no indication that Israel’s qualitative edge will be compromised,” he said. Leiter has recently become Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main conduit in Washington after the resignation of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer…
Israel is seeking a new 20-year memorandum of understanding with the U.S. when the current one expires in 2028, U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios, double the length of past agreements.
New Israeli propositions, including redirecting some of the funds towards joint U.S.-Israeli R&D rather than direct military aid, are reportedly designed to make the lengthy deal more attractive to Trump as well as the GOP, which has grown weary of foreign aid…
Trump told MBS in a phone call last month that he expects to see progress made on Israel-Saudi normalization now that the ceasefire in Gaza is in force, U.S. officials also told Axios, which MBS said he was “willing to work on”…
Israel and White House advisor Jared Kushner are preparing contingency plans in case Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan doesn’t come to fruition, Israeli media reports. The IDF’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, told Israeli Security Cabinet officials that the IDF will soon present its alternative…
Meanwhile in the U.S., the Democratic primary for the seat of retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in New York’s 12th Congressional District, which has one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country, gets more crowded by the day.
Shortly after the entry of JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, into the race, Erik Bottcher, a Democratic city councilman and LGBTQ activist, told The New York Times he’s jumping in (and that he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state). There are rumors that Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway is eyeing a bid, as well.
Among the many other candidates are longtime Nadler aide Micah Lasher, who today got the endorsement of Comptroller-elect Mark Levine; state Assemblyman Alex Bores; and gun control activist Cameron Kasky, who posted yesterday on social media, “If you are a Democrat running in 2026 and do not fully support an arms embargo to the State of Israel … Stop wasting everybody’s time”…
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell conceded to his opponent, socialist Katie Wilson, today after last night’s ballot drop made it mathematically impossible for him to prevail.
Though the moderate Harrell led in the polls for the week following Election Day, Wilson eventually gained ground and now leads him by a 0.7% margin — just shy of 2,000 votes. With only several hundred votes left to be counted, The Seattle Times said the race is “on pace to be the closest in modern Seattle politics.”
Wilson joins New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, as well as progressive challengers who prevailed in several Seattle City Council races, as evidence of the far left’s growing popularity in major U.S. cities. However, their small (or razor thin, in Wilson’s case) margins of victory and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s win over his DSA-aligned opponent are proof the fringe still lacks a mandate in the Democratic Party…
Former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) announced raising more than $500,000 in the first 24 hours after the launch of her comeback bid for her seat in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.
The Jewish, pro-Israel Navy veteran sent out a fundraising email this afternoon with the subject line “Chutzpah,” saying the “Yiddish term that means guts or courage … runs in my family” and she’s “not afraid of a little mishigas”…
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized today after suffering a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” and subsequent fall and face injuries, but is doing well, his spokesperson reported. His scheduled discussion this evening with UJA-Federation of New York about his new book has been cancelled…
The New York Times profiles Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and his path from leading a small Catholic college to helming the prominent think tank and sparking controversy among conservatives over his embrace of Tucker Carlson.
Roberts claimed as part of his defense over releasing the controversial video during a staff meeting last week, “I actually don’t have time to consume a lot of news. I consume a lot of sports,” and “I didn’t know much about this [Nick] Fuentes guy. I still don’t.”
“‘Who could believe that the head of a think tank doesn’t think?’ said Charles Jacobs, the president of the Jewish Leadership Project, which resigned from a Heritage Foundation task force meant to fight antisemitism after Mr. Roberts’ video was released”…
Joining the list of Heritage resignations, Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason’s Scalia Law School and a prominent pro-Israel advocate, announced he is resigning as a Heritage visiting fellow today “based on [his] considered judgment” of Roberts’ video and “subsequent commentary”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for a preview of President Donald Trump’s meeting next week with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is traveling to Israel tomorrow for a five-day trip where he plans to meet with government officials and economic development and high-tech leaders.
The Texas Tribune Festival, taking place this week in Austin, continues tomorrow with speakers including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Democratic Texas Senate candidates James Talarico and Rep. Colin Allred, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), comedian John Mulaney, former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. On Saturday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are slated to speak.
MSNBC is launching its rebrand on Saturday as MS NOW, part of its separation from NBCUniversal, with dozens of veteran journalists recruited as part of its expanded newsroom.
On Sunday, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present its fourth annual New York Jewish Book Festival.
Sunday evening, the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly kicks off in Washington, with an opening plenary including former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, authors Sarah Hurwitz and Micah Goodman, CNN contributor Scott Jennings and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York City.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
Stories You May Have Missed
BROTHERHOOD PARADOX
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One of its branches is banned for Hamas ties. The other sits in the Knesset
WOOD-N’T TAKE IT
Another Maine Democrat takes page from Platner playbook
Jordan Wood, now running to succeed Rep. Jared Golden, said he won’t take money from AIPAC in his newly launched House campaign
Plus, a way for Israel to compete with checkbook diplomacy
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump stops and talks to the media before he boards Marine One on the South Lawn at the White House on June 15, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we continue to report on the latest developments in the war between Israel and Iran, including President Donald Trump’s call for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” and the potential for U.S. involvement in strikes targeting the Fordow nuclear facility. We also highlight stories of stranded Israelis attempting to enter the country and stranded tourists attempting to exit it, and report on NYC mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada.” Also in today’s Daily Kickoff, Sen. Josh Hawley, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and David Zaslav.
What We’re Watching
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning on the Pentagon’s 2026 fiscal year budget.
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will appear in a new interview with Tucker Carlson, slated to be released later today. Clips released ahead of the full interview show clashes between the Texas Republican and conservative commentator, whose policy positions on Iran and Israel are increasingly at odds with the Trump administration.
- The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is holding a memorial event tonight for Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
While the last two months have been an exercise in diplomacy for Trump administration officials, who have crisscrossed the Middle East and Europe in an attempt to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, the last 24 hours have seen a sharp pivot from President Donald Trump to a more hard-line approach to Tehran.
“UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” the president posted on his Truth Social site on Tuesday afternoon, understood to be a message to Iran after more than five days of Israeli attacks meant to degrade Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure. Iranian reprisals that have paralyzed Israel, but resulted in damage that has fallen far short of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s threats. (Khamenei responded on Wednesday that “the Iranian nation will not surrender.”)
Trump’s latest comments underscore his shift away from the isolationist elements of the GOP that have dominated his administration since a purge of more traditional foreign policy-minded Republicans, including former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. As The New York Times’ Ross Douthat wrote on Tuesday, Trump’s isolationist supporters “imagined that personnel was policy, that the realists and would-be restrainers in Trump’s orbit would have a decisive influence. That was clearly a mistake, and the lesson here is that Trump decides and no one else.”
On Capitol Hill, while Republicans appear publicly split on the level of involvement that the U.S. should have in the conflict — from working with Israel to destroy the Fordow nuclear facility to forcing Iran’s hand in diplomatic talks — JI’s conversations with legislators indicate a different approach behind the scenes. One senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal conference dynamics estimated that nearly the entire GOP conference is privately united on the issue of the U.S. supporting Israel in bombing the Fordow facility if Israel needs such support. Read more from JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod here.
“I think the president has struck the right position,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI, “which is supportive of Israel’s right of self-defense, which is what this really is, and supporting them publicly while they defend themselves. I think that’s the right position to stick on.” Read more of Hawley’s comments here.
ISRAEL-IRAN WAR, DAY 6
Over 50 Israeli warplanes strike in Tehran area overnight
Israel struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran early Wednesday, after successfully intercepting more than two dozen missiles launched by Iran toward Israel in the preceding hours. Over 50 Israeli Air Force jets flew to Iran, where they struck a facility in which centrifuges were manufactured to expand and accelerate uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. “The Iranian regime is enriching uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear power for civilian use does not require enrichment at these levels,” the IDF said.
Military update: The IDF also said it struck several weapons manufacturing facilities, including one used “to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel.” Another facility that the IDF struck manufactured components for anti-aircraft missiles. Effie Defrin, the chief military spokesman, said on Wednesday that the IDF “attacked five Iranian combat helicopters that tried to harm our aircraft.” Defrin added, “There is Iranian resistance, but we control the air [over Iran] and will continue to control it. We are deepening our damage to surface missiles and acting in every place from which the Iranians shoot missiles at Israel.”
FORDOW FACTOR
Israeli national security advisor: Iran operation will not end without strike on Fordow nuclear facility
Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site is a key target in the current operation against the Islamic Republic, Israel’s national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Tuesday. “This operation will not conclude without a strike on the Fordow nuclear facility,” Hanegbi told Israel’s Channel 12 News. The Fordow facility is home to thousands of centrifuges, crucial to Iran’s weapons-grade uranium enrichment program, and is located 295 feet underground beneath a mountain. Israel is thought to have neither the munitions nor the aircraft to destroy it from the air, while the U.S. does, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
American angle: Washington, however, has yet to make clear if it will take part in the offensive on Iran, though it has shot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel in the last few days. Hanegbi said that he does not believe the Trump administration has made a decision on the matter yet. Hanegbi denied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked the U.S. to join Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites: “We didn’t ask and we won’t ask. We will leave it to the Americans to make such dramatic decisions about their own security. We think only they can decide.”
Decisive decision: A decision by Trump on whether or not to join Israel’s strikes against Iran could make the difference between the full destruction of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and a more drawn-out war with a less conclusive end, Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher in the Iran and the Shi’ite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI’s Lahav Harkov on Tuesday.
Word of warning: Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) cautioned on Tuesday that bombing Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility would leave significant enriched uranium buried underground. “I’m a little confused on all the conversation about dropping a bunker buster on a mountain that’s filled with enriched uranium, and how that solves the problem. If you’re going to try to get enriched uranium out of the country, dropping a big bunker buster on it may disable the centrifuges in [Fordow], but you still have 900 pounds of enriched uranium sitting there,” Lankford told JI’s Marc Rod.
UNIQUE OFFERING
Is this the way Israel can compete with checkbook diplomacy?
Midway through June, the Middle East looks very different than it did when President Donald Trump traveled to the region just last month. Trump was feted by Gulf monarchs, as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates sought to make their mark on a business-savvy president by touting hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and trade deals. Now, with Israeli strikes on Iran entering their sixth day, the best way to get Trump’s attention in the region — at least for the moment — is no longer financial prowess. It is firepower, according to at least one observer, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Expert view: “I think what you saw over the last few days is Israel’s alternative model to checkbook diplomacy,” author and podcast host Dan Senor said in a Saturday episode of “The Prof G Pod,” hosted by NYU professor Scott Galloway. “Israel has its own way of competing, because what Israel is demonstrating is, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to be the country that personally has sheikhs and emirs who can write checks for billions and trillions of dollars into the American economy,’” Senor said. “‘But we are the most capable ally in the world, and you, the United States, are going to get more out of this relationship than you give.’”
REVERSE EXODUS
Let my people leave — by land or by sea
Until flights out of Israel begin, Americans stuck there are passing along any information they can find — in WhatsApp threads, Facebook groups and private messages — to get themselves and their loved ones home. The details are hard to verify. The costs range from expensive to astronomical, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Moment of truth: When Home Front Command alerts woke Sam Heller at 3 a.m. on Friday, informing the nation that Israel had launched a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he quickly booked the first flight out to Paris from Ben Gurion Airport. “I went straight to the airport, and they locked the doors to Ben Gurion, and they stopped letting people in,” Heller told JI on Tuesday, safely back home in Cleveland. “They’re like, ‘We’re closing our airspace indefinitely. Your flight’s been canceled. All flights are canceled. You can’t get out.’”
At all costs: One graphic shared widely on WhatsApp advertises an emergency evacuation flight from Israel to New York, promising a Wednesday afternoon departure to Eilat and a bus transfer to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, followed by a charter flight to Milan, Italy, and then a connection to JFK Airport in New York — “lavish meals included” and “security escorted” — for $2,200 a person. According to the travel company’s website, though, it was already sold out by the time the graphic circulated. Another message advertised a chartered flight from Aqaba, Jordan — near Eilat — to Paris, for $3,000 a person. Abraham Tours, a travel company best known for its hostels in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, advertised a cross-border transfer to Amman, Jordan, for $438.
Pressure push: A bipartisan group of 45 House members led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Wesley Bell (D-MO) wrote to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urging officials to act promptly to facilitate evacuations of American citizens from Israel, or at least provide them with additional information on efforts to allow for such evacuations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
GILDED CAGE
How a Mediterranean vacation destination for Israelis turned into a displaced persons hub
An American couple who were en route to Israel to celebrate their wedding but had their flight diverted. Two Israeli single mothers on holiday looking for a quick refresh, now stranded. A group of injured Israel Defense Forces soldiers on a healing retreat. These are some of the nearly 2,500 Jewish people that Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, the chief rabbi of Cyprus, and his wife, Shaindel, unexpectedly found themselves hosting for Shabbat last Friday after at least 32 flights from the United States and Europe were diverted to the island in the Mediterranean amid Israel’s preemptive military campaign against Iran, which was launched early Friday morning, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Old Faithful: Shabbat at Chabad “was amazing, a crazy experience,” said Tzvi Berg, a Jerusalem resident who was flying home from a wedding in New York on Thursday night when — just moments away from landing in Tel Aviv — his flight was rerouted to Larnaca, a port city in Cyprus. But as Shabbat ended — with Israeli airspace still shuttered as Iranian missiles continued to strike in Tel Aviv and elsewhere — “the challenge began again,” Raskin said. And those in need are knocking on Chabad’s door looking for food and accommodations, as many Jews do in moments of crisis around the world.
CHANT CONTROVERSY
Zohran Mamdani says ‘globalize the intifada’ is expression of Palestinian rights
Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate in next Tuesday’s New York City mayoral primary, refused to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” during a new podcast interview with The Bulwark released on Tuesday, arguing the phrase is an expression of Palestinian rights. In an exchange about antisemitic rhetoric on the left, Mamdani was asked by podcast host Tim Miller to share his thoughts on the phrase, which has been invoked at anti-Israel demonstrations and criticized as an anti-Jewish call to violence, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What he said: “To me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” said Mamdani, a far-left assemblyman from Queens who has long been an outspoken critic of Israel. “And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” he said, apparently referring to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. He added that, “as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning.”
Surveys say: Two new polls — from the Marist Institute for Public Opinion and the Manhattan Institute — show former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo leading New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in next week’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York City. The Marist poll has Cuomo ultimately prevailing over Mamdani in the seventh round of ranked-choice voting, 55-45, while the Manhattan Institute poll has Cuomo beating Mamdani 56-44 in 10 rounds.
Worthy Reads
From Hands-Off to Hands-On: The New York Times looks at how President Donald Trump’s approach to the Israel-Iran war shifted as the war has unfolded. “When he woke on Friday morning, his favorite TV channel, Fox News, was broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius. And Mr. Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself. In phone calls with reporters, Mr. Trump began hinting that he had played a bigger behind-the-scenes role in the war than people realized. Privately, he told some confidants that he was now leaning toward a more serious escalation: going along with Israel’s earlier request that the United States deliver powerful bunker-busting bombs to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordo[w].” [NYTimes]
Axis of Illiberality: In The Washington Post, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and a former member of Knesset, considers the role of China, Russia and North Korea alongside Iran in advancing antisemitism around the world. “While ‘intersectionality’ once was intended to advance the foundational principles of life and liberty, it can now be applied to a contemporary target: authoritarian and illiberal regimes’ efforts to tear apart those very foundations. The declared intention is destroying liberal democracies. … There are many ties that bind Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Oil, arms and food bring them together; stoking global antisemitism is a useful tool in a divide-and-conquer strategy. These regimes pursue their agendas in ways that may outwardly vary, but they share a common goal: the West’s downfall. They all recognize that the liberal principles of democracies and the international rules-based order can be exploited to sow fear, despair and distrust.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump, traveling back to Washington from the G7 in Canada, dismissed a public assessment by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made earlier this year that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; Politico looks at the “widening gap” between Trump and Gabbard as the two clash on Middle East policy issues…
A new bipartisan resolution introduced by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) and 14 co-sponsors on Tuesday praises Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities and condemns Iran’s retaliatory missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
An Army general who served as the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate was removed from the joint staff amid an investigation into his social media posts, which included a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies” and allegations that American pro-Israel activists are prioritizing “support for Israel over our actual foreign interests”…
Tablet interviews the Institute for Science and International Security’s David Albright, a former International Atomic Energy Agency inspector, about the state of the Iranian nuclear program and Israeli capabilities to target the Fordow facility without U.S. assistance…
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) said he would consider a bid for the House seat held by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) if Sherrill prevails in the November gubernatorial election…
Colorado’s two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, wrote to Senate leaders on Tuesday calling for funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to be increased to as much as $500 million following the antisemitic attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; they also urged lawmakers to ensure that the funding can be used to “pay permanent security guards and other critical personnel”…
Oracle announced a new program, Oracle Defense Ecosystem, to help smaller vendors sell technology to the Pentagon, including artificial intelligence; participating vendors will be able to utilize Oracle’s office space and expertise with the Defense Department’s procurement system, as well as receive a discount for Palantir’s cloud and AI services…
Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting CEO David Zaslav’s pay when the company divides in two next year, though it will provide him with extra stock options that will pay out if the company hits share-price targets, in order to better tie pay to performance…
A Bay Area man is facing federal hate crimes charges for his participation in what the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office called an “antisemitic group beating” of two people, one of whom was Jewish; a physical confrontation escalated after members of the group reportedly shouted “free Palestine” and “f–k the Jews”…
A Maryland man was charged with allegedly sending numerous threats to Jewish organizations in Pennsylvania over a period of more than a year, from April 2024 to May 2025…
The Birmingham City Council became the first in the U.K. to recognize the Jewish identity of residents when collecting demographic data…
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Israel was doing the “dirty work” of striking Iran “for all of us”…
A new poll from the Council for a Secure America found overwhelming support (79%) among the Israeli public for Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities…
The Wall Street Journal speaks with Israeli entrepreneurs about how the war between Israel and Iran is impacting Israeli startups — destroying homes and offices, calling up reservists, canceling conferences, halting business travel and affecting productivity…
The U.S. withdrew troops from two bases in northeastern Syria, amid concerns from U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces in the region that the vacuum could provide an opening for extremist groups…
Turkey is ramping up its production of medium- and long-range missiles amid the escalation between Israel and Iran…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) met on Tuesday with Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, the first time the two have met for a security briefing in more than a month.
Birthdays
Music mogul, Scott Samuel “Scooter” Braun turns 44…
Chicago-based attorney, he is the only ordained rabbi to have served as an alderman on the Chicago City Council, Solomon Gutstein turns 91… Former Washington Post editor and reporter, Fred Barbash turns 80… Retired IT management advisor at Next Stage, Steven Shlomo Nezer… Croatian entrepreneur, he was previously the minister of economy, labour and entrepreneurship in the Croatian government, Davor Stern turns 78… Rabbi at Or Hamidbar in Palm Springs, Calif., he previously led congregations in Israel and Stockholm, Rabbi David James Lazar turns 68… Rebecca Diamond… Best-selling author and journalist, she was editor-in-chief of USA Today, Joanne Lipman turns 64… Retired professor of English at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Helene Meyers… Executive of the William Pears Group, a large UK real estate firm founded by his father and grandfather, Sir Trevor Steven Pears (family name was Schleicher) turns 61… Vice chairman and president of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, she recently joined the board of Meta/Facebook, Dina Powell McCormick… White House senior aide during the Trump 45 administration, he is a principal of Cordish Companies, Reed Saunders Cordish turns 51… Film director and screenwriter, Jonathan A. Levine turns 49… Actor, comedian, satirist and writer, known professionally as Ben Gleib, Ben Nathan Gleiberman turns 47… Television producer and writer, Jeremy Bronson turns 45… Baseball pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, he is now the director of pitching development for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jeremy Bleich turns 38… Of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Esther Lifshitz… Israeli musician, producer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by his stage name Dennis Lloyd, Nir Tibor turns 32… Investor at Silver Point Capital, Jacob E. Best… Rachel Hazan…
They also urged lawmakers to ensure that the funding can be used to pay security guards and other security personnel
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) (C) introduces Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) (L) at Camp Hale on October 12, 2022 in Red Cliff, Colorado.
Colorado’s two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, wrote to Senate leaders on Tuesday calling for funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to be increased to as much as $500 million following the antisemitic attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo.
They also urged lawmakers to ensure that the funding can be used to “pay permanent security guards and other critical personnel.”
“In the wake of these incidents and the broader increase in religiously motivated hate crimes, we urge you to do more to protect our Jewish communities by increasing funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program,” the lawmakers wrote. “We also urge you to direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to expand eligible NSGP expenditures so that synagogues, Jewish community centers, and other religious institutions can use the program to hire and retain personnel to better prevent antisemitic and other hate crimes.”
They emphasized that antisemitism in the United States has risen to record levels since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and that funding for the program has fallen significantly short.
“Following the recent antisemitic attacks in Boulder and Washington, D.C., it is obvious that Congress must allocate more funds for the NGSP, potentially up to $500 million, as many Republican Senators continue to request,” the two Colorado senators wrote. “Jewish Americans, like all Americans, deserve to visit their places of worship, schools, and community freely and without fear.”
Plus, the surprise hotspot in NYC's West Village
LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas during a meeting on the sidelines of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 25, 2024.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the House Appropriations Committee’s suggested 2026 funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, amid a warning from federal agencies of an “elevated threat” facing the Jewish community. We look at the state of relations between Israel and France as Paris moves toward unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state, and report on UCSF’s firing of a medical school professor accused of antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Vice President JD Vance, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Brad Sherman.
What We’re Watching
- The House of Representatives is set to vote this evening on two resolutions condemning antisemitism and the terrorist attack on a hostage march in Boulder, Colo. One resolution from Republicans, focused on Boulder, highlights immigration issues and denounces the slogan “Free Palestine,” while the other, which is bipartisan, links Sunday’s Colorado attack to a series of other recent violent antisemitic attacks. The first of the two is already attracting criticism from Democrats.
- The House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security subcommittee will hold a vote on its 2026 funding bill today. More below.
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams is holding a roundtable for Jewish media this morning.
- The Jewish Federations of North America is leading an LGBTQ+ Pride mission to Israel this week.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH MELISSA WEISS
The image of Greta Thunberg eyeing a turkey sandwich as she is taken into Israeli custody has been picked up across pro-Israel social media. And on the other side of the ideological spectrum, supporters of Thunberg, who is vegan, decried the “hostage-taking” of the Swedish climate activist and other participants on the boat that had been headed to Gaza before its interception overnight by Israel’s navy.
But the stunt — after all, the small vessel carrying Thunberg and the other activists could carry only a minimal amount of aid — has briefly taken global attention away from the legitimate efforts to distribute aid in Gaza, amid mounting distribution challenges following the launch of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation last month.
Distribution through the GHF was briefly paused last week following a series of incidents in and around distribution sites, including the shooting of some Gazans as they neared sites as instructed, and the rush on other facilities by crowds of Gazans. Additionally, the GHF said it was forced to close its distribution sites on Saturday due to threats from Hamas.
ON ALERT
FBI, Jewish security experts warn of uptick in antisemitic threats
The American Jewish community is facing an “elevated threat” following a surge of violent antisemitic attacks across the country in recent weeks, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned last week. In a joint statement, the FBI and DHS called for increased vigilance among Jewish communities, noting the possibility of copycat attacks after a shooting in Washington in which two Israeli Embassy employees were killed and an attack in Boulder, Colo., in which 15 people were injured in a firebombing targeting advocates calling for the release of hostages in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Words of warning: “The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters. Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States,” the agencies warned. Jewish organizations that track threats to the community are similarly concerned about online rhetoric following the attacks. The Anti-Defamation League highlighted that, one day after the incident in Boulder, videos allegedly recorded by the assailant shortly before the assault began circulated on a Telegram channel called Taufan al-Ummah, which translates to “Flood of the Ummah,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas’ name for its October 7 terror attack on Israel. The circulated posts celebrated the actions of the terror suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman.
MONEY MATTERS
House Appropriations Committee proposes $305 million for nonprofit security grants
The House Appropriations Committee’s draft 2026 Homeland Security funding bill includes $305 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, a marginal increase that would restore the program to its 2023 funding levels,Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Yes, but: Lawmakers and Jewish advocacy groups called that funding level insufficient at the time, well before antisemitism skyrocketed following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the recent series of terrorist attacks targeting Jews in the United States. At the time, the funding fell well short of meeting demand, which has increased significantly since then.
PARIS POSITION
Macron’s Palestinian state push comes as report recommends step to appease Muslims
Israel and France have been on a diplomatic collision course in recent weeks, with French President Emmanuel Macron set to lay out steps toward the recognition of a Palestinian state at a French- and Saudi- sponsored conference promoting a two-state solution being held at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week. The move comes as the French government released a report calling on Paris to recognize a Palestinian state and recalibrate its policies towards Israel to “appease” France’s growing Muslim population, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Gov’t report: Amid the sparring between Israel and France, the French Interior Ministry released a report titled “Muslim Brothers and Political Islam in France,” calling the Muslim Brotherhood an “imminent threat” to French national security. The Islamist group is funded by foreign powers, has over 100,000 members in France and runs or influences countless mosques, schools and other organizations. The report also describes the Muslim Brotherhood’s dissemination of antisemitic texts and propaganda. Among the report’s recommendations is “the recognition by France of a Palestinian State alongside Israel” to “appease the frustrations” of French Muslims who perceive Paris as “supporting Jewish Israelis against Muslim Palestinians.”
Condemnation: Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), in a blistering statement, accused the U.N.’s special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, of antisemitism and said that her activity has undermined the United Nations and eroded U.S. support for the U.N. and foreign aid in general and will contribute to deaths around the world. The statement came in response to a letter from Albanese to Israel Bonds, accusing it of involvement in crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
PODCAST PLAYBACK
Vance parries anti-Israel attacks from podcaster Theo Von, rejects genocide charge
Vice President JD Vance defended Israel against an accusation of genocide from podcaster Theo Von on Saturday, but said “this whole debate” around the Israel-Hamas war “has caused us to lose our humanity,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
What he said: Speaking on the comedian’s podcast, Vance called the images coming out of Gaza “very heartbreaking” and said the administration is trying to “solve two problems here.” The first, he said, is that “you’ve got innocent people, innocent Palestinians and innocent Israeli hostages, by the way, who are like caught up in this terrible violence that’s happening as we speak. OK? And we’re trying to get as much aid and as much support into people as humanly possible.” The second, Vance said, is that “Israel’s attacked by this terrible terrorist organization … So I think what we’re trying to do in the Trump administration with that situation is to get to a peaceful resolution.”
Bipartisan push: A new bipartisan letter sent Friday by 16 House lawmakers to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff argues that any nuclear deal with Iran must permanently dismantle its capacity to enrich uranium, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The letter highlights that an insistence on full dismantlement of Iran’s enrichment capabilities is not only a Republican position, and that President Donald Trump will not be able to count on unified Democratic support for a deal that falls short of that benchmark.
DOCTOR DISMISSED
UCSF fires medical school professor accused of antisemitism
A University of California, San Francisco medical school professor whom Jewish colleagues allege has routinely posted antisemitic content on social media during the Gaza war has been fired by the university, more than a year after concerns about her behavior first surfaced, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Background: Dr. Rupa Marya worked at UCSF for 23 years, beginning as a resident before becoming a professor of internal medicine and a regular lecturer on social justice topics. With an active social media presence, Marya began posting about Israel’s war against Hamas soon after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. Her posts included attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli colleagues and students. In a federal lawsuit filed against UCSF this week, Marya alleged that the university violated her constitutional free speech protections by firing her in a retaliatory fashion over posts published on her personal account, which Marya claimed the university willfully misconstrued. She asserted that “neither her views nor her posts are antisemitic.”
URBAN SPIRITUALITY
Shabbat, style and soul at Chabad in the West Village
It’s Friday evening in Manhattan’s fashionable West Village. A couple dozen of New York’s elite — business executives, a television producer, a fashion designer, a journalist and a few politicos — pack a charming brownstone, a spot that’s been frequented by a range of influential people, from former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides to reality TV personality Andy Cohen. This isn’t dinner in one of the neighborhood’s Michelin-starred restaurants — although some weeks the waitlist here can be just as long. It’s Shabbat at Chabad West Village. There are more than 3,000 Chabad Houses around the world aimed at Jewish outreach. But in the West Village — one of Manhattan’s most unlikely neighborhoods for the spread of Torah — synagogue-goers, a diverse group of mostly secular Jews, say something unique is happening at this Chabad in particular, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Building a community: “When we moved here, we did not know one person,” Rabbi Berel Gurevitch, who launched Chabad West Village six years ago with his wife, Chana, told JI. “Now our list consists of around 5,000 Jewish people,” said Gurevitch, who is in his early 30s. The Gurevitches decamped from the comfort of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where they both grew up, for the West Village. The synagogue initially ran out of a small apartment on Grove Street — with New Yorker staff writer Calvin Trillin, who still attends frequently — as its landlord. Now in a townhouse on Charles Street, where such real estate can run into the tens of millions of dollars, the center, which is also the personal home of the Gurevitches and their three children, has become synonymous with several innovative programs: letting attendees be “Rabbi for a Day”; a “TGIF” program where participants learn how to host Friday night dinners with their friends; explanatory “Shabbat Matinée” services for people who would otherwise be at brunch and are giving prayer a chance; and a speaker series called “Hineni: Here I Am,” which has featured Trillin, Nides, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and comedian Alex Edelman.
Worthy Reads
The Case for Israel: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg posits that recent antisemitic attacks targeting Jews over their support for Israel underscores the country’s founding purpose as a safe haven for Jews. “Although these assailants all attacked American Jews, they clearly perceived themselves as Zionism’s avengers. In reality, however, they have joined a long line of Zionism’s inadvertent advocates. As in Herzl’s time, the perpetrators of anti-Jewish acts do more than nearly anyone else to turn Jews who were once indifferent or even hostile to Israel’s fate into reluctant appreciators of its necessity. … Simply put, Israel exists as it does today because of the repeated choices made by societies to reject their Jews. Had these societies made different choices, Jews would still live in them, and Israel likely would not exist — certainly not in its present form.” [TheAtlantic]
Foreign Exchange Fee: In The New York Times, Princeton professor David Bell considers the benefits and pitfalls of maintaining current levels of foreign-student enrollment in American universities. “If we think of universities principally as generators of knowledge, expanding international enrollments clearly makes sense. By increasing the pool of applicants, it raises the quality of student bodies, thereby improving the level of intellectual exchange and facilitating better research and more significant discoveries. … A graduate of an elite private school in Greece or India may well have more in common with a graduate of Exeter or Horace Mann than with a working-class American from rural Alabama. Do we need to turn university economics departments into mini-Davoses in which future officials of the International Monetary Fund from different countries reinforce one another’s opinions about global trade?” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
he State Department informed Congress that it no longer plans to eliminate the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator, a Jerusalem-based office that works with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority; the office will now be consolidated into the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem…
Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced a resolution condemning the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colo., and calling for “continued vigilance and Federal resources to counter rising antisemitism, investigate hate crimes, and support targeted communities”…
Hickenlooper was among the hundreds of marchers who attended Sunday’s hostage walk in Boulder, the first to be held following the attack…
Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced a resolution honoring Sarah Milgrim, an Israeli Embassy employee and Kansan killed in the Capital Jewish Museum shooting…
A bipartisan resolution calling for the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza advanced through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday…
In audio leaked from a Democratic National Committee officers meeting that took place in mid-May, DNC Chair Ken Martin said he was not sure he wanted to continue in his position, amid a push to oust DNC Vice Chairs David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta; the move by Hogg’s super PAC to back primary challengers to incumbents spurred internal concerns over Hogg’s continued leadership role at the DNC…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism…
The Bobov sect, a major Hasidic voting bloc in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, is endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, a representative for the community confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Friday…
The mayor of San Diego and a number of the city’s Jewish organizations pulled out of the upcoming San Diego Pride over the selection of Kehlani, who has faced backlash for recent comments about Israel, as the celebration’s headline act; one of the singer’s recent music videos opens with the text, “long live the intifada”…
A Pride music festival in San Francisco announced that Kehlani, who was slated to headline the event, had departed the lineup…
The New York Times spotlights the firing of a tenured Muhlenberg College professor over anti-Zionist social media posts, amid a broader crackdown on universities alleged to have mishandled campus antisemitism after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack…
Two U.S. Army veterans were found with a cache of stolen weapons and Nazi and white supremacist paraphernalia after they were arrested in connection with the assault of another soldier while attempting to steal additional combat equipment from a Washington state base…
Three Serbian nationals were charged with vandalizing Jewish sites in Paris, including the city’s Holocaust memorial, last weekend…
Iran claimed to have seized an “important treasury” of documents regarding an Israeli nuclear program, but did not provide evidence of the discovery…
Israel recovered the body of Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta in Gaza; Pinta was believed to have been killed in the early months of the war, after he was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he was working…
The IDF found the body of Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, weeks after he was believed to have been killed in an airstrike while hiding in a tunnel under the European Hospital…
The Australian government canceled the visa of Israeli American activist Hillel Fuld, citing the Department of Home Affairs’ concerns over the risk officials suggest Fuld, who had been slated to speak at Magen David Adom fundraising events in Sydney and Melbourne, poses to “the health, safety or good order” of Australians…
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid is departing Walla News and will join Israel’s Channel 12 as the network’s Washington correspondent; Ravid will continue to report for Axios and appear on CNN as an analyst…
The Jewish Telegraph Agency’s Ben Sales is joining The Times of Israel as news editor…
Pic of the Day
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed hosted fellow UAE rulers and faith leaders last Friday on the occasion of Eid Al Adha, the Islamic festival that concludes its four-day celebration today. Among the faith leaders that greeted the UAE president was Rabbi Levi Duchman, the head of Chabad of the United Arab Emirates.
Birthdays
Former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, Walter Julius Levy turns 103…
Journalist for 30 years at CBS who then became the founding director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, then a fellow at GWU, Marvin Kalb turns 95… Retired Israeli diplomat who served as ambassador to Italy and France and world chairman of Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, Aviezer “Avi” Pazner turns 88… Author of 12 books, activist, and founding editor of Ms. Magazine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin turns 86… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Maurice of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, Charles Saatchi turns 82… Diplomat and Shakespeare historian, Kenneth Adelman turns 79… Founder and chairman of Commonwealth Financial Network and chairman of Southworth Development, Joseph Deitch turns 75… Professional mediator and advice columnist, Wendy J. Belzberg… Israel’s former minister of defense and deputy prime minister, Benny Gantz turns 66… Canadian journalist, author, documentary film producer and television personality, Steven Hillel Paikin turns 65… Producer, director, playwright and screenwriter, Aaron Benjamin Sorkin turns 64… Former lead singer of the Israeli pop rock band Mashina, Yuval Banay turns 63… CEO of Jewish Women’s International, Meredith Jacobs… Managing director at Major, Lindsey & Africa, Craig Appelbaum… EVP of Jewish Funders Network, Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu… Screenwriter, director and producer, Hayden Schlossberg turns 47… Founder and CEO of Delve LLC, previously a Bush 43 White House Jewish liaison, Jeff Berkowitz… Co-founder of Swish Beverages, David Oliver Cohen turns 45… Jerusalem born Academy Award-winning actress, producer and director, Natalie Portman turns 44… Online producer, writer and director, Rafi Fine turns 42… Multimedia artist, Anna Marie Tendler turns 40… Composer and lyricist, in 2024 he became the 20th person to complete the EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards, Benj Pasek turns 40… Israeli tech entrepreneur, he is the founder and chairman of Israel Tech Challenge, Raphael Ouzan turns 38… Director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, her book, A Flower Traveled In My Blood, is being published next month, Haley Cohen Gilliland… Deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration, Jeff Solnet… Ice hockey player for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and best-selling author of children’s books, Zachary Martin Hyman turns 33… Founder and CEO of The Fine Companies, Daniel Fine… Emilia Levy…
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) speaks during a press conference on new legislation to support Holocaust education nationwide at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 27, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Rep. Marlin Stutzman about his recent meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz about her conversations with Israeli and Arab leaders during her recent trip to the Middle East. We report from a gathering in Denver of moderate Democratic elected officials from around the country, and interview former JFNA executive Elana Broitman about her newly released comic book about a menopausal superhero. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Nathan Fielder, Menachem Rosensaft and Hussein al-Sheikh.
What We’re Watching
- The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum continues today. John Spencer, Ellie Cohanim and Bill Kristol will all speak on the main stage.
- Canadians head to the polls today in a federal election pitting Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party against Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
- The Hostage and Missing Families Forum is hosting an event tonight at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan featuring former Israeli hostage Noa Argamani as well as the relatives of slain hostages Omer Neutra, Itay Chen and Shiri Bibas.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
As official Washington spent this weekend at the parties surrounding the White House Correspondents Dinner, an intimate group of moderate Democratic elected officials, policy wonks and strategists met in Denver to present ideas for rehabilitating their party from the center, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports in a dispatch from the event.
Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), gathered together a lineup of prominent Colorado centrists — Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), among them — along with some former red-state Democratic officials, including former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) and former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) to brainstorm ideas for a new moderate movement.
Of note: Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), a rising star in the party who is rumored to be mulling a Senate bid as Bennet runs for governor, was in attendance and gave a paean to former President Bill Clinton’s brand of politics, directly quoting from a seminal speech from the then-candidate breaking with the left and calling for a more-mainstream direction for the party.
Neguse quoted from Clinton’s 1991 Democratic Leadership Council speech: “Our burden is to give the people a new choice rooted in old values, a new choice that is simple, that offers opportunity, demands responsibility, gives citizens more of a say, provides them responsive government.”
Neguse, Colorado’s first Black member of Congress, first ran for office as a progressive but has grown more pragmatic over time — and sounded like the type of future national leader the party is looking for. If Bennet wins the governorship in 2026, Neguse would be a strong contender to be appointed to his Senate seat.
Not at the moderate Democratic event: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for governor and will be clashing with Bennet in the primary. In an interview with JI at an outreach event for Black voters, Weiser said he plans to position himself as a “populist problem solver” — while playing up his strong voice against President Donald Trump’s policies.
Weiser touted the fact that he’s already filed 13 lawsuits against the Trump administration, saying he’s on the front lines of fighting the “lawlessness of the White House.” In the campaign, he plans to contrast his active record litigating Trump’s immigration and tariff policies in the state with Bennet’s time as a lawmaker in Washington.
But Weiser also sounded like he would be tacking to the senator’s left in the primary.
Weiser’s speech on Saturday centered on how he would fight to protect DEI programs in the state. Asked about what he thought about the Democratic Socialists of America movement — which has a foothold within the party in Denver — he noted their “deep empathy for how working class people are struggling.” He also noted that he endorsed against a DSA-backed legislator who went on an anti-Israel, antisemitic rant in the state House.
Weiser, who speaks openly about his Jewish faith, also slammed the Trump administration for its overreach in cracking down against antisemitism, saying he was “horrified” about Trump’s actions. “Using antisemitism as a cudgel against marginalized individuals or to take away freedom is so horrifying to me,” he told JI.
Bennet, for his part, underscored how Colorado is one of the biggest Democratic success stories because it has nominated candidates who focus on returning results over red-meat slogans. On a PPI panel, he talked passionately about how the country’s health care and education systems are broken — and the Democratic Party has done little to fix it.
“Where is our agenda to reform the education system for the American people? Joe Biden said not a word about it, and these people deserve better than Donald Trump, who is destroying both what’s left of our health care system and what’s left of our education!”
He added: “Trump is not the cause of all our problems. He is the symptom of the lack of economic mobility that we have, the sense that people no matter how hard they work, can’t get ahead.”
peace prospects
Syria’s al-Sharaa discussed prospects for normalization with Israel with GOP lawmaker
New Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa last week discussed his conditions for normalizing relations with Israel with Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), who was one of the first American lawmakers to visit the country since the overthrow of the Assad regime, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Conditions: During a meeting at the presidential palace in Damascus, al-Sharaa told Stutzman that his concerns in Syria’s relationship with Israel are keeping Syria as a unified country and not allowing regions to be divided off, Israel’s military encroachment into Syria around the Golan Heights and the Israeli bombing campaign targeting Syrian military assets. Al-Sharaa said any agreement with Israel would have to address those points, but Stutzman told JI last week that al-Sharaa said that, “outside of those couple of items — and I’m sure there’s going to be other issues that he would bring to the table, but he was open to those conversations about normalizing relations with Israel.” Stutzman said he felt al-Sharaa was being honest and upfront about those conditions. He said they did not specifically address the issue of whether al-Sharaa’s government is seeking to reclaim the Golan Heights.
TAKING ON TEHRAN
Wasserman Schultz: Arab, Israeli leaders say Iran deal must cover proxy activity
Arab and Israeli leaders are insisting that any U.S. deal with Iran also include provisions to address Iran’s other malign activities in the region, including support for terrorist proxies, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod following a trip earlier this month to meet with Israeli and Arab leaders in the Middle East. Wasserman Schultz traveled with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) to the Middle East for the third time since Oct. 7, 2023, visiting Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan.
Common goals: “There was a very clear urgency that the leaders we spoke to had to make sure that we … don’t let Iran up from their very weakened state. They’ve been badly pummeled and had significant defeats,” Wasserman Schultz told JI last week. “The consensus across the region, no matter where we went, was that we needed to make sure that continued and that we prevented them from achieving their nuclear weapons goals and that we particularly prevented them from continuing their support for terrorist activity.”
trump talks
In Time interview, Trump says he would meet with Iranian supreme leader
President Donald Trump said he’d be open to meeting directly with Iran’s president or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but also suggested that the U.S. could attack Iran to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, in an interview with Time magazine, released on Friday. When asked if he would consider such a meeting, the president responded, “Sure,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
War stance: Pressed if he is worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could “drag you into a war” with Iran, Trump responded, “No. By the way, he may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in.” The president clarified that he did not mean the U.S. wouldn’t join a war if Israel initiates one: “You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
BOOKSHELF
Turning the page: how a former Jewish nonprofit exec found her superpower in storytelling
It’s an unlikely origin story for a comic-book superhero: standing at the front of a boardroom in a snazzy blazer, delivering an important presentation until it’s derailed by … a hot flash. That’s when she begins to discover her superpower. Meet Mina, the star of “Holy Menopause: Adventures of a Middle-Aged Superheroine,” a new comic book published by Bunny Gonopolskaya, the pen name of Elana Broitman, a former Jewish communal executive and government affairs consultant who is most familiar to Jewish communal leaders not as an artist or a writer, but as the former senior vice president of public affairs at Jewish Federations of North America until September 2023. Broitman talked to Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch about her new book.
Sexism shift: Broitman, 58, has held senior roles in the private sector, on Capitol Hill and at nonprofits. She never felt like sexism held her back in her career until she hit menopause — and sexism combined with more subtle ageism to make a potent, toxic combination. “I felt gaslighted and ignored,” Broitman told JI in an interview last week. “My way of working through emotions was always to just do some art. I started with a painting of an elderly Wonder Woman, because my whole concept was, Hey, we’re pretty badass, right? We’ve made it here. We have all this wisdom. We can do lots of things, and we’re not about to get dismissed.”
Worthy Reads
Power Chats: Semafor’s Ben Smith spotlights the growing use of “power group chats,” in which dozens, or sometimes hundreds, of power brokers and public figures engage in debate and conversation through the group messaging features of Signal and WhatsApp. “But their influence flows through X, Substack, and podcasts, and constitutes a kind of dark matter of American politics and media. The group chats aren’t always primarily a political space, but they are the single most important place in which a stunning realignment toward Donald Trump was shaped and negotiated, and an alliance between Silicon Valley and the new right formed. … The chats are occasionally marked by the sort of thing that would have gotten you scolded on Twitter in 2020, and which would pass unremarked-on on X in 2025. They have rarely been discussed in public, though you can catch the occasional mention in, for instance, a podcast debate between [Mark] Cuban and the Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, which started in a chat. But they are made visible through a group consensus on social media. Their effects have ranged from the mainstreaming of the monarchist pundit Curtis Yarvin to a particularly focused and developed dislike of the former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz.” [Semafor]
Has Ben-Gvir Really Changed?: The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood reflects on his interaction with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at an event in New Haven, Conn., in which Ben-Gvir was pressed about his previous support for Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein, whose portrait was displayed for decades in Ben-Gvir’s home. “[Ben-Gvir] framed his transformation as moral, and said he was not who he was when he was 17. Getting married and having six kids mellows a man out, he said. His whole answer took no more than a couple of minutes. I told Ben-Gvir that I found his contrition perfunctory and unconvincing, and I challenged him, if he was sincere, to prove it. I asked him to tell us all what it was like to idolize a murderer — and then to tell us what he would say to his younger self, or someone still in the thrall of a terrorist, to persuade him to give up violence and mellow out sooner rather than later. He couldn’t even bring himself to pretend. He just asserted that he had changed. ‘I’m sure you did things when you were 17 that you are not proud of,’ he said. (He removed the portrait when he was 44.) And he said again that time and family make a difference — but he added not a word about the inherent value of human life, or the disgrace brought upon religion and country by someone who massacres civilians, especially in a moment of total vulnerability.” [TheAtlantic]
Corbyn-ism Coming to America: In the Jewish Chronicle, Shany Mor raises concerns about the “Corbynization” of left-wing American circles. “As with so many more benign trends, Britain is just ten or so years ahead of the US. And the long march of geostrategic antisemitism’s institutional capture in the US is only about a decade behind Britain’s. Each major milestone – the capture of academia, the arts world, the various NGOs, a few major newspapers and journals of the smart set – was reached on these shores well before crossing the pond. And just as in Britain, so in the United States there is no realistic path to building a majority coalition around antisemitism either in its geostrategic or conventional forms. … American liberals, American Jews, and especially liberal American Jews would be well advised to be extra vigilant about this British import, which no tariff will protect them from. The British experience of the 2010s has a few useful lessons and warnings for what awaits the Americans in the 2020s.” [JewishChronicle]
Word on the Street
American and Iranian negotiators concluded a third round of nuclear talks in Oman over the weekend, amid disagreements over Iran’s domestic uranium enrichment; the parties will meet in Europe in the coming weeks…
The Trump administration restored thousands of foreign student visas — largely for students who had committed minor or dismissed infractions — that had been previously revoked…
Donald Trump Jr., alongside investment banker Omeed Malik and Alex Witkoff, the son of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, is opening a members club in Washington; Malik’s 1789 Capital had previously invested in Tucker Carlson’s new media company…
The chair of the United Arab Emirate’s Executive Affairs Authority met in Washington last week with senior Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff…
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Troy Carter (D-LA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced a resolution commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month…
Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Wasserman Schultz introduced legislation to enable Holocaust survivors to recoup pre-Holocaust insurance policies, the latest in a long series of congressional attempts to move the issue forward…
The Los Angeles Times spotlights a lawsuit between Irish hotelier Patrick McKillen and members of the Qatari royal family over the alleged lack of payment for work done on the Maybourne Beverly Hills…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke on Friday to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro about the recent arson attack at the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg…
In The Wall Street Journal, Eugene Kontorovich calls on the Trump administration to again withdraw from UNESCO over what he alleges is antisemitism within the body, years after the Biden administration reversed a decision by the first Trump administration to pull out…
The NYPD is investigating clashes that took place last week outside of Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, between demonstrators and counterprotesters during a surprise visit by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir…
“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley addressed the recent departure of the show’s executive producer in the final minutes of Sunday’s episode; Pelley cited disagreements with CBS parent company Paramount+ over the show’s coverage of “the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration”…
In the latest episode of HBO’s “The Rehearsal,” comic Nathan Fielder compared Paramount+ to Nazi Germany after discovering that a 2015 episode of his “Nathan for You” comedy series that dealt with antisemitism was removed from the streaming service…
NPR spotlights the “shlissel challah,” a key-shaped loaf that is traditionally made the Shabbat after Passover…
Israel slammed the Spanish government’s cancellation of a €6.6 million deal that would have seen Madrid purchase 15 million bullets from Israel’s IMI Systems…
Israel sent its envoy to the Vatican, Yaron Sideman, to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, opting against sending an official Israeli delegation, days after Israel’s Foreign Ministry deleted a post memorializing the pontiff, who died last week…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Shin Bet head Ronen Bar of lying to an Israeli court that Netanyahu had demanded personal loyalty from him…
Senior Biden administration official Amos Hochstein said that Israel “missed” an opportunity to reach a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia last year…
Hussein al-Sheikh was appointed vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization amid an ongoing debate over who will succeed 91-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas…
Israel struck a Hezbollah facility in southern Beirut that contained precision missiles on Sunday evening…
At least 40 people were killed in an explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran following the outbreak of a small fire in a section of the port with large shipping containers…
Iran’s Infrastructure Communications Company said it repelled a large cyber attack the day after the port explosion…
Amateur golfer Jay Sigel, whose plans to go pro were deferred for several decades by a college injury, died at 81…
Pic of the Day
Attorney and professor Menachem Rosensaft, who was born in a displaced persons camp at Bergen-Belsen, spoke at a memorial ceremony on Sunday at the concentration camp marking the 80th anniversary of its liberation.
Birthdays
Comedy writer, television producer and showrunner, Daniel Joshua Goor turns 50…
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., he also served four terms in the Knesset, Zalman Shoval turns 95… White House chief of staff for Presidents Reagan and Bush 41, secretary of the Treasury and secretary of state, James Baker turns 95… Retired judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals (now known as the Supreme Court of Maryland), Judge Irma Steinberg Raker turns 87… Retired four-star United States Marine Corps general, Robert Magnus turns 78… Retired SVP and COO of IPRO and former president of the Bronx/Riverdale YM-YWHA and the Riverdale Jewish Center, Harry M. Feder… Cantor who has served in Galveston, Texas, Houston and Buffalo, N.Y., Sharon Eve Colbert… Criminal defense attorney, Abbe David Lowell turns 73… Director of congregational engagement at Temple Beth Sholom of Miami Beach, Fla., Mark Baranek… Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Elena Kagan turns 65… American-born Israeli writer and translator, David Hazony turns 56… Director of criminal justice innovation, development and engagement at USDOJ during the Biden administration, Karen C. Friedman… Retired soccer player, she played for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team from 1997 to 2000, Sara Whalen Hess turns 49… Founder of GlobeTrotScott Strategies, Scott Mayerowitz… Actress and film critic, she is the writer and star of the CBC comedy series “Workin’ Moms,” Catherine Reitman turns 44… Model, actress and TV host, known for her role in the soap opera “Fashion House,” Donna Feldman turns 43… CEO and founder of The Branch, Ravi Gupta… Freelance journalist, formerly at ESPN and Sports Illustrated, Jason Schwartz… Senior editor at Politico Magazine, Benjamin Isaac Weyl… President of Saratoga Strategies, a D.C.-based strategic communications and crisis management firm, Joshua Schwerin… Head coach of the women’s soccer team at Yeshiva University, Ryan Alexander Hezekiah Adeleye turns 38… Israeli artist and photographer, Neta Cones… Marketing director at College Golf Experience, Jeffrey Hensiek… Associate in the finance department of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Robert S. Murstein… Senior reporter for Cybersecurity Dive, Eric J. Geller… Founder and CEO of Diamond Travel Services and CEO of A Better Way ABA, Ahron Fragin… Midfielder for Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls, Daniel Ethan Edelman turns 22…
By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff
SHOCKED! – The One Word To Describe How Everyone Felt Last Night When They Heard That House Majority Leader & Sole Jewish GOP Congressman, Eric Cantor, Lost His Primary Election – The First House Majority Leader to Lose Renomination Since The Office Was Created in 1899. Tea Party Challenger Dave Brat, an economics professor for the past 18 years at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Va., defeated Cantor 55.5% to 44.5%.
Several Prominent ‘Jewish Insiders’ Sent Us Their Reactions… (more…)