The outcome of Michigan’s bruising Democratic Senate primary last week, where Abdul El-Sayed claimed a narrow victory over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in an upset championed by the anti-Israel left, is looming over the next intraparty showdown being held in Minnesota on Tuesday — the latest in a series of proxy battles between the party’s mainstream and left-wing flanks.

In an echo of Michigan, the bitter Democratic primary for an open Senate seat in battleground Minnesota this week is pitting a moderate House member with a long-standing pro-Israel record, Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), against an outspoken progressive, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, whose attack lines have frequently centered on AIPAC, which spent over $30 million in its unsuccessful effort to help Stevens.

The Minnesota primary is, in the closing stretch, likewise revolving around questions of electability for Democrats in the must-win November contest. Craig has pointed to controversies amid Flanagan’s tenure in government as vulnerabilities Republicans are eager to exploit — most notably including the welfare fraud scandal that prompted Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to abandon his reelection campaign for a third term earlier this year.

Flanagan, in addition to her anti-AIPAC messaging, has hammered Craig over what she has described as a “disqualifying” vote approving the Laken Riley Act — legislation requiring the detention of unauthorized migrants charged with certain crimes — the optics of which have been damaging in the wake of President Donald Trump’s protracted immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Craig has expressed regret for her vote.

But unlike Michigan, where El-Sayed claimed the nomination by less than one point after polls had suggested a double-digit blowout, the Minnesota matchup has been seen as neck-and-neck, the outcome of which is hard to predict, experts say. Recent independent surveys have shown a statistical dead heat in the final weeks of the primary, with each candidate garnering around 40% of the vote.

The candidates’ equivocations over AIPAC and individual ties to the group have also emerged as fault lines in recent weeks, complicating the ideological divisions that have shaped other primaries in which Israel and Middle East policy have featured prominently.

In a reflection of the extent to which AIPAC is now viewed as a liability in Democratic primaries, Craig has distanced herself from the group, which has not officially made an endorsement in the race even as its donor network has contributed to her campaign. The congresswoman, who is backed by several pro-Israel lawmakers including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), has said she is not accepting contributions from AIPAC’s political arm in her current campaign.

During a recent debate, Flanagan said AIPAC had been Craig’s “biggest funder throughout her entire political career,” while claiming her own “values do not align with” the group. Flanagan has cast AIPAC as part of “a band of super villains” in the race now trying to “buy this election,” language some Jewish leaders say they have found unsettling amid rising antisemitism.

Flanagan, however, acknowledged last month she had met privately with AIPAC after The Minnesota Star Tribune obtained a video recording of remarks to Jewish community members — also reviewed by Jewish Insider — in which she said the outreach was “important” for her “to make sure that we’re building that relationship.”

Flanagan claims that AIPAC turned against her and came to regard her as a “threat” when she confirmed her support last year for Senate resolutions to block arms sales to Israel. She has since endorsed a House amendment to end aid to Israel, which Craig rejected, further illustrating her policy disagreements with the group.

Craig, for her part, has sharply dismissed the lieutenant governor as “completely disingenuous about her soliciting support from AIPAC,” claiming that she “has been very hypocritical” because of her efforts to demonize the group.

While Flanagan has insisted she was not seeking an endorsement in her outreach to AIPAC officials, she did write an Israel position paper that she submitted to the group as part of their discussions, according to two people familiar with the matter. 

Manny Houle, a pro-Israel Democratic consultant in Minnesota, confirmed to JI that Flanagan presented a Middle East policy paper to AIPAC and said that he had personally reviewed the document. He said he no longer had a copy, which JI was unable to obtain, but he recalled that she “was open to conditioning aid” to Israel and said she “put a lot of pressure and fault on Israel and occupation,” among other “key factors” he characterized as distinguishing Flanagan from Craig.

Houle, a former director of progressive outreach for AIPAC in the Midwest, said his impression had been that Flanagan wrote the paper and sought the group’s feedback early in her campaign last year because she viewed it as part of a broader process. The lieutenant governor “would have been open to engaging within the network of donors” affiliated with AIPAC, Houle claimed, “but when she realized that wasn’t going to be the case,” she pivoted to a more hostile position.

“Many key advisors to Peggy are anti-AIPAC, so it’s hard for me to think she’d ever honestly in good faith engage with the organization,” Houle explained to JI. “I’ve had conversations with her throughout the race trying to get her to tone down her rhetoric” on Israel issues, he added, “but to no avail.”

A spokesperson for AIPAC did not return a request for comment.

Alexandra Fetisoff, a spokesperson for Flanagan’s campaign, did not directly address the AIPAC paper in a statement responding to a request for comment. “Flanagan disagrees with AIPAC’s deeply unpopular political agenda and the catastrophic actions of” the government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Fetisoff told JI on Friday.

“Flanagan believes what has happened in Gaza is genocide, a position in line with the United Nations,” Fetisoff said. “Flanagan has consistently condemned antisemitism, and will continue standing with Jewish Minnesotans against hate.”

Last week, American Priorities, a new super PAC created to counter AIPAC’s influence in Democratic primaries, began spending in the race to help boost Flanagan, spending over $50,000 on an ad calling her a “fighter” who would “stand up to Trump” while touting her support from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Flanagan also claims backing from the state Democratic Party and retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), whom she is vying to succeed, along with leading progressive critics of Israel such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

Doug Rossinow, a professor of history at Metro State University in St. Paul, who has tracked divisions over Israel in the state Democratic Party, said the “AIPAC issue flew under the radar until pretty recently” in the election. “The Flanagan-Craig contest is, compared to Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary race, a classic case of Minnesota understatement and even passive aggression,” he told JI. 

“Flanagan lately has made an issue of Craig’s history of support from AIPAC,” he noted, “but Craig, unlike Haley Stevens, doesn’t want to own that or talk about Israel.” Meanwhile, Flanagan has stated “little about her own position on Israel” and the region, he added, “unlike El-Sayed in Michigan,” a fierce critic of Israel who has refused to acknowledge its right to exist as a Jewish state.

One state party activist described the race as “a little bit less black and white than Michigan,” while noting the contrasts between Craig and Flanagan are not as drastic. “I see it as a toss-up,” he said of the primary.

Joe Radinovich, a Democratic consultant based in Minneapolis, added that while the national political mood has favored populist progressives, he believes there is reason to interpret the closer-than-expected finish in Michigan as a relatively promising omen for Craig, who flipped a GOP-held swing district in 2018.

“The dominant narrative has belonged to the further left wing of the party, populist candidates and people decrying AIPAC and Israel,” Radinovich, who said he is supporting Craig but is not involved in the primary, told JI in an interview on Friday. “But if I’m on the Craig campaign and looking at the results of the election in Michigan, I’m feeling some wind in my sails.”

Mara Kunin, Craig’s campaign manager, projected confidence in a statement on Friday. “National and state Republicans are making a serious play for this Senate seat and primary voters understand that we can’t risk putting up a weak candidate in the general election,” she said, adding Craig “is positioned to win this race on Tuesday and seal the deal in November.”

The Democratic nominee is expected to face Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter who is heavily favored to win the Republican primary, in November. The GOP’s Senate campaign arm has indicated that it views Minnesota among four pickup opportunities as the party seeks to retain its majority in the chamber. 

“It is very saturated, very ugly and very negative,” another state party activist said about the primary, which has otherwise seen a flood of outside spending from opposing groups. “I think that AIPAC will have an impact in the race, but social services fraud could be more important,” he told JI. “Whoever wins, it will sort of say which issue” carries the most weight.

In her first cable news interview since her Senate primary loss on Wednesday morning, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) told CNN that Jewish voters who are concerned about Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s hostility towards Israel are “going to have to make a personal and private decision” as to who to support in November. 

Stevens also told CNN on Friday that she is a “Zionist Democrat in Michigan.”

In her first cable news interview since her Senate primary loss, Haley Stevens told CNN she is "a Zionist Democrat in Michigan" and suggested voters concerned about El-Sayed’s stance on Israel "need to make a personal and private decision” as to who to support in November. pic.twitter.com/ub9OVJAoey

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) August 7, 2026

Just before he was declared the winner in the Democratic primary for the pivotal Michigan Senate race, El-Sayed doubled down on his criticism of Israel on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” calling the Jewish state “bloodthirsty” and saying his critiques go beyond the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

El-Sayed, who made his opposition to AIPAC a central part of his campaign message, sought to ease tensions with skeptical Jewish voters after winning the nomination, addressing what he called “an issue that has been focused on in this race.”

“To all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith,” he said in his televised remarks, “I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety, is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters.” He also spoke about his experience going to a seder during the campaign, where in an awkward turn of phrase, said he was able to “break bread” with his Jewish friends.

On Friday, Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers argued that the “vast majority of people” rejecting El-Sayed — whose bid he framed as a “campaign filled with anger, divisiveness, calls for violence and the views that are out of touch with your values”— have “a home with us.”

Addressing Michigan Democrats in a videotaped message, Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers said that the “vast majority of people” rejecting Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed — whose bid he framed as a “campaign filled with anger, divisiveness, calls for violence and the views that are out of touch with your values”— have “a home with us.” 

“If you’re among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling hopeless because the person who won does not represent your values, well, just know there is still hope,” Rogers said seated next to his wife, in a 90-second video message released on Friday.

“Michigan deserves a senator who is ready to sit with you, hear from you and represent you.

The parents across Michigan who want an education system that sets up their kids for success have a home with us. Grandparents across Michigan who are heartbroken from watching their kids and grandkids leave the state, you have a home with us,” he continued. 

“To young people who are looking for real solutions to our housing affordability crisis, you have a home with us. To families who don’t want higher taxes and lower paychecks, you have a home with us. The fight is far greater than just left versus right. The fight is for the very soul of our nation. Over the next 90 days, I’m going to work hard to earn your trust, to earn your support and earn your vote.” 

Most Democrats quickly coalesced behind El-Sayed after he narrowly clinched victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary on Wednesday morning, while Republicans quickly attacked El-Sayed’s extremist history and ties. 

Just before he was declared winner, El-Sayed doubled down on his criticism of Israel on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” calling the Jewish state “bloodthirsty” and saying his critiques go beyond the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Wednesday that he believes Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan has put the state in play for Republicans in November. 

Fetterman made the comments in an interview with Jewish Insider in the hours after Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) conceded to El-Sayed in what was a competitive and contentious primary. The Pennsylvania Democrat said he expects El-Sayed will struggle to reach moderate voters without distancing himself from antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and his record of extremist comments, including remarks that America deserved 9-11 which Republicans are already revisiting in campaign ads.

“He will quickly discover a primary is a much different situation in this state [than the general election], when you’re accountable for winning the other side. I can’t wait to see him campaign for the general. I have got my popcorn for that,” Fetterman told JI. “Will he denounce Hasan Piker? Because Piker is already calling moderates ‘Islamophobic pieces of s***.’ Will he campaign with him? Will he denounce his views? I am daring him to continue to campaign with Hasan Piker now.”

“Think about how volatile a guy like Piker is,” Fetterman said. “He’s already gone off and exploded because El-Sayed was saying how now we have to mend fences.”

Fetterman called El-Sayed “a dream for a Republican candidate,” adding that he would spend millions on political advertisements highlighting El-Sayed’s relationship with Piker if he were the GOP candidate in the race. 

Fetterman argued that El-Sayed’s close margin of victory over Stevens — less than one point — shows that his win is not indicative of a shift in the state’s overall electorate. 

“I don’t know why El-Sayed described this as a big movement. He thinks that this was an incredible win and that’s just not the case,” he told JI. “Just the opposite — he barely won by 14,000 votes.”

“He really ran the under-four mile politically, palling around with a dude that loves Hamas and thinks America deserved 9/11,” he added. “I mean, will that stick? We’ll see, but overall, this takes largely what had been a safe seat for Democrats and absolutely puts it in play now. Mike Rogers barely lost to [Sen.] Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) [in 2022].”

Asked if he’ll consider endorsing former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in the contest, Fetterman said, “I’m not making any endorsements in this race.”

The Pennsylvania Democrat expressed skepticism that El-Sayed would be able to win over pro-Israel and Jewish voters in November, specifically pointing to his defense of the perpetrator of the violent attack on Temple Israel in the Detroit suburbs earlier this year. “Nothing justifies the heinous attack that we saw on Temple Israel,” Fetterman said.

“Every other word out of his mouth is AIPAC, AIPAC, AIPAC. Imagine what that must look like to a Jewish voter,” Fetterman said of El-Sayed. “Essentially he has defined his race by opposing Jewish money or saying Israel is the aggressor, and he aligns himself with some of the worst people.”

“I’m not a member of the Jewish community, but I can’t imagine how anyone could vote for him in good conscience,” he continued. “How could a Jewish voter in Michigan vote for a guy that refused to condemn a terrorist that crashed his car into a synagogue to kill 150 Jewish children? That’s disqualifying, and it’s appalling.”

Fetterman argued that, “This is a guy that has similar views to Piker. We all know why Abdul El-Sayed was sad after we incinerated Iranian leadership. Remember what Hamas has done to defenseless Israeli and Jewish civilians on 10/7. Piker is the guy that cheers for that organization. I don’t know how you are able to reconcile that.”

Fetterman also took aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for his endorsements of El-Sayed in Michigan and failed Senate candidate Graham Platner in Maine, who Sanders withdrew his support for after he was accused of sexual assault. The Pennsylvania senator, who has publicly sparred with all three men in recent months, criticized Sanders’ candidate choices as detrimental to Democrats retaking control of the Senate. 

“Bernie Sanders is not flipping seats,” Fetterman said. “He is trying to put volatile and terrible candidates into otherwise more safe kinds of opportunities for Democrats.”

He went on to add that he does not plan to endorse the Democrat in the race, while noting that El-Sayed would likely not want his support. 

“I can’t ever endorse him, not to think he’d even want mine, and not because he’s called me an asshole or because I’m an ogre that belongs on a pike,” Fetterman said, referring to comments El-Sayed made about him earlier this month. “It’s because he’d have to renounce people like Piker and some of those extreme community leaders that were very much involved with standing with Iran and engaged in rhetoric that describes America as evil. They’re just essentially anti-American people, ironically, while they are living in our country.”

Good Thursday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover the fallout from Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory over Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, and talk to Jewish Democrats in the state who are considering crossing party lines to vote for GOP nominee Mike Rogers in the November election. We report on the obstacles facing Rep. Ed Case ahead of a challenge from his left in Saturday’s primary in Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District, and cover a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing examining Muslim Brotherhood networks and affiliates in the United States. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Benny Stanislawski, Tom Kahn and Gianni Infantino.

We also have a new on-demand Live Briefingthat you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• U.S.-led talks between Israel and Lebanon in Rome are slated to conclude today, after yesterday’s discussion was cut short by several hours “due to events on the ground,” the State Department said.
• The decision to pause talks came after the IDF conducted strikes in southern Lebanon over what it said were “blatant violations” of the ongoing ceasefire by Hezbollah, including an incident in which two IDF reservists were killed and four seriously wounded by an explosive device in southern Lebanon.
• Reports continue to indicate Iran and Oman are inching toward a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after earlier agreements on the issue fell apart. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that Tehran and Muscat were close to finalizing an agreement, so long as “certain parties do not obstruct this process” — an apparent reference to the U.S.
• Tennessee is holding its primary elections today. In the state’s 5th District, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), a far-right lawmaker, is facing a serious primary challenge from Charlie Hatcher, a former state commissioner of agriculture.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Michigan’s bruising Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday is forcing many Jewish leaders in the state to confront an uncomfortable decision as they now look ahead to the general election in November.

Several Jewish Democrats in the battleground state are now indicating that they will break with a party they have long called home and instead vote for the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers, in the November election, citing their continued alarm over El-Sayed’s hostile rhetoric toward Israel as well as remarks they have interpreted as indifferent to rising antisemitism, among other concerns.

“I can’t vote for El-Sayed,” Michael Horowitz, a Jewish community leader and Detroit businessman who supported Stevens, a pro-Israel moderate, told Jewish Insider. “So many things I find despicable about him, not the least of which is his close association with Hasan Piker,” the antisemitic Twitch streamer, who Horowitz said “demeans America, demeans Jews and demeans all but the most radical among us.”

Horowitz confirmed he was now “leaning strongly to Rogers,” a former congressman who narrowly lost in his bid for Senate last cycle. “And I have heard from many in the Jewish community who say they will be supporting Rogers,” he said on Wednesday.

Hannan Lis, a Democratic fundraiser and Jewish leader who splits his time between Michigan and Israel, was among those who had told JI before the primary that he would vote for Rogers in the general election if El-Sayed won the nomination, noting he knows “many” Jewish Democrats who plan to do the same.

His reservations about Republicans preserving their Senate majority by picking up the Michigan seat held by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), he clarified, were superseded by his objections to El-Sayed’s stances on Israel and responses to antisemitism. “El-Sayed is no Democrat,” he claimed.

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

CASE STUDY

Generational challenge threatens Ed Case in Hawaii’s under-the-radar primary

Rep. Ed Case (D-HI), a moderate pro-Israel Democrat in Hawaii who was first elected to the House in 2002, has not drawn a serious primary threat in several years. Now, as he prepares to defend his seat in a primary on Saturday that has largely flown under the radar, some Democrats are warning that the 73-year-old could be at risk of losing to a younger challenger capitalizing on a national political environment that has proven unfavorable to Democratic incumbents amid broader calls for generational change from the party’s activist base, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

While you were sleeping: “It’s one of those sleeper races where there’s definitely an upset brewing,” said a Democratic operative who worked on the Case campaign until a few months ago, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisals. “Ed is running a poor race,” the former staffer told JI, echoing other observers who described a sluggish approach in which Case has largely foregone campaign events and avoided debates with his opposition.

Read the full story here.

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ON THE HILL

Cruz links El-Sayed’s victory to Muslim Brotherhood network in United States

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), speaking at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that he organized to examine Muslim Brotherhood networks and affiliates in the U.S., suggested that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was tied to such networks and that his Democratic primary win represented a victory for them. “Behind El-Sayed’s political rise sits a much older and more entrenched institutional network,” Cruz asserted, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Zoom out: Kyle Shideler, a senior analyst for homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, testified under questioning from Cruz that El-Sayed’s win concerned him given the nominee’s father-in-law’s ties to Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups and El-Sayed’s own relationship with groups connected to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “It shows the success of the Muslim Brotherhood network over multiple decades. It achieved what they said they were going to achieve, which was to normalize support for Hamas and normalize support for terrorism,” Shideler said.

Read the full story here.

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COMMUNITY CONCERN

Jewish Dems ‘disappointed’ in Michigan Senate results, stop short of endorsing El-Sayed

Jewish groups expressed concern on Wednesday about the victory of Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, highlighting his extreme rhetoric on Israel and the broader rise of the far left, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Reactions: Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer said in a statement that the group was “disappointed” by the results of the primary, in which the group had endorsed and campaigned strongly for Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI). Soifer congratulated but stopped short of endorsing El-Sayed. AIPAC, while declining to preview specific plans, indicated it intends to stay engaged in the Michigan race through November. “Our members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November,” spokesperson Deryn Sousa told JI.

Read the full story here.

Trump’s take: President Donald Trump, speaking at an event in Las Vegas on Wednesday, said al-Sayed “hates Jews and he hates Israel,” adding, “He’s a man of hate, and now he’s going around saying, ‘Oh I love everybody.’ He doesn’t love everybody. Put him in office, and you’re going to find out what he loves.” 

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WITHHOLDING SUPPORT

Moderate Michigan Rep. Hillary Scholten does not offer endorsement of El-Sayed

Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI), a moderate Michigan lawmaker representing a swing district, broke with most other Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation in declining to offer an explicit endorsement of Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, after offering strident criticism of him during the primary campaign, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Matthew Shea report.

What she said: “Congratulations to everyone who participated in Michigan’s hard-fought primary elections last night, and thank you to every voter who made your voice heard. In these close elections, we want you to know — you are HEARD,” Scholten said in a statement that did not mention El-Sayed. “Now our focus turns forward. I’ve always said I’ll work with anyone committed to lowering costs, expanding affordable health care, creating more opportunity, and fighting corruption. I mean that.” 

Read the full story here.

Phone a friend: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to close the door on a trip to Michigan to campaign for El-Sayed, whom Mamdani praised for what he described as a focus on “the concerns of working-class Americans” — even as he tried to explain away El-Sayed’s poor performance in the areas where working-class voters live, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.

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RACE RHETORIC

El-Sayed calls Israel ‘bloodthirsty’ in first post-primary TV interview

Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday, Abdul El-Sayed doubled down on his criticism of Israel, calling the Jewish state “bloodthirsty” and saying his critiques go beyond the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.

What he said: “I think we’ve seen the worst of what the Israeli government has done [under Netanyahu] but don’t forget that we’ve been talking about an illegal apartheid regime for a very, very long time, and that supersedes Netanyahu himself,” El-Sayed said. “I understand that Netanyahu is a big reason why they’ve gotten so aggressive and frankly so bloodthirsty under his reign, but I also understand that it’s impossible for us to say we want a two-state solution while we’ve been aiding, arming and abetting the very people who have been trying to foreclose on the possibility of a Palestinian state.” 

Read the full story here.

It’s all over: Democrats quickly coalesced behind El-Sayed after the far-left candidate narrowly clinched victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary on Wednesday morning, while Republicans quickly pounced on his extremist history and ties, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

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Worthy Reads

Reassessing Reality: The Atlantic‘s Jonathan Chait contends that, in order to wrest back their party from the far left, moderate Democrats will have to reevaluate some of their core stances, including support for AIPAC and Israel. “Fending off a leftist insurgency will be all but impossible unless Democrats reject AIPAC’s endorsements and stop supporting unconditional aid for an Israel that no longer works toward a two-state solution. Democrats also have to stop passively allowing multiple candidates to split the mainstream vote while the leftist vote consolidates behind a single candidate, as occurred in Michigan’s Seventh District and the Wisconsin governor’s race. But the greatest challenge for mainstream liberals is to find a way to engage in and win the substantive argument with the left.” [TheAtlantic]

Lemons into Lemonade: Tablet‘s Jacob Siegel argues that the U.S.-Israel alliance is loosening, and that the moment presents an opportunity for Israel to reduce its dependence on Washington and diversify its alliances. “A greater degree of separation between the United States and Israel is not only inevitable, it is desirable. Many supporters of Israel seem to be aware only of the significant challenges that this will create for the small country. They overlook the significant opportunities it presents for Israel’s growth. … With the chapter closing on its role as an outsize client state, Israel needs to develop itself as an independent regional power that is a desirable partner by virtue of its ability to innovate technologies and project force.” [Tablet]

Fashion Faux Pas: In The New York Times, John Galliano biographer Dana Thomas cautions against the decision by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to honor the designer, who was convicted of antisemitic abuse after praising Adolf Hitler. “Not all great creators deserve a retrospective, and someone as incendiary as Mr. Galliano certainly shouldn’t be the subject of one during his lifetime, when he stands to profit from the honor personally. With ‘John Galliano: Horizons,’ the Met and Ms. Wintour are selling the idea that they can tell the rest of us how to think about a difficult and divisive figure. Maybe they didn’t notice that idea has gone badly out of fashion.” [NYTimes]

Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Word on the Street

Asked about an Axios report that claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “confronted” him over their diverging policy views during his visit to Washington last week, Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, “He didn’t confront me. We had a nice and frank conversation. … I would describe it as a pleasant but direct conversation”…

The White House denied a Washington Post report that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth clashed last week at Camp David over the war in Iran; the Post reported that the president asked why he had been misled about a shortage of munitions…

A group of far-right figures, including Tucker Carlson, outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and former National Counterterrorism Center head Joe Kent — who gathered over the weekend at Carlson’s Maine home — are considering launching a third-party political organization…

The Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced a joint statement adopted by Arab states — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt, among others — whose foreign ministers convened in Jordan on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s policies in Jerusalem and said that Israel, which the statement claimed “has no sovereignty” over the city, had “alter[ed] the Arab Islamic and Christian identity of occupied Jerusalem”…

The IDF is investigating a reported arson attack by Israeli settlers in a Palestinian village in the West Bank overnight in which suspects allegedly set fire to homes and attacked residents, including children…

A new Israel Democracy Institute survey found that a majority of Israelis believes the integrity of the October election is in danger…

The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen said on Wednesday that they struck a Saudi oil tanker in the northern Red Sea, escalating the group’s stated blockade against Riyadh and strikes on Saudi ships that have thus far been focused in the southern Red Sea, near the Bab el-Mandeb strait…

James Stavridis, former supreme allied commander of NATO, argues in Bloomberg that a Saudi-led naval coalition could help protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea from Houthi attacks, though it would likely still require U.S. and European intelligence and logistical support to be effective…

An Azerbaijani official said on Turkish TV that Baku lobbied Israel to stop the Knesset from voting to recognize the Armenian genocide…

FIFA officials gathered in Morocco this week reaffirmed their support for Gianni Infantino, days after the FIFA president faced widespread criticism from within the organization over a plan to privatize elements of the World Cup…

The Atlantic investigates whether al-Qaida, 25 years after the 9/11 attacks, is quietly rebuilding or if its core organization is effectively defunct…

A new poll shows left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva‘s lead over conservative challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, narrowing ahead of the country’s October elections…

Benny Stanislawski, previously the communications director for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), is joining Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Brooks‘ congressional campaign as communications director…

American University’s School of Public Affairs named Tom Kahn as director of its Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies; Kahn, who served as acting director for the past year, was the longest-serving staff director in history for the House Budget Committee…

Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Pic of the Day

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law hosted 34 law students from leading law schools, including Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, NYU and Vanderbilt, for its three-day Law Student Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., this week. The students received training in civil rights law, Title VI, free speech and advocacy on behalf of Jewish students from a range of experts, including Brandeis Center founder Ken Marcus, pictured here addressing attendees.

Birthdays

Actor, director, producer and screenwriter, Soleil Moon Frye turns 50… 

Retired founding partner of the Jaffe Family Law Group, Daniel J. Jaffe turns 89… Esports executive and casino owner, he is a three-time bracelet winner at the World Series of Poker, Lyle Berman turns 85… Professor emerita and former dean at Bar Ilan University, Malka Elisheva Schaps turns 78… Film director, television director, producer and screenwriter, Brian Michael Levant turns 74… Austrian businessman with many U.S., Israeli and Eastern European investments, Martin Schlaff turns 73… Former state treasurer of Virginia and then state secretary of finance, she is now a gourmet popcorn manufacturer, Jody Moses Wagner turns 71… Professor of public diplomacy at The Fletcher School of Tufts University, she was formerly undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Tara D. Sonenshine turns 67… Professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at The George Washington University Medical Center, Alan J. Lipman, Ph.D. turns 66… Israeli diplomat, he served as Israel’s consul general in NYC between 2000 and 2004, Alon Pinkas turns 65… NASA astronaut who spent 198 days on the International Space Station, he brought 18 bagels from his family’s bagel store in Montreal into space, Gregory Chamitoff turns 64… Chair of White & Case’s white collar practice group, Joel M. Cohen… Executive director of public affairs and policy communications at the American Council on Education, Jonathan Riskind… CEO of Elluminate (formerly known as the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York), Melanie Roth Gorelick… Vice chair of Jewish California and a board member of JFNA and JCRC Bay Area, Susie Sorkin… Television and radio sports anchor on ESPN and ABC, he was one-half of the “Mike & Mike” team but now hosts his own ESPN morning program, Mike Greenberg turns 59… Chief economist at The Burning Glass Institute, Gad Levanon, Ph.D…. Law professor and associate dean at Michigan State University College of Law, David Blankfein-Tabachnick turns 55… Former boxing commentator and co-host of ESPN’s “This Just In,” Yiddish speaking Max Kellerman turns 53… Co-founder and former CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick turns 50… Founder and CEO at Climb Together which helps prepare people from low-income backgrounds for entry level jobs, Nitzan Pelman… Screenwriter and television producer, he is best known for creating and executive producing the Fox teen drama “The O.C.,” Joshua Ian Schwartz turns 50… Former comms director for Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral general election campaign, Jeffrey Lerner… Creative director and visual strategist, Rachel Gogel… Member of the New York State Assembly, Simcha Eichenstein turns 43… Winner of two gold medals in swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he is now CEO of Gather Campgrounds north of Austin, Garrett Weber-Gale turns 41… Director of strategy and policy at K2 Space Corporation, he is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, Corey A. Jacobson… Reporter at San Antonio Express-News, Elizabeth Teitz… Special advisor at the Department of Homeland Security and former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Hunter Pollack turns 29…

Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Michigan’s bruising Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday is forcing many Jewish leaders in the state to confront an uncomfortable decision as they now look ahead to the general election in November.

Several Jewish Democrats in the battleground state are now indicating that they will break with a party they have long called home and instead vote for the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers, in the November election, citing their continued alarm over El-Sayed’s hostile rhetoric toward Israel as well as remarks they have interpreted as indifferent to rising antisemitism, among other concerns.

“I can’t vote for El-Sayed,” Michael Horowitz, a Jewish community leader and Detroit businessman who supported Stevens, a pro-Israel moderate, told Jewish Insider. “So many things I find despicable about him, not the least of which is his close association with Hasan Piker,” the antisemitic Twitch streamer, who Horowitz said “demeans America, demeans Jews and demeans all but the most radical among us.”

Horowitz confirmed he was now “leaning strongly to Rogers,” a former congressman who narrowly lost in his bid for Senate last cycle. “And I have heard from many in the Jewish community who say they will be supporting Rogers,” he said on Wednesday.

Hannan Lis, a Democratic fundraiser and Jewish leader who splits his time between Michigan and Israel, was among those who had told JI before the primary that he would vote for Rogers in the general election if El-Sayed won the nomination, noting he knows “many” Jewish Democrats who plan to do the same.

His reservations about Republicans preserving their Senate majority by picking up the Michigan seat held by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), he clarified, were superseded by his objections to El-Sayed’s stances on Israel and responses to antisemitism. “El-Sayed is no Democrat,” he claimed.

Dennis Bernard, a Jewish leader in Michigan who backed both Rogers and Stevens in their respective primaries, said that the “word is out on a few Rogers fundraisers targeting historical Jewish Dems,” efforts that he described as “co-led” with Jewish Democratic donors.

“Candidly,” he added, “the only area that may not jump on Rogers is the highly progressive Ann Arbor community,” which he called “very small.”

Bernard, national chair of government relations at the Jewish Federations of North America, told JI that it would likely take a few more days for such events to materialize as donors now “settle down and organize” in the wake of the primary. “Everyone is jumping in,” he said. 

One Democratic fundraiser in Michigan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive subject, said he was “absolutely certain” that “several large Jewish Dem donors” will be supporting Rogers. 

“I would guarantee there will be fundraisers for him hosted by high-profile Jewish Dems,” he told JI.

The fundraiser, who backed Stevens, said that hours after the race had been called on Wednesday he was “already contacted by Rogers surrogates” seeking to make inroads with Jewish Democrats whose support could prove consequential in what is expected to be a close race.

The surrogates’ pitch, as he put it: “Essentially that as Jews, we need to put our communal well-being ahead of the party.”

It remains to be seen whether the depth of Jewish Democrats’ fears of electing El-Sayed will ultimately translate to a meaningful boost for Rogers’ bid amid a national political environment that is less favorable to Republicans.

Still, Rogers and his supporters have said they are eager to court Jewish Democrats alienated by their party as support for Israel has emerged as a litmus test on the far left — particularly in Michigan, where Jewish Democratic leaders have recently voiced fears of antisemitic harassment from anti-Israel activists in the state.

Alyssa Brouillet, a spokesperson for Rogers, told JI on Sunday that his campaign was “beginning to see more and more Jewish Democrats coming to us who feel abandoned by their party.”

“Mike Rogers stands with the Jewish community in Michigan and across the country,” she said, “and he will continue fighting to make life better for working families all across the state.”

In a video ad posted to social media on Wednesday, Rogers highlighted his opponent’s close ties to Piker, featuring past comments in which the streamer said “America deserved 9/11,” among other controversial remarks that have faced scrutiny. “You are who your friends are, and Abdul El-Sayed’s are radical leftists who hate America,” Rogers wrote.

The Republican Jewish Coalition called El-Sayed “a direct threat to Michigan’s Jewish community” in a statement on Wednesday that urged Jewish voters in the state to get behind Rogers in the general election.

“To our friends in Michigan’s Jewish community, including the tens of thousands who have voted Democrat their entire adult lives and now find themselves politically homeless: this is the moment for real change and action,” said Matt Brooks, the RJC’s CEO. “There are more than 100,000 Jewish voters in the Wolverine State. We are not a rounding error, we are the decisive margin. Mike Rogers has earned your vote.”

Even as El-Sayed quickly won backing on Wednesday from national Democratic leaders hoping to unite the party for a must-win election, the Jewish Democratic Council of America stopped short of an endorsement, underscoring the extent to which the divisive primary has left some Jewish leaders rudderless after Stevens’ defeat. 

“While we are disappointed in the final result of the Michigan Senate race, the razor-thin margin isn’t the resounding win for the far-left that was predicted,” said Halie Soifer, the JDCA’s CEO. “We are proud of the race run by Rep. Haley Stevens, and we thank her for her consistent and principled leadership standing with Jewish Americans. We congratulate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on his victory after a difficult and divisive primary.”

Several nonpartisan Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, released statements on Wednesday condemning El-Sayed. 

Deryn Sousa, a spokesperson for AIPAC, whose super PAC invested over $30 million on an aggressive effort to boost Stevens, said in a statement that the group’s “members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November,” indicating it intends to back Rogers in the general election.

AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, did not return a request for comment, but sources told JI the group was all but certain to support Rogers, who was recognized as a pro-Israel hawk while serving in the House from 2001 to 2015.

For his part, El-Sayed, who made his opposition to AIPAC a central feature of his campaign messaging, sought to ease tensions with skeptical Jewish voters on Wednesday, addressing what he called “an issue that has been focused on in this race.”

“To all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith,” he said in his televised remarks, “I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety, is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters.”

But many Jewish leaders in the state suggested that they would be unmoved by such appeals — especially as El-Sayed has continued to use incendiary rhetoric while discussing Israel. In an interview on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday morning, for instance, he doubled down on his criticism of Israel, calling the Jewish state “bloodthirsty” while saying his critiques go beyond the government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His comments faced criticism from Democratic Majority for Israel, which said “El-Sayed should be working to build a bigger tent and earn the trust of Jewish Michiganders” but was instead invoking “an age-old antisemitic trope that is especially dangerous amid rising violence against Jews.”

Asher Lopatin, a rabbi who serves as director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor and endorsed Stevens, told JI he has “heard from several people who say that they will campaign for Rogers and support him and tell others to vote for him.”

“I have not spent a lot of time looking into his positions,” Lopatin added, “but I can say clearly that I will not be voting for Abdul El-Sayed and I wish more Democrats would come out and say they will not be voting for him.”

Some Jewish Democrats in the state have confirmed privately that while they cannot bring themselves to vote for Rogers, they will leave their ballots blank or write in another candidate due to their reservations about El-Sayed.

Despite widespread objections to El-Sayed within Michigan’s mainstream Jewish community, others suggested that their loyalty to the Democratic Party outweighed those concerns. “I know Jewish Dems who will vote for Rogers,” Richard Lenter, a Jewish community activist in Detroit, told JI. “I am leaning toward voting for El-Sayed while holding my nose.”

Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit, a Jewish Democrat who has been outspoken against antisemitism in his party, declined to confirm whether he would vote for El-Sayed, even as he expressed strong concerns about past comments in which the candidate has dismissed Zionists as “illiberal” and refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

“Abdul’s rhetoric has been alarming and dangerous for my community,” Arbit, whose district in suburban Detroit includes a sizable Jewish constituency, said in a message posted to Facebook Wednesday morning. “There is a profound need for him to come to the table and attempt to repair the harm he has caused, to see what semblance of trust and confidence may be built.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI), a moderate Michigan lawmaker representing a swing district, broke with most other Democratic members of the Michigan congressional delegation in declining to offer an explicit endorsement of Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed as of Wednesday afternoon, after offering strident criticism of him during the primary campaign.

“Congratulations to everyone who participated in Michigan’s hard-fought primary elections last night, and thank you to every voter who made your voice heard. In these close elections, we want you to know — you are HEARD,” Scholten said in a statement that did not mention El-Sayed. “Now our focus turns forward. I’ve always said I’ll work with anyone committed to lowering costs, expanding affordable health care, creating more opportunity, and fighting corruption. I mean that.”

A Scholten spokesperson did not respond to a request for clarification on whether this constituted an endorsement of El-Sayed.

Scholten said that she is a “proud, commonsense Democrat” and said that she’s focused on helping to elect “similar candidates around the country.”

During the campaign, as a vocal supporter of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), Scholten suggested she might struggle to support El-Sayed in the general election.

“I will not stand beside someone who has allowed distinctly anti-American sentiment to enter our public dialogue,” she said in one interview.

In another, she criticized El-Sayed for campaigning with antisemitic and anti-Israel influencer Hasan Piker. 

“To campaign with Hasan Piker, who said America deserved Sept. 11 — sure, he went on to disavow those comments, but I’m telling you, nobody on my team would ever, you know, come even close to making a comment like that,” she said. “I think that condoning behavior like this from candidates like Abdul El-Sayed is taking us in a direction that we don’t want to go as a party.”

Other Democratic moderates, with the exception of maverick Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), are largely keeping their heads down following the election, with several contacted by JI declining to comment or not responding to requests. 

Other Democrats are backing El-Sayed.

“He worked hard. People in Michigan had their word last night, and I imagine he’s going to work really hard over the next 90 days to win this race, and it’s obviously a critical one,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said. “If we’re going to fix some of the problems created by this president, we’ve got to win back the Senate.”

Asked whether he believes the narrow margin of victory for El-Sayed might imperil his chances in November, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who had supported Stevens in the primary, offered a short response: “Yeah, he could win. Definitely.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said he hasn’t met El-Sayed but noted that Stevens had endorsed him and “my sense is that whatever divisiveness there might have been because of the primary, they’re … past it.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) declined to comment on El-Sayed’s history or his decision to campaign with Piker, and said that he doesn’t think “generalizations are possible from one race” about the direction of the party, “whether it’s in Brooklyn or Michigan.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to close the door on a trip to Michigan to campaign for newly minted Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, whom Mamdani praised for what he described as a focus on “the concerns of working-class Americans” — even as he tried to explain away El-Sayed’s poor performance in the areas where working-class voters live.

The mayor extended his congratulations from Manhattan to the Wolverine State, lauding in particular El-Sayed’s slogan of “money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all.” Unlike fellow democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Mamdani did not travel to Michigan during the primary to support El-Sayed, but left open the possibility he would visit before the general election.

“My focus thus far has been on New York City. And what I will tell you is I know that many New Yorkers were incredibly excited at the results,” Mamdani, speaking after an unrelated event, said in answer to a question of whether he would consider making the trip. Asked whether he would completely rule out such a campaign jaunt, he answered: “I’m here right now.”

Mamdani answered in the affirmative when asked whether El-Sayed was the kind of candidate he hoped to see change the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, he stayed clear of the issue that fueled their most fervent support online: Israel.

“I am proud to be part of a movement of politicians and candidates who are looking to put working-class Americans back at the heart of our politics,” the mayor said. “And that’s our focus here in New York City, and just from what we’re seeing in Michigan, that’s what Michiganders want … to be their focus come November.”

Yet the mayor struggled to answer why, like his own map in the 2025 primary against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the results from Tuesday night showed El-Sayed performing poorly among the lower-income voters whose interests he purportedly championed. El-Sayed’s strongest precincts, like Mamdani’s, were home to many college students and well-compensated professionals.

Mamdani suggested those voters had been duped by ad campaigns.

“When you are facing $60 million in outside spending, you are facing almost what feels like surround sound,” he said. “People are hearing a message about you again and again and again. And to win this race as someone who is not currently holding elected office, it’s a testament to what he ran on, and also to the way he ran the campaign.”

Jewish groups expressed concern on Wednesday about the victory of Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, highlighting his extreme rhetoric on Israel and the broader rise of the far left.

Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer said in a statement that the group was “disappointed” by the results of the primary, where the group had endorsed and campaigned strongly for Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI). She congratulated but stopped short of endorsing El-Sayed.

“While we are disappointed in the final result of the Michigan Senate race, the razor-thin margin isn’t the resounding win for the far-left that was predicted,” Soifer said. “We are proud of the race run by Rep. Haley Stevens, and we thank her for her consistent and principled leadership standing with Jewish Americans. We congratulate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on his victory after a difficult and divisive primary.”

Soifer also highlighted that “mainstream Democrats, including many of the candidates JDCA has endorsed, remain the key to winning back control of Congress” and emphasized that Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) and Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss “overwhelmingly defeated challengers on the far-left.”

AIPAC, while declining to preview specific plans, indicated it intends to stay engaged in the Michigan race through November.

“Our members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November,” spokesperson Deryn Sousa told Jewish Insider.

In a letter to members, AIPAC President Bernie Kaminetsky said that the group will continue to “stand up for what is right, ensure pro-Israel voices are loudly heard in Congress, and fight even harder to ensure the U.S.-Israel alliance grows stronger.”

“In Abdul El-Sayed, a fiercely anti-Israel candidate has emerged as the Democratic nominee. His statements about Israel, AIPAC, and the Jewish community are outrageous and offensive, and his ascent is part of a much larger, profoundly worrying trend we are closely tracking,” Kaminetsky added, praising Stevens and her support for Israel. “This narrow loss stings, but [Stevens’] defeat doesn’t change our principled opposition to the dangerous policies El-Sayed wants to bring to the U.S. Senate.”

Tacitly acknowledging setbacks across the political map, Kaminetsky emphasized, “Our conviction will not be measured in a single race or a single cycle. This is a generational fight, and we remain undeterred in our mission. Our political fight is not just about strengthening America’s partnership with Israel. It is also about the future of America and our individual rights to engage in our democracy.”

In a rare statement on campaign politics, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also highlighted the group’s concerns about El-Sayed’s rhetoric.

“Throughout the campaign, ADL has called out nominee Abdul El-Sayed for peddling in antisemitic tropes … or for campaigning with notorious bigot Hasan Piker,” Greenblatt said in a video statement. “Campaign trail rhetoric and actions send clear signals about what a person believes and what a political party thinks is permissible.”

“We are not going to stop, and we will keep calling on political leaders and candidates from both parties to reject antisemitism and to commit to combating it whenever and wherever it occurs,” Greenblatt continued.

ADL Michigan regional director Elyssa Schmier said in her own statement that “Jews across Michigan and the country are alarmed by the rhetoric that defined this race and its implications for the future of political norms in our country.”

Calling out a series of specific comments by El-Sayed, without naming him directly, Schmier said that “anyone seeking public office should know better than to normalize antisemitic tropes” and that “we are calling on political leaders to reject antisemitism outright and demand better.”

The American Jewish Committee, which also rarely comments on electoral politics, likewise issued a statement strongly condemning El-Sayed.

The group called his victory “a deeply troubling reflection of the growing mainstreaming of divisive rhetoric and exclusionary politics in America. At the same time, Congresswoman Stevens’ strong showing demonstrates that there is still a place and support for nuanced, moderate voices,” it continued.

“We are concerned by El-Sayed’s framing of American politics as a zero-sum game that too often casts those who disagree as the enemy,” the statement continued, accusing him of “delegitimiz[ing]” those who disagree with him, an “approach [that] is fundamentally at odds with the principles of civility, pluralism, and robust democratic debate that are central to our democracy.”

The group also condemned El-Sayed’s past comments on Israel and its supporters and said that “most Americans agree that political rhetoric of this nature has gone too far,” calling for voters“to reject extremist rhetoric from all candidates — no matter their party — that perpetuate this divisive approach.”

The group said it would continue efforts to engage leaders around the country “who seek to reclaim American politics from the extremes.”

In a separate statement, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said that he saw during his time as a member of Congress “that when leaders treat those who disagree with them as enemies, the communities they represent feel the consequences” and emphasized “AJC’s work to reject extremist politics.”

Democratic Majority for Israel also criticized El-Sayed after his primary win for calling Israel “bloodthirsty” in a Wednesday morning interview.

“El-Sayed should be working to build a bigger tent and earn the trust of Jewish Michiganders. Instead, this morning he described the government of the world’s only Jewish state as ‘bloodthirsty’ — an age-old antisemitic trope that is especially dangerous amid rising violence against Jews,” the group said. “His language is inflammatory. He should retract it and apologize.”

Democrats are quickly coalescing behind Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed after the far-left candidate narrowly clinched victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary on Wednesday morning, while Republicans quickly pounced on El-Sayed’s extremist history and ties.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who came within a percentage point of defeating El-Sayed, promptly congratulated him on his victory and offered her support.

“I want to congratulate Abdul El-Sayed on winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. He is a doctor, a community health official, a Rhodes Scholar, and a dedicated Michigander. I am proud to offer my support as he takes on Mike Rogers in the general election,” Stevens said. “This was a thorough and rigorous campaign that brought out the full span of views within the Democratic Party — and that is why we have primaries.”

She emphasized the need for Democrats to come together in support of El-Sayed, saying, “We must elect Democrats up and down the ballot. We need to flip some important House seats. We need to re-elect my friends Hillary Scholten and Kristen McDonald Rivet. We need to win this Senate seat, because Elissa Slotkin deserves a partner like Abdul in the U.S. Senate.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) also offered support for El-Sayed in a statement.

“Abdul El-Sayed has run an energetic campaign that inspired thousands of Michiganders across the state, with a clear focus on lowering costs and standing up for working families,” the pair said. “Democrats are united by a common purpose: putting a check on Donald Trump by defeating his Republican enablers and taking back the Senate. We look forward to working with Abdul and Democrats across Michigan to win this seat in November.”

Retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who had initially planned to stay out of the race but ultimately endorsed Stevens, said that the party must come together behind El-Sayed to block Rogers.

“Both candidates ran strong campaigns focused on improving the lives of all Michiganders. But now it’s time to come together as a party and rally around our nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, to make sure Mike Rogers never sees the floor of the U.S. Senate,” Peters said. “I’ve repeatedly said that I will support our nominee because the most important election is in November.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who declined to endorse El-Sayed in the primary, offered her support while also saying little about El-Sayed personally and focusing on the need to keep the seat in Democratic hands.

“Congratulations to @AbdulElSayed for winning the Democratic nomination for Senate. It’s been a long primary, but now it’s time to gear up to beat Mike Rogers (again) and win up and down the ticket,” Slotkin said. “There is nothing more important than the mission of the next 90 days: uniting, keeping this seat blue, flipping the House and Senate, and providing a real check on President Trump.”

Meanwhile, Republicans have quickly pounced on El-Sayed, highlighting his extreme history.

“Abdul isn’t just another liberal. He’s an extremist. He wants to empty prisons and put murderers and sex offenders back on our streets. He pledged his support to the Muslim Brotherhood and campaigns with people who refuse to condemn terrorism,” Republican nominee former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) said. “I spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11.” His comment was apparently a reference to El-Sayed’s ties to far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who championed El-Sayed in the primary.

Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, declared in a statement that El-Sayed is the “most antisemitic U.S. Senate candidate in America” and called on Jewish Democrats, who he said could prove “decisive” in the November general election, to back Rogers.

“Abdul El-Sayed is a direct threat to Michigan’s Jewish community,” Brooks said. “El-Sayed has called the government of the Jewish state as ‘evil’ as Hamas, ‘struggled’ to say that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, and empathized with a terrorist who tried to murder Jewish schoolchildren at Temple Israel in the Detroit suburbs — and yet, Michigan Democrats just picked him as their nominee for the United States Senate.”

The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate GOP leadership, announced a six-figure digital ad campaign describing El-Sayed as “dangerous.”

Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover the results so far of yesterday’s key primary races in Michigan and Missouri and speak to experts about concerns over the U.S.’ dwindling stockpiles of long‑range missiles and air-defense interceptors. We talk to lawmakers about their views on the U.S.-led Board of Peace’s Hamas disarmament framework and report on plans by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Federal Courts subcommittee to boycott a hearing today set to examine Muslim Brotherhood networks in the U.S. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Omer Shem Tov, Dara Horn and Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.

We also have a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.

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

What We’re Watching

• In one of the first primary races to be called last night, Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) soundly defeated Cori Bush as the far-left former congresswoman attempted to reclaim her St. Louis-area seat two years after she was ousted. 
• Abdul El-Sayed holds a narrow lead in the Michigan Senate primary against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), with results expected to be called later today. 
• Meanwhile, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI), seen as a reliable pro-Israel ally, is trailing against DSA-aligned challenger state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who ran on an anti-Israel platform. 
• And in the battleground Michigan 7th District, left-wing activist William Lawrence prevailed with a plurality of the vote, largely because of a split between his two moderate challengers. More below.
• The U.S. is hoping to announce a deal with Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, Axios reports, which would see Tehran gain greater control over the key waterway than it had before the war. No fees or tolls could be charged under the 60-day temporary agreement, but inbound traffic would be required to transit through Iranian territorial waters.
• On the Hill this afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a classified briefing on the situation in Sudan.
• Jordan is convening foreign ministers from Muslim countries today to formulate a plan to combat what Amman said were “escalatory and illegitimate Israeli measures that target the identity of Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian sanctuaries.”

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Rumors of the demise of the mainstream, pro-Israel wing of the Democratic Party turned out to be somewhat exaggerated: The Michigan Senate race between Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed is a lot closer than polls suggested, while Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) romped to victory over his anti-Israel opponent, with the help of pro-Israel, Jewish supporters.

Bell’s sweeping 22-point victory in a rematch over former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) was an early election night highlight for Jewish and pro-Israel groups, which poured money and organizing efforts into ensuring the virulently anti-Israel Bush didn’t get a chance to return to Congress. AIPAC’s super PAC spent over $3 million on ads attacking Bush as corrupt and extreme, resources which likely played a key role in Bell’s landslide margin. 

There were some other silver linings for the moderate side of the Democratic Party on Tuesday night: Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss won comfortably to succeed Stevens despite facing attacks over his pro-Israel record from his opponents. And Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the moderate ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee who faced harassment and threats over his longstanding pro-Israel record, won a clear majority of the vote against far-left challengers in Washington state’s all-party primary.

But there were plenty of warning signs about the changing ideological direction of the Democratic Party, as we’ve previously seen in deep-blue congressional districts across the country. Despite Stevens’ closer-than-expected showing, she still trails El-Sayed even after winning endorsements from top Democratic officials (including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer) and being the beneficiary of tens of millions in outside spending led by AIPAC’s ad blitz.

The results paint a picture of a Democratic Party deeply divided, with older voters, Black voters and Jewish voters forming the centrist coalition, which is facing an insurgency from the left made up of younger voters, white progressives and Arab Americans.

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

MISSILE MATH

As Iran war depletes U.S. missile stocks, experts warn deterrence is at risk

Experts are warning that the United States’ dwindling stockpiles of long‑range missiles and air-defense interceptors following the war with Iran could complicate Washington’s ability to deter adversarial aggression and maintain military readiness in other theaters, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Reuters first reported that the U.S. has expended much of its inventory of highly accurate long‑range missiles during the conflict, while significantly drawing down stocks of Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors used to defend against ballistic missile attacks.

State of stockpiles: “The United States has a longstanding defense industrial crisis, whether it’s in munitions, missiles, shipbuilding or other areas,” Alexander Gray, who served as chief of staff on the National Security Council during President Donald Trump’s first administration, told JI. “It has constrained the ability to replenish our war fighters but also to make sure our partners and allies get what they need. Sustained operations against Iran are showing just how challenging this industrial base capacity problem is.”

Read the full story here.

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DEAL IN DOUBT

Lawmakers from both parties pessimistic Trump’s Hamas disarmament deal will hold

U.S. lawmakers expressed deep skepticism on Tuesday over the Board of Peace’s newly announced Hamas disarmament framework, pointing to violations already taking place in Gaza and a lack of indications that Hamas is serious about honoring a deal as evidence that the ambitious peace proposal faces near-insurmountable hurdles, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea and Marc Rod report.

“There will be no real peace for Gaza or Israel as long as Hamas has weapons and is allowed to ruthlessly rule over innocent Palestinians,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) told JI. “I’m cautiously encouraged by this plan, but let’s not kid ourselves — Hamas has a long record of lying, and they’ve broken their word before, over and over. I’ll be watching every step of this until Hamas is fully disarmed.” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told JI, “I suspect that while this may have good intentions to it, I’ll believe it when I actually see it happening.” 

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and John Kennedy (R-LA).

Israeli response: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed on Tuesday that the IDF will “not withdraw from the current lines in Gaza until Hamas is completely disarmed.” President Donald Trump “thinks, and his team thinks, that Hamas can be totally disarmed and Gaza demilitarized. We’re looking into it,” Netanyahu continued in a video posted to Facebook in Hebrew. “They sent us a draft, we didn’t agree. It wasn’t our draft. We sent our responses.”

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HEARING HAVOC

Democrats plan to boycott Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Muslim Brotherhood

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Federal Courts subcommittee said on Tuesday that they plan to boycott a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday set to examine Muslim Brotherhood networks in the United States. The Democrats — Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Peter Welch (D-VT) — dismissed the hearing as an effort to attack Muslims broadly, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What they said: “Scapegoating Muslims may be a Texas Republican strategist’s idea of ‘solid gold’ to whip up their voters, but Democrats have no intention of indulging this political creepshow, particularly after the recent violence targeting places of faith,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “Our focus is the costs families face thanks to rampant, non-stop Trump corruption.”

Read the full story here.

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DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

Florida synagogue vandal shared Mamdani’s anti-Netanyahu video

A Florida man accused of hurling a brick through the front window of a Sarasota Chabad House shared New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s video labeling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” just days before the crime, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

Details: Local police arrested 30-year-old Brayton Laschinger on July 31 and charged him with felony criminal mischief for the attack two days prior on the Lubavitch Chabad of Downtown SRQ. The Sarasota Police Department stated that Laschinger had admitted to targeting the synagogue “because it was a Jewish place of worship” — and had blamed “propaganda on social media” for enraging him in the hours before the vandalism.

Read the full story here.

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HORNS AND HATE

Jewish Colorado AG targeted with campaign poster depicting him with devil horns

A campaign poster circulating among Colorado Republicans depicts Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is Jewish and whose family members are Holocaust survivors, with devil horns, which critics say invokes a classic antisemitic trope, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Weiser is the Democratic nominee for governor of Colorado.

Background: The poster promotes, but was not created by, Victor Marx, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, who has a bizarre and extremist history, including claiming to have killed and exorcised several people. It describes Weiser, depicted in front of a menacing background, as “the next threat to Colorado” and “radical,” “extreme” and “dangerous.” Marx responded supportively to an X post by the image’s creator calling for unity among Colorado Republicans, which included a version of the devil horns image.

Read the full story here.

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BOOKSHELF

Dara Horn’s shocking new title hides a serious argument about fighting antisemitism

If you thought People Love Dead Jews — Dara Horn’s 2021 essay collection examining society’s reverence for remembering deceased Jews while failing to support the living ones — was an awkward book to read in public, just wait until you get your hands on Horn’s newest title: The Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Horn is in on the joke; she likes to say that both titles make great beach reads because no one will dare sit within several feet of you, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Author’s intention: But despite borrowing its title from the name of the Nazis’ infamous plan to rid Europe of its 11 million Jews during World War II, Horn’s latest book, which will be published on Sept. 1, is not a Nazi manifesto. Instead, the title of Horn’s new book serves as an eye-catching, subversive dog whistle that is meant to pique the interest of antisemites — while also serving as a cheeky summary of Horn’s goal of actually trying to come up with a solution to the wave of antisemitism that has swept the world in recent years. “I am providing a solution. Not a solution in terms of, like, ‘Here’s 10 policy points we should implement,’” Horn told JI. “It’s, ‘Here’s the story we need to be telling about who we are, to ourselves and to everyone else,’ and this is the story that is going to inspire people to imagine a better future.” 

Read the full interview here.

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Worthy Reads

The Subaru Socialists: In The New Yorker, Jay Caspian Kang writes that a rising bloc of young, college-educated and downwardly mobile Democrats — for whom the war in Gaza has become a defining political litmus test — is remaking the party in the image of far-left Democrats such as Zohran Mamdani, Abdul El-Sayed and Melat Kiros. “The future of the Democratic Party involves a synthesis of Subaru Socialism’s disillusionment with the American promise and the polarized, hard-line moralizing of Gen Z. Young voters aren’t the only angry ones, of course; older Democrats are still understandably furious at a party that lost to Donald Trump twice and seems to have done precious little to stand in his way during the past year and a half. But it’s younger voters who have begun to give a political form and shape to that reactionary anger.” [NewYorker]

The Trouble with the Tent: In The Spectator, Alex Castellanos warns of the dangers of the Democratic Party’s “Big Tent” policy. “The Big Tent is the party’s latest dance craze. They thought they’d found a clever dodge: a Democrat in a swing district could say he did not personally favor abolishing prisons or nationalizing large industries. His party simply contained many different opinions. But voters see something more frightening: the Big Tent is the Democratic party’s public invitation to socialism. It lays out a welcome mat for communism to enter the Democratic party’s home. Establishment Democrats know that such views have moved aggressively into their coalition, but they refuse to say they are disqualifying.” [Spectator]

Memorandum of Misunderstanding: Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren contends in his Substack, “Clarity,” that the Hamas disarmament deal is likely to go the way of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding and become muddled in the parties’ different interpretations of their obligations. “The question is: Will Hamas really give up its guns? A closer reading of the agreement reveals that Hamas will not initially turn over its weapons but only put them in NCAG storage. Further ambiguity surrounds the definition of the word ‘weapons’ — whether it refers only to rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, as Hamas prefers, or to all small arms as well. Added to those uncertainties is the matter of reciprocity. … As in the case of Iran, an MOU can be open to widely divergent interpretations and radically altered circumstances. In the Gaza Strip, no less than in the Strait of Hormuz, an MOU may lead not to peace but to further upheaval.” [Substack]

Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Word on the Street

State Department antisemitism envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun criticized Canadian officials’ “muted” response to a series of recent antisemitic attacks around the country, suggesting that Ottawa put in place visa restrictions and terrorism listings to restrict entry to those who seek “to sow discord”…

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) blasted Stony Brook University over its failure to take action against a professor who has been involved in anti-Israel activism, including reportedly harassing and accosting patrons at a Long Island restaurant, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, urged pro-Israel college students to distinguish between protected speech and actionable discriminatory conduct — “people literally interfering with your ability to get an education” — when facing antisemitism on campus. Dhillon made the comments on Tuesday at the conclusion of the Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Leadership Summit in Washington, JI’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Days before he was confirmed as director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, who was still serving as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, wrote a letter to the mother of slain Jewish teenager Ari Halberstam, who was killed in a 1994 terror attack targeting a bus of yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge, saying that the office he was exiting was “prepared to pursue” any additional evidence in the case “to the fullest extent of the law”…

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro makes an appearance alongside rapper Meek Mill in the Philadelphia native’s latest music video, “Nightmares to Dreams”…

A Michigan cider brewery where Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) hosted a campaign event the night before the state’s Senate primary election issued a statement saying it regretted hosting the event, citing Stevens’ support for Israel, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports…

In a debate between CNN commentators David Axelrod and Van Jones about Michigan’s Senate primary, Axelrod described AIPAC asa foreign agent, saying, “Should essentially an agent of any foreign government, whether it’s Israel or any other, be able to spend … $30 million in a race like this to influence the outcome of that race?” Van Jones responded, “I don’t think that they’re an agent of a foreign power. I think they’re American Jews”…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani disbanded the entire business-led advisory board of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City as he reshapes the nonprofit’s donor network amid deepening friction with the city’s corporate establishment…

U.K. Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch defended her backing of a local election candidate who had previously been imprisoned for racially aggravated harassment against a Jewish member of Parliament…

Antisemitic assaults across the United Kingdom jumped 82% in the first half of 2026, according to data from the Community Security Trust…

The Financial Times spotlights an “Election War Room” led by Israeli activists who fear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will try to manipulate or delegitimize October’s election…

Former Mossad head David Barnea was named global president and chairman of Florida-based defense technology firm Ondas…

X, the social media platform, announced on Tuesday that it is complying with a Turkish court order restricting access within the country to the presidential candidacy account of imprisoned Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, though the company is legally challenging the order…

The Wall Street Journal examines Iran’s hardline approach to maintaining control over the Strait of Hormuz in its negotiations with the U.S…

Longtime U.S. diplomat Ludovic Hood, who previously served as a senior advisor in the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism under Amb. Deborah Lipstadt, is joining the Hudson Institute as a senior fellow at the think tank’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East…

In The New York Times on Tuesday, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison defended his bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, casting the merged company as a modest player against tech giants and vowing to keep CNN and CBS News ideologically independent…

Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” the same morning, TKO Group CEO and WME executive chairman Ari Emanuel proposed putting an editorial board in place to run CNN, to ease fears that Ellison could end up controlling the network and CBS…

Shoham Nicolet was announced as the next president of the Adelson Family Foundation, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Pic of the Day

Omer Shem Tov, who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 505 days, addressed the Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Leadership Summit in Washington on Tuesday.

Birthdays

Actor who starred in “Weekend at Bernie’s,” his father and grandfather were both rabbis, Jonathan Elihu Silverman turns 60… 

Chairman of Delphi Capital Management, he is the founder and chairman of Open to Debate, a public policy debate series, Robert Rosenkranz turns 84… Former chairman of the World Zionist Organization who later served as chairman of the Jewish National Fund, Avraham Duvdevani turns 81… Former Israeli ambassador to France following seven years as a member of the Knesset, Yael German turns 79… Author of 25 nonfiction books, including The Portable Curmudgeon, Zen to Go and Advice to Writers, Jon Winokur turns 79… Historian, Nazi hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem until 2024, Efraim Zuroff turns 78… Banker, once known as “Austria’s woman on Wall Street” and founder of Bank Medici in 1994, Sonja Kohn turns 78… Former Soviet refusenik, he served as speaker of the Knesset for seven years, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein turns 68… Intellectual property and entertainment attorney based in Ithaca, New York, he is an adjunct professor of law at both Cornell, Syracuse and Touro, Howard Leib… Member of the British House of Lords, he was chief executive of the Office of the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks and then chief executive of the United Jewish Israel Appeal, Baron Jonathan Andrew Kestenbaum turns 67… Former hedge fund executive, Murray Huberfeld… Songwriter, author, political columnist and noted baseball memorabilia collector, Seth Swirsky turns 66… Chair of the Department of Jewish History at Baltimore’s Beth Tfiloh Dahan High School, Neil Rubin Ph.D…. President at ConservAmerica, he is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Jeffrey Kupfer… President of the Center for Jewish History in NYC and professor at Fairfield University, Gavriel David Rosenfeld turns 59… Former member of the Knesset for the Kulanu party, Roy Folkman turns 51… Former director of the Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution, now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, Natan Sachs… Investment and foundation manager at Denver-based Race Street Management and a board member of JFNA, Cintra Pollack… VP of federal affairs at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Matt Mandel… Chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of The New York Times, Arthur Gregg “A.G.” Sulzberger turns 46… Professional boxer who held the WBA super welterweight title from 2009 to 2010, in 2014 he was ordained as a rabbi and then known as the “Boxing Rabbi,” Yuri Foreman turns 46… Former director of responsible innovation at Meta/Facebook, now a consultant, he is also the spiritual leader of Chochmat HaLev, a progressive spiritual community in Berkeley, Calif., Zvika Krieger… Member of the comedy duo Jake and Amir, Jacob Penn Cooper Hurwitz turns 41… Longtime member of the Israeli national soccer team who also played in Europe’s UEFA Champions League, Gil Vermouth turns 41… Co-founder of Cadence, an AI-driven performance nutrition platform designed specifically for active women, Lila Cohn… Website manager at Upsun, Abby Milberg… 2023 graduate of Harvard Law School, now an assistant corporation counsel for New York City, Michael E. Snow… Senior practice associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Lisa Geller… Leslie Saunders… Senior director of bridge building at Repair the World, Anyu Silverman… 

Rumors of the demise of the mainstream, pro-Israel wing of the Democratic Party turned out to be somewhat exaggerated: The Michigan Senate race between Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed is a lot closer than polls suggested, while Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) romped to victory over his anti-Israel opponent, with the help of pro-Israel, Jewish supporters.

Bell’s sweeping 22-point victory in a rematch over former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) was an early election night highlight for Jewish and pro-Israel groups, which poured money and organizing efforts into ensuring the virulently anti-Israel Bush didn’t get a chance to return to Congress. AIPAC’s super PAC spent over $3 million on ads attacking Bush as corrupt and extreme, resources which likely played a key role in Bell’s landslide margin. 

There were some other silver linings for the moderate side of the Democratic Party on Tuesday night: Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss won comfortably to succeed Stevens despite facing attacks over his pro-Israel record from his opponents. And Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the moderate ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee who faced harassment and threats over his longstanding pro-Israel record, won a clear majority of the vote against far-left challengers in Washington state’s all-party primary.

But there were plenty of warning signs about the changing ideological direction of the Democratic Party, as we’ve previously seen in deep-blue congressional districts across the country. Despite Stevens’ closer-than-expected showing, she still trails El-Sayed even after winning endorsements from top Democratic officials (including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer) and being the beneficiary of tens of millions in outside spending led by AIPAC’s ad blitz.

Meanwhile, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI), seen as a reliable pro-Israel ally, is trailing against DSA-aligned challenger state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who ran on an anti-Israel platform. 

And in the battleground Michigan 7th District, left-wing activist William Lawrence prevailed with a plurality of the vote, largely because of a split between his two moderate challengers. Running in a district President Donald Trump carried in 2024, Lawrence will find his ideological baggage a major vulnerability as he tries to unseat freshman Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI). 

The results paint a picture of a Democratic Party deeply divided, with older voters, Black voters and Jewish voters forming the centrist coalition, which is facing an insurgency from the left made up of younger voters, white progressives and Arab Americans.

What should be most concerning for the Jewish community is that virulently anti-Israel candidates are making inroads in the affluent, college-educated suburbs — areas where such views would have been politically toxic not long ago. 

Stevens only narrowly won her home base of suburban Oakland County — the center of the state’s Jewish community — and lost badly in affluent Kent County, spanning the city of Grand Rapids. It underscores the point that the base of the DSA movement is among fairly well-off white voters. 

But on the other side, there are plenty of red flags for El-Sayed after his underwhelming primary performance. El-Sayed struggled with Black voters, who make up the core of the party’s voting base. He got romped in the state’s rural counties. And El-Sayed’s overconfidence and the campaign’s grandiose expectations were undercut by the race’s close margin, and he didn’t get to enjoy a celebratory moment in the media spotlight on Election Night.

For AIPAC, which poured over $30 million into the Michigan Senate race, this is merely the first round of a lengthy battle against El-Sayed. If El-Sayed ends up prevailing, expect the pro-Israel advocacy group to remain actively engaged in the race as attention pivots to a general election with former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) as the GOP nominee.

A Michigan cider brewery where Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) hosted a campaign event the night before the state’s Senate primary election issued a statement saying they regretted hosting the event, citing Stevens’ support for Israel.

Pux Taphouse, which is located in Grand Rapids, said in an Instagram post on Monday that they did not know the event was being hosted by the Stevens campaign, only that they had been told it was “a private women’s Dem event.”

The event featured Stevens alongside Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI), former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List. Some protesters stood outside the event, using bullhorns to accuse Stevens of supporting genocide in Gaza. 

“We are heartbroken as we pride ourselves on being not only a queer friendly space but also have advocated and continue to call for a Free Palestine,” the Instagram post from the brewery stated. “We DO NOT endorse Haley Stevens.” 

The message calling out Stevens and pledging not to host her for any future events comes amid a broader effort in some liberal cities and businesses to not welcome supporters of Israel. In June, a Brooklyn coffee shop wrote on Instagram that it would refund a recent purchase by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and ban him from returning because of his views on Israel.

A spokesperson for Stevens did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the state of play in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary in the final days of the race, and have the scoop on plans by Sen. Ted Cruz and Reps. Brad Knott and Tom Suozzi to introduce federal buffer zone legislation. We talk to Israeli officials and regional experts about the Trump administration’s newly released Gaza disarmament roadmap, and report from the Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Leadership Summit in Washington. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Dean Kremer, Alex Ryvchin and Balaji Srinivasan.

We also have a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.

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

What We’re Watching

• The Middle East remains on edge after President Donald Trump called off plans to launch “the biggest attack since World War II” targeting Iran, saying on Sunday that he was persuaded by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to again attempt to reach a diplomatic solution with Tehran. Trump said that talks with Iran are slated to restart today, while the Islamic Republic denied that talks were set to take place.
• Jay Clayton assumes his role today as director of national intelligence, following his confirmation vote last week to replace ODNI interim head Bill Pulte, who briefly served as acting director following Tulsi Gabbard‘s resignation.
• The Israel on Campus Coalition is holding its annual National Leadership Summit in Washington. More below.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MICHIGAN MOVES

Republicans betting Jewish voters swing Rogers’ way if El-Sayed wins primary

As Abdul El-Sayed pulls ahead in the final days of Michigan’s bitter Democratic Senate primary race, Republicans are eyeing a chance, in the general election, to peel support from disaffected Jewish Democrats anxious about their party’s sharp turn to the left on Israel and its tolerance for actions they view as antisemitic. If Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) loses, Republicans are eager to present former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the GOP’s presumptive nominee, as a safe alternative to El-Sayed for Jewish Democrats in the general election who may not be able to stomach voting along party lines,Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Shifting tide: “I think that Jewish voters and many Democrats in general feel” the party “has moved away from them,” Bobby Schostak, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party who sits on the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board, told JI, calling Rogers “unconditionally and unapologetically pro-Israel and part of the fight against antisemitism in America.”

Read the full story here.

Called out: In a late-night tweet five days before Michigan’s high-stakes Democratic Senate primary, Stevens explicitly accused her opponent, El-Sayed, of trafficking in antisemitism, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports. Despite that, Stevens said, when asked in an MS NOW interview if she could commit to backing El-Sayed if he wins Tuesday’s primary: “You bet … I am on the team, alright. And I am gonna link arms and do whatever’s needed.”

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SCOOP

Lawmakers preparing to introduce federal buffer zone legislation

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) are preparing to introduce federal legislation that would establish a 100-foot buffer zone around religious institutions, within which conduct that disrupts religious services or interrupts access to the place of worship would be banned during religious services, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.

Negotiations: The Right to Worship Act aims to address demonstrations around synagogues and other houses of worship that have become a growing concern for the Jewish community following anti-Israel and antisemitic protests outside synagogues that have turned violent. Several states have pursued similar legislation. Cruz and Knott have been working on the bill for some time, and two sources familiar with the situation said that “intense negotiations” had been ongoing between Cruz and Suozzi’s teams to reach a bipartisan compromise balancing the desire to protect religious worship and free speech rights. A source said a deal was reached on Sunday evening.

Read the full story here.

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PEACE PROSPECTS

Deep skepticism surrounds viability of Trump’s proposed Gaza peace plan

Israeli officials and regional experts are expressing deep skepticism over the Trump administration’s newly unveiled Gaza disarmament roadmap, warning that public disagreements between Israel and Hamas over the timing of weapon surrenders and troop withdrawals threaten to unravel the agreement before it even begins, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Israeli concern: Doron Spielman, a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, told JI that Jerusalem conveyed to Washington that the plan “does not reflect Israel’s concerns.” Spielman said that Israeli intelligence has shown that Hamas “has been regrouping, digging additional tunnels, rearming and resupplying and have plans to attack Israel again.” For that reason, he said it is difficult for Israeli leaders to justify any decision to withdraw prior to Hamas’ complete disarmament.

Read the full story here.

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BOILING POINT

Suspected arson at Montreal kosher restaurant is latest alarm amid rising antisemitism in Canada

A popular Montreal kosher restaurant was destroyed in what police are investigating as a possible arson attack early Saturday morning, the latest in a worsening pattern of antisemitic attacks across the city and throughout Jewish communities in Canada, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Caught on camera: First responders were called to Nöam Restaurant in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood around 3:15 a.m. Saturday to find the building engulfed in flames. Despite the efforts of roughly 80 firefighters, the two-story building suffered extensive damage. No injuries were reported, and no arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon. The Montreal Gazette reported that the blaze was set by a single individual who appeared to be a young man, perhaps in his early 20s, according to video footage of the incident.

Read the full story here.

On the soccer pitch: Amid chants of “Death to Israel,” Israeli striker Dor Turgeman scored a goal for his New England Revolution team during a Saturday night Major League Soccer match against CF Montréal.

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CAMPUS CLIMATE

Not better, just different: Students seek tools to address changed campus environment at ICC summit

As close to 1,000 pro-Israel students from around the country gather in the nation’s capital for the Israel on Campus Coalition’s annual National Leadership Summit, they’ll do so against a backdrop of seemingly quieter campus antisemitism than in the years immediately following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. But students are still seeking tools to navigate a campus climate they’ve come to see as permanently changed, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Campus concerns: “My main concern [on campus today] is every time I sit down with a classmate I have to wonder whether the person next to me was at the [anti-Israel] encampment,” Noah Lederman, an incoming senior at Columbia University majoring in philosophy and Jewish ethics, told JI. In February 2024, Lederman said he was shoved and pinned against a wall by an anti-Israel protester as he donned a shirt with an Israeli flag on it during a pro-Israel demonstration right outside of the Morningside Heights campus. More than two years later, Lederman still feels wary on campus.

Read the full story here.

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ON SECOND THOUGHT

Melat Kiros backtracks from conciliatory tone on Israel, antisemitism after far-left backlash

Far-left Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros backtracked on Sunday from her conciliatory tone in a PBS interview on the need for progressives to formulate a policy on Israel that does not engage in antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.

U-turn: Appearing on “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover” on Saturday morning, Kiros said her “greatest concern right now is that the State of Israel is losing support all across the political spectrum” and that progressives are “leaving a vacuum” for far-right commentators like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens to fill by “pretending to care about Palestinian safety when really it’s just masking their overt hatred for Jewish people.” The 29-year-old doctoral student, who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America in her campaign, quickly reversed course after the interview aired. Responding on Sunday to criticism on X from Al Jazeera producer Sana Saeed, Kiros said she “fumbled this line, plain and simple.”

Read the full story here.

Mounting pressure: Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) publicly accused Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), his former son-in-law, of domestic abuse on Sunday and said Miller is unfit for office. Moreno’s comments came in response to a video address by Miller denying wrongdoing amid growing scrutiny of the allegations of domestic violence and abuse by his ex-wife Emily Moreno, the senator’s daughter, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.

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Worthy Reads

History Lesson: In The New York Times, Mehrzad Boroujerdi reflects on his father’s 1978 killing by Iranian revolutionaries, some of whom are now among the Islamic Republic’s top officials. “The United States and Israel have yet to learn that the Iranian regime is not made of papier-mâché, and the Islamic republic’s confrontational ideology is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon. The men in uniform showed no hesitation in killing thousands of their compatriots in January — a national trauma that Iranian society has yet to fully process. They will continue to practice a politics of performance for domestic audiences even as they recognize that the regime’s social contract is both morally bankrupt and fiscally unsustainable.” [NYTimes]

Threat to the West: In The Wall Street Journal, Lorenzo Vidino, the head of The George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, warns of the dangers of political Islam’s impact that have largely been misunderstood by successive U.S. presidential administrations. “Save for the years immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, there has been no concerted effort within U.S. law-enforcement and policy communities to acquire a deep institutional understanding of Islamist networks worldwide. A particular lack of understanding exists on how Islamists are using the American political and educational systems to advance their aims — dynamics that have become apparent in the past few years.” [WSJ]

Rise of the Far Right: Politico’s Kathy Gilsinan does a deep dive into concerns among Republicans over the rise of “groypers” in the party, who are beginning to gain professional footholds in Washington and in the conservative space. “If, as the adage goes, personnel is policy, the stakes are significantly higher than intergenerational trash talk, given the degree to which government staffers, across branches, effectively run the country. Student government types become interns become policy aides become senior advisers, chiefs of staff and even heads of agencies. If the conservative personnel pipeline is changing, Republican government will change with it.” [Politico]

Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Word on the Street

A new survey of K Street leaders from Punchbowl News focused on the war with Iran and memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran found that 65% of respondents believed that Israel’s involvement in the war with Iran had a negative impact on its outcome…

The New York Times looks at the cyberattacks targeting water facilities in at least seven states, finding that evidence indicates potential Iranian involvement…

Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) introduced a resolution condemning the Iranian government’s human rights abuses…

Senate Appropriations Committee leaders finalized a stopgap funding bill that would, at least temporarily, prevent the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of approving federal grants, a plan that had raised concerns on both sides of the aisle…

A district court judge dismissed a complaint filed against The George Washington University by alumni of the school alleging that the school allowed “pervasive and severe” antisemitism on campus, citing the length of the complaint; the judge gave the plaintiffs until the end of August to refile an amended complaint…

The New York Times reports from a national meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America, finding an invigorated activist base that struggled at times to find consensus on issues regarding policy and organizing…

Boy George split from his manager, Paul Kemsley, after the latter pulled the performer from a two-week West End run of “Jesus Christ Superstar” after Boy George posted a reggae song with pro-Israel lyrics…

The Minnesota Twins acquired starting pitcher Dean Kremer, the first Israeli player drafted by a Major League Baseball team and a great-nephew of Haim Saban, from the Baltimore Orioles…

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is facing mounting criticism from the governing bodies of European, North American and Central American football leagues following his proposal to privatize FIFA — which originated last year with secret talks between Infantino and Josh Kushner; Bloomberg reports that Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the chairman of Qatar Sports Investments and president of the Paris Saint-Germain team, has the backing of some European sports officials…

The New York Times reports on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s decision to feature an exhibition on designer John Galliano and honor him at its annual Met Gala despite a 2011 outburst in which he proclaimed, “I love Hitler”; the Times notes that Galliano participated in a May meeting with former Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and New York City Jewish leaders over the decisions…

The Washington Post follows up on a May story about a trove of WWII-era love letters written by a Jewish soldier Louis “Speedy” Weber to his eventual wife, Frances, after finding the couple’s nephew…

The people’s choice award of the Archibald Prize, Australia’s top portraiture honor, was given to artist Michael Zavros for his portrait of Australian Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin following the December 2025 terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights tech entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan’s effort to create an incubator for new countries in a sparsely inhabited Malaysian city that fell apart after the project faced government scrutiny following a social media post alleging that the incubator included participants with Israeli citizenship in violation of Malaysian laws…

CNN does a deep dive into increasing incitement in Israel against journalists, who accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political allies of stoking animus toward reporters in the country…

Ugandan officials unveiled a statue of Yonatan Netanyahu, the older brother of the Israeli prime minister, at the airport in Entebbe where the elder Netanyahu was killed during the 1976 hostage-rescue operation following the hijacking of a passenger plane by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…

Former Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), the first Republican woman from Texas elected to serve in the House, died on Sunday at 83…

Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Pic of the Day

Members of Israel’s lacrosse team celebrated on Sunday after scoring a goal during the bronze medal match between Israel and Haudenosaunee, made up of Native American nations, during the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship in Tokyo. Israel came in third in the tournament overall after its win over Haudenosaunee.

Birthdays

Retired head coach of both the NFL’s KC Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills, the oldest-ever living member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Marv Levy turns 101… 

English actor, author, playwright and theatre director, known for his roles as the villain in both “James Bond” and “Rambo” films, Steven Berkoff turns 89… EVP emeritus of the UJA-Federation of New York, John S. Ruskay turns 80… Retired regional director in the Cleveland office of the ADL, she serves on the board of trustees of the Cleveland Federation, Anita Gray… Former chairman and CEO of the North America office of commercial real estate brokerage firm Savills, he is a past member of AIPAC’s Real Estate Division Executive Council, Mitchell S. Steir turns 71… Voice actor in dozens of Disney films, video games and television programs, known professionally as Corey Burton, Corey Gregg Weinberg turns 71… Former chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and board member of JFNA, Orna Amir Wolens… CEO and co-founder of D.C.-based Freedman Consulting, LLC, Thomas Z. Freedman turns 63… Co-founder of Pushkin Industries, a podcast company, Jacob Weisberg… Israeli filmmaker, producer and director, Ilan Moskovitch turns 60…  Canadian entrepreneur and former commodities trader, Alexander Shnaider turns 58… Executive director of public affairs at the Jewish Federation of Broward County (Florida), Evan Goldman… Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, she sometimes serves as a fill-in for her husband, Rich Eisen, Suzy Shuster turns 54… Managing editor of Vital City, Josh Greenman… U.S. senator (D-CT), Chris Murphy turns 53… Chief advancement and communications officer at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Joshua Cherwin… Senior vice president of public policy at Riot Platforms, Brian Morgenstern… Senior editor of Commentary magazine, Seth A. Mandel turns 44… Managing partner and head of global government affairs at SoftBank Group International, Jeffrey A. Dressler turns 42… Director of strategic partnerships and senior development officer at JDC (the “Joint”), Erica Greenblatt… Caroline “Carrie” Keller-Lynn… Director of member engagement at Christians United For Israel, she was born in Lutsk, Ukraine and raised in Sacramento, California, Liliya Maskovcevs… Executive director of The Natan Fund, Adina Poupko … Executive director of the Reducetarian Foundation (a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing meat consumption), Brian Kateman… Fashion model and entrepreneur, founder of the “Kode with Klossy” nonprofit and founder and CEO of Bedford Media, Karlie Kloss turns 34… U.S. news editor at the Financial Times, Emily Goldberg… First-round pick of MLB’s Atlanta Braves in the 2020 draft, he made his MLB debut in 2023, now in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, Jared Shuster turns 28… Ariana Kaufman… Founder-director of Meeting Your Mission, Leslie Rosen Stern… Leigh Bonner Levine… Co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Washington Reporter, Matthew Foldi…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As Abdul El-Sayed pulls ahead in the final days of Michigan’s bitter Democratic Senate primary race, Republicans are eyeing a chance, in the general election, to peel support from disaffected Jewish Democrats anxious about their party’s sharp turn to the left on Israel and its tolerance for actions they view as antisemitic.

For many Jewish Democrats in Michigan who have long called the party home, the bruising lead-up to the primary on Tuesday has been difficult to experience, as El-Sayed, a far-left former public health official, has continued to gain traction while fiercely attacking Israel, using anti-Zionist rhetoric and centering his messaging on opposition to AIPAC, the pro-Israel advocacy group whose super PAC is aggressively promoting Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in a record ad barrage that has exceeded $30 million.

If Stevens loses, Republicans are eager to present former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the GOP’s presumptive nominee who was narrowly defeated in his bid for Senate last election cycle, as a safe alternative to El-Sayed for Jewish Democrats in the general election who may not be able to stomach voting along party lines.

“I think that Jewish voters and many Democrats in general feel” the party “has moved away from them,” Bobby Schostak, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party who sits on the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board, told Jewish Insider, calling Rogers “unconditionally and unapologetically pro-Israel and part of the fight against antisemitism in America.”

He predicted that Jewish Democrats “are going to flock to” Rogers “come November if El-Sayed wins the nomination,” referring, among other things, to the candidate’s refusal to distance himself from the antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and controversial remarks following a foiled terrorist attack against a synagogue in Michigan in March in which he said, “Hurt people do hurt people.”

“Playing that response back is all it takes,” Schostak said of the anticipated GOP attacks against El-Sayed in the still-hypothetical general election. “That clearly showed his position and lack of concern for Jews and Jewish children,” he added of the comments. “I don’t think it takes much more than that.”

Sam Markstein, a spokesperson for the RJC, which has endorsed Rogers, said that “Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat is at the center of the political battlefield” in the fight for control of the upper chamber.

“I think there’s a real opportunity for Mike and other Republicans in Michigan to build on Jewish support,” Jason Cabel Roe, a GOP strategist who has served as the executive director of the state’s Republican Party, told JI.

“With nearly 100,000 Jewish voters in a state where the margins of victory are incredibly close,” he said in a statement to JI, “Michigan’s Jewish community will once again be a decisive group in one of the most important contests in the country this November.”

Markstein suggested that “Michigan Jews are well aware of the stakes,” pointing to divisive comments in which El-Sayed declined to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and said “I call bullshit” on “a definition of antisemitism to include a foreign government and its leaders,” among others that have faced scrutiny.

“I think there’s a real opportunity for Mike and other Republicans in Michigan to build on Jewish support,” Jason Cabel Roe, a GOP strategist who has served as the executive director of the state’s Republican Party, told JI.

While he called El-Sayed’s rhetoric on Israel “a big factor” influencing that dynamic, Roe argued there are deeper issues at play, notably including the Democratic state party convention in April at which pro-Israel candidates were heckled by activists and an attorney with a history of praising Hezbollah was nominated to sit on the University of Michigan Board of Regents.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, said last week that she planned to skip her party’s nominating convention next month, citing the episodes as sowing fears of antisemitic harassment.

“What happened at the” state convention “has really animated Jewish donors and voters and moved them in the direction of Republicans,” Cabel Roe explained to JI. “I think it’s very significant.”

Alyssa Brouillet, a spokesperson for Rogers, said his campaign is “beginning to see more and more Jewish Democrats coming to us who feel abandoned by their party.”

“It’s easy to see why when you have a candidate in this race who fundraised off of Oct. 7 and sympathized with the terrorist attacker who attempted to mass murder 140 kids at Temple Israel synagogue. That’s terrifying,” she told JI in a statement. “Unlike his opponents, Mike Rogers stands with the Jewish community in Michigan and across the country — and he will continue fighting to make life better for working families all across the state.”

The former congressman, recognized as a pro-Israel hawk while serving in the House from 2001 to 2015, has also raised concerns over rising antisemitism as well as anti-Israel sentiment on the far right, which he has said the GOP needs to more forcefully fight.

He has said publicly that it “doesn’t matter” who he faces in the general election, claiming he is confident that he will beat either of them. During a private call with supporters last month, he said that he would be “in good shape” if El-Sayed clinched the nomination as opposed to the moderate Stevens, describing him as “so radical,” according to audio obtained by CNN.

Polling has suggested that a general election matchup between Rogers and El-Sayed would be competitive.

It remains to be seen if the depth of disillusionment among Jewish Democrats in Michigan who feel their party is abandoning them will ultimately translate to a vote for Rogers should El-Sayed be the nominee — given accompanying reservations with how it could help Republicans flip a crucial seat held by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).

But Stevens herself in some ways gave Rogers a path to make inroads with Jewish Democrats who distrust El-Sayed when she directly accused her opponent of antisemitism in a fiery social media post on Thursday underscoring the increasingly personal animosities in the closing stretch of the primary.

“After Tuesday, you will see a plethora of Jewish Democrats openly supporting Mike Rogers,” said Dennis Bernard, national chair of government relations at the Jewish Federations of North America, adding such support could help tip the scales in a general election that is expected to be close. He said Rogers has been doing “significantly more events in the Jewish community” and is being more favorably received than last cycle, when he lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a Jewish Democrat.

“Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans,” she wrote in the post addressed to El-Sayed, after he had taunted AIPAC and called her the “least capable candidate in America.”

A spokesperson for AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, did not return a request for comment about its plans for the general election.

A source familiar with UDP’s thinking told JI that “no decision has been taken yet because we’re not there,” but suggested that the group would support Rogers if Stevens loses to El-Sayed. “What would the expectation be?” the source told JI. “That they would do everything they can do to beat this guy.”

Dennis Bernard, a Jewish leader in Michigan who says he supports both Stevens and Rogers in their respective primaries, echoed others who told JI that even as there are Jewish Democrats planning to pull the lever for Rogers if Stevens loses on Tuesday, they are not willing to admit that publicly until the results are in.

“After Tuesday, you will see a plethora of Jewish Democrats openly supporting Mike Rogers,” said Bernard, national chair of government relations at the Jewish Federations of North America, adding such support could help tip the scales in a general election that is expected to be close. He said Rogers has been doing “significantly more events in the Jewish community” and is being more favorably received than last cycle, when he lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a Jewish Democrat.

Hannan Lis, a Democratic fundraiser and Jewish leader who splits his time between Michigan and Israel, said he would vote for Rogers in the general election if El-Sayed wins the nomination, adding he knows “many” Jewish Democrats who plan to do the same.

His reservations over the prospect of Republicans preserving their Senate majority by picking up the Michigan seat, Lis told JI, were overshadowed by his deeper objections to El-Sayed and his views on Israel and antisemitism. “El-Sayed is no Democrat,” he told JI.

“If Abdul El-Sayed wins the primary, I will have to spend more time seeing if El-Sayed is as dangerous to Israel, America and American Jews as he appears — and I haven’t seen anything so far to the contrary — and I will also spend some time examining Mike Rogers’ record on Israel and other issues that the Jewish community cares deeply about,” Asher Lopatin, a rabbi who serves as director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor and is backing Stevens, told JI.

El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about tensions with Jewish voters. 

One pro-Israel strategist in the state who is close to Stevens estimated, on gut instinct, that it was more likely what he called mainstream Jewish Democrats who support Israel would not vote at all rather than pull the lever for Rogers if El-Sayed is the nominee, pegging that number at some 50% of the community. 

He speculated that 25% of such voters would support Rogers because they are “disgusted with Democrats,” while another 25% could swallow their concerns and choose El-Sayed, motivated by loyalty to their party.

Asher Lopatin, a rabbi who serves as director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor and is backing Stevens, said he is trying to keep an open mind for the general election if the congresswoman loses, even as he has “been deeply disturbed by many quotes from El-Sayed regarding Israel and by many of his ads, in which AIPAC is attacked as what I see as an antisemitic dogwhistle.”

“If Abdul El-Sayed wins the primary, I will have to spend more time seeing if El-Sayed is as dangerous to Israel, America and American Jews as he appears — and I haven’t seen anything so far to the contrary — and I will also spend some time examining Mike Rogers’ record on Israel and other issues that the Jewish community cares deeply about,” he told JI.

Lopatin added that he would also “want to make sure” that Rogers is “someone who can stand up to” President Donald Trump.

Noah Arbit, a Jewish Democratic state legislator in Michigan who is outspoken against antisemitism in his party, declined to confirm how he would vote in a general election without Stevens as the nominee, even as he has accused El-Sayed of helping to “stoke and inflame hatred against Jews” and grappled with whether he belongs in a party he sees as “hostile” to his community.

For now, he told JI, “I’m entirely focused on winning a third term representing my district in Greater West Bloomfield,” a heavily Jewish suburb of Detroit, “and electing a Democratic House, Senate and governor in Michigan.”

Michael Horowitz, a Jewish community leader and Detroit businessman, was reluctant to engage in any hypotheticals before the primary’s end. “I still think Haley is going to pull it out on Tuesday,” he told JI on Friday. 

Pressed to clarify how he would vote if she loses, he wrote in a text, “I try to avoid playing games with the Devil,” inserting an upside-down smiley face emoji reflective of the uncomfortable position that Jewish Democrats now find themselves confronting as the primary finally comes barreling to a close this week.

In a late-night tweet five days before Michigan’s high-stakes Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) explicitly accused her opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, of trafficking in antisemitism.

Stevens’ post came in response to a video in which El-Sayed attacked AIPAC for supporting her, as he called her “literally the least capable candidate in America.” He has made criticism of AIPAC a central tenet of his campaign.

“Abdul, we were both on the ballot in 2018. I was capable of winning my competitive primary and general election. You lost,” Stevens wrote in the post, which was uploaded at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, referring to El-Sayed’s run for governor. “You lost by over twenty points to Gretchen Whitmer and you will lose to [GOP nominee] Mike Rogers by talking like this.”

“Everyone in America understands,” Stevens continued, “you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.” 

Stevens has generally avoided mentioning AIPAC on the campaign trail, even as it has spent tens of millions of dollars backing her, as the pro-Israel group has fallen out of favor with rank-and-file Democrats. After a new poll showed her trailing El-Sayed by 15 percentage points, Stevens ratcheted up her rhetoric. 

She also pledged in her post to “lower the costs of groceries, ban stock trading for elected officials, stop Trump’s abuses of power and protect Michigan manufacturing” — and said El-Sayed will just turn into “a celebrity whining and writing books to get even richer.”

Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover comments by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel that she will not attend the state Democratic convention due to fears over antisemitic harassment and report on an anti-AIPAC campaign against Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss — even though AIPAC has not endorsed him in his bid for Congress in a Detroit-area Democratic primary. We also report on President Donald Trump’s announcement that a deal has been reached for Hamas’ disarmament, and talk to analysts about Iran’s efforts to exploit Sudan’s civil war to deepen ties with Islamist factions. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Maor Shlomo, Boy George and Harriet and Mark Levin.

We also have a new on-demand Live Briefingthat you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Jewish leaders worried about Michigan’s prime position on Dems’ 2028 calendar; How Debra Band revives a dying Jewish artform; and Family, friends of slain Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner launch foundation in her memory. Print the latest edition here.

What We’re Watching

• Tensions are high in the Middle East going into the weekend, as Iran has continued to strike U.S. assets around the region this week and Saudi Arabia has also faced attacks by Tehran’s proxies.
• We’re keeping an eye out for word from Jerusalem on its stance on Trump’s announcement of a deal for Hamas’ “complete disarmament” announced last night, which requires complete IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. See more below.
• Amid the global developments, Trump will hold the 13th Cabinet meeting of his second administration this morning at the historic Camp David retreat in Maryland.
• The Democratic Socialists of America kicks off its three-day annual organizing conference today in Chicago. One programming track is set to focus on “anti-imperialist and pro-Palestine organizing strategy” to end the “U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine.”

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S WILL BREDDERMAN

In chatting with plugged-in Democratic strategists currently working on congressional campaigns, I was shocked — but not all that surprised — at the acceptance that the party has been all but dominated by the socialist faction, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), that has gotten more radical since his presidential campaign in 2016 and has played a key role in many Democratic primaries across the country.

Two Democratic operatives involved in Michigan and other targeted races bluntly told JI that left-wing candidates endorsed by Sanders and his band of far-left allies can now expect to win about one-third of the primary vote from the start if given the Sanders seal of approval. And far from being contained to deep-blue urban districts in New York, the trend is spreading into swing-district primaries and statewide nomination fights.

That’s certainly shaping up to be the case in Michigan’s 7th District, one of the biggest battleground districts in the country long held by now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Despite two candidates with cross-partisan credentials running — former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink — the Sanders-endorsed socialist activist William Lawrence is the front-runner, according to new polling conducted in the race.

And the socialist wave is building in statewide races in two of the biggest Midwestern battlegrounds, with Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed Francesca Hong running away with the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin’s governorship, despite her recent embrace of politically toxic views like supporting funding cuts to the police.

And as we’ve extensively covered in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed’s virulently anti-Israel and left-wing platform in the Senate race doesn’t appear to be stunting his primary campaign against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), even with popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s endorsement of Stevens.

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

IDENTITY POLITICS

In battle for Haley Stevens’ House seat, AIPAC dominates a race where it hasn’t even endorsed

Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss has a lot of endorsements in his campaign for Congress in a Detroit-area Democratic primary — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and several other state and local officials — but AIPAC is not one of them. That has not stopped Don Ufford, one of Moss’ opponents, from trying to tar the Jewish lawmaker as a pawn of the pro-Israel group in the final days of the race, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

You’ve got mail: A mailer that Ufford’s campaign sent to the homes of voters in the district described Moss as a “career politician who has taken thousands from AIPAC-linked donors.” A website operated by Ufford’s campaign, titled “AIPAC Jeremy Moss,” said that Moss is “for them, not for working Michiganders like you.” Moss told JI in an interview on Thursday, “The language on his mailers was very clear to say AIPAC-linked donors. One more dig deeper than that is just — it’s Jews.” Some of Moss’ donors have also supported AIPAC, but he does not think their involvement in the political system should be suspect.

Read the full story here.

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SAFETY CONCERNS

Michigan AG Dana Nessel to skip Democratic convention over antisemitism fears

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat whose eight years in office will conclude at the end of December, said at an event in Lansing on Thursday that antisemitism in the state — and in the statewide Democratic Party — has gotten so bad that she will not attend the party’s nominating convention next month, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

What she said: “I don’t feel safe going,” Nessel said at the Thursday event, which was organized by the Anti-Defamation League and featured other Michigan Jews speaking about their own experiences of antisemitism. “I feel like my presence is not going to be welcomed. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. And I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen.”

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ORGANIZING EFFORT

Jewish community works to turn out votes in Wesley Bell’s rematch against Cori Bush

Members of Missouri’s Jewish community are working to turn out voters in Rep. Wesley Bell’s (D-MO) St. Louis-area congressional district as he faces down a rematch with former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) on Tuesday. The Jewish Democratic Council of America has rallied its national membership, particularly in Bell’s district and the broader Midwest region, for an in-person canvassing effort as well as several phone-banking events, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Boosting Bell: “We are mobilizing our network across the Midwest to help get out the vote for Wesley Bell,” Jacob Spiegel, JDCA’s communications director, told JI. “We’re continuing to mobilize our awesome network of volunteers to get out the vote for the candidates that represent our values.”

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DONE DEAL?

Trump announces deal for ‘complete disarmament’ of Hamas

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the Board of Peace had reached a “historic” agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, calling it a “monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the agreement would be “carried out carefully in structured phases,” and that the IDF would withdraw when Hamas’ disarmament is “completed.”

Briefing: Following the announcement, a senior U.S. official said in a call with reporters that the document is “an agreement by Hamas to follow through on the decommissioning” of its weapons as well as its terror tunnels. The official noted that Iran tried to “convince [Hamas] not to do this deal,” but in the end, “the final communication came through the mediators that Hamas has agreed.”

Word of warning: A senior U.S. official told reporters, “We’re not asking Israel to do anything that isn’t in the 20-point plan that they agreed to initially, and so we’re very confident they will adhere to it. If they don’t, President Trump would be very, very disappointed.”

Yes, but: A Hamas source told Reuters the “draft agreement” says ​heavy weapons would only be stored and kept under the control of a Palestinian administration. Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas figure, told Al Jazeera, “We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip.” Meanwhile, Reuters cited an Israeli official as having said, prior to Trump’s announcement, “Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a precondition for any process.” 

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POWER PLAY

Iran’s Sudan strategy raises fears of new jihadist hub

As Sudan’s devastating civil war drags through its third year, experts warn the conflict could become an arena for Iranian strategic expansion and Islamist extremism in Africa, as Tehran and the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood revive a long-standing alliance and threaten to turn the embattled nation into a staging ground for transnational jihadist operations, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Iran’s involvement: Under the cover of Sudan’s official military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), armed Islamist brigades — most notably the U.S.-sanctioned Al-Bara ibn Malik Battalion (the armed wing of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood) — have mobilized to fight alongside state forces led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Supported by funding, weaponry and training pipelines linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, these factions have effectively embedded themselves within the state apparatus, raising alarm among counterterrorism officials and regional foreign policy experts.

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SURVEY SAYS

Israeli faith in Trump continues to erode, new poll shows

The share of Israelis who believe President Donald Trump is “highly committed” to protecting Israel’s security interests has dropped to a new low, according to a new survey from Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Downward trend: The organization’s July 2026 National Security Survey found that only 14% of Israelis believe the country’s security interests are a top concern for Trump, representing a significant drop from the 35% recorded in March. This continues a downward trend observed as the conflict with Iran drags on, following an Israel Democracy Institute poll released earlier this month that found just 26% of Jewish Israelis believed Israel’s security was a key consideration for Trump – another record low at the time.

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Worthy Reads

El-Sayed’s Villains: The Atlantic‘s Jonathan Chait argues that far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s brand of anti-Israel rhetoric is uniquely dangerous. “But if El-Sayed’s anti-Zionism is obsessive, it is not a singular obsession. He talks about the Israel lobby the way he talks on the stump about nearly any other political issue. The El-Sayed formula is to describe just about any policy as a conspiracy by a corporate entity or wealthy cabal to enrich itself at the expense of the people. The villains in his stories are motivated by pure greed, and trade-offs do not exist. This is a rhetorical style that has long existed on the populist left. The trouble is that, when you apply it to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and especially to the question of why some Americans do not share El-Sayed’s position on it, his approach grows paranoid and menacing.” [TheAtlantic]

Take the Win: In her Substack, “Insight,” journalist Frida Ghitis posits that Iran is “overplaying its hand” by continuing to engage in hostilities against the U.S. “Instead of consolidating what it sees as a victory, Tehran continues to test Washington, seemingly inviting another round of war. It’s unclear what’s motivating Iran’s provocative actions after the U.S. had agreed to pause strikes against Iran. It may reflect overconfidence, ideological zeal, or even the belief among some regime hardliners that an apocalyptic confrontation will hasten the return of the Mahdi and usher in a global Islamic order. I’m inclined to believe the moves are not about the world to come but about the immediate future. Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) leaders not only see that they have won the first round, but they believe time is on their side because they pay close attention to Western politics and media. Another round, they may conclude, will solidify their gains.” [Substack]

The Iran Split: Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen argues that President Donald Trump’s military, intelligence and economic teams have delivered real results against Iran while the negotiated ceasefire, which he attributes to Vice President JD Vance, has trapped Trump in a repeating cycle of Iranian violations followed by U.S. strikes and renewed talks. “Case in point: Last weekend, as Trump was on the verge of ordering a resumption of major combat, he was told that the Iranians were desperate for a deal. So he paused to give peace a chance. Result? Iran fired five ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan. This cycle has repeated for months. Like Lucy and the football, Trump keeps getting told that this time the Iranians are finally ready to make a deal — only to be set up for failure yet again. Indeed, by elevating a deal as the definition of victory, Vance has given Iran a veto over America’s ability to declare victory. All it has to do is refuse to agree — which it is doing.” [WashPost]

Netanyahu v. Mamdani: In The Free Press, constitutional law professor Jed Rubenfeld lays out the legal case for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sue New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for libel. “Mamdani specifically named Netanyahu and explicitly accused him of heinous crimes, including genocide and the maiming of children. As a result, while Netanyahu v. Mamdani would be an uphill battle, it could be won. … There is, however, an important limit on this immunity. It applies to Mamdani only if his statement concerned matters ‘within the ambit of [his] duties.’ There’s a strong argument that foreign policy is no part of the duties of a mayor. Indeed, despite Mamdani’s personal desire to arrest Netanyahu, the mayor himself has now admitted he has no legal authority to do so. It seems plausible, therefore, that Mamdani strayed far outside the ambit of his official duties in his attack on Netanyahu. If so, he forfeited New York’s absolute immunity.” [FP]

Word on the Street

The IDF carried out a “massive operation” on Thursday evening using approximately 700 tons of explosives to blow up a tunnel system in southern Lebanon that was “a central part of the Hezbollah terror organization’s invasion plan” into northern Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said…

The American Association of University Professors issued its first-ever political endorsement in its 110-year history on Thursday, backing far-left Abdul El-Sayed ahead of next week’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan. The professional organization has repeatedly faced criticism from Jewish groups and faculty members for straying from its mission by engaging in anti-Israel advocacy…

Columbia University’s student workers’ union dropped its demand that the university divest from Israel during a bargaining session on Tuesday, the Columbia Spectator reports, in a reversal of the union’s pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions advocacy…

Columbia will open a global center in Tel Aviv later this summer, reviving a plan first floated in April 2023 that drew faculty petitions and student protests…

A fire at the AgriStar meat and poultry plant in Postville, Iowa, one of the largest kosher meat processing plants in the country, “means a significant portion of kosher beef and chicken … will not enter the kosher supply chain,” Rabbi Moshe Elefant, the CEO of OU Kosher, said in a statement. Elefant warned that kosher consumers “will feel the impact of the tightening supply with reduction of availability”…

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) argued on Thursday that, without regime change in Iran, the U.S. will likely need to continue to conduct periodic military operations against Iran’s nuclear program to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Senate narrowly blocked another push by Democrats to force an end to the Iran war, 50-49, with the vote falling along now-predictable lines. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rand Paul (R-KY) broke with their party to vote for the resolution with most Democrats, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted against it…

The Iran-backed Houthi terror group, based in Yemen, reportedly attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory, potentially with the assistance of militias in the country working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in an indication of the growing coordination between Tehran’s proxies…

Facing renewed attacks by both Iran and the Houthis, Saudi Arabia hosted dozens of global military officials, including from the U.S., for a meeting on Thursday to establish a maritime defense alliance, the Saudi Defense Ministry said. Thirteen countries joined Riyadh in signing a statement of support for the effort: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia…

Meanwhile, Yemeni sources told The Guardian they believe Saudi Arabia is gearing up for a major military offensive against the Houthis in Yemen — by sea and possibly also by land — aimed at breaking the group’s grip on oil exports through the southern Red Sea…

Iranian hackers may have been behind a cyberattack on dozens of municipal water systems this week in Minnesota, state and federal officials told The New York Times…

The Treasury Department sanctioned Iranian airline Mahan Air, calling it the IRGC’s “airline of choice for moving weapons, military personnel, and equipment,” as well as an IRGC-affiliated front company that has sought the locations of American and Israeli equipment in the region…

A group of Democratic House and Senate lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announcing they are opening an investigation into the deaths of six U.S. service members in Kuwait, who were killed in an Iranian drone strike earlier this year, to determine whether the troops were adequately protected during the war…

The Wall Street Journal reports on how the Iran war has impacted the U.S.-Kuwait relationship and caused the U.S. to reconsider the scale of its military presence in the Gulf country…

Egypt confirmed that an explosion at a port on its Mediterranean coast on Wednesday, which set fire to two ships, including a U.S. gas-storage tanker, was caused by a drone attack. Egypt reportedly attributed the attack, which was not claimed by any country or group, to Iran. It marks the first time the country has been targeted during the war with Iran…

The U.S. has informed Israel that it is deploying additional military refueling aircraft to the country, amid growing concerns over a security escalation in the region, raising fears of major disruptions at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s N12 news site reports…

Elon Musk has authorized his super PAC, called America PAC, to spend more than $100 million to help Republicans in eight states in the midterm elections, The New York Times reports, including key Senate battleground races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Ohio…

The Hackney Council in the U.K. gave initial approval to begin ending the city’s 58-year partnership with its sister city Haifa…

British singer Boy George withdrew from a West End production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” in which he had been set to play Herod, following the release of his pro-Israel song “We Will Dance Again.” Without directly mentioning the song, which drew backlash, Boy George’s manager said: “In this instance, I felt it was right [for Boy George] to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill”…

Base44 founder Maor Shlomo launched a cancer research fund and has already backed seven treatment startups after losing his mother to the disease…

Wine of the Week

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the La Forêt Blanche Ariel Red 2021:

This week I had the honor of attending a dinner held in tribute to the memory of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Every guest at the table was a devoted friend of the senator, who was a steadfast friend of Israel, and the evening carried the quiet weight of remembrance and gratitude in equal measure. I wanted to pour something bold and unflinching, a wine in the senator’s own spirit, drawn from a corner of Israel he loved. The La Forêt Blanche Ariel Red 2021, its grapes raised in the storied heights of Mount Hebron in the Judean Hills, was the perfect answer.

The Ariel Red is 85% petit verdot and 15% syrah. The first sip delivers the firm grip one hopes for from a petit verdot of the Judean Hills: assertive, unapologetic, rooted in the soil that made it. The mid-palate softens, and the finish arrives with an elegance earned over 18 months in French and American oak. This is a wine that will only deepen over the next five years. Serve it beside a well-marbled rib steak hot off the fire, and raise your glass in a toast to the memory of the great senator from the great state of South Carolina.

Pic of the Day

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spoke yesterday evening to Harriet and Mark Levin — the parents of U.S.-born IDF “lone soldier” Michael Levin, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War on Aug. 1, 2006 — at the 20th memorial ceremony for Levin alongside his grave on Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Judah Ari Gross reports.

During the ceremony, Huckabee praised Levin for his sacrifice and “giving his life, not just for Israel, but … for America as well.” Huckabee also hailed Levin’s parents, whom he said took their grief and channeled it into building a network of organizations to support “lone soldiers,” service members without families who care for them in Israel.

“They could have taken their grief and buried it in their souls and lived the rest of their lives in anguish and even bitterness. But they didn’t do that,” Huckabee said. “They took their love for Michael and the grief, and they did something that has now benefited thousands upon thousands of lone soldiers who have served and have had support that Michael never had. … I cannot help but think that, in so many ways, nothing could have been done more powerfully for Michael’s memory, for his sacrifice, than what his parents have done in their sacrifice to honor their son.”

Birthdays

CEO of Goliath Records and former CEO and chairman of Def Jam Recordings, best known as the manager of Eminem, Paul D. Rosenberg turns 55 on Saturday…

FRIDAY: British judge and barrister, he served as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and later as Master of the Rolls, John Anthony Dyson turns 83… Actor, who went on to become CEO of Paramount Pictures and president of production at 20th Century Fox, Sherry Lansing turns 82… Nobel laureate in economics in 1997, known for his quantitative analysis of options pricing, longtime professor at both Harvard and MIT, Robert C. Merton turns 82… Scholar, professor, rabbi, writer and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust, Michael Berenbaum turns 81… Co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, in 2015 he bought a 16th-century copy of the Babylonian Talmud for $9.3 million, Leon David Black turns 75… Software entrepreneur, he was president of Ameinu, which merged with Americans for Peace Now in 2024 to form New Jewish Narrative, and serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, Kenneth Bob… Author of more than 30 best-selling mystery novels, many with Jewish themes, Faye Kellerman turns 74… Manhattan-based criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, radio talk show host and television commentator, Ronald L. Kuby turns 70… Chairman at Haifa-based Twin Digital Healthcare, Guido Benjamin Pardo-Roques turns 70… Owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks until its partial sale to Miriam Adelson in 2023, he was a “shark” investor on the ABC reality program Shark Tank from 2011 until May 2025, Mark Cuban turns 68… Israeli attorney, real estate developer and entrepreneur, Ilan Shavit turns 68… COO at Leenie Productions, she serves on the board of directors of the Northbrook, Ill.-based Haym Salomon Center, Helene Miller-Walsh turns 67… Technology investor and social entrepreneur, he is the founder and chairman of Tmura, Yadin B. Kaufmann turns 67… Israeli libertarian politician and activist, he was previously a member of the Knesset, Moshe Zalman Feiglin turns 64… Adjunct professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine, he was previously the director of the Los Angeles office of the American Jewish Committee, Dan Schnur… Born into a practicing Catholic family in Nazareth, Israel, billionaire investor and owner of the Detroit Pistons, Tom Gores turns 62… General manager of MLB’s Miami Marlins, he was an MLB outfielder for 13 seasons, Gabe Kapler turns 51… Author, actor and comedian, Benjamin Joseph (BJ) Novak turns 47… Founder and CEO at Wide Eye Creative, Ben Ostrower… The representative of the World Zionist Organization Executive in North America, Michal Slawny Cababia… Political activist and the founder and president of Stand Up America, a progressive advocacy community, Sean Simcha Eldridge turns 40… Head of global communications, social and film at Zipline, Danielle Meister Lurie… Technical Account Manager at CREW, Aryeh Samet Canter… Adam Rosenberg… David Goldenberg… Richard Rosenstein…

SATURDAY: Culver City, Calif., resident, Allene Prince… Formerly CEO of multibillion-dollar travel and hotel franchisor Cendant Corporation, then CEO of 54 Madison Partners, Henry R. Silverman turns 86… Founder and principal of NYC-based Midtown Equities, a major developer of nationwide real estate projects, Joseph Cayre turns 85… U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York, now on senior status, Judge Jed S. Rakoff turns 83… Former president of Brandeis University, now president and CEO of the Cleveland-based Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, Jehuda Reinharz turns 82… British businessman, he has been described as “the father of British venture capital,” Sir Ronald Mourad Cohen turns 81… Israeli-born businessman and film producer, later CEO of Marvel Studios, he won the 2019 Academy Award for best animated feature, Avi Arad turns 78… Second-generation owner of a Los Angeles flooring business, Eric Kalman Biren… Immediate past president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Rhoda Smolow… Founder and president of Greystone Hotels, the IHA Group and Markev Realty Corporation, Eric Horodas 73… Media analyst and former host of “MediaBuzz” at Fox News, now a Fox News contributor, Howard Kurtz turns 73… Director of New York government relations at Agudath Israel of America, Yeruchim Silber… U.S. career diplomat who served as ambassador to South Korea during the Biden administration, Philip Seth Goldberg turns 70… United States secretary of the interior, Douglas James Burgum turns 70… Attorney, political strategist and former president of the American Jewish Congress, Richard Scott Gordon… Former CEO of Atlanta’s Jewish Family & Career Services, where she served for six years, she served for 11 years in the Minnesota state Senate, Terri E. Bonoff turns 69… Professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Rachel Yehuda, Ph.D. turns 67… Policy director in the D.C. office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Andrew C. (“Drew”) Littman… Former senior rabbi of the British movement for Reform Judaism, now a rabbi at London’s Bromley Reform Synagogue, Laura Naomi Janner-Klausner turns 63… U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Daniel B. “Dan” Shapiro turns 57… Producer for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Shachar Bar-On… Professor of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton and at Hebrew U, he was the winner of the 2010 Fields Medal, Elon Lindenstrauss turns 56… CEO of NYC’s Quantum Media Group, he is a HAFTR and YU graduate, Ari Zoldan… Israeli film director, writer and producer, Asaf Epstein turns 48… Venture partner in Leap Forward Ventures, she is also chief marketing and revenue officer at Blue Flame, Jessica Alter… Founder and CEO of Moishe House (now known as Mem Global), David Cygielman… Chief Jewish life officer at the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Sheila Katz … Chief community relations officer at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Noam Gilboord… SVP of communications at Burford Capital, David Helfenbein… Board-certified family physician, Mor Toledano Shapiro, M.D…. CEO of PeaceWorks Foundation Roey Kruvi… Cross-country skier who competed for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in 2014 (Sochi) and 2018 (Pyeongchang), now serving as an assistant attorney general fellow in the Consumer Protection section of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Noah Hoffman turns 37… Client relations specialist at Pacific Libra Insurance Agency, Yael Rabin… Television, stage and film actor, Benjamin “Ben” Rosenfield turns 34…

SUNDAY: Co-founder and chairman of NYC-based real estate development firm, Rockrose Development Corporation, Henry Elghanayan turns 86… Professor emeritus of Bible at London’s Leo Baeck College, Jonathan David Magonet turns 84… Former member of Knesset for 28 years, he then served as chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems until 2023, Uzi Landau turns 83… Retired colonel in the U.S. Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor and seven other medals, he serves as a military analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, Jack H. Jacobs turns 81… Longtime librarian, Irene Seff… Nationally syndicated radio talk show host, author and public speaker, Dennis Prager turns 78… Former ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations, Robert Keith Rae turns 78… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, he is international writer-at-large for The New York Times, Roger Cohen turns 71… U.S. senator from Nevada, Jacklyn Sheryl “Jacky” Rosen turns 69… Psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and brain researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yoram Yovell turns 68… Strategic advisor at Breaking Through, Inc., Amy Aronoff Blumkin… Mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., for eight years until 2022, now executive vice president and principal of the U.S. Cities Practice at Shumaker Advisors, Richard David “Rick” Kriseman turns 64… Owner of Newton, Mass.-based MPG Promotions, Elliot Mael… Senior vice president of operations and general counsel of Yeshiva University, Andrew J. “Avi” Lauer… Professional tennis player, who was once ranked No. 6 in the world, now the director of tennis at St. Andrews country club in Boca Raton, Fla., Aaron Krickstein turns 59… Former member of the Knesset, first for the Labor party and then the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Leon Litinetsky turns 59… Senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Steven A. Cook turns 58… EVP for Hearst Television and past chair of the NBC Television Affiliate Board, Eric J. Meyrowitz… Senior director for global trade and public affairs at confectionery, food and pet care firm, Mars Inc., Jay Eizenstat… Professional golfer, he won a PGA tournament in both 2003 and 2004, Jonathan Andrew Kaye turns 56… Pulitzer Prize-winning, D.C.-based national security reporter for The New York Times for 13 years until 2024, now doing investment research, Matthew Rosenberg turns 52… Senior executive communications lead at Adobe, Stephen L. Rabin… Labor law attorney in the Nashville, Tenn., office of Holland & Knight, he served on the national board of JFNA, Aron Zwi Karabel… Program director at the Jewish Fertility Foundation, Tamar Poupko Smith… CEO of Make It Real, he is also the co-founder and chair of The Jewish Entrepreneur (a mentoring program), Isaac William “Zevy” Wolman… Director of philanthropy (Israel) at The Paul E. Singer Foundation, Julia Nayfeld Schulman… Vice president of the United States, James David (JD) Vance turns 42… Actor best known for her 1999 “Pepsi Girl” role as a 7-year-old, and later for subsequent teen roles, Hallie Kate Eisenberg turns 34… Baseball pitcher, he played for Team Israel in 2017 and now manages a baseball training facility for young players in Philadelphia, Kenny Koplove turns 33… CEO of Petra Power in Solon, Ohio, Aaron Goodman turns 32…

Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss has a lot of endorsements in his campaign for Congress in a Detroit-area Democratic primary — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and several other state and local officials — but AIPAC is not one of them. 

That has not stopped Don Ufford, one of Moss’ opponents, from trying to tar the Jewish lawmaker as a pawn of the pro-Israel group in the final days of the race. 

A mailer that Ufford’s campaign sent to the homes of voters in the district described Moss as a “career politician who has taken thousands from AIPAC-linked donors.” A website operated by Ufford’s campaign, titled “AIPAC Jeremy Moss,” said that Moss is “for them, not for working Michiganders like you.” 

Ahead of the Aug. 4 primary, it’s a strategy that has raised eyebrows in the 11th District — the seat being vacated by Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — which includes the heart of metro Detroit’s Jewish community. 

“The language on his mailers was very clear to say AIPAC-linked donors,” Moss told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday. “One more dig deeper than that is just — it’s Jews.” Some of Moss’ donors have also supported AIPAC, but he does not think their involvement in the political system should be suspect.

“I went through the donors and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, those people go to synagogue with me. These people are the parents of my childhood friends,’” Moss said. “It does touch many people’s ears as if it’s trafficking [in] antisemitism.” 

Stevens has represented the area since 2019, but her decision to run for Senate created a rare open seat in the Democratic-leaning district. Her Senate opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, has made Stevens’ support from AIPAC a key tenet of his campaign. But where AIPAC — which has become toxic in a wide swath of the Democratic Party this cycle in the wake of the war in Gaza — has spent tens of millions of dollars to boost Stevens, the group is not involved in Moss’ race.

“AIPAC has definitely been more talked about during this election year than I recall in past years,” Adam Duberstein, a clinical psychologist in the district who serves on the city council of Clawson, a small Detroit suburb, told JI. “I’m incredibly surprised by it. I really am, because I don’t think that I even really knew what AIPAC was a couple years ago.”

Ufford, a former Biden administration official who previously served as director of global vehicle engineering at Ford, is not Moss’ only opponent, but he appears to present the biggest threat to the state senator. 

Moss has raised $1.4 million throughout the campaign, compared to Ufford’s $1 million haul. Ufford is making strides to catch up: In the second quarter of this year, Ufford narrowly outraised Moss, $435,000 to $414,000. The two have also received dueling endorsements from Detroit’s hometown papers: The Detroit News endorsed Ufford, while the Detroit Free Press backed Moss. 

Mark Goldenberg, Ufford’s campaign manager, said Moss’ claim that the anti-AIPAC messaging traffics in antisemitism is “an outrageous and dangerous accusation.”

“Don is a longtime friend to Michigan’s Jewish community and will continue to be,” Goldenberg told JI. “Don believes it’s wrong for Jeremy Moss to run for Congress with a campaign funded by large Donald Trump and MAGA donors, and that Moss was wrong to support Trump’s 2025 strikes on Iran.” 

Moss has received $1,000 from Democratic Majority for Israel, and he also earned the endorsement of Jewish Democratic Council of America. 

Gene Farber, a lawyer in West Bloomfield, said he expected the anti-Israel attacks on Moss to “be less resonant in this district than some of the others” because of the large Jewish population. 

“I think Jeremy’s in good shape,” said Farber, “but I’m not in other parts of the district.” 

Even in heavily Jewish West Bloomfield, the intensity of the political moment has caused tensions between neighbors. Zach Nessel, a recent Michigan State graduate who has been knocking on doors with Moss’ campaign, described a “big sign war” — three Jeremy Moss yard signs have been stolen from his front lawn over the past several weeks. 

A third candidate, Aisha Farooqi, is also outspoken in her opposition to AIPAC. She said in a recent interview that she opposed AIPAC “from the very beginning, before it was even popular [to do so]”. She received the endorsement of Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, a political group affiliated with the X account “Track AIPAC,” which goes after politicians who have received money from pro-Israel groups or aligned donors. Farooqi has also been endorsed by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), one of the most vocal critics of Israel in Congress.

“The problem in the Middle East is decades of western aggression, sanctions, and the US support of Israel to do as it pleases in the region,” Farooqi wrote in a post on X in June. Her profile’s bio has two slogans: “No AIPAC” and “Abolish ICE.” She supports ending all aid to Israel and “holding those responsible for war crimes accountable,” according to her campaign website. A fourth candidate who trails in fundraising, John Paul Torres, has pledged to stand against “the genocide against the Palestinian people.”  

Any whiff of antisemitism in the race is particularly troubling to Jewish voters in a district that includes Temple Israel, the Reform synagogue that experienced a violent antisemitic attack in March. No one was killed besides the assailant, a Hezbollah sympathizer whose brother was a commander in the terror group in Lebanon, according to the IDF.  

“I think there was a very big moment in this district when Temple Israel was attacked, and it very clearly demonstrated where the anti-Israel rhetoric does produce antisemitic hate and harm in our community,” said Moss. “It has been very challenging to grapple with all of the goings-on in the Middle East and ensure we have safety and security for our Jewish community here at home in this district.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat whose eight years in office will conclude at the end of December, said at an event in Lansing on Thursday that antisemitism in the state — and in the statewide Democratic Party — has gotten so bad that she will not attend the party’s nominating convention next month. 

At the party’s first convention of the year, in April, attendees chose a pro-Hezbollah candidate over a pro-Israel Jewish incumbent for a slot to be a University of Michigan regent. Party members loudly booed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a pro-Israel Democrat running for Senate, when she addressed the room, leaving Jewish attendees “shell-shocked,” as a former Ann Arbor city councilmember said at the time. 

“I don’t feel safe going,” Nessel said at the Thursday event, which was organized by the Anti-Defamation League and featured other Michigan Jews speaking about their own experiences of antisemitism. “I feel like my presence is not going to be welcomed. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. And I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen.”

Nessel spoke candidly, as heard in audio of the event obtained by Jewish Insider, about a problem that she said has gotten “worse and worse and worse,” including within her own political party. 

“I can’t speak for the Republican Party because I’m not a member of that party, but I will speak as a member of the Democratic Party here in Michigan, that something’s got to change. This cannot continue,” Nessel said. “I have profound fears about what is going to happen to this state, and what is going to happen to this country if we don’t have a significant change of course.” 

Nessel was billed as the moderator for the roundtable, where she heard from parents whose children had faced antisemitism in Michigan schools, the director of Chabad at Michigan State University and a rabbi from Temple Israel, the West Bloomfield synagogue that is still reeling from an antisemitic attack in March. Nessel listened to the stories and asked questions of the participants, but she also spoke at length about her own experiences and her perception of the threat that antisemitism poses. 

“I can’t just say that it’s caused me a good deal of depression. I often feel despair,” Nessel said. She described gradually coming to terms with the modern reality: that antisemitism is now a feature of American society, and a fixture on both the political left and right.

“I’ve never seen it in my lifetime. I appreciate that my parents did — certainly my grandparents did,” Nessel said, noting that her grandparents fled Eastern Europe. “To see some of the same language that was used during that time period, and we’re seeing it emerge now in modern-day America — if you would have told me that … I still will say I was very naive and I didn’t think, ever, that this could happen in modern-day United States of America.” 

Antisemitism is not entirely a post-Oct. 7 phenomenon for Nessel. In March 2023, several months before the Hamas attacks in Israel that kicked off the war in Gaza, federal investigators arrested an armed Michigan man for threatening to kill Jewish people serving in state government, including Nessel. But she stressed that things have only gotten worse since.

“Especially since Oct. 7, what has become clear to me,” said Nessel, is “how few people know anything about our religious beliefs, how little many people know really about Israel or about any connection that the Jewish community has with Israel.” 

When she won her race in 2018, Nessel became the first LGBTQ person elected to statewide office in Michigan. She expected to face threats about that. She did not expect that nearly all of the threats against her would be because she was Jewish. 

“The threats that I receive are almost exclusively antisemitic threats. People aren’t interested in the fact that I’m gay. They’re not interested in the fact that I’m a woman. They are very interested in the fact that I am Jewish,” Nessel said. “That is a barometer as to the focus that people have.”

ADL Michigan regional director Elyssa Schmier told JI that Nessel’s comments about the Democratic Party convention surprised her. 

“I do think it says something that the highest ranking Democrat or any party official in our state who’s Jewish does not feel comfortable or safe,” Schmier said. “I think that there are people on both sides of each political party that want to remove Jews from public life and make it so they fear for their safety or their family’s safety, or the ability to even achieve what they want to achieve in those settings.” 

Rabbi Arianna Gordon, director of education and lifelong learning at Temple Israel, lauded Nessel for speaking openly about the antisemitism she has faced in politics. 

“There’s some really scary things happening in the political conversation right now, particularly here, but there also are politicians who really have shown up for us and for the Jewish community, and who I know care deeply about us,” Gordon said. “Good for her for saying that out loud.”

Several large Detroit-area synagogues emailed their congregants earlier this summer to urge them to vote in Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary — what seemed at first to be a somewhat bland call to make their voices heard and exercise their civic duty.

Then, as primary day drew closer, the messages took on a sharper edge from the usual staid, nonpartisan rhetoric that houses of worship might have sent in the past ahead of major elections. 

“While we aren’t going to tell you who to vote for and we have never sent a message like this in our congregation’s history, these are no ordinary times,” the leaders of Temple Israel, the Reform synagogue in West Bloomfield that was the site of a violent antisemitic attack in March, wrote in an email last month. 

The rabbis did not directly tell congregants whom to support in the Democratic Senate primary between Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official. Instead, they merely described a politician who sounded a lot like Stevens: “a candidate whose record, actions, and rhetoric demonstrate the strongest commitment to protecting Jewish lives by combating antisemitism, seeking federal security funding for American Jewish communities, and supporting Israel’s security and right to exist as a Jewish state.” (The Conservative Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield used similar language in a letter to its congregants in June.) 

El-Sayed, who has made attacking AIPAC a central tenet of his campaign, has refused to say whether he believes in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. El-Sayed condemned the Temple Israel attack — which did not result in any casualties aside from the assailant, a Hezbollah sympathizer who drove a truck into the synagogue preschool before opening fire — but said that “hurt people hurt people,” referring to the attacker’s ties to family members in Lebanon affiliated with Hezbollah who were killed in Israeli strikes. 

The email from a nonprofit religious institution was just one of many that are being forwarded between the inboxes of Jewish Michiganders in the final days of the Senate primary, which is open to all registered voters regardless of party affiliation. Rabbis’ unprecedented advocacy in the race reflects the urgency surrounding what many Michigan Jews view as one of the most important elections in their lifetime: between a moderate, pro-Israel lawmaker who has represented the hub of Detroit’s Jewish community for nearly eight years and an insurgent far-left candidate whom they view as dangerously misguided when it comes to matters of Jewish communal concern. 

Rabbi Aaron Starr, of Shaarey Zedek, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that  Stevens is “a longtime friend of the Detroit Jewish community.” But he stopped short of publicly naming her as his preferred candidate. Still, he said that the stakes feel different in this election, prompting the stronger-than-usual message to congregants. 

“This is not difficult at all because I just feel it is so important,” Rabbi Asher Lopatin, who leads the Orthodox Kehillat Etz Chayim synagogue in Detroit and is director of community relations at the Ann Arbor Jewish federation, told JI. “We really have seen a lot of energy, I would say really just in the last month. People have woken up, I think, to this danger.” 

“We’ve spoken in condemnation of and in praise of elected officials’ and candidates’ rhetoric on both sides of the aisle,” he said of the synagogue’s past political commentary. “Yet this election feels like a more existential moment for the Jews of Michigan, of the United States and around the world.” 

Other rabbis are being more overt in their support for Stevens. Rabbi Asher Lopatin, who leads the Orthodox Kehillat Etz Chayim synagogue in Detroit and is director of community relations at the Ann Arbor Jewish federation, sent an email this week to his personal contact list urging them to vote for Stevens. He also noted that his position does not formally represent the views of his employers.  

“This is not difficult at all because I just feel it is so important,” Lopatin told JI. “We really have seen a lot of energy, I would say really just in the last month. People have woken up, I think, to this danger.” 

Three dozen members of Detroit’s Orthodox community, including several rabbis, signed a letter calling on observant Jews to support Stevens, whom they described as an “outspoken supporter of Israel and a devoted ally to the Jewish community.” 

Among Orthodox Jews, who are more likely than secular Jews to identify as Republican, there is an educational push to remind voters that in Michigan, they can vote in whichever primary they choose — Democratic or Republican — regardless of their party affiliation. 

“In the primary, many of the Democratic challengers to these candidates are hostile to our community. It is imperative to vote for those who support us,” the Orthodox Jewish leaders wrote. “Having a voice in deciding who the Democratic candidate is will be important no matter who you vote for in November in the general election. You do not need to be a registered Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary.”

“We need all the help we can get, the people we can get, to represent the Jewish population,” Gail Mash, an 81-year-old resident of a senior housing facility operated by the Detroit Jewish Federation, told JI. “There are people who are homebound and have nothing to do. This is the best thing they can do: take an active part and feel that they’re doing something for the community.”

The frantic email campaigns and WhatsApp chains are joined by the actual bread-and-butter of campaigning: phone banking and canvassing. Gail Mash, an 81-year-old resident of a senior housing facility operated by the Detroit Jewish Federation, calls herself and her group of politically engaged girlfriends the “Bubbe Brigade.” (Mash described herself as a former “Kennedy girl” who has been a Democrat her whole life.) 

The “Bubbe Brigade” makes phone calls each week to members of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, a grassroots group representing Jewish Democrats within the state party, and reminds them to vote. 

“We need all the help we can get, the people we can get, to represent the Jewish population,” Mash told JI in a phone call on Tuesday. “There are people who are homebound and have nothing to do. This is the best thing they can do: take an active part and feel that they’re doing something for the community.”

The Democratic Jewish Caucus campaigned with Stevens in the Detroit suburbs over the weekend at a canvassing event that was also promoted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a national group that is supporting efforts to rally Jewish voters for Stevens. JDCA is hosting more than a dozen phone banking events, and it has also made a five-figure digital ad buy in support of Stevens. 

“When Jewish Americans needed a champion, Haley Stevens stepped up,” the ad says. It touts Stevens as a leader in fighting antisemitism, “creating jobs” and “delivering for Michiganders.” 

Polling has shown El-Sayed with a small lead, though the dynamics of the race have shifted in Stevens’ favor since a third candidate, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, dropped out earlier this month. 

In the final debate of the campaign on Monday, El-Sayed repeatedly went after AIPAC and attacked Stevens for her support of the U.S.-Israel relationship. The rhetoric has left some Jewish Democrats in the state confused — and frustrated — at the way Israel, and its political supporters in the U.S., have become so central to a primary for a pivotal Senate swing seat. 

“We have concerns that are sometimes unique from other communities’ concerns,” Ari Weisenfeld, the director of state relations at Agudath Israel, told JI. “If you want your elected officials to take them seriously, whether that’s at the local, state or federal level, you need to get out and vote.”

“The Jewish community is just like, why is there this obsession with this organization that a lot of us do not have an affiliation with?” said Decky Alexander, who chairs the Democratic Jewish Caucus. “It is just mind-blowing that this is such a consumptive issue when we have real threats to our Constitution, our democracy and the economics that are going on.”

Early voting is already underway, but campaigning will continue until polls close on Tuesday. Ari Weisenfeld plans to travel to Detroit from his home in Connecticut to urge Orthodox Jews to vote. As the director of state relations at Agudath Israel, an Orthodox umbrella organization, Weisenfeld is not promoting a particular candidate — all he cares about is that observant Jews get out and vote. He plans to try to visit as many synagogues as he can for morning minyanim between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m, reminding people to vote. If people need a ride to the polls, he’ll provide it. 

“We have concerns that are sometimes unique from other communities’ concerns,” Weisenfeld told JI. “If you want your elected officials to take them seriously, whether that’s at the local, state or federal level, you need to get out and vote.” 

United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, is running a new ad targeting Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left Democrat in Michigan’s closely contested Senate primary, over his past support of the “uncommitted” movement and his criticisms of popular Democratic leaders — a messaging strategy the group has used as an effective attack line against anti-Israel opponents in previous election cycles.

The 30-second TV spot, released on Tuesday in advance of the Aug. 4 contest, cites comments in which El-Sayed had criticized Barack and Michelle Obama while accusing El-Sayed of “helping Trump win” the election in 2024 because of his promotion of the “uncommitted” effort that urged Democratic primary voters to leave their ballots blank as a protest against former President Joe Biden’s support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

“With our democracy on the line against Donald Trump in 2024, El-Sayed told Democrats to vote ‘uncommitted,’ even after Gov. Whitmer warned those efforts would help elect Donald Trump,” the narrator says, referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who last week endorsed El-Sayed’s rival, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a pro-Israel Democrat backed by AIPAC.

“Disrespecting women. Attacking the Obamas. Helping Trump win. That’s the real Abdul El-Sayed,” the ad concludes.

While UDP has invoked similar rhetoric in other ads hitting El-Sayed, the new spot is the first to mention his ties to “uncommitted,” a campaign first launched in Michigan that is emerging as a key point of tension for the insurgent candidate — particularly with Black leaders who believe the movement helped contribute to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in the battleground state.

An image of Harris is shown in UDP’s new TV ad, but the former vice president is not named directly by the narrator. 

UDP is also running two new digital ads — aimed at younger voters ages 18-25 who have been drawn to El-Sayed’s anti-establishment bid — that accuse him of making sexist remarks toward women and saying he was “one of the reasons Trump won,” again referring to his “uncommitted” activism.

Earlier this month, Stevens likewise highlighted El-Sayed’s alignment with “uncommitted,” while alleging he called Harris’ campaign “nauseating.”

El-Sayed, for his part, has sought to downplay his association with the movement, claiming in a recent campaign ad that he was “the first Muslim American leader to endorse Kamala Harris for president,” even as fact-checkers have deemed that statement inaccurate.

In a statement to Jewish Insider on Tuesday, Patrick Dorton, a UDP spokesperson, called El-Sayed “a bad Democrat” who “has repeatedly advocated positions that lose elections for Democrats.”

“That’s why Republicans are desperate to have him be the nominee,” Dorton said. “They know they can beat him.”

A new poll commissioned by the Michigan Education Association, which has not made an endorsement in the primary, found Stevens leading former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the Republican nominee, by two points in a hypothetical general election matchup, making the race a toss-up. El-Sayed, by contrast, was trailing Rogers by seven points in the open-seat race to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), which Democrats see as key to control of the Senate, according to the poll.

El-Sayed, an outspoken critic of Israel, has made AIPAC’s investment in the race a centerpiece of his messaging, as the group has grown increasingly toxic among Democrats. UDP’s spending to help Stevens has so far exceeded $30 million.

The pro-Israel group is also targeting former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who is seeking a rematch in next Tuesday’s House primary in St. Louis against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) — after he unseated her last cycle with a significant financial boost from UDP.

In recent weeks, UDP has run ads attacking Bush for past comments criticizing Biden and Harris, echoing the messaging it deployed two years ago to help oust the former Squad member who was among the most strident critics of Israel in the House.

A new TV ad released by UDP on Tuesday further dinged Bush as an absentee lawmaker who passed “zero bills” in Congress and called her opposition to the bipartisan infrastructure package in 2021 a vote “against Democrats.”

“Cori Bush has her own agenda, and it hurts St. Louis,” the ad claims.

One week before Michigan’s closely watched Democratic Senate primary, a new poll shows Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) leading former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers by two points if she proceeds to the general election — with her opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, trailing Rogers by seven points.

Among voters who said they definitely plan to vote in the general election, the more moderate Stevens currently leads Rogers 47% to 45%, making the race a toss-up. In an El-Sayed-Rogers matchup, Rogers leads El-Sayed, a far-left former public health official, 48% to 41%. 

The poll’s findings provide evidence for one of Stevens’ central campaign messages, which is that she stands the best chance of defeating Rogers in a key swing state and ensuring that Democrats hold onto the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI). 

Among independent voters, Stevens and Rogers are nearly tied, with Rogers at 40% and Stevens at 39%. Independent voters overwhelmingly prefer Rogers to El-Sayed, with 47% saying they would support Rogers and 19% pledging to back El-Sayed. 

The poll was commissioned by the Michigan Education Association — the state’s largest teachers’ union, which has not made an endorsement in the race — and an organization called Business Leaders for Michigan. It was conducted between July 22 and 24. The survey did not ask respondents their preferences in the Aug. 4 primary.

If Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary has become a test case for the saliency of AIPAC and Israel as a political issue for Democratic voters, then Monday night’s debate between Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left former public health official, and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) served as the ultimate battlefield — and illustrated the gulf between the two candidates on the issue.

Over the course of an hourlong debate, El-Sayed made clear that he believes his opposition to AIPAC and to Israel will help him win next week’s election. Stevens, meanwhile, did not even utter the word “AIPAC.” 

Stevens outlined her views on the Middle East, arguing that she and El-Sayed diverge because she supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while he has not acknowledged Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. She touted her support for Michigan’s Jewish community and mentioned the work she did to advocate for the hostages after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. 

Debate moderator Roop Raj, an anchor on FOX 2 News, prodded Stevens on her support from AIPAC, pushing her to discuss the group’s spending in the race, but she largely avoided doing so. 

“Absolutely not,” Stevens said when asked by Raj whether voters should be concerned that she will do AIPAC’s “bidding” when she wins the seat. 

Mostly, she turned the transparency questions on her opponent, attacking El-Sayed for not releasing all of his financial disclosure forms and for benefitting from a super PAC to which his father-in-law has contributed $200,000. 

“I don’t think there’s much difference between super PACs going in for Abdul or super PACs going in for me,” Stevens said, when asked about AIPAC spending $46 million in the race. “We have a problem with campaign finance reform in this country.”

El-Sayed did the same, but in reverse: When she called out his lack of personal financial transparency, he went after her for benefiting from outside spending in the race.

The first question of the debate, to El-Sayed, was about how he would work to make Michigan more affordable. His answer: eschewing campaign donations “from the corporations who are jacking up your prices in the first place,” a category in which he placed AIPAC. 

“Just last week, our friend here voted to send 3.3 billion of your tax dollars to a foreign government. That is the pro quo that comes with the quid of $30 million spent by AIPAC,” El-Sayed said. “It really comes down to how are you funded.” 

Stevens, when asked about affordability, talked about regulating utilities in the state and promising to be a “proven fighter.” 

When Stevens described being “robbed by Washington, D.C., and [President] Donald Trump,” and pledged to fight corruption in public office, El-Sayed said he agreed that Michiganders are being robbed — but by AIPAC, not Trump.

“The money that we should have to invest in our schools is being sent to foreign governments to destroy other people’s schools instead of investing in our own, and that is exactly what AIPAC wants you to do, and why they’re spending so much money to get the congresswoman elected,” El-Sayed said.

Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on concerns among Jewish leaders regarding Michigan’s positioning as an early Democratic primary state in the 2028 presidential nominating contest, and have the scoop on Democratic Majority for Israel’s decision to pause its endorsements of nine House Democrats who voted against aid to Israel. We talk to pollster Dahlia Scheindlin about Israelis’ understanding of anti-Israel sentiment in the U.S., and spotlight Judaica artist Debra Band, whose biblical manuscripts were acquired by the Library of Congress earlier this year. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ashley Jackson, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg and Harold Grinspoon.

We also have a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.

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

What We’re Watching

• With the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) funeral scheduled for tomorrow in Washington, attendees will begin making their way to the capital today. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off earlier today for Washington, where he’ll also meet with President Donald Trump tomorrow. More below.
• As tensions continue to simmer in the Middle East, Trump appeared to deescalate, halting strikes on Iranian targets over the weekend after nearly two weeks of nightly strikes. Speaking at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday, Trump said that he didn’t think that Iranian leaders were ready to make a deal. “They are talking to us right now. They’d love to make a deal. I don’t think they’re ready to. I don’t think it’s time yet, but I’m willing to listen,” Trump said at the dinner. Read more here.
• The recalibration comes amid reports of dwindling interceptor stockpiles, as well as pushback to continued engagement among military leaders. Axios reports that CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper had advocated for ending the U.S. bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that the effort had reached its maximum effectiveness.
• Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed that two drones were shot down over the Jordanian border this morning, but did not say where the drones originated.
• The Atlantic Council is hosting a virtual fireside chat with Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid in conversation with former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh kraushaar

For Democrats worried about the party’s left turn, the outcome of the presidential nominating calendar, which was approved by a Democratic National Committee panel on Friday, is something of a mixed bag. (For pro-Israel Democrats, the presence of Michigan taking center stage on the early schedule is already causing heartburn, per reporting from JI’s Matthew Kassel.)

In a boost for centrists, the nomination process is slated to lead with South Carolina, a Southern state that has long been a moderating force in the party’s presidential calendar, largely because of its sizable Black population.  

But as Jonathan Martin noted in Politico, South Carolina’s first-in-the-nation status carries some unintended consequences. The state, which has typically voted after Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary, often played the role of choosing the nominee after the field was winnowed down by the earlier states. South Carolina has picked the primary winners in the last two decades: Barack Obama (in 2008), Hillary Clinton (in 2016) and most notably Joe Biden (in 2020) when pundits counted the former vice president out after losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

With South Carolina being moved to the front of the line, the state will end up narrowing down the lineup of candidates rather than having the final say on a shortlist of candidates. The changed primary calendar also puts pressure on moderate candidates to make a strong showing right away: If a leading centrist such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro runs for president, South Carolina suddenly becomes much more of a pivotal state, with outreach to Black voters a necessity.

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

SCOOP

DMFI pauses endorsements of nine House Democrats who voted against aid to Israel

DMFI PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm, is pausing its endorsements of nine Democratic House members who voted this month to end all U.S. aid to Israel, underscoring the depth of its frustration even as the group also seeks to preserve relationships with lawmakers it had championed, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

On hold: “Because of that vote, we are pausing our endorsement and taking your name off the list of supported lawmakers on the DMFI PAC website,” Brian Romick, the president of DMFI PAC, said in a letter to the lawmakers, the full text of which was shared exclusively with JI on Sunday. “At the same time,” he added, “our hope is that this pause will be temporary and that, through a candid conversation about the path forward, we can resume our endorsement.”

Read the full story here.

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MICHIGAN MATTERS

Jewish leaders worried about Michigan’s prime position on Dems’ 2028 calendar

The selection of Michigan as an early Democratic primary state in the 2028 presidential nominating contest, approved on Friday by a panel of the Democratic National Committee, is prompting some concerns among Jewish and pro-Israel activists who fear the party’s sharp divisions over Israel and its recent controversies over antisemitism could create a volatile political landscape during the key contest, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Looking ahead: If the schedule is finalized, Michigan “figures to be one of the first anti-Israel or antisemitic states that has a vote,” said Dennis Bernard, a Jewish leader who advises members of both parties, told JI. The state’s Aug. 4 Senate primary — a bitter race between AIPAC-backed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed, whose rhetoric targeting Israel and ongoing refusal to recognize its right to exist has alarmed Jewish voters — is expected to offer an early read on how much that tension will shape 2028.

Read the full story here.

Moving the needle: With less than two weeks until Michigan’s contentious Democratic Senate primary, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens on Friday, offering a burst of momentum to the moderate Democrat’s campaign against progressive, anti-Israel firebrand El-Sayed, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.

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LEADER LIAISON

Netanyahu to meet with Trump at White House on Tuesday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is traveling to Washington on Monday, where he will meet with President Donald Trump and attend the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), his office announced on Friday, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Honoring a friend: Netanyahu said that “Israel lost one of its greatest friends” after Graham died suddenly on July 11. The South Carolina senator’s funeral is scheduled for Tuesday at the National Cathedral in Washington.

Read the full story here.

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POLLSTER PERSPECTIVE

Israelis fail to understand anti-Israel sentiment in the U.S., Israeli public opinion researcher says

Israelis generally don’t grasp the extent of the growing anti-Israel sentiment in the United States, Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli public opinion researcher and columnist, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum this month.

Crying wolf: Speaking to JI hours before more than 100 House Democrats voted to cut U.S. military aid to Israel, Scheindlin said that most Israelis feel that warnings of slipping U.S. support have been repeated for years but haven’t come to fruition. “Israelis for a long time have been told ‘you have to worry about the America-Israel relationship’ and nothing ever really happened — they sort of took it for granted that the relationship would always be there, and in many ways they still do,” Scheindlin said. “From the Israeli perspective, there’s a little bit of a sense of crying wolf. We see that in the 53% who still think that the relationship will be fine.”

Read the full story here.

Policy perspective: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press” that he will “always stand by Israel as a nation,” while adding that he hopes Israelis will oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the elections later this year.

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ACCOUNTABILITY FIGHT

Jewish leaders blame Mamdani for fueling Manhattan attack, while most Dems avoid pointing fingers

Shockwaves from the Tisha B’Av stabbings on the Upper West Side reverberated through New York’s Jewish and Democratic Party elected leadership on Friday, as some blamed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s invective against Israel, while others called more broadly to turn down the temperature on the rhetoric in the city, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

Words of warning: Of the officials who participated in a press conference outside the Modern Orthodox Jewish Center, only Assemblymember Micah Lasher — who won a primary last month to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) as congressional representative for the Upper West Side — openly called out Mamdani. “When a place, and by extension the people who are inextricably linked with that place, are singled out, compared to the worst evildoers in human history, blamed for problems half a world away, the space between rhetoric and violence can vanish,” warned Lasher.

Read the full story here.

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BEE’S KNEES

How Debra Band revives a dying Jewish artform

For 30 years, Debra Band built a career in health policy — but in her Maryland studio, surrounded by kosher parchment, gold leaf and an unfinished manuscript or three, she’s spent the last quarter-century quietly reviving a Jewish art form: the illuminated manuscript. Five of her books now sit in the Library of Congress’s permanent collection, Jewish Insider‘s Christina Sher reports.

Illuminating tradition: When Band first brought her Song of Songs book to the library to show its then-head of the Hebraica section, she watched him lay all 65 pages out on a long table and pull out a jeweler’s loupe. She assumed he was hunting for errors in her calligraphy, and started speaking quickly, over-explaining the iconography. In an interview with JI, Band recalled him cutting her off and saying: “Don’t worry, if anyone in the country reads this book when it comes out, it will be me. Right now, I just need to look for the honeybees.” The bees are Band’s signature; her Hebrew name is Devorah — honeybee. As a private joke with herself, she tucks a small painted bee into nearly every manuscript page she makes. 

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

Ambassador’s Insight: In The Washington Post, Matthew Gould, who served as a British ambassador to Israel and a deputy ambassador to Iran, explains the decision-making processes of Iranian leaders. “First: Iranian leaders are focused single-mindedly on preserving their grip on power. They know that the overwhelming majority of Iranians despise them and that the people will not be forgiving if the regime is finally removed. … Second: Iran’s actions often have more to do with internal regime dynamics than with statecraft. Western governments tend to interpret Iranian actions as aimed at them. But often, they are aimed internally.” [WashPost]

Atomic Optics: In The Wall Street Journal, Matthew Kroenig and Henry Sokolski warn of the possible fallout from the U.S.-Saudi deal announced last week that could give Riyadh a civilian nuclear program. “Providing Saudi Arabia a pathway to build the capacity the U.S. Air Force is razing in Iran gives hypocrisy a bad name. It not only would make it more difficult to get Iran to restrict its own program, but also set a poor example and encourage other nuclear suppliers to misbehave. More important, it’s sure to spook Riyadh’s neighbors. … The U.S. got the United Arab Emirates to agree to forgo making nuclear fuel with the caveat that if Washington afforded any neighbor more-generous terms, the U.A.E. could renegotiate.” [WSJ]

Candidate Corner: The New Yorker’s David Remnick profiles Gadi Eisenkot as the former IDF chief of staff mounts a challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, positioning himself as the “anti-Bibi” candidate. “Eisenkot is selling himself as the humble soldier, a political novice untainted by corruption or duplicity. After forty-one years in the Israel Defense Forces, including a stint under Netanyahu as chief of the general staff, the military’s highest post, Eisenkot served in the Knesset from 2022 to 2025. During that brief tenure, he says, he discovered that ‘Israeli democracy is far more fragile than I had imagined.’” [NewYorker]

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

Word on the Street

A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that eight in 10 Americans think the Iran war was more challenging for the Trump administration than it had anticipated…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Iran’s use of Kheibar Shekan missiles, which can be deployed more quickly than older weapons and some of which have advanced maneuvering features that have posed a challenge to interception efforts…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke by phone on Sunday with Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in a conversation that was reportedly initiated by Al Khalifa, who asked for the discussion to be made public…

Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov said he welcomed “steps by Israel” that “enable the deployment” of the U.S.-led International Stabilization Force in Gaza…

Unreleased footage from a documentary filmmaker who was chronicling Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) diplomatic endeavors showed the late senator expressing concerns over the involvement of White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Middle East efforts, with Graham saying the two were “just too conflicted”; the footage, from documentarian Alex Holder, also includes Graham comparing Trump and Netanyahu to President Franklin Roosevelt and U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill… 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told The Hill that he did not regret his previous support for former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who ended his campaign after a slew of allegations ranging from a tattoo of a Nazi symbol to the sexual assault of a former girlfriend…

Morris Katz, a close advisor to Platner who stood by him until the final days of his Senate race, is now adopting a more contrite tone as he looks back on what went wrong in the campaign. “The tattoo should have been enough,” Katz said in an interview on “The Ezra Klein Show,” referring to Platner’s tattoo of a Totenkopf, a symbol associated with the Nazi regime’s elite SS unit, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports…

The New York Times examines what it describes as the “dysfunction and debt” wracking the Democratic National Committee and the “fraying nerves” of its chairman, Ken Martin, as the party seeks to capitalize on a favorable national environment to make sizable gains in the midterm elections…

The Department of Justice opened applications for a new grant program providing funding for local law enforcement agencies to deploy on-duty officers to protect houses of worship; the application closes on Sept. 2. The Department of Justice is set to provide more than $7.7 million for the program, more than the minimum $5 million budgeted by Congress…

A circuit court ordered the release of Georgetown researcher Badar Khan Suri, who had been held by immigration officials, a day after a federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling ordering the release of Columbia University anti-Israel demonstrator Mohsen Mahdawi… 

In eJewishPhilanthopy, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg honors his good friend Harold Grinspoon on the occasion of the philanthropist’s 97th birthday…

In a Washington Post op-ed, Ashley Jackson, a daughter of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, reveals she converted to Judaism two years ago, a decision that was supported by her father…

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court who was suspended earlier this year over allegations that he’d sexually harassed a subordinate, was officially removed after 82 of the court’s 125 members voted on Friday to oust him from the role…

Authorities in Manchester, U.K., arrested two people who allegedly shot BB guns at Jewish pedestrians in what is being investigated as a religiously motivated crime…

Police in Canada are investigating attacks on two Jewish-owned bagel shops in Toronto on Sunday…

Brazilian politician Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of the country’s former president, secured the nomination of the country’s Liberal Party to challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Netanyahu sent a video expressing support for Bolsonaro during the party’s convention, which was held on Saturday…

The remains of Theodor Herzl’s grandparents will be moved from a Belgrade cemetery and reinterred at Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl…

The New York Times does a deep dive into efforts by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen to use the current geopolitical situation to obtain concessions from Saudi Arabia… 

The Wall Street Journal reviews Yitzhak Shalev’s 1964 novel The Gavriel Tirosh Affair, about a teacher in 1930s Mandatory Palestine who convinces his students to join a paramilitary group…

Japanese militant Kozo Okamoto, who served 12 years in an Israeli prison for taking part in a 1972 terror attack at Israel’s main airport in which 26 people were killed, died at 78 in Lebanon, which had granted him asylum…

Ida Schmertz, the founding director of Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics, died at 91…

Pic of the Day

French Jewish DJ Barbara Butch performed on Saturday during the Hameau Festival in Saint-Martin-du-Tertre, France, a week after her concert in Grenoble was disrupted by anti-Israel activists. She has since filed a complaint against the organizers of the demonstration that forced her offstage while performing in Grenoble.

Birthdays

Comedian, writer, producer and actor, Carol Leifer turns 70… 

Real estate developer who founded Aspen Square Management, he heads an eponymous foundation known for its flagship program PJ Library, Harold Grinspoon turns 97… Forensic pathologist known for his HBO show and his work investigating high-profile deaths, Michael M. Baden turns 92… Managing partner of Access Fund Management Company, he is a past president of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Harold Zlot… Former deputy secretary of defense and then CIA director in the Clinton administration, now a professor emeritus at MIT, John Mark Deutch turns 88… Steven M. Mizel turns 87… Artist and museum founder focused on Fusionism, Shalom Tomáš Neuman turns 79… Israeli author and television producer, he is best known for his documentaries of Israel’s intelligence agencies, Yarin Kimor turns 74… Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, Linda Feldmann… Former VP of global communications, marketing and public policy at Facebook, he previously held a similar position at Google, Elliot Schrage turns 66… U.S. Army colonel (retired), Jeffrey Brian Carra… Israeli television and radio personality, Erez Moshe Tal turns 65… Heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, now a film producer, Jean “Gigi” Pritzker turns 64… Former CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly, she is now the founder of Insight Eldercare, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld… Member of the European Parliament since 2009, Tamás Deutsch turns 60… Rabbi at Kesher Israel: The Georgetown Synagogue, Rabbi Hyim Shafner… Former national platform director for the Democratic National Committee, now a political consultant and recruiter, Andrew Grossman… Former chief of staff of the House Republican Conference, he is now the managing partner at Capitol Venture, LLC, Jeremy Deutsch… Head of marketing at Employee Navigator and winner on “Jeopardy!” in 2019, Aaron Lichtig… D.C. area political activist, Benjamin Rothenberg… SVP of communications at CBS News, Jeremy Adler…

For Democrats worried about the party’s left turn, the outcome of the presidential nominating calendar, which was approved by a Democratic National Committee panel on Friday, is something of a mixed bag. (For pro-Israel Democrats, the presence of Michigan taking center stage on the early schedule is already causing heartburn, per reporting from JI’s Matthew Kassel.)

In a boost for centrists, the nomination process is slated to lead with South Carolina, a Southern state that has long been a moderating force in the party’s presidential calendar, largely because of its sizable Black population.  

But as Jonathan Martin noted in Politico, South Carolina’s first-in-the-nation status carries some unintended consequences. The state, which has typically voted after Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary, often played the role of choosing the nominee after the field was winnowed down by the earlier states. South Carolina has picked the primary winners in the last two decades: Barack Obama (in 2008), Hillary Clinton (in 2016) and most notably Joe Biden (in 2020) when pundits counted the former vice president out after losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

With South Carolina being moved to the front of the line, the state will end up narrowing down the lineup of candidates rather than having the final say on a shortlist of candidates. The changed primary calendar also puts pressure on moderate candidates to make a strong showing right away: If a leading centrist such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro runs for president, South Carolina suddenly becomes much more of a pivotal state, with outreach to Black voters a necessity.

Nevada will miss out on being the central player under the new calendar, but will still play a key role, holding the first primary in the West just over a week after South Carolina. The state has typically been friendly turf for progressives, given the influence of the state’s culinary union, which organizes workers in the gaming industry. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) easily won the state in 2020 and only lost narrowly to Clinton in 2016, demonstrating his insurgent campaign’s staying power.

The power of the state’s progressive organizers and its large Hispanic population have raised concerns that a far-left candidate such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) could emerge as a favorite — a factor that dampened support for its bid to be the first-in-the-nation contest.

But Nevada also is a swing state, and the state’s switch from a caucus to a primary should broaden the Democratic electorate beyond the most committed activists. That two of the most pragmatic and pro-Israel Democrats represent the state in the Senate — Democrats Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto — should also be a silver lining for Jewish Democrats worried about the Democratic Socialists of America factor in the state.

Under the DNC plan, New Hampshire loses its first-in-the-nation-primary status — diminishing its traditional role of thinning out the large field of candidates — but it will still hold the politically pivotal third spot.  (New Hampshire Democrats condemned the calendar proposal after it was announced; New Hampshire law requires the state to hold the first presidential primary.)

If New Hampshire ends up accepting its diminished role, it is a likely blow for the more-moderate wing of the party. Even though Sanders won the 2016 and 2020 primaries (in part because he represents the state next door), New Hampshire’s primary hinges less on ideology and more on who can capture the enthusiasm of the exacting voters who treat the process as a state sport every four years. 

It’s no coincidence that center-left candidates such as Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) outperformed expectations in 2020, and that a dark horse moderate candidate, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), is polling surprisingly well in a recent statewide survey. If there was a state that a straight-talking centrist such as Rahm Emanuel would need to do well in, it would be New Hampshire.

But with the new calendar, it will be harder for appealing candidates to translate retail buzz in New Hampshire into political momentum, as has happened so often in the past. At a time when algorithmic media and rage-bait virality typically benefit the left, New Hampshire could have served as a corrective against the ideological fads dominating the party. But going third, after two bigger states, makes it tougher for a moderate maverick to emerge. 

The biggest red flag for the party — especially among its Jewish and pro-Israel supporters — is its decision to give Michigan Democrats such a pivotal role, given the rise of antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility within the state party ranks. If you’re a Jewish pro-Israel candidate like Shapiro, it will be a headache confronting the radicalism within the party that has been documented thoroughly over the last year. 

Michigan is scheduled to be voting fifth in the country on Feb. 22, 2028 — with 115 delegates at stake, the most of the states in the early voting window. 

The optimist’s case? The Democratic establishment in Michigan still has some fight left in them, as demonstrated by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s late endorsement of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) against the far-left Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s critical Senate primary that’s become a proxy battle between the party mainstream and the far left. If Stevens prevails, it would underscore party activists aren’t all that representative of party voters. 

And, as one senior Democratic official told JI, any successful party candidate will have to confront the issue of antisemitism head on, regardless of whether Michigan plays a key nominating role. In this strategist’s view, having to deal with it early on in a Michigan contest could end up being beneficial in the long run, despite the obvious pitfalls.

Virginia and New Mexico are the two wild cards, with both being added to the early voting schedule. Both states tend to prefer moderates over progressives, but it remains to be seen how their higher-profile roles will shape the nominating process. 

All told, there are reasons for centrists to be hopeful about the nominating schedule, especially with the presence of two moderate-minded Southern states in the top five. But the importance of Michigan in the primary calendar threatens to deepen rifts between Jewish voters and the Democratic Party — at the worst possible time. 

The selection of Michigan as an early Democratic primary state in the 2028 presidential nominating contest, approved on Friday by a panel of the Democratic National Committee, is prompting some concerns among Jewish and pro-Israel activists who fear the party’s sharp divisions over Israel and its recent controversies over antisemitism could create a volatile political landscape during the key contest.

In recent years, Michigan has been at the center of some of the fiercest fights over Israel animating the Democratic Party. In the 2024 presidential race, for instance, the battleground state first laid the ground for the “uncommitted” movement that urged primary voters not to vote for former President Joe Biden as a protest against his support for Israel during the war in Gaza.

At Michigan’s state party convention in April, meanwhile, pro-Israel candidates were heckled by far-left activists, while an attorney with a history of praising Hezbollah was nominated for a position on the University of Michigan Board of Regents, episodes that left Jewish voters questioning if they belonged in a party they had long called home.

The state’s Democratic Senate primary, set for Aug. 4, has emerged as the latest high-profile proxy battle between the party’s mainstream and far-left factions. The most heated clashes have revolved around Israel and AIPAC, the pro-Israel advocacy group that is now spending millions to help Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a close ally, in a bitter race against Abdul El-Sayed — whose rhetoric targeting Israel and ongoing refusal to recognize its right to exist has alarmed Jewish voters. 

Michigan’s presidential primary will now tentatively go fifth among the six states chosen for early primaries, on Feb. 22 — a week after New Mexico and a week before Virginia. South Carolina will kick off the nominating contest on Jan. 22, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire. The newly proposed calendar will need to be ratified by DNC members at a meeting in Austin next month.

If the schedule is officially locked in, Michigan, which has the most delegates of the states chosen, “figures to be one of the first anti-Israel or antisemitic states that has a vote,” Dennis Bernard, a Jewish leader in Michigan who helps advise members of both parties, said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Sunday.

“I do think we will be very much a bellwether state” that “could be the first true test of the Democratic Party and how big their tent is,” added Bernard, the national chair of government relations for the Jewish Federations of North America. “You will potentially see a continuation of that war going on right now.”

Several Jewish leaders in Michigan said the Senate primary outcome would likely help crystallize their expectations about the degree to which Democratic conflict over Israel, and the state’s role in elevating that battle to the forefront, may end up influencing the presidential election.

“Those results will give us a better indication of 2028,” said Michael Horowitz, one such Jewish leader in Michigan, noting the positions espoused by El-Sayed are not a “national trend yet,” despite a recent series of primary wins by anti-Israel Democrats who ran in progressive House districts. “We’ll see how deep this well is. I’m not naive, but I don’t know.” 

Still, the Democratic Party and pro-Israel community “have to get together and take control of the narrative again, because they’re winning the narrative,” he told JI, referring to the far left. “We have got our work cut out for us. We’ve lost the narrative.”

“If you talk to major Democratic donors, they’re concerned about Michigan because the moderate wing of the party is disappearing,” Ed Sarpolus, a Democratic pollster in the state, told JI. “Democrats could be worse off in 2028 if they don’t get back to the issues.”

By contrast, Asher Lopatin, a rabbi who serves as director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, cited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s endorsement of Stevens last week as a sign that “may indicate the direction Michigan Democrats are going in for 2028,” which he called “not falling into the anti-Israel obsession trap.”

“I realize it’s a rosy scenario, but I am hopeful,” he told JI.

Political strategists who spoke with JI shared mixed predictions about Michigan’s early place on the 2028 primary calendar. Ed Sarpolus, a Democratic pollster in the state, said it could “exacerbate tensions within the Democratic Party” over Israel, disrupting a fragile effort to show unity ahead of what is expected to be a bruising general election to reclaim the White House.

“If you talk to major Democratic donors, they’re concerned about Michigan because the moderate wing of the party is disappearing,” Sarpolus told JI. “Democrats could be worse off in 2028 if they don’t get back to the issues.”

But Adrian Hemond, a Democratic strategist in Michigan, said it “is way too early to predict with confidence” how Israel “will play as an issue” in the 2028 Michigan presidential primary, arguing that “a lot will depend on how hard candidates lean into the issue.”

“If the situation in the Middle East deteriorates further,” he explained to JI, “this issue could look very different.”

Some experts have also speculated that Michigan’s position could lead to uncomfortable confrontations for pro-Israel centrists like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat who is frequently cited as a prospective presidential candidate and who has faced antisemitism over his views on the Middle East.

Some Jewish leaders, however, said a pro-Israel win in Michigan could help defang the far left at what may be a key inflection point in the race. If an openly pro-Israel candidate emerged in the state, “I think it would be a surprise as to the traction they got,” since it “would stand out as authentic,” said one prominent pro-Israel activist in Michigan, granted anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive issue.

He was not hopeful that such a candidate would step up. “I don’t see why Michigan is the venue in which someone does a complete paradigm shift” on Israel, he told JI, citing the existing political headwinds. “I think we are kind of a laboratory for the Democratic Party across the nation.”

One pro-Israel strategist in Michigan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that several potential 2028 contenders have already visited the state and have had private meetings with Jewish donors and groups — including Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic operative and former Chicago mayor, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

“A couple others have had meetings with prominent Jews while in Michigan, but I can’t say for sure if the reason for meetings was to lean into the Jewish vote,” the strategist told JI.

While Michigan also went fifth in 2024 after it had lobbied for an early slot, the state promises to play a more consequential role in the next election because it will be a competitive primary, as opposed to the last cycle in which Biden faced no serious opposition before dropping out of the race.

Anti-Israel activists have insisted that former Vice President Kamala Harris lost Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Arab American voters in Dearborn, due to her alignment with Biden’s support for Israel during the war in Gaza.

But many Jewish Democrats in Michigan, who make up a sizable and politically engaged constituency, say the left’s vilification of Israel as well as AIPAC is not only misguided but also a distraction from more urgent concerns that are much more relevant to swing voters who will ultimately decide the election. Some suggested that Michigan’s status in 2028 as an early nominating state could stoke those tensions and overshadow other issues, in a repeat of the last cycle.

“The antisemitic rhetoric that we have observed on the right and the left, the attacks on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, are, sadly, going to be issues that both parties have to address in 2028,” Robert Zimmerman, a longtime DNC member, told JI while assessing the 2028 primary landscape. “Democrats have to do a much better job of standing up to that hateful rhetoric.”

“It means that the real issues facing Michigan will continue to be less important” than the hostility to Israel now energizing the activist left, Hannan Lis, a Democratic fundraiser and Jewish community leader in the state, told JI. “I cannot tell you I’m optimistic. I’m a realist,” he said.

Even as he acknowledged “two years is a long time,” he voiced anxiety that “support for Israel has become a litmus test for a lot of Democratic candidates,” as it has grown increasingly politicized in party primaries.

“The antisemitic rhetoric that we have observed on the right and the left, the attacks on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, are, sadly, going to be issues that both parties have to address in 2028,” Robert Zimmerman, a longtime DNC member, told JI while assessing the 2028 primary landscape. “Democrats have to do a much better job of standing up to that hateful rhetoric.”

Despite reservations about Michigan’s potentially divisive role in the presidential race, some Jewish leaders in the state and beyond said they were still staying positive.

In a statement to JI, Jessica Alexander, chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish caucus and a vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said party activists had “worked hard to make the case for Michigan to be an early primary state, because the state reflects the country’s diverse demographics culturally and geographically.”

“Yes, there is a vocal virtual subset of folks who want to make not the Middle East, but Israel and the U.S.’s engagement in and with it the center” or “soul” of the campaign, she said, “but the reality on the ground is that it’s not the most formidable issue no matter how the press skews it.”

Noah Arbit, a Jewish Michigan state representative who has been outspoken against rising antisemitism in his own party, said that the Democratic Socialists of America and other groups “seem to feel that Israel is a galvanizing wedge issue they can employ to take over the Democratic Party” and for now “seem intent on putting it at the forefront of the primary debate in 2028, regardless of Michigan’s place in the calendar.”

“I’m resigned to the issue being at the forefront of the primary conversation,” he told JI last week, “despite the fact that I would argue Americans have far more pressing concerns about the state of and future of our country than an interminable conflict 5,000 miles away.”

With less than two weeks until Michigan’s contentious Democratic Senate primary, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) on Friday, offering a burst of momentum to the moderate Democrat’s campaign against progressive, anti-Israel firebrand Abdul El-Sayed. 

“Haley will do whatever it takes to get things done for people in Michigan, and we need her now more than ever,” Whitmer said in a video announcing the endorsement. 

Whitmer had conspicuously avoided making an endorsement in the race, which until weeks ago was a three-way contest between Stevens, El-Sayed and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow. After McMorrow dropped out, the race between Stevens and El-Sayed tightened. 

El-Sayed has made opposition to Israel a core tenet of his campaign, targeting Stevens for receiving backing from AIPAC and for supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship. 

In the endorsement video, Whitmer did not mention El-Sayed; she talked about Stevens as a candidate who will “get things done.”

“She knows what Michigan families are going through, and that’s how I know she will always put Michigan first,” Whitmer said.

The Democratic primary in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District — a Lansing-area swing seat key to Democrats’ hopes for taking back the House — has turned into a three-way battle between two moderate Democrats with national security backgrounds and a far-left activist who has emerged as a contender for the nomination  despite repeated controversies over extremist comments. 

On the campaign trail, Matt Maasdam, a former Navy SEAL, has leaned into his background as a veteran and a military aide to former President Barack Obama who carried the nuclear football. Bridget Brink, a career foreign service officer, is highlighting her service as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2022 to 2025. 

William Lawrence, the progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), is a former organizer with the Sunrise Movement, which bills itself as leading “the climate revolution” but also embraces other left-wing causes. 

Adrian Hemond, a Michigan political strategist, said he expects the race to be close, predicting that the three candidates could all finish within several points of each other. 

He previously told JI that Lawrence holds the progressive lane to himself, which could be an asset if Maasdam and Brink split the moderate vote — but he could lose out on young, progressive-leaning Michigan State University students who won’t return to campus until after the Aug. 4 primary. Lawrence has also struggled with Black and older voters.

The race initially appeared to be a contest between Maasdam and Brink. Lawrence gained momentum and attention by scoring a series of prominent endorsements from Sanders and other progressive leaders.

But Lawrence’s rise hit a stumbling block with the re-emergence of past comments disparaging Black political leadership, which prompted condemnations from Michigan leaders and the Congressional Black Caucus. After those initial revelations, Lawrence subsequently came under fire for past comments disparaging Obama and his administration.

In past comments on the “Hegemonicon” podcast he hosted, first uncovered by Jewish Insider, Lawrence repeatedly argued, for the sake of climate and economic goals, Americans would have to abandon the idea of the American dream and their way of life.

Discussing whether and how ideas of “abundance” or “degrowth” could or should be part of an agenda to fight climate change, Lawrence said on an episode of the podcast release in January 2024, “we’ve experienced the last several years of how that got filtered through the lens of American global competitiveness and geoeconomic dominance and, some of these questions about the role of the American consumer on a global stage and and whether or not we are proposing the continuation of the American consumer way of life and its translation into China and presumably the rest of the globe, is really viable in a climate-changing world.”

“We made that move, and now we need to reckon with the contradictions inherent even in that move,” Lawrence said. “I’m wondering how we can inspire a sense of abundance for people in the United States while, frankly, destroying the American way of life and the negative connotations, and material realities that has come to mean.”

In a statement, Lawrence defended the comments.

“We’ve been told that we would achieve happiness by buying more TVs and taking on a bigger mortgage,” Lawrence said. “Instead, the cost of housing, healthcare, and education is skyrocketing, while Michigan’s land and water is under threat. We need a new version of the American dream in which we can all have economic security while leaving a healthy environment for our kids and grandkids.”

In another episode, released in December 2023, Lawrence said that “there are certain aspects of the American dream that need to die — but maybe that’s another episode,” arguing that most people would not be able to have “the McMansion in the suburbs.”

A senior political advisor close to the Maasdam team said that the endorsements from Sanders and other top progressives catapulted Lawrence toward the front of the field, but the recent revelations of his past comments have stunted that growth.

The advisor said the endorsements from Sanders and others likely earned Lawrence the votes of around a third of the Democratic electorate who will likely vote for the most-left candidate in the race, leaving around two-thirds up for grabs.

Last week, Maasdam picked up an endorsement from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who subsequently filmed an advertisement supporting him. The freshman senator represented the Lansing-area district before being elected to the Senate.

The advisor close to the Maasdam campaign said that they see the race now largely as a contest between Maasdam and Lawrence, but said they believe Maasdam is well-positioned going into the final weeks of the race and peaking at the right time.

He has been the beneficiary of more than $1.6 million in outside spending by VoteVets, with another outside group, Crush MAGA PAC, spending nearly $1 million to attack Lawrence, and a third group, Michigan Values PAC, spending around $1 million to attack Brink. A nursing union group has spent $400,000 boosting Lawrence.

At the same time, they also acknowledged a real concern that Maasdam and Brink could split the moderate vote, allowing Lawrence to win with a plurality. 

Brink has faced criticism from primary rivals for her service under and praise of President Donald Trump — though she ultimately resigned in protest of the administration’s efforts to pressure Ukraine.

The advisor argued that, compared to Brink, Maasdam has a better resume and background as a fighter, and said Maasdam plans to highlight his links to Obama in the wake of the revelation of Lawrence’s comments disparaging the former president.

Maasdam posted an X video on Monday highlighting his support for and ties to Obama, while calling out Lawrence’s criticism of him.

In spite of their moderate and national security focused backgrounds, neither Maasdam nor Brink appears to have spoken much about Israel policy during the campaign, and neither campaign provided comment to JI on their stances. 

Lawrence has attacked the two for declining to describe the war in Gaza as a genocide, and has made cutting off arms sales to Israel a major plank of his campaign.

All three have been critical of the war with Iran.

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is slated to appear at a campaign fundraiser this weekend that is co-hosted by Kelly Neumann, a controversial Democratic fundraiser in Michigan who faced scrutiny earlier this year for a 2024 Facebook post on Veterans Day that praised her grandfather, who fought for the Nazis in World War II. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who endorsed El-Sayed on Monday, was initially listed as a speaker at the Saturday event hosted by Neumann, though Neumann and the campaign removed Warren from their promotional materials after Jewish Insider inquired about the senator’s role. Warren is speaking at a rally for El-Sayed later that day.

A spokesperson for El-Sayed said Warren’s “inclusion on the flier was a clerical error by our campaign” and that she was never scheduled to speak at the fundraiser. A spokesperson for Warren declined to comment.

In Neumann’s November 2024 post, which was previously reported by JI, she said her grandfather, Albert Neumann, fought “on the German side in WWI & WWII.” She noted that he “was one of the first people in my life that accepted me as gay” and described him as “a true testament that people can change and love indeed can win.” 

Neumann, a Michigan attorney, has since deleted the post after it resurfaced earlier this year. In a March 2026 Facebook post, she apologized “to anyone who was hurt by [my] post from years ago, as that was certainly never my intention,” but blamed Rep. Haley Stevens’ (D-MI) Senate campaign for unearthing the original post. 

Neumann had endorsed state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, but after McMorrow dropped out early this month, Neumann backed El-Sayed. Neumann hosted a fundraiser for Stevens’ House reelection campaign last year. 

A spokesperson for Stevens told JI in January that Stevens would not have invited Neumann to host the event if Stevens had “seen the post celebrating Ms. Neumann’s grandfather’s service to the SS.” (The Daily Mail reported later that Neumann’s grandfather was likely in the German Wehrmacht, or armed forces, rather than the Nazi SS.) 

“The host in question has hosted or donated to several democratic senators, congresspeople, statewide elected officials and candidates, including Abdul’s opponent, Congresswoman Stevens,” a spokesperson for El-Sayed told JI. “All of us, including the host, condemn Nazi ideology.”

Neumann defended her grandfather even as she apologized for the original post. “To be clear, my grandfather was a german soldier, not a nazi,” Neumann wrote in March. In a phone call with JI on Monday, Neumann stood by this assertion and claimed that a representative from Germany’s Ministry of Defense told her the same thing.

“All I know is that I’ve been informed as a child, in growing up, and then recently again, is that they said he wasn’t a Nazi,” Neumann said. “I believe there is a distinction between a young German soldier and a Nazi in the actual regime close to Hitler.”

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum calls the idea that German soldiers were not part of the Nazi regime a “myth.”

“This belief is untrue. The German military participated in many aspects of the Holocaust: in supporting Hitler, in the use of forced labor, and in the mass murder of Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis,” the museum states on its website. 

Neumann’s political resume is lengthy. She served as a co-chair of the finance committee for McMorrow’s Senate campaign. She also previously worked to support gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, though Neumann has since endorsed Chris Swanson, a long-shot challenger to Benson. 

Neumann told JI that she is “not antisemitic in any sort of way,” and that she regularly hosts events for Jewish politicians. Last year she hosted a fundraiser for Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, a Jewish Democrat who is running for Congress.

“I’m not proud of my grandfather being in World War II as a young German soldier,” said Neumann. “What I am proud about is how he was so kind to me and accepted me as a minority in the ‘90s.”

As Maine Democrats pick up the pieces of Graham Platner’s failed Senate campaign and quickly try to find a replacement for the scandal-tarred candidate on the ballot, moderate Democrats in Michigan, where a primary is fast approaching, are in a race against time to prevent another far-left Senate candidate from capturing a valuable nomination.  

The final three weeks of the Michigan primary will be 2026’s most consequential test yet for the power the party establishment still holds, particularly in a pivotal swing state. After socialist candidates scored a number of surprise victories in heavily blue districts in New York City, Philadelphia and Denver, party leaders are fighting with renewed vigor to rally behind Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the primary against her left-wing challenger, Abdul El-Sayed.

Retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) endorsed Stevens on Monday, a pivot from his announcement in May that he planned to stay out of the race, joining Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who had already backed the congresswoman. The party’s left flank — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) — is backing El-Sayed.

“The change of heart is we just know that we have to hold Michigan,” Peters said on “Morning Joe” on Tuesday of his decision to endorse, with Stevens sitting beside him. “She’s an outstanding candidate and I certainly hope that folks get behind her around the country and understand that she’s the right person to be the next senator from the state of Michigan.” 

There are fresh signs that the late push for Stevens from Democratic leaders — along with millions in ad spending from pro-Stevens outside groups — has given the congresswoman momentum in the closing stretch of the race. A new poll commissioned by the Detroit News found Stevens pulling ahead of El-Sayed by seven points, 48-41%, after she trailed in most public polls this year. 

The United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC, is spending big to attack him, dropping nearly $15 million in the race so far. A new 30-second ad attacks El-Sayed as sexist, referencing criticisms he’s made against former First Lady Michelle Obama and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.  A mailer sent to Michigan voters criticized El-Sayed’s response to the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield in March. El-Sayed condemned the attack but said that “hurt people hurt people,” referring to the assailant having lost his brother — a Hezbollah commander — in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. 

“We are going to continue educating Michigan voters on El-Sayed’s track record of making disparaging and sexist comments about women,” Patrick Dorton, a UDP spokesperson, told JI on Tuesday. 

Platner’s collapse in Maine has, for some Democrats, raised questions about the electability of far-left candidates in must-win Senate battlegrounds for the Democratic Party. 

The centrist Democratic think tank Third Way published a memo on Tuesday underscoring that Democrats could lose other winnable races if they continue taking the advice of ideologically driven left-wing consultants who advised Platner. (Fight Agency, the political ad firm that was used by Platner and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is also consulting for El-Sayed’s campaign.)

El-Sayed has continued to play to his base, doubling down on radical rhetoric in interviews at a time when Democrats are concerned about holding onto the swing seat in November. He called Israel a “rogue state” in a recent CNN interview and said that Democrats who support Israel only do so because of money. As his rhetoric has become more extreme, and the race tightens between the two candidates, Jewish Democratic groups are planning to amp up their campaigning for Stevens ahead of the Aug. 4 primary. 

“It is now a direct, high-stakes two-way race between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed,” the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus wrote in a recent email to members. The Jewish Caucus is hosting a canvassing event on behalf of Stevens in Farmington, a heavily Jewish suburb of Detroit, this weekend. 

“With early and absentee voting already underway, to ensure Haley wins on Aug. 4, we need to leverage our deep community roots, personal relationships, and trusted voices,” Jewish Caucus Chair Decky Alexander told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America, a national organization, is hosting a virtual phone bank for Stevens this week. The group had previously issued a joint endorsement of Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who withdrew from the race earlier this month, but is now planning a five-figure digital ad buy in support of Stevens’ campaign. 

“JDCA is focused on mobilizing Jewish voters across Michigan in support of Haley Stevens,” JDCA CEO Halie Soifer told JI on Tuesday. “Haley has always stood with the Jewish community, and we’re proud to support her in this critically important election. We also believe she has the best chance of beating Mike Rogers in November, and we’re committed to keeping Michigan blue.”

The Stevens campaign expects a close race but views McMorrow’s decision to drop out as a boon for Stevens. McMorrow did not endorse either candidate. A source working with the Stevens campaign, who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the congresswoman, said the campaign is particularly focused on winning over Black voters, as well as older and non-college-educated voters, many of whom remain undecided. (The Detroit News poll showed Stevens with a substantial advantage with Black voters, leading El-Sayed 67-21%.)

The Michigan Jewish community, which is centered in Stevens’ congressional district, is also a part of the campaign’s get out the vote plan.

“I think that Haley wants all Michiganders to vote, but obviously has a very special connection with the Jewish community, especially in her district in Oakland County,” said the campaign source. 

El-Sayed routinely tars Stevens for receiving the backing of AIPAC. She has not said much during the primary about her ties to the group, instead highlighting her support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which she described as “the difference between my opponent and myself on this issue” in a debate last week. El-Sayed has said he struggles with the question of whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state. 

This week, El-Sayed announced a major fundraising haul from the second quarter of the year: $4.5 million, up from $2.3 million he raised in the first quarter. A spokesperson for Stevens declined to share her latest fundraising totals, which legally must be reported by Wednesday. She took in $1.9 million in the first three months of the year. 

Good Tuesday morning.

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

We have also launched a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.

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

What We’re Watching

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

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSa weiss

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MICHIGAN MATTERS

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

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

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

Read the full story here.

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DIPLOMATIC BLITZ

Marco Rubio launches sweeping diplomatic offensive against ICC

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

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

Read the full story here.

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RESET BUTTON

Democrats denounce Trump’s return to Iran war

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

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

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

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

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UNDOING UNRWA

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

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

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

Read the full story here.

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

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CLOSING RANKS

Zohran Mamdani stands by embattled Graham Platner advisor

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

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

Read the full story here.

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SEEKING SUCCESSORS

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

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

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

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

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Worthy Reads

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

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

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

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

Word on the Street

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pic of the Day

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

Birthdays

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

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

William Lawrence, a virulent Israel critic gaining momentum among progressives in Michigan’s battleground 7th Congressional District, is facing a wave of criticism over past comments denigrating Black political leadership, attacking former Vice President Kamala Harris.

As a result, Lawrence is now facing the opposition of an outside group aiming to block  him from winning the Democratic nomination.

The swing district, currently held by Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI),  is a critical pick-up opportunity for Democrats in order to take back the House. It was previously held by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), and is currently rated by the Cook Political Report as a toss-up.

On the campaign trail, Lawrence has called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and accused the country of genocide, something that the other Democratic candidates, former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, have declined to do.

During a candidate forum, Lawrence said that Israel “has refused every other form of accountability and we continue to arm them.”

“I don’t know how we can call ourselves a just nation, and my heart is pounding becasue it is dispiriting in our politics to see how many people still refuse” to call Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide, he said in response to the other candidates. “I support a lasting peace for all Palestinians and Israelis. Everybody deserves to live with security and in comfort. We got a lot of work to do with them.”

He said in September 2025 that the war in Gaza involved “war crimes on an historic scale,” adding that it’s a “moral necessity” to stop arming Israel, which is also “the best leverage the U.S. has to end the genocide in Gaza, apartheid conditions in the West Bank, ensure the hostages are finally freed, and move towards a lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Asked on the campaign trail whether he views the Iranian regime as “evil,” Lawrence said he did not. “I do not believe any regime in the world is wholly good or wholly evil,” Lawrence said.

He has also called Israel’s operations in Lebanon “a war of aggression and territorial expansion” and said that the situation in Gaza constitutes an “ongoing genocidal siege,” despite the ceasefire and provision of humanitarian aid.

As early as Oct. 9, 2023, Lawrence condemned a public statement by American and European leaders denouncing the Hamas attacks and supporting Israel’s efforts to defend itself.

“This looks like a green light for Israel to bombard Gaza with impunity, regardless of the civilian toll or risk of a regional war. Scary hours. I fear for where this will end up,” Lawrence said.

Maasdam and Brink are preferred by moderate Democrats to face off against Barrett.

Lawrence is a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, the far-left climate movement that has since refocused significantly on anti-Israel activism. He has also made opposition to data center construction a key feature of his campaign.

Lawrence has recently landed in hot water and faced condemnation from leaders and groups including the Congressional Black Caucus PAC over past comments in which he described Black political leaders as a “pillar” of the “establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power” who “[defang] the white left.” The CBC PAC called Lawrence a “national disgrace” and demanded that Lawrence’s supporters withdraw their backing.

The progressive candidate said that his comments had been “taken out of context” but the “way I made this point was clumsy, and I regret my choice of words.” He said that his comments were in response to “Black elected leaders in D.C. [who] have been among those supporting unnecessary U.S. wars and foreign intervention” and “my horror at the genocide in Gaza.”

He also described former Vice President Harris, Slotkin and Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel, who ran for the seat in 2024, as “warmongers.” He said voting for Harris made him “sick” and was the “second or third circle of hell,” also calling her “despicable” and her campaign “cowardly.”

The 35-year-old progressive has gained attention in the past few weeks, picking up the backing of leaders including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), far-left Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and left-wing Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Delia Ramirez (D-IL) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL), as well as former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) and Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, the Democratic nominee for a Philadelphia House seat.

Lawrence is also backed by the anti-Israel group TrackAIPAC, which has been accused of antisemitism; the Working Families Party; the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Sunrise Movement; and the Sanders-linked Our Revolution.

In a sign of concern from opponents about his momentum, Lawrence is now the target of a more than $500,000 ad buy from Crush MAGA PAC, which seeks to paint Lawrence as corrupt and unreliable.

The ad cites his support for the Uncommitted movement opposing former President Joe Biden in the 2024 primaries, work with Sunrise Movement (which the ad describes as a dark money group) and his holdings in a mutual fund (which the ad describes as investments in “Wall Street, big oil, and data centers”).

Lawrence asserted that AIPAC and Democratic Party insiders were responsible for the ad, something a United Democracy Project spokesperson denied, further suggesting that Lawrence’s comments were motivated by prejudice.

“We have absolutely no involvement in any way in running ads against William Lawrence in MI-07. It’s pure fiction and dishonest,” Patrick Dorton, spokesperson for UDP, the AIPAC-linked super PAC, said. “This assertion raises the question of whether Lawrence is trying to stir up some base prejudice in the Democratic primary against Democrats who support Israel. It’s immoral and shameful.”

The influx of outside cash will further compound Lawrence’s fundraising struggles. As of the end of April, Brink led the field with $2.3 million raised and $1.3 million on hand, followed by Maasdam with $1.7 million raised and $937,000 on hand and Lawrence with $572,000 raised and $351,000 on hand.

“Lawrence has the progressive lane to himself, the open question is how valuable that lane actually is outside of Lansing/East Lansing,” Michigan Democratic strategist Adrian Hemond told Jewish Insider. “[Michigan State University] students don’t come back until after the primary, so he’s reliant on high youth turnout to overcome his disadvantages with Black voters and seniors, but a sizable portion of the potential youth vote is home for summer break, i.e. not in East Lansing.”

But he also acknowledged that Brink and Maasdam risk splitting the more moderate lane.

In a potential acknowledgement of the political unpopularity of the war in Iran, Barrett has been one of the few House Republicans who has broken ranks with his party on Iran war powers votes, siding with Democrats to advance such measures.

Barrett also introduced legislation that would provide a limited authorization for military operations against Iran, limited in time and scope.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan running in the race’s far-left lane, on Sunday described Israel as a “rogue state” that has committed genocide and apartheid. El-Sayed made the comments in an interview with Manu Raju on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday.”

Asked whether he thought the Israeli government should be considered by the U.S. to be a foreign terrorist organization, El-Sayed answered, “It’s certainly a rogue state.” 

“I mean, they did a genocide,” he continued. “What about doing a genocide is not evil in your book? At baseline they do apartheid.”

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan running in the race’s far-left lane, on Sunday described Israel as a “rogue state” that has committed genocide and apartheid.@HaleyCohen19 reports: https://t.co/9BELSWPMXQ pic.twitter.com/vSYVTTRZJZ

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) July 12, 2026

El-Sayed’s comments come as Michigan’s heated Democratic Senate primary enters its final stretch. He is facing off in the Aug. 4 primary against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — a moderate lawmaker who has been supported by AIPAC and pro-Israel donors.

Last week, El-Sayed told CNN that he did not believe that a Democratic politician’s support for Israel could be about anything other than money. Earlier in the race, El-Sayed said he struggled to answer questions about whether he believed Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state and that he believed the Israeli government was just as “evil” as Hamas.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) continued a war of words with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as she faced a barrage of attacks from her primary opponent, former public health official Abdul El-Sayed, at a debate on Tuesday in Michigan.

Netanyahu, in a CNN interview earlier on Tuesday, criticized Stevens for saying that his actions and government had made the Jewish community less safe and placed Jews in an “uncomfortable position.”

“It’s made her uncomfortable because she can’t stand up for the truth. She’s trying to, probably, excuse antisemitism,” Netanyahu said in response to a question from CNN host Dana Bash. 

Asked about the war in Iran, Stevens criticized both President Donald Trump and Netanyahu.

“We need long-term peace. Donald Trump has failed us. The prime minister of Israel has failed in that regard, and he was just coming after me on this today,” Stevens said. “Look, I am unafraid. Michigan, you are my North Star, and no illegal wars, no unilateral wars at our expense.”

She doubled down on those criticisms later in the debate.

“It is very clear that Mr. Netanyahu has not made us safer, has not brought us closer to peace, and he’s endangered Jews here in America and around the world,” Stevens said. “This is why he was just trashing me today on CNN. I am not afraid of bullies. I am not afraid to stand up, and I continue to stand up for humanitarian aid, for the U.S. to work with the countries in the region and get aid into Gaza.”

She also highlighted her work with the families of Israeli hostages formerly held in Gaza.

Stevens accused El-Sayed of opposing a two-state solution, alluding to his repeated refusal to say directly whether he believes Israel has a right to exist.

“The difference between my opponent and myself on this issue is that I believe in a two-state solution,” Stevens said. “I can say that Israel has a right to peacefully exist alongside the people of Palestine and in Gaza.”

El-Sayed argued that Netanyahu and AIPAC’s support for U.S. politicians are the primary reasons the U.S. entered the war, and emphasized that an AIPAC-linked super PAC has been attacking him and supporting Stevens.

“So long as our politicians continue to be bought off by AIPAC, do not be surprised when we fight wars that are in their best interest to … annex Lebanon or to do genocide in Gaza,” he continued.

He also argued that U.S. support for Israel, which he described as a “rogue state,” has foreclosed the possibility of a two-state solution, calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and “blank checks” to other Middle Eastern countries including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

In response to repeated attacks over her support from AIPAC, Stevens pivoted to discussing other issues including her record in Michigan, GOP support for El-Sayed’s campaign and El-Sayed’s failure to release his tax returns, among other issues.

Responding to multiple questions from viewers and the debate moderator about the leftward shift of the Democratic Party, both candidates largely sidestepped the issue, though El-Sayed suggested he’s supportive of a shift in the party.

“I’ll tell you this: it won’t shift if we continue to elect leaders who take money from the same corporations who have broken with the interests of the American public,” El-Sayed said. “[Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer (D-NY) desperately wants one of us to be the next senator, and it’s not me. So, if you want your politics dictated by AIPAC or Chuck Schumer, then I’m not your guy.”

Stevens, meanwhile, emphasized her record in office as a “workhorse” for the state. “This has always been about Michigan,” she said, when asked whether the race was a battle over the future direction of the Democratic Party.

El-Sayed ultimately offered a similar answer, saying, “I’m not doing this because of some direction of a party. I’m doing this because of the Michiganders that I’ve gotten to see.”

As the heated Democratic Senate primary in Michigan enters its final stretch, far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed told CNN this week that he does not believe that a politician’s support for Israel could be about anything other than money.

“Not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights,” El-Sayed told CNN when asked about such a distinction. 

Asked whether it was possible to be a Zionist and be a progressive, El-Sayed said, “Every definition of a Jewish state ends up in some articulation of illiberal values, every single one.”

El-Sayed is facing off against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Aug. 4 primary, following state Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s departure from the race on Sunday. 

Stevens, a moderate lawmaker who has been supported by AIPAC and pro-Israel donors throughout her career, has drawn a contrast between herself and El-Sayed on the issue.

“There is a difference between me and Abdul,” she said in an MS NOW interview on Monday. “I believe in a two-state solution. I want to see the people of Palestine and in Gaza live peacefully, side by side, with the people of Israel. He cannot qualify Israel’s right to exist.”