Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the No. 2 House Democrat, said she plans to vote for an amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to cut off U.S. aid to Israel next year — breaking with other members of Democratic leadership on the issue.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Tuesday that he plans to vote against the amendment but said Democratic leadership will not be whipping the vote, set for Wednesday afternoon. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the No. 3 House Democrat, is also opposing the amendment.

Clark, in a statement, called the amendment “overly broad” and “not an attempt to have a serious and necessary debate about offensive military aid to Israel” and a Republican stunt. But she said that she’ll support it anyway as a signal that the U.S.-Israel relationship needs to change.

“I will be voting yes, not because I agree with the entirety of the amendment, or the GOP’s cynical motivations for its consideration, but because I believe we must change course,” Clark said, accusing Israel of failing to comply with “U.S. law, interests, and values” and arguing that the U.S. should not provide a “blank check.”

Clark called for a “new and sustainable path for true security in the Middle East,” including increased aid to Gaza, a halt to settlement construction in the West Bank, an end to settler violence and the Palestinian right to self determination.

She also said that Israel has a “right to exist as a sovereign, secure, and democratic Jewish state” and to “defend their people and their territory.” She said the U.S. should “continue to have a strong strategic alliance with Israel and support its defense,” as well as continue to support missile-defense systems, which fall outside the scope of the Massie amendment. She also called for fighting “the scourge of antisemitism whenever and wherever it appears.”

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also said on Tuesday that he would vote in favor of the amendment and is encouraging other Democratic lawmakers to do the same.

“At its best, the Progressive Caucus’ role is to be an independent voice and lead on important issues of peace and human rights,” Casar said in a letter to colleagues. The Democratic Party needs a new approach to Israel and Palestine. When Democrats retake the majority in November, I hope the Progressive Caucus can help lead our Party towards a position that secures safety, dignity, and self determination for Palestinian and Israeli civilians alike.”

He emphasized that the portion of non-military funding being blocked is small, and that “the American people are crying out for an end to US tax dollars subsidizing Israel’s military.”

Aguilar said on Tuesday that he plans to oppose the Massie amendment but echoed Jeffries in saying, “I strongly believe that we need a change in posture in the region,” and calling the upcoming end of the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding “an opportunity to review what our relationship looks like.”

“We need an Israel that believes in free and fair elections. We need to ensure that they have a right to defend themselves, but we also need to do everything we can to have a Palestinian state,” Aguilar said.

He accused the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having “done everything they can to isolate Israel, and we need to ensure that we are building new friends in the region, not having fewer.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Tuesday that he opposes an effort to strip all U.S. aid to Israel out of the 2027 State Department appropriations bill, but also argued for “urgent change” to the U.S.-Israel relationship, including changes to U.S. aid going forward.

Addressing the amendment led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Jeffries cited concerns raised by Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Greg Meeks (D-NY), respectively the ranking members of the Appropriations and Foreign Affairs Committees, as well as J Street, calling the amendment “overly broad” and suggesting that it would impact nonmilitary aid and U.S. Embassy operations.

Jeffries also argued that the amendment would “restrict our country’s ability to confront Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in the region who are sworn enemies of both the United States and Israel.”

The New York Democrat accused Republicans of advancing the amendment “for nakedly partisan reasons,” but said that Democratic leadership would not whip members on the issue and that “there are good faith reasons” for lawmakers to vote either way.

He went on to argue that an “urgent change” is needed in the U.S. relationship with the “far-right Netanyahu government” and Middle East policy in general, calling for a “major reset” based on support for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state and strong support for a Palestinian state. He added that a “meaningful change in direction is needed” on U.S. aid to Israel at the conclusion of the current memorandum of understanding in 2028.

“Israel has an advanced economy and is capable of paying for its own sophisticated weapons, as the Prime Minister recently acknowledged,” Jeffries said, suggesting he supports an end to direct military aid at the end of the current MOU — a shorter timeline than has been advocated for by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Accordingly, any future security arrangement between our two countries should be structured consistently with defense agreements that exist with our other Western allies and strictly adhere to our human rights laws and values.”

He also said that the next MOU should continue to protect Israel’s qualitative military edge and advance “mutually beneficial joint technology, innovation, research and further development of defensive programs” — something that some in his party have sought to end.

Jeffries lambasted Netanyahu, accusing him of damaging Israel’s reputation and standing in the U.S. and around the world, harming normalization efforts and undermining peace efforts. He called for sanctions and criminal liability for Israelis involved in violent activity in the West Bank.

House Democrats remain divided over a push by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to slash $3.3 billion in military aid the U.S. is set to provide Israel in the 2027 State Department funding bill, and top Democratic leaders are continuing to keep their own positions vague. 

But when that vote comes to the floor is still uncertain, as a handful of hard-line Republican rebels have pushed normal House business to a halt. Some senior House Democrats indicated that, even if they don’t support this particular effort, they still seek changes to the U.S.-Israel relationship.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) continued to withhold his position on the amendment, after saying a day prior he might have more to share on the subject after a caucus meeting on Tuesday morning.

“Those conversations are ongoing,” Jeffries said. “We had a very productive meeting today, and as I’ve indicated, there’s a lot that needs to happen differently to get to a place where there’s a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and we all need to focus on actually achieving a two-state solution once and for all.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the No. 3 House Democrat, said at a press conference on Tuesday that Democrats had continued to air a variety of views on the issue at the caucus meeting. But he again declined to offer Democratic leadership’s view on the subject, pending whether the amendment would actually come up for a vote.

“Whether you are supportive or in opposition to the Massie amendment, that doesn’t mean that we feel everything is going well in that region, and that doesn’t mean that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has a blank check,” Aguilar — generally viewed as one of the more staunchly pro-Israel members of Democratic leadership — said. “It also doesn’t mean that our aid and support will go on forever, and we will continue to work through that.”

He said that Democratic leaders would have more to share if and when the amendment comes up for a vote. Pressed on how and whether Democrats can explain their decision on the issue, Aguilar called it “tough and emotional for the American people,” before pivoting to criticize GOP policies.

The timing of the vote on the amendment remains in question, as right-wing Republicans have stalled the House floor for the second week in a row, blocking the procedural measure that would advance consideration of the State Department funding bill, as well as the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) — the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee — joined his counterparts on the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees in opposing the amendment, putting the top Democrats on each national security committee in agreement. But he said he would support conditioning U.S. aid to Israel.

“The Massie amendment is way too overbroad,” Himes told Jewish Insider. “I am all in favor of making sure that the Israelis don’t get weapons that can find their way into settlers’ hands in the West Bank, [and] put some conditions on the way they conduct their wars in Gaza and in Lebanon. But this proposal is way overbroad.”

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) criticized Republicans for allowing the amendment to come to the floor at all. Republicans blocked another Massie-led amendment aiming to strip U.S.-Israel cooperation provisions out of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act from coming to the House floor.

“I still hope that [House Speaker Mike] Johnson (R-LA) pulls it,” Landsman told JI. “The other side allowing this to come to the floor is truly a mystery to me. My hope is that ultimately Johnson appreciates how terrible this is and the kind of conflict and division it creates. It hurts us, it hurts our partner [and] everything we’re working to do in the Middle East.”

He said he believes Republicans are allowing the amendment to move forward as a deliberate wedge to divide Democrats.

“You don’t play around with issues like this,” Landsman said. “This stuff can become very dangerous very quickly. … Why does he keep using Israel this way? It’s not right, and I think he’s getting a lot of calls from his supporters saying, ‘Stop doing this. Leave this issue alone unless you’re actually voting on something meaningful, but don’t give Thomas Massie airtimes for his grievances as it relates to an entire community of people.’”

Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) told reporters that he expects a “significant number of Democrats” to support the amendment. He said there’s a “growing number of members” that do not support providing additional weapons “for Netanyahu” but “I respect that others may have a different opinion.”

“What I think we’re all trying to get united around is the idea that everybody in the Democratic caucus should be working towards there being peace in the region, stability for Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike, and working to make sure that the Israeli government does not drag us back into war with Iran,” Casar said.

Asked about Democratic leadership’s silence on the issue, Casar said “the leadership should listen to our members, listen to our voters and do their best to provide guidance and information.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that “after witnessing U.S.-funded weapons help perpetuate genocide of Palestinians,” the American people “want to see more accountability into where public taxpayer dollars are going.”

The top House Democrats on the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees said Monday that they will oppose efforts led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to cut the $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel expected under the memorandum of understanding if and when they come to a vote on the House floor.

The effort is splitting the Democratic Caucus, and reportedly driving significant angst among rank-and-file Democrats in closed-door caucus meetings.

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, told Jewish Insider he plans to oppose the effort to strip the aid out of the 2027 State Department Appropriations bill, calling it a “got-me vote the Republicans are trying to play with.” 

Meeks said there are “so many unanswered questions” about the implications and effects of the amendment. “I know there is still danger [in Israel]. I don’t want Israel to be without what they need,” Meeks said. He also noted that many of the weapons that would be purchased with the funding would not be built for years to come.

He said that the amendment leaves significant room for interpretation by the State Department.

“There’s just too many factors to say … ‘We’re taking away $3.3 billion,’” Meeks said, noting the U.S. provides military aid to other countries like Egypt and Jordan. “I don’t think that it would be the wise thing … not good policy.”

But Meeks also highlighted his criticisms of Israeli tactics during the war in Gaza, including the use of heavy bombs to destroy buildings and the deaths of innocent civilians, “so we need to make sure that we are talking about and moving forward in those things.”

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, also told JI he plans to oppose the amendment to cut the $3.3 billion.

“I’m against that,” Smith said of the attempt to cut the $3.3 billion. “I don’t think it has support because it cuts off humanitarian aid, military aid — all aid for Israel. So I don’t think there’s support for it, but we’ll see.”

Comments by Meeks and Smith closely echo warnings from Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee about the amendment — a sign that House Democratic leaders are coalescing around opposition to the amendment even as discussions in the caucus continue.

Meeks said he also planned to oppose a separate amendment that would strip a provision on U.S.-Israel cooperation from the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, another bill that is also expected to be considered this week. Massie is also leading that effort. Unlike Meeks, Smith has said he plans to support efforts to take the cooperation provision out of the NDAA, after previously opposing them.

But the House Rules Committee rejected that amendment to the NDAA, and it will not receive a vote on the House floor, sidestepping a vote that had the potential to divide House Democrats but potentially raising the salience of the vote of the $3.3 billion in aid as Democrats’ only opportunity to vote on the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, declined to disclose her position on the amendment to cut the $3.3 billion in aid.

“We’re talking about it,” DeLauro said. “I’m looking at what the Massie amendment is and where … we can try to move forward — what it means and what it doesn’t mean.”

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), the chair of the House Progressive Caucus, said he plans to support the amendment, regardless of the potential unintended consequences.

“I am aware that the amendment as written may cut off both military weapons (~$3.3 billion) and some diplomatic funding (~$50 million). While I would prefer to vote on an amendment that stripped just military funding, I think opposing the billions in military funding is what’s most important here,” Casar said.

Casar continued, “The Israeli government committed war crimes in Gaza and helped drag America into war with Iran. Americans should not be financing more weapons for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee are warning that an effort by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to cut aid to Israel from the State Department’s annual funding bill could have further-reaching consequences than intended and impact a range of other programs and issues, Jewish Insider has learned.

Those concerns come amid reports of an outpouring of agita among House Democrats about how to approach the amendment — a reflection of how far debate among Democrats over aid to Israel has shifted.

Though Massie has focused his messaging around the amendment on the $3.3 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel laid out in the U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, the amendment also includes blanket language stating that “none of the funds made available under this Act shall be obligated or expended for Israel.”

Democrats on the Appropriations Committee are warning that it would be up to the State Department to interpret how to implement the amendment, but that the amendment would likely also require the department to withhold funding for joint U.S.-Israel development programs in underserved countries, the Middle East Partnership for Peace program, the Middle East Regional Cooperation program supporting Israeli-Arab scientific cooperation and longstanding funding for refugee resettlement in Israel — a line item that dates back to efforts to resettle Soviet refugees.

The legislators believe, depending on the State Department’s interpretation, it may also defund U.S. Embassy operations in Israel, U.S. support for the Palestinian Security Forces, educational and cultural exchanges and even U.S. military sales to Israel not funded by the U.S.

Democrats on the committee are also emphasizing that Israel is one of 35 recipients of U.S. military funding, that the funding includes requirements on how it is used and that the orders in question generally take years to fulfill.

Funding for cooperative missile-defense programs with Israel would not be impacted by the amendment, as that funding comes through the defense appropriations process, a separate bill.

The amendment was originally set to come up for consideration this week in the House but — amid a rebellion by some House Republicans over the Senate’s failure to pass the SAVE America Act, President Donald Trump’s top-priority voter ID bill — Republicans were unable to approve a procedural vote to open consideration of the State Department bill.

House Democrats are set to hold a virtual meeting on Sunday to discuss the situation.

AIPAC has been lobbying aggressively against the amendment, with an action alert to members urging them to contact their representatives in Congress to oppose the amendment. In messaging for Democrats, the group emphasized that the memorandum of understanding was finalized by the Obama administration and in the eight appropriations cycles since, “Congress has thus far never failed to ensure Israel has the resources it needs to defend its families.”

“Israel is on the front lines fighting against our shared enemies in the Middle East,” the AIPAC messaging reads. “Robust U.S.-Israel security cooperation is vital to advancing our mutual security interests around the world. Cutting funding for assistance to Israel would embolden our adversaries and undermine a key pillar of longtime U.S. national security policy.”

The message also describes Israel as a “model ally” defending the U.S. and shared values against common enemies and the funding as a “smart and cost-effective investment.”

J Street is also opposing the amendment, focusing on its impacts on MEPPA, MEPI and MERC, which the group says “play an important role in peacebuilding and people-to-people relations, including focusing specifically on Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding in the case of MEPPA.”

The group did not specifically defend the military funding but said it “supports a rapid and responsible phaseout of the $3.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel when the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding expires in FY2028 and believes the United States should honor its existing commitments rather than abruptly terminating assistance.”

At the same time, it offered talking points for members who ultimately support this amendment: “Given the realities on the ground, Members may choose to support this amendment,” adding that members should note that the funding does not impact missile defense and should express support for restoring civil programs.

The anti-Israel group A New Policy is also claiming in messaging to members that the U.S. funding for Israel set to be disbursed this year would be consistent with the MOU because of the additional funding appropriated in the 2024 national security supplemental bill. But the MOU specifically guarantees $3.3 billion to be provided annually each year, without consideration of any additional funding provided in other years.

DMFI is also urging lawmakers to reject the amendment, emphasizing both the military and non-military impacts.

“Israel is facing threats from Iran and its terrorist proxies across the region. Cutting off Israel entirely would not create peace. It would embolden America’s adversaries and make a wider regional war more likely,” the group said on X, emphasizing that U.S. support to Israel ultimately helps defend the U.S. and keep American forces out of harm’s way.

DMFI also said that offensive weapons systems are needed to prevent attacks before they happen, and that “eliminating all U.S. funding for Israel is not serious oversight. It is abandonment without a plan.”

Trump urged Republicans to abandon their obstructionist tactics on the issue, and their weekly schedule released Friday indicated that Republican leadership intends to seek to bring the State Department appropriations bill forward again in the coming week.

Lawmakers are also slated to consider the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act on the floor next week.

That bill will bring with it more fights over the U.S.-Israel relationship, with plans by Massie to offer an amendment to eliminate a relatively routine provision on U.S.-Israel military cooperation that that far right and far left have falsely framed as a merging of the American and Israeli militaries and a surrender of U.S. sovereignty to Israel.

Had the House opened consideration of the State Department bill last week, it was also set to consider an amendment by Massie on cutting U.S. funding for Jordan, including military aid, as well as an amendment by Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) banning any funding for the U.N. and an amendment by Roy to cut funding for the Middle East Partnership Initiative, which funds educational exchange programs for students from the Middle East, among other programs.

J Street, in its communications with lawmakers, offered more robust support for the military funding for Jordan.

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks celebrated his group’s role in ousting Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his primary election earlier this month at the organization’s sold-out “America 250” themed gala Sunday night, held at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

Stating that RJC spent more than $5 million to unseat Massie, Brooks told attendees to loud applause, “Let me say clearly tonight, it was a fight worth having and a victory worth celebrating.” 

“When someone repeatedly undermines support for Israel, trafficks in isolationism at a moment of global danger and refuses to stand with the Jewish community when it matters most, there has to be consequences,” Brooks said. 

“Being anti-Israel in today’s Republican Party is not — unlike the Democratic Party — a path to success,” said Brooks, who called defeating Massie a “critical victory” for the direction of the GOP and conservative movement. “It was a message that needed to be sent and a message that has been received,” he added. 

With the midterm elections approaching, Brooks asserted that “the stakes could not be higher.”

“Today, as the Iranian threat remains front and center and antisemitism continues to rise, we are deeply grateful for [President Donald Trump’s] leadership and moral clarity,” continued Brooks. 

The gala came as the Republican Party grapples with a growing faction of younger activists, internet influencers and far-right nationalists — often referred to as the “groypers” — who hold extreme antisemitic and white supremacist views. Several speakers at Sunday’s event took the opportunity to distance their party from far-right commentators Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens — as well as anti-Israel elected officials in the GOP. 

“I want to thank the RJC for leading the fight, not just to elect Republicans and defeat radical, woke, antisemitic Democrats — but to hold the Republican Party to account as well and eliminate people like Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene, to take on people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, because it’s not just pushing back against the Hasan Pikers of the world,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), referring to the far-left streamer who has been embraced by elements of the Democratic Party. “If we can’t root it out in our own party — if we can’t call it out, then we don’t have the moral standing to call out the other side.” 

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who was in New York City to march in the Israel Day on Fifth parade, said that his participation in the parade — the first-ever by a Knesset speaker — was a direct response to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s decision to boycott the festivities.

“The mayor of this city is still refusing to condemn genocidal slogans that are aimed at Jews,” Ohana said. “For the first time in more than 60 years, the mayor of New York City did not attend the Israel Day parade, and it is exactly for that reason that for the first time in more than 60 years, the speaker of Knesset did,” Ohana said to cheering from guests — many sporting red “Trump” kippot.  

“America’s greatest leaders understood that evil ignored becomes evil empowered. It must be confronted head-on,” said Ohana. “That is why I am so proud to stand with every one of you in this room, who have refused to surrender to antisemites who trade truth for clicks,” he continued. “On behalf of the Knesset — that represents the whole people of Israel — I want to thank you for that.”     

Speakers also included Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL); Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a New York state Republican gubernatorial candidate; and former Auburn University basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

The evening concluded with a panel on antisemitism in the United Nations, featuring U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon. 

Waltz said rather than walking away from Turtle Bay, “we need to get in there and fight and win.”

“It can be done,” he said. “Just this year, we forced the U.N. to take its first budget cut in its history.” 

Pro-Israel and Republican Jewish groups helped oust one of their leading GOP antagonists on Tuesday night, aligning with President Donald Trump to defeat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the most expensive House primary in recent memory. 

Ed Gallrein, a military veteran and farmer recruited by the Trump White House to challenge Massie, decisively defeated the congressman by 10 points, 55-45%. Massie, a libertarian lawmaker who long cast lonely Republican votes against Israel funding and resolutions condemning antisemitism, increasingly trafficked in bigoted rhetoric in the closing weeks of the campaign. 

In his concession speech, Massie continued his antisemitic vitriol against his opponent, telling the crowd: “I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.” Even though Trump’s outspoken opposition was the leading factor behind his demise, he routinely blamed Jewish and pro-Israel donors like Miriam Adelson for costing him his seat and insinuated that Israel was buying seats in Congress. 

Massie first drew the ire of Trump for voting against his “big beautiful” reconciliation bill last year, and the anger was exacerbated by his work with Democrats to force the Department of Justice to release all of the files involving Jeffrey Epstein. 

Outside groups, including a Trump-aligned super PAC (MAGA KY) and those affiliated with the Republican Jewish Coalition, AIPAC and Christians United for Israel, spent aggressively with ads and billboards attacking Massie over his record, with several pointing out his opposition to Israel and Trump’s foreign policy.

Massie’s defeat also underscores Trump’s strong and continued support within the party, with his endorsements in primaries almost always translating into his candidate’s victory. His opposition to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) led to his defeat last week, and he successfully ousted most of the Indiana GOP state senators who opposed his redistricting efforts.

Trump’s next test will come next week In Texas, after he just endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s intraparty challenge against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). 

While pro-Israel leaders were encouraged by the defeat of a leading GOP antagonist in Kentucky, many watched warily as state Rep. Chris Rabb, a DSA-endorsed candidate with a long record of extremist rhetoric and conspiratorial views, prevailed in a Philadelphia-area Democratic primary for the seat of retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA). 

During the campaign, Rabb called Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza a genocide, and attacked his opponents for not doing the same.

Rabb comfortably led state Sen. Sharif Street by 14 points (44-30%), with surgeon Ala Stanford finishing in third with 24% of the vote. Rabb, who was endorsed by leading progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), also spent time campaigning and fundraising with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker. 

Rabb’s sharing of an Instagram post claiming the Bondi Beach terror attack that killed 14 Jews at a Chanukah celebration in Australia was a “false flag” perpetrated by Zionists did little to stunt his support. It also didn’t prevent Ocasio-Cortez from campaigning with him in the campaign’s closing days. (He claimed a former staffer was responsible for the post.)

Election results indicated that Rabb performed best in the whitest and wealthier precincts in the city, while Street and Stanford’s base was in the majority-Black working-class parts of Philadelphia. 

Today’s primaries in Kentucky and Pennsylvania may well serve as an early test over which party is more effectively dealing with its own antisemitism problems. 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the few remaining anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, has been spewing antisemitic tropes in the closing days of the campaign, portraying Congress as Israel-occupied territory and caricaturing wealthy Jewish donors as the fuel behind his opponent’s support, as he tries to fend off a serious challenge from Ed Gallrein, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, state Rep. Chris Rabb — who shared a post on his Instagram account promoting a conspiracy theory that the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney in which 14 Jews were killed was a false-flag operation perpetuating Israeli interests — holds the late momentum in an open Democratic congressional primary to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA). (Rabb’s campaign blamed a former campaign staffer for the offending post.)

A parade of progressive stars, from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to Jamie Raskin (D-MD), have traveled to Philadelphia to campaign with the Democratic Socialists of America-backed Rabb. Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker likewise rallied with Rabb and held a fundraiser with him where attendees chanted: “Free Palestine!”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), representing the more mainstream wing of the Democratic Party, held a rally on Monday to boost one of Rabb’s leading challengers, state Sen. Sharif Street. 

Gallrein and Rabb both appear to hold late momentum in their respective races. If the two end up winning, the conventional wisdom — and corresponding coverage — will rightly conclude that a Massie defeat came as a result of Trump’s outspoken opposition to the congressman and that a Rabb victory will be the result of progressives’ ascendance within the Democratic Party. 

But that will only tell part of the story. If Republicans end up ousting a lawmaker trafficking in some of the ugliest bigotry, while Democrats anoint a future lawmaker pushing extremist antisemitic conspiracy theories, it’s a sign of the direction both parties are headed. 

It’s well-documented that antisemitism is rising on both the left and the right, especially among younger Americans. As many experts have noted, it takes leaders calling out anti-Jewish hate from within their own party to combat it most effectively. 

To be sure, Trump’s fury towards Massie has little to do with the congressman’s antisemitism. It’s mainly a result of the congressman voting against several of the president’s legislative priorities, while pushing legislation to require the Department of Justice to release files on Jeffrey Epstein. 

But at least he’s giving the party cover to confront its own extremism. The comparative silence over Rabb from Democratic leaders speaks volumes over how hard that is to do. 

Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview Tuesday’s GOP primary in Kentucky, where Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) faces the fight of his political life against Ed Gallrein, and look closely at the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America in local politics. We cover the testimony of Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, about the achievements of the U.S. and Israel in the war against Iran, and speak to former U.S. diplomatic officials and Middle East experts about the dozens of ambassador-level Middle East posts that remain empty. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Dan Goldman, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and Reps. Brad Schneider and Craig Goldman.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Melissa Weiss, Danielle Cohen-Kanik and 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: Longtime ADL head Abe Foxman remembered as ‘the kind of leader that all of us aspire to be’; Race to replace Pelosi offers early test of whether progressive Jews welcomed on the left; and Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf leads players, high school students on Holocaust Museum trip. Print the latest edition here.

What We’re Watching

• Senior Israeli and Lebanese officials will reconvene today at the State Department to continue peace talks, a State Department official said, after the parties concluded the first day of negotiations in the third round of the U.S.-led talks on Thursday with no further agreements secured. Read more here.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a five-country tour today in the United Arab Emirates. From the UAE, Modi will travel on to the Netherlands, ⁠Sweden, Norway and Italy.
• President Donald Trump’s “National Sabbath” begins tonight at sundown. The White House’s official Shabbat 250 reception is slated to take place at 6 p.m. ET in the Indian Treaty Room. Read more here about the events taking place in Washington this weekend.
• The Lennart Meri Conference kicks off this afternoon in Tallinn, Estonia. Speakers include E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas; Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama; Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi; former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata; Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was held hostage for more than two years by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq; Thomas DiNanno, under secretary of state for arms control and international security; and MENA2050 CEO Eli Bar-On. 
• The inaugural World Symposium Against Antizionism will take place on Sunday in Toronto. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro is set to keynote the conference, which will also include Mark Goldfeder, Casey Babb and Loay Alshareef.
• Also Sunday, Jewish California, a statewide coalition of Jewish organizations, is holding a forum for candidates for superintendent of public instruction.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Marc Rod

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) will enter Tuesday’s closely watched primary against Ed Gallrein, a Navy veteran and farmer backed by President Donald Trump, politically damaged — but it remains to be seen whether he’s taken enough hits to end his career in Congress.

Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based GOP strategist and CNN political analyst, said that he’s spoken to operatives on both sides of the race who are very confident in victory. “Based on some of the polling I’ve personally seen and heard about, it feels like Massie’s image has been severely degraded by the sustained campaign that’s been run against him,” Jennings told Jewish Insider.

The question is whether Massie’s image has been tarnished enough to cause his defeat, or if he’ll emerge wounded but still standing. Jennings said that Massie has built a “popular brand” in the district during his seven terms in office, but also hasn’t before faced a full-frontal assault from Trump and the associated avalanche of spending.

Al Cross, a professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and a political columnist, said he’s “loath to make predictions about that race, but Gallrein clearly has the momentum.”

He explained that Gallrein has received significant positive coverage in pro-Trump media, has stronger support among older voters, who are more likely to turn out, has a significant advantage in outside spending and has Trump’s influential endorsement. 

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

DEM DYNAMICS

DSA’s ascent tests Democratic Party’s ideological boundaries

On paper, the two leading candidates for mayor of Washington, D.C. — Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie — appear almost identical, both touting affordability and safety on the campaign trail, with promises to build more housing and stand up against President Donald Trump. But if elected, Lewis George’s victory would hand a major win to Washington’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter, of which Lewis George has been a member for years — the latest front in a battle over the Democratic Party’s soul that stretches from city councils to the halls of Congress, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Pushing back: The centrist Democratic group Third Way plans to launch a major PR campaign against the DSA in the coming months, arguing that its far-left positions and incendiary brand of politics will be harmful for the party’s electoral prospects. “We are going to raise money and develop a plan over the course of the next few months to try to make them toxic, to make it unacceptable for major figures in the party or anybody actually running for office to be affiliated with the DSA, the way it should be unacceptable to be affiliated with [neo-Nazi influencer] Nick Fuentes if you’re running as Republican,” Third Way’s senior vice president for public affairs, Matt Bennett, said. 

Read the full story here.

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EMPTY POSTS

Former White House officials warn Trump admin over Middle East ambassador vacancies

Former U.S. diplomatic officials and Middle East experts, in interviews with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea, called on the Trump administration to fill dozens of ambassador-level Middle East posts, warning that not doing so could carry damaging consequences for U.S. influence and diplomacy in the region, while other former Trump officials argued the administration can manage regional diplomacy in its current format.

Weighing in: Elliott Abrams, who served as Iran envoy during the first Trump administration and is now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, called the vacancies a “huge mistake.” Abrams told JI, “It’s a foolish and damaging failure by the Trump administration, and there’s no excuse for it. There are top career diplomats, such as the ones the administration has sent to Jordan, Bahrain and Oman, who could be sent, and surely there are potential political appointees who’d love to be in Riyadh or Abu Dhabi.”

Read the full story here.

Brainstorm session: Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Craig Goldman (R-TX), co-chairs of the Abraham Accords Caucus, convened on Thursday with former U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Yael Lempert and Karen Young, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, to discuss the global energy crisis stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The lawmakers raised ideas for how Congress could assist, including diversifying energy routes.

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STATUS REPORT

Iranian capabilities severely degraded, CENTCOM head testifies

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, testified on Thursday that the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran had severely degraded its capabilities across a variety of fronts, to the extent that it will take years to reconstitute, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Achieved objectives: Cooper told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that 90% of Iran’s defense industrial base had been destroyed, setting the country back years, and that support to key Iranian proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and and the Houthis had been “completely cut off.” He said that the operation had also set back Iran’s nuclear breakout time. “We met every military objective for Epic Fury,” Cooper said.

But: Pressed on reports that Iran still has access to nearly three-quarters of its missiles and missile launchers, Cooper declined to discuss specific numbers in a public setting, but said that open source data on the subject were not accurate.

Read the full story here.

A House divided: The House voted by the narrowest possible margin to reject Democrats’ latest effort to force an end to the war in Iran, with a final tied vote of 212-212, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

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UNION LABEL

Dan Goldman notches key endorsement from United Federation of Teachers

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Democrat facing a formidable primary challenge from former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander next month, won a key endorsement on Thursday from the United Federation of Teachers, a union representing around 200,000 members, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.  

UFT statement: “Dan Goldman has the integrity we need in Washington,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “He fought to curb Trump’s abuses and supported raising taxes on the wealthy — like himself — to level the playing field so all Americans can live with dignity. We are proud to support Dan Goldman for New York’s 10th Congressional District.”

Read the full story here.

Flag flashpoint: The NYPD is investigating an incident where a flag displaying swastikas and a Star of David was flown atop an NYU building on Wednesday, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

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scoop

Rashida Tlaib plans to force House vote on Lebanon war powers resolution

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) plans to force a House vote next week on a war powers resolution blocking any U.S. involvement in or support for Israeli military operations in Lebanon, according to a memo distributed by Tlaib’s office to progressive lawmakers and obtained by Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod.

About the resolution: Tlaib’s resolution, co-led by Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), aims to prevent any U.S. assistance to Israel in its operations in Lebanon, including intelligence sharing and targeting assistance for operations against Hezbollah. Neither the legislation nor Tlaib’s memo make mention of Hezbollah nor acknowledge its attacks on Israel or its refusal to disarm.

Read the full story here.

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BRUIN BUSINESS

UCLA task force urges stronger policies against antisemitic harassment on campus

An antisemitism task force championed by UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk released a report on Thursday urging the university to intensify its crackdown on anti-Jewish harassment, as the school continues to be enmeshed in legal battles with the Trump administration, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Committee recommendations: The 42-page set of recommendations, issued by the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism action group, suggested that UCLA set a deadline of 120 days to resolve disciplinary cases. It also said the university should more clearly define consequences for violations to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The committee further urged UCLA to prevent faculty groups from using university resources or authority to express institutional support for anti-Zionism or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and to implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into rule enforcement and policy formation.

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

Conspiracy Nation: Tablet Magazine’s Izabella Tabarovsky writes about the growing conspiracism in American politics, on both the far left and far right: “It should be clear by now that what is taking shape in American public discourse is in no way a conventional political disagreement over the rightness or real-world effectiveness or this or that Israeli policy. It is the normalization of a way of thinking that flattens reality into a single, self-confirming narrative that has always led to the same place: the mental and political unraveling of the societies that embrace it.” [Tablet]

UAEasy Does It: The Wall Street Journal’s Anat Peled and Stephen Kalin consider the limits of Israel’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates, following the latter’s denial that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited the country during the war with Iran. “Such disagreements are extremely unusual in the world of high-level international diplomacy. The prickly back-and-forth shows that while Israel has proven a valuable security partner for the U.A.E., there are still political considerations that need to be managed in the relationship … The Gulf monarchy had likely wanted to keep the meeting quiet and continued with quieter and unpublicized coordination, analysts said. The U.A.E. was displeased with the Israeli announcement and saw it as embarrassing, according to a person close to Emirati officials.” [WSJ]

The Abbas Paradox: In Commentary, Seth Mandel analyzes the complex intersection of Israeli domestic politics, Arab-Israeli civic integration and the strategic calculus of Middle Eastern governance through his profile of Ra’am party head Mansour Abbas. “A leader can’t get too far in front of his constituents, I suppose. The problem is that Abbas is arguably a once-in-a-generation figure in Arab politics, someone who has legitimacy within the Islamic movement and among working-class Arabs alike and can retain that legitimacy while integrating his party into mainstream Israeli politics. So there isn’t really time for incrementalism. He isn’t just working within a brief window; he is the window.” [Commentary]

Word on the Street

President Donald Trump departed Beijing following his three-day trip to China. The White House said Trump had a “good meeting” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, highlighting that “the two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open,” that Xi “made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use” and that “both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon”…

Xi, according to the Chinese readout, flagged Taiwan as the “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” warning that it could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two countries if not “handled properly”…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other Israeli military officials visited the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran, Israeli broadcaster Kan reported on Friday, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s revelation earlier this week that he had visited the UAE during the war in late March…

The UAE was left frustrated after it tried in vain to convince some of its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to participate in a joint military response to Iran’s strikes, Bloomberg reports…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights efforts by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to clean house following the removal of his predecessor, Kristi Noem, from the post, firing officials linked to her and reviewing her spending decisions…

Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a rally in Maine, praised Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — despite her strained relationship with the president — as she heads to a competitive general election against presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner…

The New York Times looks under the hood of the campaign of Jack Schlossberg, running in New York’s 12th Congressional District Democratic primary, which sources described as “so erratic and plagued by turnover that it raises questions about how he might handle himself as a member of Congress”…

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is at risk of finishing in third place in Saturday’s Louisiana GOP primary, with the senator trailing Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and state Treasurer John Fleming, according to Punchbowl News… 

Tune Inn, the D.C. bar where William Paul, son of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), accosted Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) with an antisemitic rant, announced that the younger Paul would be barred from the establishment going forward. The elder Paul hasn’t made any statement on the confrontation…

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, received the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Charles Eisenman Award for Exceptional Civic Contributions at the Federation’s 122nd Annual Meeting on Tuesday…

Highlighting Spain‘s efforts to hamper U.S. operations against Iran, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) urged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “reconsider existing arrangements with Spanish entities, especially major government contracts benefitting Spanish companies at the expense of the American taxpayer.” Gooden’s letter focused on ACS Group, Spain’s largest construction company and a U.S. military contractor…

The Israeli government said it is initiating a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times following the publication of an opinion column by Nicholas Kristof alleging widespread Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, which critics said used dubious sourcing and elevated conspiracy theories, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

The Times dismissed Israel’s stated intention to sue “as part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting and stifle journalism that does not fit a specific narrative”…

More than 200 people demonstrated outside the Times headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday, demanding a retraction of the article, an event organized by pro-Israel groups…

The U.S. government is suing a Chick-fil-A franchisee for religious discrimination over the employer’s alleged refusal for a Christian employee to take Saturdays off to observe the Sabbath, as her denomination observes…

Saudi Arabia has begun to consider a nonaggression pact between Middle East countries and Iran for when the war against the Islamic Republic ends, according to the Financial Times, fearing that the conflict will leave Iran weaker but more hard-line and conflict-prone. Several European countries are reportedly supporting the effort…

Iraq voted on Thursday — six months after its election — to approve a new government, led by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi alongside 14 ministers, though parliament failed to reach consensus on several key posts including interior and defense…

Scandal-plagued filmmaker Brett Ratner, who moved to Israel after being accused of sexual misconduct, joined Trump’s delegation to China this week to scout out locations for the newest “Rush Hour” movie, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Richard Attias, a Moroccan-born consultant and longtime advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also reportedly joined the delegation…

The Financial Times spotlights tensions surrounding Israel’s participation in Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest, over which the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland have pulled out of this year’s event…

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who has previously been mired in antisemitism scandals, is set to perform in Tbilisi, Georgia, at a June concert produced by Live Nation Israel…

Pic of the Day

King Charles III met with Michael Shine, a victim of a stabbing attack, and his sister Doreen, during a visit on Thursday to the Jewish Care charity in Golders Green, two weeks after the antisemitic attack in the London suburb.

Wine of the Week

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Yonatan Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot:

Thirty-two years ago, I celebrated the cutting of my son’s hair on Lag B’Omer in Meron, Israel. A memorable moment in life. I still recall the bottle we opened the following Friday night, a 1984 Yarden Cabernet, and I can taste it to this day. These days, in the current situation, we did not have the opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Mount Meron on Lag B’Omer, and so we marked my my 3-year-old grandson’s first haircut in Tel Aviv, over a new bottle of wine. G-d willing, I shall be present for my great-grandson’s in turn.

Charley Winery in the Judean Hills is a new discovery for me, and I suspect it will feature regularly in my reviews in the months to come. The Yonatan Cabernet, lifted by a whisper of petit verdot, awakened a passion in me that had been dormant for some time. The opening was unmistakably Judean Hills, generous in fruit, with tannins of considerable poise; the mid-palate offered a sumptuous course of blackberry; and the finish revealed something altogether unexpected: a serene, earthen, fleshy register more often encountered in Bordeaux. The wine held me in contemplation from first sip to last. Pair it with bison, or with a cut of meat worthy of the occasion. This is a wine built to age for many years to come.

Birthdays

First lady of Israel, Michal Herzog turns 65 today…

FRIDAY: Chairman of Queens-based Muss Development, a major real estate development company founded by his grandfather Isaac in 1906, Joshua Lawrence Muss turns 85… Chairman emeritus of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, a human rights organization in NYC, Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim turns 83… Chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, he was born in a DP camp as a child of Holocaust survivors, Martin Oliner turns 79… Retired major general in the IDF, he served as Israel’s national security advisor and is now a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, Yaakov Amidror turns 78… Israeli diplomat who served as Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy turns 78… CEO of Emigrant Bank, real estate developer, financier and philanthropist, he has co-chaired the annual campaign for the UJA-Federation of New York, Howard Philip Milstein turns 75… Professor of pathology and genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he is the author of Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People, Harry Ostrer turns 75… Professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College who is serving as visiting professor at Harvard for the 2025-26 academic year, she is the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Susannah Heschel turns 70… Owner of Midnight Music Management and one of the founders of The Happy Minyan in Los Angeles, Stuart Wax… Former editor and columnist at The Washington Post, Ruth Allyn Marcus turns 68… Five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, producer, filmmaker and Latin media marketing entrepreneur, Giselle Fernandez turns 65… Founding rabbi of The Shtiebel in NYC and a member of the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Maharat, Adam Mintz turns 65… Owner/president of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, he is the chairman of the Board of Governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Mark Wilf turns 64… Former member of the Nevada Assembly, she served as secretary of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, Ellen Barre Spiegel turns 64… Director, screenwriter and former film critic, Rod Lurie turns 64… Actor and filmmaker known for his collaborations with George Clooney, Grant Heslov turns 63… Vice chancellor of Brown University, she is the founder of Reeves Advisory, Pamela Ress Reeves… Actor and comedian, David Krumholtz turns 48… Executive director in the Office of Crime Victim Services at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Shira Rosenthal Phelps… Noam Finger turns 48… Director of the center for civics, education and opportunity at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, Daniel M. Rothschild… Actor best known for her role as Tony Soprano’s daughter, Meadow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler turns 45… Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-at-large for The New York Times, Eli Eric Saslow turns 44… Senior editor at Vogue, Chloe F. Schama turns 43… Director of career services at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, Lisa Dubler turns 39… Rochelle Wilner… Ofir Richman… 

SATURDAY: Scholar, author and rabbi, he is the founding president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Irving “Yitz” Greenberg turns 93… Retired judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, she has served as president and chair of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Ellen Moses Heller turns 85… Senior official in the Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama administrations, Bernard W. Aronson turns 80… Member of the New York state Assembly for 52 years (longest tenure ever), his term ended in 2022, Richard N. Gottfried turns 79… Chairman of NBC News and MSNBC from 2015 to 2020, Andrew Lack turns 79… Member of the House of Representatives since 2013 (D-FL), she was previously the mayor of West Palm Beach, Lois Frankel turns 78… Harvard history professor, a member of the Rothschild banking family of England, Emma Georgina Rothschild turns 78… Proto-punk singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jonathan Richman turns 75… Radio voice of the Texas Rangers baseball organization since 1979, Eric Nadel turns 75… Rochester, N.Y., resident and advisor to NYC-based Ezras Nashim volunteer ambulance service, Michael E. Pollock… U.S. ambassador to France and machatunim of President Trump, Charles Kushner turns 72… Managing partner at Accretive LLC, a private equity firm, he served as executive chairman of Fubo TV until its October 2025 merger with Disney, Edgar Bronfman Jr. turns 71… Film and stage actor, noted for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Terms of Endearment,” Debra Winger turns 71… President of Tribe Media, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal, David Suissa… Real estate mogul and collector of modern and contemporary art, Aby J. Rosen turns 66… Executive assistant at Los Angeles-based FaceCake Marketing Technologies, Esther Bushey… U.S. ambassador to the European Union in the Obama administration, he had a bar mitzvah-like ceremony in Venice in 2017, Anthony Luzzatto Gardner turns 63… Social entrepreneur, Jonathan Shawn Landres turns 54… Actor, television personality and author, Victoria Davey “Tori” Spelling turns 53… Host of programs on the Travel Channel and the History Channel, Adam Richman turns 52… VP and associate general counsel at CNN, Drew Shenkman… Managing director at FTI Consulting, Jeff Bechdel… Chef and food blogger, her husband Ryan played baseball for Team Israel, Jamie Neistat Lavarnway… Composer, conductor and music producer known for his film and television scores, Daniel Alexander Slatkin turns 32… 

SUNDAY: Founder of the Philadelphia-based Honickman Foundation, her family owns one of the largest soft drink bottlers in the U.S., Lynne Korman Honickman turns 90… Annapolis, Md., attorney, Robert M. Pollock… News anchor for 46 years at WPVI-TV (ABC Channel 6) in Philadelphia until he retired in 2022, known professionally as Jim Gardner, James Goldman turns 78… Canadian philanthropist and the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Myra Ava Freeman turns 77… Corporate and securities attorney at NYC’s Eilenberg & Krause, he serves as counsel for Israeli technology companies doing business in the U.S., Sheldon Krause turns 71… Comedian, puppeteer and actor, Marc Weiner turns 71… Founder and president of ENS Resources, a D.C.-based consulting and lobbying firm focused on natural resources and sustainable energy, Eric Sapirstein turns 70… Special correspondent for Marketplace by American Public Media, David Brancaccio turns 66… Author of the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish and a 2017 book about Jewish holidays, she is an honorary president of NYC’s Central Synagogue, Abigail Pogrebin… and her identical twin sister, Robin Pogrebin, reporter on the culture desk for The New York Times, both turn 61… Formerly the general manager for corporate strategy at Microsoft and an EVP at Hillel, she is mounting a bid for Washington’s congressional delegate seat, Kinney Zalesne turns 60… Retired CPA and founder of the Baltimore Hunger Project, it provides food packs for the weekend that are discretely slipped into poverty-stricken public-school children’s backpacks each Friday, Lynne Berkowitz Kahn… Israeli author and playwright, Sarah Blau turns 53… Reporter for The New York Times covering politics, campaigns and elections, Reid J. Epstein… Former member of Knesset, when elected in 2013 she became the youngest female Knesset member in Israel’s history, Stav Shaffir turns 41… Founder of Sound Strategies and digital strategy advisor to Democratic organizations and candidates, Jenna Ruth Lowenstein… Social media and content integration brand strategist at AARP, Sarah Sonies… Senior writer at Microsoft’s AI at Work group, Rebecca Rose Nelson Kay… Retired Israeli judoka, he was the 2019 World Champion and won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics, Sagi Aharon Muki turns 34… Director of congregational engagement at Mount Zion Hebrew Congregation in St. Paul, Minn., Heather Renetzky… Senior communications manager at Rystad Energy, she was an assistant area director in the Houston office of AIPAC, Katherine “Katie” Keenan… 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) will enter Tuesday’s closely watched primary against Ed Gallrein, a Navy veteran and farmer backed by President Donald Trump, politically damaged — but it remains to be seen whether he’s taken enough hits to end his career in Congress.

Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based GOP strategist and CNN political analyst, said that he’s spoken to operatives on both sides of the race who are very confident in victory. “Based on some of the polling I’ve personally seen and heard about, it feels like Massie’s image has been severely degraded by the sustained campaign that’s been run against him,” Jennings told Jewish Insider.

The question is whether Massie’s image has been tarnished enough to cause his defeat, or if he’ll emerge wounded but still standing. Jennings said that Massie has built a “popular brand” in the district during his seven terms in office, but also hasn’t before faced a full-frontal assault from Trump and the associated avalanche of spending.

Al Cross, a professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and a political columnist, said he’s “loath to make predictions about that race, but Gallrein clearly has the momentum.”

He explained that Gallrein has received significant positive coverage in pro-Trump media, has stronger support among older voters, who are more likely to turn out, has a significant advantage in outside spending and has Trump’s influential endorsement. 

A Quantus Insights poll conducted this week showed Gallrein with a lead outside the margin of error, tallying 48% support from GOP voters, with Massie at 43%. Eight percent of voters remained undecided. 

In another late-breaking boost for Gallrein, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced its endorsement of the veteran on Thursday, a sign it sees Massie as vulnerable. 

Ultimately, Jennings said the race will be a test of voters’ willingness to support a representative who has been at odds with Trump. He said the influx of anti-Massie advertising has made the break between the two men clear to voters in a way that it may not have been before.

“The most popular Republican in the district is Donald Trump. And the thing Republicans want more than anything else in this world is for Donald Trump to succeed and for his party to help him succeed,” Jennings said. “And if they come to believe that you are an impediment to that success, they will punish you.”

“Now that having been said, there are certainly libertarian/contrarian voters in that district,” Jennings added, noting that the state has a long “contrarian streak,” particularly in Massie’s district.

But, voters also tend to harbor suspicions of first-time candidates they aren’t familiar with, Cross said, and Massie and his supporters have been working aggressively to frame Gallrein as untrustworthy, deceitful and not committed to the president.

Cross noted the recent polling as another positive sign for Gallrein — though he cautioned against putting too much stock in the results in a district where turnout could vary significantly from county to county.

Various Jewish and pro-Israel groups have poured money into the race attacking Massie and boosting Gallrein. The Republican Jewish Coalition has spent nearly $4 million, the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project has spent $3.2 million against Massie and Christians United for Israel allocated six figures to buy dozens of billboards across the district.

The pro-Massie campaign has also waded into antisemitic territory, most recently with a television ad by a Massie-allied group attacking conservative Jewish donor Paul Singer, superimposing his head alongside a large Star of David.

Meanwhile, William Paul, son of the state’s junior senator, Rand Paul (R-KY), went on an antisemitic tirade against Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in a Washington bar this week claiming that Jews would be responsible if Massie lost the race. 

Massie on Thursday announced plans to introduce the “AIPAC Act,” which would require the pro-Israel group, whose members are American citizens and do not take instruction from the Israeli government, to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He said that the legislation would apply to interest groups supporting other countries as well.

The congressman has long described AIPAC and its members as vectors of malign foreign influence, accusations that critics say lean into antisemitic dual loyalty tropes.

President Donald Trump’s effort to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a longtime thorn in his side, got another big-money boost as Christians United for Israel Action Fund, the advocacy arm of the Christian Zionist group, announced that it is spending six figures to blanket Massie’s congressional district with dozens of billboards hitting the congressman over his opposition to the Iran war.

“For one full month, CUFI Action Fund will dominate Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District outdoor advertising space by securing every available billboard in the district, creating a broad and highly visible message presence across the region,” CUFI Action Fund senior director Ari Morgenstern told Jewish Insider. “The buy spans key communities across the district, ensuring the message reaches voters in both local population centers and along major commuter and travel routes.”

Morgenstern said that the billboards are expected to reach “1.487 million adult impressions each week,” along major roadways across the district. The Kentucky primary election, where Massie is facing off against Trump-endorsed Navy veteran Ed Gallrein, is on May 19.

The billboard displays an image of President Donald Trump atop the American flag alongside Massie atop the Iranian flag, with the captions “Kentucky = Trump Country,” “Tell Massie: Support Peace Through Strength” and “No Support for Iranian Regime.”

The campaign banks on the notion that GOP primary voters in the deep-red district remain strongly supportive of the Iran war.

AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC is also going on the offensive against Massie with a substantial TV ad campaign, which focuses on Massie’s opposition to the war in Iran. The Republican Jewish Coalition has spent $3.5 million in the district to oppose Massie as well.

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

Good Tuesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on United Democracy Project’s $790,000 ad buy targeting GOP Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, and report on Sen. Chris Murphy‘s praise for dozens of Iranian ships that bypassed the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. We interview Rachel Goldberg-Polin about the release of her new book, out today, and report on Jack Schlossberg’s plans to skip upcoming Jewish candidate forums in the Manhattan congressional district where he is mounting a bid. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sue Altman, Idan Ofer and Jessica Chastain.

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

• Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, will conclude later today as the country moves directly into Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. A prerecorded official torchlighting ceremony meant to mark the transition between the holidays will air this evening at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem.
• Argentine President Javier Milei will be among those to participate in the torchlighting ceremony in Jerusalem, which traditionally honors supporters of Israel and designees from across Israeli society who are honored for their contributions to the country.
• EU foreign ministers are meeting today in Luxembourg, where Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares is leading an effort for the bloc to suspend its cooperation agreement with Israel.
• Talks between the U.S. and Iran, which were slated to begin today, remain unclear as both sides send mixed signals over the status of the negotiations. Iran has reportedly informed regional mediators that it plans to send a delegation today even as it publicly distances itself from the talks, while unnamed U.S. officials said Vice President JD Vance will travel to Islamabad today ahead of the expiration of the two-week ceasefire.  
• The Senate is set to vote for a fifth time on a war powers resolution limiting U.S. actions in Iran.
• This afternoon, the Helsinki Commission is holding a hearing on Capitol Hill on Iranian support for Russia.
• Also this afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is convening senior State Department officials for a hearing on U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa.
• The House Ethics Committee is holding a sanctions hearing for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), as the Florida Democrat faces allegations that she illegally misdirected FEMA funds.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S josh kraushaar

Amid the downbeat assessment of Israel’s political standing in the U.S., two new polls that came out last week suggest that the Jewish state still can rely on a sizable, if largely Republican, base of support.

The biggest takeaway from these two new polls — one commissioned by NBC News and one conducted by the respected GOP firm Echelon Insights — is that Israel has become a partisan issue, with Democrats turning decidedly against the Jewish state while Republicans have become strongly supportive.

All told, the polls show the public evenly divided over Israel, with the splits largely along party, ideological and generational lines. The results indicate President Donald Trump’s embrace of the Jewish state has caused Democrats to take an instinctively more negative view — in a continuation of how politics has generally operated in the Trump era.

Echelon Insights, which surveyed 1,022 respondents from March 12-16, found 44% of respondents held a favorable view of Israel, while 38% held an unfavorable view. While Israel’s plus-6 net favorability score is nothing to write home about, the results are noticeably better than a recent Pew Research Center poll that drew outsized attention for finding Israel’s net favorability rating at a dismal minus-23 (37/60%).

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

SCOOP

AIPAC’s super PAC takes aim at Thomas Massie with major ad buy

United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-linked super PAC, is taking aim again at Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) with a significant buy for a television ad targeting the anti-Israel congressman, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

About the ad: The buy totals $790,000 for a week of broadcast and cable ads in the Cincinnati, Louisville and Charleston media markets. The ad, which features a graphic of Massie’s face on a flipping coin, accuses Massie of changing his policy positions from when he was first elected, saying he “started out as a conservative Republican but now votes with liberal Democrats” on issues including border security and Israel.

Read the full story here.

Exclusive: The Republican Jewish Coalition announced Tuesday that it is endorsing four Republican Senate candidates for open seats: Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme in Montana and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley in North Carolina, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

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on whose side?

Sen. Chris Murphy applauds Iranian ships against U.S. Navy

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Monday appeared to cheer on the reported evasion by more than two dozen Iranian ships of the U.S. maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.

Comment card: The Connecticut Democrat, one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate, responded on X with a one-word comment — “awesome” — to an unconfirmed report that at least 26 vessels belonging to the shadow fleet, which is overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had bypassed the blockade. 

Read the full story here.

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IRON DOME DECISIONS

J Street accelerates leftward shift as progressives move to end Iron Dome funding

In recent years, as the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street joined left-wing calls to place restrictions on U.S. military aid to Israel, support for funding Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system remained a sacred cow for the group. That consensus has shattered in recent weeks. Instead of steering the conversation among Democrats, where J Street maintains a solid base of support, the organization found itself playing catch-up to the progressive lawmakers it supports after several of them announced in early April that they think the U.S. should no longer fund Iron Dome batteries, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Change in position: J Street released a statement on April 13 calling for the U.S. to cease funding Iron Dome batteries, arguing that Israel — a wealthy nation with a substantial defense budget — should pay for its own missile-defense systems. In conversation with JI on Monday, J Street’s chief policy officer, Ilan Goldenberg, acknowledged that progressives’ rapid shift on the issue factored into J Street’s announcement, even as the group insists it was moving in that direction anyway. “It stirred up the conversation a little more, but that memo was already written,” Goldenberg said.

Read the full story here. 

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ABSENCES AND ANSWERS

Jack Schlossberg to skip Jewish candidate forums as questions remain around his stance on Israel

As Jack Schlossberg gains a foothold in his primary campaign for a coveted open House seat in the heart of Manhattan, his views on Israel policy are drawing closer scrutiny, as he begins to stake out a stance on the increasingly heated subject of Democratic debate. His decision to skip at least two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums occurring next month, meanwhile, is also raising some eyebrows in the district, which has a large Jewish constituency, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. 

Not attending: On Middle East policy, the 33-year-old Kennedy scion has embraced positions that place him to the left in the crowded field on Israel issues. Some Jewish leaders say that they are interested in hearing more from Schlossberg as he emerges as a leading candidate in the race. He attended Shabbat services in March at the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side, a day after the terrorist attack against Temple Israel in suburban Detroit.

Read the full story here.

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PHILLY FIGHT

Progressive heavyweights line up behind Israel critic Chris Rabb in crowded Pa. congressional primary

Anti-Israel Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb has collected a series of high-profile congressional endorsements in recent days as he seeks the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District against state Sen. Sharif Street and Ala Stanford, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Rabb has made his criticism of Israel and pro-Israel groups a central part of his House campaign, including accusing Israel of committing genocide.

Backing Rabb: Rabb has been endorsed in recent days by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Jared Huffman (D-CA), as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Far-left streamer Hasan Piker has also praised Rabb on his show.

Read the full story here.

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LOVE AND PAIN

In new book, Rachel Goldberg-Polin recounts the before and after (and ever after) of her son’s life and death

In the months after the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at the hands of his Hamas captors, his parents became the faces of a unique kind of grief — one that they experienced in the public eye. Rachel Goldberg-Polin recounts some of those moments in her new book, When We See You Again, which comes out today, a chronicle of her life before, during and after her son’s captivity and murder, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.

Writing as therapy: “I don’t think of this book at all as a memoir or a tell-all,” Goldberg-Polin told JI. “It’s like little Tupperware of pieces of a life that was, and then figuring out a life that is, and how do you do this? How do we do this, breathing in a world where we no longer have air?” She had started writing because she found it therapeutic. “I couldn’t bear the intensity of the suffering that I was carrying; [it] was making my knees buckle and my soul buckle,” Goldberg-Polin explained. 

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

MBS Scales Back: The New York Times’ Vivian Nereim observes Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pivot away from his grandiose Vision 2030 endeavor to more modest projects and advancement amid financial challenges. “Over the past 10 years, the government has managed to reduce its reliance on oil revenue, finding new sources of funding by introducing taxes and fees. But the prince’s plans and ambitions have grown more rapidly than the state’s financial capacity. … But in recent years, the prince has refashioned himself as a mediator and diplomat, while pulling back on some of the most ostentatious elements of his plans.” [NYTimes]

The New Gulf Doctrine: In Semafor, former senior Qatari defense official Nawaf Al-Thani posits that the recent war with Iran has changed the decades-old doctrines that have guided regional relations for the last half-century. “It won’t happen overnight, because states don’t abandon half a century of accumulated practice in weeks, but change will come because the old formula was too generous and cautious. What follows this war will be narrower, harder, and more demanding. There may still be trust, but it will require verification of a far more definitive kind.” [Semafor]

The Missiles That Bind: In the Jewish New Syndicate, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, argue that “a shared civilian battlefield” is the “new reality” tying Israel to Gulf states in the wake of the war with Iran. “The experience no longer divides along national lines. The same missile that sent a family in Tel Aviv to a shelter sent a family in Abu Dhabi to do the same. The geography differs. The fear does not. The ceasefire quiets the sirens for now, but it does not erase what people across the region now understand.” [JNS]

Word on the Street

The Board of Peace’s Nickolay Mladenov suggested that negotiators working to get Hamas to agree to disarm have “maximum a couple of weeks” to reach a deal with the terror group, which has already blown past its deadline to accept the board’s disarmament proposal…

The Iranian ship seized by the U.S. Navy in the Gulf of Oman was believed to be carrying dual-use items from China that had potential military uses…

Pakistan has reportedly paused plans to move forward on a $1.5 billion deal to supply weapons to Sudan after Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Islamabad, with which it signed a defense pact last year, said it would not finance the sale…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the “hidden war within a war” that took place between Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Gulf states during the broader war with Iran…

CBS News goes to Tehran to meet with members of the country’s 12,000-strong Jewish community to discuss the recent U.S. and Israeli war with Iran…

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Congress “should not support the [Lebanese Armed Forces] unless it acts to disarm Hezbollah completely — and immediately”…

Sue Altman, a progressive organizer and former top staffer for Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who is running for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, slammed her anti-Israel primary opponent Adam Hamawy for “cheerleading and wishing for the deaths of Israeli children” with his comments opposing Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

NBC News looks at former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel’s leftward shift on Israel as he mulls a potential White House bid in 2028…

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Alan Dershowitz, a registered Democrat who has long been a vocal critic of his party, announced he was reregistering as a Republican, arguing that the Democratic Party’s “hostility to Israel represents a deeper and more dangerous shift away from the center and toward a radical approach that is bad for America and the free world”…

Mohamed Abdou, a former Columbia University professor terminated for praising Hamas and advocating for jihad following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, is scheduled to speak on Tuesday at an event organized by New York University students, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Real Deal profiles Israeli businessman Idan Ofer as the founder of Quantum Pacific Group looks to break into the New York real estate market by acquiring offices to convert into residential properties…

The Washington Post does a deep dive into the finances of Nick Fuentes, who had made close to $1 million, largely through donations from superfans who pay for extra access to the far-right antisemitic conspiracy theorist…

Apple TV is expected to release the long-delayed thriller series “The Savant,” which stars Jessica Chastain as a researcher who uses the dark web to track down extremists and domestic terror groups; the series, which was delayed following the assassination of Charlie Kirk last September, is largely based on the work of an Anti-Defamation League employee…

Residents of Scarsdale, N.Y., are calling on the president of the school board to resign after his daughter, a student at Scarsdale High School, praised the recent vandalism of posters promoting a student-led Israeli culture club that were ripped down and discarded in a urinal…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted to having unintentionally misled legislators about the security clearance of Peter Mandelson, who was appointed to be London’s envoy to the U.S. despite having failed vetting over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein; Starmer said that the government itself had been misled by lower-level Foreign Office staffers who greenlit Mandelson…

An Australian man who mimicked the terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach weeks after the deadly shooting and made antisemitic comments was sentenced to a year in jail; the man’s attorney said, “What he did say was antisemitic but he didn’t go out of his way to be an antisemite”…

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar said that Budapest would comply with the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, should the Israeli leader enter Hungary; Netanyahu had earlier this month accepted an invitation to travel to the country later this year to take part in a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising…

The Financial Times profiles Marion Maréchal, the niece of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, as she works to build a broad right-wing alliance modeled on similar efforts by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that would propel Le Pen’s National Rally party to electoral victory next year…

Swiss football club FC Basel, which was set to host Kanye West during his planned European tour this summer, canceled his upcoming show, following similar moves in the U.K., France and Poland, over West’s history of making antisemitic comments…

Israeli computer scientist Michael Rabin, who in 1976 was a co-recipient of the Turing Award, died at 94…

Pic of the Day

Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid a wreath on Tuesday morning at the Memorial Day ceremony for Israel’s fallen soldiers at the Hall of Remembrance on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Birthdays

Once the top-ranked collegiate female tennis player in the U.S. and currently the head women’s tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma, Audra Marie Cohen turns 40…

Comedian, screenwriter, film director and actress, she returned to Broadway in 2018 after a 60-year hiatus, Elaine May turns 94… Art collector and museum trustee in Chicago, he is a retired attorney, Don Kaul turns 91… President and executive director of the Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, Howard Rosenbloom turns 87… British chemist and emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, Sir Alan Roy Fersht turns 83… Award-winning folklorist, author, poet and editor of dozens of books, Howard Schwartz turns 81… Former lieutenant governor of Connecticut, Nancy S. Wyman turns 80… Southern California-based interior designer, Marilyn Weiss… Emergency physician in Panorama City, Calif., Joseph Edward Beezy… Founding director of Microsoft’s long-running research program on quantum physics at UCSB, an early winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship (1984), Michael Hartley Freedman turns 75… Rabbi, psychologist, writer and editor, Susan Schnur turns 75… Professor emeritus at George Mason University Law School (now known as Antonin Scalia Law School), he lectures frequently at Federalist Society chapters across the country, Michael Ian Krauss turns 75… Australian barrister who is a minister for local government following 31 years as mayor of Botany Bay, Ron Hoenig turns 73… Rabbi at Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village, Calif., Michael Barclay turns 63… Ukrainian-born industrialist, now also an Israeli citizen, he co-founded the Genesis Prize and the Genesis Philanthropy Group, Mikhail Fridman turns 62… Chicago-based lobbyist and attorney, Scott D. Yonover… Art collector and dealer, who together with his father and brother are reputed to own $1 billion of art including over 1,000 pieces by Andy Warhol, Alberto “Tico” Mugrabi turns 56… International breaking news reporter at The New York Times, Ephrat Livni… Founder of I Was Supposed to Have a Baby (IWSTHAB), an online community geared toward Jewish women experiencing infertility, Aimee Friedman Baron… Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and best-selling author, Jodi Kantor turns 51… CEO of Unistream, Ifat Bechor… Head of customer success at SnapStream, Eric Weisbrod… Retired actress and voice actress, her career included the voice of Regina “Reggie” Rocket on Nickelodeon’s “Rocket Power,” Shayna Bracha Fox turns 42… Investor relations officer at Gryphon Investors, he is a past president of the Berkeley Hillel, Robert J. Kaufman… Salesforce marketing and cloud consultant at Jackson Family Wines, Joshua Gibbs… Outfielder for MLB’s Texas Rangers, he is a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All-Star, he played for Team Israel in the 2013 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Joc Pederson turns 34… Writer, magazine editor and actress, she was the founder and editor-in-chief of the since closed online Rookie Magazine, aimed primarily at teenage girls, Tavi Gevinson turns 30… 

United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-linked super PAC, is taking aim again at Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) with a significant buy for a television ad targeting the anti-Israel congressman.

The buy totals $790,000 for a week of broadcast and cable ads in the Cincinnati, Louisville and Charleston media markets. In the previous election cycle, UDP also ran ads against Massie, though he did not face a primary challenger at the time. He now faces a primary challenge from military veteran Ed Gallrein, who is backed by President Donald Trump.

“Tom Massie is the most anti-Israel Republican in Congress,” UDP spokesperson Patrick Dorton said. “He’s got a terrible record and we are going to make sure every single one of his constituents knows about it.”

The ad, which features a graphic of Massie’s face on a flipping coin, accuses Massie of changing his policy positions from when he was first elected, saying he “started out as a conservative Republican but now votes with liberal Democrats” on issues including border security and Israel.

“On Israel, Massie votes with AOC and Ilhan Omar again and again,” the ad states. “Massie’s a flippin’ disaster. That’s why President Trump supports Ed Gallrein for Congress.”

Unlike UDP’s ads in Democratic primaries, which have largely focused on issues other than Middle East policy, the ad campaign reflects the ongoing high level of support for Israel among Republican voters.

Republicans expect a close race between Massie and Gallrein, backed up by a recent poll showing a competitive contest.

President Donald Trump is headed to Kentucky this week to rally with Ed Gallrein, his endorsed candidate to take on anti-Israel and isolationist Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the increasingly heated primary between the two men.

The campaign stop comes at a time when Massie has made himself the face of GOP opposition to the war in Iran — among the litany of other issues on which he has also broken with the president. Massie was one of two lead sponsors of a failed effort in the House last week to stop the war in Iran, while Gallrein said in a statement that the war was justified and would prevent further attacks on U.S. servicemembers and the nation.

In a ruby-red district, Massie’s opposition to the war could cost him politically, as polling shows Republicans have rallied strongly behind the administration and its efforts.

But Massie insists that Republicans  will come to share his stance. And his district has stood behind him for years even as he broke with Trump throughout his first term. The primary will not be until May 19.

For its part, the Republican Jewish Coalition is taking aim at Massie over his opposition to the war in a significant ad campaign.

“America is at war with a fanatical regime that seeks nuclear weapons. American hero Ed Gallrein stands with President Trump, our country and our military,” the RJC ad states. “Thomas Massie? He stands with Iran and radical leftists in Congress, opposing Trump, just like he did on the border and taxes.”

The RJC has spent at least $2.8 million in the race thus far, in its latest attempt to take down one of the GOP’s loudest critics of Israel. Massie, for his part, is leaning into the attacks to drum up fundraising, reposting the RJC ad and saying the group “wants America to be mired in another forever war.”

A Trump-linked super PAC is also set to spend millions opposing the incumbent; that group’s ads have also highlighted Massie’s breaks with Trump on Iran, focusing on his opposition to the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes last summer.

Massie has framed the primary as a test of “whether the Global Military Industrial Complex and Israel’s government controls the United States” and said “the Israeli lobby has spent $5 million against me because I don’t support sending our troops to fight their war.”

He’s made no secret on the campaign trail of Trump’s antipathy towards him, offering a mocking Trump impression at a campaign launch event last month — apparently betting that his maverick tendencies will help, or at least won’t cost him, among his voting base.

Gallrein’s campaign has leaned into Massie’s perceived disloyalty to Trump, and his decision to side with Democrats and the far-left on a range of key priority issues, making that a central issue of his campaign.

Some Massie supporters are reportedly growing fed up with his breaks with Trump and his focus on high-profile controversial issues, with one Gallrein supporter complaining to NOTUS that Massie’s focus on releasing Department of Justice files on the Jeffrey Epstein case doesn’t help the individual in any way, or bring down costs, and another worrying that Massie’s antipathy toward Trump will deprive the district of essential services.

As of the end of 2025, Massie maintained a significant fundraising lead over Gallrein, $2.5 million to $1.2 million. Massie closed the year with $2 million cash on hand, compared to $933,000 for Gallrein. 

Massie’s campaign has spent significantly on an ad blitz that aims to portray the Trump-backed Gallrein as “woke Eddie,” a supporter of diversity, equity and inclusion policies and gender-affirming surgeries for transgender youth.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Nate Morris, two of the leading Republican candidates for Kentucky’s Senate seat, on Thursday endorsed Ed Gallrein, the GOP challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the leading GOP critics of Israel in Congress. 

Gallrein’s primary candidacy has also been championed by President Donald Trump, who has been infuriated by Massie’s frequent votes against party leadership; Massie particularly rankled the White House as a leading advocate for releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

“Northern Kentucky needs a leader who will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Trump and always fight for the MAGA agenda,” Barr said in a statement. “Ed Gallrein is an American hero — a Navy SEAL, a fifth-generation farmer, and a small business owner — who has spent his life defending this country. Ed will never side with AOC or the radical-left against President Trump. He is exactly the kind of conservative warrior we need in Congress, and I’m proud to endorse him.”

Barr’s comment references Massie’s pattern of breaking with various elements of Trump’s agenda, which has included voting against support for Israel.

“I’ve said repeatedly President Trump won a historic mandate in Kentucky and he needs allies he can trust in the House and Senate to deliver his agenda,” Morris said in a subsequent statement. “I’m proud to support Ed Gallrein for Congress and look forward to working with him when he’s in the House and I’m in the Senate to deliver the MAGA agenda.”

Massie’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Daniel Cameron, the former Kentucky attorney general and the third major candidate in the Senate race also did not respond to an inquiry about whether he plans to endorse Gallrein as well.

“Those guys endorsing Woke Eddie isn’t about my race. It’s about their campaigns,” Massie said in a statement in response to the endorsements.

Barr hit out at Morris in response to Morris’ endorsement, saying he was “following my lead.”

“If only you would have done the same when I chaired President Trump’s primary campaign in Kentucky in 2024. But you were too busy donating to Nikki Haley. Better late than never!” Barr said on X.

An endorsement from Trump could easily swing the Senate race in the deep-red state.

In a statement accompanying Barr’s endorsement, Gallrein praised Barr as a “steadfast ally” of the president, “unlike Thomas Massie.”

“The Republican Party and the conservative movement are united to replace Massie so we can defend the MAGA agenda and send a clear message that Kentucky remains MAGA country and stands firmly behind our President,” Gallrein said.

Gallrein also thanked Morris for his endorsement.

“I thank Nate Morris for his support as Kentucky MAGA conservatives continue to unite against Thomas Massie,” Gallrein said. “Massie represents Trump County, yet partners with the Squad and attacks President Trump with his words and votes. MAGA Kentucky is standing up to defend our President and defeat Thomas Massie.”

The endorsements came amid an ongoing series of attacks by Trump on Massie, which included calling Massie a “moron” in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, as well as attacks on Truth Social this week targeting Massie’s wife.

Massie recently took to the airwaves in Kentucky with an ad painting Gallrein as “Woke Eddie” and attempting to tie him to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and support for transgender people.

Borrowing a slogan used in Trump campaign ads in 2024 against then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the ad ends with, “Woke Eddie Gallrein. He’ll fight for they/them, but never us.”

Gallrein’s campaign has denied that characterization, and his campaign is airing its own ad introducing voters to Gallrein’s background and highlighting his support from Trump.

Gallrein has raised $1.2 million since entering the race and closed out 2025 with $933,000 on hand — significantly outraising Massie, who brought in $622,000 in the fourth quarter, but trailing well behind Massie’s cash-on-hand total of $2.2 million.

Ed Gallrein, the Republican primary challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) backed by President Donald Trump, said Friday that he had raised $1.2 million in the final quarter of 2025, a sizable sum that puts him in strong financial shape in preparation for a grueling race against Massie.

Gallrein’s fundraising haul signals that he’s a more viable candidate than Massie’s previous challengers, and highlights the power of Trump’s endorsement.

Trump and his allies have also committed significant resources to the effort to defeat Massie, an isolationist Republican who has frequently opposed legislation to combat antisemitism and has broken with Trump on many key elements of his agenda, including on issues related to Israel and Iran.

Gallrein’s campaign has also attracted interest from pro-Israel Republicans. 

“This fundraising number reflects the overwhelming support Ed’s campaign has received right out of the gate,” Gallrein spokesperson Lance Trover said in a statement. “President Trump endorsed Ed because he knows Ed is fighting to put America First and will partner with him to unleash our economy, lower taxes, and stop the woke agenda.”

Massie, however, has also proven to be a strong fundraiser as he gears up for a reelection fight: he reported raising $1.8 million and having more than $2 million on hand as of the end of September.

Gallrein is a Kentucky native and former Navy SEAL.