State Rep. Noah Arbit said El-Sayed aligns with people who want to ‘purge the Democratic Party and American life of Zionists and, therefore, most Jews’
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Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit
Add JewishInsider on GoogleNoah Arbit, a rising Jewish Democrat in Michigan’s state Legislature, has been a vocal critic of Abdul El-Sayed, a fellow Democrat whose Senate campaign in the key battleground state has exposed deep divisions within the Jewish community.
But until now, Arbit had not yet publicly clarified if he is willing to set aside his differences and endorse El-Sayed, like some prominent Jewish Democrats in the state who have recently announced their support despite reservations with his hostile stances on Israel and approach to countering antisemitism.
In an interview with Jewish Insider on Monday, Arbit, 31, confirmed that he would not be endorsing El-Sayed, pointing to what he called the nominee’s promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and affiliations with extremist figures on the far left, among other issues he cast as deal-breakers in the closely contested race.
“At the very least,” El-Sayed “aligns himself with people who want to purge the Democratic Party and American life of Zionists and, therefore, most Jews,” Arbit said. “That is unacceptable.”
Asked if he believed El-Sayed himself is antisemitic, Arbit referenced a fiery speech he had delivered last week on the floor of the state House in which he had argued there was no longer a meaningful distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Jewish prejudice at a moment when “the logical leap to justifying violence against Israelis and all Jews becomes so tiny as to be invisible.”
“The definition of antisemitism as just a shorthand for hating Jews is useless because you don’t have to hate Jews to be a vector for conspiracy theories,” he told JI. “I think it’s very, very clear that the fulcrum of Abdul’s campaign was an antisemitic conspiracy about AIPAC being the No. 1 obstacle toward universal healthcare, better schools and better roads in Michigan and in America.”
“It’s just a dog whistle,” Arbit said of El-Sayed’s demonization of AIPAC, the pro-Israel group that spent more than $30 million opposing his primary campaign and is now backing his rival, former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers. “It is a neat, clever argument. You take an unpopular policy and you say this is the reason why you don’t have nice things. It is the demagogue’s oldest trick in the book.”
While Arbit declined to share how he will vote in the November election, which could help decide control of the Senate, he strongly suggested he would not be casting a ballot either for El-Sayed or Rogers, calling both candidates “unacceptable options for Michigan” who “threaten” his constituents. “That,” he said, “is a tragic place to be.”
“I feel that it is a moral question for each voter to answer as to who is frankly less threatening to them,” said Arbit, who on Monday joined the Nonnegotiable Michigan campaign laying out a series of demands to El-Sayed related to Jewish safety and Israel’s right to exist. “For me personally,” Arbit noted, “I don’t know how to choose between” El-Sayed and Rogers, whom he condemned as a “bootlicker” for President Donald Trump.
His struggle to reckon with a polarizing election reflects the difficult choices and sense of alienation now facing many Jewish Democrats in the state who have begun to question their place in a party to which they have long been loyal.
“We have a group text with a number of Jewish Democratic elected officials where it’s basically one long commiseration session about everything going on,” Arbit said. “How we feel under siege and under assault by people we consider friends and ideological allies and basically watching the radicalization of our party.”
“It’s a very difficult position to be in as a liberal Jewish Democrat,” he explained.
With just over a month until the general election, Arbit stands out as one of the most prominent Jewish Democrats withholding support for El-Sayed, even as the Democratic nominee has ramped up his efforts to mend fences with skeptical Jewish voters who remain uncomfortable with his views and feel he has not fully addressed their concerns.
Even though El-Sayed has condemned antisemitism while pledging his commitment to Jewish safety, his uncompromising stances on Israel have continued to raise questions among critics. He has also faced some scrutiny from Jewish Democrats who have cast doubt on the sincerity of his recent apology for equivocating over the attack in March against a synagogue in West Bloomfield, a heavily Jewish Detroit suburb in Arbit’s legislative district.
Despite his criticism of El-Sayed, Arbit, who is running for reelection this cycle, said he believed the Democratic nominee will claim victory in the Senate contest. But while Arbit predicted he himself would “probably win West Bloomfield by double digits,” he envisioned El-Sayed prevailing in the community by just a couple of points, “if he wins” the area at all.
“I think that there is going to be a massive underperformance by him in communities he hasn’t entirely successfully worked to feel comfortable with his candidacy,” Arbit elaborated, pointing to what he characterized as “an unwillingness to be accountable for your statements and actions.”
“Abdul consistently judges pro-Israel Jews in Michigan, and the entire Zionist movement, by Israel’s most extremist elements, such as [Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich,” Arbit said, referring to far-right ministers in Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition, “yet gets very indignant when people judge him by the most extreme statements of Hasan Piker,” a Twitch streamer who has espoused antisemitic rhetoric and with whom El-Sayed campaigned during the primary.
“I have a huge problem with that hypocrisy,” Arbit added. “Should you judge a movement by its fringes or shouldn’t you? Which is it?”
Arbit, who has long warned of antisemitism in his party, said he did not judge Jewish Democrats who have recently backed El-Sayed — such as Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, who had voiced strong reservations with his candidacy before endorsing him last week.
“I empathize tremendously with people in the Jewish community,” he said, while acknowledging that there are many voters in the state who “simply do not want to risk a Republican Senate” and have been weighing the contest accordingly. “Every vote is like comparing apples and oranges,” he noted. “Everyone is weighing different factors.”
Arbit said he sat down with El-Sayed after he had won the Aug. 4 primary and “explained to him very earnestly” about his upbringing and “understanding of Zionism.”
He said it had been “framed by the understanding that minority groups are only safe under conditions of democracy, freedom and the rule of law, and also how that understanding really led to my empathy for Palestinians and their dispossession in 1948,” which had led him to believe that “the best way to right that is a two-state solution.”
It was challenging to find common ground, he said. “I think it’s very difficult because he won’t even commit to a two-state solution, where one of those two states is Jewish,” Arbit explained. “We have fundamentally different positions on that.”
Still, he credited El-Sayed for speaking with him in spite of their profound disagreements. “I’ve obviously criticized him publicly,” he told JI. “I think that it is a sign of a mature leader for someone who is willing to have a conversation with people who don’t agree with them.”
“If Abdul wins,” he told JI, “my constituents will be his constituents, and it’ll be up to him to demonstrate he is also representing all people in West Bloomfield — including the Jewish community — with faith and fidelity. That is a challenge that I would put to him.”
For his part, Arbit said his own mission is “to put sand in the gears of both the far right and the far left.” His floor speech last week was born out of rising frustration with what he characterized as a growing radicalization on the far left after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. “This conflict has colored my entire tenure,” he told JI, “because I took office in January 2023.”
“I think that most criticism of Israel these days is not just about Israel’s policies, but is calling into question the very foundation of the state,” he said. The far left, he argued, has “no agenda to improve the rights and lives of Palestinians. It is all about hating Israel, and that is what makes this movement so vacuous and so dangerous.”
With regard to El-Sayed’s potential elevation to the Senate, Arbit clarified that he was “not really worried about” Israel’s future. “I’m worried about the climate for Jews in in Michigan and in the Democratic Party.”
“This is an incredibly obviously uncomfortable time to be a liberal Zionist Democrat,” Arbit told JI. “We are about to find out whether there is enough space in the party for those of us who are good Democrats but also are unwilling to relinquish our connections and commitments to our homeland — to Israel.”
Noah Arbit, one of the most vocal and visible Jewish elected officials in Michigan, joined the campaign laying out a series of demands for the state’s Democratic Senate nominee related to Jewish safety and Israel’s right to exist
Katie McTiernan/Anadolu via Getty Images
Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, speaks at the Michgan Democratic Nominating Convention in Lansing, Mich. on Aug. 29, 2026.
Democratic Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit and 15 other Democratic leaders on Tuesday joined the Nonnegotiable Michigan campaign that is laying out a series of demands for the state’s Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, related to Jewish safety and Israel’s right to exist.
Arbit, one of the most vocal and visible Jewish elected officials in the state, has been outspoken in his concerns about El-Sayed, condemning as “tokenism” the Senate candidate’s Rosh Hashanah video with two Jewish women affiliated with the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace, and condemning El-Sayed ally Hasan Piker as a “fascist” and “dumb and brain-rotted.”
The campaign has called on El-Sayed and other Democratic leaders to affirm commitments to Jewish safety, including that of Zionist Jews; to the right of Jews to define their own identities; to the Jewish right to sovereignty in Israel; to the right of all Jews, including Zionists, to full participation in the American political process; and to “an affirmative vision for a better future for the Middle East.”
In addition to Arbit, who also founded the Michigan Democratic Jewish caucus, several current former public officials joined the effort, including former state Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton; University of Michigan Regent Mark Bernstein, who also previously chaired the state civil rights commission and led Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s transition office; West Bloomfield Township Clerk Debbie Binder, township Supervisor Jonathan Warshay and township Treasurer Teri Weingarden; Clawson City Council Member Adam Duberstein; Madison Heights Council Member Sean Fleming; and former Keego Harbor Mayor Rob Kalman.
Several other Jewish and Democratic leaders also joined the effort including Joan Lowenstein, a member of the Michigan Democratic Party Central Committee and president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor; Ron Lippitt, an officer-at-large for the Oakland County Democrats; and David Lauer, Cindy Bank, Michelle Serlin, Michelle Miletic and Yehudis Brea, all board members of the Michigan Jewish Democratic Caucus.
David Kramer, the vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus and prominent Democratic fundraiser in the state, announced that he was joining the Nonnegotiable campaign last week and that he is not, at this point, prepared to support El-Sayed without his commitment to the demands laid out by the Nonnegotiable campaign.
Vance is facing what’s likely to be, at minimum, some skeptics in the crowd, given his relationship with antisemitic commentator Tucker Carlson, his involvement in peace talks with Iran and his public criticisms of Israel
Ken Cedeno / AFP via Getty Images
US Vice President JD Vance speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2026.
LAS VEGAS — The Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit kicked off in the blazing heat of Las Vegas on Sunday, with a series of speeches by pro-Israel House members and Senate candidates, including Georgia GOP Senate nominee Mike Collins, North Carolina GOP Senate nominee Michael Whatley and senior GOP lawmakers including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Lisa McClain (R-MI).
The program is set to continue on Monday with video remarks by President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and in-person speeches by other major Republicans in pro-Israel politics.
But the most anticipated remarks of the day will be one the public won’t be able to see, a closed-door appearance by Vice President JD Vance at a Monday night VIP gala. It will be Vance’s first address to the group as vice president.
Vance is facing what’s likely to be, at minimum, some skeptics in the crowd, given his relationship with antisemitic commentator Tucker Carlson — attendees at last year’s RJC conference brandished “TUCKER IS NOT MAGA” placards — his involvement in peace talks with Iran and his public criticisms of Israel.
The session will be a major test for the vice president in front of large GOP donors and national party activists ahead of his anticipated 2028 presidential run. Vance’s remarks could help soothe fears among pro-Israel Republicans, or they could further fuel their anxieties and prompt them to consider efforts to oppose his candidacy.
Three Jewish Republican House members who spoke to Jewish Insider on Sunday agreed that it’s a positive sign for both Vance and the RJC that he’s traveling to Las Vegas to make the address.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), who acknowledged that he’s been critical of the vice president at times, told JI he’s “glad that he’s coming” and “interested to hear what he has to say,” adding that the vice president “has a big hill to climb coming into this room” but he hopes for the sake of the Republican Party that Vance is successful.
“He could make his problem better, he could make his problem worse. I have no idea what he’s going to say, but I do think it’s a good thing that he’s coming,” Fine continued. He said that Vance should address “his relationships with evil people, starting with Tucker Carlson … who’s clearly an insane Jew hater.”
Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN) also said he’s “glad that the vice president is here, and I think that that speaks volumes.” He said he expects Vance will address the “strong relationship that the United States has enjoyed with Israel, and that it should continue, and that we need to do what we need to do to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.”
Rep. Craig Goldman (R-TX) agreed it’s a good sign that the RJC is welcoming Vance, and predicted that many in the crowd will be surprised by the vice president. “He’s nothing but impressive, he’s smart as a whip and he knows the issues. And so I hope he’s very upfront. … I know he’s going to do a tremendous job, and he’s very direct and very honest. And I know he will be with the RJC as well.”
Graham’s victory means that Trump holds a near-perfect record with his Senate primary endorsements during his political career, even as some of his gubernatorial and House picks have fallen short this year
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Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) speaks during a campaign event following her win, at the Willoughby, Humphrey & D'Antonio Law Firm on August 25, 2026 in Columbia, South Carolina.
Boosted by an endorsement from President Donald Trump and a preelection rally from the state’s leading Republican figures, Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) survived a challenge from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) to win the GOP nomination for her late brother’s Senate seat.
“I continue to miss Lindsey every day, and there is still a big hole in my heart, but I know he’s looking down, very proud,” Graham said in her victory speech Tuesday night.
Graham prevailed narrowly (52%-48%) despite facing serious questions about her experience and readiness for a full term in the Senate during the compressed campaign. She expressed ignorance about foreign policy in the race’s lone debate when asked about her thoughts about Taiwan’s security. She had also said she wouldn’t be as focused on foreign policy as her brother, whose hawkish national security record defined his political legacy.
Norman, a hard-line fiscal conservative, proved to be a lackluster opponent, winning in his home base in northwestern South Carolina but losing across the rest of the state. He alienated Republican leaders by initially opposing Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024 (he was one of Nikki Haley’s leading endorsees) and holding out support of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) during the 2023 House GOP leadership fight.
Norman wasn’t able to offer a generational contrast, either — at 73, he would have been one of the oldest freshman senators in recent memory. He was badly outspent in the race by Graham and allied groups, including Trump’s well-financed super PAC, which hasn’t gotten involved in many races this cycle.
“His policies are good, I never understood why he got in this race … it is what it is. I’ll accept it,” Norman said in his concession speech of the president’s involvement.
Graham’s victory means that Trump holds a near-perfect record with his Senate primary endorsements during his political career, even as some of his gubernatorial and House picks have fallen short this year. Trump’s decision to spend valuable political capital — both in time and money — clearly played a pivotal role in the competitive runoff.
Graham herself offered a nod to Trump’s influence, saying in her election night speech, “South Carolina is truly Trump country.”
In November, Graham will face pediatrician Annie Andrews, a Democrat who has been a strong fundraiser, especially given the challenges the party faces in winning South Carolina, a solidly conservative state that backed Trump by 18 points in the 2024 presidential election.
Plus, Moskowitz named to powerful Mideast post
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks before Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 6, 2024.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social today that the Navy informed him that “all mines have been removed and/or detonated” in the Strait of Hormuz, and that the U.S. has notified Iran “that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed.” The U.S. Space Force is monitoring the strait as well as Iran’s nuclear sites, including Pickaxe Mountain, for any suspicious activity, he added…
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said following a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran today that he is hopeful the two countries “will soon announce a temporary corridor for the Strait of Hormuz and practical arrangements to restore safe navigation,” while continuing to work towards a permanent agreement on administering the waterway. The Omani Foreign Ministry further specified that the parties aim to establish a joint effort to clear the strait of mines — despite Trump’s announcement that all have been cleared…
The State Department is preparing to send some foreign service officers and other diplomats back to work at embassies in Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Iraq and Kuwait that were evacuated or had staffing reductions during the Iran war, according to a State Department document obtained by The New York Times, potentially indicating the Trump administration does not expect hostilities to resume…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that Israel has expelled officials from the Netherlands from the military and humanitarian coordination hub for Gaza located in Kiryat Gat due to “a series of anti-Israel moves by the Dutch government,” including a new law prohibiting trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank…
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed doubled down on his anti-Israel rhetoric during an event at a Dearborn church today, Jewish Insider‘s Matthew Kassel reports, a day after the nominee drew renewed scrutiny over his ongoing association with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
El-Sayed declined to confirm if he hopes to win an endorsement from state Sen. Jeremy Moss — a Jewish Democratic nominee for a congressional seat in the Detroit area who is a key holdout in offering his backing — and said that his support for ending aid to Israel is “about making sure that in our foreign policy, we substantiate equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination for Palestinian folk”…
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) was named ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, where he said he will “work to strengthen America’s relationships with Israel and our Gulf allies.”
A source familiar with the situation told JI’s Marc Rod that, since outgoing ranking member Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) would have been unable to remain in the post next year, he decided to give up the position early to help support Moskowitz in his reelection race — in a South Florida district with a substantial pro-Israel constituency where the leadership position will further bolster Moskowitz’s profile — and to pass off committee leadership to a preferred successor….
A new New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena University poll released today found that nearly half of voters in Pennsylvania view Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat mulling a presidential bid in 2028, as “about right on support of Israel,” even as he has faced skepticism from the far left over his pro-Israel views, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports. Sixty percent of Democrats said they were satisfied with his support for the Jewish state; 39% of Republicans said the same, while another 40% said he is not supportive enough…
The Department of Justice announced today that a 26-year-old Ohio man had been arrested and charged for sending an email threatening to kill Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) and his family, saying he would behead the Jewish congressman and calling him a Nazi, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
The IDF said it views with “utmost severity” an incident involving far-right MK Zvi Sukkot and his aides who, during a requested tour of the Palestinian town of Madama, attacked a memorial — dubbed the “Martyrs’ Monument” — with a sledgehammer, an incident which was captured on video. The IDF said the tour participants “acted deceptively and manipulatively” while accompanied by IDF soldiers “who had been diverted from their operational activities for this purpose … while the IDF is operating under significant operational strain”…
The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish group that was backed by the U.S. in the fight against ISIS, has officially dissolved, SDF head Mazloum Abdi announced at the presidential palace in Damascus today. The group has completed its merger into the Syrian army under President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Abdi said — the culmination of a fraught integration process that followed months of deadly clashes between government and Kurdish forces…
Assouline, the luxury publisher known for turning global cities into vibrant $100 coffee-table books, has focused its lens on several Middle Eastern capitals over the years — most recently Beirut. But out of hundreds of titles spanning the globe, not a single Israeli city has made the cut, despite co-founder Prosper Assouline‘s Moroccan Jewish roots, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at how Jewish leaders are viewing Rep. Jamie Raskin‘s (D-MD) investigation into the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on campus antisemitism.
Israeli singer Omer Adam will marry his partner Sacha Israelovich at a converted 14th-century Christian monastery in the Italian seaside village of Portofino tomorrow, after having held a civil ceremony today. Hassidic singer Motty Steinmetz is expected to perform at the celebration, reportedly prompting gender-segregated seating for the guests.
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If Darline Graham falls short on Tuesday, it could be an indication that a Trump endorsement is no longer the automatic ticket to victory
SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump congratulates Sen. Darline Graham after she spoke during a campaign rally at Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on August 21, 2026.
Today’s special election GOP runoff for Senate in South Carolina between appointed Sen. Darline Graham and five-term Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) will be a clear test over just how much juice President Donald Trump’s endorsement carries within the Republican Party, at a time when his overall political standing has been on the decline.
Graham has struggled through the shortened campaign to fill the seat of her late brother, dodging the media spotlight (unlike her brother) and sticking to generic talking points in talking about the issues. She faced blowback after admitting she didn’t know enough about foreign policy to answer a debate question about Taiwan — underscoring how much of a novice she is on an issue that defined Lindsey Graham’s legacy.
But Trump has been a loyal backer, holding a rally last Friday for her campaign, which featured appearances from the state’s Republican leadership, including Gov. Henry McMaster and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is also the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Norman also hardly fits the profile of the up-and-coming challenger. He’s 73 and would be one of the oldest freshman senators in recent memory. And for more-moderate Republicans, his record of antagonism towards House Republican leadership and support for declaring martial law in the days leading up to President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration make him a deeply flawed choice.
For national security hawks, Norman’s votes against several Israel aid packages and opposition to Ukraine assistance are also some notable red flags that make Darline Graham the candidate more aligned with her brother’s worldview.
Trump’s endorsement record has been mixed this year, initially backing the losing gubernatorial candidate (Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette) in South Carolina — while endorsing unsuccessful candidates for governor in Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota and Wyoming. All told, he’s backed 10 unsuccessful candidates in primaries this cycle. But the president’s record in Senate races this year is still perfect, having successfully backed insurgent challengers to Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Cornyn (R-TX).
In fact, only three of Trump’s Senate endorsees throughout his political career have lost in primaries (Alabama GOP Sen. Luther Strange in 2017; West Virginia Senate candidate Evan Jenkins in 2018; Utah Senate candidate Trent Staggs in 2024).
Graham is hoping to avoid joining that club, and despite her flubs, she’s still got a strong chance of prevailing. She won the first round of balloting with 33% of the vote — eight points ahead of Norman — and finished a respectable second place in the northeastern corner of the state that makes up Rep. Russell Fry’s (R-SC) home base. (Fry endorsed Graham’s candidacy after finishing in third place in the primary.)
But if Graham falls short, it would not just be a sign that South Carolina voters were wary of her policy inexperience. It would be an indication that the Trump endorsement, while still valuable in Republican primaries, isn’t the automatic ticket to victory that it was for so long.
Plus, Bessent's plan to make Iran an 'economic outcast'
Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks during his weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on March 19, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced this afternoon that the Trump administration is launching “Operation Economic Outcast” against Iran, an effort aimed at severing Tehran’s global economic ties in order to “collapse every last option” for the regime, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
The Treasury Department designated over 60 entities, individuals and vessels “that enable the Iranian regime to procure illicit nuclear and missile technology, conduct cyber operations and generate oil revenue,” Bessent said, while President Donald Trump “is making phone calls to world leaders with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime”…
The Treasury Department also redesignated Hezbollah, already a Foreign Terrorist Organization, for acting as a proxy of the Iranian regime under the direction of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and sanctioned 10 individuals who were part of a network transferring funds to Hezbollah through couriers on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE and Iran…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed today that Iran tried to assassinate one of his sons: “Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons,” he said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14, without specifying which of his two sons was the target…
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) today denounced comments by antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker claiming that Jews are inviting antisemitic attacks against themselves by supporting Israel, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
Jeffries wrote on X that the “malicious claim that American Jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and antisemitic,” without naming Piker directly. “We will fight the cancer of antisemitism with the fierce urgency of now,” he said…
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, meanwhile, distanced himself from Piker but did not name him nor address the substance of his comments.
El-Sayed insisted that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople,” despite having campaigned prominently with Piker, and went on to downplay Piker as “a Twitch streamer” who will not define the race or his campaign. He did not say whether his or his campaign’s relationship with Piker will change going forward…
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) condemned Piker outright, calling him “a hack who thrives on hate, shock and awe because he lacks substance.” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has previously appeared on Piker’s show, also rejected the streamer’s comments, telling JI’s Marc Rod that “Jews are not the cause of [antisemitism]. Neither are people who support Israel. Antisemites are to blame. That’s it”…
Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) attended three AIPAC-hosted fundraisers in Los Angeles yesterday with another planned for today, according to The New York Times, as reporting emerges about a growing rift between Rogers and the pro-Israel group as he runs for U.S. Senate.
Rogers reportedly told Michael Tuchin, AIPAC’s board chair, that the group should consider whether it is the best messenger against El-Sayed, though he did not explicitly say he did not want its support and its United Democracy Project super PAC is still considering running ads backing Rogers…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned comments by Brooklyn Democratic leader Carmella Charrington attacking Jewish investors with whom she is engaged in a property dispute as “Zionists” and suggesting some link between her situation and Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.
“Suggesting that an alleged deed theft in Brooklyn is part of a global conspiracy involving Jewish people is blatant, reprehensible antisemitism. Trafficking in these dangerous antisemitic tropes is vile and inexcusable,” the mayor’s office told JI’s Will Bredderman, after initially avoiding his questions on the issue at a press conference earlier today. However, the administration did not answer a follow-up question about whether the mayor believes Charrington should step aside from her district leader role…
Several leading Jewish and pro-Israel organizations condemned actor Mark Ruffalo for using what they deemed antisemitic rhetoric in his recent social media commentary targeting the Ellison family amid the pending merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, said Ruffalo’s “unhinged rant, which combined Jewish wealth, media control, secret technology and sinister global power, is not legitimate criticism. It draws on recognizable antisemitic tropes with a long and dangerous history”…
As New York magazine continues to come under fire for a recent cover issue depicting the rise of Southwest Asian and North African culture in New York City while taking a hostile view of Israel, the magazine said its editors decided “genocide” is an “accurate description” of Israel’s actions in Gaza and therefore “its use would be allowed in our pages,” claiming that “accusations of antisemitic intent” in usage of the word “were in fact obfuscating an overwhelming scholarly consensus”…
The Trump administration formally revoked Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism today at the end of the 45-day congressional notification period, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced, in order to “eliminate the final major barriers for private sector investment in Syria and promote Syria’s economic recovery and reintegration into the global economy.”
Rubio also revoked the designation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — a group that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa led until he assumed the presidency in January 2025 — as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, after having removed HTS from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list last year…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a preview of tomorrow’s Senate special election runoff in South Carolina, where Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) still has the backing of much of the GOP establishment, including President Donald Trump, in her race against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).
Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi is expected to visit Iran tomorrow, as the two countries continue negotiations over administering the Strait of Hormuz amid the announcement of the new U.S. economic campaign against Tehran.
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Paul Sancya/AP
Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers speaks before President Donald Trump at an event at the General Motors Proving Ground Monday, July 27, 2026, in Milford, Mich.
The debate over AIPAC’s involvement in the high-stakes Michigan Senate race is drawing renewed attention after an Axios report outlined a request from allies of former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) for the pro-Israel group’s super PAC to lay low for the general election. The Rogers campaign advisors suggested instead that the group transfer money for the race to a separate pro-Rogers entity so as not to make its outside spending a major issue in the contest.
The episode has touched a lot of raw nerves in both the pro-Israel world and the Republican political landscape. Rogers, a longtime supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship, is highlighting his relationships with Michigan’s Jewish community, and has made attacking Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s anti-Israel virulence and his relationship with antisemitic figures like Hasan Piker a central element of his campaign message.
AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, spent about $32 million in the Democratic primary to try to defeat El-Sayed, and there’s little doubt its money — in the absence of any moderate group willing to spend similar resources to stop a far-left candidate like El-Sayed from winning — made the race more competitive than it otherwise would have been. But it also gave El-Sayed a talking point in attacking outside money in the race that diluted the impact of the aggressive advertising campaign, especially at a time when support for Israel itself is diminishing within the Democratic Party.
Both the Rogers campaign and AIPAC see El-Sayed as uniquely vulnerable, with polls showing the race statistically tied despite the overall favorable environment for Democrats in the swing state. But beyond focusing on winning the race, both sides have slightly different tactical imperatives: AIPAC, after coming close to defeating El-Sayed in the primary, wants credit for helping finish the job in the general election. Rogers, meanwhile, is trying to turn the tables on El-Sayed, using his endless primary campaign attacks on Israel as a way to underscore he’s more obsessed about the Middle East than the issues critical to Michigan voters.
On one hand, support for Israel is decidedly higher among the general electorate than it was among primary voters — and likely is a winning issue for Rogers, especially given El-Sayed’s radicalism on the subject. But populist concerns about foreign aid and engagement abroad still resonate across party lines, with 44% of Michigan voters in a recent Fox News survey saying they favor continued military aid to Israel, while 55% oppose such aid.
The Rogers campaign believes that making the race about Middle East policy would be shortsighted, especially given that El-Sayed’s record and background makes him vulnerable to the charge that he’s the candidate more consumed with international affairs than improving the lives of Michiganders.
Furthermore, unlike in the Democratic primary, there will be no shortage of money available for the Rogers campaign and its allies in the general election. Rogers has been a solid fundraiser, and the deep pockets of both the Senate Leadership Fund GOP super PAC and a separate pro-Rogers super PAC should offer more than enough resources to run a full-fledged campaign. Rogers’ campaign would prefer donations get directed — and spent — under the Republican Party umbrella.
There’s a reason AIPAC’s super PAC hardly ever spends in general elections — most competitive races are already saturated with cash, so its involvement (or that of any outside nonpartisan super PAC) wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway.
AIPAC’s concerns are understandable as well, and I have heard them echoed by several senior GOP strategists involved with the race. El-Sayed’s ties to extremists and inability to forthrightly condemn antisemitism in his home state is a major reason why he’s vulnerable in the first place. Diluting or downplaying that argument takes one of the campaign’s strongest angles off the table.
It’s one thing to debate about whether advertisements would be best aired under the GOP banner or the UDP banner. It’s another issue to be concerned that the Rogers’ campaign, in its desire to universalize the race, isn’t taking full advantage of winning over the many Democratic-friendly Jewish voters who view El-Sayed’s record as intolerable. Asking AIPAC’s chair to stand down its ad campaign, as reported in the Axios story, might have been a tactical dispute, but it risks coming across as downplaying the importance of the pro-Israel and Jewish communities in the state.
Ultimately, the goals of the two sides are the same: winning the race. If the differences between the Rogers’ campaign and AIPAC are tactical, that’s understandable in a lengthy campaign. But if it’s a dispute about who gets credit for taking down El-Sayed, the argument seems a bit frivolous when the stakes in the race are so high.
Moulton, who did not directly address Israel policy during the debate, named ending the Iran war as the most important thing that Congress can do in the current moment
Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton stand at lecterns ahead of their debate at WWLP-22News on July 8, 2026.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) touted his early support for efforts to block certain U.S. arms sales to Israel during a Senate debate on Thursday with Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who is challenging the Massachusetts senator for his seat.
“Trump had Netanyahu’s back in his unbelievably unconscionable war against Gaza. And that’s why Bernie Sanders and I and Elizabeth Warren, we were [some] of the first 11 who voted against these 1,000-pound bombs going in against Gaza,” Markey said. “The man has no conscience. He has no wisdom whatsoever. He is endangering the United States, our national security, our standing in the world every single day that he’s allowed to sit in that Oval Office.”
Moulton did not directly address Israel policy during the debate.
Both candidates also focused significant time on condemning the war in Iran and expressing their opposition to it, while jabbing at each other over who has been the more effective opponent of the war.
Moulton named ending the Iran war as the most important thing that Congress can do in the current moment, taking credit for bringing a war powers resolution to the House floor.
Throughout the debate, Markey repeatedly attacked Moulton for voting, months before the start of the war, for a 2026 appropriations bill that included funding for the Defense Department. Moulton responded by repeatedly highlighting Markey’s past support for other defense appropriations bills, including during the Iraq war.
Moulton also criticized Markey for voting to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio, accusing him of doing so at the behest of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and highlighted his own national security experience and background.
Both candidates offered defenses of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs that have come under attack by the Trump administration, in part through the administration’s investigations into campus antisemitism.
“We absolutely should defend DEI. That’s part of our DNA. And what the Trump administration is doing is not conducting an honest campaign. They are demonizing universities. They are attacking blue states. They are attacking fundamental American values,” Moulton said. “Any decisions about DEI programs should be left to the institutions themselves,” he continued, praising the “amazing institutions,” including institutions of higher education, in the state.
“We’re only going to be a great nation if we tap the talents of every person in our country. That’s what DEI is all about: diversity and equity and inclusion for everyone, and that is what has made our country great,” Markey said.
The Alaska Senate race is pitting a moderate Democrat against a Republican with a record as a national security hawk
Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) speaks during a ceremony for the lighting of the Capitol Christmas tree in Washington, DC on December 3, 2024.
Alaska’s closely watched Senate race, which will help determine the balance of power in the Senate, is set to pit a consistent — if rarely prominent — Democratic supporter of Israel against a prominent Republican national security hawk. Unlike in some other battleground races, the issue of Israel has rarely come up in the campaign.
Peltola was not a leader on Middle East policy issues during her time in the House and did not highlight it as a priority, but was generally a reliable vote in support of Israel, breaking on numerous occasions with the majority of her party on the issue.
Peltola’s campaign did not provide comment in response to repeated inquiries from Jewish Insider about whether her stance has changed since leaving the House. But she has said she opposes the Iran war, and would have voted with nearly all other Democrats for war powers measures that sought to force a halt to the war.
“Dan Sullivan voted for the Iran war 12 times,” Peltola said on X on Thursday, highlighting the impact the war has had on rural Alaska communities. “Alaskans are suffering because Dan Sullivan continues to rubber stamp an unpopular foreign war that’s causing energy prices to skyrocket. We need change.”
Peltola was one of just 46 House Democrats who voted in February 2024 in favor of a stand-alone Israel aid package — separate from the bipartisan package that also provided aid for Ukraine and Taiwan — and one of just 16 who voted for a measure that would have forced the Biden administration to proceed with arms sales to Israel that had been withheld.
Peltola also voted for various measures imposing strengthened sanctions on Iran and severely limiting the Biden administration’s ability to lift such sanctions, some of which were opposed by a majority of Democrats. She also was in favor of imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court.
She voted for a resolution describing anti-Zionism as antisemitic, for a measure calling for the firing of university presidents for their testimony on campus antisemitism, for the Antisemitism Awareness Act and for a resolution describing the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic — though she voted against censuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for using the phrase.
Peltola also voted against a measure — that became increasingly unpopular among Democrats — which would have allowed the Treasury Department to unilaterally revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits it deemed to be supporting terrorism.
Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been more deeply involved in national security issues, and has been a prominent supporter of Israel and a hawk on Iran.
Sullivan has been a frequent leader on legislation and other efforts to support Israel, including serving as a lead co-sponsor in 2025 of the U.S.-Israel Defense Partnership Act, to expand and increase funding for cooperative defense programs and the Enhanced Iran Sanctions Act of 2025, targeting parties involved in the Iranian oil trade.
Among other policies, Sullivan has distinguished himself with yearslong calls, in both interviews and hearings with senior military officials, for the U.S. to retaliate against the Iranian military directly for Houthi attacks on American and commercial shipping, dating back at least to mid-2024.
“My view is, at this juncture, the only way to deter the Houthis is to make Iran pay the price. We should sink all their spy ships who probably helped with this attack,” Sullivan told JI at the time. “We should tell them we’ll sink your whole Navy if you continue this. We have the capacity to sink the Iranian Navy [within] two hours, and we just let the Houthis attack us, attack Israel.”
He has traveled to Israel and the Middle East repeatedly, including at least three times since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. He joined a bipartisan delegation to Saudi Arabia and Israel weeks after the attacks, which aimed to salvage progress toward the Abraham Accords.
Sullivan has proven willing to press Trump administration officials at times, having delivered a particularly tough grilling of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby during his 2025 confirmation hearing over Colby’s past accommodationist rhetoric on Iran.
Though he ultimately supported Colby’s confirmation, Sullivan, joining other Senate Republicans, later accused Colby of avoiding the congressional communication and collaboration he had promised during his confirmation proceedings. But he and other senators have said the situation has improved since they aired their concerns publicly.
Sullivan supported the 2024 supplemental aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other U.S. allies.
Plus, Baltimore's Orthodox Jews get a day at the races
Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, left, and Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, during a news conference on 2026 FIFA World Cup transportation at the MTA Rail Control Center in New York, US, on Thursday, June 4, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and a candidate for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, launched a TV ad this week hitting her primary opponent, military veteran Maura Sullivan, for receiving $300,000 in donations “bundled from AIPAC donors,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The donations referenced in the ad appear to be from individual donors who have previously contributed to AIPAC, but the pro-Israel group itself has made no endorsement and has not been directly involved in the race…
Michigan Democratic congressional nominee Jeremy Moss declined to endorse his party’s Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, in an interview with Slate: “Abdul’s going to have to demonstrate some serious outreach to Oakland County’s Jewish community,” Moss said. The two candidates have “had an ongoing dialogue,” Moss added, as he said Democrats must ensure that “the liberal Jewish community is not politically homeless”…
Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations at the Ann Arbor Jewish federation who has been outspoken about the threat he believes El-Sayed poses to the Jewish community, appeared at a “Democrats for Rogers” press conference in Detroit today where he said, “I usually vote Democrat, but I’m gonna be voting for Mike Rogers … I’m sad to say this, that Abdul El-Sayed has made one thing very clear: We cannot let him anywhere near the U.S. Senate”…
A new poll commissioned by AARP found El-Sayed leading Rogers by one percentage point, 48-47%, but voters ages 50 and up were 16 points more likely than younger voters to say they were motivated to participate in the general election — a population that swings heavily towards Rogers. Voters ages 50-64 favored Rogers over El-Sayed 51-46%, and voters above 65 favored the Republican by 13 points (54-41%)…
Asked in a New York Times interview about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call for the federal government to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he arrives in the city for the U.N. General Assembly next month, Gov. Kathy Hochul advised the mayor, “Let’s focus on the blocking and tackling of city government. That is where I believe the main focus should be”…
The Trump administration, meanwhile, is weighing in on another official’s appearance at the UNGA: The White House intends to prevent Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from attending for the second year in a row, a U.S. official told The Times of Israel…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained on CNBC today that in order to implement the new U.S. economic campaign against Iran, the Trump administration will approach “all of our allies” and tell them, “You are either with us or against us.”
“If you insist on doing business with [Iran] — either transferring money, buying their oil, doing seaborne ship transfers — then the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. government will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you,” he added…
The NYT looks at which countries do the most business with Iran and could therefore be hardest hit by the new measures, including China, India and several Middle East nations…
Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the state’s Legislature, denounced the Georgia branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for featuring extremist anti-Israel voices including Zahra Billoo, Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur as keynote speakers at its gala next month.
CAIR-GA has “dropped the mask at this point,” Panitch told the Jerusalem News Syndicate. “This is actual straight-out, Nazi-level Protocols of the Elders of Zion kind of antisemitism. They’re doing it, and they can’t say they didn’t know”…
For more than 150 years, Baltimore’s Orthodox Jews have walked to synagogue on Preakness Saturday and listened to the roar of the crowd from Pimlico Race Course less than a mile away, never able to join it. That changes in 2027, when the second jewel in horse racing’s Triple Crown — following the Kentucky Derby and preceding the Belmont Stakes — moves from Saturday to Sunday, finally opening the gates at Pimlico to the local Shabbat-observant community for the first time since the race started in 1873, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at the growing divide between the United States and Israel over how to approach post-Assad Syria.
Despite her recent debate stage snafu, which has led GOP operatives to question her chances in next week’s special runoff election, Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) is still enjoying the support of the party: Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the Senate majority whip, is in South Carolina today to support her race, and President Donald Trump will join her in Myrtle Beach for a rally tomorrow.
We’ll be back with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
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GOP campaign veteran Colin Reed called Graham’s debate performance a ‘seismic moment in an otherwise sleepy race’
Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images
Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) participate in a televised debate ahead of the Republican primary runoff in Newberry S.C., on August 18, 2026.
Sen. Darline Graham’s (R-SC) stumbling performance at the final GOP primary debate on Tuesday has prompted questions among Republicans in Washington about her prospects in next week’s runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).
Graham’s debate performance has been widely panned for her response to a question about Taiwan and the South China Sea, during which she admitted that she is “not that informed on national security.” The moment prompted national Republican operatives to question her qualifications to replace her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and led to an avalanche of attacks from critics about her lack of policy experience.
Senior Republicans who have been involved in the race privately described Graham’s foreign policy flub as a pivotal moment that could cost her the nomination.
“It was always going to be a lot harder than she was told when she got into this, but I thought she could win before the debate. Now, I think she’s done for,” a senior GOP campaign official involved with the race told JI. “This loss is going to be an unfortunate embarrassment, and the way this played out could be somewhat of a stain on Lindsey’s legacy even though he had nothing to do with it.”
A spokesperson for Graham’s campaign declined to comment about her debate performance. Graham defended her answer while speaking to reporters in the spin room following the debate, arguing that, “The people of South Carolina, they’re worried about their pocketbooks more than they’re worried about the South China Sea, quite honestly.”
Veteran Republican strategists who have been involved in high-profile Senate races called Graham’s performance one of those rare moments that could change the trajectory of the race.
“The debate seems fairly consequential for a number of reasons,” Colin Reed, a founding partner of South & Hill Strategies and a GOP campaign veteran, told Jewish Insider. “To me, it seems like a fairly seismic moment in an otherwise sleepy race.”
Reed predicted that Graham’s inability to sound articulate on foreign policy — all but taking a pass on a consequential national security question — was likely to have an impact on the outcome of the race because of the importance of national security issues to South Carolina’s “heavy military presence and large veteran community.”
He added that her comments are already drawing comparisons to “the towering figure her brother was on the matter of foreign affairs” and the fact that the U.S. “happens to be engaged in multiple conflicts, or at least one conflict overseas with Iran, right now.”
“This is a late-summer primary and runoff, and only the most engaged audiences turn out,” Reed said. “Those types of audiences are the ones who were likely paying attention or discussing the debate.”
He argued that Graham’s lack of political experience makes her a “blank canvas” to voters and that, combined with the special election to replace her late brother on the ballot as the GOP nominee being truncated despite Republican primary voters being “wary of coronations,” the South Carolina senator had already been in a vulnerable political position prior to the debate.
Should Graham lose to Norman, it would mark the first time this cycle that a GOP candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump in a Senate race has lost their primary contest.
The president will hold a campaign rally for Graham in Myrtle Beach on Friday, even as he has scaled back his campaign appearances in recent months. Republicans in Washington expressed skepticism that the rally would significantly alter the outcome of this race, with two sources predicting that most of the attendees were only going to see the president speak. (For his part, Lindsey Graham was frequently booed and heckled when appearing at Trump rallies through the years.)
Norman said in a statement following the debate that South Carolina deserves to have a senator with “know-how” on foreign policy matters.
“Whether it’s spy balloons flying overhead or buying up land near South Carolina military bases, China continues to prove that it is a threat to the United States,” the House lawmaker told Politico.
Republican senators were told that Graham was not interested in seeking a full term when she agreed to the appointment in the immediate aftermath of her brother’s unexpected death last month. Graham said in a pre-debate interview on Monday that she “didn’t even realize I’d be asked to fill the seat temporarily” and did not accept the appointment last month with the idea of running for a full term. She instead credited the president with convincing her to run during an Oval Office meeting in her first week as senator.
Graham’s surprise decision to run, which two sources told JI came at the urging of Trump and several of Lindsey Graham’s campaign consultants, was met with apprehension in Washington. GOP circles. After Graham launched her campaign, Republican senators and strategists skeptical of her chances of winning began quietly voicing concern to one another about her lack of voting record or political background, the fact that she lacked a policy platform and the optics of sending a grieving sister out on the campaign trail. They also took note of how competitively Norman, Graham’s opponent in next week’s runoff election, was polling in the race.
One senior Senate GOP operative put it bluntly: “If we’re going to do a coronation, we need to be able to do a coronation. If we can’t get our s**t together, then we shouldn’t keep trying.”
Graham was cautioned by several Republicans, including two senators, that she would be setting herself up for a contentious election fight if she got in the race, according to two sources familiar with the matter. She was told by several of her brother’s campaign consultants, however, that while the contest would be challenging, she was likely to win with the president’s endorsement.
Graham prevailed in the first round of the primary election earlier this month, but only tallied 33% of the vote, far short of the majority necessary to avoid a runoff. She got a campaign boost after winning the endorsement of one leading rival, Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC), but her debate stumble only underscored her biggest vulnerability: lack of experience.
“The debate was challenging to watch. Her performance was very bad. We all empathize with her because of the circumstances she’s under, but that makes it all the more disturbing that folks who claim to love Lindsey would get in her ear and tell her she should run,” the Senate Republican campaign source said.
The winner of the Republican runoff next Tuesday will face Democrat Annie Andrews in the November election. Andrews, a pediatrician, is a decided underdog running in a solidly Republican state, but has been a strong fundraiser, bringing in over $10 million during the campaign cycle.
Plus, ICE detains Jewish bridal shop owner
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Senate candidate Mike Rogers greets supporters at his election watch party with the MIGOP on November 5, 2024 in Novi, Michigan.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Jewish leaders in Michigan are circulating an open letter, obtained by Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel, urging Jewish Democrats and independents in the battleground state to sign their names in support of former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) as he faces Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in the race for U.S. Senate.
If El-Sayed were to claim victory in the general election, the authors say, “we fear the far-left and anti-Jewish elements in the Democratic party would become dominant … We cannot allow him to become the Democratic standard-bearer or Michigan’s senator”…
California state Sen. Aisha Wahab still holds a narrow lead as of this afternoon over former Dublin, Calif., Mayor Melissa Hernandez in the special election runoff for an East Bay House seat that drew a late surge of outside spending from AIPAC.
With 62% of the vote counted in yesterday’s election, Wahab had 51%, leading Hernandez by two percentage points or 1,356 votes, according to the unofficial initial returns. “We made a race that wasn’t close when we started into a nail-biter,” Patrick Dorton, a spokesperson for AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC, told JI’s Matthew Kassel…
ICE detained a Jewish bridal shop owner and his mother living in Englewood, N.J., a local elected official confirmed today to JI’s Haley Cohen: Ari Ladino and his mother, Chava, who are originally from Bogotá, Colombia, run Luana Rose Modestly in Teaneck — a dress shop specializing in modest special occasion gowns popular among local Orthodox Jewish women. The reason for their arrest remains unclear…
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post today, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack doubled down on his criticism of Israeli strikes on a Syrian air base earlier in the week, which Israel said had been prompted by Turkish involvement at the base. “Turkish forces were not aware that the Israeli aircraft were en route to that specific Syrian base … [and] could potentially have been inclined to scramble their own jets in the belief that they themselves were under attack,” Barrack said.
He announced that the U.S. is looking to relaunch a deconfliction cell between Israel and Syria, with potential Turkish participation, and downplayed reported Israeli concerns over a specific Turkish radar system said to be deployed at the base. “We remain convinced that this technical requirement need not pose a security concern, and that further conversations can help clarify the matter to everyone’s satisfaction,” Barrack said…
Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, visited Israeli troops in southern Syria today, where he said Israel is “monitoring the changes on the Syrian front” and “know[s] how to use our power precisely where it is needed and when it is needed”…
The IDF announced it is opening an investigation into the killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza in January 2024 after finding that troops had indeed fired at her family’s vehicle as it was traveling opposite the direction of an evacuation route. The military had previously denied responsibility for the incident, which drew global attention and inspired an Oscar-nominated film titled “The Voice of Hind Rajab.”
The IDF will also investigate the killing of 15 rescue workers traveling in emergency vehicles in March 2025, and closed investigations into a strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy and into the deaths of several Doctors Without Borders members, finding that troops’ actions in those incidents did not rise to the level of criminal offenses…
The New York Times examines CENTCOM’s efforts to keep oil traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, including utilizing air- and water-based assets to intercept Iranian drones and missiles targeting commercial traffic.
Beyond protecting tankers loaded with oil, the U.S. military has also reportedly established its own corridor to help empty ships enter the strait, load up and exit largely undetected…
The New York State Department of Financial Services issued a notice warning Holocaust survivors and their families about potential fraud by an organization calling itself the “Jewish Holocaust Claims Center” that is contacting such individuals about their eligibility for compensation…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at how Sen. Darline Graham‘s (R-SC) debate stage flub on national security may impact her chances in next week’s South Carolina special runoff election for Senate.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and his primary opponent, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), will face off in their final debate before the election. Moulton, 47, is mounting a generational challenge to the 80-year-old Markey and has taken an increasingly critical stance against Israel and AIPAC on the campaign trail, while Markey has long staked out staunchly anti-Israel positions.
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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaks during the House Administration Committee hearing on June 10, 2026.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social this morning that “There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” directly contradicting a statement from Jared Kushner yesterday that dialogue between the White House and “different areas of the Iranian government” is “probably more robust than it’s maybe ever been”…
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who also serves as special envoy for Syria and Iraq, said on X this morning that he’s “deeply concerned” over what he called “confirmed Israeli airstrikes” on Syria’s Abu al-Duhur Airbase overnight, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strikes.
“The United States has in the past, and will continue in the future, to host discussions to encourage diplomatic cadence over kinetic frustration for both nations,” Barrack said, calling the incident an “unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who has been a pro-Israel stalwart, also condemned what he called “one-sided aggression”…
U.N. inspectors visited some nuclear sites tied to the deposed Assad regime in Syria this week, the first time that International Atomic Energy Agency officials have been given full access to the sites. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said at a press conference with IAEA head Rafael Grossi that nuclear material found at the locations, including several tons of uranium, will be placed “under IAEA safeguards”…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions today against Tomoko Akane, president of the International Criminal Court, and Abdoulaye Seye, a senior trial lawyer, as part of the Trump administration’s recently announced campaign to target the body.
Rubio said the two individuals “have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” likely in reference to Israeli leaders…
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, claimed today that the Trump administration’s probes into campus antisemitism were “fake” and that schools found to have violated federal civil rights law were effectively framed, pointing to whistleblower reports that claimed the administration had manipulated evidence to show violations of law despite lacking sufficient evidence.
Raskin announced that he is launching an investigation of the alleged “misconduct” of the Department of Justice and intends to assess potential changes to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act “in light of this Administration’s shockingly reckless and unethical actions,” JI’s Marc Rod reports…
The DOJ charged a New York man, Larry Montes, with two federal hate crimes charges and one count of destruction of religious property for disrupting Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Manhattan over the weekend, where he struck a congregant, damaged synagogue property and spat on and headbutted a security guard. Montes has already been charged with hate crimes by local prosecutors…
The DOJ also charged 17 members of the Mabna Institute — an Iran-based company that federal prosecutors say ran a state-sponsored cyber campaign on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps since at least 2013 — with hacking 144 U.S. and 178 foreign universities, dozens of private companies and several U.S. government agencies to steal research, academic data and intellectual property…
The Department of Defense instructed 30 U.S. academic institutions to conduct reviews of their ties with “foreign entities of concern,” threatening future Pentagon funding for research projects if they fail to do so and terminate “problematic partnerships”…
Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, pushed back today against what he alleged was a doctored audio clip circulating online designed to portray him as more loyal to Israel than the United States, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“There is a manipulated and unsourced audio, with things I never did and never would say, that is nothing more than political disinformation intended to portray me as anti-American,” Moss, who is Jewish, said on X…
Rebecca Weininger, senior regional director of Anti-Defamation League Midwest, called out the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America’s “fixation on Israel” after the group’s 2027 city council endorsement questionnaire asked local candidates to explain whether they consider themselves anti-Zionists and if they support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The group’s outsized focus on the Jewish state, Weininger said, is “not only far removed from the responsibilities and priorities of an alderman, but also risks fueling anti-Jewish sentiment, harassment, and ultimately, violence against Chicago’s Jewish community”…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested in an interview with The Washington Post that he believes Democrats can still win the Senate even if far-left Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, whom Schumer has endorsed, loses in November, JI’s Marc Rod reports. “A path to winning back the Senate clearly goes through Michigan, but we have a whole bunch of different paths,” Schumer said.
The Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, is spending $3 million on a new ad campaign to defeat Republican nominee Mike Rogers, portraying him as a career politician who enriched himself while in Washington…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for results from today’s key races in Florida and California. Polls close in the Sunshine State at 7 p.m. ET, and in the Golden State at 11 p.m. ET.
Hannan Lis, Brian Hermelin and Rob Orley, three prominent Jewish Democratic bundlers in Michigan, are hosting a fundraiser tonight for the state’s Republican Senate nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), as some Jewish Democrats in the Wolverine State consider flipping their votes against Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. Read Lis’ comments to JI here.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) will face off in a debate tonight hosted by the South Carolina GOP, a week ahead of their runoff election.
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HATE BY THE NUMBERS
Anti-Jewish hate crimes also constituted the second-largest category of reported hate crimes of any kind in 2025
BLAME GAME
After pushing Henry Ford’s The International Jew, Democratic district leader Carmella Charrington said her ongoing housing dispute is the ‘same thing they’re doing in the West Bank’
Plus, Trump puts Oman in the crosshairs
Shalev Shalom
Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets with Jared Kushner at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Aug. 17, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump confirmed to Fox News this morning that the White House is communicating directly with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and said that Tehran should “raise the white flag of surrender,” as the 60-day memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran — which was intended to lead to the creation of a permanent peace agreement but was quickly deemed moot by both parties — officially expired today without a deal in sight.
Jared Kushner separately told Fox News about the status of talks with Iran that Trump is “focused on economic pressure” but is still open to reaching an agreement, adding that dialogue between the White House and “different areas of the Iranian government” is “probably more robust than it’s maybe ever been” and that the conversations are “positive”…
Trump also threatened in his interview to “bomb the sh*t out of” Oman if the country “gets in the way,” amid Muscat’s negotiations with Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking later to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he doesn’t think Oman “behave[s] very well” and that the U.S. would “handle them very easily.” He also reaffirmed his recent claim that he intends to declare the strait a U.S. territory, saying he “think[s] it’s a great idea”…
Responding to Trump’s threat, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) announced he intends to introduce a war powers resolution when the Senate returns from recess to prohibit U.S. military action against Oman…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had “deep and constructive discussions” with Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov and Kushner in Jerusalem today, where the parties agreed to establish two working groups: one on the “disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza,” which they agreed should happen before “any reconstruction,” and a second on sanitation and public health concerns in the enclave.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also met with the group and said he was “impressed that Israel’s security interests are an important and central element of their plan”…
After the meetings, Kushner told Fox News that he predicts there will be progress in starting to demilitarize Gaza “in as little as 30 days” and beginning to fill in Hamas’ terror tunnels “in the next 60 to 90 days.”
Despite Trump stating in his interview that Israel should not be conducting any more strikes in Gaza, Kushner said the Board of Peace would “not restrict Israel’s right to defend itself” and that if Hamas doesn’t follow through on its commitments, Israel will “have a lot more support from the U.S.” to “finish the job.” He called his Sunday meeting with Hamas leaders “cordial” and said they “said all the right things” but that they are “hard to trust”…
Trump said today it’s “most appropriate” that he “stay out of” Israel’s upcoming elections but added that he “may endorse somebody” anyway….
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi disputed claims by Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the region of Kurdistan, that his office was attacked by Iranian drones: “Kurdish friends should be vigilant against false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors,” Araghchi said on X, claiming that Iran has historically “protected” the Kurds. It was a striking characterization given that Iran has repeatedly struck Kurdish opposition bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, including during the current war, and has a decades-long history of suppressing its own Kurdish population…
New York City leaders are condemning a series of inflammatory posters opposing a new housing development in Chelsea that use antisemitic, racist and homophobic language, including a call to “stop Zionist occupation of Manhattan,” tying the project to “foreign wealth dirty zionist money” and claiming that “Talmudists are trained to cheat.”
City Hall called the posters “vile” and claimed the rhetoric “has absolutely no place in our city’s political discourse,” while Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said, “Disagreement over housing policy is legitimate. Dehumanizing your neighbors is not”…
Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) continued to spar this week over the University of Washington’s decision to cancel a planned speech by antisemitic influencer Hasan Piker, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
After Goldman argued initially against Jayapal’s denunciation of the school, the congresswoman said she “completely disagree[s] with [Goldman’s] analysis of free speech”; Goldman responded that students have ample access to “Piker’s racist and anti-American views,” but the university has a responsibility to prevent discriminatory conduct or a hostile environment for Jewish students that could interfere in their ability to participate on campus…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at AIPAC’s involvement in tomorrow’s special election in California’s 14th Congressional District, where state Sen. Aisha Wahab is facing off against former Dublin, Calif., Mayor Melissa Hernandez, who is backed by the pro-Israel group.
Florida will also hold its primary elections tomorrow, where several pro-Israel and Jewish candidates are facing off against far-right and far-left extremists. Read more on the races and their implications here.
The Sephardic Rabbinical Conference will conclude in New York with speakers including Israeli Consul General Ofir Akunis; Daniel Rosenthal, vice president for government relations at UJA-Federation of New York; Rabbi Elie Buechler, director of programs at the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center; and rabbis from around the world.
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The senator told JI he was worried that fringe ideas could gain momentum if Republicans don’t aggressively push back
SEPHARDIC SUMMIT
The second annual Sephardic Rabbinic Conference, backed by the Orthodox Union and UJA-Federation, will bring together around 150 participants from a dozen countries to address leadership gaps and Diaspora institution-building
Plus, CA considers making Jews an ethnicity
Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrives for a news conference at Gracie Mansion in New York City on March 9, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced today that his Office to Combat Antisemitism will be releasing a municipal plan to combat antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
The mayor marketed the plan as the “first-in-the-nation,” even as former Mayor Eric Adams already released a “blueprint” for combating antisemitism on his last day in office, which included the city adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism — a policy that Mamdani repealed on his first day.
The move comes days after Mamdani hosted a roundtable with rabbis in the city who asked the mayor to back off his attacks on Israel, a request that Mamdani did not reference or commit to addressing in his remarks…
The California state Legislature is considering a bill to require state agencies to include “Jewish” as an ethnicity option on all forms that collect demographic data. The move would make California the first state to officially consider Judaism as more than a religion for identification purposes…
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit yesterday brought by the Trump administration against Harvard University alleging that the school showed “deliberate indifference” to antisemitism on campus in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.
The judge ruled that the few campus incidents cited by the administration were “too isolated and episodic” to find “any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day”…
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on X today that she had communicated her “concerns” to the University of Washington about its decision to cancel an appearance by far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, and encouraged student groups who “want to hear from Mr. Piker to work with the University to ensure they can proceed.”
Piker had earlier this week denounced Democrats who didn’t “speak out against this clear violation” of the First Amendment due to his “position as a prominent critic of Israel”…
Former Democratic Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner is expected to headline a Labor Day rally for the Hancock County Maine Democrats next month, his first public appearance since dropping out of the Senate race after he was accused of rape by a former romantic partner…
White House advisor Jared Kushner is planning a trip to Israel next week with Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials to discuss the Hamas disarmament deal, Axios reports…
CENTCOM announced today it is undertaking efforts to establish the “first-ever multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force,” including consulting with and inviting regional partners to join, that will work to utilize unmanned, one-way attack drones “from above, on, and below the sea” in the Middle East…
The U.S. has lost roughly a quarter of its fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones in the war with Iran, sources told The Washington Post, as the armed drones have been targeted by Tehran and its proxies in Yemen and Iraq…
The Pentagon is sending the USS George Washington aircraft carrier to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, as reports and lawmakers indicate that conditions aboard the ship are deteriorating after a record 200 days without a port call; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the concerns about the Abraham Lincoln today as “completely misrepresented”…
Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), facing a runoff special election to be the GOP nominee for her late brother’s Senate seat, announced she is co-sponsoring the Jewish American Security Act, the U.S.-Israel FUTURES Act, a bill on Iran sanctions and a bill on Iranian human rights and internet access…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at how Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is avoiding contending with the anti-Israel turn of her preferred successor, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, in her race against state Sen. Scott Wiener.
President Donald Trump will appear with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the GOP candidate for New York governor, at an event on Long Island honoring law enforcement officials.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a member of the Squad, will appear at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., alongside anti-Israel progressives running against Jewish Democrats Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), as well as socialist Colorado Democratic congressional nominee Melat Kiros.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
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The group’s new national chair, Ricky Mason, is believed to be the first national chair to receive an aliyah at the Scouts’ Torah service
Plus, Josh Kushner and Bob Iger ball out
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Breakthrough T1D)
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) questions witnesses during a hearing held to examine a future without Type 1 Diabetes with a focus on accelerating breakthroughs and creating hope at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 09, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A State Department official pushed back on Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s comments in southern Lebanon today, where he said the IDF would remain deployed in a security zone, contrary to the agreement signed between Washington, Jerusalem and Beirut.
“The United States expects all parties to act in a manner consistent with the Framework they agreed to, and Israel clearly stated that it has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. A permanent military presence in South Lebanon is not consistent with the commitments made in the Framework, or the long-term peace and security of both states,” the official told Axios…
Sources told Reuters that Israel and Lebanon have agreed that countries including Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Indonesia could contribute troops to an international force meant to oversee Hezbollah’s disarmament; an Israeli official denied any decisions had been made on the issue…
President Donald Trump continued to boast about the success of the U.S. campaign against Iran, stating again in a post on Truth Social today that the U.S. “has total control over the Strait of Hormuz” and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is “decimated and fleeing.”
Meanwhile, out of the 166 ships that have transited the strait so far this month — a significant decrease from the average before the war — only two are known to have used the U.S.- and Oman-backed route, according to The Wall Street Journal…
In a rare interview with Western media, top IRGC advisor Mohammad Reza Naqdi told “PBS News Hour” that Iran is prepared to continue hostilities through the end of Trump’s term and accused the U.S. of waging a “war without strategy”…
The New York Times documents the efforts being made by Gulf countries to construct routes to move oil out of the region that do not rely on the Strait of Hormuz…
Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov denied in a post in Hebrew today that there is any financial agreement between the board and Hamas, refuting a report by Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the board would cover Hamas’ debts up to $400 million.
The disarmament roadmap states that the new Palestinian technocratic government will “assess the legitimate commitments to suppliers, contractors and other parties — up to a total amount of no more than $400M — and address them”; Mladenov said in his post that such processes “are not channeled through Hamas” and that “all accounts are open to full scrutiny by the donor governments”…
The publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Michael Morris, penned an open letter to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) today pressing the senator over his repeated votes to block U.S. military sales to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
“I apologize for being blunt, but please, stop lying to me and your constituents. I hear you claim, over and over again, that you support Israel — that your support is ‘ironclad.’ It is not,” Morris wrote…
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) denied today that the more than $30 million of support she received from AIPAC’s super PAC in her failed run for U.S. Senate backfired, saying on CNN that those who criticize AIPAC “maybe don’t understand what the group is” and that she’s “proud of the friendships and the relationships I have there [and] the really good Americans” who make up its membership…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is stepping away from her role at the end of the month, Trump announced today, in order to spend more time with her family. The president said Leavitt will now serve as “one of my top outside advisors”…
Josh Kushner, managing partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger have agreed to purchase a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers for a record-breaking price of $12.5 billion, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at local Jewish political organizing efforts in major cities across the country.
The Hudson Institute will hold an event examining the state of the ongoing conflicts in the Gulf with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Behnam Ben Taleblu and Hudson’s Michael Doran, Ludo Hood and Zineb Riboua.
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TRUST, BUT VERIFY
Mamdani’s antisemitism czar invited a cross-section of rabbis and Jewish leaders broadly sympathetic to the mayor for the candid conversation
BALLIN’ OUT
The sale is the largest purchase price for any sports team in American history
Plus, City Hall and NYPD clash over Rama Duwaji's travel plans
Javier Campos/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A woman waves a Venezuelan flag during a march in amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Caracas, Venezuela on May 25, 2021. (Photo by )
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, insisted today that any agreement reached between Iran and Oman on administering the Strait of Hormuz is separate from Tehran’s broader closure of the waterway, which will only be lifted once the U.S. accedes to Iran’s demands.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, a key mediator between the U.S. and Iran, met today with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran. Islamabad’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, told Bloomberg that developments are “shaping up again in favor of a peace arrangement”…
CENTCOM said it disabled a Panama-flagged cargo ship sailing toward Iranian ports today by firing two Hellfire missiles into the vessel’s engine room, the third such incident since the U.S. blockade began…
Ed Miliband, who last month was appointed by new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham to be foreign secretary, said he had a “frank and constructive first call” with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar today, during which the British diplomat raised the issues of settler violence, settlement expansion and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, among others.
The discussion came a day after Miliband met with British Jewish community leaders, who said they were “impressed” by the foreign secretary’s “longer-term commitment to maintaining the conversation”…
Sa’ar announced that Israel and Venezuela have agreed to renew consular relations — establishing a coordination mechanism to provide consular services to each country’s citizens — in the first official channel between the two since Caracas severed diplomatic ties in 2009. The move builds on the Israeli aid delegation dispatched to Venezuela after the June 24 earthquakes…
The Palestinian technocratic committee meant to govern Gaza convened a joint coordination meeting with several U.N. agencies — including the World Food Program, UNICEF and the World Health Organization — as well as representatives from the Board of Peace and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change to coordinate on humanitarian aid and reconstruction issues…
Former Mossad head Yossi Cohen said at a conference in Israel today that Israeli operatives have “toured” Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility “many times” in order to “understand” it, and called the U.S. operation to bomb the site during the 12-day war in June 2025 “the fulfillment of all my dreams”…
The NYPD denied that its officers will be accompanying New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji on a trip to Lebanon and Syria next month after City Hall said that, “upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her” on the trip.
“The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons,” the NYPD said today, referring to the State Department’s ranking system that currently designates the two countries as “do not travel” locations. Mayor Zohran Mamdani later said the diverging statements stemmed from a “miscommunication,” and that when his wife makes the trip “it will be without any NYPD detail”…
Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has made private over 100 YouTube videos from his time as a podcaster and commentator, CNN reports, including videos in which he lambasted fireworks on the Fourth of July, floated replacing the Second Amendment and voiced support for prison abolition…
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Brian Poindexter, the Democratic nominee in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, to its “Red to Blue” program as he aims to unseat Rep. Max Miller (R-OH). Democratic leadership will offer Poindexter strategic support as the district, previously considered a long shot for Democrats given its GOP leanings, is now seen as a key flip opportunity as Miller navigates accusations of domestic violence by his ex-wife…
The campaign of Francesca Hong, the socialist seen as the front-runner in today’s Democratic primary election for governor of Wisconsin, was rebuffed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as she sought his endorsement due to her perceived weaknesses as a candidate, Politico reports; her campaign is planning to overhaul its staff to address such issues if she proceeds to the general…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for results from key primaries taking place today in Minnesota, South Carolina, Connecticut and Wisconsin.
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THE CAPITAL’S KOSHER CONUNDRUM
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DSA UNFILTERED
‘If you put people in an open-air concentration camp … you have to expect that they are going to not take that for that long,’ Megan Romer said of the Oct. 7 attacks
Plus, new app offers Shabbat experience ‘with training wheels’
Aaron Schwartz / AFP via Getty Images
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland, on July 31, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Responding to a recent demand from Iran that the U.S. fully compensate it for its war costs in order to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump issued his own demand today that Tehran compensate the U.S. “for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts,” as well as pay reparations to the “families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years.” Trump said he instructed U.S. representatives to “put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations” with Tehran…
Shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel rejects the Hamas disarmament deal, Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov told Israel’s Channel 12 that the deal is “the only way” that “guarantees” that the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, “will not occur again.”
“Nobody is required to do anything — last of all Israel — before we actually have verified steps on the ground,” Mladenov said, referring to the IDF’s eventual withdrawal from Gaza after all of Hamas’ weapons are “stored, and ultimately rendered unusable,” by the Palestinian technocratic government…
The International Atomic Energy Agency will remove nuclear material stored at a secret site in Syria tied to the fallen Assad regime, Axios reports, per an agreement reached between Trump, Jerusalem and Damascus…
Megan Romer, a national co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, said in a podcast interview last week that the Oct. 7 attacks were “largely inevitable” — “If you put people in an open-air concentration camp and you deprive them of rights, of dignity, of food, of the ability to live in safety, you have to expect that they are going to not take that for that long,” she said — and that she would have attended the anti-Israel Times Square rally on Oct. 8 had she been in the area, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said on MS NOW today that Abdul El-Sayed, the state’s Democratic nominee for Senate, should “tone down his rhetoric” about Israel and AIPAC in order to help combat antisemitism in the Democratic Party.
“Not everything is about AIPAC, not everything is about Israel. … Even if we wiped Israel off the face of the earth tomorrow, you know, everyday Michiganders’ lives wouldn’t be better on” issues such as housing and healthcare, Nessel said…
The University of Washington on Friday reversed its decision to host far-left, antisemitic influencer Hasan Piker, citing a flawed planning process, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
The event listing, which has since been removed from the university website, described Piker as a “journalist and wildly popular content creator” who has “become an authoritative voice for millennials and Gen Z,” and as someone who is “armed with sharp analysis and an irreverent wit”…
The new conservative government in Colombia, which recently returned its ambassador to Israel, today recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, becoming the second country to do so after the U.S.
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry announced the move shortly after a powerful earthquake struck the country, killing over 100 people…
A new app called Sabbath is selling an ancient pitch to a modern, phone-addicted crowd: lock technology away for one sacred day a week. The app — which founder Ben Springwater calls “Shabbat with training wheels” — is “trying to make a bigger tent, get more people to experience some of the benefits and virtues of what Shabbat offers,” he told JI’s Haley Cohen, by allowing users to block certain apps from sundown to sundown on either Saturday or Sunday…
The Cook Political Report updated its rating of Rep. Max Miller’s (R-OH) district from “Likely Republican” to “Toss Up” after the deadline passed for Miller to drop out of his reelection race, which he declined to do despite facing serious domestic abuse allegations. Miller has denied the accusations levied against him by his ex-wife and her father, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH)…
Politico explores how Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is using her political clout to boost her preferred successor, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, over Chan’s opponent, state Sen. Scott Wiener, including lining up endorsements and hosting major fundraisers…
“Fauda” star Lior Raz announced that the fifth season of the series, set two years after the Oct. 7 attacks, is coming to Netflix on Sept. 8…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at D.C.’sever-evolving kosher food scene.
Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin will hold primary elections tomorrow, with South Carolina and Alabama holding special elections as well.
We’ll be watching the outcomes in Minnesota’s Senate race, where Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan are neck-and-neck, as well as the Wisconsin governor’s race, where democratic socialist Francesca Hong is favored to win the Democratic nomination.
In the South Carolina special Republican Senate primary, Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) is trying to hold her late brother’s seat in a race widely expected to head to an Aug. 25 runoff. And in Connecticut’s 1st District, longtime Rep. John Larson (D-CT) faces his first serious primary challenge in decades from former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
Kenneth Marcus, the chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, will testify before a hearing of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission tomorrow, urging the commission to repeal rules requiring employers to keep and submit yearly reports breaking down their workforce by race, sex and ethnicity.
Marcus argued to JI that the practice has “created the impression that the agency is pushing them to use racial preferences in order to improve their numbers.” He said the situation has left Jews either “invisible because we’re not counted, or potentially stigmatized because we are,” and that “counting by race or ethnicity has never been helpful for the Jewish people and has sometimes been dangerous.” He said that eliminating these requirements would allow the EEOC to focus more fully on specific complaints of alleged discrimination.
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Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) talks with reporters after the Senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump disputed reports that the U.S. is running low on critical munitions as a result of the Iran war, claiming on Truth Social last night that the country has “massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types” and that more are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. “as needed”…
The IDF struck several targets in southern Lebanon again today “in response to the incident yesterday” during which two IDF soldiers were killed and four severely injured in an explosion that the army attributed to Hezbollah.
The strikes came during the last day of Israel-Lebanon talks in Rome, which a State Department official said were “productive on the technical and expert levels” and brought the parties “a lot closer on what needs to be done to advance and expand the pilot zone process”…
Jonathan Cowan, president of the center-left group Third Way, told The New York Times that the group plans to spend $15 million ahead of the 2028 presidential election to target the Democratic Socialists of America after Abdul El-Sayed’s primary win in the Michigan Senate race. “It is deeply troubling to see radical, far-left candidates winning in places that are potentially presidential swing states,” Cowan said. El-Sayed was not endorsed by the DSA, though he was championed by the far left…
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that he believes El-Sayed’s victory has put Michigan in play for Republicans to win in November. “[El-Sayed] will quickly discover a primary is a much different situation in this state [than the general election], when you’re accountable for winning the other side. I can’t wait to see him campaign for the general. I have got my popcorn for that,” Fetterman said…
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) joined Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Reps. Brad Knott (R-NC) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) today in introducing the Right to Worship Act, a federal bill that would ban activity that knowingly disrupts or impedes access to scheduled religious services within 100 feet of the entrance of a house of worship, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Lele Yutzy as the state’s first director of its Office of Civil Rights, which was created under a bill enacted last year that acknowledged the prevalence of antisemitism in the state’s public schools and pledged to tackle discrimination. The office is also required to appoint an antisemitism prevention coordinator…
Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) joined Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) in calling on Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), Moreno’s former son-in-law, to drop out of his reelection race and resign from Congress amid growing scrutiny of domestic violence allegations made against Miller, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill‘s Mission to Deliver PAC endorsed a series of Democratic candidates with national security or military backgrounds, including Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) in his primary campaign to oust Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).
Asked in a debate on local news earlier this week if Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, Markey answered an emphatic “yes” and called to end all military aid to Israel, while Moulton called the conflict an “absolute moral atrocity” and highlighted his rejection of AIPAC’s support but did not answer in the affirmative…
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a statement today that he has been discharged from the hospital after a fall in Juneand will continue his recovery at home, without indication of when he will return to Capitol Hill…
The feud between Jerusalem and Ankara continued today as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan claimed Israel’s “attacks targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” are “among the greatest threats to the country’s stability.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in turnaccused Fidan of hypocrisy, arguing that Turkey currently occupies 5% of Syria while the IDF holds a buffer zone “that comprises just one-tenth of one percent of Syrian territory”…
An extremist Israeli settler, Yinon Levi, was charged by the Israeli State Attorney’s Office with reckless homicide over the July 2025 killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who had been featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” about home demolitions in the West Bank…
The Yemeni Defense Ministry said the Houthis attacked the internationally recognized government’s military forces in several locations — reportedly killing dozens of soldiers — and that the military would retaliate against the terror group “at the appropriate time and place.”
The hostilities mark Yemen’s latest potential slide back towards its brutal civil war that devastated the country from 2014 until the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government reached a ceasefire in 2022…
The United Arab Emirates has successfully transported more oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the last two months than any other country despite ongoing military hostilities in the area, Bloomberg reports, by utilizing tankers that switch off their transponders during the risky crossing…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at the special election to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), where AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC is working to boost Dublin, Calif., Mayor Melissa Hernandez over state Sen. Aisha Wahab.
A deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz may still emerge, though its reported contours are raising concerns among experts that it could grant Tehran unprecedented oversight over the international shipping route, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
In the latest development, Iranian state media reported today that the country’s parliament is considering a preliminary bill to bar American, Israeli and other “hostile” vessels from utilizing the strait.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
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Sarah Rice/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a primary election night watch party at The Majestic Theatre in Detroit, Michigan early on Aug. 5, 2026.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Abdul El-Sayed’s victory today in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan rattled Jewish groups, who raised concerns about his rhetoric on Israel and the broader rise of the far left, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America congratulated El-Sayed but said it was “disappointed” by the result and stopped short of endorsing him, while AIPAC said its members “remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November”…
The Republican Jewish Coalition is urging Jewish Democrats to support the GOP nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), in the general election, calling El-Sayed “a direct threat to Michigan’s Jewish community.”
A Democratic fundraiser in Michigan told JI’s Matthew Kassel it is “absolutely certain” that “several large Jewish Democratic donors” will be backing Rogers. “I would guarantee there will be fundraisers for him hosted by high-profile Jewish Democrats,” they said…
Shortly after his win, El-Sayed previewed his evolving message to Jewish voters, saying he welcomes the opportunity to “break bread with you at Seder” and to “worship with you at shul.” He spoke of his “sisters and brothers who said, you know, ‘I want to join this movement because AIPAC doesn’t speak for me’” and vowed he would prioritize Jewish safety…
But just before he was declared the victor, El-Sayed appeared on MS NOW where he called Israel “bloodthirsty,” JI’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. He said that “we’ve been talking about an illegal apartheid regime” in reference to Israel since before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power, though “Netanyahu is a big reason why they’ve gotten so aggressive and frankly so bloodthirsty”…
Democrats, meanwhile, are quickly coalescing behind the new Senate nominee, JI’s Marc Rod reports. El-Sayed’s opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), promptly endorsed him upon conceding the race; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) offered their joint support; and former Vice President Kamala Harris is fundraising for El-Sayed’s campaign alongside her PAC.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also backing his ideological ally and left open the possibility that he’ll travel to Michigan to campaign with El-Sayed ahead of the general election, per JI’s Will Bredderman…
In another consequential Michigan race, pro-Israel Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) was ousted in his primary, losing to state Rep. Donavan McKinney, a democratic socialist who cross-endorsed with El-Sayed, campaigned alongside him and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and ran on ending U.S. military aid to Israel…
Talks between Israel and Lebanon ended several hours early today “due to events on the ground,” the State Department said, but were “extremely productive” and are slated to restart tomorrow. The move came after the IDF conducted strikes in southern Lebanon due to what it said were “blatant violations“of the ongoing ceasefire by Hezbollah.
An Israeli source told The Times of Israel that the talks were cut off after Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter accused Lebanese representatives of leaking false information to the media…
The Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced a joint statement adopted by Arab states who convened in Jordan today to discuss Israel’s policies over Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem, which asserted that Israel “has no sovereignty” over the city and accused Israel of “altering the Arab Islamic and Christian identity of occupied Jerusalem.”
The countries also pledged to launch a “media platform to document and expose Israeli violations against the holy sites and worshipers” and hold a meeting at the U.N. General Assembly to further discuss the issue. Israel said the statement was “built on false accusations, historical distortions, and a complete disregard for the facts”…
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio today renewing its call for the Trump administration to press Jordan to honor its extradition treaty obligations and send Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi to the United States.
Al-Tamimi was convicted in Israel for her role in the 2001 bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, which killed 16 people, including three Americans. She has been charged by the Justice Department and remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted list…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at Rep. Ed Case‘s (D-HI) reelection race, a primary that has largely flown under the radar but could pose a threat to one of the House’s more reliably pro-Israel moderates. While the contest has not centered on Middle East policy, it reflects the pattern seen in several recent Democratic primaries where well-established pro-Israel incumbents have faced increasingly competitive challenges from their left.
It remains to be seen if a deal will materialize between Iran, Oman and the U.S. to reopen the Strait of Hormuz (again), after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said today that Tehran and Muscat were finalizing a bilateral agreement without Washington. The latest reporting indicates that such an agreement would preclude any fees or tolls for a temporary period of time.
Tennessee will hold its primary elections tomorrow, where Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Rep. John Rose (R-TN) are the front-runners for the open governorship, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) is expected to win renomination and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) is running in the redrawn 5th Congressional District.
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Delegation staff members meet in the lobby during a quadrilateral meeting between the U.S., Iran, Pakistan, and Qatar at the Lake Lucerne Summit, aimed at advancing a deal to end the Middle East conflict at the Buergenstock Resort, Lake Lucerne on June 21, 2026 near Stansstad, Switzerland.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed today that the IDF will “not withdraw from the current lines in Gaza until Hamas is completely disarmed.” President Donald Trump “thinks, and his team thinks, that Hamas can be totally disarmed and Gaza demilitarized. We’re looking into it,” Netanyahu continued in a video posted to Facebook in Hebrew. “They sent us a draft, we didn’t agree. It wasn’t our draft. We sent our responses”…
Evoking a sense of déjà vu, U.S. and Iranian officials are signaling a deal over the Strait of Hormuz is near at hand: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNBC this morning that “there is a chance” the U.S. and Iran “may have a deal today or tomorrow to open” the strait, while Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told reporters that talks are in “very progressive stages” and that draft agreement language has been “circulated among the parties.”
Trump called Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani this afternoon to discuss “ongoing efforts to deescalate tensions” between Washington and Tehran, the emir’s office said, in order “to bring their views closer together”…
Reuters reports that the U.S. Army has depleted“virtually all” of its long-range surface-to-surface missiles in the course of the war with Iran, raising concerns about readiness for future conflicts and the potential need to carry out riskier missions if hostilities with Iran escalate. The White House disputed the report, with Trump insisting that the U.S. has “far more munitions than anyone in the world”…
A brewery in Michigan apologized for hosting an event last night for Rep. Haley Stevens’ (D-MI) campaign for Senate ahead of today’s primary election due to her support for Israel, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
“We DO NOT endorse Haley Stevens,” Pux Taphouse wrote on Instagram, claiming it was not aware the event was being hosted by the campaign. “We are heartbroken as we pride ourselves on being not only a queer friendly space but also have advocated and continue to call for a Free Palestine,” the company said…
A Florida man accused of hurling a brick through the front window of a Sarasota Chabad house shared New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s video labeling Netanyahu a “war criminal” just days before the crime, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
The Sarasota Police Department stated that the alleged perpetrator, Brayton Laschinger, had admitted to targeting the synagogue in an attack last week “because it was a Jewish place of worship” — and had blamed “propaganda on social media” for enraging him in the hours before the vandalism. An Instagram account bearing Laschinger’s name, and featuring photos of him dating back more than a decade, reposted the clip, which Mamdani had published the week prior to the attack…
The Anti-Defamation League called out far-left streamer Hasan Piker for promoting a conspiracy theory claiming Israel is behind the recent migration crisis in Ceuta, Spain, going as far as to claim on his Twitch stream that Israel is working to make the antisemitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion“come true.”
“Saying Israel looks at those conspiracy theories and decides to make them ‘come true’ shifts responsibility for antisemitism onto the Jewish state,” the ADL said…
The Colorado Democratic Party called on Victor Marx, the GOP nominee for governor, and other state Republicans to denounce an image that Marx and others have boosted of Phil Weiser, the state’s Jewish attorney general who is Marx’s opponent, depicting Weiser with devil horns, which critics have said evokes a classic antisemitic trope.
Montrose County Commissioner Sean Pond, who created the image, claimed he was unaware Weiser is Jewish and said, “Weiser does not receive immunity from political satire because of a personal fact I did not even know”…
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined a request by the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization to pause a $656 million judgment won by families of American victims of Palestinian terror attacks during the Second Intifada. The PA and PLO had argued that paying the sum now would “destabilize” government services in the West Bank as the bodies appeal the ruling…
Ellen Germain ended her five-year tenure as the State Department’s special envoy for Holocaust issues last week; it remains unclear if someone else will be tapped to lead the office — which deals with issues including restitution of Holocaust-era assets, Holocaust remembrance and combating Holocaust denial around the world — or if its remit will be wrapped into the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, currently headed by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun. Jewish communal organizations have advocated both for and against the prospect of the consolidation…
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison spoke out in a New York Times op-ed against those who oppose Paramount‘s ongoing acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which he argued is at its core a concern about his own political views. “I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views,” he wrote…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for election results from key races taking place today in Michigan and Missouri.
Talks between Israel and Lebanon will continue in Rome, where technical teams are working to advance the pilot zone process, Hezbollah’s disarmament and the IDF’s redeployment from southern Lebanon, the State Department said today.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Federal Courts subcommittee are planning to boycott a hearing tomorrow set to examine Muslim Brotherhood networks in the United States, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, calling the hearing a “political creepshow” designed to attack Muslims broadly.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will receive a classified update on the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
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Israeli tanks stationed near the border with the Gaza Strip on September 17, 2025 in southern Israel.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump lambasted Iranian leadership today, calling the regime “unbelievably duplicitous” for contradicting his claim that Washington and Tehran are currently conducting negotiations, after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that Tehran was only in discussion with Oman about the Strait of Hormuz and had no plans to speak to the U.S.
Trump claimed in his Truth Social post that the regime had “begged” for a meeting, “with more scheduled in the immediate future,” adding, “whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades.” Trump later told reporters that the talks were “a last chance for Iran to sign a good document” and that he wants to give Iran “every last chance before decapitation”…
Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov held a “constructive and detailed” meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, the board said, after the IDF continued to strike targets in Gaza over the weekend — in contravention of the Board of Peace’s Hamas disarmament plan, which called for the immediate cessation of hostilities in the enclave.
The board clarified that the IDF’s withdrawal beyond the yellow line in Gaza “will take place only once decommissioning [of Hamas’ weapons] is complete,” including all light and heavy weapons as well as terror tunnels. Netanyahu has yet to officially comment on the deal, but a senior Israeli spokesman said earlier today that the agreement “does not reflect Israel’s positions” and another Israeli official declared that the IDF “will not withdraw from the current line in the Gaza Strip”…
Israeli President Isaac Herzog received the credentials of the new ambassadors from Chile and Honduras today; the two Latin American countries had pulled their ambassadors from the Jewish state shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in protest of the war in Gaza but have since elected new conservative governments that have sought to strengthen ties with Jerusalem…
Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to every university in the country today asking their leadership to publish by the end of the year a statement committing to principles including transparency in admissions, free speech, diversity of thought and keeping foreign influence out of academics.
Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman applauded the initiative, which came after most universities rejected a compact from the Trump administration last year that had asked them to agree to a set of ideological principles in order to receive federal funding, and said YU would participate in the effort to rebuild public trust of higher education…
Brown University President Christina Paxson announced today that she will step down at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, concluding her 15-year tenure at the Ivy League, during which the school increased Jewish student enrollment even as most peer institutions experienced significant drops, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
As the Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Summit continues in Washington, Noah Pollak, a senior advisor at the Education Department, debated Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, on whether the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus antisemitism has protected or threatened America’s liberal norms. After the debate, where Pollak argued in favor of the policy and Rauch argued against, students who were polled in the audience shifted their views to align more with Rauch, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
New hate crime data released by the NYPD shows an uptick of 8.5% in hate crimes against Jews in New York City this year so far, accounting for more than half of all hate crimes in the city, despite Jewish New Yorkers only accounting for 10% of the city’s population…
A New York man was indicted on hate crimes charges on Friday for repeatedly vandalizing a kosher bagel shop, weeks after he was indicted for manslaughter for killing a prominent Jewish community member in a car crash…
Author Alyssa Rosenheck pushed back on arguments raised by Bell Bird Books, a local bookstore in Nashville, Tenn., that canceled a book launch event for Rosenheck’s White. Blond. Jew.,which the bookstore claimed was due to security concerns. Rosenheck said she had personally paid for a private firm to secure the event and was told there were no outstanding security concerns, alleging that the event was canceled “because I’m an unapologetic Jewish voice … and it provokes an online mob of hate”…
Trump is considering removing Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, according to CNN, after he said today that she “folded like an umbrella” when she withdrew a case against an alleged vandal of the Reflecting Pool and instead blamed the Interior Department for its botched renovation…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at Sen. Darline Graham’s (R-SC) bid for a full term in the Senate, where she is facing headwinds despite having secured President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
We’ll be watching tomorrow’s Democratic primaries in Michigan and Missouri — the sharpest tests yet of the party’s divide over Israel. In Michigan’s Senate race, far-left Abdul El-Sayed seems the favorite in recent polling over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI); in Missouri, Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) faces a rematch with former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). Also on the Michigan ballot: the battleground 7th District, where DSA-backed William Lawrence is the front-runner, and the 11th District, where Jewish state Sen. Jeremy Moss is running to succeed Stevens. Kansas, Virginia and Washington state will also hold their primaries tomorrow.
Israeli and Lebanese representatives will meet tomorrow to begin another round of U.S.-led negotiations in Rome. U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa sounded a cautious note today on the ongoing trilateral agreement, as the Lebanese Armed Forces and the IDF continue to work toward establishing the fragile pilot zones in southern Lebanon: “A great deal of technical work remains to ensure civilian safety on the ground,” Issa said. “There is a meaningful difference between drafting an agreement on paper and implementing it responsibly — moving too quickly risks jeopardizing the very civilians this process is meant to protect.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote tomorrow on whether to advance acting Attorney General Todd Blanche‘s nomination to lead the Justice Department, after Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) dropped their opposition to his nomination when the administration agreed to rescind its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel speaks on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Delegates, politicians, and Democratic Party supporters are in Chicago for the convention, concluding with current Vice President Kamala Harris accepting her party's presidential nomination.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish, said today at an antisemitism roundtable with local Jewish community leaders that she will not be attending the Michigan state Democratic Party convention in August because she would not feel safe there…
A new Emerson College pollof the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan found far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed surging ahead of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) by 15 points, 54-39%…
The American Association of University Professors issued its first-ever political endorsement in its 110-year history today, backing El-Sayed ahead of next week’s primary. The professional organization has repeatedly faced criticism from Jewish groups and faculty members for straying from its mission by engaging in anti-Israel advocacy…
An Emerson College poll of next month’s special primary election to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on the ballot in South Carolina found Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) at the top of the pack, leading Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) 22-19%, with a quarter of likely primary voters still undecided. If no candidate receives a majority, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff…
Columbia University’s student workers’ union dropped its demand that the university divest from Israel during a bargaining session on Tuesday, the Columbia Spectator reports, in a significant reversal of the union’s pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions advocacy. Union President Grant Miner claimed the move was a natural part of the negotiation process: “As you bargain, you have to face the realities of where you are.”
Columbia is also set to open its global center in Tel Aviv this summer, professor Nadav Eyal said on an episode of Dan Senor’s “Call Me Back” podcast earlier this week. Plans for the center were announced in April 2023, but have been on hold since the Oct. 7 attacks…
Former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out of the Democratic primary for governor today. Barnes said in his announcement video that it’s “very clear who our nominee is going to be,” in an apparent reference to Democratic Socialists of America-backed Francesca Hong, though he did not offer her his endorsement.
Barnes dropped out shortly before The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the Wisconsin Democratic Party had investigated allegations in 2025 that he had taken advantage of his role in the party for sexual encounters with young women…
Negotiations between mediators and Hamas, taking place on Thursday in Cairo, are “making progress” on disarmament, a diplomatic official told The Times of Israel. The plan under discussion would see “all weapons decommissioned” as well as “the elimination of all tunnels, depots of weapons and any weapons production facilities” in Gaza, the official said…
Iranian hackers may have been behind a cyberattack on dozens of municipal water systems this week in Minnesota, state and federal officials told The New York Times…
The Iran-backed Houthi terror group, which is based in Yemen, reportedly attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory. The group may have operated with the assistance of militias in the country working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in an indication of the growing coordination between Tehran’s proxies…
Amid the renewed attacks it has faced from both Iran and the Houthis, Saudi Arabia hosted dozens of military officials from around the world, including the U.S., for a meeting today to establish a maritime defense alliance. Thirteen countries joined Riyadh in signing a statement of support for the effort: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia…
The Senate narrowly blockedanother push by Democrats today to force an end to the Iran war, 50-49, with Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rand Paul (R-KY) again breaking with their party to vote for the war powers resolution and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voting against it…
The share of Israelis who believe President Donald Trump is “highly committed” to protecting Israel’s security interests has dropped to a new low, according to a survey from Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies.
The organization’s July 2026 National Security Survey found that only 14% of Israelis believe the country’s security interests are a top concern for Trump, representing a significant drop from the 35% recorded in March, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) argued today at the Hudson Institute that, without regime change in Iran, the U.S. will likely need to continue to conduct periodic military operations against Iran’s nuclear program to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at the dynamics in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), where Jewish state Sen. Jeremy Moss’ challengers are targeting him for his ties to pro-Israel donors.
President Donald Trump is expected to hold a Cabinet meeting tomorrow at the historic Camp David retreat in Maryland.
The Democratic Socialists of America will hold its annual organizing conference this weekend in Chicago, where some programming will focus on “anti-imperialist and pro-Palestine organizing strategy” to end the “U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine.”
We’ll be back with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
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President Donald Trump prepares to leave after speaking during an event at Verst Logistics on March 11, 2026 in Hebron, Kentucky.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump warned this morning that the U.S. would “beat the f**king sh*t out of” Iran following an attempted surprise ballistic missile attack yesterday by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on U.S. forces, even as the president signaled a willingness to keep diplomatic channels open, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Asked later if Iran was involved in a drone attack today on a U.S.-owned gas storage tanker at a shipping terminal in Egypt, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the incident was “a little more of the same. … We’re going to be hitting [Iran] very hard ’cause it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming,” he continued…
A U.S. official said last night’s retaliation by the U.S. and Saudi militaries against Iran-backed militias in Iraq resulted in the deaths of 20 Iran-linked individuals, who were a mix of IRGC members and technical advisors…
Before the latest escalation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump discussed in their Oval Office meeting yesterday several potential next steps in Iran: reaching a diplomatic agreement, increasing economic pressure or intensifying military strikes, Axios reports.
The two leaders also spoke about Netanyahu’s continued insistence that the U.S. wind down aid to Israel — an effort the Israeli prime minister wants to lead publicly to give GOP lawmakers cover to support it — as well as the IDF’s continued presence in Syria…
Wrapping up his trip in Washington, Netanyahu met with Vice President JD Vance last night and hosted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at Blair House this morning…
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met today in Ankara with new Hamas head Khalil Al-Hayya…
The Treasury Department sanctioned the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, which are backed by the IRGC, for running “insurance” schemes in the Strait of Hormuz, whereby the terror group creates threats to commercial shipping and then charges vessels for insurance coverage…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani continued to face questions today about his decision to appoint a judicial advisory committee that did not include any Jews, which critics have noted is at stark odds with the large population of Jewish attorneys working in the five boroughs, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
“Any suggestion that there would be any decision made or motivated by religion, it does bother me,” Mamdani told reporters today. “Any suggestion that the composition of the advisory committee was motivated by religion is false”…
Mamdani’s communications director disputed an account by former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel of his September 2025 meeting with Mamdani in which Emanuel said he told him, “You chant ‘[from the] river to the sea,’ and that means there will never be a homeland for Jews who had faced the Holocaust. I want you to hear this: Over my dead body.”
Anna Bahr, Mamdani’s staffer, said in a post replying to the clip of Emanuel on the “Unholy” podcast: “can confirm this … did not happen”…
A new pollof Michigan’s battleground 7th Congressional District shows progressive William Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, leading the Democratic primary with a 38% plurality, followed by former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam (27%) and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink (19%). The survey, which was commissioned by a group backing Maasdam, also found 16% of voters are still undecided ahead of next week’s primary…
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) predicted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro would be a “formidable” opponent if both men run in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary and told the Washington Examiner that Shapiro “very graciously” called him after Khanna claimed he was detained by Israeli settlers in the West Bank earlier this month…
A read for Tu B’Av, the Jewish holiday of love, happening today: A new Jewish dating app combining the benefits of traditional matchmakers with technology, set to launch in the coming weeks, is exclusively made for Jewish day school grads to find their bashert, founder Erica Schwartz told JI’s Haley Cohen. The app — called The Well, in a nod to the biblical story of Eliezer finding Isaac’s wife, Rebecca — utilizes a chatbot, human intuition and no swiping at all…
CBS News announced that Wall Street Journal correspondent Dov Lieber will join its team in September as a senior reporter based in Israel…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look into the reported far-right dynamics now at play among the new employees of the Heritage Foundation, following an exodus of the organization’s traditionally conservative staff under President Kevin Roberts.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel will co-host an antisemitism roundtable with the Anti-Defamation League to hear from Jewish community leaders about the impacts of recent antisemitic incidents in the state.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, to be CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Rogers was nominated for the role by President Donald Trump after a federal judge ruled that Kari Lake had been unlawfully serving as the agency’s acting chief executive, invalidating many of the actions she took while leading the agency.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) will appear at the Hudson Institute for a conversation on the global threat environment.
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SHUL POLITICS
Leading rabbis across the state are urging their congregants to vote for Stevens — even if they’re not saying so explicitly
AID ARGUMENTS
Many of the attendees at Temple Emanuel who listened to the congressman defend his position appeared critical of the stance he’d taken and unconvinced by his explanation, Jewish constituents said
Plus, Washington bids farewell to Lindsey Graham
Prime Minister's Office
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on July 28, 2026.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed his sit-down with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office this morning as “one of the best conversations I’ve ever had with a president of the United States,” saying in a video statement that the two leaders were completely aligned “on the shared goal that Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
Caroline Glick, Netanyahu’s international affairs advisor, also described the meeting, which was closed to the press, as “extremely positive” and pushed back against reports of a rift between Jerusalem and Washington. Netanyahu and Trump “have arguments from time to time … but they are on the same page 100% with everything relating to the goal of all operations regarding Iran,” Glick told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea…
That rift was on display just hours before the meeting, when Trump expressed frustration with Netanyahu over reports that he planned to share with him Israeli intelligence regarding Iranian nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain.
“I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved [in Iran],” Trump alleged in an interview on Fox News. “I know exactly what’s happening at Pickaxe, it’s not a big problem,” he said…
And in another indication of daylight emerging between the two countries, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s Channel 14 today that Jerusalem “very much want[s] to strike Iran’s energy targets,” but Washington “is not approving it at the moment because of the concern that Iran would attack neighboring countries, causing a global oil crisis”…
The funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the Washington National Cathedral this afternoon drew his friends and supporters from all walks of life. Among those spotted in the sanctuary were Netanyahu; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine; Miriam Adelson; former Vice President Mike Pence; Ron Dermer, Israel’s former minister of strategic affairs; the parents of slain American Israeli hostage Omer Neutra; Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former crown prince of Iran; and a host of administration officials and members of Congress…
Despite both being in Washington today for the same reasons — White House meetings with Trump and Graham’s funeral — Netanyahu and Zelensky will not hold an official meeting, The Times of Israel reports, though the two leaders were spotted speaking in person for the first time in several years at the National Cathedral ahead of the funeral proceedings.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also spoke by phone today, where Sa’ar invited Sybiha to visit Israel…
The Senate added a provision extending long-standing sanctions on Iran, currently set to expire at the end of the year, into a major Russia sanctions package negotiated and championed by Graham before his death, JI’s Marc Rod reports. The bill is expected to receive its first procedural vote later today, after its sponsors meet with Zelensky…
Lebanese businessman Antoun Sehnaoui and former U.S. Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus hosted a dinner in honor of Graham last night at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington, Axios reports. Netanyahu, who attended the event with his wife, Sara, told those gathered, “America has lost a great patriot, Israel has lost one of its greatest friends and supporters, and I have lost a dear friend”…
A man armed with a hammer today entered the premises of the Lev Leviev School in Queens, N.Y., where a Jewish day camp was operating and shoved a child into a fence before being subdued by camp personnel.
Queens Shmira, a local public safety organization, told JI that the incident was not a hate crime but was rather perpetrated by an “emotionally disturbed individual.” The NYPD took a person of interest into custody and the child was treated for a laceration on site before being transported to a hospital…
A new poll shows Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) leading former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers by two points if she wins next week’s closely watched Senate Democratic primary — with her opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, trailing Rogers by seven points, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.
United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, is meanwhile running a new ad hitting El-Sayed over his past support of the “uncommitted” movement and his criticisms of popular Democratic leaders…
CENTCOM announced today that it has signed an agreement with the UAE to establish the first bilateral task force focused on developing military artificial intelligence. The group, named Task Force Talon Synapse, will formally launch in the coming weeks and will be based in Abu Dhabi, with around 20 American and Emirati personnel with expertise in AI, data and cybersecurity…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at Jewish organizing efforts in Michigan ahead of the state’s Senate Democratic primary election next week.
Graham’s funeral will continue tomorrow in South Carolina, where he will receive a public procession at the Statehouse in Columbia and a private burial.
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MICHIGAN MATTERS
Haley Stevens touted her support for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, while Abdul El-Sayed lambasted U.S. aid to the Jewish state
COALITION CALCULUS
In an address in Washington, the opposition leader sketched a coalition with Bennett and Eisenkot that would mend U.S. and European ties, harden Israel’s line on Iran and shift tone on Gaza
Plus, El-Sayed defends leaked 'ogre' remarks
Emir of Qatar
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Rabbi Mendy Chitrik on July 27, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump decided to pause military strikes on Iran because the U.S. and Tehran are “in very deep talks,” he told Axios today, but if the discussions “don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action.”
Negotiations are thus far indirect, reportedly taking place primarily between Iran and Oman, though Trump told reporters today that Iran had requested a meeting directly with the U.S…
Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to the U.S.’ planned sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, Trump said, “Turkey’s been a great ally — for me. … Nobody tells me what we should be selling,” a clip that the White House’s rapid response social media account posted to X…
Saudi Arabia intercepted drones launched by Iran-backed militias in Iraq today which were targeting oil facilities in the country’s Eastern Province and in Riyadh, according to the Saudi Defense Ministry…
The U.S. Embassy in Israel temporarily restricted travel by U.S. government employees and their families into the West Bank due to “heightened security concerns and increased volatility” in the area…
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani publicized a meeting in Doha today with a delegation of rabbis — led by Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, chair of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States — who came to offer their condolences on the death of the emir’s father and predecessor, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Days after an alleged hate crime against a Jewish person in Manhattan, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to engage with suggestions from various corners that he tone down his rhetoric around Israel — or to address why he continued publicly toying with arresting Netanyahu well after city attorneys told him he couldn’t, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…
The New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is planning to lobby state lawmakers to pass the “Not on Our Dime” bill, which would revoke the tax-exempt status of New York nonprofits that support Israeli settlement activity, as well as a bill that would impose penalties on airlines that move arms shipments to Israel from JFK Airport, The New York Times reports…
Conservative writer Rod Dreher said Vice President JD Vance, with whom he used to be friends, “cut me off” after a meeting in which Dreher asked him to push back against rising antisemitism among young people on the right.
Dreher recalled on an episode of “The Jeremy Boreing Show”: “I pointed out to [Vance] these people — [neo-Nazi Nick] Fuentes, the groypers, all of them — are going to destroy conservatism and the Republican Party, and I said to him, ‘Because of your background, because of your age, you are uniquely positioned to draw a red line there’ … but he hasn’t chosen to do it”…
Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed came under fire for leaked audio in which he said about his potential primary win, “You put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message,” comments which some understood to refer to his opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI).
El-Sayed disputed the interpretation, telling The 19th that he was “clearly referring to supporting a primary against [Sen.] John Fetterman (D-PA), who I’ve called an ogre many, many times”…
Troy Jackson, the newly minted U.S. Senate candidate in Maine, announced he’s raised $2 million since he replaced Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee over the weekend…
The Office of the Attending Physician in Congress said in a statement today that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been hospitalized since he fell in June, is still not medically cleared to leave the rehabilitation facility and return to office…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore appeared separately at The Hampton Synagogue on Long Island over the weekend, where they both “affirmed their commitment to Israel and to combating antisemitism,” founding Rabbi Marc Schneier said…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for an interview with George Moraitis, a former Florida state representative who is running in the Republican primary for the 23rd Congressional District, hoping to unseat Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet at the White House tomorrow with President Donald Trump for the eighth time in Trump’s second term, the most of any international leader. Before departing for Washington earlier today, Netanyahu said he and Trump would “discuss all the issues on the agenda — first and foremost, Iran.”
The two leaders will also attend the funeral of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), which will begin at the U.S. Capitol and then move to a service at the National Cathedral, where Trump is slated to give remarks. Other world leaders are also expected to be in attendance, including Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, who landed in the U.S. this morning, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Central Synagogue in Manhattan will hold a memorial service for Wesley LePatner, one year after the Blackstone executive and Jewish philanthropist was killed in a shooting at the firm’s Midtown headquarters.
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MICHIGAN MATTERS
The state has been the epicenter of the anti-Israel movement, and will play a key role in nominating the next Democratic presidential candidate
BEE’S KNEES
Band spent 30 years in health policy before turning full-time to Judaica; now, the Library of Congress houses five of her books
Plus, Jewish groups sound the alarm on Mamdani
Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Donald Trump (R) meets with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on November 18, 2025.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump set a new red line on Iran today: Any time the Islamic Republic fires on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz going forward, the U.S. will “bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant,” including ones located in or near Tehran, he wrote on Truth Social.
But the president’s threat didn’t seem to sway the regime: Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in turn warned on X that “in a region where we do not sell oil, no one will sell oil,” and said Iran would further target ships in the strait…
Congressional Democrats are lining up in opposition to the Trump administration’s reported nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that would allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, while Republicans are mostly supportive of the effort, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Christina Sher report.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) warned that the nuclear enrichment technology could eventually fall into the hands of a malign regime — as U.S. weapons did with the fall of the shah in Iran in 1979. “We have no idea who’s going to be running Saudi Arabia ten years from now,” Sherman told JI…
In a narrow vote, largely along partisan lines, the House passed its version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act this afternoon. All but six Democrats, as well as seven Republicans, voted against the bill in protest of issues including the continued Iran war and the proposed Defense Department budget of more than $1 trillion.
Some lawmakers, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), had sought to strip a provision on U.S.-Israel cooperation out of the bill, though Massie’s amendment on the issue ultimately didn’t receive a vote…
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced that the country will host another round of U.S.-led talks between Israel and Lebanon on Aug. 4…
Roman Gofman, the new head of the Mossad, reportedly traveled to Washington earlier this month for talks with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and White House officials on the Iran war and the Iranian nuclear program…
At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing today on U.N. reform, Jeff Bartos, the U.S. representative for U.N. management and reform, derided Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, as an “absolute lunatic” and an “anti-America, anti-capitalist, anti-West, anti-Judeo-Christian, anti-Jew, anti-Israel bigot”…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to walk back the idea previously floated by Trump that Syria could take Israel’s place in fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon: “Well, the Syrian authorities are not big fans of Hezbollah. But what we’ve encouraged Syria to do is to focus on its own internal challenges that it has in sort of building a nation state,” Rubio said when asked about the concept…
A new Politico poll found a 13-point drop in support for the Iran war among Trump’s MAGA base: In May, 50% of MAGA voters said the war was worth the economic cost, down to just over a third who say the same now…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s video released last night — in which he railed against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but confessed he couldn’t honor his campaign pledge to arrest the Israeli leader — triggered a wave of warnings from mainstream Jewish organizations that Mamdani excoriating Israel from his official platforms places Jewish New Yorkers at risk, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) also slammed Mamdani for “parroting Hamas talking points” in his video and said the mayor should be “a little less obsessed with foreign policy, and a little more obsessed with cleaning up his streets”…
The Republican Jewish Coalition endorsed Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) in the special election next month as she seeks a full term to succeed her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The RJC, which last night announced the creation of an award in Lindsey Graham’s memory, said he was “the best friend of the Jewish people” in the Senate and that the group “trust[s] his beloved sister to carry the fight forward”…
Connie Chan, a member of San Francisco County Board of Supervisors who is running for the seat of retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), received the endorsement yesterday of Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, the political arm of the group TrackAIPAC, and pledged to “oppose any aid to Israel and do everything in our power to stop their government’s genocidal actions.” Chan, who is endorsed by Pelosi as well as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), is seeking to defeat state Sen. Scott Wiener in the Democrat-on-Democrat general election…
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League reached a settlement today with Reed College, which agreed to implement “one of the nation’s most comprehensive sets of reforms addressing campus antisemitism,” the groups said in a statement.
As part of the agreement — negotiated over allegations of Title VI civil rights violations, including a Jewish student who was struck in the head by a rock — Reed will adopt a “first-of-its-kind FAQ” into its discrimination policy detailing how anti-Zionist conduct can constitute unlawful discrimination…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Scott Galloway, the Jewish UCLA and UC Berkeley alum who is now a business professor and commentator, to serve on the University of California Board of Regents, pending state Senate confirmation. Galloway has emerged as a leading voice against campus antisemitism in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at comments by Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) on the “Breaking Points” podcast as he becomes more outspoken against far-left activists who continue to harass him, even as he takes increasingly critical stances on Israel.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will vote to advance acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling’s nomination to assume his role permanently. Read more about Sonderling’s Jewish family history, which he invoked during his confirmation hearing.
The International Criminal Court‘s 125 member states will hold a vote on Friday in a special session at U.N. headquarters in New York on whether to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan over sexual misconduct allegations, which he denies. An absolute majority of 63 states would have to vote on the secret ballot in favor of ousting Khan — who took a leave of absence last May and was formally suspended in June — in order to remove him. The vote lands amid a renewed U.S. push, announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, to dismantle the court.
The White House Correspondents’ Association will hold its rescheduled annual dinner on Friday at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, three months after the original gala was cut short when a gunman stormed a security checkpoint and allegedly attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump. (Read JI senior congressional reporter Marc Rod’s first-hand account of the experience here.) The president is once again expected to attend and speak at the dinner.
In observance of Tisha B’Av, the Daily Overtime will be back in your inbox on Monday, July 27.
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MICHIGAN MATTERS
Matt Maasdam is gaining late momentum running on his national security credentials, but Bernie Sanders-backed William Lawrence is winning over the base
CAMPUS CLASH
In a statement, the caucus said the speaker selection ‘sent Jewish students a clear message that they were not welcome’
Plus, direct flights to Beirut cleared for takeoff
Satellite image (c) 2026 Vantor
Vantor satellite image shows tunnel construction activity and road infrastructure near the Natanz nuclear facility in the mountainous area around Pickaxe Mountain.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the Oval Office today, President Donald Trump warned that the U.S. would “pretty soon” strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, the underground facility suspected of housing components of Tehran’s nuclear program, Jewish Insider’sEmily Jacobs reports.
“We’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” he said, following a Wall Street Journal report that Israeli intelligence indicates Iran moved thousands of centrifuges into the site last fall…
Trump added in his comments that Iran “wants to meet desperately” with the U.S. to end the war, but “until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in meeting with them”…
Trump announced after his meeting with Aoun that he is directing his administration toallow all U.S. airlines to fly directly between the U.S. and Lebanon. The Reagan administration suspended direct flights in 1985 after Hezbollah-linked hijackers seized TWA Flight 847 and killed a U.S. service member aboard…
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said at a conference today that Israel has “no interest” in joining the renewed U.S. campaign against Iran. “The best way to bring about the regime’s downfall is to crush it economically,” he said, pointing to the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing this afternoon that the estimated cost of the Iran war thus far is $37.5 billion, up from $29 billion estimated by Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst in May.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the committee, indicated that Democrats do not intend to support the Pentagon’s $88 billion supplemental funding request. The administration’s “expectation that Americans will just pay for [the war in Iran] without any explanation or transparency is disrespectful,” she said…
The IDF said its soldiers operating in southern Lebanon fired warning shots today as personnel from the Lebanese Armed Forces crossed into Israeli-controlled territory, an area the IDF said was not included in the pilot zones the LAF is meant to control. The LAF called the incident “an act of aggression” that could hinder the broader deployment plan…
A senior White House official told JI that a report that Vice President JD Vance was attempting to scuttle a potential White House meeting between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “completely false.”
“The idea that the vice president’s team, or any official in the administration for that matter, would try or even be able to interfere with a visit by a foreign leader with the president is laughable,” the official said…
A group of Jewish House Democrats asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio today to pressure Malaysia to walk back plans to deport Israeli citizens, JI’s Marc Rod reports, urging him to leverage U.S. military assistance to the Southeast Asian nation…
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance the nomination of Jay Clayton to be director of national intelligence, Committee Chair Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) announced, sending his nomination to the full Senate for approval. Democrats who had previously wanted to see Clayton confirmed said they were disappointed by his refusal to affirm at his hearing that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election…
The Jewish Caucus of the College Democrats of America condemned the CDA’s decision to host far-left streamer Hasan Piker at its convention over the weekend and claimed in a statement that attendees were prevented from conducting a walkout during Piker’s speech. The caucus called on CDA leadership to issue a formal apology and to publicly condemn Piker’s previous antisemitic comments, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), the leading Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin, appeared on a podcast hosted by an individual who defended Hitler and joked about the Holocaust, the Milwaukee Courier reports. Tiffany had previously criticized his likely Democratic opponent, Francesca Hong, for going on Piker’s podcast…
The now-former treasurer of the New York Young Republican Club, Nicholas T. Rafael Jr., appeared to operate an anonymous X account that posted Hitler images and antisemitic caricatures, according to New York Magazine, which also obtained a photo of Rafael making what appears to be a Nazi salute while wearing German military attire. It’s the latest scandal regarding far-right extremism for the once-influential club…
The University of New Hampshire released a new poll of the race for U.S. Senate in Maine showing former state Sen. Troy Jackson, the presumed replacement for former Democratic nominee Graham Platner, leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) 49-46% in the general election…
New York Assemblymember Micah Lasher, the presumed successor to retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), strongly defended his ongoing relationship with Morris Katz and said he’ll continue to work with the consultant who was behind Platner‘s failed Senate bid, a week after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the same…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at the Democratic primary in Michigan‘s battleground 7th Congressional District, where two Democrats with national security backgrounds are facing off against a far-left activist.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on U.N. accountability and reform with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and U.S. Representative to the U.N. for Management and Reform Jeff Bartos.
Later, the committee’s Middle East subcommittee will hold a hearing on the “next phase of the Abraham Accords” with former U.S. Ambassadors to Israel David Friedman and Dan Shapiro as well as Asher Fredman, executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security.
The House Ways and Means Committee will mark up several bills including the Foreign Funding Transparency Act, which would make nonprofits disclose foreign donors; the Fiscal Sponsorship Transparency Act, which would require charities to report the groups they fund; and the Fair Treatment of Religious Organizations Act, which would shield religious groups’ tax-exempt status.
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FRIENDLY FIRE
Joel Rubin: Sanders has endorsed ‘the most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates that we’ve seen in a generation, if ever’
BLUE STATE BLUES
In one of the bluest states in the country, Jewish Democrats feel increasingly estranged from a party they helped build — but the answer, they say, is to lean in
Plus, Darline Graham heads for the campaign trail
Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
A U.S. Army carry team moves the flagged-draped coffins containing the remains of the U.S. soldiers killed in an Iranian strike on March 7, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
U.S. and Iranian leaders continued to escalate their rhetoric as renewed military hostilities entered their second week: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said today that Tehran is in “full-scale war” with the U.S., while President Donald Trump proclaimed that “every time Iran kills an American soldier” — after three service members were killed in Iranian attacks over the weekend — “they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump said he had conveyed that directive to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and “every leader in the military”…
U.S. officials told The New York Times that dozens of U.S. service members were injuredand several helicopters damaged in previously undisclosed Iranian strikes in Jordan last week, prior to this weekend’s fatal attacks.
The deadly strikes reportedly hit housing units where U.S. forces live and sleep, with some troops unable to reach bomb shelters before the missiles struck…
The NYT also investigates the deaths of three civilian crewmembers aboard a shadow tanker carrying Iranian oil that was targeted by U.S. strikes on June 10 as part of the American blockade of Iranian ports.
The Strait of Hormuz continues to be a focal point of the conflict, as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed today that two oil tankers had exploded after passing through the waterway…
All the while, the White House posted to its social media feed a three-week-old poll from a right-wing polling firm showing support for the now-defunct U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding signed last month, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani seemed to back away today from a campaign pledge — reiterated in an interview over the weekend — to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits New York for the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
“My administration will follow all applicable local laws. That is our commitment,” the mayor told reporters. Trump, meanwhile, pledged on Truth Social that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America”…
Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) confirmed on Fox News that she will run in the special election next month for U.S. Senate to fill the seat of her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Darline Graham already has Trump’s endorsement, given as he encouraged her to run on Friday.
Not to be dissuaded, Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC), who was thought to be a front-runner before Darline Graham came on the scene, also declared his candidacy for the seattoday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters he is not endorsing anyone “at the moment” in the race…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) became the latest progressive lawmaker to endorse far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed today, citing the “special interests running millions of dollars in TV ads to buy this seat,” an apparent reference to the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project super PAC supporting El-Sayed’s opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI)…
Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) pulled family pictures off of his campaign site that feature his son-in-law, who was found to have promoted white nationalism and Nazi ideology online, as he runs for U.S. Senate against Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA)…
The State Departmentannounced today that the Lebanese Armed Forces is assuming control of three villages in southern Lebanon as part of pilot zones established under the trilateral agreement between Israel, Lebanon and the U.S. The IDF, which is coordinating the effort with the LAF and U.S. military, said it will “respond forcefully to any violation of the agreement”…
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia today in retaliation for what the terror group called Riyadh’s “oppressive siege” on Yemen…
Former Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer has rejoined the Jewish Institute for National Security of America as a distinguished fellow, the organization announced…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at Ed Miliband, the member of Parliament who was tapped today by new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham to serve as foreign secretary, and what his selection could mean for British policy toward Israel.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will meet President Donald Trump at the White House. The two leaders’ first in-person meeting comes as Lebanon, the U.S. and Israel work to implement their trilateral agreement signed last month and as the Lebanese government seeks to demonstrate its ability to disarm and contain Hezbollah.
On the Hill, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine will appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee for a hearing on the Trump administration’s $88 billion supplemental funding request for the Pentagon.
The House Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing on the terror threat landscape ahead of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks with testimony from former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
Jewish groups including the Jewish Federation of Columbia South Carolina, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Zionist Organization of America, Young Jewish Conservatives, the Jewish Community Action Network, the Focus Project, ChaiTech and Stop Antisemitism will hold a virtual national tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
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The far-left Senate candidate is facing off in the Aug. 4 primary against Rep. Haley Stevens
Sarah Rice/Getty Images
Abdul El-Sayed, candidate for US Senate in Michigan, speaks at Mumford High School on May 3, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan.
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan running in the race’s far-left lane, on Sunday described Israel as a “rogue state” that has committed genocide and apartheid. El-Sayed made the comments in an interview with Manu Raju on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday.”
Asked whether he thought the Israeli government should be considered by the U.S. to be a foreign terrorist organization, El-Sayed answered, “It’s certainly a rogue state.”
“I mean, they did a genocide,” he continued. “What about doing a genocide is not evil in your book? At baseline they do apartheid.”
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan running in the race’s far-left lane, on Sunday described Israel as a “rogue state” that has committed genocide and apartheid.@HaleyCohen19 reports: https://t.co/9BELSWPMXQ pic.twitter.com/vSYVTTRZJZ
— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) July 12, 2026
El-Sayed’s comments come as Michigan’s heated Democratic Senate primary enters its final stretch. He is facing off in the Aug. 4 primary against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — a moderate lawmaker who has been supported by AIPAC and pro-Israel donors.
Last week, El-Sayed told CNN that he did not believe that a Democratic politician’s support for Israel could be about anything other than money. Earlier in the race, El-Sayed said he struggled to answer questions about whether he believed Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state and that he believed the Israeli government was just as “evil” as Hamas.
The New York City mayor, whose advisor Morris Katz also worked for Graham Platner, called on the Maine Senate contender to forfeit
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference during moving day at Gracie Mansion on January 12, 2026 in New York City.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday joined the swelling chorus of Democratic voices demanding the party’s nominee for Senate in Maine, Graham Platner, abandon his campaign in the aftermath of a rape allegation revealed in a Politico report on Monday — a campaign the mayor’s own top political advisor helped start and steer.
Mamdani’s remarks came shortly after an unrelated event at City Hall, a day after a former romantic partner of Platner’s accused him of drunkenly entering her home and sexually assaulting her in 2021. The mayor’s nearest political aide, Morris Katz, was one of the architects of Platner’s Senate run and one of his fiercest public defenders amid prior allegations of personal misconduct and the discovery that the candidate had a tattoo of a Nazi symbol.
But Mamdani made no remarks on Katz’s role in Platner’s rise, and declined to comment on the long-term consequences for the insurgent left-wing movement the two have championed.
“I believe that it’s time for him to drop out of the race,” the mayor said of Platner. “I think the focus of today should be on the campaign coming to a close. And I think there will be many more days to have conversations for what it means beyond that.”
The 27-year-old Katz reportedly talked up congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier to Mamdani, leading the mayor to endorse her in the final days of her ultimately successful challenge to Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY).
It soon emerged that Avila Chevalier had bragged online about wiping her hands on the American flag, praised Soviet despots, pushed Russian government talking points and spread a conspiracy theory about COVID-19 — creating uncomfortable questions for Democratic leaders after she won the primary in the deep-blue district.
Katz also advised Democratic candidates Clare Valdez, Micah Lasher and Brad Lander in their successful primary bids elsewhere in New York City.
The state lawmaker did not offer an endorsement of either of her former Democratic primary rivals, Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Democrat from Michigan speaks during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, United States on August 19, 2024.
Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Sunday, without offering her support to either of her opponents in the hotly contested race.
“Here’s what we do next. Every day through November 3rd. We win this Senate seat and send Mike Rogers back to Florida for good,” McMorrow wrote in her announcement on X, referring to the expected GOP nominee.
“Whoever wins this primary on August 4th will have my full support,” she continued, declining to endorse either Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) or Abdul El-Sayed.
Fundraising figures released at the end of the first quarter of the year showed Stevens trailing El-Sayed in fundraising but having the most cash on hand, at $3.4 million to El-Sayed’s $2.5 million. El-Sayed has held a slight lead in the latest polls.
Following McMorrow’s announcement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, said the “choice is clear” and “wholeheartedly” issued her endorsement of Stevens.
Stevens also has the backing of other Democratic leaders including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
El-Sayed, meanwhile, is backed by leading progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Last week, the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project super PAC, which has boosted Stevens with more than $10 million, issued its first negative ad against El-Sayed.
The Maine senator said she learned to reject anti-Jewish hate at a young age, inspired by her World War II veteran father and her mother who quit a sorority for excluding Jewish students
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Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) addresses the press on Nov. 6, 2022.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) reiterated her criticism of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and accused him and his supporters of antisemitism at an Orthodox Union event on Tuesday.
Speaking at the OU luncheon, Collins called out Platner for his Nazi tattoo, pointing to accounts by former romantic partners that he had described it as a Nazi symbol despite later denying that he knew what it was. She said that even though he covered up the tattoo on the campaign trail, “the stain remains.”
Collins also referenced comments from a Platner supporter who said she did not find the Nazi tattoo disqualifying but would find an Israeli tattoo to be a deal-breaker, which Collins said she found “even more distressing.”
She also repeated comments she made a day earlier on Fox News asserting that her support for Israel remains in spite of shifting political winds.
“Our support for Israel remains as strong as ever,” Collins said, to a standing ovation. “We must all stand with Israel. In my case, I learned that lesson at an early age.”
She said that her father, a World War II veteran, taught her from childhood the need to stand against evil. Collins said that her mother also taught her to reject antisemitism, noting that her mother quit her sorority in college after it rejected a fellow student because she was Jewish.
“The friendship that I share with the people of Israel is that which our true nation shares, a friendship that is anchored by common principles, a love of liberty and the courage to defend [them],” Collins said.
The GOP senator, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, also said that a major priority for her this year is to make the U.S.’ defunding of UNRWA permanent. She said that it “should not have been a close call” to cut off U.S. funding to the agency after its employees were revealed to be involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, but that she had to “fight” to add and extend that provision in recent funding bills.
Collins said that the rise in antisemitism since Oct. 7 has “revealed … the oldest hatred is not only still alive, but sicker than ever. Tragically, the prognos is has only worsened since then.”
She praised David Greene, the president of Colby College, in her home state, which she said had not seen the anti-Israel demonstrations and encampments that plagued other colleges. Greene told her that “the key is, you do not negotiate, you do not allow this to occur,” she recalled.
She said Greene had also told her that the protests at other schools were directed by radical professors, graduate assistants and outside agitators, rather than grassroots activities.
Collins said a member of her own congressional staff was assaulted at an encampment at the University of Pittsburgh for carrying an American and an Israeli flag, and that no action was taken against his attacker — something she described as a pattern under the prior presidential administration.
“I think it shows how much we need to do to make sure that our students are [equipped] with the truth,” Collins said.
Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) also spoke at the OU event.
El-Sayed suggests anti-Israel activists indicted because of beliefs, not alleged criminal conspiracy
‘It's a lot more about what you're advocating for that gets you indicted or not indicted, rather than what you did,’ El-Sayed said
Evan Cobb for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks with customers and barbers at Blazin Wade Cuts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.
Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, suggested at an event on Friday that the Trump administration had indicted a group of anti-Israel demonstrators at the University of Michigan for their beliefs, rather than their actions.
The eight defendants, including a former staffer on El-Sayed’s campaign, who were indicted Friday have been accused of a campaign of intimidation against university officials they saw as pro-Israel and vandalism of local Jewish organizations.
“It’s a lot more about what you’re advocating for that gets you indicted or not indicted, rather than what you did,” El-Sayed said, at a Friday campaign event, according to The Detroit News.
Speaking to reporters after the event, El-Sayed said that it’s “just wrong, full stop” to target families, businesses and property as the indicted individuals alleged did, but also drew a contrast between the treatment of the eight indicted individuals and the Trump administration’s mass pardon of those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I believe in justice, because I believe that when you break the law, you should be held accountable, but I don’t love watching our justice system treat people differently based on what it is that they were advocating for,” El-Sayed said. “Targeting people, families, properties, businesses is wrong, of course it’s wrong, but it’s also wrong when Jan. 6 terrorists do it. To watch the same Trump administration use these terms in certain ways — I think we all need to be asking the questions.”
El-Sayed previously faced criticism for his response to the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., which some saw as excusing or rationalizing the attack.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) on X condemned El-Sayed for his “equivocation.”
“The reported planned violence and intimidation at the University of Michigan is wrong. This is simple and any leader should be able to say so,” she said. “The fact my opponent cannot bring himself to say that is concerning.”
In remarks to reporters, she said that she was “concerned about [El-Sayed’s] repeated patterns of embracing political violence and being out of step with Michigan voters,” pointing also to his decision to rally with far-left influencer Hasan Piker at the University of Michigan.
“We need leaders who are going to showcase leadership and be the leaders that we deserve, not continue to divide us and compensate for when people commit violence or threaten violence for political purposes,” she said.
Her comments have prompted scorn from El-Sayed’s campaign and allies.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) responded to Stevens’ X post by copying Stevens’ wording to criticize Stevens for refusing to describe the war in Gaza as a genocide.
Roxie Richner, El-Sayed’s communications director, accused Stevens on X of “sid[ing] with the Trump administration” and said she “can’t string two coherent sentences together.”
“Leadership requires that you have moral clarity and can say words that make sense when put in order,” Richner continued.
Mariam Odeh, a defendant in the case, remained on the Democratic candidate’s payroll until April
Evan Cobb for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed poses for a portrait in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.
One of the eight anti-Israel activists indicted on Wednesday over allegedly threatening University of Michigan officials seen as pro-Israel and vandalizing local Jewish organizations was on the staff of far-left U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as recently as April.
The federal indictment lists Mariam Odeh, 24, of Dearborn, Mich., as one of the defendants who allegedly carried out a series of coordinated actions targeting university leaders or organizations with connections to Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks.
On the one-year anniversary of the attacks, they vandalized Detroit’s Jewish federation building and spray-painted businesses, with words including “intifada,” according to the indictment.
The defendants also forcibly entered and occupied university buildings, defaced property and disrupted campus events — and placed fake bloody corpses outside the homes of multiple university leaders, including then-President Santa Ono, over their perceived support for Israel.
According to a statement in the indictment from Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, the perpetrators — while masked and hooded — “allegedly threw noxious chemicals through the windows of families’ homes and taped demand letters to their front doors” and also “discussed methods by which to harm the targets and their families, including poison, bombs, and psychological torture.”
Odeh, who is listed in the indictment as president of the organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, was paid $154 by El-Sayed’s campaign on March 3 and $593 on March 13, according to fundraising disclosures first obtained by The Detroit News, which reported that the payments were described as salary disbursements.
El-Sayed’s spokesperson, Roxie Richner, told the paper that Odeh was an hourly employee on the campaign for two weeks and has not been affiliated with it since April 15. Odeh was charged with one count of conspiracy to transmit threats in interstate and foreign commerce, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
El-Sayed is one of three candidates in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, alongside Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.
Seen as the most progressive candidate in the race, El-Sayed told Jewish supporters last month that he struggles to answer whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. He said in an interview with CNN in April that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas.
A spokesperson for Rep. Stevens’ campaign, Arik Wolk, told JI on Thursday, “Haley condemns all forms of hate and political violence…antisemitism and political intimidation — especially violence that seeks to silence the voices of others — has no place in Michigan.”
Neither El-Sayed’s nor McMorrow’s campaigns responded to requests for comment from JI about the indictment or about Odeh’s employment on the campaign.
The progressive Israel advocacy group said it did not ‘have anything to share at this time’ about Maine’s scandal-plagued Democratic Senate nominee
Sophie Park/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, left, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during a Fighting Oligarchy event in Portland, Maine, on May 25, 2026.
J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group, is for now withholding an endorsement of Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, underscoring the extent to which even some left-wing Jewish activists appear skeptical of his insurgent campaign.
A spokesperson for J Street told Jewish Insider on Wednesday that the group did not “have anything to share at this time” about a Platner endorsement but would provide more information “if that changes.”
The spokesperson declined to confirm if J Street, which this cycle has backed a handful of Democratic Senate candidates vying for open seats or challenging Republican incumbents, had considered whether it will make an endorsement. The group had told JI in early May that it did “not currently have a position in the race.”
In a statement to JI on Thursday, the spokesperson said that it “is incorrect to frame J Street as actively withholding an endorsement from Graham Platner.”
The group “evaluates candidates and makes endorsement decisions on a rolling basis,” and its “endorsement process is ongoing,” the spokesperson said. “The timing of endorsement decisions does not reflect judgment about any individual candidate.”
J Street’s response came after Platner had clinched the nomination on Tuesday to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), in a high-profile race Democrats see as crucial to reclaiming control of the upper chamber.
Platner won the Democratic primary decisively even as he has faced a mounting series of controversies over alleged “toxic” relationships with past girlfriends, sexual messages he sent to women while married and deleted Reddit comments expressing a range of incendiary views.
He also weathered a scandal relating to a Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades that he covered up last October. Platner has insisted that he did not recognize its imagery, despite claims to the contrary from a former girlfriend who first spoke with JI last year, shortly after he had announced his campaign.
The tattoo, along with Platner’s hostile criticism of Israel and insistent demonization of AIPAC, have stoked ongoing concerns among Jewish Democrats. Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, has said the group is not ready to endorse Platner.
“We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews,” Soifer said in a statement in late April echoing a sense of discomfort with Platner’s candidacy felt by mainstream Jewish leaders.
JDCA had endorsed Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign amid lackluster fundraising but remained on the ballot Tuesday, pulling in 19% of the vote. Platner won 72%.
Following Tuesday’s win, some prominent Senate Democrats have also declined to endorse Platner as he prepares for a bruising and expensive campaign.
J Street, which has moved to the left in recent years as it has sought to capitalize on growing Democratic frustration with Israel, is in many ways aligned with Platner on Middle East policy, including accusations that Israel committed genocide in its war in Gaza and calls to block U.S. military aid to the Jewish state that are now gaining momentum in Congress.
Still, the group has shown its intolerance for some extreme views that could be seen as antisemitic. In 2024, for instance, J Street revoked its endorsement of former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who was at the time fighting for reelection in a bitterly contested primary he would later lose, saying his inflammatory rhetoric on Israel had crossed a line.
Even as the group officially stays on the sidelines in Maine’s marquee Senate race, J Street’s state leader, Steven Koltai, who helped organize a Passover Seder with Platner, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he is “still very much” supporting the oyster farmer and former Marine in spite of recent revelations about his past.
In the statement to JI on Thursday, J Street’s spokesperson said the group “remains steadfast in our commitment to ensuring a pro-Israel, pro-peace majority in the Senate and House come January.”
The Michigan senator endorsed the pro-Israel congresswoman as Craig trails Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan
Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2026.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) announced her endorsement on Thursday of Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) in Minnesota’s Senate primary, calling the moderate congresswoman “a leader and a fighter” who has “stepped up” while serving in the House.
“The Democratic Party needs a new generation of leadership, and we need more of those leaders to be from the Midwest — Angie Craig is both,” Slotkin, a Jewish Democrat viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, said in a statement. “I hope to serve with her in the U.S. Senate.”
Craig, a pro-Israel Democrat, has also earned endorsements from Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), among other lawmakers.
Slotkin’s support comes as polls have shown Craig trailing her Democratic rival in the Aug. 11 primary, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a progressive who has won endorsements from several leading Israel critics such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). Flanagan is also backed by Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), who is retiring at the end of the year.
In the most recent poll, conducted for Flanagan’s campaign between May 31 and June 3, the lieutenant governor held a 17-point lead over Craig, with 55% of the vote share. Other surveys have similarly shown Flanagan with a commanding advantage in the race.
Last month, Craig announced that she would not seek support from the state Democratic Party at its convention, effectively ceding that endorsement to Flanagan, who was widely expected to win.
Earlier, Craig’s campaign had called on the state party to formally investigate a series of alleged instances of antisemitic activity among delegates ahead of the convention, which in recent years has been marked by mounting intraparty divisions over Israel.
There hasn’t been much incentive for party groups to set red lines against radicals looking to disrupt the party in lower-profile races
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Members of the Democratic Socialists of America May 01, 2019 in New York City.
As the Democratic Party lurches left in the run-up to the midterms — and amid the rise of high-profile, far-left Senate candidates such as Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan — candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have gradually been making inroads and positioning themselves to win nominations in several key House races.
This has happened without much protest or opposition from Democratic Party leadership. And given that the urban districts where the DSA-endorsed candidates have the most support are so heavily Democratic, there hasn’t been much incentive for party groups to set red lines against radicals looking to disrupt the party in these lower-profile races.
One of the most insidious aspects of the advocacy of many DSA chapters is the demand that its endorsees cut ties with any Jewish group that recognizes the State of Israel. Some chapters celebrated or justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel.
“They are trying to do in America what [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] seems to do internationally, which is to make being Jewish unacceptable in polite society,” Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, recently said on a webinar of D.C-area Jewish leaders.
But despite the group’s radical views, DSA-endorsed candidates have a real shot at prevailing in several upcoming Democratic primaries in major cities.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, one of several Democrats looking to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA) in his Philadelphia district, has the notoriety of recirculating an Instagram post blaming the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that killed 14 Jewish Australians on “Zionists,” insinuating the terror attack was a false flag. (His campaign later blamed a former staffer for reposting the item.)
Rabb, who has been endorsed by many of the leading anti-Israel progressives in Congress, also recently campaigned with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker. His far-left views and virulent criticism of Israel has alarmed Gov. Josh Shapiro, according to Axios, and the popular Pennsylvania governor has worked behind the scenes to oppose his campaign.
Democratic sources familiar with the primary, however, suggest that any behind-the-scenes efforts aren’t having much effect in derailing the DSA candidate’s campaign. Rabb’s two leading opponents — surgeon Ala Stanford and state Sen. Sharif Street — are both mainstream Democrats and may potentially split the more-moderate vote. The primary is on Tuesday.
Next month, a similar clash between the Democratic mainstream and socialist wing of the party is taking place in New York City, where state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who is backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York’s DSA chapter, is squaring off against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the progressive establishment’s favorite.
The race, in one of the most left-wing districts in the city, which covers part of Brooklyn and Queens, will mark a major test of Mamdani’s political capital — and whether the DSA brand is more compelling to progressives than the endorsement of Reynoso by retiring liberal stalwart Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY).
Reynoso, in an interview with The New York Editorial Board, proclaimed himself the underdog in the race despite boasting endorsements from organized labor, the outgoing congresswoman, state Attorney General Letitia James and the left-wing Working Families Party line. “Zohran Mamdani is a celebrity-status, inspiring figure at the levels of AOC and Bernie Sanders. He is a movement and is deeply important,” Reynoso said.
Meanwhile, in Denver, another DSA hotbed, Rep. Diane DeGette (D-CO) faces a primary threat from DSA-backed challenger Melat Kiros, a 28-year-old attorney. Kiros has made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of her campaign, accusing Israel of genocide, and she supports an arms embargo against the Jewish state. Kiros dominated DeGette at a districtwide party convention filled with activists in March, and the congresswoman has been airing ads touting her progressive record, in anticipation of a competitive June primary.
And in St. Louis, the local DSA chapter is again backing former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who was one of the most extreme anti-Israel lawmakers when serving in Congress, in her attempt at a comeback against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO).
(The other major contest featuring a DSA-endorsed contender is next month’s D.C. mayoral primary, where Jewish groups have been alarmed by Janeese Lewis George’s rhetoric around Israel and antisemitism.)
All told, there could be at least four Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed lawmakers in the next Congress, with limited party efforts to marginalize the extremists from within. It underscores how fast the Democratic Party is evolving, and how quickly the guardrails that kept the party centered — and largely free of antisemitism — are falling out of place.
Plus, Dems concerned over fraying Israel-Europe ties
Daniel Torok/The White House via Getty Images
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) sit in the Situation Room as they monitor the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, at the White House on June 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced this afternoon, with the status of negotiations with Iran up in the air and the expiration of the ceasefire quickly approaching, that he is indefinitely extending the ceasefire at the request of Pakistani negotiators (despite having said, as recently as this morning, that he was not inclined to do so).
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured … we have been asked to hold our Attack … until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other”…
Talks were meant to begin shortly in Islamabad, but Vice President JD Vance’s trip was reportedly put on hold and he remains in Washington. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were all spotted arriving at the White House for meetings this afternoon.
Iran also had not committed to sending its own delegation — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire through its blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, calling it an “act of war. … Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying,” he wrote…
U.S. forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean that had been sanctioned for working with Iran which defense officials said was currently carrying Iranian oil, in a further escalation of the U.S. campaign against Tehran-aligned assets and actors outside of the Middle East.
The Treasury Department also announced sanctions on 14 individuals and entities in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for “their involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian regime”…
Six weeks after he was announced as Iran’s new supreme leader after the assassination of his father, Mojtaba Khamenei has still not been seen in public, raising speculation he is incapacitated from injuries sustained in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike or has been smuggled abroad…
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) endorsed Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) view that the U.S. should reconsider its funding for the Lebanese Armed Forces in light of its continued inaction to disarm Hezbollah, in addition to the Lebanese government’s failure to “follow through on long-promised economic reform. The era of complacency & unconditional bailouts must come to end,” Risch said…
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) clarified that his post calling it “awesome” that several Iranian oil tankers had bypassed the U.S. blockade — reporting that has been disputed as Iranian propaganda — was written as sarcasm. “[O]bviously Trump’s bungled mismanagement of this war is not ‘awesome.’ As I have said a million times here, it’s a disaster and he should end the war immediately,” Murphy wrote on X…
Democratic lawmakers are expressing concern over Israel’s fracturing relationship with key European allies, while experts say the shifting dynamics could carry longer-term economic and political risks for Jerusalem, even if Israel weathers threats to unwind largely symbolic defense agreements, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Among other recent moves, Spain and Ireland led a push today to suspend the EU’s association agreement with Israel. The initiative stalled as member states remained divided on the issue; still, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called the developments “deeply alarming.”
“NATO allies like Spain, France and Italy are turning their backs on Israel, a key democratic partner that is actively fighting on the front lines against Iran,” Gottheimer said. “Singling out Israel represents a double standard”…
The arsonist who pleaded guilty to attacking a North London synagogue on Saturday night was released on bail by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. The 17-year-old boy who threw a bottle containing accelerant through the window of Kenton United Synagogue must live and sleep at his home address and not enter any synagogue, the judge said. It was the third such attack on a Jewish institution in London within a week…
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) resigned from Congress this afternoon, half an hour before her House Ethics Committee sanctions hearing was due to begin. Having lost jurisdiction in the matter, the committee canceled the hearing…
The Board of Peace is reportedly in discussion with the UAE-owned DP World logistics company about managing supply chains and humanitarian aid in Gaza, including potentially building a new port and developing a free-trade zone, according to Financial Times, as part of the Trump administration’s vision of privatizing much of Gaza’s services and infrastructure…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at how Jewish Democrats in Michigan are making sense of their place in the party in the wake of a state convention where pro-Israel voices were shouted down and a pro-Hezbollah candidate won the party’s nomination for a statewide race.
The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing evaluating the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions.
A vote on the fifth Iran war powers resolution in the Senate, expected today, has been pushed to tomorrow.
92NY will host a discussion on the future of New York’s Jewish community with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and New York City Comptroller Mark Levine.
The New York City Council’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will hold its first hearing. The task force was established by Menin in January, shortly after her election, to make recommendations and work towards her five-point plan to combat antisemitism.
Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate will host a unity dinner in partnership with the NFL, Hillel International, United Negro College Fund and the Pittsburgh Steelers for Black and Jewish college students from the Pittsburgh area. The event will include a fireside chat featuring Kraft, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch.
Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie will hold a meet-and-greet with young Jewish professionals.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) will speak in conversation at Yeshiva University with its president, Rabbi Ari Berman, about her new book, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.
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IRON DOME DECISIONS
J Street’s Ilan Goldenberg said the surge in far-left calls to cut off missile-defense aid ‘stirred up the conversation a little more’ but says the group was moving that way regardless
CAMPAIGN CLASH
Adam Hamawy said on Hasan Piker’s show that he does not support Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, arguing that it insulates Israel from the consequences of war
The group is endorsing candidates Ashely Hinson in Iowa, Mike Rogers in Michigan, Kurt Alme in Montana and Michael Whatley in North Carolina
Andrew Roth/Sipa USA via AP Images
Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers attends President Donald Trump's rally in Warren, Mich., on April 29, 2025.
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.
The group also announced endorsements of sitting Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Ashley Moody (R-FL), Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Jon Husted (R-OH), all of whom are up for reelection in November.
“All eight of these incumbent Senators and candidates exemplify what it means to be a true conservative fighter for the American people,” RJC CEO Matt Brooks and National Chairman Norm Coleman said in a statement. “Each has stood firmly against the rising tide of antisemitism, in support of the US-Israel alliance, and for our shared values. The Republican Jewish Coalition knows that these leaders will deliver on the issues of primary concern to the American Jewish community, and we are proud to endorse them.”
The two said that the “frontlines” of the fight to keep the Senate in Republican hands “are in these eight key states” — highlighting the expanding battleground in this November’s Senate contests.
The RJC, in a statement, particularly highlighted Whatley’s work to support Israel and the Jewish community following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, describing him as “outspoken in his support for our greatest ally [who] forcefully condemned Hamas terrorism, and reaffirmed the Republican Party’s unwavering backing of Israel’s right to defend itself.”
RJC was a key backer of Rogers in the 2024 Senate race, and is expected to be strongly involved again in the Michigan race.
Plus, Israel-Lebanon talks to continue Thursday
Edna Leshowitz/Getty Images
Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John. F Kennedy who is currently running for Congress, on Jan. 12, 2026 in New York City.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Iranian officials have signaled they will attend talks with the U.S. in Islamabad, Pakistan, this week, with Vice President JD Vance, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to depart for the meeting tomorrow (despite President Donald Trump’s claim that they were already in transit this morning).
Negotiators are up against a running clock, as Trump said today that his two-week ceasefire with Iran will end “Wednesday evening Washington time” and it’s “highly unlikely that I’d extend it” if no deal is reached…
In a series of heated social media posts, Trump again denied that Israel dragged the U.S. into war with Iran: “[T]he results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” were his motivation, he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also boasted that the deal under negotiation will be “far better” than the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “If a Deal happens under ‘TRUMP,’ it will guarantee Peace, Security, and Safety, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for Europe, America, and everywhere else,” he wrote. Lashing out at the media, Trump insisted, “I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well,” claiming the U.S. blockade, “which we will not take off until there is a ‘DEAL,’ is absolutely destroying Iran”…
The State Department confirmed that the U.S. will host the second round of ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday, as the 10-day ceasefire between the two countries that began last Thursday, after the first round of talks, continues to hold…
Republican operatives and strategists are growing increasingly concerned that the GOP may lose the Senate in the midterm elections, several told Politico, as rising gas prices and unease around the war with Iran create a poor national environment for Trump’s party.
The New York Times’ Nate Cohn argues that Democrats have a “realistic chance” to flip the four seats they need to win back the chamber because “they’ve recruited unusually strong candidates in three states that supported Mr. Trump three times: North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska.”
“In all three states, the Democrats’ likely nominees are popular recent statewide office holders. They either won their last campaign or were highly competitive in losing re-election under less favorable political conditions. So far, the polls show those Democrats running well ahead of what one might otherwise expect,” Cohn writes…
Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg’s shifting views on Israel policy and decision to skip two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums are raising eyebrows in New York’s heavily Jewish 12th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
During a candidate forum at 92NY last week, for example, Schlossberg rejected continued U.S. funding for offensive weapons to Israel amid the war in Iran — even as he emphasized support for boosting the Iron Dome missile-defense system, which he described as a “critical” technology…
Minnesota’s Democratic Party is poised to endorse progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for U.S. Senate at its convention next month, Flanagan’s campaign said, after the lieutenant governor secured support from over 90% of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party local conventions held statewide. The party endorsement, however, will not determine the nominee, as Democratic voters are set to choose their candidate in the Aug. 11 primary election.
The campaign of Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), Flanagan’s primary opponent and the favorite of pro-Israel activists, called on the DFL last week to launch a formal investigation into a series of alleged instances of antisemitic activity among its delegates. One instance at a local convention last month reportedly saw an unnamed delegate argue that “we should nuke” Israel…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the growing feud between Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which “spilled out into public view on Thursday, when Driscoll described to lawmakers his fondness for the Army’s former top general, Randy George, whom Hegseth fired as the service’s chief of staff on April 2 while Driscoll was on vacation”…
A Washington Post investigation found that, since January 2025, neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes has made nearly $900,000 through paid messages on his livestreams from roughly 11,000 fans. His top 500 donors are responsible for almost half of that amount…
The UAE has asked the U.S. to consider offering it financial assistance amid the war with Iran, as the Gulf country has borne the brunt of Iran’s drone and missile strikes, taking a heavy toll on its oil, economic and tourism industries. Emirati officials raised the idea of a currency-swap line, which would allow Abu Dhabi inexpensive access to U.S. dollars…
European officials hosted two meetings on Gaza reconstruction today — one gathering, led by EU representative Kaja Kallas and Norway, centered on coordinating aid with the U.S.-led Board of Peace, where White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum requested international assistance in rebuilding the enclave. The other forum, led by Kallas and Belgium, focused on a two-state solution and was attended by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa…
In response to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s condemnation of an IDF soldier found to have desecrated a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon, Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, accused the IDF of committing war crimes.
“Lessons should also be drawn regarding the way they are being trained,” Sikorski wrote on X. “IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages”…
Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar affirmed that his country is bound by rules of the International Criminal Court to arrest those sought under its warrants, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Magyar said he intends to prevent Hungary from leaving the ICC, a move his predecessor, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, had initiated.
Responding to questions about Netanyahu’s claim that Magyar had invited him to the country for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising, Magyar responded, “Every leader is welcome to attend this important commemoration,” but “we have a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, and I’m sure [Netanyahu] knows this”…
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced this afternoon that he will step down from the helm of the tech giant and become its executive chairman in September. Succeeding Cook is John Ternus, head of the company’s hardware engineering…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for an interview with Rachel Goldberg-Polin on the release of her book, When We See You Again, which debuts tomorrow.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a nomination hearing for Kevin Warsh, son-in-law of Jewish philanthropist Ronald Lauder, to be chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Democrats intend to press Warsh on his personal fortune, which he has only partially disclosed thus far.
The House Ethics Committee will hold a public hearing to determine whether to apply sanctions to Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), after finding last month that she had committed serious ethics violations and campaign finance misconduct.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission will hold a hearing on Iran’s support for Russia amid its war with Ukraine.
The Senate Foreign Relation Committee’s subcommittee on Africa will hold a hearing on U.S. approaches to counterterrorism on the continent.
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LATIN LINKS
An Israeli diplomatic source told JI that Ecuador and Paraguay are expected to join the Isaac Accords
MICHIGAN MOMENT
Platner, in Reddit post on Hamas terrorist attack: ‘From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent’
The Michigan Senate candidate also said in the CNN interview that he supports Chris Van Hollen as Senate Democratic leader over Chuck Schumer
Evan Cobb for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks with customers and barbers at Blazin Wade Cuts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.
Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said in an interview with CNN that aired Sunday that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas.
Responding to a question from CNN anchor Manu Raju on that issue, El-Sayed answered in the affirmative, adding, “Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil. It’s not, ‘How evil is this one versus that one?’ Hamas — evil. Israeli government — evil. We can say both,” he said.
He also said that he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and responsible for a genocide.
El-Sayed also defended his decision to campaign with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, brushing off criticisms of Piker as “cancel culture.”
“My understanding of America is, it’s a place where we have freedom of speech. My understanding of America is, it’s a place where we’re willing to have conversations with folks with whom we disagree,” El-Sayed said. “I went on ‘Fox and Friends’ this morning. Is it un-American to go and speak on ‘Fox and Friends’? Or are we drawing certain kinds of lines? And it’s that penchant for cancel culture that I think people hate about Democrats.”
He said that Piker is “having a conversation with a number of folks who feel locked out.”
El-Sayed also said that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) should replace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the Democratic leader in the Senate, due to Schumer’s continued support for U.S. aid to Israel. Van Hollen is among the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate.
Michigan has been a closely watched bellwether of the direction of the Democratic Party, and El-Sayed’s candidacy — defined by his virulent anti-Israel rhetoric — will test how hostile Democratic partisans have become toward Israel.
At the state’s Democratic nominating convention on Sunday, which all three Senate candidates attended, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) was booed by a contingent of left-wing activists hostile to her longstanding support for Israel.
Also receiving heckles from a loud contingent of Democratic delegates: a speaker supporting Jordan Acker, who is seeking reelection to the University of Michigan Board of Regents. Acker has been targeted by the university’s anti-Israel activists, facing harassment and vandalism of his home that Michigan leaders have called plainly antisemitic.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a party event the day prior to the convention, where she said President Donald Trump “got pulled into” the war in Iran by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that the war “has always been [Trump’s] feeble attempt to distract from the Epstein files.”
Attendees included Sen. Chris Murphy, Israeli lawmaker Ahmed Tibi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Lula de Silva
Elisa Schu/picture alliance via Getty Images
Alex Soros speaks during the presentation of the European Civil Rights Prize for Sinti and Roma on Oct, 23 2025.
A range of Israel critics, from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) to Israeli lawmaker Ahmed Tibi, were among those gathered in Barcelona, Spain, over the weekend for the inaugural Global Progressive Summit, backed by left-wing philanthropist Alex Soros.
The conference brought together representatives from over 40 countries, offering, according to its website, “a necessary alternative to conservative and far-right forces.” Among its goals, the site says, is “to make progressive solutions visible and credible, proving they are the key to humanity’s prosperity.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of Israel who called on Saturday to downgrade EU-Israel relations, hosted the two-day conference, whose American attendees also included Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, with Soros.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent video messages.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose government petitioned the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders, Brazilian President Lula de Silva and U.K. Justice Secretary David Lammy were also in attendance.
Tibi is one of the Knesset’s veteran Arab lawmakers and a former advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Other prominent attendees included former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh; Neera Tanden, CEO of the Center for American Progress; and Owen Jones, a writer and former advisor to former U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was stripped of his leadership position and ultimately booted from the party over his antisemitic views.
Bringing some ideological diversity to the attendee lineup were Clinton, who has been broadly supportive of Israel in recent years; Tanden, a longtime Clinton confidante; and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a supporter of Israel and chairman of the Albanian Socialist Party. (Clinton’s longtime aide Huma Abedin is married to Alex Soros.)
Murphy said in his remarks that Trump “is out to end our democracy. We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover, we are in the middle of it.”
Lula called on U.N. Security Council members to “fulfill their obligation and guarantee peace,” and “stop this madness of war, because the world cannot bear anymore wars.”
Sánchez spoke about “attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” an apparent reference to the recent war in Iran.
”They know their vision of how the world should be ordered is falling apart due to the tariffs and wars,” he added.
Soros, one of the progressive movement’s most influential donors and son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, has also been outspoken against the war in Iran, praising Spain for refusing to allow the U.S. to use bases on its soil and reprimanding other European countries for not doing the same.
Trump has criticized Sánchez for Spain’s recalcitrance regarding the Iran war, including on Saturday, writing on Truth Social: “Has anyone looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to Sánchez’s call to downgrade relations between the EU and Israel, writing on X that Jerusalem “will not accept a hypocritical lecture from someone who has relationships with totalitarian regimes that violate human rights, such as [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s Turkey and [Nicolas] Maduro’s Venezuela, a government that receives thanks from Iran’s brutal regime and terrorist organizations and has dedicated itself to spreading antisemitism.”
The swing-district Republican is the first GOP lawmaker other than isolationist Thomas Massie to support constraining the administration’s military operations in Iran
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) talks with a reporter in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall on Friday, March 27, 2026.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a moderate Republican and co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, introduced a war powers resolution on Thursday that aims to enforce the deadlines for the war in Iran laid out in the 1973 War Powers Act.
Fitzpatrick is the first Republican — other than isolationist Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) — to introduce legislation that would constrain the administration’s ability to act in Iran. The move is a signal that GOP support for the effort could begin to erode if the administration disregards legal limitations on the length of its operation in Iran.
The War Powers Act limits any military operation initiated unilaterally by the executive branch to 60 days, with an additional 30-day drawdown period, unless the operations are subsequently authorized by Congress. The 60-day period will expire at the end of April.
“The War Powers Act of 1973 is the law of the land,” Fitzpatrick said. “This consistent standard must be applied to all past, current, and future administrations when it comes to military hostilities abroad. … This is the law that has applied to past administrations, and it is the law that will apply to current and future administrations. This is the law and, until it is changed, it will be consistently applied and consistently enforced across all administrations and all conflicts.”
Other Republicans, including moderates, have also indicated that they would be uncomfortable with or unable to support any military operations in Iran past the 60-day deadline without additional congressional authorization — though some have said they would support such an authorization.
Yet, others have argued that the limitations in the War Powers Act are not legally binding and say Republicans on the Hill will disregard them.
Running in a highly competitive district, Fitzpatrick’s move could also be a sign of discomfort with the continued war effort among swing-district Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.
While Democrat Analilia Mejia comfortably won the special election to succeed Mikie Sherrill, Jewish voters swung to the right
Heather Khalifa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Analilia Mejia, US Democratic House candidate for New Jersey, speaks to members of the media outside of the Montclair Municipal Building on the first day of early voting in Montclair, New Jersey, US, on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026.
Rep.-elect Analilia Mejia (D-NJ) cruised to victory in last Thursday’s special election for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, but the results showed notable defections among Jewish Democrats — an early warning sign for both the left-wing Mejia and her party.
Mejia ran significantly behind other recent Democratic candidates in two municipalities that have traditionally strongly favored Democrats — Livingston Township and Millburn Township — both areas with significant Jewish populations. In Millburn, Mejia lagged 22 percentage points behind former Vice President Kamala Harris’ performance in the 2024 presidential election, and 17 percentage points behind Harris in Livingston.
Dan Cassino, the director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll, said that, given that Livingston favored Democrats by 34 percentage points but Mejia won it by just two, “you could count [that] as a 32-point underperformance.”
Joe Hathaway, the GOP nominee against Mejia, worked during his campaign to attract Jewish voters, casting himself as a moderate centrist and Mejia as an antisemitic extremist.
Jeff Grayzel, the deputy mayor of Morris Township who ran in the Democratic primary against Mejia, said that the special election presented an “actual Sophie’s choice” for Jewish Democrats.
“Some Jews surely voted for her because of their anger with President [Donald] Trump. But many Jewish Democrats I spoke to refused to support Mejia because of her genocide position,” Grayzel, who had hoped to rally support from Jewish voters across the district in the primary, said. Mejia accused the Jewish state of genocide shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
“So some Jewish Democrats voted for Hathaway, which was evidenced by the result in Livingston, and others simply stayed home,” Grayzel continued. “We will see from voter turnout data how many Jews actually sat out this election. Unfortunately, our voice is our vote, and declining to vote will only hurt the Jewish community in the long run.”
Jason Shames, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, said “it’s disappointing to see someone representing New Jersey or any district in America who not only doesn’t fight antisemitism but seemingly aligns with those who delegitimize Israel. Her comments on Israel’s self defense to the horrific terror attack by Palestinians [are] alarming and should not be dismissed.”
Cassino said that while Mejia outperformed other Democrats who have run in this district, she “did slightly worse than we would have expected from a generic Democrat in the special election,” given that the environment strongly favored Democrats.
Cassino said that it’s a “reasonable hypothesis” that attacks on Mejia’s stance on Middle East policy drove Democrats in Millburn and Livingston to vote for Hathaway.
“I would be really cautious, though, about saying that her stance on Palestine, or any other issue, cost her any particular number of votes, because all of these numbers are conditional on turnout,” he added, noting that all of the voters who turned out for Mejia might not have turned out for a different Democratic candidate.
Cassino said that strategists are likely to read the results to mean that attacks on Mejia’s stance on Israel were effective.
“Maybe the most important thing here is that strategists — Democrats and Republicans alike — are going to look at these results and conclude that the attacks on Mejia worked, and ramp them up in November,” he added. “They’re also likely to try and use them against any candidate where they might plausibly stick. So, I hope voters liked those ads, because they’re going to be seeing a lot more of them.”
Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said that the apparent protest votes in the Jewish community “could … matter in a different election,” but this time, “Mejia picked up other votes in their place.”
“A lot is being made about these 900 or so votes, and I want to be balanced about how I see them. Yes, they were certainly noticeable. Yes, you can never take any voting bloc for granted,” Rasmussen added. “But electoral coalitions do shift. What can’t be denied is that Mejia’s current margin of 19.5 percent is larger than any other candidate for federal or statewide office since [former Rep.] Rodney Frelinghuysen’s (D-NJ) 25.2 percent win over Mark Dunec in 2014.”
‘The guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and now that’s no problem for a lot of voters. … That’s crazy,’ Fetterman told CNN
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is seen after the Senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Friday that the Democratic Party “absolutely” has an issue with rising antisemitism, calling out the party’s embrace of candidates including Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan while criticizing the recent progressive push to cut off defensive aid to Israel.
The Pennsylvania senator made the comments after being asked on CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt” if he believed the Democratic Party has a problem with antisemitism. Fetterman argued that the growing support for both candidates in their respective primaries was indicative of a tolerance for antisemitism within the party.
He pointed to Platner surviving the controversy surrounding his Nazi tattoo and Jewish Insider’s reporting in recent days that the first-time candidate repeatedly praised Hamas’ tactics in a 2014 Reddit forum that shared video of the terrorist group killing several Israeli soldiers.
“I mean, the guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and now that’s no problem for a lot of voters,” Fetterman said. “I don’t know why. That’s crazy. And now, I mean, we know he knows, he knew what that was. I mean, if you’re back over 12, 13 years, cheering about the death of Israeli soldiers, I mean, you clearly have a serious issue, and the left has a serious issue with antisemitism.”
“It was just released that he was praising and celebrating a video online where Hamas was beating and torturing Israeli soldiers to death,” Fetterman said, referring to Platner.
Fetterman also made note of El-Sayed’s lead in one recent primary poll despite his decision to campaign alongside antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
“The guy in Michigan, he’s leading now in that race, as my party becomes more and more hostile to Israel,” Fetterman said. “They’re just palling around someone like Hasan Piker, you know the guy that, absolutely, I mean, he absolutely is proud to cheer for Hamas, loves Hamas.”
“The Democrats are proud to stand with him and campaign with him,” he added. “Go ahead, try to win Pennsylvania and campaign around Hasan Piker, or saying, ‘Yeah, America deserved 9/11’ or ‘Hamas is 1,000% better than Israel’ or ‘I don’t care about the rapes and for all this other things.’ We have a serious problem with my party.”
Fetterman, one of most vocal pro-Israel Democrats in the Senate, told Hunt that Israel is “becoming more and more toxic for a Democrat to support,” pointing out that “80% of Democrats view Israel in a negative way.” He specifically condemned the uptick in progressive and far-left voices coming out against continued defensive aid to Israel.
“You have people like [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] voting against Iron Dome, the technology that prevents tens and tens of [thousands] of Israeli deaths from the rockets that those cowards fire at civilians,” he said.
Fetterman went on to criticize members of his party for opposing the war in Iran, saying that there were other Democrats who felt the same as him in supporting the effort but were not speaking out because doing so would be “politically toxic.”
“Every single Democrat has already been on record saying, ‘We can‘t ever allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb,’” Fetterman said, specifically naming former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and “everyone that’s run for president” who said “we can’t ever allow that to happen.”
“Then, [President Donald] Trump happened to do something about that to prevent that. That’s why I support that,” he continued. “I’m not the only Democrat who supports this, but I’m the only Democrat that’s willing to stand up and say it’s the right thing because I know how politically toxic it is as a Democrat to support this.”
Fetterman surmised that he is the “only Democrat … perhaps left in the entire Congress” who will say publicly that recent U.S. military action in Iran “was necessary” because doing so “contradicts every single thing that every Democrat has said” about how “we can’t ever allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb.”
Fetterman went on to criticize the Democratic lawmakers who voted for the recent war powers resolutions in the House and Senate, arguing that their opposition to the war has been “celebrated” by Iranian leadership and calling their response to the conflict “absurd.”
“Iran has celebrated this,” Fetterman said of the broad Democratic opposition. “A lot of people in my party and a lot of people in the media has turned Iran into the underdog. They’re like Rudy” — making a reference to the 1993 sports movie — “and putting them up on their shoulders and cheering for Iran at this point.”
Asked to respond to Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-MI) statement that “being pro-Israel today is not about simply supporting the political or military agenda of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, just like being pro-American should not be equated with loyalty to President Trump,” Fetterman argued that her comments on her votes for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) measures on Thursday blocking military sales to Israel were similarly “absurd.”
“She’s a Democratic senator. Why aren’t you criticizing Iran? Why aren’t you criticizing Hamas or Hezbollah or these other kinds of forces? If you have to pick a side here, criticize that. So that’s where we are as a Democratic Party, and you’re going to vote against the kinds of critical aid that Israel requires and needs in order to beat back and destroy an organization like Hezbollah. Like I said, if you have to pick a side in a war, and clearly we have a side, I’m proud to stand on the side of Israel and America.”
Pressed on if he was still committed to being a Democrat given that his comments marked his harshest criticism yet of his party, Fetterman responded affirmatively.
“Well, of course. Yeah, I am absolutely committed to [remaining a] Democrat, absolutely,” Fetterman said. “I vote 91, 92 percent the Democratic line, but I am the only Democrat now that’s proud to consistently stand with Israel, and I’m going to do that, and that’s been very damaging with my standing as a Democrat.”
“If it’s what’s necessary, I’ll be the last Democrat standing with Israel through this,” he later added.
Fetterman also predicted that the war in Iran would not go on much longer, noting that “things kind of continue to wind down,” and said it’s “important to support” the U.S. securing an outcome in which Iranian leadership “surrenders.”
“I think these are very positive developments,” he said of Israel and the U.S. targeting Iran and their leading proxies.
“I think it seems like it’s going to wind down,” Fetterman said. “And we’re heading to a strong end at this point.”
The president also denied reports that the U.S. is willing to exchange funds for Iran’s enriched uranium
SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine speaks as a map of the Strait of Hormuz is displayed during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2026.
As the first day of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire held strong, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared the Strait of Hormuz “completely open” for the duration of the 10-day pause in hostilities.
President Donald Trump affirmed the strait is “ready for business and full passage” in a Truth Social post, but said the U.S.’ naval blockade “will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran, only, until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete.”
“This process should go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated,” he added, as Trump has indicated U.S. and Iranian negotiators may meet again in Islamabad, Pakistan, over the weekend.
“Iran, with the help of the U.S.A., has removed, or is removing, all sea mines” from the strait, Trump said in another post. “Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World!” he added later.
Trump seemingly denied an Axios report that the U.S. is prepared to offer Iran the release of $20 billion in frozen funds in exchange for Iran relinquishing its highly enriched uranium, which Trump often refers to as “nuclear dust.”
“The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘Dust,’ created by our great B2 Bombers,” he wrote, but “no money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.”
“This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either,” he added. “The USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezboolah [sic] situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!!” Trump said.
The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which began at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, has held as of Friday morning. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that, at Trump’s request, Israel will “provide an opportunity to advance an integrated diplomatic and military solution with the Lebanese government.”
Israel has destroyed 90% of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket stockpiles, Netanyahu said in the statement — which was made prior to Trump declaring that Israel is “prohibited” from striking Lebanon — “but I say honestly, we have not finished the job. There are things we plan to do regarding the remaining rocket threat and the drone threat, which I will not detail here.”
And, Netanyahu added, “we have an additional goal, and that is the dismantling of Hezbollah. Therefore, I tell you again in all honesty: This will not be achieved tomorrow. It requires sustained effort, patience and endurance, and it requires wise navigation of the diplomatic field.”
“For the first time in 43 years, representatives of the State of Israel are speaking directly with representatives of Lebanon. The road to peace is still long, but we have begun it. One of our hands holds a weapon; our other hand is extended in peace,” the prime minister said.
In conversation with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Kurtzer said the Jewish community is caught between the illiberalism of the left and the illiberalism of the right
Shalom Hartman Institute
Yehuda Kurtzer
Amid a surge in antisemitism across the political spectrum, many American Jews have described feeling a growing sense of isolation. But for Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, being “politically homeless” is not a crisis to be solved, but rather a position to be embraced.
“I don’t think some measure of political homelessness is a fundamentally bad thing,” Kurtzer said on Thursday while speaking alongside Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. “I think Americans have become hyper-partisan in ways that reflect that partisan political identity has become part of our identities in ways that are not healthy for Americans.”
Kurtzer and Goldberg sat in conversation at an event focused on American Jewry ahead of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Kurtzer argued that hyper-partisanship is particularly dangerous for the Jewish community, noting that Jews “believe in the notion that we are tethered to other people regardless of what they believe.” He said American Jews “should take that same ethos and apply it to what it means to be an American as well.”
“Choosing a side has never worked for Jews because when you get out of the hall to power, you will be identified as the exemplar of that political attitude that can now be destroyed,” Kurtzer said.
“Now we’re stuck as an American Jewish community between an illiberal argument on the right, which is currently in power, and an illiberalism of the left,” Kurtzer continued. “We don’t have a choice as American Jews but to fight for the very liberal framework that resists the authoritarianism of the right and resists the authoritarianism of the left and insists that this is the only way we can make it work for ourselves.”
This tension is especially acute on university campuses, Kurtzer said, where he believes “progressivism” has played “a major role in shutting down the pluralistic discourse that a university campus is supposed to inhabit.”
“I think there’s an immense amount of shame that travels for American Jews, especially for young people, about association with Israel,” Kurtzer said. “At a moment like this, it’s very hard to get past that shame with even rational arguments.”
However, Kurtzer suggested that young Jews may be uniquely positioned to model a “healthy political alternative” by demonstrating how to navigate complex discourse. He noted that since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, many Jews feel “a greater sense of attachment to the Jewish community and Jewish lives and even the State of Israel.”
He argued that American Jews must “find a way to articulate the thickness of our relationship to Israel and the Jewish people that is not perpetually under the test of what the Israeli government does today and tomorrow.”
Kurtzer also warned that the American Jewish community has grown too “comfortable” being part of the daily fabric of American life.
“Jews wrote the soundtrack to American patriotism. We engaged in that project,” he said. “The thing that I think the American Jewish community has let go of is that we became comfortable saying, ‘We’re now insiders to that project. We no longer need to be active creators of the American story.’ We just get to kind of sit on our laurels.”
While Kurtzer called for further engagement from the Jewish community in American life and political processes, he explained that the strength of the community also lies in its willingness to remain distinct.
“It’s OK and probably important for Judaism to maintain some dimension of counter-culturalism,” Kurtzer said. “Some dimension of insisting that in a radical technological world, anti-technological behaviors like turning off your phone for 25 hours a week are actually good.”
Plus, Elise Stefanik on her new book and next moves
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Committee members wait for the beginning of a meeting of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaw Committee in Washington, DC
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the social media activity of the incoming head of progressive campus advocacy group More Perfect University, who liked and shared content justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, and talk to Rep. Elise Stefanik about her new book on higher education and post-Congress plans. We cover yesterday’s inaugural Brandeis Center conference on antisemitism at Harvard University, and have the scoop on a push by Senate lawmakersfor $750 million in security grant funding for next fiscal year. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Stephen Feinberg, Rom Braslavski and Matan Grinberg.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from 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: ‘I dig it’: Graham Platner praised Hamas tactics in 2014 graphic video of killings of Israeli soldiers; From trauma to table: An Israeli duo uses food therapy and song to foster connection; and Former Rep. Eliot Engel, Foreign Affairs Committee chair and stalwart supporter of Israel, dies at 79. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- The next round of U.S.-Iran talks could take place as soon as this weekend, President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday, adding that “Iran wants to make a deal, and we’re dealing very nicely with them.” The president suggested earlier in the day that he could travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, for a signing ceremony if an agreement with Tehran is reached.
- We’re keeping an eye on the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that went into effect last evening. More below on the ceasefire and the Trump administration’s efforts to convene a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
- U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are co-chairing a virtual meeting today aimed at developing a postwar plan to deploy a multinational force to ensure secure transit through the Strait of Hormuz once the U.S. blockade of the waterway lifts.
- The Michigan Democratic Party is holding its endorsement convention on Sunday, where the party will nominate a number of candidates, including its choices for the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents. Read our recent reporting on the regent race, in which Dearborn lawyer Amir Makled is seeking to unseat Jordan Acker, who is Jewish, over his support for Israel.
- On Sunday night, Rachel Goldberg-Polin will be interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CBS’s “60 Minutes” ahead of the release on Tuesday of her new book, When We See You Again, about grieving the death of her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in Hamas captivity.
- Elsewhere on Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is slated to campaign with Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who earlier this week was revealed to have praised a deadly 2014 Hamas attack on an Israeli military base.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD
The Democratic shift on Israel policy was on full, dramatic display on the Senate floor on Wednesday night as 40 of 47 Senate Democrats voted for at least one of two resolutions to block U.S. shipments of bulldozers and bombs to Israel.
The votes left many pro-Israel Democrats shocked and disillusioned — exemplified in the muted statements, if any, on the vote from key pro-Israel groups — and is being seen by some as the marker of a new era of Democratic policy on Israel, in which critics of Israel are firmly in the party mainstream.
“It’s yet another data point that the bipartisan consensus [in support of Israel] is, at least at the moment, no longer,” a former Biden administration official told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “Democrats think it’s politically advantageous to take these votes that would have been completely out-of-bounds just two-and-a-half years ago. … It’s deeply concerning if you care about the relationship, if you care about the security of [Israel]. But that’s the state of play at the moment, I think until or unless there’s an event that changes the trajectory.”
Abe Foxman, the former head of the Anti-Defamation League, said the vote highlights the “progressive socialist wing” of the Democratic Party’s increasing takeover. “This is a calamity for the Democratic Party, if it will not be contained and stopped,” Foxman told JI. “What’s also disturbing to me is that this litmus test is being first administered to every Jewish candidate.”
He added that the votes send a terrible message to U.S. allies beyond Israel that the U.S. can’t be relied upon.
SCOOP
Elise Joshi, a Gen Z activist and influencer who is taking the helm of a newly launched progressive campus advocacy group affiliated with the prominent left-wing media organization More Perfect Union, liked social media posts justifying the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and expressed similar sentiments in at least one now-deleted X comment, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Social media history: In one since-removed X comment from Oct. 7, 2023, for instance, Joshi suggested the Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages were an act of justified resistance linked to a broader movement including violent efforts to oppose slavery, apartheid and colonialism. Joshi, who at the time was a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she emerged as an outspoken youth activist with a sizable following on TikTok, also liked some comments posted on the day of the attack that expressed similar views, other screenshots show — including by one user who had asked, “What did y’all think decolonization meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.”
partner posts
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to speak directly to his wife’s inflammatory social media history, a day after First Lady Rama Duwaji indicated in an interview she regrets posting a racial slur online while in high school, but stopped short of apologizing for much more recent activity signaling support for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Playing defense: Mamdani refused to directly answer the question when pressed in person on Thursday, preferring instead to praise Duwaji personally. “You know, she shared some of her reflections in this interview. I won’t add much to them,” the mayor said following an unrelated City Hall press conference. “What I will say, however, is that she is someone of incredible integrity, she is someone I am lucky to be able to call my wife and that I am proud of her each and every day.”
CAMPUS SCRUTINY
The Trump administration official leading a controversial probe into antisemitism at the University of Pennsylvania told Jewish leaders and legal experts on Thursday that compiling a list of Jewish faculty with their detailed personal information was necessary to identify and protect victims, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’s inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law, held at Harvard University. Last month, a federal judge ordered Penn to comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration requesting detailed information about Jewish university affiliates as part of the EEOC’s ongoing investigation into Penn’s handling of antisemitism.
Collecting names: “There is no other way to protect victims of harassment or discrimination unless you collect information about them,” Andrea Lucas, chair of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said. “The EEOC’s long-standing practice is to collect personal information because we want to make sure that there is not any clear monitoring of your email systems … that when you speak to a government agency you feel completely not pressured.”
BOOKSHELF
As she prepares to leave Congress next year, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is out with a new book on campus antisemitism, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities, recounting her work in the fight that made her a household name in the American Jewish community and beyond, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “We’re putting this [book] out in the world and helping set the tone for the type of leadership we need in New York and, frankly, across the country,” Stefanik told JI.
What she said: More than two years after the first House hearing with college presidents on campus antisemitism, Stefanik offered a mixed readout on how she sees the state of American higher education in an interview with JI this week, while praising the ongoing work of the Trump administration on the issue. She also largely dismissed the idea that antisemitism on the right is, or could become, a significant problem within the GOP, arguing that GOP voters reject it in a way that Democrats haven’t. And though she passed on a 2026 gubernatorial run, Stefanik seems to have longer-term plans in New York politics.
WAR UPDATE
President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday, after holding separate calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Peace push: “These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE,” the president wrote on Truth Social. Trump added in a second post that he will be inviting Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for “meaningful talks.” Netanyahu said in a statement that he had agreed to the ceasefire “to try and advance the agreement we began discussing during the meeting of ambassadors in Washington” on Tuesday, which were the highest-level discussions between Jerusalem and Beirut in over 30 years.
Bonus: Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea talks to former U.S. officials, including former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and former Iran envoy Elliott Abrams, about Hamas’ rejection of the U.S.-led Board of Peace’s disarmament framework and failure to comply with key demilitarization deadlines.
SCOOP
Saying that funding to protect synagogues and other religious-based nonprofits “has not kept pace to meet the moment,” 41 senators — almost exclusively Democrats — wrote to leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee urging members to provide $750 million in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2027, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Increasing need: Last year, 33 senators requested $500 million for the program, a record-high request at the time. This year’s request represents a new high-water mark, both in terms of the funding requested and the number of lawmakers who signed the bipartisan letter in support. “The threat of violence is unfortunately increasing at places of worship across our country at alarming rates,” the lawmakers wrote, citing “an increase in hoax bomb threats and attacks against houses of worship that are intended to interrupt services and intimidate worshippers” in recent years, as well as “an increase in antisemitic incidents across the country following the October 7th attack on Israel.”
Worthy Reads
Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: The Atlantic’s David Brooks opines that modernism has unintentionally caused a “reversion to authoritarian strongmen,” rather than a move toward liberal democracy and expanded personal choice. “Maybe you’ve seen photos of Tehran in the 1970s, just before the Islamic Revolution: images of young women going to work in miniskirts, of couples making out in parks while wearing bell-bottoms, of people at pools in bikinis. It looks like Paris or Milan or Los Angeles. But in 1979 the revolution happened, and now Tehran looks like something from an earlier century. Sometimes I think that our whole world has become kind of like that — going backwards in time. The religious movements thriving in today’s secularized age are the traditionalist ones that dissent from large parts of contemporary culture — not only the Shiite Islam of post-revolution Iran, but Orthodox Judaism and conservative Catholicism.” [TheAtlantic]
Raw Deal: In The Washington Post, RedBird Capital partner Hamid Biglari, who left Iran in 1976, suggests that the Trump administration is making three rectifiable errors in its approach to talks with Iran: negotiating with the wrong representative, ignoring the Iranian public and misgauging Iran’s strategy of slow-walking conflict resolution. “Require a single reconciled text — English and Persian — before any point is treated as agreed upon. Embed automatic escalation triggers in the ceasefire agreement itself, removing the deliberation window that managed irresolution depends on. And make the Iranian population a formal variable: Tie sanctions relief to measurable civilian benchmarks, including restored internet access and a moratorium on political executions. And have reconstruction funds monitored by international bodies rather than IRGC-controlled banks.” [WashPost]
Kennedy Center Calamity: In The Atlantic, Josef Palermo, who until last month served as the Kennedy Center’s first curator of visual arts, reflects on the decisions made by the Trump administration and Ric Grenell, the center’s former acting director, to reform and restructure the institution, including doing away with its Israel Lounge. “Speaking at the opening reception [of an Oct. 7 commemoration event last fall], Grenell warned the mostly Jewish audience that unless donors came forward to sponsor the space and pay for renovation costs, the lounge would be given away to a new donor. ‘It certainly would be a shame if we lost this room to a corporation or an individual and it was no longer the [Israeli] lounge,’ he said. Such a strong-armed fundraising pitch, at an event commemorating a pogrom, struck many of us in the room as inappropriate. I was mortified.”[TheAtlantic]
Not Doing Israel’s Bidding: The Jerusalem Journal’s Avi Mayer posits that claims that Israel pulled the U.S. into war with Iran are factually inaccurate and play into antisemitic tropes. “The reality is that President Trump’s decision to launch the military campaign in Iran was driven by far more than any single ally’s wishes, and claiming otherwise betrays, at best, a lack of familiarity with either the facts or how consequential decisions are made by American presidents. … To focus on Israel’s role while ignoring all other factors and considerations is to ascribe to the Jewish state outsized, almost mystical influence over American policy — a modern echo of dark tropes from bygone eras.” [JerusalemJournal]
Word on the Street
Progressive organizer Analilia Mejia, an outspoken critic of Israel, easily defeated Republican Joe Hathaway in the special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District on Thursday. With most of the vote counted, Mejia is leading Hathaway by 20 points (60-40%), a sizable margin that’s larger than Kamala Harris’ eight-point win in 2024 and Joe Biden’s 17-point win in 2020. But heavily Jewish precincts in Livingston and Millburn swung dramatically to Hathaway, an indication Mejia’s anti-Israel politics led to a Jewish voter backlash…
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had initially tapped Joe Kent, the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned last month over the Iran war, to the position because he was “feeling sorry” for Kent, a failed two-time congressional candidate whose first wife had died in a 2019 Islamic State attack in Syria…
Trump is set to renominate Cameron Hamilton to serve as head of FEMA, a year after Hamilton was ousted from the role amid clashes with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, who served as a top advisor to Noem…
Trump announced the nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz to be the next head of the Centers for Disease Control…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Thursday that U.S. forces are “maximally postured” to resume military operations in Iran, and specifically target energy infrastructure, should the country’s current leaders not agree to a negotiated settlement to end the war, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
The New York Times looks at Vice President JD Vance’s efforts to build up donor support — including from Paul Singer and Dr. Miriam Adelson — ahead of a likely 2028 presidential run, as he serves as finance chair of the Republican National Committee — the first sitting vice president in the role…
The Wall Street Journal profiles Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, the former head of private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, as he works to shore up congressional support for the Trump administration’s proposed $1.5 trillion military budget…
The House narrowly voted to block a Democratic resolution to force an end to the war in Iran by a vote of 214-213-1, with all but one of the four Democrats who opposed a similar effort in March changing their votes to support it on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait argues that the only way the Democratic establishment can defend itself against the extremist Hasan Piker wing of the partyis to end American financial support for Israel; “If a Democratic president is going to succeed Donald Trump, not only must he or she emerge from a primary electorate that is likely to be highly skeptical of Israel, but the candidate must also win over a November electorate that is highly skeptical of foreign aid of any kind,” Chait writes…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Factory co-founder and CEO Matan Grinberg, whose AI coding startup is in talks to raise $150 million in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures with backing from Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and Blackstone…
Empire State Realty Trust Chairman and CEO Anthony Malkin met on Thursday in Doha with Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al-Thani, the governor of Qatar Central Bank…
Patrick Drahi’s Sotheby’s made $53 million in pretax profits in 2025, after two years of losses, amid growth in the art market…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the new private schools being established in South Florida by business, tech and real estate titans, including Jeff Greene, Stephen Ross and Adam Neumann, as the area’s existing private schools struggle to meet growing demand…
Playbill announced the 2027 premiere of “Unorthodox,” a musical co-written by Benj Pasek, Shaina Taub and Joshua Harmon, which will debut in Boston next spring; the show follows the trajectories of a 17-year-old Haredi girl in Brooklyn and her grandmother 60 years earlier at approximately the same age…
A senior official in the U.K.’s Foreign Office resigned amid an investigation that found that the government allowed Peter Mandelson to serve as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. despite having failed the vetting process; a government spokesperson said this week that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was unaware recommendations against Mandelson by the U.K.’s security vetting team had been overruled…
Israel’s “Uvda” news program shared never-released footage of residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza reuniting in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
The Palestinian Authority extradited to France a man accused of coordinating a deadly 1982 terror attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris’ Le Marais district; Hicham Harb was one of four individuals sought in the aftermath of the attack, in which six people were killed…
Israeli Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka reportedly met this week with Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party…
CNN spotlights Iranian cyberattacks on the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which skyrocketed following the onset of the war in February…
Former longtime New York City Councilmember Carol Greitzer, who spent her years in office working to protect Greenwich Village from gentrification and development, died at 101…
Wine of the Week
JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the La Citadelle de Diamant Marius:
“To experience this mind-boggling Israeli wine, one whose roots run deep in French winemaking tradition, I traveled to Heckfield Place in Hook, England: a 5-star hotel, owned by my dear friend Dr. Gerold. The hotel is a world leader in farm-to-table dining, and its freshness and vitality mirrored the wine perfectly.
“La Citadelle de Diamant Marius is a blend of cabernet, merlot and shiraz, with grapes sourced from Moshav Nov, an angelic moshav in the Golan Heights. The opening bruises the palate with powerful tannins, a sign this wine has a long road ahead. The mid-palate reveals the deep earthiness of a true Bordeaux blend, and the finish is as elegant as the packaging is beautiful. It pairs brilliantly with grilled ChalkStream trout and has at least another seven years of life ahead of it.”
Pic of the Day
Birthdays
Former college basketball coach for 34 years, he is now an ESPN analyst, Seth Greenberg turns 70 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Short story writer, novelist and essayist, Cynthia Ozick turns 98… Retired Los Angeles cardiologist and active Yiddish enthusiast, Dr. Martin Bobrowsky turns 86… NYU professor and noted legal scholar, he spent 38 years on the faculty of University of Chicago Law School, Richard Allen Epstein turns 83… Affiliate of Tel Aviv law firm Guy, Bachar & Co., Barry Schreiber… Official historian for Major League Baseball since 2011, he was born in a DP camp in Germany following WWII, John Abraham Thorn turns 79… Talk radio host best known for his work on NYC’s sports radio station WFAN, his nickname is “The Schmoozer,” Steve Somers turns 79… Rebbe and leader of the Pupa Hasidic group, Rabbi Yaakov Yechezkiya Greenwald turns 78… CEO of B’nai B’rith International, retiring at the end of June, Daniel S. Mariaschin turns 77… Dean of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., one of the largest yeshivas in the world with more than 9,000 students, Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler turns 75… French businessman, based in Geneva, he and his brother own the House of Chanel perfume company as well as holdings in vineyards and a thoroughbred horse racing stable, Gérard Wertheimer turns 75… Former member of the Rhode Island Senate, Joshua Miller turns 72… Elizabeth H. Scheuer… Israeli journalist for the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Ben-Dror Yemini turns 72… Rabbi emerita, after 39 years, of Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha, Wis., her brother is the former U.S. senator from Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, Dena Feingold… Co-founder and former CEO, now board member, of United Talent Agency (UTA), Jeremy Zimmer turns 68… Actress, screenwriter and film director, Daphna Kastner turns 65… Winner of two Super Bowl rings during his career with the San Francisco 49ers, he is now a physician and an inductee in the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Dr. John E. Frank turns 64… Director of Rutgers University Press since 2016, following 15 years at Temple University Press, Micah Kleit turns 56… Professor of politics at NYU and longtime co-author of “The Monkey Cage,” a politics and policy blog at The Washington Post, Joshua A. Tucker turns 55… Congressional editor for The New York Times, she is also a political analyst for CNN, Julie Hirschfeld Davis turns 51… Member of the Alaska Legislature, first in the Assembly and then in the state Senate, Jesse Kiehl turns 50… Israeli actor, musician, director and television presenter, Ido Mosseri turns 48… Executive director at Morgan Stanley, Nadya Belenkiy… Deputy editor-in-chief at Semafor, Shelly Banjo… Southern California-based regional director at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ora Miriam “Miri” Katz Belsky… Press secretary for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Angelo Roefaro… Wikipedia editor since 2004, having made at least one edit to one-third of all English Wikipedia articles, Steven Pruitt turns 42… Senior communications manager at the Center for Responsible Lending, Matt Kravitz… Partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, Alex Kellner… Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, Avriel “Avi” Benjamin Kaplan turns 37… Former deputy national security advisor for strategic communications and speechwriting for then-VPOTUS Kamala Harris, Dean Lieberman… Member of the Baltimore City Council, Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer turns 37… Deputy general counsel at the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Brian T. Earll turns 34… Offensive lineman for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven seasons, he retired in 2022 and is now pursuing a doctorate in psychology, Alexander “Ali” Marpet turns 33… Associate at Covington & Burling, Ahuva Neuberger…
SATURDAY: Chief rabbi of the Old City of Jerusalem until 2008, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl turns 91… Senior counsel in the intellectual property law firm of Adwar Ivko, Philip Furgang turns 89… Former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 years until 2001, Ira Saul Glasser turns 88… Biochemist, geneticist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1985, Joseph Leonard Goldstein turns 86… Partner and managing director of fundraising consulting firm Mirsky, Jaffe & Associates, Michael Jaffe turns 86… English barrister and arbitrator, his clients have included the British chief rabbi in a case which held that the rulings of the beit nin were not subject to judicial review, Michael Jacob Beloff turns 84… Corporate turnaround expert and mergers & acquisitions specialist, Jerry W. Levin turns 82… Los Angeles resident, Saul Bernstein… Former member of the Vermont state Senate and co-founder of Jogbra, the original sports bra, Hinda Miller turns 76… Former mayor of Phoenix for eight years after two terms on the Phoenix City Council, Phil Gordon turns 75… Composer, pianist and musicologist, Robert M. Greenberg turns 72… Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism, Jonathan Kaufman turns 70… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of four acclaimed books, Susan Faludi turns 67… Community leader in Detroit and former president of AIPAC, David Victor… Editor of Commentary magazine, John Mordecai Podhoretz turns 65… President and dean of Ohr Torah Stone institutions in Israel since 2018, prior to making aliyah he was a VP at Yeshiva University and rabbi of the Boca Raton (Fla.) Synagogue, Rabbi Dr. Kenneth R. Brander turns 64… VP and deputy general counsel at Scholastic Inc, he is a past president of Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, N.Y., Mark Seidenfeld… Executive director of the American Zionist Movement, Herbert Block… Emmy Award-winning actress known for her work on daytime television, Tamara Braun turns 55… Film director and producer associated with the horror genre, Eli Roth turns 54… Chabad rabbi, founder and executive director of the Aspen Chabad Jewish Community Center, Mendel Mintz turns 51… Poet, critic, translator and professor, Ilya Kaminsky turns 49… Under secretary of homeland security for strategy, policy and plans during most of the Biden administration, now partner at Ropes & Gray, Robert P. Silvers turns 46… VP for political campaigns and strategy for AIPAC’s Florida region, Evan Philipson… Dov Maimon…SUNDAY: A co-founder of Judea Reform Congregation, in Durham, N.C., Nancy Jean Warner Laszlo turns 90… Jocelyn’s father, Robert Brotman turns 89… Legal scholar and public intellectual, now a visiting professor at Cardozo School of Law, Stanley Fish turns 88… Prominent Israeli criminal defense attorney who also served as the attorney general of Israel, Yehuda Weinstein turns 82… Rebbi of the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty based in Bnei Brak, Israel, Rabbi Yisroel Hager turns 81… Head of strategic human resources at Elliott Investment Management, prominent philanthropist on the board of The Paul E. Singer Foundation, Tikvah Fund, Jewish Food Society and Startup Nation Central, Terry Kassel… Comedian, actress and mental health campaigner in the U.K., Ruby Wax turns 73… Investor and hedge fund manager, Jacob Ezra Merkin turns 73… VP of GEM Commercial Flooring Company in Kansas, Gloria Elyachar… Angel investment fund manager, he won three Super Bowls during his 12-year NFL career, Harris Barton turns 62… Law professor at Arizona State University and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Orde Félix Kittrie turns 62… Historian, author, screenwriter, political commentator and senior lecturer at the Hebrew University, Gadi Taub turns 61… Board chair of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, Laurie Hasten… Israeli entrepreneur best known as the founder and former CEO of Better Place, an electric car company that raised $850 million yet was liquidated in a 2013 bankruptcy, Shai Agassi turns 58… Attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel turns 57… French stand-up comedian and actor, during 2019 he starred in “Huge in France,” an American comedy series on Netflix, Gad Elmaleh turns 55… Author of five books and a frequent columnist in The New Yorker, Rivka Galchen turns 50… Veteran journalist, Gil Hoffman turns 49… Award-winning film, television and theater actor, his official bar mitzvah was in 2015 at age 37, James Franco turns 48… Toronto-based entrepreneur, philanthropist, CEO and co-founder of Klick Health (a digital marketing firm in the medical field), Leerom Segal turns 47… Actress, author and fashion entrepreneur, she co-founded Fabletics (a fitness brand and membership program), Kate Hudson turns 47… Chief development officer at NYC’s Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, Brian Tregerman… Rabbi, philosopher, poet, coach and entrepreneur, he writes a weekly Torah commentary on Substack, Zohar Atkins turns 38… Senior program officer at Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Seffi Kogen… Jake Gerber…
Elise Joshi, tapped to lead the left-wing counterpart to Turning Point USA, compared Hamas terrorism to slavery abolition
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Three people with backpacks on sidewalk in front of the campus administrative building on sunny day moving away.
The leader of a newly launched progressive campus advocacy group affiliated with More Perfect Union, a prominent left-wing media organization, liked social media posts justifying the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and expressed similar sentiments in at least one now-deleted X comment.
Elise Joshi, a Gen Z activist and influencer, is taking the helm of a new campus organization, More Perfect University, that is casting itself as a populist left rival to Turning Point USA, the right-wing advocacy group that has played a key role in pulling younger voters to President Donald Trump and promoting conservative values at colleges and universities across the country.
More Perfect University, which was announced on Wednesday, is the creation of More Perfect Union, founded in 2021 by Faiz Shakir, a senior advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In a splashy video, Joshi said the new group will extend More Perfect Union’s “fight to campuses,” vowing to equip students “with the tools to unrig our broken economic system” and stressing the “responsibility to speak truth to power falls on us.”
But while Shakir has long been known as a vocal critic of Israel, his own record of commentary on such issues does not appear to have gone as far as Joshi, whose past social media activity has notably sought to excuse the violence perpetrated by Hamas.
In one since-removed X comment from Oct. 7, 2023, for instance, Joshi suggested the Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages were an act of justified resistance linked to a broader movement including violent efforts to oppose slavery, apartheid and colonialism.
“It seems a lot of people forgot how slavery abolition, South Africa’s apartheid, and every independence movement against colonization was achieved,” Joshi wrote in the post, a screenshot of which was reviewed by Jewish Insider.
Joshi, who at the time was a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she emerged as an outspoken youth activist with a sizable following on TikTok, also liked some comments posted on the day of the attack that expressed similar views, other screenshots show — including by one user who had asked, “What did y’all think decolonization meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.”
In another post liked by Joshi, a user wrote, “Folks start really fighting back and all of a sudden everyone is a pacifist. Real revolution and decolonization is not fun. It is painful and violent.”
It is unclear when Joshi’s post alluding to the Hamas attacks was deleted. She did not respond to a request for comment from JI about her social media activity.
Elsewhere, Joshi, a former executive director of Gen-Z for Change, has summarized her negative views on Israel, reflective of the waning support for the Jewish state seen among younger voters on both sides of the aisle.
“A Jewish state in Palestine requires and has always required the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians so a Jewish majority is possible,” she wrote last June. “It requires a siege on Gaza and apartheid in the West Bank to prevent 5 million+ Palestinians from having equal rights.”
In a follow-up post to X, Joshi added that “Israel’s existence requires the subjugation of the indigenous Palestinian people who have inhabited that land for thousands of years.”
“The status quo is violent, from routine bombing to home demolition. To start and end with condemning Hamas only fuels the widely recognized apartheid state,” she said just two days after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Joshi, who has proudly identified on social media as an “anti-Israel activist,” has not indicated how More Perfect University will approach questions about the Middle East on college campuses, where protests and related forms of student activism have grown quieter in recent months, even amid ongoing war with Iran.
“My top issues are climate and unions, but I see the genocide in Gaza (not ‘conflict in the Middle East’) as a moral issue that’s fundamental to being human,” she said in a May 2024 post, commenting on polling results suggesting the war in Gaza and accompanying campus demonstrations did not rank among the most important concerns of college students.
“GENOCIDE IS NOT RANK-ABLE,” she argued.
More Perfect Union did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
In a sign of the coalition she is seeking to build as the new leader of More Perfect University, Joshi shared a complimentary social media post from Hasan Piker, a controversial far-left Twitch streamer who has drawn criticism for frequently using antisemitic rhetoric and doubling down on his support for Hamas over Israel.
“Incredibly stoked for this!” Piker enthused in an X post on Wednesday about More Perfect University, which Joshi amplified on her social media accounts.
Former ADL chief Abe Foxman: 'This is a calamity for the Democratic Party, if it will not be contained and stopped'
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(L-R) Senate Democratic leadership, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Mark Warner (D-VA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Chris Murphy (D-CT), pose for a group photo in the U.S. Capitol on December 3, 2024 in Washington, DC.
The Democratic shift on Israel policy was on full, dramatic display on the Senate floor on Wednesday night as 40 of 47 Senate Democrats voted for at least one of two resolutions to block U.S. shipments of bulldozers and bombs to Israel.
The votes left many pro-Israel Democrats shocked and disillusioned — exemplified in the muted statements, if any, on the vote from key pro-Israel groups — and is being seen by some as the marker of a new era of Democratic policy on Israel, in which critics of Israel are firmly in the party mainstream.
“It’s yet another data point that the bipartisan consensus [in support of Israel] is, at least at the moment, no longer,” a former Biden administration official told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “Democrats think it’s politically advantageous to take these votes that would have been completely out-of-bounds just two-and-a-half years ago. … It’s deeply concerning if you care about the relationship, if you care about the security of [Israel]. But that’s the state of play at the moment, I think until or unless there’s an event that changes the trajectory.”
Abe Foxman, the former head of the Anti-Defamation League, said the vote highlights the “progressive socialist wing” of the Democratic Party’s increasing takeover. “This is a calamity for the Democratic Party, if it will not be contained and stopped,” Foxman told JI. “What’s also disturbing to me is that this litmus test is being first administered to every Jewish candidate.”
He added that the votes send a terrible message to U.S. allies beyond Israel that the U.S. can’t be relied upon.
Pro-Israel Democrats who spoke to JI said the votes came about as a combination of several factors: They served as a proxy for the war in Iran that nearly all Democrats oppose, but also were a signal of opposition to Israel’s operations in Lebanon, settler attacks and settlement expansion in the West Bank, the war in Gaza and — to a substantial degree — the Democratic enmity that has been growing for years toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his government and his alignment with President Donald Trump and Republicans.
And lawmakers are also responding to the growing progressive pressure, fueled by two years of imagery from the war in Gaza, amplified by social media platforms that boosted antisemitic content, that has changed the politics around Israel in a “really dramatic way” in the Democratic Party, the former Biden administration official said.
“Those [resolutions], at this moment in time, were just a proxy for real discomfort with the direction of the Trump-Netanyahu relationship in this war, which is not the right reason to vote for these,” another former Biden administration official told JI. “I understand the [vote to block] bulldozers at this moment in time. [Withholding] the munitions — I think it’s really, really troubling.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), an early supporter of efforts to block weapons sales to Israel, said that the growing opposition can’t be blamed solely on Netanyahu. “I also think it’s watching how the weapons are used,” Kaine told reporters. “I think the observation of how the weapons are used is probably a little bit more the reason that the vote total is going up than a feeling about the domestic politics of Israel.”
Some pro-Israel Democrats say that the impact and meaning of the votes shouldn’t be overstated, and that there remains a sizable pro-Israel Democratic contingent, even including some of the lawmakers who voted for the resolutions on Wednesday.
“There were pro-Israel senators, and senators who are close partners and allies of the Jewish community, on both sides of this vote last night,” Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said. “This didn’t occur in a vacuum, and it’s not necessarily driven by anti-Israel, and certainly not antisemitic, views. It also doesn’t necessarily represent a wholesale shift in the Democratic Party. It’s a snapshot of where we are in this moment as it relates to these particular arms sales and this particular Israeli government and its policies. But I have no doubt that there’s the chance that that will change in the future.”
Soifer said that she and JDCA didn’t support the resolutions, but emphasized that some of the Democrats who voted for the resolutions said in their statements that they remain strong supporters of Israel. And she said JDCA doesn’t view the votes as “inherently anti-Israel” or necessarily an expression of alignment with the far left.
She called the vote on the bulldozers, which received 40 supporters, a particularly potent “symbolic message” — many Democrats associate the machines with the destruction of Palestinian homes and expansion of settlements in the West Bank. But she said it was something of an “anomaly” as compared to previous efforts to block systems such as bomb guidance kits.
“It’s a challenging time where both things are true at once: You do have an increased number of Democrats who are supporting these [resolutions], and you also still continue to have a majority of Democrats who support the U.S.-Israel security relationship,” Soifer said.
A common refrain in conversations with those in the Democratic pro-Israel world after the votes — and even before then — was that the end of Netanyahu’s premiership would provide a critical opening and opportunity to start rebuilding support for Israel among Democrats.
Kaine said that a change in the Israeli government would lead lawmakers to step back and analyze the potential implications, but said it wouldn’t necessarily bring sweeping changes. “I don’t think the 40 [Democrats voting for the resolutions] is baked in, I also don’t think it will immediately change.”
But a Netanyahu defeat in this year’s Israeli elections is far from a sure thing. So what happens if Netanyahu wins again? “I think it will be very difficult for Democrats to hold any center on support for Israel,” one former Biden administration official said.
The other former Biden administration official said that the intense anti-Israel pressure on Democrats would likely fade if Middle East policy issues are out of the headlines on a day-to-day basis. They further argued that the 2028 primaries will be an “inflection point,” on both sides of the aisle.
And they said that the Jewish community, particularly the non-Orthodox community, needs to be more organized and active locally and on a grassroots level in advocating for their representatives to be supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Foxman said he hopes to see more Democratic lawmakers — naming Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) specifically — standing up directly to the anti-Israel wing of the party, just as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has spoken out against antisemitism on the right.
With opposition to weapons systems for Israel apparently firmly within the mainstream, we wrote earlier this week about the emerging progressive push to cut off U.S. support for Israel’s missile-defense systems as well.
Asked whether he takes a similar view, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the lead driver of the Senate votes, did not directly respond. “Let’s take one thing at a time. Right now, I think we made progress yesterday,” he told JI.
Kaine took a firmer stance in support of missile-defense aid, calling those who want to cut it off “a tiny minority,” especially in the Senate. He noted that no Democrats have offered similar resolutions to block defensive systems, and that other weapons sales to Israel have gone entirely unchallenged — though he acknowledged that the distinction between offensive and defensive weapons can be fuzzy at times.
One of the former Biden administration officials warned that opposing missile-defense support is a “totally unproductive, terrible” policy — not just for Israel, but also sending a message to allies around the world that the U.S. can’t be relied upon to follow through for its partners.
EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas: ‘At some point, either the government will know information related to individuals’ religion, or we will not be able to enforce the laws on their behalf’
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EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas and Brandeis Center founder Kenneth Marcus speak at the inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law at Harvard University on April 16, 2026.
The Trump administration official leading a controversial probe into antisemitism at the University of Pennsylvania told Jewish leaders and legal experts on Thursday that compiling a list of Jewish faculty with their detailed personal information was necessary to identify and protect victims.
“There is no other way to protect victims of harassment or discrimination unless you collect information about them,” Andrea Lucas, chair of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’s inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law, held at Harvard University.
“We never collect information to contact someone on their work system,” she said. “The EEOC’s long-standing practice is to collect personal information because we want to make sure that there is not any clear monitoring of your email systems … that when you speak to a government agency you feel completely not pressured.”
Last month, a federal judge ordered Penn to comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration requesting detailed information about Jewish university affiliates as part of the EEOC’s ongoing investigation into Penn’s handling of antisemitism. The subpoena had requested the school turn over lists of Jewish employees and members of Jewish organizations — including their identifying details and phone numbers — which the school called “extraordinary and unconstitutional.” Critics on campus have likened the move to Nazi-era methods of collecting information about Jews.
During a fireside chat with Kenneth Marcus, founder of the Brandeis Center and former assistant secretary of education for civil rights under the first Trump administration, Lucas noted she was speaking generally and not about the Penn case specifically, as litigation is ongoing.
“At some point, either the government will know information related to individuals’ religion, or we will not be able to enforce the laws on their behalf,” continued Lucas, who is not Jewish but emphasized a personal interest in religious liberty as “a core thing the EEOC needs to be focusing on.”
“I understand the sensitivities around this issue … but fundamentally the Jewish community does have to decide: do you want to have civil rights enforcement in this space? If you do, there is no other way we can get money for victims.”
Experts told Jewish Insider in January that a more typical investigation might involve agency officials interviewing people who issued complaints directly with the agency, then visiting the campus and publicizing their investigation, calling the EEOC’s methods in the Penn case “incredibly unusual, if not completely unprecedented.”
Lucas asserted that the same standard applied for helping members of any race, religion or gender. None of the event’s speakers publicly disagreed with Lucas’ statements.
The daylong conference was born out of last year’s settlement between the Brandeis Center and Harvard over a Title VI lawsuit, and was framed around this year’s U.S. Semiquincentennial.
It opened with an address from Marcus and a benediction from Harvard Chabad’s Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi. Attendees included Harvard community members, Jewish activists, lawyers and scholars.
The plenary session, “Towards a Jewish Civil Rights Movement,” moderated by Marcus, featured William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Elan Carr, CEO of Israeli-American Council and former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network.
Carr called the battle against antisemitism “a war for the soul of America and the soul of civilization,” and advocated for a shift in classroom curriculums and federal funding.
“Jew-hatred is history’s greatest barometer of human ruin and suffering. We are fighting for the future of our country and American values. So we need to get serious about teaching American values … we can’t safeguard this republic unless we teach American kids what this republic is, why it was founded, what our values are and constitutional structures are,” he said. “This is a national crisis with national implications. The federal government needs to say ‘no money goes anywhere to any educational institution unless there’s Western values, American civics, basic principles of the United States as part of the curriculum.’”
After the session, Daroff told JI that “today’s conference brought a united American Jewish community together, aligned in action. We are not standing back. We are organizing, building and acting together with shared purpose and resolve.”
The conference also featured a panel titled “Defining Anti-Semitism at America’s 250th: New Challenges for a New Century.” Speakers debated the importance of pushing states to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, as many mainstream Jewish groups are using resources to do. Critics of IHRA say the definition chills political speech and criticism of Israel.
Nathan Diament, executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said that IHRA is not only important for combating campus antisemitism — as several of the speakers emphasized — but also regarding legislation in Washington.
At the same time, “in the political arena, vagueness around questions [of what is antisemitism] is unhelpful. The most important currency in politics is votes. Advocates and voters need to be able to say with clarity to politicians [what they will and will not support]. This is the most important need for the definition of antisemitism, to draw a line as clearly as we can and make clear to politicians that if they cross this line, there will be consequences,” said Diament.
“Even as the OU has, and continues to, support legislation to codify the IHRA definition, I don’t think at this stage in the game that’s the most important way to further the definition and to use our political capital,” he continued. “We don’t need Congress’ approval of how we want to define antisemitism. We don’t need them to codify it and we don’t need them to give us permission to use it to hold members of Congress and other politicians accountable. We can use the IHRA definition because we say that’s the definition.”
Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement and former president of the Brandeis Center, pushed back by highlighting how the law enforcement trainings she provides varies based on local adoption of the IHRA definition. She noted a stark difference between training in states where it is codified, such as Georgia, and those where it is not, such as New York.
Law enforcement in Georgia “has a very concrete reason now to understand and use” the training, said Lewin. “In New York, especially after [Mayor Zohran Mamdani] reversed the executive order on IHRA, I can try to explain it to them but it’s just a nice thing I teach them. They are under no obligation to actually engage with it and utilize it. So I do think on a state by state level, it does make a difference whether or not a state has adopted the IHRA definition.”
In a separate panel, moderated by Anat Alon-Beck, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, speakers explored new avenues for litigation against antisemitism.
“Nearly two years after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, the Jewish community still lacks unified messaging, coordinated toolkits and a clear strategy. At a time when antisemitic actors are highly organized and aligned, our disunity is a serious vulnerability,” Alon-Beck told JI following her session. “We need to come together — with clarity, courage and coordination — because the stakes could not be higher.”
According to the Brandeis Center, this conference was the first in an annual three-part series.
Charles Dabda, a third-year student at Touro Law Center and law clerk with National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JI he was leaving the conference with a clear sense that “antisemitism is rising in real time with real consequences across campuses, professional spaces and beyond. At the Brandeis Center, and NJAC, our commitment remains resolute and steadfast; we will confront antisemitism wherever it manifests — through advocacy, and, when necessary, the courtroom.”
The 41 signatories to the letter — including three Republicans and 38 Democrats — mark the highest number of lawmakers to make such a request
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Law enforcement respond near Temple Israel following reports of an active shooter on March 12, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Mich.
Saying that funding to protect synagogues and other religious-based nonprofits “has not kept pace to meet the moment,” 41 senators — almost entirely Democrats — wrote to leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee urging members to provide $750 million in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2027.
That figure amounts to a substantial increase in funding over current levels, as well as over Senate lawmakers’ request from last year.
The program was funded in 2025 at $274.5 million, which has not yet been disbursed, and the still-stalled 2026 Homeland Security funding bill includes $300 million for the program. Yet, in 2024, the program fulfilled just 43% of requests, even with additional funding provided through a national security supplemental bill that year. Jewish and interfaith groups, as well as House lawmakers, have been pushing for up to $1 billion for the program.
Last year, 33 senators requested $500 million for the program, a record-high request at the time. This year’s request represents a new high-water mark, both in terms of the funding requested and the number of lawmakers who signed the bipartisan letter in support.
“The threat of violence is unfortunately increasing at places of worship across our country at alarming rates. In the past few years, there has been an increase in hoax bomb threats and attacks against houses of worship that are intended to interrupt services and intimidate worshippers. In particular, there has been an increase in antisemitic incidents across the country following the October 7th attack on Israel,” the senators wrote. “Nationwide, there have been countless acts of violence against religious communities.”
The lawmakers also urged the Appropriations Committee to “maintain separate line-items for this program,” amid reports that the administration has been pushing to convert Federal Emergency Management Agency grant programs, under which NSGP falls, into a broad state-by-state block grant.
The administration also called for cuts to non-emergency FEMA grants, a category that includes NSGP, without making any specific line-item request for the NSGP.
“[F]unding has not kept pace to meet the moment,” the lawmakers added, highlighting a litany of attacks on religious institutions and the funding shortages in 2024.
The letter was led by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), James Lankford (R-OK), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV). Only two Republicans other than Lankford joined the effort: Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Josh Hawley (R-MO).
“As we continue to work with Congress to secure Jewish communities, the bipartisan consensus in the Senate around $750 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program is a monumental step toward our community’s $1 billion goal,” Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said. “At a time of rising antisemitism and an escalating security crisis facing vulnerable communities across the country, demand continues to far outpace available funding.”
Fingerhut said that JFNA plans to bring Jewish activists from across the country to lobby Congress on the issue next month “and urge them to act with urgency and resolve to ensure at-risk institutions have the resources they need before the next incident, not after.”
Lauren Wolman, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior director of government relations and strategy, said, “At a time of sustained and evolving threats, this program remains a critical lifeline for houses of worship and nonprofit institutions working to protect their communities. Demand continues to far outpace available resources, and we urge Congress to ensure funding levels reflect the reality on the ground.”
Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said, “The need for increased NSGP funding remains critical. We are thankful to the large bipartisan group of Senators who signed onto this letter.”
“OU Advocacy will keep pressing on all fronts to deliver the funding our Shuls and schools need to stay safe,” Diament continued.
The New York Republican talked to JI about her leading role holding university presidents accountable
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Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on her nomination to be Ambassador to the United Nations on Capitol Hill on January 21, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has long been a vocal advocate for combating antisemitism and active on Middle East security issues. But it was her questioning at a December 2023 hearing that made her a household name in the American Jewish community and beyond, and drew her into the center of the unfolding fight on campus antisemitism.
“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your school’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment?” Stefanik asked the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Their equivocal responses, as disruptive and at times threatening anti-Israel protests were sweeping universities across the country, were a major factor in the resignations of two of those presidents and a slew of further hearings that put college presidents in the hot seat.
Now, as she prepares to leave Congress next year, Stefanik is out with a new book on campus antisemitism, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.
More than two years after that first hearing — and after a tumultuous political period in which she saw her nomination as ambassador to the United Nations withdrawn before launching a short-lived New York gubernatorial campaign — Stefanik offered a mixed readout on how she sees the state of American higher education in an interview with Jewish Insider this week.
“In the year after the hearing, we saw that the universities failed to fix themselves and continued to dig deeper and deeper, and it was going to take significant administrative and legislative and frankly, appropriations action of withholding of funds, to force them to really reckon with what the American people saw loudly and clearly in that hearing, [which] is that there are deep-seated issues in higher education,” Stefanik said.
She said that there have also, however, been leadership changes at many of the universities that were probed by the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, in part because of those hearings, as well as overhauls such as the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs at some schools.
“The other piece, I would say, is you’re seeing parents and students vote with their wallets and their feet,” such as the rising application and matriculation rates to schools like Vanderbilt University, which Stefanik has highlighted as having handled the post-Oct. 7, 2023, environment effectively.
The New York congresswoman argued that the hearings played a major factor in the reform efforts that followed. She also said that the Trump administration, even before it took office, has been sharply focused on the issue of campus antisemitism, coordinating closely with her office to help shape the administration’s lawsuits and executive orders on the issue.
Asked about anti-Israel and antisemitic voices in the Republican Party such as commentators Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, Stefanik largely dismissed the idea that antisemitism was, or could become, a significant problem within the GOP.
“The difference between [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and those podcasters is Mamdani is elected to the most important city in the world as mayor, and those other names are not elected, and I think are often overstated [in] their influence,” Stefanik said. “They would not be elected to local office, to state office, to congressional office. That’s why I think it’s very important for actual elected officials, actual leaders, to speak out on issues of importance.”
She praised Trump for calling out Carlson and Owens and making clear that they don’t represent him or his voters, and argued that similar voices represent just a small fringe of Republican members in Congress.
Pressed on the fact that such voices represented a similarly small fringe of the Democratic Party in Congress a decade ago, Stefanik insisted that Republican voters would not embrace such voices.
“The Democrat[ic] Party — it’s a full blown takeover of Hasan Piker, of these voices that The New York Times is now embracing, and ‘Pod Save America’ is now embracing,” Stefanik said. “That is not the case on the Republican side. And as a candidate who actually has stood in front of the voters for the past decade-plus — yes, those voices can say what they want, you actually represent the people that elect you, and that’s not what voters in my district [want].”
Despite the relatively small share of Jewish voters in her district, Stefanik said that her work on campus antisemitism still receives some of the strongest praise from constituents.
Though the administration’s initial blitz of action on campus antisemitism has faded from the headlines, Stefanik said its efforts to address issues in higher education are ongoing, and that the issue also remains top-of-mind for the country at large.
“It’s not just about antisemitism,” she added. “This is broader higher education reform. … That was the canary in the coal mine issue that brought up so many broader issues that were wrong with higher education.”
In Congress, she said that more legislation should be brought to the floor on campus antisemitism, adding that she’s also hoping to work on reining in funding to colleges, cracking down on tax advantages and loopholes that benefit colleges and further limiting foreign funding and foreign student populations at U.S. institutions in her remaining months on the Hill.
She pointed to Qatar as one driver of antisemitism on campuses, and said that the U.S. should make clear to Doha that, if it wants to remain a military partner with the U.S., it “can’t foment and fund this anti-Americanism on college campuses, full stop.”
Stefanik isn’t yet sharing her next steps, but said she wrote her new book in part to serve as a historical record of antisemitism on college campuses, so that “mainstream media” can’t “brush this chapter under the rug.” She said she intends to continue shining a light on the issue.
Though she ultimately passed on a gubernatorial run, Stefanik seems to have longer-term plans in New York politics, and said that Republicans will be in a stronger position to win in the state in the coming years.
Regarding her decision to drop out of the governor’s race, Stefanik argued that the political environment is not currently ripe for a GOP victory, that Republicans need more time to build their statewide infrastructure and that Mamdani’s policies will grow more unpopular in the next few years.
“I think the Democrat Party is going to be increasingly taken over [by Mamdani-aligned socialists],” Stefanik said. “That, long-term, is where Republicans can win back those independents and traditional Democrats.”
Stefanik drew a direct line between the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University and Mamdani’s election — both because Mamdani’s father is “very much part of this antisemitic petri dish” at Columbia and because “the same people that were organizing the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia directly were boots on the ground for [his] campaign.”
She called herself “the leader” among state Republicans in pushing back against “socialist and Democrat single-party rule of New York State,” and highlighted that she has her own statewide political apparatus — separate from the statewide GOP, which she said lacks infrastructure.
“There is going to be a long road in rebuilding that infrastructure to save the state,” she said.
She also said she wanted to spend more time with her four-year-old son at this stage of his life.
“My voice is not going anywhere. If anything, it’s more. I mean, we’re putting this [book] out in the world and helping set the tone for the type of leadership we need in New York and, frankly, across the country,” Stefanik said.
Plus, Vance courts pro-Israel donors ahead of 2028
Adri Salido/Getty Images
The Lebanese capital is seen from a viewpoint after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that would commence at midnight local time on April 16, 2026 in Beirut, Lebanon.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced the start of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon to begin at 5 p.m. ET today, after he held phone calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Trump added that he will be inviting Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for “meaningful talks,” later telling reporters such a meeting could happen in the “next week or two.”
The text of the agreement released by the State Department indicates the ceasefire is a “gesture of goodwill” on Israel’s part “intended to enable good-faith negotiations” toward a permanent agreement. The temporary pause in hostilities could be extended if Lebanon “effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty” and prevent Hezbollah from carrying out attacks against Israel…
Trump again indicated further talks with Iran could take place this weekend and said the two sides are “very close to making a deal,” telling reporters this afternoon that Iran has already agreed to “give us back the nuclear dust,” referring to its highly enriched uranium.
Hours earlier, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned at a press briefing that U.S. forces are “maximally postured” to return to military operations against Iran if negotiations are unsuccessful, and will look to attack “infrastructure, power and energy”…
The House narrowly voted to block a Democratic resolution to force an end to the war in Iran by a vote of 214-213-1, with all but one of the four Democrats who opposed a similar effort in March changing their votes to support today’s measure, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Juan Vargas (D-CA) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who voted last month against a similar resolution, flipped their votes to support the war powers effort. But Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who is retiring at the end of his term, voted no again. On the Republican side, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who voted for the war powers resolution last time, switched his vote to “present.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only Republican who voted for the resolution…
Vice President JD Vance, the first vice president to serve simultaneously as finance chair of his party, is building donor relationships that may prove useful should he choose to run for president in 2028, The New York Times reports, including attempting to woo some pro-Israel donors who have otherwise been wary of his ties to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson.
Among others, Vance has developed relationships with Jewish philanthropists Miriam Adelson, whom he spent New Years Eve with at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and Paul Singer; has appeared as the guest of honor at a dinner hosted by Palantir and 8VC co-founder Joe Lonsdale; and has been featured at a Republican National Committee event hosted by tech executive Keith Rabois, who is married to Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg…
With less than six weeks to go until the Texas primary runoff election, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is defending his seat against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with a significantly larger war chest: As the first quarter of 2026 closed, Cornyn had more than $8 million in cash on hand (including a small donation from former President George W. Bush), while Paxton had $2.6 million in the bank. Whoever clinches the GOP nomination will face state Sen. James Talarico, who has nearly $10 million on hand…
Josef Palermo, who was the first curator of visual arts and special programming at the Kennedy Center until his dismissal last month, recounts his experience as Trump and the center’s then-President Richard Grenell initiated an overhaul of the building, a process Palermo describes as “cronyism, incompetence, and a series of bizarre moves.”
Palermo recounts an exhibition he organized commemorating the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in the building’s Israeli Lounge: “Speaking at the opening reception, Grenell warned the mostly Jewish audience that unless donors came forward to sponsor the space and pay for renovation costs, the lounge would be given away to a new donor. … Such a strong-armed fundraising pitch, at an event commemorating a pogrom, struck many of us in the room as inappropriate. I was mortified”…
Asked for his perspective on antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s reach on his platform, Twitch CEO Daniel Clancy said at the Semafor World Economy summit in Washington today that “one of the challenges is when you’re livestreaming you say a lot … you might say a lot of things that are over the top. … If you violate [community guidelines] then we take enforcement actions and we suspend you — it’s designed not to kick you off forever.”
“Whenever Hasan has stepped over the line, we’ve taken action … Folks will get worked up from both the right and the left on this because we have also conservative people that are saying certain things that some people don’t like. … In general, we think it is important for us to allow people to express themselves,” Clancy said…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a temperature check on support for Israel within the Democratic Party, in light of 85% of Democratic senators voting in favor of a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-led measure to block military sales to the Jewish state.
France and the U.K. will co-host a conference tomorrow focused on restoring freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, with leaders from several European, Asian and Gulf countries participating via video.
Michigan’s Democratic Party will hold its endorsement convention on Sunday, where party activists will nominate their two preferred candidates for the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents. The election has reignited the campus’ debate over Israel, as candidate and anti-Israel activist Amir Makled seeks to unseat Jewish regent Jordan Acker, who became the target of antisemitic vandalism and harassment in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. (The SEIU labor union recently pulled its endorsement of Makled over his past support of Hezbollah.)
National party leaders including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will appear at events in Detroit ahead of the convention.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
Stories You May Have Missed
CAPITAL CONTEST
‘I didn’t seek, nor would I accept, the endorsement of Democratic Socialists of America,’ McDuffie told JI in an interview
SCOOP
Platner, in Reddit post on Hamas terrorist attack: ‘From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent’
The mayor sidestepped inquiries about whether Rama Duwaji regrets liking and sharing posts supportive of terrorism
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji smile as confetti falls after his ceremonial inauguration as mayor at City Hall on Jan. 1, 2026 in New York, NY.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to speak directly to his wife’s inflammatory social media history, a day after First Lady Rama Duwaji indicated in an interview she regrets posting a racial slur online while in high school, but stopped short of apologizing for much more recent activity signaling support for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.
The democratic socialist mayor initially dismissed JI’s reporting by asserting his wife was a “private person.” But on Wednesday, Duwaji made the latest in a string of media appearances, discussing her art career with the online cultural outlet Hyperallergic.
In the discussion, Duwaji appeared to address revelations by The Washington Free Beacon that she had used the N-word on Tumblr as an adolescent — but not the conservative outlet’s reporting of posts she shared celebrating Palestinian terrorist figures, or of JI’s earlier discovery that she had liked posts that applauded and defended the 2023 Hamas assault on Israel.
“I felt a lot of shame being confronted with language I used that is so harmful to others; being 15 doesn’t excuse it,” Duwaji told Hyperallergic’s editor-in-chief. “I’ve read and seen a lot of what others have had to say in response, and I understand the hurt I caused and am truly sorry.”
Hyperallergic did not follow up on this point, and the mayor’s office declined to answer a New York Times query on Wednesday on whether she felt remorse over her more recent political posts.
Mamdani refused to directly answer the question when pressed in person on Thursday, preferring instead to praise Duwaji personally.
“You know, she shared some of her reflections in this interview. I won’t add much to them,” the mayor said following an unrelated City Hall press conference. “What I will say, however, is that she is someone of incredible integrity, she is someone I am lucky to be able to call my wife and that I am proud of her each and every day.”
All but one of the four Democrats who had opposed the previous war powers effort flipped their votes in support
Graeme Sloan/Sipa via AP
The U.S. Capitol Building at sunset in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 6, 2021.
The House narrowly voted to block a Democratic resolution to force an end to the war in Iran by a vote of 214-213-1, with all but one of the four Democrats who opposed a similar effort in March changing their votes to support it on Thursday.
Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, had held off on calling a vote on the resolution in hopes that he would be able to win over enough Democratic holdouts and Republican defectors to pass the legislation.
Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Juan Vargas (D-CA) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who voted last month against a similar resolution, flipped their votes to support the war powers effort. But Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who is retiring at the end of his term, voted no again.
On the Republican side, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who voted for the war powers resolution last time, switched his vote to “present.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only Republican who voted for the resolution.
A small number of Republicans who have expressed skepticism about the war effort and could have been potential swing votes, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Nancy Mace (R-SC), did not vote.
Golden said in a statement that the war powers resolution would “weaken our hand” in negotiations with Iran.
“I believe we must maintain a strong negotiation position over Iran’s nuclear program, freedom of movement in the international waters at the Strait of Hormuz, and how to achieve a durable peace between our two nations,” Golden said in a statement.
The president did not say how Hezbollah, which said it would not abide by any negotiated agreement, factors into the pause in hostilities
Marwan Naamani/picture alliance via Getty Images
Smoke of billows from Beirut's southern suburb, a stronghold of pro-Iranian Hezbollah, after a wave of simultaneous airstrikes by Israel.
President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon to begin at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, after holding separate calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
“These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE,” the president wrote on Truth Social. He said he had directed Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “to work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve a Lasting PEACE.”
Netanyahu quickly convened his Security Cabinet to discuss the ceasefire as Trump announced it, according to Israeli reports, angering ministers who were informed through the media without having held a vote on it.
Trump added in a second post that he will be inviting Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for “meaningful talks.”
Netanyahu said in a statement that he had agreed to the ceasefire “to try and advance the agreement we began discussing during the meeting of ambassadors in Washington” on Tuesday, which were the highest-level discussions between Jerusalem and Beirut in over 30 years.
He said that Hezbollah had demanded Israel withdraw from all of Lebanese territory and wanted a ceasefire based on the “quiet for quiet” model, neither of which Israel agreed to. Instead, Netanyahu said the IDF will remain in Lebanon throughout the ceasefire in a “reinforced security buffer zone” of 10 km, broader than the five outposts the IDF maintained in Lebanon during the last ceasefire in November 2024.
“That is where we are and we are not leaving. This allows us, first and foremost, to block the danger of an invasion into our communities, and secondly, it allows us to prevent direct anti-tank fire into the communities,” the prime minister said.
In his posts, Trump did not reference Hezbollah, which had said prior to talks that it would not abide by any negotiated agreement though the text of the agreement released by the State Department said the Lebanese government will “take meaningful steps to prevent Hezbollah and all other rogue non-state armed groups in the territory of Lebanon from carrying out any attacks, operations, or hostile activities against Israeli targets.”
The agreement is a “gesture of goodwill” on Israel’s part “intended to enable good-faith negotiations” toward a permanent agreement, the text states, which “may be extended by mutual agreement” if Lebanon “effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty” and prevents Hezbollah from attacking Israel.
The Lebanese government has agreed several times before, including in its November 2024 ceasefire agreement with Israel, to disarm Hezbollah so that it could no longer threaten or strike Israel, but Hezbollah maintains military capabilities and has continued to fire rockets and drones into the country.
A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute from late last week found 80% of Jewish Israelis think Israel should continue its military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, even if it causes friction with the U.S.
Plus, when Graham Platner praised Hamas
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 03, 2024 in Washington.
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s praise for a violent 2014 Hamas attack on an Israeli military base, and report on last night’s failedSenate votes on weapons sales restrictions to Israel, which garnered the support of most Senate Democrats. We cover Meta’s defense of its content moderation policies following an Anti-Defamation League report that found that the platform failed to remove the vast majority of reported extremist and hateful content, and look at how Israel is preparing for a potential future Houthi ground assault. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ken Marcus, Avi Issacharoff and Matt Brooks.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that a call between Israeli and Lebanese leaders could take place today, following a State Department summit on Tuesday between the ambassadors from the two countries. Israeli Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun were slated to speak, while a Lebanese government official told Reuters earlier today that Beirut was “not aware” of any upcoming contact with Israeli officials.
- Pakistani army chief Asim Munir is in Tehran today for meetings with senior Iranian officials aimed at convening a second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad. Yesterday, Munir met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The meetings come as Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif conducts a multicountry trip through the weekend, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. In Jeddah yesterday, Sharif met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
- Voters in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District are heading to the polls today for the election to succeed now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Progressive organizer Analilia Mejia, who since the primary has gotten the backing of top Garden State Democrats, is the favorite to win in the blue district against Republican Joe Hathaway.
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a confirmation hearing for several positions: NTIA Deputy Administrator Adam Cassady to be ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy, attorney Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and the State Department’s Preston Wells Griffith III to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
- The House Appropriations Committee is holding a series of budget hearings over the course of the day. Committee members will hear this afternoon from Karen Evans, the acting administrator of FEMA, which administers the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
- Harvard University is hosting a landmark public conference on antisemitism and civil rights today, one of the terms of a legal settlement between the school and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. More below.
- The Shalom Hartman Institute’s Yehuda Kurtzer and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg will sit in conversation at an event this evening at the Capital Jewish Museum focused on “Jewish America at 250” ahead of the U.S. Semiquincentennial.
- Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington continues today. Speakers today include Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Todd Young (R-IN) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Steve Bannon, former Biden administration official Amos Hochstein and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
There’s been a lot of debate lately over whether President Donald Trump is losing some of his grip on the Republican Party, amid growing economic concerns and the ongoing military operations in Iran.
While the media coverage has been amplifying any sign of intraparty discontent — to the point that former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is getting strange new respect from some Democrats and mainstream press — polls continue to show Trump with widespread backing from within his own party, and especially within the MAGA faction of the GOP.
Ultimately, election results are the best reality check. And you couldn’t draw up a better test on the degree of Trump’s impact on the Republican Party than examining the results from four states holding highly consequential primaries next month that will be a benchmark of the president’s power.
Key races in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas will speak volumes about the president’s ability to shape the GOP agenda for the remainder of his second term — and most consequentially, whether he will be able to maintain a unified front with his party on continuing to pursue military action against Iran.
The biggest intraparty showdown, especially when it comes to foreign policy, is the May 19 primary between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and military veteran Ed Gallrein. Massie, one of the few anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, is being opposed by Trump but also has a solid base of grassroots support in the northern Kentucky district, which has thus far supported his anti-establishment brand of politics. But Gallrein has proven to be a credible challenger, raising millions and giving Massie the biggest political test of his career.
Trump has spent some valuable political capital to boost Gallrein, including appearing at a recent rally in Massie’s district to promote his challenger. He’s been joined by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has poured $3.5 million into the race, airing five ads underscoring Massie’s record of breaking with Trump. (Further drawing Trump’s ire: Massie also joined with Democrats in championing the release of the Epstein files.)
It’s never easy to beat a sitting incumbent, but Trump also has an imposing record of winning primaries in which he chooses to engage. If Massie pulls out a victory despite breaking so flagrantly with Trump on a number of key issues, it will be a sign of the president’s diminished political clout.
SCOOP
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner repeatedly praised the tactics used by Hamas terrorists in comments made about a graphic video of a Hamas raid into Israel in 2014, in which terrorists killed at least five Israeli soldiers, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me,” Platner wrote in 2014 on the Reddit forum r/CombatFootage, a discussion board for footage and photographs of past and current armed conflicts. “Pragmatically I have little problem with killing an enemy combatant who you attempt to capture but for whatever reason cannot. From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent, I dig it,” he added, in response to another user.
FEELING THE BERN
Most of the Democrats in the Senate — 40 in total, including some traditionally pro-Israel lawmakers — voted on Wednesday evening for a measure led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that aimed to block sales of bulldozers to Israel, with 36 of them also voting to advance a second Sanders-backed resolution to block sales of thousands of 1,000-pound bombs, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Newcomers: After having opposed previous similar efforts, Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) all flipped and voted in favor of Sanders’ latest resolutions. Warner and Peters, along with Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), voted to advance the resolution to block the bulldozer sale but against advancing the one on bombs.
Also on the Hill: An effort by Senate Democrats to force an end to the war in Iran was again blocked by Republicans on Wednesday, the fourth such failed attempt mounted by Senate Democrats since the war began in late February.
META-MORPHISIS
Amid accusations that Meta’s moderation policies enable antisemitic content to circulate on its platforms, a Meta leader on Tuesday highlighted efforts to combat online Jew-hatred, including restrictions on Holocaust denial, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Pushing back: “We remove Holocaust distortion and denial, not because it’s false, which it is, but because it’s antisemitic. It is hate speech against Jewish people, so we’ve drawn a clear line against it,” said Ben Good, director of content policy at Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Good spoke at “Hack the Hate NYC 2026,” an event at the Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan spotlighting Israeli tech experts and Jewish leaders working to combat digital antisemitism. But even as Meta has made strides in addressing Holocaust denial, the Anti-Defamation League released a new report on Tuesday, just hours before the event, revealing that Instagram failed to remove 93% of reported extremist and hateful content, tying the trend directly to Meta’s efforts to roll back content moderation last year.
CAPITAL CONTEST
As voters in Washington, D.C., get ready to elect their first new mayor in more than a decade, the two leading candidates — former colleagues on the Council of the District of Columbia — are proposing drastically different visions for the city’s future: political moderation or democratic socialism. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutchthis week at his campaign headquarters in Northeast Washington, former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie drew a direct contrast between his campaign and that of his Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed rival, Janeese Lewis George.
DSA direction: “I didn’t seek, nor would I accept, the endorsement of Democratic Socialists of America, or any organization, for that matter, that requires some sort of divisive pledge to exclude people that are a part of the fabric of the community of the District of Columbia,” McDuffie said. He was referring to a DSA endorsement questionnaire that asked candidates not to engage with “the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups.” Lewis George, a longtime DSA member, vowed not to attend events that promote Zionism when she filled out the questionnaire, which earned her the DSA endorsement.
CONTINGENCY PLANS
Like a desperate poker player holding an ace in the hole, Iran has a “strategic reserve” if the ceasefire in the war with Israel and the U.S. collapses and fighting resumes: the Houthis, the Tehran-backed Yemeni terrorist group. How Iran plays the Houthi card has been the subject of concern in Israel, with analysts telling Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov that everything from a ground invasion from the east — with echoes of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, rampage in southern Israel — to making good on the threat to block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to further choke off international shipping remains in play.
Seeking revenge: Yoni Ben-Menachem, a senior Middle East analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JI that the Houthis planned “to take revenge and bring back their honor” since Israel killed much of their leadership in August 2025. “They see that Israel’s air defenses are strong, and it’s hard for them to reach military achievements with missiles and drones. They want to surprise Israel, so they are looking at ways to do it on the ground,” he said.
Cautious optimism: The first round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon has been received positively by diplomats, pro-Israel lawmakers and experts, who see it as a sign of Hezbollah’s waning influence in Lebanon. But despite the optimism surrounding the discussions, experts caution that disarming the terrorist group remains a daunting obstacle that stands in the way of any meaningful change, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
CAMPUS CONVERSATION
A Jewish legal group will convene its inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law at Harvard University on Thursday, an event that was born out of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school and framed around the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
On the agenda: “We’re very excited to have a mix of federal, high-level leadership, prominent scholars, Jewish communal leaders, high-powered litigators and experts in the field,” Ken Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the group hosting the conference, told JI. The daylong event is slated to open with an address from Marcus and benediction from Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads Harvard Chabad. Held as America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this summer, Marcus said the headline session will focus “on how we define antisemitism as lawyers and professionals, and why a proper definition of antisemitism matters for America at this point in time.”
Cambridge chatter: Federal prosecutors filed a 160-page brief calling on a circuit court to reinstate the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar freeze on Harvard’s research funding.
Worthy Reads
The Problem with Piker: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik looks at Democrats’ continued embrace of Hasan Piker, despite the far-left streamer’s extensive history of praising terrorists and antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric. “The truth is they’re afraid of challenging Piker because they don’t want to alienate his next-gen Bernie Bro audience — a fear that is greatly exacerbated by their hand-wringing about not being on ‘the right side of history,’ down with the kids. … There’s a deeper problem here, one that is more cognitive, even spiritual: Too few Democrats can see that Piker is obviously, deeply wrong, that he lacks imagination, that he’s ignorant, that he camouflages his ignorance with just enough lingo to make his highly unoriginal neo-Marxist riffs and rants sound incisive.” [FreePress]
The Future of Warfare: In The Wall Street Journal, former CIA Director David Petraeus posits that despite the U.S.’ military successes in Iran, the war in Ukraine is more instructive as to the future of warfare. “War is increasingly defined by unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and mass precision. The Gulf offers useful insights, but Ukraine is the more demanding laboratory. There, the true challenges of unmanned systems at scale and the rapid emergence of autonomous capabilities are already on display. … The Gulf conflict demonstrates what American forces can achieve from a position of strength. Ukraine has shown what war looks like from a more vulnerable position, when that strength is contested at scale.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
At Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington on Wednesday, Chuck Robbins, CEO of the tech giant Cisco, spoke about his decision a decade ago to acquire Leaba Semiconductor, an Israeli company, before it had even developed a product, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, speaking at the confab, called for the Strait of Hormuz to be an international passageway that is not under the control of any one country…
Also speaking at the summit yesterday, “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, speaking to David Rubenstein, talked about documentarian Ken Burns‘ July 4 tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence out loud with his family, calling it “a Seder for America”…
A second U.S.-sanctioned supertanker entered the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the U.S.’ maritime blockade of the waterway…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how growing economic distress in Iran could push Tehran back to negotiations with the U.S. as it seeks much-needed sanctions relief…
Seb Gorka, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, is reportedly looking to be named the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, following Joe Kent’s resignation last month…
The Financial Times spotlights Paolo Zampolli, a close personal friend of President Donald Trump and the U.S. special representative for global partnerships, as he conducts multibillion-dollar deals on behalf of the White House…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the hurdles facing Kevin Warsh ahead of his confirmation hearing to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve…
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), appearing on “Pod Save America,” praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a challenge Wednesday to those seeking to challenge her plan to penalize protesters who get too close to religious institutions — “Bring it on.” Announcing new state programs to provide support and security for organizations deemed “vulnerable to hate crimes,” the governor, a Democrat, took questions regarding her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…
Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, apologized for using racist language in social media posts as a teenager, but fell short of addressing more recent comments in which she suggested that Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place,” and celebrated “freedom fighters of Palestine”…
A new report from Yale University’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education found that universities themselves cultivated significant public distrust of higher education, citing soaring tuition costs, unclear admissions processes and the uneven applications of standards and rules…
Kent Syverud, who earlier this year had been tapped as the next chancellor of the University of Michigan, announced that he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will not assume the position in Ann Arbor; the school’s Board of Regents said it will begin a new search process in the coming days…
Duke University suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on Tuesday, one month after students began submitting complaints about an antisemitic Instagram post from the group, which depicted the U.S. and Israel as pigs frothing at the mouth, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
Hebrew Union College President Andrew Rehfeld told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher that the school was “deeply disappointed” by a decision by the Ohio Attorney General’s office to file a lawsuit to block the institution’s plans to shutter its Cincinnati rabbinical programs…
Apple TV released the trailer for the upcoming Israeli thriller series “Unconditional,” which stars Liraz Chamami and Talia Lynne Ronn as a mother-daughter pair stranded in Russia and at the mercy of Moscow crime rings following Ronn’s character’s arrest on drug-smuggling charges…
“Fauda” co-creator Avi Issacharoff shared a sneak peek of the show’s upcoming fifth season, which takes place in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
Police in the U.K. arrested two people following an attempted arson attack at a synagogue in North London…
U.K. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for the deportation of foreigners who engage in antisemitism…
Immanuel College, one of London’s only private Jewish secondary schools, is set to close at the end of this year, citing financial challenges…
Kanye West postponed an upcoming show in Marseille, France, after government officials, as well as the mayor of Marseille, suggested the rapper would not be welcome in the country; the decision comes days after U.K. authorities revoked West’s visa ahead of a summer festival he was set to headline in the country…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law legislation levying criminal penalties — including fines and prison sentences — against individuals convicted of antisemitic offenses…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar spoke by phone on Wednesday, with a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office saying that the incoming Hungarian leader invited Netanyahu to the country for the 70-year commemoration of the Hungarian Uprising…
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil denied reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was planning to pull its financial support for the league, weeks before its first scheduled U.S. tournament of the season, slated to take place next month at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia…
Front Office Sports reports that a multiyear deal between Michael Rubin‘s Fanatics and Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority is on the verge of collapse…
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks is joining Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as a senior strategic advisor; Brooks will continue in his position at the RJC, in addition to his role leading the Jewish Policy Center…
Israel Malachi was named the new director general of Israel’s Finance Ministry after serving for nearly four years as the ministry’s deputy director general…
Amy Marks is joining JCC Association of North America as the organization’s chief advancement officer…
Former “All Things Considered” host Ari Shapiro is joining CNN as a contributor, where he’ll co-host a new podcast focused on digital trends with his former NPR colleague Audie Cornish…
Author and TV producer Barbara Gordon, whose memoir about her addiction to Valium and mental health challenges became a bestseller, died at 90…
Pic of the Day
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (center right), cut the ribbon at the official launch on Wednesday of ARC Landing Boston, a joint initiative between Healey’s administration and Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. Joining Healey for the ribbon-cutting were New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Sheba Director General Yitshak Kreiss and ARC Innovation Founder and Director Eyal Zimlichman.
Birthdays
Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress and movie producer, Ellen Barkin turns 72…
CEO and president of American Express in the 1990s, he now serves on many corporate and charitable boards, Harvey Golub turns 87… Chasidic singer, known by his stage name Mordechai Ben David or MBD, Mordechai Werdyger turns 75… Olympic track-and-field athlete, and survivor of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, Esther Roth-Shachamorov turns 74… Cofounder of Jordan Company LP, a New York private equity firm, David Wayne Zalaznick turns 72… Physician and venture capitalist focused on biotechnology and life-sciences industries, Lindsay Rosenwald turns 71… Professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, Aaron Louis Friedberg, Ph.D. turns 70… Filmmaker, he directed the 2011 documentary “Paul Williams Still Alive” and the 1997 slapstick comedy “Vegas Vacation” starring Chevy Chase, Stephen Kessler turns 66… Former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf turns 64… Former secretary of state of the United States under the Biden administration, Antony John “Tony” Blinken turns 64… Emmy Award-winning television producer and writer, he co-created and produced “Will & Grace” and “Boston Common,” David Sanford Kohan turns 62… Long Island native, he is a Los Angeles pharmacist, Jeffrey D. Marcus… U.S. ambassador to Egypt during the Trump 45 administration, Jonathan Raphael Cohen turns 62… Former mayor of Hoboken, N.J., Dawn Zimmer turns 58… Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. and minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer turns 55… Canada’s minister of the environment, climate change and nature, Julie Dabrusin turns 55… Celebrity plastic surgeon, he is active on social media as “Dr. Miami” and has been on reality TV about his practice, Michael Salzhauer, M.D. turns 54… Board member of Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, Ellen K. Finestone… Founder and president of Glass Ceiling Strategies, she is also a managing director for communications at Climate Power, Alex Glass… Founder of Jewish Fashion Council and journalist at Fabologie, Adi Heyman… Former pitcher in the Washington Nationals organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Richard Sidney Bleier turns 39… Attorney who has served as a law clerk to three Maryland judges, now a VP at JPMorgan Chase, Geoffrey S. Middleberg… Lead product manager at Anthropic, Uriel Kejsefman… Singer, pianist and composer, he is best known as half of the folk-rock duo the Portnoy Brothers, Mendy Portnoy turns 34… Climate and energy transition investor, he was a White House staffer in 2017, Matthew Saunders… Senior client strategy and success manager at Grow Progress, Adam Gotbaum… First baseman and free agent, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Matthew Jared “Mash” Mervis turns 28… Josh Goldstein… Sarah Wolfson…
You couldn’t draw up a better test on the degree of Trump’s impact on the Republican Party than examining the results from four states holding highly consequential primaries next month that will be a benchmark of the president’s power
Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Donald Trump walks toward reporters before answering questions prior to boarding Air Force One on April 10, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
There’s been a lot of debate lately over whether President Donald Trump is losing some of his grip on the Republican Party, amid growing economic concerns and the ongoing military operations in Iran.
While the media coverage has been amplifying any sign of intraparty discontent — to the point that former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is getting strange new respect from some Democrats and mainstream press alike — polls continue to show Trump with widespread backing from within his own party, and especially within the MAGA faction of the GOP.
Ultimately, election results are the best reality check. And you couldn’t draw up a better test on the degree of Trump’s impact on the Republican Party than examining the results from four states holding highly consequential primaries next month that will be a benchmark of the president’s power.
Key races in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas will speak volumes about the president’s ability to shape the GOP agenda for the remainder of his second term — and most consequentially, whether he will be able to maintain a unified front with his party on continuing to pursue military action against Iran.
The biggest intraparty showdown, especially when it comes to foreign policy, is the May 19 primary between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and military veteran Ed Gallrein. Massie, one of the few anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, is being opposed by Trump but also has a solid base of grassroots support in the northern Kentucky district, which has thus far supported his anti-establishment brand of politics. But Gallrein has proven to be a credible challenger, raising millions and giving Massie the biggest political test of his career.
Trump has spent some valuable political capital to boost Gallrein, including appearing at a recent rally in Massie’s district to promote his challenger. He’s been joined by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has poured $3.5 million into the race, airing five ads underscoring Massie’s record of breaking with Trump. (Further drawing Trump’s ire: Massie also joined with Democrats in championing the release of the Epstein files.)
It’s never easy to beat a sitting incumbent, but Trump also has an imposing record of winning primaries in which he chooses to engage. If Massie pulls out a victory despite breaking so flagrantly with Trump on a number of key issues, it will be a sign of the president’s diminished political clout.
Another high-profile race where Trump’s engagement in a primary hasn’t yet been definitive: Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) uphill fight to win renomination against Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and state Treasurer John Fleming. The primary will be held on May 16, with the top two finishers heading to a runoff if no one wins a majority of the vote.
Cassidy, largely because of his vote to impeach Trump in 2021, has long faced challenges with the GOP base. Trump, looking to secure Cassidy’s defeat, backed Letlow earlier this year in hopes she’d consolidate the MAGA vote. But Trump’s endorsement hasn’t translated into a groundswell for Letlow, and the presence of Fleming, a former right-wing congressman, has complicated the political math in the primary.
Cassidy looks like a long shot even if he heads to a runoff, and Letlow holds a narrow lead in the limited public polling of the race. But there’s a chance that Fleming could sneak past Letlow on the primary ballot and face Cassidy in a runoff, blocking Trump’s candidate from the race. If that happened, it would be another sign that Trump’s endorsement doesn’t carry the same weight as it once did.
The first Trump test of the month (May 5) will be in Indiana, where the president is trying to punish certain Republican state legislators for not backing a redistricting plan, championed by the White House, which would have allowed the GOP to gain an additional seat.
Finally, it’s the spring race where Trump has remained on the sidelines that may be a signal of his limited political powers. After Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) finished ahead of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s primary last month, reports indicated the president was close to endorsing Cornyn for reelection, in an effort to prevent an expensive and competitive general election against Democrat James Talarico.
But amid furious pushback from right-wing activists and polls suggesting that a Trump endorsement wouldn’t have moved the needle that much, the president has not gotten involved in the race. That alone speaks volumes about the limited level of the president’s political capital.
Trump boasts a near-perfect record in GOP primaries throughout his decade-long political career, with the most prominent setbacks being in Georgia (working against Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in 2022). So if the president’s chosen candidates end up falling short in these key contests, it will be a sign that Republicans may already be preparing for the post-Trump era.
The offending post featured two pigs labeled ‘U.S. Imperialism’ and ‘Zionism’
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A general view of the Duke University Chapel on the campus of Duke University on November 23, 2025 in Durham, North Carolina.
Duke University suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on Tuesday, one month after students began submitting complaints about an antisemitic Instagram post from the group, which depicted the U.S. and Israel as two pigs frothing at the mouth.
The post, which has since been removed from Duke SJP’s Instagram page, was advertising a March 19 general meeting of the group, an on-campus discussion about “Iran, Zionism and US imperialism.”
The flyer featured an illustration by artist Emory Douglas originally published in the newspaper The Black Panther in 1970, depicting the snarling two pigs holding the torch of liberty and the Star of David, labeled “U.S. Imperialism” and “Zionism.”
According to The Duke Chronicle, the university’s student newspaper, 10 students filed complaints with Duke’s Office of Institutional Equity after the flyer was published on March 13. Citing the complaints and previous conduct issues, Duke Student Affairs suspended the group and froze its funding, according to the Chronicle.
Noah Hamid, a sophomore political science major, commended the suspension, telling Jewish Insider that “part of the reason I chose Duke is that the administration has done a good job of protecting students on both sides.”
Duke’s SJP chapter has been “less aggressive” than chapters on other elite campuses, said Hamid, who serves as a community impact fellow for the Israel on Campus Coalition.
Still, the group has been behind several disruptive incidents on campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. Demonstrators from Duke SJP disrupted a November 2024 on campus event featuring former Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, accussing him of supporting illegal occupation and genocide, leading to an investigation by Duke into violations of its Pickets, Protests, and Demonstrations policy.
“A decision like [the SJP suspension] is not made relative to a single action but reflects a broader pattern of behavior that SJP has exhibited,” continued Hamid. “This is the right decision and the timeline [it took for administration] to make the decision is also a sign of it being fair. This isn’t a rash response. It’s them responding appropriately to reactions from the community.”
Duke University did not respond to a request for comment from JI asking how long the suspension is expected to last.
Meta’s director of content policy spoke at a ‘Hack the Hate’ tech conference as the ADL released a report documenting antisemitism spreading unchecked on its platform Instagram
Shahar Azran/WJC
Ben Good, Meta's director of content policy, speaks at the 2026 Hack the Hate summit in Manhattan.
Amid accusations that Meta’s moderation policies enable antisemitic content to circulate on its platforms, a Meta leader on Tuesday highlighted efforts to combat online Jew-hatred, including restrictions on Holocaust denial.
“We remove Holocaust distortion and denial, not because it’s false, which it is, but because it’s antisemitic. It is hate speech against Jewish people, so we’ve drawn a clear line against it,” said Ben Good, director of content policy at Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.
Good spoke at “Hack the Hate NYC 2026,” an event at the Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan spotlighting Israeli tech experts and Jewish leaders working to combat digital antisemitism.
Good, who leads Meta’s team that writes content policies — the rules for what can be posted to the platforms — spoke during a fireside chat with Yfat Barak-Cheney, executive director of the Institute for Technology and Human Rights at the World Jewish Congress.
“Those are policies that govern the global speech of 3 billion people, so we take the responsibility extremely seriously. We want to make sure people can express themselves maximally but we also have to keep our community safe,” said Good.
The event was held as Jewish communities in Israel and around the world marked Yom HaShoah. Barak-Cheney noted that it took four years of advocacy from groups like WJC for Meta to recognize Holocaust denial as antisemitism. In October 2020, the company updated its policies to explicitly prohibit content that denies, distorts or minimizes the Holocaust.
Even after that recognition, she said, the situation remains “especially alarming because it’s not just that we see a larger quantity of AI-generated material, but the quality is different, it’s getting better.”
“Holocaust denial is looking very realistic,” she said. “There’s fabricated quotes. I am worried that we’re losing our grip on the reality of the Holocaust. Does Meta see this as alarming from the inside as it is from our point of view?”
“I have seen new trends putting words in people’s mouths that were not said, having prominent Nazis say things that aren’t true. Those violate our policies. It’s hate speech and we remove it,” said Good. “The same goes for a lot of other conspiracy theories that are misinformation but really are about dehumanizing Jewish people. The most prominent one being the centuries-old tropes that Jewish people control the media or government. We know that underlies dangerous acts so we remove it.”
Good said that Meta, which uses AI-generated content moderation, has “tremendous potential to advance AI systems in dealing with what we call ‘integrity work’ in social media.”
He said that “traditional machine learning,” utilized about two years ago, required being fed “a ton of data, some content that violates [Meta policies], some that doesn’t and they begin to understand [and match] patterns.”
Modern LLMs are able to analyze context on their own, said Good, allowing for more accurate reasoning.
“That is extremely important in an area such as Holocaust denial because it’s very coded and can often be long-form speeches and text which can be hard to understand even for a human,” said Good. “The LLMs are really good at understanding coded language and context.”
But even as Meta has made strides in addressing Holocaust denial, the Anti-Defamation League released a new report on Wednesday revealing that Instagram failed to remove 93% of reported extremist and hateful content, tying the trend directly to Meta’s efforts to roll back content moderation last year.
A spokesperson for Meta told Jewish Insider after the report was released that “over two-thirds of the accounts and posts flagged by the ADL were removed prior to the publication of this report, while some did not violate our policies.” ADL told JI it gave Meta a two-week window from reporting the content to getting a response from the platform.
The January 2025 rollback of content moderation included ending the platform’s third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with a system modeled after the community notes feature on Elon Musk’s X.
At the time, some Jewish leaders expressed concern that the move would “open the floodgates to content” that could target Jewish communities and individuals, and called the decision a “step back” in the fight against rising antisemitism. Meta had said the relaxed guidelines aim to “allow more speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse.”
“The name of the game isn’t just relying on the magic of AI and setting it loose on our platform,” said Good. “Instead, we have to be extremely positive that it understands our written policies and will apply and enforce them. We don’t want to leave the guesswork to the technology. We will always be reporting our enforcement metrics. But this is a chance to bring contextual understanding to content moderation.”
Barak-Cheney asked Good what guardrails Meta, which produces its own AI system called Llama, has in place to stop its LLMs from generating content that might be antisemitic.
“We do train the models on our safety standards,” said Good. “The unique challenge with generative AI is that it’s interactive and adaptable. When we train the models to prevent harm, we’ve learned it’s not so much the ‘what’ but the ‘why.’ It’s not so much telling the model that it can or can’t say this, it’s explaining to the model why we have certain rules, prohibitions and standards and reasoning with it so it can extrapolate that reasoning into situations.”
“This can mean a number of things, but an old-school way of doing it would be to say ‘here are 500 words we consider slurs, don’t say them.’ A more dynamic rule might be ‘this is what a slur is, this is why we consider a word a slur and these are the circumstances in which you can say it,’ and let the model reason through various situations,” explained Good.
He added that “there’s no limit” to how much help antisemitism watchdogs can provide to Meta.
“To be clear, we understand that generally it’s our job to understand how problems manifest and address them, but when people who are on the ground in a given space give us reports and intel it allows us to validate our own research in a way that helps us make decisions better. The policy shouldn’t be a bunch of people in Silicon Valley deciding things. They should be decided collaboratively,” Good said.
The event, attended by some 150 Jewish leaders and innovators, opened with remarks from Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University. It was organized by Generative AI for Good and the 8200 Alumni Association, which preserves the legacy of IDF Unit 8200, in partnership with the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Gesher Israel, Maccabee Ventures, President Isaac Herzog’s Voice of the People Initiative, the World Jewish Congress’ TecHRI and Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business.
Attendees are expected to include Harvard community members, Jewish activists, lawyers and scholars
Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Widener Library on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
A Jewish legal group will convene its inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law at Harvard University on Thursday, an event that was born out of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school and framed around the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States.
“We’re very excited to have a mix of federal, high-level leadership, prominent scholars, Jewish communal leaders, high-powered litigators and experts in the field,” Ken Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the group hosting the conference, told Jewish Insider.
The day-long event is slated to open with an address from Marcus and benediction from Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads Harvard Chabad.
Held as America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this summer, Marcus said the headline session will focus “on how we define antisemitism as lawyers and professionals, and why a proper definition of antisemitism matters for America at this point in time.” The panelists will include Andrea Martin, co-chair of the Center for Jewish Legal Studies; Nathan Diament, executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center; Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for Combat Antisemitism Movement; and Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs.
The plenary session, “Towards a Jewish Civil Rights Movement,” moderated by Marcus, will feature William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Elan Carr, CEO of Israeli-American Council and former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network.
A separate panel, moderated by Anat Alon-Beck, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, will explore new avenues for litigation against antisemitism.
Attendees are expected to include Harvard community members, Jewish activists, lawyers and scholars, according to Marcus, who served as assistant secretary of education for civil rights in President Donald Trump’s first administration.
In January 2025, the Brandeis Center settled its lawsuit with Harvard, which alleged that since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, students and faculty on campus called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism as the university ignored harassment — including a physical assault — of Jewish students.
Under the terms of the resolution, Harvard agreed to host Brandeis Center events, implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, invest additional academic resources to study antisemitism and establish another partnership with a university in Israel, in addition to programs the university currently has in place with Israeli universities.
The conference comes as Harvard remains entrenched in legal battles with the Trump administration, which it has sued to recover billions in funding that was frozen over the government’s allegations that the school has not adequately addressed antisemitism. A federal judge ruled last September that the government violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights and federal law when it froze nearly $2 billion in federal grants. The Trump administration filed an appeal in December 2025, which is ongoing.
Last month, the clash escalated when the Trump administration filed a new lawsuit against the university, claiming that its leadership violated the civil rights of Jewish students by failing to address ongoing antisemitism that has roiled the campus since Oct. 7.
The conference is also held against the backdrop of a newly released report by Harvard’s official Jewish alumni group finding that Jewish enrollment at the Boston school has fallen to roughly 7% — its lowest level since the pre-World War II era.
Marcus said the Brandeis Center has been in “continuing engagement with Harvard University over both the challenges that we still see there and the efforts that they’re undertaking to address them.”
“This conference is a part of that process and we hope it can be used to take the problems that they have had at Harvard and to turn them into something positive, not just for Harvard University and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but for the country as a whole,” continued Marcus.
“We see this as the first of a series of conferences that we will have at Harvard University and may consider hosting them in other locations as well,” he said.
Any potential agreements between Jerusalem, Beirut and Washington will ultimately hinge on whether Hezbollah can be fully disarmed
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd-R), accompanied by U.S. State Department Counselor Michael Needham (C), and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (R), speaks as they begin working-level peace talks with Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter at the U.S. State Department on April 14, 2026 in Washington, DC.
The first round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon has been received positively by diplomats, pro-Israel lawmakers and experts, who see it as a sign of Hezbollah’s waning influence in Lebanon. But despite the optimism surrounding the discussions, experts caution that disarming the terrorist group remains a daunting obstacle that stands in the way of any meaningful change — one that would require a significant shift from the Lebanese government and its armed forces.
On Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese leadership convened at the State Department in Washington for the highest-level direct discussions in more than 30 years, aiming to outline a framework for “lasting peace” and a “permanent end” to Hezbollah’s influence, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider that “it is great” that talks are taking place, expressing hope that “the Lebanese government, the United States and the Israeli government make a deal, and collectively, they push Hezbollah out.”
“That way the Lebanese people can be freed from the Iranian extremism that they have in their country,” Moskowitz said. “The Lebanese people are being held captive by the Iranian government because of Hezbollah. It’s obviously good for the United States, it’s good for Israel, but more importantly, I think it’s good for the people of Lebanon. I think disarming Hezbollah is obviously key to all this.”
Moskowitz added that while the Lebanese government appears to want to disarm Hezbollah, “they probably need help.”
“It’s not going to happen overnight, but I think it’s historic, and this is what the entire region wants,” he said. “This is what the Gulf states want. Everybody wants to come out of the extremism and the terrorism that Iran is trying to spread in the region.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) similarly told JI that Hezbollah disarmament is an important factor in talks.
“Why would you have talks if they [Hezbollah] are not going to disarm?” Scott said. “I’m not the prime minister of Israel but my condition would be that Hezbollah has got to disarm.”
Scott dismissed the notion that the Lebanese government and the Lebanese Armed Forces have not done enough to disarm the group, stating that the main problem is “not caused by Lebanon or by the military of Lebanon, it’s caused by Hezbollah.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said that disarming Hezbollah should be a “red line” for Israel in talks. He added that Israel “needs a buffer zone so Hezbollah can’t continue to rain down terror on Israelis.”
“Hezbollah has historically been the best trained, best equipped opponents to Israel,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said. “Israel’s done a great job with them over the last two years, but they’re hardcore fervent believers in destroying Israel.”
Experts similarly described the talks as a meaningful development. John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, called the discussions an “important breakthrough” and a sign of Hezbollah’s diminishing influence.
“Everyone should welcome the opening of a direct political dialogue between Israel and Lebanon,” Hannah said. “The fact that [the talks are] occurring at all is an important sign of Hezbollah’s declining hegemony over the Lebanese state.”
Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, described the talks as a “win-win-win” in a social media post, adding that Hezbollah emerged as a “big loser.”
“Today is a day to celebrate — we all saw a glimpse of what is possible after so much violence and conflict,” Satloff wrote on Tuesday. “That is a very good thing.”
Still, experts say disarming Hezbollah, which parties agree is necessary for any lasting piece, remains highly difficult and uncertain.
Even before Tuesday’s opening round of discussions, Hezbollah senior member Wafiq Safa said Hezbollah is “not bound” by any deals reached between Israel, Lebanon and the United States.
“It’s hard to be an optimist when it comes to the core question of Hezbollah’s disarmament,” Hannah said. “Even after all that’s been done over the past few years to weaken the group and its Iranian sponsors — including the loss of its legitimacy in the eyes of a majority of Lebanese — it’s not at all apparent that the raw balance of forces inside Lebanon has shifted sufficiently to favor Hezbollah’s near-term demise.”
Hannah described disarming Hezbollah as “worth trying,” but ultimately a “long shot.”
“Since the war against Iran broke out on Feb. 28, Hezbollah has shown through its sustained attacks on Israel that, while much diminished, its forces retain far more significant capabilities than many believed,” he said. “And in the wake of its battle against Israel, Hezbollah is making clear that if push comes to shove, it’s prepared to burn down the state before surrendering its weapons.”
Blaise Misztal, JINSA’s vice president for policy, said the task cannot be accomplished through Israeli military action alone and will ultimately depend on whether Lebanon and the LAF are willing to act.
“[Disarming Hezbollah] can only be fully done by a strong and committed Lebanese government,” Misztal said. “Israel can secure southern Lebanon with ground operations and strike Hezbollah sites in Beirut or the Bekaa Valley, but that will merely distance and degrade the threat, never fully remove it.”
“The question is whether the Lebanese government is, or can be convinced to be, strong and committed enough to take on the task of asserting its control over its own territory,” he added. “Thus far, it has failed to demonstrate either the political will or military capability to do so.”
Hannah similarly noted that “Israel is rightly unwilling to pay the necessary cost in blood, treasure and diplomatic opprobrium” required to fully dismantle Hezbollah, leaving the responsibility to Lebanon and its armed forces.
“The factor that has truly held Lebanon back from disarming Hezbollah has been Hezbollah’s retention of, as far as we can tell, overwhelming support among Lebanese Shiites,” David Daoud, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. “Having retained that popular support, it can deter the government from pursuing forcible disarmament by dangling the threat of civil war.”
But experts weren’t optimistic that the Lebanese government and LAF are capable — or willing — to take on that role. Hannah said Lebanon’s military “doesn’t appear to have the stomach to truly confront Hezbollah and dismantle the group’s armed wing,” noting that it has already “failed” to disarm the group in southern Lebanon, “much less the rest of the country.”
“It seems even less likely than before the Iran war that the LAF would now be willing to take on the risk of massively confronting Hezbollah,” he said, “in spite of the misery Hezbollah’s unilateral decision to enter the conflict on Iran’s behalf is now inflicting on the rest of Lebanon.”
David Daoud, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, also said Beirut “ultimately holds the key” to resolving the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament. He said that while Lebanon has taken “immense and commendable” steps in “proscribing Hezbollah’s military activities,” the country’s “unwillingness to act against Hezbollah has been missing from the equation” and has “allowed the group to regenerate in the past.”
He added that Hezbollah still “retains enough military strength to make disarmament daunting” for Lebanese forces and the LAF, and that the group continues to wield significant political power.
“The factor that has truly held Lebanon back from disarming Hezbollah has been Hezbollah’s retention of, as far as we can tell, overwhelming support among Lebanese Shiites,” Daoud said. “Having retained that popular support, it can deter the government from pursuing forcible disarmament by dangling the threat of civil war.”
Daoud also raised concerns about Lebanon’s intentions in negotiations, arguing that Beirut may not truly be seeking meaningful change.
“A good test will be the extent to which the LAF fulfills the Lebanese government’s order from early April to put all of Beirut under its full control,” John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said. “Will the LAF truly confront and disarm Hezbollah in the capital or simply repeat the phony disarmament it claimed to have completed in the south?”
“Lebanon is seeking to use the negotiations to return to the status quo, and is willing to ‘pay the price’ of a joint photograph with an Israeli ambassador to achieve that objective,” he said. “This is because the situation in Lebanon is indeed dire — economic collapse compounded by war, the direct impact of the war itself and the emergence of sectarian tensions that could boil over into full-on conflict.”
If those dynamics remain unchanged, he warned that Hezbollah could indefinitely delay disarmament and eventually rebuild its strength.
“A good test will be the extent to which the LAF fulfills the Lebanese government’s order from early April to put all of Beirut under its full control,” Hannah said. “Will the LAF truly confront and disarm Hezbollah in the capital or simply repeat the phony disarmament it claimed to have completed in the south?”
Satloff said the challenge will ultimately require translating diplomacy into “practical steps,” including a shift in how the Lebanese military approaches disarmament.
“While some of this can happen in the negotiating room when the parties meet again, nothing can substitute for strong measures by the Lebanese state to isolate, weaken, delegitimize and disarm Hezbollah while promoting the idea of peace,” he said.
He suggested that turning Beirut into a “true weapons-free zone” is necessary “but not sufficient,” pointing to additional steps such as removing Hezbollah officials from government, expelling Iranian operatives from the country and shutting down the group’s financial and institutional networks.
'You never know how important a decision is when you make it, and if you have conviction, and your team has conviction ... you just gotta stay with it,' Chuck Robbins said at Semafor World Economy summit
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Chairman and CEO of Cisco Chuck Robbins speaks at the Semafor World Economy 2026 summit on April 15, 2026 in Washington, DC.
At the Semafor World Economy summit in Washington on Wednesday, Chuck Robbins, CEO of the tech giant Cisco, spoke about his decision a decade ago to acquire Leaba Semiconductor, an Israeli company, before it had even developed a product.
“Now we’re underpinning the GPU training models and running the enterprise AI stacks. And it turns out, it’s been brilliant,” Robbins said.
“You never know how important a decision is when you make it, and if you have conviction, and your team has conviction, even with something we have invested in for probably five years before we begin to see any ROI, you just gotta stay with it,” Robbins added.
‘I didn't seek, nor would I accept, the endorsement of Democratic Socialists of America,’ McDuffie told JI in an interview
Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (I-At Large) is seen before Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) testifies to the DC City Council outlining the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget in Washington, D.C., on April 03, 2024.
As Washington, D.C., voters get ready to elect their first new mayor in more than a decade, the two leading candidates — former colleagues on the Council of the District of Columbia — are proposing drastically different visions for the city’s future: political moderation or democratic socialism.
In an interview with Jewish Insider this week at his campaign headquarters in Northeast Washington, former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie drew a direct contrast between his campaign and that of his Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed rival, Janeese Lewis George.
“I didn’t seek, nor would I accept, the endorsement of Democratic Socialists of America, or any organization, for that matter, that requires some sort of divisive pledge to exclude people that are a part of the fabric of the community of the District of Columbia,” McDuffie said.
He was referring to a DSA endorsement questionnaire that asked candidates not to engage with “the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups.” Lewis George, a longtime DSA member, vowed not to attend events that promote Zionism when she filled out the questionnaire, which earned her the DSA endorsement.
Lewis George’s responses sparked concern among many in the Jewish community, and she apologized in a closed-door meeting with rabbis in March. But she has not offered any public remorse.
“I think it’s important for elected officials to have the courage to say in public things that they say in private,” McDuffie said. “Any message that depends on taking a pledge to exclude entire communities as a condition of a political endorsement is extraordinarily divisive and disturbing.”
Amid the controversy surrounding her DSA questionnaire and the meeting with rabbis, Lewis George released a statement last month pledging to stand firm in both her opposition to antisemitism and her support for “Palestinian human rights.” McDuffie told JI that he did not see the mayoral race as a place to litigate debates about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I think a mayor’s responsibility is to look out for all of its residents, particularly our most vulnerable residents,” said McDuffie. “At a time where the Jewish community is seeing rising antisemitism worldwide, and even the District of Columbia, it’s important that they understand that their elected officials are going to use every tool possible to protect them.”
“I didn’t bring those issues into this race. My opponent did it when she sought the endorsement of Democratic Socialists of America,” McDuffie said. “I’m not running for Congress. I’m not engaging in the crafting of foreign policy. I’m running for mayor of Washington, D.C., the most beautifully diverse city in America, and I’m running to fight and deliver for all D.C.”
McDuffie is actively courting votes in the Jewish community. He will appear next week at a meet-and-greet with Jewish young professionals in the District.
“I think a mayor’s responsibility is to look out for all of its residents, particularly our most vulnerable residents,” said McDuffie. “At a time where the Jewish community is seeing rising antisemitism worldwide, and even the District of Columbia, it’s important that they understand that their elected officials are going to use every tool possible to protect them.”
McDuffie pledged to speak out against antisemitic violence and rhetoric so that the District’s Jewish residents “understand that they have a mayor and elected leadership who’s going to strongly oppose those kinds of activities and threats and do everything humanly possible to protect them.” He called the city’s nonprofit security grant program, which provides funding to several local synagogues to pay for security expenses, a “nonnegotiable,” even if the city faces other budget challenges.
Born and raised in Northeast Washington, McDuffie entered politics circuitously. He worked as a mail carrier for the USPS before ultimately going to college and law school, in a career pivot he said was inspired by witnessing the death of two friends to the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. He spent a few years as a prosecutor, in Maryland and at the Justice Department, before running for Council in 2013. McDuffie represented Ward 5, which includes the neighborhoods Bloomingdale, Eckington, Brookland and Fort Totten, until being elected to a citywide at-large position in 2022 where he served until January.
His message now is about affordability, a buzzword brought into style last year by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member like Lewis George. The way to make the city more affordable, according to McDuffie, is “economic growth with guardrails” — a contrast to the sweeping changes promised by Lewis George, the viability of which McDuffie has questioned.
“They want experience. They want vision. They want bold. They want change. What they don’t want is more empty promises,” said McDuffie. “What they don’t want is rhetoric that isn’t supported by an actual plan. What they don’t want is somebody who engages with organizations seeking to divide residents, and what we think we have as an advantage is both a vision that is about building a big tent and inviting people in and a record.”
“We’re the nation’s capital. We can walk and chew gum,” McDuffie said. “I think that’s important for people to understand, that we can have innovative, transformational policies at the same time that we’re delivering core services on time and within a budget that doesn’t default to raising taxes on hard-working residents.”
McDuffie seemed to recognize that pushing a vision of pragmatism may not be as seductive as promises powered by major spending increases. For instance, both Lewis George and McDuffie want to build new housing in the city, but Lewis George has promised to build 72,000 new units compared to 12,000 suggested by McDuffie, The Washington Post reported. But McDuffie argued that voters want honesty.
“They want experience. They want vision. They want bold. They want change. What they don’t want is more empty promises,” said McDuffie. “What they don’t want is rhetoric that isn’t supported by an actual plan. What they don’t want is somebody who engages with organizations seeking to divide residents, and what we think we have as an advantage is both a vision that is about building a big tent and inviting people in and a record.”
Though McDuffie and Lewis George are widely viewed as the frontrunners in the race, they are not the only candidates running in the Democratic primary which, in deep blue Washington, will almost certainly decide the eventual victor. Other candidates in the June 16 primary include real estate developer Gary Goodweather and former Councilmember Vincent Orange.
Forty Senate Democrats voted to block sales of bulldozers to Israel, while 36 voted to block the sales of 1,000-pound bombs
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(L-R) Senate Democratic leadership, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Mark Warner (D-VA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Chris Murphy (D-CT), pose for a group photo in the U.S. Capitol on December 3, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Most of the Democrats in the Senate — 40 in total, including some traditionally pro-Israel lawmakers — voted on Wednesday evening for a measure led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that aimed to block sales of bulldozers to Israel, with 36 of them also voting to advance a second Sanders-backed resolution to block sales of thousands of 1,000-pound bombs.
The votes are a striking statement of the extent to which anti-Israel sentiment has become mainstream in the Democratic Party. Just seven members of the Democratic caucus voted against both measures.
Twenty-seven Democrats supported at least one of two similar measures in July 2025, which was a record at that time.
After having opposed previous similar efforts, Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) all flipped and voted in favor of Sanders’ latest resolutions.
Warner and Peters, along with Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), voted to advance the resolution to block the bulldozer sale but against advancing the one on bombs.
Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Peter Welch (D-VT), all of whom had supported at least one past effort to block arms sales, voted for both measures on Wednesday.
Every Senate Democrat rumored to have presidential ambitions voted to block both arms sales.
Kelly, a moderate Democrat and potential presidential candidate, insisted in a Senate floor speech that he “cannot and will not abandon Israel,” which is “one of our closest partners. They have a right to defend themselves, and I will always support Israel’s right to exist as a successful and prosperous nation.”
But, he said, “Supporting a partner doesn’t mean that we don’t ask tough questions. It doesn’t mean that we always agree. Our support for our allies must always be about what makes us stronger and safer, and we can look at what’s happening in the region right now and understand that this is not business as usual, and it is not making us safer,” referring to the war in Iran, Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and violence in the West Bank.
He said that the weapons sales will not “bring us closer to peace and security,” but that he remains “confident” that Israel has the ability to protect its people and that “we’ll be able to do so in the future with our partnership and I will always support that.”
Schiff, who is Jewish and generally a reliable supporter of Israel, and Padilla released a joint statement saying that they voted for the resolutions “to oppose the U.S. sale of specific weapons and equipment to Israel which might be used in Iran or to facilitate further settlement activity, which we believe undermine Israel’s long-term security and our own.”
“We strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself and the right of the people of Israel to live in peace and prosperity in a Jewish state,” they said. “We oppose actions that further deepen the United States in an unauthorized conflict in Iran — one with no clear strategy, no legal authority, and no defined end.”
They said they also intend to oppose any supplemental funding for the war.
Slotkin said she would “continue to assess U.S.-funded offensive weapons to Israel on a case-by-case basis” but would continue to support missile-defense systems. She said that she had “struggled with these [measures] as much as any vote since I joined Congress.”
“My entire life, I have been — and continue to be — a strong supporter of a Jewish and democratic State of Israel,” she said. “The people of Israel, like all people throughout the region, deserve long-term security and peace. But being pro-Israel today is not about simply supporting the political or military agenda of Prime Minister Netanyahu, just like being pro-American should not be equated with loyalty to President Trump.”
Slotkin said she is also “deeply skeptical” of providing additional funding for the war in Iran.
Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Jewish Insider in a statement that he did not want to provide equipment to enable displacements of Palestinians in the West Bank or “escalatory military actions in southern Lebanon,” which he called contrary to both Israel and the United States’ interests.
“The United States can and must hold two truths at once: we can stand firmly with Israel’s security while also speaking out against actions that jeopardize peace and stability in the region,” Warner said. “Israel has an unequivocal right to defend itself, but it does not have the right to unilaterally displace Palestinians in the West Bank and torpedo any chance of ever achieving a two-state solution.”
“The United States should ensure that Israel has the tools it needs to protect its people and deter its adversaries while opposing transfers of equipment that are used to demolish homes, expand settlements, and further entrench a reality that weakens the already fragile prospects for a durable peace,” he continued.
Sanders, who has called for the U.S. to “end US military aid to the extremist Netanyahu government,” had described these votes as a referendum on the war in Iran, as well as Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and violence by settlers and Israeli military forces in the West Bank.
J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group that last week called for the U.S. to end financial support for Israel’s missile-defense systems after the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding expires in 2028, supported the Sanders-led resolutions.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), John Fetterman (D-PA) and Chris Coons (D-DE) were the only Democrats to oppose both resolutions.
Gillibrand, who this week introduced a war powers resolution to halt the war in Iran, told JI on Wednesday morning that she sees the resolutions on weapons sales to Israel and the resolutions on the Iran war “very differently.”
“I oppose the war in Iran, but I do not believe we should leave an ally [Israel] who is being attacked without support,” Gillibrand said during a press conference.
AIPAC said in a statement, “We appreciate the senators who opposed these misguided and dangerous resolutions. Letting our democratic ally buy American-made equipment to protect its families from Iran and terrorist groups is clearly in America’s national interest. Congress must continue to stand with Israel as it confronts multiple ongoing threats.”
Platner, in Reddit post on Hamas terrorist attack: ‘From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent’
Sophie Park/Getty Images
Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner repeatedly praised the tactics used by Hamas terrorists in comments made about a graphic video of a Hamas raid into Israel in 2014, in which terrorists killed at least five Israeli soldiers.
In archived posts from his now-deleted Reddit profile under the username “P-Hustle,” Platner commented on a video post titled “Helmet Footage from Hamas cross-border raid,” which showed the attack on multiple Israeli soldiers.
The original video, also now deleted but still archived, was posted by a YouTube channel called Sabah on July 29, 2014, with the description, “Secret footage shows the storming of a settlement by the Qassam Brigades and the killing of 10 soldiers.” The description and comments in the Reddit thread appear to match a raid by Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades on a military base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz the day prior.
According to a text description of the video and the raid shared online, the video includes footage of the shootings of several Israeli soldiers, at least one of whom is screaming as the terrorists attempt to kidnap him.
“Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me,” Platner wrote in 2014 on the Reddit forum r/CombatFootage, a discussion board for footage and photographs of past and current armed conflicts.
Responding to another user who criticized the “execution” of the Israeli soldiers and emphasized that the attack would lead to heavy reprisals in Gaza, Platner said he was not interested in discussing the geopolitical or strategic implications, but suggested Hamas’ tactics and actions were reasonable.
“As for your aversion to ‘execution’, a small unit raid tends to be used to inflict casualties and take prisoners in a short period of time,” Platner wrote. “Pragmatically I have little problem with killing an enemy combatant who you attempt to capture but for whatever reason cannot. From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent, I dig it.”
He acknowledged, in response to another user, that the terrorists’ actions were brutal and that the terrorists should have shot one of the soldiers instead of beating him to death.
Responding to another user who disputed Platner’s characterization of the Hamas attack as a “raid” and said that the attack was “not resistance its just drawing blood to score imaginative points in the war,” Platner suggested the Hamas terrorists were preferable to those who attacked U.S. forces in Iraq.
“It was Iraq, and those guys were in civilian clothing with silenced weapons. This videos shows a unit of men in full uniform assaulting uniformed military personnel of an enemy their organization is currently engaged in military operations with. There is no comparing the two,” Platner wrote. “Generally you try to catch the enemy off guard, and kill them with the least resistance. This looks like a pretty audacious plan that worked, and I’ll certainly give credit where credit is due, no matter who they are fighting for.”
Platner’s campaign did not return a request for comment.
Platner has come under fire by Gov. Janet Mills, who is his main competitor in the Democratic primary, and by Republicans for other past Reddit posts under the “P-Hustle” username which have disparaged a wide range of groups and included various offensive comments.
He also has faced scrutiny for his criticism of Israel and a tattoo on his chest of an apparent Nazi symbol.
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