Citing concerns about the Iran war and the administration’s elevated defense funding request, Senate Democrats voted in lockstep on Tuesday evening to block a procedural motion to open debate on the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, despite the bill passing out of the Armed Services Committee with bipartisan support.

The decision to block the start of debate on the NDAA — an annual must-pass bill that typically garners strong bipartisan support — is a rare step by Democrats signaling significant frustrations with the Trump administration’s ongoing war against Iran.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that he continues to support provisions in the bill, “but I cannot vote to proceed to a bill that enables an ongoing war against Iran that Congress never authorized and the American people overwhelmingly oppose.”

He said that Democrats are seeking amendments to “require accountability” for the war that have been rejected by Republicans. Reed added that Democrats also cannot support a significant increase in defense spending without more reliable accounting of the costs of the Iran war or “basic information” about it, and without a corresponding increase in non-defense spending.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, similarly cited the Iran war as a primary reason for her opposition to the bill.

“I will always do everything in my power to take care of our servicemembers and keep our country safe, but this bill authorizes President Trump’s absurd $1.5 trillion defense budget request while doing nothing to put an end to his disastrous war or prevent him from starting more costly conflicts abroad,” Murray said in a statement. “I refuse to endorse President [Donald] Trump’s obscene war budget, and I refuse to move this bill forward as Trump pushes our country deeper into a war the American people oppose”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that it is “vital that we both pass the NDAA and that we constrain the President’s lawless and costly war against Iran.”

“With the President re-launching his self-defeating war, I voted against the motion to end debate on the NDAA, so we can continue to advocate for greater transparency and an end to this conflict,” Shaheen continued.

She said that amendments to reduce overall spending and withhold any congressional authorization for the Iran war failed along party lines during the closed-door committee markup of the NDAA.

Six progressive Democrats — Sens. Chirs Van Hollen (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — said they would vote against the motion to demand a vote on removing a provision on U.S.-Israel cooperation from the bill, and urged colleagues to do the same.

Though some anti-Israel voices have tried to paint that provision as the reason the Democratic caucus voted en masse against the bill, most Democrats did not cite that in their own statements on the bill.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), the only Senate Democrat who has unreservedly supported the Iran war, was not present for the vote.

Republicans called the Democratic blockade dangerous to national security.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called the vote “SHAMEFUL” and said that the vote demonstrates that Democrats don’t take national security issues, which he described as the most important responsibility of the federal government, seriously.

Senate Democrats sounded wary of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner after the latest revelations that he had engaged in sexual conversations with numerous women while married, but most aren’t calling for him to leave the race, or throwing their support behind Gov. Janet Mills, who still remains on the primary ballot even after suspending her campaign.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who recruited Mills to run for the seat to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) but got behind Platner after Mills dropped out, met with Platner in Washington on Tuesday and repeatedly offered a terse response when asked about Platner at a press conference, offering neither effusive support for nor criticism of the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,” Schumer said.

Asked whether he was standing behind Platner or whether Mills should restart her campaign, Schumer again said, “We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” He repeated the same answer two additional times in response to subsequent questions.

Asked whether he’s still endorsing Platner, Schumer offered nearly the same line once again, while noting that he had “endorsed” Platner.

Other Senate Democrats are keeping Platner at arm’s length.

“He has to answer those questions, directly and forthrightly. They’re fair questions and that’s going to be on him to answer that and it’s going to be up to the voters of Maine to decide,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) said on Monday. 

Welch said that Platner’s electability is “going to depend on how he handles it.”

Welch joined several other Senate Democrats who met with Platner at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee offices on Tuesday afternoon. The meeting ran for more than an hour and a half, but Platner avoided reporters while entering and exiting the building, dashing from a side exit to an awaiting car on his way out, pursued by a throng of press.

“I oppose inappropriate sexual behavior no matter who does it, but it’s up to the voters of Maine to decide,” Sen. Jeanne Shaneen (D-NH) said.

Asked if she thinks Platner can still win, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) told JI, “I’ll work with whoever wins.”

Sens. Andy Kim (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) both said they’d been focused on other matters — the ongoing demonstrations outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in New Jersey and a trip to Ukraine, respectively — and hadn’t been keeping up with the latest on Platner.

Sen. Angus King (I-ME) declined to comment, saying he never gets involved in campaigns involving any sitting colleagues, regardless of party.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who said months ago he planned to stay out of the race but has been directly attacked by Platner several times, offered the harshest criticism of the candidate, and suggested he would be eager for a direct confrontation with him.

“I’d be happy to [meet him.] I’d love to. He’s a tough guy. When I was growing up, if someone had a Nazi tattoo, you could pretty much assume he’s a Nazi sympathizer,” Fetterman said, and referred to several of the scandals plaguing Platner’s campaign. “If you describe an American soldier, a Purple Heart recipient, as a dumb motherf***** that doesn’t deserve to live — who describes the U.S. Army as absolutely trash? Who joins a disgusting platform like Kik and puts a [topless] picture — what are you looking for? He’s expressed frustration [with] how I dress, and this a****** is on Kik and sexting to a dozen women and dressing like this.”

He told JI that his Democratic colleagues could be endangering the party’s chances of taking the seat by sticking by Platner, but said it’s ultimately their decision and that of Maine voters.

“The last time a lot of [Democrats] defended someone who was sexting and saying inappropriate things to women, that was Swalwell,” Fetterman said, referring to former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) who resigned amid a flurry of sexual harassment and assault allegations. “If they want to carry water for that, they’re entitled to that. I don’t live in Maine, I’m not a voter. Whoever Maine decides for that.”

Platner’s strongest supporters are standing firmly behind him.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told JI that he is still confident that Platner can win the seat.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), asked about the latest scandals, offered a similar response multiple times during the day on Tuesday, deflecting by discussing Republican megadonors’ spending plans in the state.

“There are some concerns that some of the wealthiest people in this country [backing] Republican super PACs are planning to spend $100 million in the state of Maine,” Sanders said. “Why do you think that Republicans super PACs controlled by billionaires want to spend a troubling amount of money to defeat Graham Platner?”

A group of people — at least one of them a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee — gathered outside of the DSCC headquarters during Platner’s meeting chanting through a bullhorn and holding signs referencing Platner’s various scandals and, without evidence, accusing him of pedophilia.

A handful of them, including the NRSC staffer, were shirtless wearing towels wrapped around their waists, mimicking Platner’s profile photo on the messaging app Kik, where he communicated with other women.

Following the meeting with Democratic senators, Platner canceled a planned appearance with the campaign group VoteVets and left Washington, D.C. early because reporters had visited his in-laws’ home and his family’s restaurant, according to NOTUS.

Cait Conley and Beth Davidson, two of the leading candidates in the Democratic primary in New York’s 17th Congressional District — among the most Jewish districts in the country — distanced themselves in a Thursday candidate forum from efforts by 40 Senate Democrats last week to block certain military sales to Israel.

Conley, a veteran who has worked in a variety of national security roles, said that she doesn’t believe that lawmakers should be trying to determine which specific systems should be provided to allies, but she also argued that the U.S. must continue to enforce global standards to ensure that all aid recipients are meeting U.S. standards.

“What I’m concerned about is what we are seeing is politicians now trying to make calls on what assistance should or should not go, whether this system or that, whether this thing or that, instead of actually relying upon the process that was designed where informed professionals are shaping what those packages are. There is a politicization of security that I do not believe is good for America’s national security or global stability,” Conley said during the Jewish Democratic Council of America forum.

She said that interference by lawmakers in determining what systems should be provided to Ukraine ultimately hurt the country’s ability to defend itself.

“I think we need to take politicians out of that equation and have a discussion on are the standards being met or not, and that is neutral to whatever ally we’re talking about,” she continued.

Conley also said she continues to believe in the importance of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, but also wants to see long-term peace, guaranteed by a trusted third-party peacekeeping force in Gaza supported by U.S. reconstruction aid.

Davidson, a Rockland County legislator, said that she wants to see the U.S. use diplomatic tools and oversight to help bring about peace, rather than threatening aid to Israel. “I never want to have to be in a position where we are not in a position to provide Israel the aid it needs to fully defend itself and keep not only Israelis but Americans safe,” she said.

But she added that, “before voting for more funding, I would want to see a plan of how we bring this [Iran] conflict to a close, especially with a second conflict going on right next door,” and said that the “illegal war in Iran is actually making it more difficult to implement the [Gaza] peace plan.”

“It’s more important than ever that we understand what is happening with our tax dollars, what aid is being used for, and ensuring that it’s truly making Americans, Israelis, Palestinians and everyone in the region more safe.”

Davidson, who is Jewish, emphasized that the challenges the Jewish community are facing are personal to her and her family, and that her involvement in her synagogue leadership was what led her to public service.

She said that it’s “no secret” that Jewish support has been key to Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-NY) past victories in the district because Jewish voters “felt homeless in the Democratic Party.”

“I’m the strongest candidate in this primary, because with me, Democrats and Jewish Democrats in particular don’t have to choose,” Davidson said. “I bring a strong voice against antisemitism, but also in favor of clean water, gun safety, hunger relief, lowering costs for working families, fighting for affordable health care, a proven record that I bring on so many of the issues that we all care about. So if you felt homeless, you have a home in my campaign.”

Davidson accused Lawler of politicizing the fight against antisemitism, and of turning a blind eye to President Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

She also highlighted her work to organize a solidarity event following the antisemitic stabbing attack in the predominantly Orthodox village of Monsey, N.Y., and to improve Holocaust education as a school board member.

Conley emphasized that she has past experience fighting antisemitism as an official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which sent teams to faith-based institutions to help them improve their security. She said that the administration should be increasing funding and support for such programs, alongside the Department of Education, instead of slashing them.

Effie Phillips-Staley, who is staking out the progressive lane in the race and has adopted an increasingly anti-Israel platform, did not attend the forum.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), one of just seven Senate Democrats to vote last week against resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, said that he wants to maintain and restore bipartisan support for Israel.

“An overriding goal that has been one of my most profound concerns since coming to the United States Senate is to preserve bipartisan support for Israel,” Blumenthal told Jewish Insider in a brief interview on Wednesday. “I partnered with [former Sen.] John McCain (R-AZ) on traveling to the Middle East and to Israel a number of times. He believed powerfully, as I do, that the cause of Israel’s security has to be bipartisan, and I will adhere to that goal as long as I’m in this body.”

Asked how that support on the Democratic side can be restored, he said that he doesn’t have a silver bullet, but he’s “going to work at it every day,” reaching out to colleagues on both sides of the aisle, even those who disagree with him, to work on the issue and travel to the region.

“I will take advantage of every opportunity to make sure that we are as bipartisan as possible, and I resent and oppose anyone who tries to use Israel as a wedge issue politically,” he said. “We need to make decisions on the merits of our own national interests and security.”

He said that he has family in Israel and in the IDF, but his support for Israel comes from it being one of the U.S.’ closest allies and the U.S.-Israel relationship being “vital to our own national security” through military cooperation, intelligence sharing and technological, academic and educational cooperation.

“My argument to my colleagues is that Israel is an ally in a dangerous world,” he continued.

He said he’s also working “fervently” toward normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, a goal he said was “very close” prior to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.

“But it’s a very powerful, long-range dynamic that serves everyone’s interests, including our own,” Blumenthal said, describing normalization as an issue that “could bring us together again, to more robust bipartisan support.”

Asked during a Tuesday press conference about the anti-Israel shift in the Democratic Party, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), another one of the seven Democrats who opposed the effort to block weapons sales, pivoted to discussing the war in Iran.

“Our caucus is united and focused on ending the war in Iran,” Schumer responded.

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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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CAMPAIGN CLASH

Sue Altman accuses challenger in N.J. race of ‘cheerleading’ the ‘deaths of Israeli children’

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

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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

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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MICHIGAN MOMENT

Michigan Dems nominate lawyer who praised Hezbollah for UMich regent over Jewish incumbent

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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.

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!

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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.”

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

A war powers resolution brought by Senate Democrats to force an end to the war in Iran was blocked by Republicans yet again this afternoon, the fourth failed attempt mounted by Senate Democrats since the war began in late February, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Nevertheless, top Senate Democrats have said they intend to continue forcing such votes weekly (they have nine more resolutions already filed) in the hopes that more Republicans will change their votes as the war drags on…

Texas state Sen. James Talarico announced he raised $27 million in the first quarter of 2026 in his run for U.S. Senate, a massive haul that his campaign claimed is the largest amount ever raised by a Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year. Democrats hope the funds will put Texas in play as Talarico seeks to challenge either Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are still locked in their own hotly contested primary.

The top Senate fundraisers behind Talarico this quarter were also Democrats: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) brought in $14 million — breaking the record for first-quarter fundraising in Georgia — former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper raised $13.8 million and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) raised $12.5 million…

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) said he raised $1.1 million in this year’s first quarter, bringing his total to $4.4 million raised — more than any other House incumbent or candidate in New Jersey this cycle, according to the New Jersey Globe — as he defends his swing seat from several well-funded Democratic challengers. 

But even as he’s pulled in plenty of support, Kean has missed a month’s worth of votes on Capitol Hill due to an unspecified medical issue, with his staff declining to say when he will return…

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in an interview on the “Pod Save America” podcast 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 President Donald Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

“I believe the thing that has been very fascinating, especially about Marjorie and Candace, is that … they’re saying, ‘This action is wrong,’ right? They’re saying, ‘I am done with you.’ We should give them credit for that, the fact that they’ve had this wake-up call to finally seeing this con man, this corrupt, chaotic man for what he is,” Omar said…

Sebastian Gorka, the White House senior director for counterterrorism and a deputy assistant to the president, is reportedly angling for the position of director of the National Counterterrorism Center, which was recently vacated by Joe Kent amid Kent’s opposition to the Iran war. Gorka has been a staunch defender of Trump and backed his war with Iran, as well as repeatedly praised Israel amid its war in Gaza…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Péter Magyar, the presumptive next prime minister of Hungary, for the first time today, calling the conversation “warm” and saying that Magyar indicated he will continue the close relationship the countries enjoyed under his predecessor, outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul defended her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship today, JI’s Will Bredderman reports, legislation that has drawn legal scrutiny over its creation of a new felony offense for violators.

“I believe I have the right to protect people’s constitutional right to free exercise of religion,” Hochul told reporters when asked if she had concerns that the legislation might provoke challenges on First Amendment grounds. “So if that means we test it in court, bring it on”…

After holding its final public hearing earlier this week, the White House Religious Liberty Commission is now preparing a set of recommendations to be presented to the president next month. Ambiguity and confusion about the commission’s mandate has left commissioners unsure if they’ll continue to meet — their first year on the panel was marred by the firing of one commissioner over her disruption of a hearing on antisemitism… 

Progressive media organization More Perfect Union is launching More Perfect University, an effort aimed at college students to act as an alternative to the conservative Turning Point USA, with a focus on urging young people to share left-wing political and economic messaging through social media. Faiz Shakir, the head of More Perfect Union who is also chief political advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign, said he hopes to jump-start “an economic populist movement for the next generation”…

Duke University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter has been suspended as a student group and had its funding frozen after it posted virulently antisemitic imagery depicting Israel and the U.S. as pigs frothing at the mouth on its Instagram page, prompting student complaints to campus administration…

University of Michigan President-elect Kent Syverud announced today he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will no longer assume the presidency, leaving the future of the school’s leadership in question. Jewish leaders had praised Syverud’s appointment as a positive development for UM, which had seen rampant anti-Israel activity 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 out in Jewish Insider for a preview of a first-of-its-kind antisemitism conference taking place tomorrow at Harvard, created as an outcome of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school.

New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District will hold its special election for the remainder of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s congressional term, where progressive Analilia Mejia is expected to prevail against Republican Joe Hathaway.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold nomination hearings for John Breslow to be U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and Preston Wells to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, among others.

The Shalom Hartman Institute will host a discussion at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, on American Jewry ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

The House Appropriations Committee will hold a budget hearing on the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

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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.

The measure failed by a vote of 52-47, with all Democrats except Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voting for a procedural motion on the war powers resolution, and all Republicans except Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voting against it. Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV) was not present for the vote.

Nevertheless, Democrats intend to continue their efforts. They have nine such resolutions that have been filed, and top Senate Democrats said this week they intend to continue forcing such votes weekly, in the hopes that more Republicans will change their votes as the war drags on.

Some Republicans have begun to express hesitation about the war, and top members of the caucus have said they hope it comes to an end soon. But thus far most have not been willing to openly break with President Donald Trump on the effort.

Separately, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) plans to call up a vote later on Wednesday on a pair of measures to block sales of bombs and bulldozers to Israel, which Sanders has also framed as referenda on the war in Iran. Twenty-seven Democrats have previously voted for such resolutions, and supporters of the effort expect that number to increase this time.

But at least one lawmaker, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who introduced a war powers resolution on Iran this week, for future consideration, said that she views the two issues differently.

“I think of them very differently,” Gillibrand told Jewish Insider during a virtual press conference on Wednesday. “I oppose the war in Iran, but I do not believe we should leave an ally who is being attacked without support,” she said, referring to Israel.

A group of six additional Senate Democrats plan to file new war powers resolutions this week to halt the war in Iran, a move that would allow Democrats to continue forcing votes on the war for the foreseeable future. 

Previously, a different group of six Democrats introduced similar resolutions, and Democrats have called up two of them thus far, with plans to call up a third this week. So far, the resolutions have all failed along mostly party lines, with all senators remaining consistent in their votes.

The latest group of lawmakers includes Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Andy Kim (D-NJ). 

The array of lawmakers involved in the latest effort spans from staunch progressives and critics of Israel to generally more pro-Israel members. 

“President Trump chose to start a war knowing it was going to raise gas prices on Americans already struggling to get by,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “The president, and his party, just don’t care about anyone other than themselves. They lie, cheat and steal to enrich themselves and leave regular folks with the bill. It is long past time for Republicans in Congress to stand up and do their job.”

House Democrats also plan to call up a war powers resolution this week, which may pass given that some Democrats who previously opposed a war powers effort and a handful of Republicans have indicated they plan to change their votes.

The latest set of six resolutions will not be eligible for floor votes immediately, but Democrats can call up the other four resolutions introduced previously at will. Senate Democrats are also likely to force votes on matters related to the Iran war during the upcoming reconciliation process, which Republicans aim to use to fund immigration enforcement and other priorities.

A group of 25 Senate Democrats criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for lifting sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil exports, sanctions which have seen broad bipartisan support.

“We write with deep concern and confusion over your administration’s recent decision to ease sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil exports,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to the president. “These actions speak once again to the troubling lack of strategic foresight that has marked your administration’s decision-making prior to and during its war of choice with Iran, jeopardizing the lives of our servicemembers across the region and raising costs for Americans here at home.”

The lawmakers accused Trump of “scrambling — and failing” to address the impacts of the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the conflict, despite reported warnings that an attack on Iran would likely cause oil prices to spike. 

And, they alleged, the sanctions waiver will provide a new revenue source of as much as $14 billion for “the very regime that U.S. servicemembers are risking their lives to strike” while having little impact on bringing down global oil prices.

They highlighted that Russia is already reportedly set to make $4.9 billion from rising oil prices, an amount further supplemented by the sanctions waivers, in spite of Russia’s support for Iran’s strikes on U.S. military forces.

“Relieving sanctions on U.S. adversaries during an active conflict is just the most recent indicator of an incoherent and disordered policy approach,” the letter continues. “Economic relief for Americans starts with the cessation of wars of choice, not the continuation of them.”

The lawmakers demanded public hearings by administration officials on the decision to provide sanctions relief.

The letter was signed by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Jack Reed (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Angus King (I-ME), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ron Wyden (D-OR), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

Republicans, despite widespread support for the U.S. sanctions on Iran, have generally been downplaying the impacts of the sanctions relief, describing it as a careful measure to relieve oil price shocks that is designed to be temporary. Some have also echoed claims by the administration that they plan to intercept and freeze the revenues for Iran before they reach the regime’s coffers.

Nearly all Senate Democrats wrote to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday to raise “grave concern” about a strike on a girl’s school that killed at least 168 people in the opening phase of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Reports indicate that the U.S. is likely responsible for the strike on the school — which was reportedly located adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility — though President Donald Trump has offered varying explanations, including suggesting that Iran could have hit the school itself, potentially using sensitive and highly restricted U.S. munitions.

“The United States and Israel must abide by U.S. and international law, including the law of armed conflict,” the letter, signed by every Senate Democrat except Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), reads. “There must be a swift investigation into the strikes on this school and any other potential U.S. military actions causing civilian harm, and the findings must be released to the public as soon as possible, along with any measures to pursue accountability.”

The administration has said it is investigating the strike, without commenting further.

The Democratic lawmakers also criticized strikes by the U.S. and Israel on hospitals, cultural sites, civilian infrastructure and Iranian cities including Tehran.

“Massive civilian casualty incidents like the attack in Minab are not only detrimental to the Iranian people, who have already suffered so much at the hands of its own government, but they also undermine U.S. national security interests,” the letter continues. “These concerns are compounded by the reported use of artificial intelligence tools to select and prioritize targets in Iran.”

The Democrats further called out Hegseth for rhetoric emphasizing the “death and destruction” from the operation and saying the military would impose “no stupid rules of engagement.”

The lawmakers said Hegseth’s rhetoric and the conduct it supports “only serves to endanger civilians, including American citizens, in the region and around the globe,” may run afoul of the Geneva Conventions and is part of a “broader pattern of policies abandoning the Defense Department’s commitment to minimizing civilian harm in U.S. military operations.”

The letter poses a series of questions to Hegseth about the strike on the girl’s school and procedures in place to prevent civilian harm and war crimes in the Iran war.

A group of six Senate Democrats is threatening to immediately begin obstructing proceedings on the Senate floor in order to force public hearings in the Senate Armed Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee and debate on the chamber floor on the war in Iran.

Jewish Insider first reported that several of those lawmakers — including Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) — introduced a series of five new war powers resolutions late last week.

The senators indicated in a meeting with reporters on Monday that they plan to force votes on those, and possibly additional, war powers resolutions when they become eligible for votes next week, but that those resolutions are just part of a broader strategy to disrupt normal Senate business in an attempt to force greater public discussion about the war in Iran.

“We’ve had no oversight whatsoever over what the executive is doing, as they’re spending a billion dollars a day. And we have failed to have any real substantive debate or discussion,” Booker said. “We are not going to let business as usual go on in the Senate … we are demanding that the Republican leadership of the Senate hold the adequate hearings and oversight, as well as to allow a debate that brings transparency to this onto the Senate floor.”

Booker declined to discuss their specific plans, but said that the senators would “use the levers that we have,” citing efforts over the years by Republican colleagues to block or slow down Senate procedure to compel votes on various issues.

“Each individual senator has a tremendous amount of power to disrupt the normal functionings of the Senate, as well as certain privileges that we can exercise,” Booker said. “And what we have agreed on right now is that we are not going to let the Senate continue its business as usual.”

Though the war powers resolutions won’t be eligible for Senate floor votes until next week, Booker indicated that the senators plan to begin other obstructionist tactics immediately, unless hearings are announced.

Murphy highlighted that the lawmakers have the ability, should they choose to do so, to “force a vote and debate every single day in the Senate” on the war powers resolutions. But Baldwin indicated that the lawmakers might not force the war powers votes if Republicans do schedule the hearings they request.

Booker said that the group is not necessarily speaking for the entire Senate Democratic caucus.

Murphy asserted that public hearings with administration officials, tasked with defending and explaining the war effort to the public, would only make the operation less popular with the American public. The Democrats also highlighted other costs, including increasing gas prices, associated with the war.

Kaine argued that the question for the Senate and the American people is not whether “Iran [is] a bad actor” or whether “in the abstract, [they have] done terrible things,” it is whether the war is worth risking American lives. Seven U.S. servicemembers have died in the course of the campaign so far.

Murphy and other Senate Democrats had also been pushing for a Senate vote on an authorization for use of military force regarding Iran. But on Monday, the six Democrats involved in this effort said they had ruled out the idea of a Democratic-led AUMF, arguing that the burden is on Republicans and the administration to put forward such a proposal and define its scope.

“They have to tell us and bring evidence to us that this war is worth an AUMF,” Duckworth said. “I personally don’t even want to have the discussion about an AUMF, because they haven’t even gone to the first step yet” of proving the need for the war.

Kaine said that the lawmakers, including Murphy, had “explored the procedural option” of an AUMF, but said that the “burden” to write such a bill should not be on the Democrats “who think this war is a bad idea.”

“It would be too unusual for the opponents to file the AUMF,” he continued. “The proponents are the ones that carry the burden of proof with the American public. They need to file it.”

The six Democrats did not appear to be entirely in agreement about how they would handle a potential request by the administration for supplemental funding to support the war effort or replenish U.S. armaments expended in it.

Kaine said he would withhold judgement on the issue until such a request was presented, explaining, “I want to end the war, I want to protect our troops.”

Schiff argued that the military has “plenty of money” from last year’s reconciliation bill, and also said that a congressional appropriation for a military effort could, legally, be considered an authorization for use of military force.

Should they secure the hearings they seek, the senators said they want to press administration officials on the goals and timeline for the war, the rules of engagement and restrictions imposed on U.S. forces, the circumstances that led to a deadly strike — which some have attributed to the U.S., though the administration disputes this — on a girls’ school, potential plans to support separatist movements inside Iran and the administration’s plans to support and protect Iranian demonstrators should another mass uprising occur.

“My goal is to end this war, to stop wasting millions of dollars and to protect further servicemembers from dying, and I think the way that you do that is by exposing to the public the fact that this is a war of choice, the fact that this president has ignored the law and the Constitution and the people through us, hold him to account,” Baldwin said.

👋 Good Monday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the latest in the war with Iran, including a missile attack this morning in which at least one person in Israel were killed, and cover a move by Senate Democrats to introduce five additional war powers resolutions after a similar effort last week failed to get enough support. We profile Pennsylvania state Sen. Sharif Street as the pro-Israel Democrat, who is Black and Muslim, mounts a bid for Congress, and report on concerns from members of the House Education & Workforce Committee that Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss, who is running for Congress, “severely downplayed antisemitism” at Northwestern University while in a briefing with committee members. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Alon Penzel.

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

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to deliver remarks at 9 a.m. ET at a flag-raising ceremony at the State Department commemorating hostages and wrongful detainees.
• House Republicans are holding their annual policy retreat in Doral, Fla., with President Donald Trump slated to address the gathering at 5 p.m. ET. Also slated to speak at the retreat are Ben Shapiro and CNN’s Scott Jennings.
• EU Council President Antonio Costa and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are holding a call today with Middle East leaders to discuss the ongoing war in the region.
• Team Israel faces off against the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic at noon ET today in Miami. The Israeli team, which lost 11-3 on Saturday against Venezuela, came back to beat Nicaragua 5-0 on Sunday.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

Recent days have offered a tale of two New York public officials’ wives and a revealing look at inconsistent standards from some mainstream media outlets on how they scrutinize the families of elected officials depending on the political viewpoints expressed.

The first was a New York Times story focused on the pro-Israel social media posts of Rep. Dan Goldman’s (D-NY) wife. Under the headline “Congressman Faces Questions About Wife’s Social Media Stances on Israel,” the Times wrote of the instances — believed to be 10 in all — that Corinne Goldman, who served as treasurer on her husband’s campaign, liked posts related to the Israel-Hamas war in the weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, including one comparing “Jews for Palestine” to “Chickens for KFC.” 

Days later, Jewish Insider uncovered the social media activity of Rama Duwaji, the Syrian-American wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in the days after the attacks. That activity included liking posts that unambiguously celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks — as they were underway — and included still images from the attacks, in which more than 1,200 were killed and 251 taken hostage.

In his first public statement addressing JI’s reporting, Mamdani said his wife — who less than a month ago was the subject of a cover profile and photo shoot for The Cut — was a “private person.” 

It was a response that was unsatisfactory to some. Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, responded to Mamdani’s statement by rhetorically asking, “But Jessica Tisch has to apologize when her brother says something?” — referring to the NYPD commissioner’s recent apology over her brother’s assertion that Mamdani was an “enemy of the Jewish people.”

The Times, which covered Mamdani’s response, changed its headline on the story at least twice after publication, from “Mamdani Says His Wife’s Views on Gaza Are No One’s Business,” to “Mamdani Defends Wife Amid Criticism of her Support for Palestinian Cause,” before eventually landing on “After Social Media Scrutiny, Mamdani Says His Wife Is a ‘Private Person.’”

In response to the second headline, Tel Aviv-based research analyst Daniel Paul Rubenstein wrote on X that he “did not expect to see the New York Times refer to the October 7 Massacre as an expression of the ‘Palestinian Cause’ – but here we are.”

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

DEATH TOLL RISES

Iranian missile kills two in central Israel as war continues

One person was killed in an Iranian missile attack that struck a construction site in the city of Yehud in central Israel, volunteer emergency service Magen David Adom reported on Monday. MDA pronounced the victim, a man who appeared to be about 40 years old, dead at the scene. Another man, believed to be around the same age, was evacuated to the nearest hospital in serious and unstable condition. Both were foreign workers, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Northern front: In Lebanon, two IDF soldiers were killed over the weekend by a missile fired by Hezbollah. The soldiers were retrieving a vehicle from a position in southern Lebanon at the time they were killed, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said. One soldier, combat engineer Maher Hatar, 38, was the first Druze soldier killed in the war. The second soldier’s identity has not been cleared for publication.

Read the full story here.

On the bench: President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on Saturday against reports that they were working with Kurdish leaders to launch a ground invasion of Iran, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

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WORD ON THE STREET

Pro-Israel Muslim Democrat walks political tightrope in Philly primary

Sharif Street is walking a unique political path. The Pennsylvania state senator running for a House seat in the heart of deep-blue Philadelphia is Black and Muslim, and has staked out positions largely supportive of Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. 

What he said: Street traveled to Israel with the American Jewish Committee in 2017 “to gain some understanding” of the complexities facing Israelis and Palestinians. He has indicated that he would not support conditions on U.S. aid to Israel, saying that the two allies need an “open dialogue,” yet he refers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal. Street’s nuances on Israel — he backs a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, while also urging a compassionate approach to the Palestinians — offer a sharp contrast with his most prominent rival in the Democratic primary, a strident antagonist of Israel. Street also argues that media portrayals have flattened the American Muslim community and failed to accurately portray their diverse views on the Middle East and relationships with the Jewish community.

Read the full story here.

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RENEWED SCRUTNIY

Texas GOP candidate Brandon Herrera discussed owning a copy of Mein Kampf on podcast

Brandon Herrera, the presumptive Republican nominee in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, spoke on a podcast in 2024 — after his first run for the House — about owning a copy of Mein Kampf, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s manifesto, earning him a fresh rebuke from the Republican Jewish Coalition, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Podcast playback: During a 2024 appearance on the “Unsubscribe” podcast, another guest joked that he had been deeply involved in communism until he had read another book, producing a copy of Mein Kampf. Herrera, who appeared to immediately recognize the book when others on the podcast did not, promptly turned to his phone to produce a picture of his own copy of the Nazi manifesto. “That’s my copy at my house next to a bunch of the German stick grenades,” Herrera said. “I got the 1939 edition printed in English just because I thought it was wild that you couldn’t buy it on Amazon but you could buy The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital,” he added, making a confused face.

Read the full story here.

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ON DECK

Senate Dems introduce series of new war powers resolutions on Iran

Senate Democrats introduced a series of five new war powers resolutions seeking to block military action in Iran on Thursday, a day after the Senate voted along mostly partisan lines to block an effort to immediately halt the operation, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

The latest: Having a series of war powers resolutions already introduced could allow Democrats to continue teeing up a series of votes on the war, or allow them to have several resolutions in reserve to vote on as the situation in Iran evolves. War powers resolutions are subject to a 10-day waiting period between their introduction and when senators can force votes on them.

Read the full story here.

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ON DEFENSE

House Education Committee, in briefing, says Daniel Biss ‘severely downplayed antisemitism’

In a briefing for the House Education & Workforce Committee on his response to the anti-Israel protest encampment at Northwestern University in 2024, Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss “severely downplayed” the situation on that campus and antisemitism across the country, the committee said, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Readout: “In his briefing with the Committee today, Mr. Biss severely downplayed antisemitism at Northwestern after October 7th. He told the Committee that the great majority of his Jewish friends in the Northwestern community had no concerns about it,” a committee spokesperson told JI. “He further stated that Northwestern should not have received an F on the Anti-Defamation League’s college report card. He even accused the Committee of alarmism that is not warranted by the facts when it comes to antisemitism at the university after the October 7th attacks.” Biss, meanwhile, has dismissed the committee’s questioning of him as a smear campaign. “From the start, this ‘briefing’ was a flimsy attempt to weaponize the very real threat of antisemitism to attack me and support my opponent. It failed,” Biss said in a statement. 

Read the full story here.

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sending signals

Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn touted endorsement from anti-Israel group

Dan Osborn, a Democratic-aligned independent candidate running for Senate in Nebraska, received and touted an endorsement from a lobbying group that aims to alter U.S. policy toward Israel, in part by electing candidates critical of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What happened: A New Policy PAC was founded by Josh Paul, a former State Department official who left government in protest of U.S. support for Israel after Oct. 7, 2023, and since joined the anti-Israel group DAWN and become a vocal critic of Israel. A New Policy’s advocacy arm has accused Israel of genocide, urges cutting off and conditioning U.S. aid to Israel; and opposes the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

Risky Business: The Financial Times’ Jacob Judah, Bob Haslett and Alan Smith spotlight Iran’s dwindling number of “indispensable” ballistic-missile launchers and the crews who man them. “When an Iranian ballistic missile launcher breaks cover to dash towards a firing site, its tiny cabin suddenly becomes one of the world’s most perilous places. … Iranian ballistic missile crews are among the most ideologically committed within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They operate from mountain hide-outs known in Iran as ‘missile cities’ whose cavernous networks of tunnels wind deep underground.” [FT]

Nobel or Not: In The Wall Street Journal, Joshua Muravchik argues that President Donald Trump’s foreign policy legacy could be solidified by his actions against U.S. adversaries, regardless of whether he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. “Reagan never won the Nobel, but in contrast to Mr. Obama and Carter, he greatly advanced world peace and Americans’ safety by bringing low the Soviet Union’s ‘evil empire.’ Mr. Trump could achieve an analogous triumph if he succeeds in undoing the regime in Iran and perhaps the one in Cuba, too. … The downfall of Iran’s regime would blow a gaping hole in this anti-American coalition. It would weaken radical Islam everywhere. Socialism, an idea that had bounced around for nearly a century, became a serious force only when Vladimir Lenin turned Russia into the world’s first socialist state.” [WSJ]

Beijing’s Bad Bet: In The Washington Post, the Hudson Institute’s Miles Yu posits that Beijing’s strategy of investing in Iran for more than a decade as it seeks to gain a foothold in the region has “collapsed” amid the U.S. and Israeli war against Tehran. “[Iran’s] capacity to destabilize the region on China’s behalf has been curtailed. Belt and Road projects tied to Iranian ports, rail corridors and energy infrastructure now face heightened instability and security risk. The vision of a secure overland energy corridor insulated from U.S. naval power has been reduced to uncertainty. China had bet on a confident, defiant and nuclear-ambitious Iran. Instead, it is left with a battered partner whose utility has sharply diminished.” [WashPost]

Word on the Street

In his first comments to the media since the start of the war with Iran, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani said that Tehran’s decision to strike Arab countries was a “dangerous miscalculation” and that he felt “a big sense of betrayal” by the move…

In a leaked Telegram message, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said that Israel and the United Arab Emirates are “one and the same” and that Tehran’s strategy should be to “focus on destroying the bridge between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in order to create real deterrence against mischief in the island”…

Russia is reportedly providing intelligence to Iran to target U.S. troops in the Middle East… 

Azerbaijan said it foiled an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps plot to sabotage a number of sites in the country, including the Israeli Embassy in Baku, a synagogue, the leader of a group known as the “Mountain Jews” and the country’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline…

Two ships owned by an Iranian company under U.S., European and British sanctions departed the Chinese port in Zhuhai known for its storage of chemicals used to make rocket fuel…

The New York Times looks at the concerns of Western officials and nuclear experts over the location and fate of 18-20 canisters of enriched uranium that are believed to still be intact and in Iran…

A Pakistani man was convicted in a U.S. federal court of plotting with Iran to assassinate U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump…

The U.S. began evacuation flights of U.S. citizens from Israel on Friday, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jack Reed (D-RI), Mark Warner (D-VA) and Chris Coons (D-DE) released a statement calling on the Department of Defense to “fully and impartially” investigate a strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the war in which more than 100 people, including students, were killed…

The move comes as satellite images and footage increasingly indicate that the U.S. struck the school, which was located near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps installation, despite Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for the strike…

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, again criticized the administration for bypassing normal congressional review processes to approve a $650 million sale of 20,000 bombs to Israel…

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and 17 Democratic co-sponsors, mostly progressives, introduced legislation requiring stronger oversight of and regular reporting to Congress and the public on the food supply for Palestinians in Gaza…

A group of House Democrats —Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Val Hoyle (D-OR), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Norma Torres (D-CA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Sam Liccardo (D-CA) — called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to cancel the House’s recess this week as long as the war in Iran is ongoing…

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called out California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a leading 2028 presidential contender, for recent comments characterizing Israel as an apartheid state and questioning future military aid, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; “Is it really worth throwing Jews under the bus to advance your political ambitions?” Gottheimer said on X this weekend…

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her office to investigate the death of a 19-year-old Palestinian American man who was killed last month in a confrontation with Israeli settlers in the West Bank…

A federal judge nullified a number of actions taken by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, ruling that Kari Lake was unlawfully serving as the agency’s head when the decisions, which included mass layoffs, were made…

Federal officials will lead the investigation into an incident at a weekend demonstration outside Gracie Mansion in which a homemade explosive device was flung into a crowd of protesters, allegedly by at least once person who told officials they were an ISIS sympathizer…

Two Toronto-area synagogues were damaged by gunfire late Friday and early Saturday following an earlier shooting at another area synagogue last week, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Police in Liège, Belgium, are investigating an explosion that occurred at a local synagogue this morning, in what a local official called a “violent act of antisemitism”…

The U.K.’s Luton Airport apologized and will institute antisemitism awareness training after an incident in which Israeli author Alon Penzel, who was traveling back to Israel, encountered a member of airport security who made disparaging comments to him…

Authorities in the U.K. are investigating a report of antisemitism during a soccer match in which supporters of the Thorpe St Andrew School allegedly jeered the players from JFS, the U.K.’s largest Jewish school…

Pic of the Day

Team Israel bested the Nicaraguan national team 5-0 on Sunday in its first-ever shutout game at the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Miami. Former Red Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis (center) is serving at the team’s bench manager.

Birthdays

Rhodes scholar, Harvard Law graduate, author and political journalist, Michael Kinsley turns 75…

President at Adelson Family Foundation since 2007 and a board member of Prizmah, Michael Bohnen turns 79… Sag Harbor, L.I.,-based painter, sculptor and printmaker, Eric Fischl turns 78… Host of Public Radio International’s “Science Friday,” Ira Flatow turns 77… Member of the Knesset from 1989-2021, he has served in many cabinet roles and as chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries, Amir Peretz turns 74… President and CEO of NYC’s flagship public TV station WNET, Neal Shapiro turns 68… Professor emeritus of economics at NYU, nicknamed “Dr. Doom,” Nouriel Roubini turns 68… Susan Liebman… NYC-based attorney, Gordon Platt… Private equity and venture capital investor, Howie Fialkov… Founder and head of the Chabad house at Harvard University, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi… Former Canadian minister of mental health and addictions, Ya’ara Saks turns 53… VP and head of global communications and public affairs for Meta / Facebook, David I. Ginsberg… Senior fellow at Harvard University’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Matthew Vogel… Former CEO of the Trevor Project, now CEO of the Malnutrition Advocacy Fund, Amit Paley… Co-founder and CEO at ImpactTechNation, he is also a co-founder of the political party Wake-Up Jerusalem (Hitorerut B’Yerushalayim), Hanan Rubin… Israeli-born singer, now one-half of the world music duo Shlomit & RebbeSoul, Shlomit Levi turns 43… News editor in the U.S. bureau of Jewish News Syndicate, Menachem Wecker… Partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Bocarsly Emden, Rachel Rosner… Political strategist for the Democratic Party, she is a co-host of “The Five” on the Fox News Channel, Jessica Tarlov turns 42… Senior advisor to North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, Alissa “Sadie” Weiner… CEO at New Orleans-based QED Hospitality, Emery Whalen… Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, he now plays in the Mexican League, Jared Lakind turns 34… Founding partner of Mothership Strategies, Jacob “Jake” Austin Lipsett… Manager of education and outreach at inSIGHT Through Education, Marla Topiol… First-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, now playing for the NHL’s Nashville Predators, Ozzy Wiesblatt turns 24… Stephen Lent…

Senate Democrats introduced five new war powers resolutions seeking to block military action in Iran on Thursday, a day after the Senate voted along mostly partisan lines to block an effort to immediately halt the operation.

One of the resolutions was introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), with the other four being introduced by the same group of senators: Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Adam Schiff (D-CA). Murphy, who has also been pushing for the Senate to vote on an authorization for use of military force in Iran, is leading two of the resolutions, and Schiff and Booker are leading the other two, respectively.

Having a series of war powers resolutions already introduced could allow Democrats to continue teeing up votes on the war, or allow them to have several resolutions in reserve to vote on as the situation in Iran evolves.

War powers resolutions are subject to a 10-day waiting period between their introduction and when senators can force votes on them.

Kaine suggested last week after the initial war powers resolution failed that he would plan to force further war powers votes, as well as look for opportunities in other legislation to tee up votes on the war effort, which Democrats see as politically unpopular for the administration and for Republicans.

Kaine, Murphy, Booker and Schiff did not provide comment.

The text of one of the five resolutions was not yet available as of Sunday evening, but the other four are largely similar. As compared to the resolution led by Kaine, Schiff and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that the Senate voted on last week, each includes updated details about the U.S. campaign in Iran, which had not yet begun when the previous resolution was introduced.

Several of the resolutions also appear to narrow the scope of U.S. intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Israel and other allies that would remain explicitly exempt from the legislation’s mandate for an immediate end to military operations against Iran.

One of the Murphy-led resolutions allows for intelligence sharing with allies attacked by Iran “related to defense from threats from Iran or its proxies,” whereas the Kaine-Paul resolution did not include that specific reference to defense.

It also allows for the U.S. to assist partners in “intercepting retaliatory attacks upon their territory,” where the previous version allowed for assisting with “defensive measures to protect their territory from retaliatory attacks by Iran or its proxies” more broadly — without the reference to interception of active attacks alone.

The Baldwin-led resolution includes the same language as the Murphy-led resolution on interceptions of retaliatory attacks, but does not include the new language on intelligence sharing.

The Schiff-led resolution includes similar specifications around intelligence sharing as the Murphy resolution, but does not impose the same limitations allowing the U.S. to only intercept attacks on allies. It includes additional language allowing for continued evacuations of U.S. citizens.

The Booker-led resolution does not include any additional restrictions on intelligence sharing, but it restricts assistance to Israel and other allies to “directly defending against retaliatory attacks upon their territories by Iran or its proxies.” It also includes the carveout regarding evacuations of U.S. citizens.

Separately, in the House, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said Thursday that he plans to force a vote later this month on his war powers resolution that offers a 30-day wind-down period for the war effort in Iran, which Gottheimer is leading with several other moderate Democrats.

A group of eight leading Senate Democrats released a statement on Tuesday evening urging President Donald Trump to “clearly reinforce the opposition of the U.S. government to Israeli government actions that set the conditions for irreversible annexation” of the West Bank when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday.

The statement emphasizes Senate Democrats’ opposition to Israel expanding its control over settlements in the West Bank, which Israel’s Security Cabinet approved measures to help facilitate on Sunday ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week.

“We are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s decision to blatantly consolidate administrative control over and set the conditions to expand settlements into the West Bank,” the senators wrote. “The Israeli government’s actions contravene decades of bipartisan United States policy, including that expressed by President Trump, which asserts the United States supports a two-state solution and that it is not in the U.S. national security interest to support annexation of the West Bank.”

“We have long expressed our concern that these reckless moves make the possibility of a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace and security, further out of reach,” the statement continued. 

The group said they “urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to reverse course. When President Trump meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu this week, we also urge the President to clearly reinforce the opposition of the U.S. government to Israeli government actions that set the conditions for irreversible annexation.”

The statement was signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Senate Democratic whip; and Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI),  Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH),  Mark Warner (D-VA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Patty Murray (D-WA). The senators who joined Schumer and Durbin are, respectively, the ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Foreign Relations Committee, Intelligence Committee, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Trump has held firm on his opposition to Israeli settlement expansion since saying last September that he would “not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.” Trump reiterated this position in an interview with Axios on Tuesday. 

He said following a meeting with Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., in late December that the two were still on separate sides of the issue, but expressed confidence that all parties would reach “a conclusion,” though he declined to offer specifics.

“Well, we have had a discussion, big discussion, for a long time on the West Bank. And I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank 100%, but we will come to a conclusion on the West Bank,” Trump said at the time. “It’ll be announced at an appropriate time, but [Netanyahu] will do the right thing. I know that. I know him very well. He will do the right thing.”

In a letter sent to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday, a group of Senate Democrats raised concerns about the Pentagon’s decision to use xAI’s Grok chatbot in Department of Defense networks.

The senators said that Grok’s record of producing antisemitic content — pointing in particular to an antisemitic tirade by the chatbot in 2025 — as well as its more recent history of generating non-consensual pornographic images of people, including children, raises concerns about the Defense Department’s use of the model.

“We are particularly concerned by this development, given Grok’s reported recent track record promoting Holocaust denial, spreading racist ideologies, and generating deepfake pornography of children,” the lawmakers wrote. “Grok’s generation of such content has triggered various investigations of the platform and the potential use of this model by a federal agency is troubling.”

The lawmakers asked Hegseth to explain what rules and regulations are in place regarding the use of AI in the Defense Department, including safeguards against Grok promoting antisemitism, racist conspiracy theories and sexual content and what measures are being taken to ensure data privacy.

“While AI technology can facilitate innovation, it must be deployed, used, and regulated in a manner consistent with the national interest and standards of decency,” the letter continues.

The letter was led by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and co-signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA).

Groups of House members have pressed both the Pentagon and xAI CEO Elon Musk about the antisemitic content produced by Grok and the Pentagon’s plans to utilize the chatbot.
xAI told lawmakers that the antisemitic rants were a result of an “unintended update” to the chatbot’s code.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and nearly all Senate Democrats are set to introduce a resolution on Monday condemning neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson for hosting Fuentes on his show. 

The legislation also highlights that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defended Carlson and Fuentes and notes that the Trump administration nominated an official who expressed affinity for the Nazis, referring to Paul Ingrassia.

The resolution comes weeks after Carlson’s friendly sit-down with Fuentes prompted a reckoning in the conservative movement over antisemitism on the far right and its normalization in certain circles. Schumer reportedly sought Republican backing for the resolution, but no Republicans have signed on at this point.

The resolution outlines Fuentes’ long history of overt antisemitic activity, as well as the series of antisemitic comments that Fuentes repeated on Carlson’s podcast. It highlights Carlson’s failure to “push back on or reject the claims made by Fuentes” and that Carlson “at times even validat[ed] his framing.” It also notes that Carlson was a keynote speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

The legislation states that the Senate “strongly rejects the views of and platforming of Nick Fuentes” and “condemns the effort by Tucker Carlson to platform and mainstream Nick Fuentes.”

The resolution also specifically highlights that Roberts posted a video defending Carlson and attacking those criticizing him — accusing Roberts of employing “antisemitic dog whistles” — as well as for refusing to take down the video even as he as apologized for portions of it.

It calls on “all elected officials, thought leaders and community leaders to reject and condemn white supremacy and antisemitism whenever and wherever they occur.”

And it highlights that President Donald Trump nominated Paul Ingrassia — who said in an unearthed group chat that he has a “Nazi streak in me from time to time” — for an administration post and has since named him to a different role in the administration after his nomination was withdrawn. The resolution does not specifically name Ingrassia.

The resolution is being sponsored by every Senate Democrat.

The legislation has been supported by a series of Democratic-affiliated and progressive-minded Jewish groups, including Democratic Majority for Israel, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Jewish Women International, the Union for Reform Judaism, Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women.

“The platforming of individuals who promote hateful, antisemitic, and white supremacist rhetoric is dangerous and entirely at odds with American values,” JWI CEO Meredith Jacobs said in a statement. She said that Congress “must forcefully condemn any attempt to mainstream antisemitism” and other hatred and “the fact that such condemnation is not universal underscores the very real and present danger that these ideologies are gaining ground in our society.”

JCPA CEO Amy Spitalnick said that antisemitic and white supremacist extremism “threatens every single one of our communities and the core of our democracy – yet we’ve seen political leaders continue to embrace and platform this deadly hate and those who peddle it, like Nick Fuentes” and urged all senators to support the resolution.

DMFI urged the Senate to “send a powerful message that there is no place for these hateful ideologies in our society by passing this measure.”

Halie Soifer, the CEO of JDCA, condemned Republicans for not signing onto the resolution.

“This issue should not be partisan, yet not one Republican has joined this resolution, and the President of the United States has refused to condemn Fuentes, Tucker Carlson’s platforming of Fuentes, and the hate they’ve espoused,” Soifer said in a statement. “We’re deeply concerned about Republicans placing politics above efforts like this one to combat white nationalism, antisemitism, and hate, and strongly encourage them to join this effort.”

UPDATE: This article was updated to reflect that the legislation’s findings highlight Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts’s defense of Carlson and Fuentes but the resolution does not specifically condemn him.

Senate Democrats echoed their House counterparts on Tuesday in expressing concern about President Donald Trump’s announcement of a deal to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who serves on the Armed Services Committee, told Jewish Insider, “I think there are very serious, potential negative impacts on our national security and they include changing the qualitative edge for Israel, the possibility of a hostile use of them [the jets], the absence of any normalization agreement, which should be part of it, so I think there ought to be very close, critical scrutiny.”

The prospect of advanced weapons sales to Saudi Arabia — along with several other deals announced by Trump on Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — had previously been linked to Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, something the kingdom is unwilling to do without a “clear path to a two-state solution,” MBS said.

Blumenthal said he was unsure if he would meet with the crown prince during his visit to Washington this week, citing scheduling conflicts. The Connecticut senator said that he’d like to ask MBS about the path forward toward normalization with Israel and the kingdom’s role in the future of Gaza. 

“What’s the path to normalization? Realistically how can we get there as quickly as possible? Because it’s so important to peace and stability in the region,” Blumenthal told JI. “What are the Saudis willing to commit to do for the international security force and for reconstruction of Gaza and financial peace?”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) described the jets as an “incredibly capable airplane” and noted that “Israel has F-35s, [as do] some of our other allies.” The Arizona senator said that while he supports the U.S. engaging with the Saudis, he had reservations about selling them the jets.

“Is this the step to some kind of bigger security arrangement in the Middle East? We’ll have to see. I think there’s some benefits for Israel and for Saudi Arabia and for the United States if that’s the case,” Kelly told JI. “I am always concerned about our best technology winding up in the proximity of any of our adversaries. The Chinese have been attempting to build a port there in the UAE, that’s pretty close. So I do worry about these things.”

Some in the Defense Department have reportedly expressed concerns that a sale of the jets to Saudi Arabia would provide China with an opportunity to take or compromise sensitive American technologies.

“I have concerns about it, and also about how the Saudis are going to use these planes,” he added.

Kelly said that if he were a member of the Foreign Relations Committee he would want assurances that China would not have access to U.S. technology before approving the sales.

“If I was on SFRC and had the ability to approve this, I’d want a lot of assurances that the Saudis are going to protect that technology,” Kelly said. “The Chinese would love to get close to these airplanes, to get the radar signatures, if they’re not stealing it from us already.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who will have some ability to obstruct or slow the deal, was deeply critical of multiple announcements made by Trump during his White House summit with MBS.

Shaheen said in a statement that the F-35 deal “raises major concerns about protecting U.S. military technology and the military edge America shares with our allies” and demanded the administration “fully explain to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee why this sale is in the vital national interest of the United States.”

The senior Democrat also said that any security agreement made with Saudi Arabia without Senate approval “is very troubling” and would be non-binding and “easily reversed” by a future administration.

“Bypassing Congress on commitments of this scale sets a dangerous precedent, especially after a similar agreement with Qatar without Senate approval,” Shaheen said.

She also said that any nuclear deal with Riyadh, which Trump said on Tuesday he is pursuing, must ensure that it cannot enrich or reprocess nuclear material and include stringent inspections, and warned that “Saudi Arabia’s stated intention to acquire nuclear weapons if Iran does demands extreme caution.”

Shaheen also warned that any deal to provide advanced computer chips to Saudi Arabia must be made in consultation with Congress to protect America’s AI and technological edge over China.

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), an Armed Services Committee member, indicated support for the deal, saying, “we have strategic partners around the region and this has been a discussion going on for a long time. … It’s, I think, a [move] in the right direction.”

Other Republicans have also backed the president on the issue.

Mullin said he’d also like to see the United Arab Emirates acquire F-35s. During his first term, Trump sealed a deal to sell the jets to the UAE — in connection with the signing of the Abraham Accords — but the Biden administration suspended the deal due to concerns about the UAE’s relationship with China.

The UAE has since expressed it is no longer interested in reopening the deal.

Mullin said he’s planning to meet with the Saudi crown prince on Wednesday if their schedules allow, to “continue [the] conversation” from past meetings.

Every Senate Democrat with the exception of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) wrote to President Donald Trump on Tuesday urging him to “reinforce” the White House’s pledge to oppose Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

In a letter led by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the senators offered their “support for your comments opposing any efforts by the Government of Israel to annex territory in the West Bank and to urge your Administration to promote steps to preserve the viability of a two-state solution and the success of the Abraham Accords.”

The missive was sent weeks after Trump vowed publicly to not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, telling reporters in the Oval Office in late September that, “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, nope, I will not allow it. It’s not gonna happen.”

“Since your plan for Gaza does not address the West Bank, it is imperative that your Administration reinforce your comments and emphasize its opposition to annexation. As longstanding supporters of Israel’s security and Palestinian aspirations for statehood, we are unified in our opposition to unilateral measures by either party that undermine the prospect of lasting peace through negotiations to achieve a two-state solution,” the letter stated.

The senators argued that “any steps by Israel to annex territory or expand settlements that prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state” would be harmful to the peace process. 

“Such steps have elicited deep concern and opposition from Arab partners and place at risk your past achievements under the Abraham Accords and the possibility of expanding them further,” they wrote. “At the same time, terrorism, including the horrific terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023, must be uniformly condemned and will not bring the region closer to peace.”

“It is essential that the United States reject measures that undermine the viability of a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the letter continued. 

Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen about Tokyo’s approach to Palestinian statehood, and report on a resolution by seven Senate Democrats calling for the U.S. to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. We cover a meeting between Senate and House lawmakers with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and report on House Foreign Affairs Committee votes rejecting conditions on aid to Israel. We cover Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter’s remarks at the embassy’s Rosh Hashanah reception in Washington last night and report on the New York Democratic Party chair’s decision not to endorse Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jonathan Greenblatt, Rep. Elise Stefanik and Erika Kirk.

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

For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: New York Jewish leaders reckon with a potential Mamdani win; Palantir’s Alex Karp says Jews need to ‘leave their comfort zone’ to defend community; and Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen talks covert missions, Oct. 7 failures in new book. Print the latest edition here.

What We’re Watching

• In New York today, an event on “Breaking the Chain: Global Action Against Hostage-Taking” will feature the first public remarks from former Israeli hostage Na’ama Levy. Also speaking are a Yazidi survivor of ISIS captivity; Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N.; Dorothy Shea, acting U.S. representative to the U.N.; and Ibrahim Olabi, Syria’s ambassador to the U.N.; among others.
• Chabad at Vanderbilt University will honor Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier with Chabad’s Lamplighter award tomorrow. Read JI’s interview with Diermeier and Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Andrew Martin here. 
• On Saturday, the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream is opening with its flagship exhibition, the “American Dream Experience,” in Washington.
• On Sunday, Charlie Kirk’s memorial will be held at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., where speakers will include President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and far-right podcast host Tucker Carlson, who has advanced conspiracy theories in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder claiming the conservative activist was being pressured by Israel.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

In Washington, whether a public official or their spokesperson is speaking honestly is usually not fully known until much later. Take Israel’s attack on Qatar last week: the Trump administration claimed not to have known about it ahead of time, but Israeli officials told Axios that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given President Donald Trump a heads-up.

When a president leaves office, his former staffers tend to get rather loose-lipped — an opportunity for them to rehabilitate their reputation and, perhaps, tell the truth about their views (or at least the narrative they’d like to put forward on their own terms, not those of their boss). 

The past few months have provided such an opportunity to the three architects of President Joe Biden’s Middle East policy team: Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Brett McGurk, Biden’s coordinator for the Middle East at the White House. All of them played a crucial role in shaping American policy toward Israel and Gaza after Oct. 7. Each has in recent months written op-eds and made lengthy appearances on podcasts and cable news to comment on developments in the Middle East. 

Looking at where Blinken, Sullivan and McGurk have positioned themselves publicly, without the constraints of government service, is a sign of the options available to Democrats right now, at a moment when the party’s future is up for grabs — with an ascendant anti-Israel wing that is exerting stronger influence than ever, though it remains in the minority.

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

TOKYO TALK

Israeli ambassador to Japan: Tokyo undecided on Palestinian statehood recognition

As reports swirl that Japan indicated it is no longer considering recognizing a Palestinian state at the United National General Assembly on Monday, Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen remains wary, but hopeful, he told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen in a wide-ranging interview on Friday in Tokyo. “Japan hasn’t decided yet. There is no official statement yet by Japan,” said Cohen, adding that he expects a decision will be finalized over the weekend.

Envoy’s efforts: “A recognition of a Palestinian state would be a reward to Hamas after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, would not contribute to peace and would not build on the trust of Israelis in the future,” he continued. In recent weeks, Cohen relayed that message to Japanese ministers as the country weighed recognizing a Palestinian state as several governments, including those in Britain, France, Australia and Canada, have announced plans to do at UNGA.

Read the full interview here.

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STATEHOOD PUSH

Seven Senate Dems call for recognition of a Palestinian state

A group of seven Senate Democrats introduced a resolution on Thursday calling for the U.S. to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The resolution was led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

Merkley’s mission: Merkley and Van Hollen recently traveled to Israel and released a scathing report accusing Israel of deliberate ethnic cleansing and collective punishment. “Recognition of a Palestinian state is not only a practical step the United States can take to help build a future where Palestinians and Israelis can live in freedom, dignity, and security, but it is the right thing to do. America has a responsibility to lead, and the time to act is now,” Merkley said in a statement. “The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction.”

Read the full story here.

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ON THE HILL

Lawmakers meet with Syrian foreign minister on Capitol Hill

Senate and House lawmakers met Thursday with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, in the first trip by a Syrian government official to Congress in decades. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that their meeting was “very encouraging and constructive,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Takeaways: “I think we are on a path to eliminate sanctions in a way that safeguards interests of other nations in the region, and at the same time, provides for reconstruction in Syria, in a way that negates the influence of Iran and Russia,” Blumenthal said. He said there was broad, but inconclusive, discussion about talks between the Syrian and Israeli governments. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who worked on Syria and Middle East issues at the State Department, called the trip “historic.” This was his first meeting with officials from the new Syrian government. “He very much expressed a deep interest in being able to work as partners with us to stand up against ISIS, to stop Iranian reach and meddling throughout the Middle East, to push back on Russian interference,” Kim said.

In the room: Along with Kim and Blumenthal, Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Chris Coons (D-DE), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) met with al-Shaibani.

Read the full story here.

Reporter’s notebook: Times of Israel Editor in-Chief David Horovitz spent 48 hours in Damascus, accompanying a U.S. Jewish group to holy sites and meetings with Syrian government officials.

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VOTED DOWN

House Foreign Affairs Committee overwhelmingly rejects conditions on aid to Israel

The House Foreign Affairs Committee, during a marathon markup of legislation to reform and reorganize the State Department, resoundingly rejected amendments seeking to condition U.S. aid to Israel on a bipartisan basis, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The committee also engaged in vigorous debate over the U.S. relationship with Turkey and the future of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Key votes: By two votes of 45-5, the committee rejected a pair of amendments by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) that would have added new conditions to $1 billion of the $3.3 billion in direct military funding the U.S. provides to Israel each year. Jayapal and Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) and Madeleine Dean (D-PA) voted in favor of the amendments.

Read the full story here.

Coming soon: The world’s first laser-based missile defense system, known as “Iron Beam,” will be delivered to the IDF by the end of 2025, the Israeli Defense Ministry and arms manufacturer Rafael announced on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

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JUSTICE FOR ALL

ADL files suit on behalf of U.S. victims of Oct. 7 against Iran, Syria, North Korea

The Anti-Defamation League filed a new federal lawsuit on Thursday on behalf of more than 140 U.S. victims of the Oct. 7 attacks alleging that several different terrorist groups carried out the attacks with material support from U.S.-designated state sponsors of terror: Iran, Syria and North Korea. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, comes a year after a similar federal suit by the ADL targeting Iran, Syria and North Korea, but it relies on an additional statute to seek compensation for the American victims of the attacks, which left 1,200 people dead. The suit also includes more plaintiffs than the original case, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Seeking justice: The new case names the terror groups — Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, Hezbollah and the Popular Resistance Committees — and invokes two American laws that provide civil remedies to victims of international terrorism. “The victims of the October 7 massacre deserve justice, accountability and redress,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “This lawsuit seeks to do that by holding those responsible for the carnage accountable, from the state sponsors who provided the funding, weapons and training to the terrorist organizations who carried out these unspeakable atrocities.”

Read the full story here.

Exclusive: ADL and the Community Security Initiative of New York are partnering to launch a national threat monitoring and assessment network, following a year marked by two deadly attacks on North American Jewry, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports. 

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BREAKING RANK

New York Democratic Party chair says he won’t endorse Mamdani

Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the New York Democratic Party, said on Thursday he will not endorse Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, notably breaking with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who recently announced her support for the Democratic nominee. In a statement, Jacobs said he had a “positive conversation” with Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist and Queens assemblyman, soon after the primary, and dismissed what he called “the fear-mongering around him and his candidacy” as “wrong and a gross over-reaction,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

But: While Jacobs said he shared Mamdani’s belief that “America’s greatest problem is the continued growth in income disparity in our nation,” the state party chair noted they “fundamentally disagree” on “how to address it.” Jacobs, who is Jewish, also cited Mamdani’s staunch opposition to Israel, an issue on which the nominee has recently indicated he has no intention of budging, as a major source of contention. “Furthermore, as I expressed to him directly, I strongly disagree with his views on the State of Israel, along with certain key policy positions,” Jacobs said of Mamdani, who has vowed, if elected, to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said he would move to terminate a city program to foster partnerships between companies in Israel and New York City, among other positions that have raised concerns among Jewish leaders.

Read the full story here.

AAA push: Citing Mamdani’s stated plans to revoke the city’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called on Thursday for the House to pass the long-stalled Antisemitism Awareness Act, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

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Worthy Reads

Green Light for Annexation?: Philip Gordon, former national security advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, argues in The New York Times that the international community must pressure Israel to stop any expansion in the West Bank due to the Trump administration’s permissiveness. “The Trump administration has not officially given its blessing to Israeli annexation of the West Bank. But it appears to be doing nothing to stand in Israel’s way. … Given America’s apparent acquiescence, only international action can prevent a coming disaster. It was encouraging that the United Arab Emirates said earlier this month that Israeli annexation in the West Bank would be a “red line,” jeopardizing Israel’s prized relationship with Abu Dhabi. A conference sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia at the U. N. General Assembly next week on the Palestinian issue will be another chance for the international community to put down a marker that most of the world objects to this Israeli government’s agenda. The government of Mr. Netanyahu should know that it can have flourishing relations with the rest of the world, or total control of the West Bank — but not both.” [NYT]

Ellison’s Empire: Former Wall Street banker and founding partner of the Puck media company William Cohan suggests in The New York Times that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s rising profile as a “media magnate,” along with his friendship with President Donald Trump, threatens to reshape American journalism into a more partisan landscape. “Along with his son, David, [Ellison] could soon end up controlling a powerful social media platform, an iconic Hollywood movie studio and one of the largest content streaming services, as well as two of the country’s largest news organizations. Given Mr. Ellison’s friendship with, and affinity for, Donald Trump, an increasingly emboldened president could be getting an extraordinarily powerful media ally — in other words, the very last thing our country needs right now. … No matter their motives, two independent journalistic voices, CBS News and CNN, could soon be combined into something potentially almost unrecognizable, something way too close to what is served up on a daily basis by the Murdochs. And that will put yet another chink in the fragile armor that is America’s democracy.” [NYT]

Word on the Street

President Donald Trump said at a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday that the recognition of a Palestinian state, which the U.K. plans to do this weekend, is “one of [the] few disagreements” between the two leaders. “We want [the war] to end. We have to have the hostages back immediately. That’s what the people of Israel want, they want them back. And we want the fighting to stop,” the president continued…

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to talk today, their second conversation in Trump’s second term, about trade and the framework deal to save TikTok in the U.S…

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa told reporters on Wednesday that Syria and Israel could reach a security agreement “within days”…

Saudi Arabia signed a defense pact with Pakistan on Wednesday, as its leaders are reportedly angry with Washington over Israel’s recent strike against Hamas leaders in Qatar and are seeking alternative defense relationships…

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Joni Ernst (R-IA), John Barrasso (R-WY), Rick Scott (R-FL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Ashley Moody (R-FL) reintroduced the SEVER Act, which would bar sanctioned Iranian officials from entering the U.S. to visit the United Nations…

French President Emmanuel Macron told Israel’s Channel 12 that, despite European attempts to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, U.N. Security Council snapback sanctions will be implemented at the end of the month, likely on Sept. 27…

Israel’s i24 News reports it has obtained recent audio of Macron speaking to former French parliament member Meyer Habib where Macron is heard saying, “I will not recognize a Palestinian state without the release of the hostages,” contrary to his reported plan to do so next week…

Two Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday at the Allenby Crossing between Jordan and the West Bank by an assailant driving a truck of humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip…

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting that she investigate the organization Doctors Without Borders for terrorism, saying it had proliferated “propaganda continuously pushed by Hamas”…

Former Vice President Kamala Harris reflects on her decision-making in choosing a vice president to run on her presidential ticket in the 2024 campaign in her forthcoming book, 107 Days; she was concerned that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro seemed to be more interested in being VP than in helping her win, according to Politico’s review of the memoir…. 

After several headlines positioned former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as shifting away from his previously full-throated support of Israel, Cuomo told the Forward on Wednesday that his position “hasn’t shifted one iota. I said we want three things: We want killing to stop, because it’s a matter of humanity. We want the hostages returned, and Hamas eliminated. If you don’t eliminate Hamas, you accomplish nothing. This will happen again and again”…

After her endorsement of New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has “pledged to anxious private sector leaders that she will use her power to act as a check on Mamdani’s agenda,” Politico reports…

A man in Texas was arrested for making death threats towards Mamdani over the phone and in writing, including saying in a message, “I’d love to see an IDF bullet go through your skull”…

Trump told reporters he is working to regain control of the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, which is now under Taliban control since the U.S. withdrawal in 2021…

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada released a joint statement urging their respective governments to reconsider their plans to recognize a Palestinian state next week…

Former President Barack Obama said that the firing of Karen Attiah — the anti-Israel Washington Post columnist who justified the Oct. 7 attacks and was let go from the Post earlier this week over social media posts on Charlie Kirk’s killing — is “precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent”…

The board of directors of Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded, unanimously named Erika Kirk, his widow, as its new CEO and board chair…

Pic of the Day

Speaking at a Rosh Hashanah reception at the Israeli Embassy in Washington yesterday, Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., compared congressional efforts to block U.S. weapons transfers to Israel to the antisemitic “blood libel” and he took aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for leading the charge, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Birthdays

Author, theater producer, television personality and philanthropist, Candy Spelling turns 80 on Saturday…

FRIDAY: Professor of Jewish history and literature at Yeshiva University, he is the only son of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Haym Soloveitchik turns 88… Member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives until 2022, he has served as synagogue president, Jeffrey Colman Salloway turns 84… Professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law and director of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck turns 76… Distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, after a 28-year Pentagon career as a Middle East expert, Harold Rhode turns 76… Freelance reporter, he was a writing instructor at Montana State University Billings, Bruce Alpert… Archaeologist and professor of early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jodi Magness turns 69… Stockton, Calif.-based physician at The Pacific Sleep Disorders Center, Ronald Kass M.D…. Producer of over 40 films in his career and executive producer of the television series Monk, David Elliot Hoberman turns 73… Rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, he is the inaugural rabbinic fellow at the ADL, David J. Wolpe turns 67… Boston-based attorney focused upon Section 529 college savings plans, Mark A. Chapleau… Chairman and CEO of NYC’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, John Nathan “Janno” Lieber turns 64… Bow tie-clad field reporter for Fox Major League Baseball since 2005, he is also a senior baseball writer for The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal turns 63… Inspector general of the Federal Reserve Board and the CFPB, Michael Evan Horowitz turns 63… U.S. senator (R-SC), he chairs the Senate Banking Committee, Tim Scott turns 60… CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, Ron Halber… Author of eight popular business books, former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Mike Michalowicz… Founder and managing director at Two Lanterns Venture Partners, he is also the founder of MassChallenge, John Harthorne… Pole vaulter, she competed for the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics and for Israel in the 2012 Olympics, now an associate brand manager at Kraft Heinz, Jillian Schwartz Dickinson turns 46… CEO of Enduring Cause Strategies, Neal Urwitz… Former MLB player for nine seasons, he was on Team Israel for the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Danny Valencia turns 41… Public affairs director at Elliott Investment Management, Joe Kristol… Singer-songwriter and producer, he frequently wears a Magen David pendant when performing, Charlie Burg turns 29… Former NFL placekicker, his college teammates nicknamed him the “Kosher Cannon,” Sam Sloman turns 28…

SATURDAY: Wealth management advisor, he won four Super Bowls with the Steelers during his eight-year career as a tight end, C. Randy Grossman turns 73… Dean of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky turns 72… Senior chairman of Goldman Sachs since 2019, prior to which he served as CEO there for 13 years, Lloyd Blankfein turns 71… Co-founder and board chair of Broadcom and owner of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, Henry Samueli turns 71… Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel since 2017, Yosef Elron turns 70… Insurance agent in Tulsa, Okla., Lawrence M. Schreier… Real estate developer, sports agent and boxing promoter, Marc Roberts turns 66… Former rabbi of Congregation Beit Torat Chaim of Jakarta, Indonesia, Rabbi Tovia Singer turns 65… Emergency medicine physician in Austin, Texas, he was the goalkeeper for the U.S. field hockey team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Randolph B. “Randy” Lipscher turns 65… Civil rights attorney, author and legal analyst on “The Today Show,” “NBC Nightly News” and MSNBC, Lisa Bloom turns 64… SVP of marketing and communications at BBYO, Deborah Gavin Shemony… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud party, Keren Barak turns 53… Founder of PFAP Consulting and COO of PizzaIDF, Melissa Jane Kronfeld… Senior advisor to the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, James Mazol… Deputy news team lead at Bloomberg Law, Drew Singer… Principal at Blue Laurel Advisors, Emily Grunewald… Climate activist in Oakland, Calif., Carter Lavin… Senior director of strategic initiatives at Sony Music Entertainment, Alison Bogdonoff… VP of marketing at Cumulus Coffee, Zoe Plotsky Rosen… Isabel Eliana Tsesarsky… Actor, best known for his leading role as young aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” Gabriel LaBelle turns 23… Theater, film and television actor, Jason Ian Drucker turns 20… Lauren Ackerman…

SUNDAY: One of the highest-grossing Hollywood box office producers of all time, plus the producer of many commercially successful TV shows, Jerry Bruckheimer turns 82… Chairman of the board of JDC, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Mark B. Sisisky turns 75… Immediate past chair of the Board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Cheryl Fishbein… Professor at Harvard Law School, following a three-year stint in the Obama White House, Cass Sunstein turns 71… and his wife, with whom he shares a birthday, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development during the Biden administration, Samantha Power turns 55… Immediate past president of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, Debbi Kaner Goldich… Owner of Total Wine & More, the largest alcohol retailer in the U.S., he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-MD) until January, David Trone turns 70… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party since 1998, he serves as Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz turns 70… Professor of political science at Tel Aviv University and professor emeritus at Georgetown, Yossi Shain turns 69… One-half the renowned filmmaking team of the Coen Brothers, Ethan Jesse Coen turns 68… Attorney, author of 10 books and Fox News host of “Life, Liberty & Levin,” Mark R. Levin turns 68… Retired managing director of equity trading at Goldman Sachs, Andrew Berman… Co-founder of the private investment firm Centerbridge Partners, he is a former board chair of Johns Hopkins University, Jeffrey Aronson turns 67… Russian businessman who fell out of favor with President Vladimir Putin, now living in Israel, Leonid Nevzlin turns 66… Co-founder of Wisdom Without Walls, she is the author of a series of courses for the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, Sandra Lilienthal… Director of the Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago, Alissa C. Zuchman, Ph.D…. Janet Bunting… Senior partner at polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Anna Greenberg, Ph.D…. Emmy Award-winning talk show host, actress and producer, Ricki Lake turns 57… Guitarist and music producer in Israel, Nachman Fahrner turns 53… Managing editor of the New York Jewish Week, Lisa Keys… Member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Marc Alan Korman turns 44… Associate professor of radiology at Duke, he is an Olympic gold medalist in swimming, Dr. Benjamin M. Wildman-Tobriner turns 41… Former program director for strategic engagement at B’nai B’rith International, now a senior manager at Meridian International Center, Sienna Girgenti… COO of TAMID Group, Nathan Gilson… Lecturer in expository writing at UMass Boston, Mia Appelbaum… Member of the Michigan House of Representatives since 2023, Noah Jeremy Arbit turns 30… Global director of communications at Gallagher Bassett, Scott Frankel…

A group of seven Senate Democrats introduced a resolution on Thursday calling for the U.S. to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.

The resolution was led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

The resolution came in conjunction with plans by several U.S. allies to recognize a Palestinian state and alongside a similar push from progressive House lawmakers. Merkley and Van Hollen recently traveled to Israel and released a scathing report accusing Israel of deliberate ethnic cleansing and collective punishment.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state is not only a practical step the United States can take to help build a future where Palestinians and Israelis can live in freedom, dignity, and security, but it is the right thing to do. America has a responsibility to lead, and the time to act is now,” Merkley said in a statement. “The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction.”

The resolution’s sponsors claimed that it constitutes a reaffirmation of long-standing U.S. support for a two-state solution.

The legislation highlights that “administrations of both political parties in the United States have long affirmed that a negotiated two-state solution is the only viable path to an enduring peace in the region” — but does not acknowledge that policymakers have traditionally seen unilateral recognition as contrary to that principle of a solution negotiated between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Kaine said that the Israeli government’s rejection of a two-state solution should cause the U.S. to change its own policies.

“Since July 2024 when the Israeli Knesset voted to deny a path to Palestinian statehood and made clear that Israel would not accept Palestinian autonomy, I have believed the U.S. should no longer condition recognition on Israeli assent but rather on Palestinian willingness to live in peace with its neighbors,” Kaine said. “We must redouble our efforts to work toward a future where Israelis and Palestinians alike can live in peace, security, and dignity.”

Welch said in a statement that “recognizing a two-state solution is long overdue and the only way forward — something Republican and Democratic Administrations have agreed on for decade. … This resolution signals Congress’ continued commitment for an enduring two-state solution for peace for the people of Israel and Palestine.” 

Though the U.S. has supported a two-state solution, no previous administration has backed unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

Van Hollen said in a statement that Congress should assert its own stance on the issue because “the Netanyahu government has obstructed that goal [of a two-state solution] and the Trump Administration has abandoned it.”

The resolution condemns the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 and the group’s rejection of Israel’s right to exist and calls for Palestinian elections, as well as noting that some Arab states have conditioned normalization with Israel on a path to a Palestinian state.

“Failure to advance a two-state solution risks entrenching an unacceptable permanent occupation, further destabilizing the region, and undermining United States interests and values,” the legislation states.

It calls on Hamas to surrender and release the hostages and on Israel to end the war in Gaza.

J Street supported the resolution.

Breaking with many of his Senate Democratic colleagues, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sounded a supportive note on the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday.

“I strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas,” Blumenthal told Jewish Insider. “I want to know more about the details of this particular strike — I’m learning about it in real time and anything done to destroy Hamas’ leadership or its terrorist capability or military capacity is a step in the right direction.”

Many prominent Senate Democrats have criticized the strike, saying it undermines negotiations for a ceasefire and that it should not have been carried out in Qatari territory. The White House expressed a similar view, breaking with top Senate Republicans who have been supportive of the Israeli attack.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the only other Senate Democrat who has publicly been supportive of the Israeli action.

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is set to make a bid to return to the Senate in 2026, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

Brown, who lost his 2024 reelection race by four points to Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), will challenge Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who was appointed earlier this year to fill Vice President JD Vance’s seat. President Donald Trump carried the state by more than 11 points in 2024.

The progressive Brown remained relatively popular in the state even as it has trended increasingly red in recent years, and maintained strong ties with the state’s large Jewish community. He had also been floated as a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2026, but was strongly courted by Senate Democrats to make a comeback bid.

In late 2024, Brown voted against Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) first efforts to block certain U.S. arms transfers to Israel.

“Senator Brown strongly believes that Israel has a clear and undeniable right to defend itself against Hamas’ brutal terrorism and voted to send military aid to Israel, along with much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza,” a Brown spokesperson said prior to the vote. “Ultimately, Senator Brown believes that Israel and Hamas must agree to a ceasefire that ends the war, frees the hostages, and delivers desperately needed humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.”

Numerous Democrats have since shifted their position on the issue, citing the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In 2022, Brown said that he believed that support for Israel was a majority position in both parties, and that those who opposed the Jewish state were a small group of “outliers,” rejecting the notion that “progressive values” were incompatible with support for Israel.

The former Ohio senator, then the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, took a relatively hawkish position on Iran last year, pressing the administration, after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, to re-freeze Iranian funds previously released under a deal to free Americans held hostage in Iran.

Brown also called on the Biden administration, in early 2024, to re-impose a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation on the Houthis.

Husted has generally been seen as a moderate and has maintained a pro-Israel record in office, opposing efforts to block weapons transfers to Israel, joining with nearly all other Senate Republicans in demanding full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, supporting American and Israeli strikes on Iran and backing legislation to increase sanctions on Iran.

Speaking at a Senate hearing on campus antisemitism, Husted said that the disruptions in the days after the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks appeared coordinated.

After a majority of Senate Democrats voted last week to cut off some military sales to Israel, the issue has emerged as a dividing line in some key Senate primaries. The votes have become a pivotal test in determining which members have maintained their support for Israel, and those who are responding to the political pressure from the party’s progressive activist base.

All told, most of the leading recruits — from former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) to Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — have said they would have voted with the pro-Israel wing of the party against the two resolutions sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). But there are some notable divisions that are emerging in key races.

Here’s a quick overview of the Democratic candidates’ views in the key open seat races:

MI-SEN: Stevens, a pro-Israel stalwart, said she would have voted against the Sanders resolutions on cutting off military aid, as the state’s delegation was divided on the vote. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) voted against it, but newly elected Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who missed the vote to appear on Stephen Colbert’s talk show, said she would have supported the anti-Israel measure.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who earlier this year had been meeting with Jewish groups to reassure them of her pro-Israel bona fides, publicly broke with her past positions. “The United States has to stop providing Netanyahu with offensive weapons that do nothing but continue to extend this war,” she said. At a campaign event last Wednesday, she slammed the Israeli prime minister further: “We cannot let this man tell us that what we are seeing with our own eyes is not what is actually happening.”

Abdul el-Sayed, a vocal Israel critic, didn’t release any statements about the vote or respond to requests for comment on the prospect of blocking offensive weapons sales to Israel. But as a longtime Sanders ally, it’s safe to assume he’s aligned with the push to withhold aid.

IL-SEN: Krishnamoorthi and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton have come out against Sanders’ anti-Israel resolutions, while also calling for Israel to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) joined with Sanders in saying she would have voted for the resolutions despite her general pro-Israel voting record in the past.

NC-SEN: Cooper said he would support other ways of pressuring Israel to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza, but said he would have voted against the resolutions cutting off aid. Cooper is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination in a key swing-state seat. 

NH-SEN: Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), the expected Democratic nominee who has maintained a pro-Israel voting record in the House, said he would have voted against the resolutions in an interview with WMUR-TV: “I would have opposed these resolutions because I believe that we should be holding Hamas to account and realizing a future for the Palestinian people.”

MN-SEN: Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), the early front-runner and a pro-Israel moderate, has not publicly explained — or responded to JI — how she would have voted. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, running as the progressive in the primary, told JI she would have supported the resolutions, adding, “She believes all of the hostages need to be brought home, that leaders in the U.S. and Israel must do more to get aid into Gaza, and that all sides need this conflict to end.”

Stay tuned to JI for more reporting on where the candidates stand on an issue that’s emerging as a dividing line inside the party.

Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) vote Wednesday night, with a majority of Senate Democrats, in favor of a resolution to block a shipment of automatic weapons to Israel is fueling renewed frustration with the senator within the Georgia Jewish community, setting back efforts by the senator to repair ties with Jewish voters who objected to similar votes last December.

Ossoff’s relationship with Georgia’s sizable Jewish community could be a critical deciding factor in his reelection campaign next November — with a tight margin of victory expected in the swing state, significant changes in Jewish voting patterns could help decide the election.

The Georgia senator alienated many in the Jewish community by voting in December for two of three resolutions to block aid shipments to Israel. In subsequent months — after a group of Jewish donors expressed support for Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp as a potential challenger — Ossoff reached out to Jewish community leaders and groups to work to repair ties, with some success.

Many leaders said at the time that he was making progress but had more work to do to fully regain their trust. Those efforts hit a stumbling block in June after Ossoff — whose second child had just been born — took nearly a week to comment on the war between Israel and Iran.

Ossoff said, of his votes on Wednesday, that he had voted for the resolution to block the automatic weapons to send a message to the Israeli government objecting to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as due to concerns that the weapons would be provided to police controlled by Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a controversial figure even in pro-Israel circles.

He said he voted against a second resolution blocking a sale of bombs and bomb guidance kits, because those weapons are necessary to strike targets throughout the region attempting to launch missiles and rockets at Israeli civilians. Ossoff had similarly opposed a resolution on bombs and guidance kits in November, while voting for two other resolutions to block other weapons transfers. 

Norman Radow, a major Democratic donor in Georgia who spoke to Ossoff on Wednesday evening after the votes, told Jewish Insider, “I’m disappointed with him and he knows it. And I think he knows that a vast majority of the Jewish community feels the same way.”

Radow said that Ossoff’s justifications for his vote on the assault rifles resolution didn’t hold water for him and his logic was “sophomoric.” The Democratic donor said he’d argued to the senator that Ossoff had overstated the extent of violence in the West Bank and of starvation in Gaza. 

And he said he told the senator that non-binding efforts condemning Hamas and its backers are ineffectual, as compared to the real impacts that cutting off military supplies to Israel would have. 

He indicated he appreciated the senator’s call.

“I’m disappointed in his behavior, but I can’t say it’s a surprise. We’ve seen this before,” Cheryl Dorchinsky, the founder of the grassroots Atlanta Israel Coalition, said. “It’s insane to me that anyone would think that voting against weapons to Israel during a war is a good idea, regardless of who’s in power.”

She said she feels adrift from both political parties. “When people that I see going into politics as having hopefully an interest in doing the right thing fail us as a people, it just kind of breaks my heart,” Dorchinsky said. She argued that Israel should not be a partisan issue, and blamed “bad actors” trying to turn it into one.

“While I wish [Ossoff] would have voted against both of [the resolutions], I’m very pleased he voted against [the one on bombs and bomb guidance kits],” Dov Wilker, who serves as the regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Atlanta, said. Wilker also said he was “disappointed” that the state’s other senator, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), had voted for both of the resolutions.

Another Jewish Democratic donor in Georgia said, “The yes vote with Sanders, who only wants to destroy the U.S.-Israel relationship, is concerning [and] emboldens the terrorists to continue to reject the ceasefire that was agreed to by Israel. It’s exactly what Hamas wants.”

Rabbi Joshua Heller of Atlanta’s Congregation B’nai Torah told JI that, while he does not endorse candidates, he’s heard in conversations that “a lot of folks who had previously been strong supporters of [Ossoff’s] in the Jewish community are not happy about the stands that he has taken.”

Heller said that, in conversations with him about such positions, Ossoff and his staff have highlighted actions he has taken in support of Israel, “and that is true, but every time a vote like this comes around, there is a break in trust and that becomes harder to restore.”

He said that in conversations with Democratic Jewish voters, many onetime Ossoff supporters are “having second thoughts, at this point,” and that there is a real “challenge in his relationship with a lot of folks in the Jewish community right now.”

“No Jewish community is monolithic, but I definitely see a lot of folks in the community who are troubled by this,” Heller said.

Ossoff still maintains supporters in the Jewish community who back his stance on this week’s resolutions.

Beth Sugarman, a prominent J Street member in Georgia, told JI, “The Jewish community has diversity of opinions, but the people I know think Jon Ossoff is thoughtful and represents us well and his statement and split vote was a good reflection of where the community is. The senator’s statement and split vote was thoughtful and exactly what the community believes.”

J Street supported both of the resolutions to block aid.

Cary Levow, a supporter of pro-Israel causes and candidates, said, “I support Senator Ossoff and know of other Jewish Georgians who understand that Jon’s approach to the Gaza humanitarian issue is genuine.” 

“Senator Ossoff has voted for over $20 billion in aid to Israel, has family living in Israel and has spent a significant amount of time in the country,” Levow continued. “I think Jon has represented the Jewish community well and I have zero concern about a senator who is critical of how [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] Bibi is waging this war.”

Larry Auerbach, a Georgia lawyer and Ossoff supporter, said, “Senator Ossoff has done what the vast majority of Georgia’s Jewish community has asked him to do to represent us well by standing up for protecting the Israeli people’s security and saying that the extremists in the Netanyahu administration can’t continue like this.”

National Republicans see Ossoff’s positions as an opening to peel off Jewish voters in the upcoming senatorial election. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has seized on Ossoff’s November votes to block aid to Israel, again slammed him on Wednesday.

“Jon Ossoff is a radical leftist who time and again refuses to stand with Georgia’s Jewish community,” NRSC spokesperson Nick Puglia said in a statement. “He’d rather please the pro-Hamas extremists in his party than stand with Israel and Jewish Georgians. In 2026, voters will send him packing.”

Radow, the Democratic donor, argued that Ossoff’s votes were “bad politics,” though he said he’s not sure any of the current or prospective Republican candidates can beat Ossoff.

“He’s kowtowing to Bernie Sanders — that does not win elections in Georgia,” Radow said. “The only thing that Jon’s got going for him right now is the Republican field of candidates is pretty weak. … I want him to win, and he’s not winning my vote right now, and he’s not going to win a lot of people’s votes supporting Bernie resolutions.”

He said that whether he ultimately supports Ossoff next year will depend in part on which Republican ultimately ends up as the nominee against him.

“It’s certainly going to be an interesting race, and my vote is still up for grabs,” Radow said. “I’m not going to be a knee-jerk Democrat on this issue.”

He urged Ossoff, going forward, not to show public daylight with Israel, “stop playing secretary of state” and keep disputes with the Israeli officials behind closed doors. And he called on the senator to consult with Jewish community members before critical votes like this one, rather than reaching out afterward to explain his votes.

Dorchinsky said that she would “never say never to anything,” when asked if Ossoff could win her support at this point, and that she’ll “be paying attention” and make her final decision when she’s in the voting booth next year.

“He has a responsibility to represent us all, and if he actually started to, I would be thrilled. As of right now, I’m clearly not,” Dorchinsky said.

A Jewish leader in Georgia agreed that a key deciding question for wary Jewish voters will be who the Republican Party nominates to run against Ossoff in 2025.

The leader told JI he thinks that Ossoff’s vote for the assault rifles resolution could help him “thread the needle” more easily than other resolutions and represented a more “considerate” approach, given the Ben-Gvir connection. “I think the majority of American Jews are not fans of Ben-Gvir,” the Jewish leader said.

“I think that if he is consistent with his messaging around the specific nature of why he voted against the assault rifles, I think it’ll help people that are more on the fence with him, but want to vote for him — versus those that are just against him,” the leader said.

But, the leader continued, “that doesn’t mean everyone’s going to buy it,” and noted that many members of the community are unhappy with the vote. 

They  said the vote is particularly “not going to help” Ossoff among Jewish community members upset by his delay in commenting on the Iran war, “but those that were able to give him some grace that he finally said something — this will help them.”

Heller was more skeptical that Ossoff’s vote-splitting approach would satisfy anyone, saying he thinks the strategy won’t help Ossoff with supporters of Israel who don’t believe in stopping weapons shipments nor with opponents of Israel who believe in cutting off all aid to Israel.

Twenty-seven Senate Democrats, a majority of the caucus, voted Wednesday night for at least one of two resolutions to block shipments of U.S. aid to Israel.

The votes are a signal of the depth of Democratic outrage with the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the breadth of the anti-Israel shift within the party. Previous efforts, also led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), to advance such resolutions, picked up 19 and 15 votes, in November 2024 and April 2025, respectively.

Twenty-seven Democrats voted for the first of the two resolutions, which addressed automatic weapons that supporters said were destined for police units controlled by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

They included Sanders and Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ed Markey (D-MA), Angus King (I-ME), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Patty Murray (D-WA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM).

Reed — the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Murray — the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, Blunt Rochester, Baldwin, Klobuchar, Duckworth, Alsobrooks and Whitehouse have not supported past efforts to cut off aid to Israel.

Ossoff, Warnock, Shaheen and King voted for some or all of the first round of resolutions Sanders introduced to block arms for Israel in November, but opposed a second round in April.

Twenty-four Democrats voted for the second resolution on Wednesday, regarding bombs and bomb guidance kits. Reed, Whitehouse and Ossoff flipped on the second vote, opposing freezing that tranche of aid.

Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) — who on Tuesday said she would consider cutting off offensive weapons for Israel — were not present for either vote. Both Kelly and Gallego were present for votes earlier in the day on Wednesday. Slotkin spent part of the day taping an interview on Stephen Colbert’s late night television show.

A Kelly spokesperson said he missed the votes due to a “previously planned visit to Cape Canaveral to support his friend and former Astronaut classmate Mike Fincke as he launches into space. Senator Kelly has been pushing the Israeli government and the Trump administration to get desperately needed food into Gaza to prevent the starvation of innocent Palestinians. He also has been consistent about supporting Israel in their self defense.” 

Kelly’s office said that he would have voted against both resolutions.

A source familiar with the situation said Gallego, who is a new father, was absent because of family duties, and that the last-minute notice for the votes made scheduling difficult. The source said Gallego would have voted against the resolutions.

Ossoff said in a statement that he voted for the first resolution because he “do[es] not believe the United States Senate should acquiesce without objection to the extreme mass deprivation of civilians in Gaza, including the intolerable starvation of children, that have resulted from the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Furthermore, these weapons would likely have been allocated to police forces under the control of Itamar Ben-Gvir.”

He said he voted against the second resolution because, “[d]espite my opposition to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza, I believe the United States must continue to support the Israeli people, who face the persistent threat of rocket and missile attack and have been subjected to intense aerial bombardment from Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen. Israel’s capacity to strike those who would launch missiles and rockets at Israeli civilians depends upon the deterrence provided by the Israeli Air Force.”

Up for reelection in 2026, Ossoff faced significant backlash for his previous votes against U.S. aid to Israel, but had been working to repair relations with the Jewish community — though that’s been a rocky process.

Alsobrooks, whose views on Israel policy came under close scrutiny from Maryland’s sizable Jewish community during the 2024 election cycle, characterized this as a history-defining moment.

“There are moments in history where our silence will not only be remembered — it will be judged,” she said. “I joined the voices of so many who feel the moral imperative to demand change. To witness the inhumanity of starving children and say nothing is not just a dereliction of duty but of conscience.”

She said that she remains “committed to the U.S.-Israel relationship and my belief that the people of Israel have a right to defend themselves.”

Duckworth had previously rejected the idea of voting for resolutions to cut off U.S. aid to Israel, arguing that the legislation was “symbolic,” would not produce a resolution to the conflict and would disincentivize Hamas and Hezbollah from agreeing to ceasefires, as well as endanger U.S. forces in the region.

On this vote, Duckworth said in a statement that the Israeli government has ignored pressure from her to take steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and that her votes were intended to reflect “deep frustration” with the Israeli government and “send a message” to the Trump administration.

“Israel’s unacceptable choice to restrict humanitarian and food aid from entering Gaza — for months — is now causing innocent civilians, including young children, to starve to death. Ending this famine is not only a moral imperative, it is also in the best interests of both Israel’s and our own country’s long-term national security,” Duckworth said. “While I have always supported Israel’s right to defend itself and protect the Israeli people, these dire circumstances must end.”

Murray said she voted for the resolutions to “send a message” that the Israeli government cannot continue its current strategy.

“This legislative tool is not perfect, but frankly it is time to say enough to the suffering of innocent young children and families,” Murray said. “Israel has a right to defend itself and Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that should be eliminated, but the level of suffering and loss of life we are seeing in Gaza must come to an end.”

She put the onus on the American and Israeli governments to secure a diplomatic solution to the conflict and accused Netanyahu of dragging the war out to remain in power.

Blunt Rochester said in a statement that “until Israel significantly shifts its military posture to end the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, I cannot in good conscience support further military aid and arms sales to Israel.”

She cited a range of concerns including the “seemingly deliberate bombing of civilian infrastructure, the alleged killing of Gazan civilians seeking food aid, the man-made famine among the Palestinian people, the increased presence of illegal settlers and violence in the West Bank, the killing of an American citizen without an impartial investigation, and the continued refusal to responsibly work toward a two-state solution.”

Warnock said that the Israeli government is committing a “moral atrocity that cannot abide the conscience of those who believe in human dignity, freedom and human thriving” and that “the Netanyahu administration must change course.”

Esther Panitch, a Jewish Georgia state legislator, responded by condemning Warnock for failing to mention Hamas’ role in the situation and the United Nations’ failure to distribute aid inside Gaza, adding “it’s becoming increasingly untenable to be a pro-Israel Democrat when the U.S. Senate empowers Hamas.”

Shaheen, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Israel “has not conducted its military operations in Gaza with the necessary care required by international humanitarian law” or allowed sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza. “I will also continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself, but I cannot in good conscience vote in support of weapons until the human anguish in Gaza comes to an end,” Shaheen continued.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reiterated his opposition to the Sanders efforts, saying in a statement, “I have long held that security assistance to Israel is not about any one government but about our support for the Israeli people. For that reason, I voted no on the resolutions of disapproval on aid to Israel.”

One pro-Israel Democratic strategist lamented the state of discourse about Israel policy within the Democratic Party.

“There is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and Netanyahu’s strategy has failed. Yet the alacrity — and even glee — one saw among Democratic officials and commentators to believe and amplify every smear against the Jewish state has been bracing,” the strategist told JI. “When you give no agency to Hamas, Qatar, or the U.N. and reflexively set up Bibi as the devil, there is a word for it — and Jews have seen this movie many times before.”

All Republicans present voted against the resolutions.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the resolutions “misguided” and said that the conflict and the situation in Gaza is “the fault of Hamas.”

“These are not good people, and it is in the interest of America and the world to see this terrorist group destroyed,” Risch said. “And I couldn’t agree more with my colleagues who want an end to this war. We all want to see an end to this war, an immediate ceasefire, and for the hunger crisis in Gaza to end. But the solution to all of this isn’t to deprive Israel of the weapons it needs. The solution is in the hands of Hamas” if the terror group surrenders and gives up its arms.

Jewish Insider’s congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.

A group of 40 Senate Democrats, nearly all of the caucus, wrote to administration officials on Tuesday raising concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and calling for a significant expansion of aid, describing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as a failure.

The letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, led by Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), highlights the extent of the concern even among Democratic leaders and pro-Israel stalwarts.

“The acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza is … unsustainable and worsens by the day,” the lawmakers said. “Hunger and malnutrition are widespread, and, alarmingly, deaths due to starvation, especially among children, are increasing.”

The senators said that the Israeli- and American-backed GHF aid distribution system had “failed to address the deepening humanitarian crisis and contributed to an unacceptable and mounting civilian death toll around the organization’s sites.”

They argued that aid must be significantly expanded, including through “experienced multilateral bodies and NGOs that can get life-saving aid directly to those in need and prevent diversion.” Israel has argued that other aid distribution mechanisms, particularly those affiliated with the United Nations, have failed to effectively distribute aid and prevent Hamas diversion.

The letter further states that efforts to finalize a ceasefire in Gaza “are as critical and urgent as ever and we urge the resumption of good-faith talks as quickly as possible.” The administration walked away from talks with Hamas last week, saying that Hamas was not negotiating in good faith.

“There still remains a viable pathway to end this war, bring home Israeli hostages, and achieve a diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the senators asserted.

They emphasized that the living hostages in Gaza “have suffered too long, as have their families” and that “it is imperative that those still living be brought home as soon as possible, before more perish as the war drags on.” They also noted the need to return the bodies of deceased hostages.

The Democrats also voiced “our strong opposition to the permanent forced displacement of the Palestinian people” from Gaza, as has been floated by some Israeli and American leaders, calling such an outcome “antithetical to international humanitarian law,” to the security of Israelis and Palestinians, to lasting peace and to the expansion of the Abraham Accords.

They urged the administration to clearly reject such a plan.

“Beyond a negotiated ceasefire, a permanent end to this war will also require an end to Hamas rule in Gaza and ensuring that Hamas can no longer pose a serious military threat to Israel,” the letter continues. “We reaffirm our strong support for continued U.S.-led diplomacy with Israel, Palestinian leaders, and other partners in the Middle East in pursuit of the long-term goal of a negotiated two-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in lasting peace, security, dignity, and mutual recognition.”

The only Senate Democrats who did not sign the letter were Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) — who has generally abstained from letters by other Democrats critical of Israel — as well as Sens. Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tina Smith (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also did not sign.

It follows a letter earlier this week from 21 progressive Senate Democrats that more strongly condemned the GHF, describing it as a “private group supported by U.S. security contractors and connected to deadly violence against starving people seeking food in Gaza” that “blur[s] the lines between delivery of aid and security operations.” 

That letter called on the administration to “immediately cease all U.S. funding for GHF and resume support for the existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms with enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need.”

The progressive lawmakers said that the GHF system is insufficient to replace the United Nations aid network and that it is facilitating efforts to displace Palestinians and depopulate Gaza, as well as highlighted incidents in which aid recipients were allegedly attacked at distribution sites.

The lawmakers said the administration had dodged legal and vetting requirements in its provision of aid to the GHF. They also argued that the American military contractors employed to guard the GHF sites are at risk from both Hamas and anti-Hamas militia forces in Gaza.

Several Senate Democrats told Jewish Insider on Monday that calls to “globalize the intifada” are unacceptable and must be condemned, amid concerns from Jewish leaders and organizations over presumptive New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the slogan.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has thus far not endorsed Mamdani, told JI he plans to meet with Mamdani in a few weeks, when asked about Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan.

“Sen. Schumer condemns the phrase ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and believes it should not be used because it has such dangerous implications. As Senator Schumer said after the death of Karen Diamond, the attack in Boulder continues to serve as a grave reminder of the deadly consequences of the rise in antisemitism,” a spokesperson for Schumer told JI.

“I don’t know what [Mamdani’s] position is on it, but I certainly think that the call to spread the intifada is the kind of incitement that can lead to extremist violence,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told JI.

Blumenthal added that he is “an advocate of increasing the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which protects against terrorist hate crimes to synagogues, mosques, churches and similar community institutions, and so I’m deeply concerned about incitement and hate speech that can lead to hate crimes.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) said calls to globalize the intifada must be condemned.

“At a time when antisemitism is rising at alarming rates in the U.S., leaders of both parties have an obligation to stand up, speak clearly, and unequivocally condemn hatred and bigotry in every form,” Rosen said in a statement to JI. “The intifadas were periods marked by unspeakable violence and terror against innocent Israelis, and it should not be a difficult decision for anyone to condemn the antisemitic call to globalize these violent attacks. Our words matter — and in moments like this, silence is not an option.”

“I’m not a member of the Jewish community or a NYC voter. Personally, I would never use or defend this deeply troubling phrase,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said in a statement to JI. 

Some other Senate Democrats declined to comment or said they hadn’t been following Mamdani’s remarks.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who thus far has declined to endorse Mamdani, said in response to a listener call on WNYC last week that constituents she has spoken to are “alarmed” by Mamdani’s past comments.

“They are alarmed by past public statements. They are alarmed by past positions, particularly references to global jihad,” Gillibrand said. “This is a very serious issue because people that glorify the slaughter of Jews create fear in our communities. The global intifada is a statement that means ‘destroy Israel and kill all the Jews.’”

She emphasized that Mamdani needs to understand and accept that “globalize the intifada” is viewed by the Jewish community as, inherently, a call for violence against Jews.

“It doesn’t matter what meaning you have in your brain,” Gillibrand said, when pressed on Mamdani’s claims that he does not view the statement as a call for violence. “It is not how the word is received. When you use a word like ‘intifada’ to many Jewish Americans and Jewish New Yorkers, that means you are permissive for violence against Jews.”

“It is a harmful, hurtful, inappropriate word for anyone who wants to represent a city as diverse as New York City with 8 million people, and I would be very specific in these words, and I would say, ‘You may not use them again if you expect to represent everyone ever again because they are received as hateful and divisive and harmful, and that’s it,’” she continued. 

She said that Mamdani, if elected, will “need to assure all New Yorkers that he will protect all Jews and protect houses of worship and protect funding for not-for-profits that meet the needs of these communities.”

She said she had spoken to Mamdani about Jewish community security issues last week, and said that he “agreed to work with me on this and to protect all residents. …  I will work with him when he gets elected, if he gets elected, to make sure everyone is protected.”

Speaking on CNN on Monday, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) called the intifada slogan “deeply offensive” and said that “every elected official, without exception, should condemn it.”

Torres said that condemning the language was not the same as criminalizing it, responding to Mamdani’s own comments saying he did not believe he should “police” speech: “No one‘s advocating for imprisonment. I mean, every elected official has an obligation to condemn hatred, whether it‘s antisemitism or Islamophobia,” the New York congressman said.

House and Senate Democrats are pushing ahead with efforts to bring forward votes this week in both chambers on resolutions that aim to constrain the administration from taking any further military action against Iran in spite of President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Trump’s diplomatic breakthrough is creating some political awkwardness for Democrats who had insisted the president would escalate the war, but many are still likely to support the resolutions, which reflect their dissatisfaction with the president’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities without congressional authorization. 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the lead sponsor of one war powers resolution in the House, said he no longer plans to force a vote on it, explaining, “if we’re not engaged in hostilities, I think it’s a moot point.” He said he had told House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that he would not attempt to bring the resolution to the floor.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Massie’s lead co-sponsor, said, “The anti-war advocacy of the left and right broke through. I am glad cooler heads prevailed and Trump seems committed to stopping this war. I spoke with Rep. Massie this evening and we are taking a wait and see approach about whether a vote will be needed now on our War Powers Resolution.”

But a group of senior House Democrats introduced a separate resolution on Monday evening, which they are expected to continue to advance.

The U.S. strike, Massie’s resolution and broader questions about the situation in Iran have been causing heartburn for many House Democrats, particularly supporters of Israel, Democratic staff sources told Jewish Insider earlier Tuesday.

Democratic staffers not authorized to speak publicly explained that, behind the scenes, the largely unified public Democratic opposition to the strikes has been driven by several factors, including the perceived lack of political support for the strikes, concerns about an escalating war and frustration with the Trump administration.

“I think a lot of members support the strike privately but see this as a politically vulnerable issue for [Trump],” one Democratic staffer said.

Another staffer said that Democrats are afraid of echoes of the Iraq war: If the U.S. ends up in a full-scale, protracted, politically unpopular war with Iran, they don’t want to be on record as having supported it.

And, the staffer said, there’s a deep level of distrust for the Trump administration, which acted largely unilaterally in the strikes, did not make efforts to keep congressional leaders informed about the strikes and hasn’t yet presented any evidence to Congress of the need for the strikes or their success.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who worked with other top Democrats on an alternative war powers resolution, said the resolution effort should continue “if United States forces remain engaged.”

Himes, along with Reps. Greg Meeks (D-NY) and Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrats on the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, introduced their own war powers resolution Monday evening, after the ceasefire was announced.

Whether that resolution will come to the floor remains an open question. The House speaker was reportedly working on a procedural plan that would strip the Massie resolution of its privileged status, sidestepping a vote on the House floor, and could potentially use the same tactic to defuse the new Democratic resolution.

On the Senate side, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said he also plans to push forward with his efforts, and said that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is working with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to facilitate a vote.

“Whether or not a ceasefire between Israel and Iran comes to fruition — and I hope it does — I will move forward to force a vote on my resolution to require Congress to debate and vote on whether or not the United States should engage in a war with Iran,” Kaine said in a statement to JI. “Americans don’t want matters of war and peace, bombing and ceasefire, to rest upon the daily whims of any one person.” 

“That’s why the Framers of our Constitution decided that war should only be declared following a public debate and congressional vote,” Kaine continued. “Congress must affirm its commitment to that principle and send a clear message: no more endless wars.”

Other Democrats agreed that a war powers resolution should still receive a vote in spite of the ceasefire.

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told JI, “At the end of the day, I think that a war powers resolution makes good sense to vote on and for Congress to finally reassert what is in black-and-white letters in the Constitution, which is that only Congress and the consent of the American people can start a war.”

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a former Army intelligence officer, argued that the uncertainty of the situation necessitated that Congress step in.

“It’s a very volatile situation, which, to me, makes it even more urgent that we make clear and reassert what the Constitution of the United States says, which is that it is the Congress that has the authority to declare war or authorize the use of [force],” Ryan told JI.

He added that it “should be concerning to every American that multiple days after doing — not even a preemptive strike — a preventive strike, there’s still no legal justification, there’s still no clarity about the effectiveness.”

A memo sent by Trump to the Senate cited presidential foreign relations authorities enshrined in the U.S. constitution as the legal backing for the strike.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), among the few House Democrats who supported the strikes, told JI that he wants to see Congress reclaim its power but that the administration also has the ability to take defensive action without consulting Congress. He said that the war powers resolution push is likely no longer relevant if the ceasefire continues.

“Based on the ceasefire that was announced, it if holds, it appears that the issue in this current climate is moot, but overall, still important,” Moskowitz said. “[The war powers resolution] is no longer relevant to this particular purpose. It would be more of a general ‘us reasserting our authority as Congress.’”

Kaine told reporters earlier in the day that his resolution in the Senate would come up for a vote on Thursday or Friday.

Kaine said that the vote was “fluid” but he expected to see Republican support, and that he expected nearly all Democrats, with the exception of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), to support it.

“I think the fluidity and change is something that I think warrants — this is why you get a congressional discussion, because these things can escalate,” Kaine said. “They can move in ways that are hard to predict, and that’s why a discussion and a vote is a good idea.”

He said that, “my colleagues on the Democratic side, regardless of whatever they feel about Iran, [believe] wars without Congress, wars that bypass us, are a bad idea.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) confirmed he planned to support the resolution as well, arguing that the Constitution is clear that war powers are vested in Congress and that his position on the issue has been consistent across administrations.

“There have always been people who argue the president can do whatever he wants,” Paul said. “The problem is, that’s a recipe for chronic intervention. It’s a recipe for endless war.”

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a pro-Israel Democrat, also said he supported the resolution.

Ahead of the ceasefire, some specific concerns with the wording of the Massie resolution had split Democrats, one Democratic staffer said. That prompted the separate resolution from Meeks, Himes and Smith. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) claimed at a press conference on Monday that he hadn’t reviewed the Massie resolution yet, indicating that he would not be supporting it. 

A Democratic staffer explained that there were fairly widespread concerns that Massie’s resolution could block the U.S. from continuing to support Israel’s defense.

The Democrat-led resolution includes a specific exception allowing the U.S. to defend itself or any ally or partner from “imminent attack,” whereas Massie’s resolution only allowed for continued defense of the United States and intelligence sharing with allies. The Democrats leading the resolution emphasized in a statement that it would allow U.S. forces defending Israel to continue their activities.

“What we’re trying to get clarity on is to ensure that there’s no ambiguity or doubt about our ability to fully support the defense of Israel and the Israeli people, that we can continue … intelligence sharing and information sharing, cyber,” Ryan said earlier, of the Massie resolution. “There are key dimensions where we have to continue to be very closely aligned.”

“My concern is less about the language of the resolution and more about who introduced it, frankly,” Ryan continued. Massie has a history of comments that colleagues on both sides of the aisle have condemned as antisemitic.

Jeffries, at his press conference, largely focused on the fact that the Trump administration had failed to inform Congress about the strikes in the normal manner and had still not provided a proper justification for the strikes or accounted for Iran’s nuclear material.

He also argued that the administration’s claims to have destroyed Iran’s nuclear program completely couldn’t be trusted.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a former House majority leader and perhaps the most prominent Democratic supporter of the strikes, told JI that his support for the strikes was consistent with unilateral action taken by administrations dating back to President Bill Clinton. 

He added that it would be “hypocritical” not to support the strikes now, when administrations have said for decades that they will not permit a nuclear Iran, and said that the recent International Atomic Energy Agency report showed that Iran was “too close” to a nuclear weapon and “stopping them was the right thing to do.”

Hoyer also noted that Congress moves more slowly than the executive branch and that a slow public debate over a potential strike in Congress over strikes would have “incentivized [Iran] to move ahead as quickly as possible.”

He said that as a general matter, however, he believes that it is important for Congress to be able to put a check on the administration’s ability to go to war, though he said that the decision to strike Iran was a long time coming.

Fetterman, the only Senate Democrat who has announced he plans to oppose the war powers resolution, blasted some colleagues who have called the strikes unconstitutional. He said he would have opposed the Kaine resolution before the strikes.

He noted that previous Democratic administrations had conducted similar “one-off” strikes and argued that congressional approval would only be needed if the U.S. was going to start a broader, protracted war.

Fetterman also blasted Democrats for joining Massie’s effort calling him, “that weirdo from Kentucky.”

Among Republicans, Massie’s resolution may have seen some additional support from a handful of isolationist Republicans, but likely not many. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the Republican who, alongside Massie, has been most outspoken against the U.S. strike, told Punchbowl News she would not support the effort.

But she also said she wanted to push to cut off U.S. aid to Israel, and has previously condemned Israel’s military action against Iran. 

Asserting that President Donald Trump “owes Congress and the American people a strategy for U.S. engagement” in the Middle East, top Senate Democrats on Wednesday cautioned against potential U.S. strikes on Iran and argued that the president would need congressional authorization to conduct such an operation.

The signatories to the statement include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrats on several key Senate committees and subcommittees. The statement suggests that a direct U.S. military intervention in Iran would see little support among Senate Democrats.

Trump has indicated that he is considering carrying out strikes inside Iran but has yet to make a final decision.

“​​Intensifying military actions between Israel and Iran represent a dangerous escalation that risks igniting a broader regional war,” the statement reads. “As President Trump reportedly considers expanding U.S. engagement in the war, we are deeply concerned about a lack of preparation, strategy, and clearly defined objectives, and the enormous risk to Americans and civilians in the region.”

The lawmakers said they are “alarmed by the Trump administration’s failure to provide answers to fundamental questions” and demanded that the president seek authorization from Congress “if he is considering taking the country to war.” 

“Congress has not provided authorization for military action against Iran – we will not rubberstamp military intervention that puts the United States at risk,” the Democrats said. “Our foremost duty is to safeguard American citizens wherever they reside and to protect our troops serving on the front lines. The United States cannot sleepwalk into a third war in as many decades. Congress has a critical role to play in this moment.” 

Legislation has been introduced in the Senate to bar military action against Iran, which could come up for a vote as soon as next week.

“[Trump] owes Congress and the American people a strategy for U.S. engagement in the region. We need a clear, detailed plan outlining the goals, risks, cost, and timeline for any proposed mission, as well as how he will ensure the safe evacuation of Americans in harm’s way all across the region,” they continued. “We demand immediate, detailed answers on these and other urgent matters to determine the way forward.

At the same time, the statement describes Iran as a threat to the U.S. and its allies that “must not be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon.” 

“The United States stands firm in our support for the continued defense of Israel, our partner and ally,” they said. “Our commitment to Israel remains ironclad and we urge the administration to defend Israel against the barrage of Iranian airstrikes, including through the provision of additional air defense capabilities.”

Israel’s strikes on Iranian military and nuclear targets are prompting fractured responses from Senate Democrats, with a few offering full support for Israel and others forcefully condemning the strikes, while some have sought to carve out a path somewhere in the middle.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), one of the most vocal pro-Israel Democrats in the Senate, offered her first comments on the strike Friday morning, saying that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, and is “closer than ever” to developing one, as reflected in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent report that Iran had violated its nonproliferation commitments.

“The Iranian regime and its proxies have been very public about their commitment to the destruction of Israel and Jewish communities around the world. We should take them at their word,” Rosen said. “Israel acted in self-defense against an attack from Iran, and the U.S. must continue to stand with Israel, as it has for decades, at this dangerous moment.”

She also emphasized the need to protect U.S. troops in the region.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), long a proponent of strikes on Iran, was the first Senate Democrat to offer support for the operation.

On the other side of the spectrum, progressives have been loudly denouncing the strikes. 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the strikes are “an escalation that is deeply concerning and will inevitably invite counterattacks.”

She added that they endanger nuclear talks and U.S. servicemembers.

“I agree with President Trump’s instinct to distance the U.S. from Israel’s actions, but Iran and its proxies are unlikely to differentiate the U.S. from Israel. This is not the time to tie our hands by reducing our diplomatic presence and resourcing as the State Department and OMB [Office of Management and Budget] plan to do,” Shaheen said. “This is a dangerous moment for the region and world. The Trump Administration must quickly move to de-escalate the situation.”

Other progressive Senate Democrats have tried to accuse Israel of undermining President Trump’s wishes, even though Trump himself has publicly expressed support for the attacks in statements and media interviews into Friday morning.

“This strike by Iran is clearly a stick in the eye for the American president because in addition to striking nuclear facilities and at least one of their top research scientists, reportedly Israel also killed the chief negotiator who was negotiating with the United States of America and so it’s pretty transparent that this was an effort to submarine, to undermine our diplomacy,” Sen. Chis Murphy (D-CT) said on Friday morning on “Morning Joe.” “Now, it looks as if diplomacy has no chance.”

A handful of other Democrats have sought some path between those two poles, acknowledging Israel’s right to defend itself while pushing for deescalation and averting a concerted regional war.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, emphasized the need to “avoid steps that will cause further escalation across the region,” while also stating, “Iran has threatened the safety of Israel and the region and Israel has an undeniable right to defend itself and its citizens.”

He said that his “foremost concern” is protecting U.S. personnel in the Middle East.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said that the details, justification and consequences of the operation are unknown, while emphasizing that the U.S. had made clear that Israel acted alone and the administration continues to pursue peace.

“I have long believed that the world cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran and that Iran and its proxies pose a serious threat to American interests. I am deeply concerned by the IAEA Board of Governors’ determination earlier today that Iran has failed to comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Iran’s defiant subsequent declaration of a new underground enrichment facility,” Coons said. “Even so, tonight’s actions have the potential to lead to dangerous escalation and a full-scale regional war. I am following developments closely tonight and am urging restraint.”

“Everyone’s goal must now be the prevention of a full-blown regional war,” Coons continued. “The Trump administration and our regional partners must work together to reduce the risks of escalation and work towards a path forward that provides safety and stability for the entire region.”

As of Friday morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the top Senate Democrat, was the only one of the top four congressional leaders who had yet to speak out about the attacks.

Schumer attended the Friday morning funeral of former Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) where he delivered a eulogy, and was expected to receive a briefing on the strikes afterward, according to a source familiar with his plans. Schumer was expected to issue a statement after the briefing.

Some Senate Democrats are warming to the Trump administration’s decision to reimpose a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group in Yemen — a move that the Biden administration refused to make throughout its term after previously delisting the group as terrorists in 2021 — while others remain skeptical.

A growing number of Democrats last year came to support the elevated terrorist designation for the group as Houthi attacks on Israel, U.S. forces and shipping vessels in the Red Sea escalated. The Trump administration issued an executive order in January that sought to reimpose the designation and formally took the step this week. The Biden administration applied a different terrorist label but the FTO designation would have granted additional authorities. 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a longtime supporter of redesignating the group, offered his full endorsement of the move.

“I support that,” Fetterman told JI. “And if his [Trump’s] next Truth Social post is about wasting them, I’d support that too. I think it’s time to really cut the s**t and take them out if they’re going to mess with our ships and have an impact on our economy like that, absolutely. They are terrorists, undeniably. I fully support destroying that organization, what’s left of it.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said that “the previous debate about whether they should or shouldn’t be so designated really had to do with the ability to deliver humanitarian aid in the middle of what was then a massive crisis in Yemen.”

“They certainly have done plenty of things that deserve the designation,” Coons continued. “That doesn’t trouble me.”

Coons had opposed the Trump administration’s decision in early January 2021 to initially designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she thinks the U.S. should have sanctions on the Houthis but didn’t directly address the FTO designation.

Others, such as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), remain skeptical.

Kaine said that he found the timing of the move to be “kind of interesting, because the Houthis have stopped firing on U.S. shipping in the Red Sea, which they said they would do if there was a cease-fire, which has been great.”

“We’ve got to extend the cease-fire so that continues, because we have been so freakishly lucky. We were batting 1.000 while knocking down all the drones and the missiles [in the Red Sea],” Kaine told JI. “They are a terrorist organization, but they’ve stopped firing on U.S. shipping. We want them to continue not to, so I felt like the timing was a little bizarre.”

Kaine, who serves on the Foreign Relations and Senate Armed Services committees, said he was concerned that the reauthorization could prompt the Houthis to reengage on that front, even if the cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas remains intact.

“If they started to behave badly again we could always reimpose the designation, and maybe they’d start firing again even with the cease-fire,” Kaine said. “But we’re in a moment where they dramatically scaled back what they were doing. I’m not sure that’s the time to punish somebody when they’ve started for some reason to do the right thing.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told JI that the Houthis are a terrorist organization, and were already labeled as such under a different designation.

“The question is how we treat them as a terrorist organization without making them stronger,” Murphy said. “The question is whether this particular designation makes it so impossible for us to provide famine relief inside Yemen that it actually grows the Houthis’ power.”

He said that the designation “doesn’t help us if the consequences result in a group getting stronger,” and that he wants to ensure the delivery of humanitarian support that can “blunt some of the reasons why people sign up to fight with the Houthis.”

Republicans, meanwhile, celebrated the move.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a post on X on Wednesday, “I’m glad to see the Administration sanction Houthi leaders for their terrorist activity and weapons trafficking. Now, we need to cut Chinese support for the Houthis. China purposefully undercuts U.S. sanctions and serves as a lifeline for Iran and its terror groups. This needs to end.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the decision was “long overdue” and that he was “glad he [Trump] did it.”

“In the name of avoiding escalation, every time Democrats try to do that, you get more of it,” Graham said. “Here’s what I think: if they keep shooting at our ships, wipe them out. They use the same logic — don’t give them tanks, don’t give them planes — in Ukraine. You just get more escalations,” Graham said of the criticism from the other side of the aisle. 

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she was “completely” in support of the Houthi’s FTO status being reinstated and was not concerned about such a decision escalating the situation in the Red Sea. 

“My goodness, when you look at what the Houthis have already done, in firing missiles nonstop at our commercial traffic in the Red Sea and at destroyers. They are definitely a terrorist organization. From my perspective, they’re an Iranian proxy,” Collins told JI. “I’m glad that they’ve been reclassified.”

Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN) have joined more than two dozen Senate Democrats publicly warning Israeli leaders of the implications of efforts to unilaterally annex portions of the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the government could start annexing territory as early as July 1.

In individual letters sent last month and made public over the weekend, both senators — Klobuchar addressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Smith wrote to Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz — posited that annexation would undermine efforts to attain a two-state solution.

Twenty-eight senators have so far spoken out against the annexation proposal.

Last month, 19 Democratic senators sent a letter to Netanyahu and Gantz urging the Israeli leaders not to move forward with the effort. That letter, which was updated several times before being sent, cautioned the new Israeli government that “unilateral annexation puts both Israel’s security and democracy at risk” and “would have a clear impact on Israel’s future and our vital bilateral and bipartisan relationship.” Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) sent individual communiques to Netanyahu and Gantz, similarly opposing the move, and Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) addressed the matter in individual letters to Pompeo. 

In addition, Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) issued statements against annexation, and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) indicated to Jewish Currents that instead of signing or authoring a letter on annexation, he would “communicate directly with [Israeli] Ambassador [Ron] Dermer and Israeli officials to express his concerns.” 

On Monday, eight Senate candidates in battleground states are expected to join the list expressing their strong opposition to such a move. In statements provided to J Street and shared with Jewish Insider, the candidates — Cal Cunningham (North Carolina), Sara Gideon (Maine), Teresa Greenfield (Iowa), Al Gross (Alaska), Jaime Harrison (South Carolina), MJ Hegar (Texas), John Hickenlooper (Colorado), Amy McGrath (Kentucky) and Jon Ossoff (Georgia) — emphasized that annexation would put the future of a two-state solution at risk. 

Read their statements in full here.

Earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) warned that unilateral annexation “puts the future [of peace] at risk and undermines our national security interest and decades of bipartisan policy.” Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also came out against annexation, saying it “will choke off any hope for peace.”

“From the presidential nominee to the speaker of the House and from the Senate to the senatorial campaign trail, Democratic leaders have now made absolutely clear that they do not and cannot support unilateral annexation in the West Bank,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami told JI. “For annexation to move forward in the face of this overwhelming opposition would be incredibly harmful to the future of Israelis and Palestinians and to the US-Israel relationship.”