The Justice Democrats PAC, the outside group best known for elevating the congressional Squad to power in 2018, has become the driving force behind this cycle’s slate of far-left primary candidates. 

And powering the Justice Democrats this year is a dark-money machine operating out of a PostalAnnex in a strip mall near Anaheim, Calif: the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a fierce critic of Israeli policy, and its new political arm, the IMEU Policy Project. 

A review of financial disclosures from these three groups reveals that just as the Middle East conflict has become a defining issue for insurgent candidates on the left, it has also become increasingly crucial to Justice Democrats’ outreach and finances.

With Israel at the center of this year’s primary debates, Justice Democrats has lent considerable resources — cash, staff and know-how — to an array of socialist-minded candidates and smaller committees, including American Priorities super PAC. And helping bankroll it is the IMEU Policy Project, which formed just five months after the Oct. 7 attacks and quickly took in $400,000 from its parent organization.

That $400,000 figure is the exact amount IMEU Policy Project has since pumped into Justice Democrats’ accounts. There is no record of the Policy Project supporting any other federal PAC, just as there is no record of the decades-old Institute for Middle East Understanding providing financial assistance to another organization besides its new political spin-off.

Neither group responded to questions from Jewish Insider. Federal rules prohibit using money raised by organizations with the IMEU’s tax designation for political purposes. The funding from the institute makes up about half of the Policy Project’s budget in its most recent tax filings, meaning it has other revenues from which to pay for its electoral efforts, even as the start-up cash from its progenitor set it on its mission “to educate elected officials, policy-makers, and voters.”

But the original donors behind all of the Policy Project’s income remain hidden from public view.

“Either way, we don’t know where it came from, so it’s dark money being pushed into a PAC,” said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at pro-transparency group OpenSecrets. “People being targeted with content don’t know who’s trying to influence them.”

Progressive politicians and advocates have long decried dark money for enabling the ultra-wealthy to influence elections while concealing their involvement from public view. But Justice Democrats has historically defended its acceptance of such funds to avoid being “outgunned,” in the words of former spokesman Waleed Shahid, now a top aide to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

For the first 21 years of its existence, IMEU promoted Palestinian narratives in media and the arts but avoided the electoral fray. That changed beginning with the formation of the IMEU Policy Institute in March 2024, and when it made its first gift to Justice Democrats three months later.

But California records show that despite using the same shopping center maildrop address in Tustin, Calif., as the original institute — and despite taking $250,000 in the form of a charitable grant for “Palestine Awareness” from its parent organization, plus a $150,000 loan — the IMEU Policy Project has never registered to operate in the Golden State, the state attorney general’s office confirmed. 

That hasn’t stopped the Policy Project from fundraising, or from running multiple ad campaigns in key electoral battlegrounds criticizing elected officials it deems pro-Israel: attacking Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in his swing district, lambasting Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in New Hampshire and blasting Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) in Iowa. It also has run ads and a petition site supporting the Block the Bombs Act to deny military aid to Israel.

It also operates PunishGenocide.org, backing a resolution proposed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to declare the Jewish state guilty of genocide, and NoWarForIsrael.com, which explicitly blames Israel for President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran.

“This is not America First. This is Israel First,” the webpage reads.

The group also runs the Peace, Accountability and Leadership Political Action Committee, PAL-PAC, which has raised tens of thousands from figures affiliated with the institute and the Policy Project and dumped into the campaigns of such candidates as New York’s Darializa Avila Chevalier and Texas’s Rev. Frederick D. Haynes. Leading the PAC is Amira Hassan, former political director and current board member for Justice Democrats. Its webpage prominently features an endorsement from Tlaib, who calls it “only PAC exclusively committed to justice and accountability for the Palestinian people.”

But the Policy Project’s largest recorded intervention in the political process is the $400,000 it has injected directly into Justice Democrats’ coffers. It is the single biggest donor to Justice Democrats this cycle, outstripping even the left-wing PAC’s principle patron of past years, the Tlaib campaign. The Policy Project also works closely with the congresswoman, platforming her on its social media channels, boosting her bills and lending quotes to her press releases.

Tlaib did not answer questions from JI regarding her relationship with Justice Democrats and the IMEU Policy Project, and whether she had any role beyond providing money for one and publicly supporting the other. The Michigan congresswoman was part of Justice Democrats’ freshman class of elected officials in 2018.

In March, a writer for the left-wing media outlet Zeteo posted that the IMEU Policy Project and Justice Democrats had spent $100,000 on an ad campaign attacking congressional candidate and former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) and pushing her ultimately unsuccessful anti-Israel opponent Junaid Ahmed. In late May, Justice Democrats uploaded an ad to Instagram boosting Philadelphia congressional contender Chris Rabb, who went on to win the nomination, a spot the PAC reported having “put $260,000 behind” as part of a “partnership” with IMEU Policy Institute. 

The Policy Institute affirmed this figure in a joint statement with Justice Dems when Rabb triumphed on primary night last week. The two also boasted of spending $200,000 on mail ads promoting the campaign of Adam Hamawy, who carried a plurality of the vote in a crowded Democratic contest to replace Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).

The Justice Democrats and IMEU Policy Project did not respond to questions about the cost breakdown for these ad efforts, or whether the Policy Project solicited contributions for Justice Democrats to help pay for them.

Justice Democrats has also coordinated closely with American Priorities super PAC, the professed anti-AIPAC committee, which at its launch described itself as part of a “partner network” that included the IMEU Policy Project and Justice Democrats. That same press release also identified American Priorities’ independent expenditure director as Hannah Fertig, who previously held the identical title at Justice Democrats.

Justice Democrats’ support for the younger organization has come mainly in the form of in-kind donations of digital production services. However, reports of the value and purpose of those services that the two PACs have made to the Federal Election Commission differ radically.

According to Justice Democrats’ most recent FEC reports, it has provided $23,500 worth of production costs to American Priorities, mostly for ads attacking Bean and supporting Ahmed in March.

But in American Priorities’ submissions to the commission, this support is nowhere to be found. Rather, American Priorities recorded $50,000 in donated production costs from Justice Democrats in February, in support of Nida Allam’s failed challenge to Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC). It did not report any help from Justice Democrats in the Illinois race.

Neither American Priorities nor Justice Democrats responded to questions from JI about these discrepancies. Glavin, of OpenSecrets, noted that the FEC has repeatedly flagged problems in Justice Democrats’ disclosures, including over in-kind contributions, compelling it to file multiple amended filings in recent months.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with their reporting,” the campaign finance expert said. “We expect to see some things that aren’t here.”

The bulk of American Priorities’ funding has come from three individuals: tech investors Omer Hasan and Tariq Afaq Ahmed, who gave $1 million and $500,000 respectively; and e-commerce executive Mohammad Waqas Javed, who chipped in an additional million. Waqas Javed is also one of Justice Democrats’ largest donors after the IMEU Policy Project and the Tlaib campaign, having contributed $50,000 to the PAC.

This same trio provided much of the money for the New Yorkers for Lower Costs super PAC that helped propel Mamdani into City Hall. 

Mamdani attended the institute’s gala in April.

Mamdani’s office — including Shahid, the former Justice Democrats spokesman — did not respond to questions about their awareness of the IMEU Policy Project and its relationship with Justice Democrats.

The Policy Project shares the original institute’s longtime executive director, Margaret DeReus. Early in the institute’s existence, DeReus penned an editorial for the Houston Chronicle calling for immediate recognition of and engagement with the then-newly elected Hamas leadership on the Palestinian Legislative Council.

“When Palestinians in the occupied territories gave Hamas a resounding victory, they sent the world a message. The status quo of Israeli colonization and denial of Palestinian rights is unsustainable,” she wrote under her maiden name Zaknoen. “Hamas earned people’s trust by providing social services, hospitals and schools, and running municipal governments free of corruption. Ironically, Hamas may provide the Palestinians with the good governance and true political reform Fatah denied them.”

The two IMEU groups also share a policy director: Georgetown University adjunct Josh Ruebner. A co-founder of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel, which eventually merged into Jewish Voice for Peace, Ruebner blasted then-Georgetown President John DeGioia just days after Oct. 7 for his “one-sided condemnation of Hamas.”

A new series of Emerson College polls of three closely watched New York Democratic congressional primaries shows a strong left-wing, anti-establishment sentiment coursing through the party. 

The polls, commissioned by WPIX-TV, find that a sitting congressman, party-backed borough president and experienced state assemblyman championed by local political leaders are either trailing or barely leading their insurgent challengers.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel liberal and fierce critic of President Donald Trump, is badly trailing by 34 points (57-23%) his left-wing challenger Brad Lander, who most recently served as New York City comptroller and has been deeply critical of Israel. 

Lander, who was endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, holds a substantial advantage among voters under 40, winning 73% of the younger constituency. Mamdani, who comfortably carried the district in last year’s mayoral election, holds a 79% approval rating among Democrats in the progressive district.

Goldman’s campaign manager, Simone Kanter, questioned the poll’s methodology in a post on X: “Emerson is assuming an electorate that looks exactly like the once-in-a-generation turnout Mamdani mobilized when he was on the ballot.”

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, the poll finds Assemblymember Claire Valdez, the Democratic candidate backed by Mamdani and the local chapter of Democratic Socialists for America (DSA), holding a narrow lead (23-21%) over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the candidate endorsed by retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). A near-majority of Democratic voters (43%) are still undecided.

And in the race to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), state Assemblymember Micah Lasher has a small advantage over Assemblymember Alex Bores, and a larger lead over social media influencer Jack Schlossberg and attorney George Conway. 

Lasher holds more institutional support in the race, boasting the endorsements of Nadler, Gov. Kathy Hochul and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but that backing hasn’t automatically led into widespread party support. Still, this poll shows Lasher leading, in contrast to other recent public and internal polls that found Bores with a narrow edge.

The Open Society Foundations, the major international philanthropy founded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, has pledged $30 million over three years to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate, directing those funds to a number of progressive groups, some of which are at odds with the mainstream Jewish establishment.

Jewish recipients of the funding include progressive Jewish groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Nexus Project and Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Alexander Soros, George Soros’ son, was also a founding chair of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, another grantee. The younger Soros is a longtime donor to progressive Jewish causes and chairs OSF’s board of directors. 

The OSF has also come under fire within the Jewish community for funding initiatives seen as hostile to Israel, including providing grants for Jewish Voice for Peace — which has spearheaded anti-Israel campus demonstrations. 

Asked about the OSF’s support of anti-Israel groups, a spokesperson for the organization told Jewish Insider, “We’re a human rights organization and we were created in part to counter discrimination and hatred which are contrary to ideas an open society needs to flourish. Everything we fund is aligned with those values but a lot of the work is focused on many other issues [unrelated to antisemitism].”  

The commitment, announced Wednesday, marks an alternative approach to the community’s fight against rising antisemitism, which has traditionally focused on legacy organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federations of North America that have historically been at the forefront of combating antisemitism. The spokesperson told JI that the commitment “supports organizations on the frontlines standing against antisemitism and other forms of hate — not by challenging another organization.”

JCPA, one of the grantees, is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — the umbrella organization of mainstream American Jewish groups. “JCPA is​ a legacy Jewish organization [that] already collaborates with other legacy Jewish organizations, including on campus and broader education-related issues,” the group’s CEO, Amy Spitalnick, told JI. 

“No grantee of any foundation agrees with every position of every other grantee,” said Spitalnick. “We’ve been a clear voice calling out antisemitism wherever it exists across the ideological spectrum and underscoring that our legitimate concerns should not be exploited to attack democratic norms and institutions, including university research funding.”

But other organizations selected, such as Nexus, are newer and use a more left-wing lens to combat antisemitism than the approach taken by the largest Jewish organizations. Nexus released the Nexus Document to challenge the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, specifically arguing that double standards targeting Israel are not inherently antisemitic. The IHRA definition is largely embraced among mainstream Jewish organizations. 

Nexus also faced backlash after it defended a recent New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof that alleged widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security forces. The Israel Foreign Ministry and AJC called the column a “blood libel.”  

Nexus wrote on Tuesday that “Kristof’s article is a challenging and important read. It takes courage and care to expose sexual violence” and accused Israel of “weaponiz[ing] the term ‘blood libel’ to dismiss Kristof’s thorough reporting.” 

Other recipients of the foundation’s funding include Jewish Social Justice Roundtable — a coalition of 60+ progressive member and partner organizations focused on humanitarian and social justice — and Bend the Arc, a national progressive Jewish group, which offers a guide and trainings focused on dismantling antisemitism, focused primarily on right-wing antisemitism. 

Open Society’s commitment comes amid broader conversations in the Jewish world about the efficacy of legacy Jewish institutions’ efforts to combat antisemitism. In February, at Manhattan’s 92Y, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens called to “dismantle the Anti-Defamation League,” arguing Jewish philanthropy’s allocation of funds to fight antisemitism were “mostly wasted.”

Recent moves by the ADL, including their creation of a “Mamdani monitor” after the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the organization’s initial collaboration with the second Trump administration, have raised the ire of left wing Jewish groups.

An OSF spokesperson told JI that organizations were selected based upon ones “we knew were doing great work in this space, which is certainly already underway.”

“Some of these organizations have been on our radar for a long time; either we had a relationship with them or we had been aware of their work for a while,” the spokesperson said.  

A left-wing group aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and fiercely critical of Israel has backed Assemblymember Alex Bores in the race to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in a heavily Jewish Manhattan district.

Our Revolution, an advocacy group spun off Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, endorsed Bores on Wednesday, news first reported by Politico and subsequently shared on both Bores’ and Our Revolution’s social media pages. Following Sanders, Our Revolution has aligned with student anti-Israel protesters and advocated against military aid to the Jewish state.

The group’s endorsement of Bores emphasized his signature issue: regulating artificial intelligence.

“While billionaire-backed tech interests spend millions trying to block oversight and accountability, Alex is actually taking them on,” Our Revolution wrote on X. “He’s leading the fight for some of the strongest AI regulations in the country and is running on taking on corporate power, political corruption, and concentrated wealth — not empty personality politics.”

AI firms have poured massive sums into opposing Bores, a former employee of Palantir whose wife works in the AI division of Microsoft. 

Nadler’s district is heavily Democratic and liberal, but many of its synagogues and social organizations have strong ties to Israel, and particularly to Labor Zionism. Far-left activist Cameron Kasky, who has put criticism of Israel at the center of his online persona, dropped out of the race for the congressional seat after failing to gain traction.

As a result, a left-wing lane in the race has opened up, and observers suggested Bores has sought to shift into it. However, influencer and Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg — who has led in most polls to date — has taken a harder line on Israel than Bores. 

At a candidate forum Wednesday night at Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Schlossberg endorsed Sanders’ effort to limit further U.S. military assistance to the country. Candidates George Conway and Micah Lasher both said they oppose halting military aid. Bores was slated to appear at the forum, but withdrew the day prior, citing a schedule conflict in Washington.

While Bores has not commented directly on Sanders’ measure, he said in a questionnaire for the Working Families Party about another legislative effort to condition arms sales to Israel, “I think the strategy of determining foreign policy through legislation that targets individual countries has overall not been beneficial for achieving universal rights. If changes of US aid policy are needed, it should be through broad pieces of legislation that tighten our requirements around governmental aid to all countries.”

Antisemitism is rising on the American right, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned on Tuesday, expressing concern that efforts to combat it are not doing so quickly or effectively enough. 

“I want us to be winning, but I’m not sure it is accurate as a descriptive manner that we are winning right now,” Cruz said at an antisemitism symposium in Washington organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition and the National Review. 

Cruz has emerged in recent months as one of the Republican Party’s most vocal critics of right-wing antisemitism. He has targeted influential commentator Tucker Carlson and his strain of isolationist, anti-Israel politics that has in recent months crossed over into overt antisemitism, though Cruz has bemoaned other Republicans’ wariness to criticize Carlson by name. 

At the RJC event, Cruz called Carlson “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country.”

But he said that not enough of his colleagues and allies on the right are aware of the extent of the problem. 

“I don’t want to wake up in five years and find myself in a country where both major political parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic, and I think that is a real possibility. If Tucker and his minions prevail, that will happen,” Cruz argued. 

Cruz expressed fear that this attitude is not just present but popular among young people on the right, as evidenced by two viral Turning Point USA events last fall where students at Auburn and Ole Miss cheered after deeply anti-Israel questions were asked.  

“I worry about the 19-year-olds who say, ‘Oh, that’s what our team believes. That’s who we are.’ Let’s be clear, if you are a young, ambitious Democrat, it is obvious what you should do. You should be viciously anti-Israel,” said Cruz. 

He applauded the people who came out to the Museum of the Bible on Tuesday to discuss antisemitism but pointed out that their concern does not reflect how the rest of the country thinks about the issue.

“The fact that this room is persuaded does not mean that the college campus is. It does not mean that the Capitol Hill interns are. It does not mean that the interns at Heritage, at [Conservative Partnership Institute] and every other conservative institution in this country, that they’re persuaded,” said Cruz. “We need to fight and engage it and take on the core premises, because if we lose the next generation, we lose the country.” 

Cruz posited that Carlson and other anti-Israel influencers are being paid by foreign nations like Qatar, China and Russia, though he acknowledged that he lacks proof for that theory. 

“I don’t believe all of these voices who have suddenly discovered that Israel is the source of all evil, that everything bad in the world was done by the Jews, that America is controlled by the Jews and that radical Islamic terrorists are really nice, wonderful people — I don’t think these people just arrived on this view organically and magically,” said Cruz. 

“I think many of these influencers are cashing a check,” he added. “The people in this room could do an enormous service by documenting that. I don’t have the evidence right now to prove it, but Occam’s razor: the simplest explanation is usually the right one.” 

Brandon Herrera, a social media influencer and far-right Republican congressional candidate, moved significantly closer to Congress on Thursday as his Republican opponent, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), dropped out of the race, making Herrera the presumptive GOP nominee in a deeply conservative district.

Herrera has called for the U.S. to end aid to Israel and faced criticism for videos in which he included imagery, music and jokes related to the Holocaust.

Gonzales has been under scrutiny amid growing allegations that he pressured an aide, who later died by suicide, into a sexual relationship with him, a violation of House ethics rules. Both were married with children at the time.

The House Ethics Committee announced an investigation into Gonzales this week, and Gonzales admitted to the relationship for the first time on Wednesday, after previously denying it, though he claimed it had played no role in her death.

Amid mounting pressure, the embattled congressman said in a statement Thursday night that he would leave the race “after deep reflection and with the support of my loving family,” though he said he would serve out the remainder of his term.

Gonzales’ withdrawal came after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) said in a joint statement on Thursday afternoon that they had asked him to withdraw from the race, which had been to a runoff in May.

National Republican Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) echoed the call for Gonzales to drop out.

“I would like to thank Speaker Johnson and House leadership for holding Congressman Tony Gonzales accountable for actions that have tarnished the office,” Herrera said in response to Gonzalez’s announcement. “I’m looking forward to representing the district the way the people of West Texas have always deserved.”

Gonzales finished second in Tuesday’s four-way Republican primary in Texas’ 23rd Congressional district, advancing to a head-to-head runoff against Herrera. Herrera, who lost by just a few hundred votes to Gonzales in 2024, picked up 43% of the primary vote to Gonzales’ 42%.

Herrera faced a barrage of attacks and criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel groups in the 2024 race over his stance on Israel and social media videos, but those groups — including the Republican Jewish Coalition and AIPAC’s United Democracy Project — have not intervened against him in this election.

Herrera was also a member of a neoconfederate group.

The Cook Political Report rates the district as “Solid Republican,” but Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas Republican strategist, said in mid-February as the Gonzales scandal gained more attention that Democrats could see the race as winnable with Herrera as the GOP nominee in a potential Democratic wave cycle.

The House Majority PAC, a super PAC tied to House Democratic leadership, has already seized on Herrera’s anticipated nomination highlighting some of his controversial past videos.

Democrats nominated attorney and educator Katy Padilla Stout in their primary this week.

This article was updated to reflect Gonzales’ withdrawal from the race.

The left-wing philanthropist Alex Soros on Monday boosted a social media post from Max Blumenthal, a prominent anti-Israel conspiracy theorist who has spread misinformation questioning Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, while promoting sympathetic coverage of Iran and Russia as well as the toppled Assad regime in Syria, among other authoritarian countries.

While the content of Blumenthal’s X post was relatively benign, citing a Washington Post report on concerns over American military casualties in the ongoing Iran war, Soros’ decision to elevate a known conspiracy theorist raises questions about the media sources he consumes, as he now leads a multi-billion-dollar grantmaking network that has funded a range of groups and causes shaping views on the Middle East.

Soros, one of the progressive movement’s most influential donors, has been outspoken against President Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to attack Iran in a joint operation with Israel, praising Spain for refusing to allow the U.S. to use bases on its soil and reprimanding other European countries for not doing the same. 

“Why aren’t more Europeans standing up to an illegal war! Same with Canada! They make nice speeches at conferences, but do little,” Soros wrote on X on Monday, saying Spain is “becoming the leader of the free world.”

The Open Society Foundations, which Soros, 40, inherited in 2023 from his father, the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, recently contributed $250,000 to establish a Middle East desk at Drop Site News, a media outlet that frequently publishes hostile coverage of Israel and credulous interviews with Hamas leaders. Drop Site has also amplified Blumenthal’s commentary.

Blumenthal, for his part, has spread false claims about the Hamas attacks — denying widespread evidence of sexual violence and suggesting Israel killed most of the victims during the massacre. He has pushed propaganda denying Syrian war crimes and China’s genocide of its Uyghur population. He regularly promotes pro-Kremlin talking points and appears on Russian television. A top editor for The Grayzone, his website, has received payments from Iranian media, according to The Washington Post.

After this story was published, a spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations told Jewish Insider that Soros had been unaware of Blumenthal’s background when he shared the post and was trying to highlight the Post’s reporting. He has since deleted the message from his X profile and shared a separate link to the same article.

A fact sheet posted to the Open Society website explicitly states the network does “not support Hamas,” saying “false accusations that are being repeated in some media circles in the United States” are “untrue.”

In January 2024, Soros, who is Jewish, wrote in an essay on his efforts to counter antisemitism that Open Society “has supported a diverse group of partners” with “different views on Israel and Palestine and what the peaceful resolution of the historic conflict might look like.”

“Their common bond: their belief that antisemitism — and also the disingenuous weaponization of the term to silence debate — presents a grave threat to democracy,” he added.

In addition to J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group that is among the network’s top Middle East-related recipients, Open Society has given to organizations that have backed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, according to NGO Monitor. 

More recently, Soros has voiced support for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a vocal critic of Israel who has long endorsed BDS campaigns.

Blumenthal, meanwhile, has also previously aimed his conspiratorial eye at Soros himself, claiming in a social media post shortly after the 2024 presidential election that the philanthropist “might have been an X factor in Trump’s victory.”

Story updated on March 4 at 9:55 a.m.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) upped the ante on his recent rhetoric targeting right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson, telling a gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington that calling out antisemitism from Carlson and his Republican allies is necessary to defend American values. He said America faces an “existential crisis” if the rising antisemitism on the American right is not addressed.

“I do not want to wake up in five years and find that the Republican Party has become like the Democrat Party,” Cruz said on Tuesday at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, which brought together 2,000 philanthropists, activists and Jewish communal professionals. “I do not want to wake up in five years and find that both major parties in America have embraced hatred of Israel and have tolerated, if not embraced, antisemitism.”

The conservative movement has faced internal division and tensions since Carlson hosted neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes on his podcast last month. 

By digging in on his campaign against Carlson, Cruz further separated himself from President Donald Trump, who on Sunday night offered praise for the former Fox News host when he was asked about Carlson’s decision to do a friendly interview with Fuentes. 

“He said good things about me over the years. I think he’s good,” Trump said. “You can’t tell him who to interview.” 

Cruz, meanwhile, has gone after Carlson in increasingly sharp messages, after having his own heated interview with the podcaster in June — including at the recent Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas, then at a Federalist Society conference in Washington and now at the GA. 

In his latest speech, he did more than calling out Carlson and his Republican enablers. He made the case that countering Carlson’s influence is necessary for the future of America.

“That is a poison that not only does damage to Israel. That is a poison that does damage to America,” Cruz said. “And if we’re going to stop it, we’re going to stop it because we stand up and say, ‘No, this is not who we are. This is not what we believe. This is not what the Constitution and the Declaration [of Independence] were all about. This is not what America was all about.’”

At the GA, Cruz was addressing a friendly audience who had spent two days immersed in programming about antisemitism in America. But he warned that many people are not fully grasping the scope of the problem. He described a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this year where, he said, Netanyahu tried to push back on the idea that right-wing antisemitism was a threat. 

“I’ll tell you, he actually was a little dismissive of that. He said, ‘No, no, no, that’s Qatar, that’s Iran, that’s bots,’” Cruz said. “My response: ‘Mr. Prime Minister, yes, but no. Yes, that’s happening. Yes, there are millions of dollars being spent to spread this poison. Yes, that’s happening online. But it is real and organic.’”

The misunderstanding, Cruz said, also exists in the Christian world.

“My message to the Christians is, this poison is spreading. There are pastors who love Israel, who think all is fine,” Cruz said. “My message to them is, ‘Go and talk to the teenagers in your congregation. Go and talk to the 20-somethings in your congregation, because they’re picking up their phone and they’re watching Tiktok and they’re watching Instagram, and they’re hearing this message being driven, and it is resonating.’”

The answer, Cruz said, is for other public officials — Republicans in particular — to speak out. But what’s at stake, he argued, is more than just their party or the Jewish community. He made the case that they must do so for the good of America. 

“My hope is that we see other Republicans willing to stand up, willing to stand up and to be clear, willing to draw a line,” he said. “This is a fight worth fighting. Saving America is worth fighting. Bringing us back to our founding principles — that is worth fighting.” 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized Republicans who refuse to disavow prominent antisemites in the conservative movement as “cowards” after the Heritage Foundation and its president, Kevin Roberts, defended Tucker Carlson and his friendly interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes. 

Cruz warned during a half hour address at the opening of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit in Las Vegas on Thursday evening that young Christians were turning away from supporting Israel, something he argued was the result of pro-Israel Christians being maligned by leading voices in the America First movement. 

The Texas Republican senator did not mention the Heritage Foundation, Roberts, Carlson or Fuentes by name, though he accused anyone who uncritically promotes Adolf Hitler of being “complicit” in spreading virulent antisemitism.

Fuentes has praised Hitler on multiple occasions; in his statement, Roberts said he “disagree[s] with” some of Fuentes’ views, “but canceling him is not the answer.” 

“The last year, we’ve seen three prominent people on the right publicly muse, ‘Gosh, maybe Hitler’s not all that bad.’ No. He is the embodiment of evil, a grotesque bigot. And if you’re confused by that, you’re an imbecile,” Cruz said on Thursday. “Too many people are scared to confront them. I want to ask you, how many elected Republicans do you see standing up and calling this out? How many do you see willing to take on the voices in the anti-Israel right?”

“More than a few of my Republican officeholders are terrified of upsetting people with really big megaphones,” he explained.

Cruz warned that antisemitic ideas are spreading among young Americans through social media and argued that rising support for isolationism and the pro-Israel community’s failure to adequately explain the benefits of the U.S.-Israel relationship accounted for the broad ideological shifts on the issue — but he noted that there “is also a theological argument” being made on the Christian right against Jews. 

“We are seeing young Christians and young evangelicals turning against Israel, and they are being pitched lies,” Cruz said. “One particular lie is something called replacement theology, and replacement theology is a twisted view that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, that the promises in the Old Testament no longer apply and that Christians have replaced Jews. Now in my Bible, I believe every word of it is true, and I believe every promise that God made to the people of Israel remains a promise that is made to the chosen people.”

After noting that he was “proud to be a Christian Zionist,” Cruz noted Carlson’s recent comments expressing his disdain for people who identify as such while appearing to note his protected status in the Trump administration. Carlson attacked Cruz and other pro-Israel conservatives, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, by name in his podcast conversation with Fuentes, where Carlson claimed that those who identify as Christian Zionists have been infected by a “brain virus.”

“There are some people who are embraced at the highest level of government who said there is no one they hate more than Christian Zionists,” Cruz said. “Well, I’ll tell you what, there’s no one I hate more than communists and jihadists who want to murder us. Now is the time for choosing. Now is the time for courage.”

“If you sit there and nod adoringly while someone tells you that Winston Churchill was the villain of World War II, if you sit there and nod while someone says, ‘Well, there’s a very good argument that America should have intervened on behalf of Nazi Germany in World War II.’ If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing, then you are a coward, and you are complicit in that evil,” he added.

Omri Ceren, Cruz’s legislative director and longtime advisor, criticized Heritage directly in a post on X on Friday morning, writing that: “I mean, if Republican Jews don’t have a place at @Heritage that’s a choice its current leadership is institutionally empowered to make, but it sits uncomfortably with the organization’s history.”

Cruz’s comments were met with praise from Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special antisemitism envoy during the Biden administration, who posted a message on X commending the Texas Republican.

Right-wing political commentator Tucker Carlson, who has hosted Holocaust deniers and antisemitic influencers on his podcast, used his address at the memorial for conservative influencer Charlie Kirk in Arizona on Sunday to compare Kirk’s assassination to the killing of Jesus. 

The former Fox News host began his remarks to the more than 70,000 people in attendance at State Farm Stadium in Glendale by noting that the political engagement brought on by Kirk’s killing “actually reminds me of my favorite story ever,” before offering an account of how Jesus was killed in Jerusalem. While he never brought up the Jewish people by name, he made references to Jewish culture to suggest that he was referring to the antisemitic trope that Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus. 

“It’s about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem and Jesus shows up, and he starts talking about the people in power, and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do: just telling the truth about people, and they hate it, and they just go bonkers. They hate it, and they become obsessed with making him stop. ‘This guy’s got to stop talking. We’ve got to shut this guy up,’” Carlson said.

“I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamp-lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about, ‘What do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? We must make him stop talking.’ There’s always one guy with the bright idea, and I can just hear him say, ‘I’ve got an idea. Let me just kill him. That’ll shut him up, that’ll fix the problem.’ It doesn’t work that way,” he continued.

Carlson, who spoke for just under six minutes, then quoted the beatitude from Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” He connected the passage to Kirk’s political message, making the argument that the slain conservative activist “was bringing the gospel to the country. He was doing the thing that the people in charge hate most, which is calling for them to repent.”

“How is Charlie’s message different? Charlie was a political person who was deeply interested in coalition building and getting the right people in office, because he knew that vast improvements are possible politically, but he also knew that politics is not the final answer. It can’t answer the deepest questions, actually, that the only real solution is Jesus,” Carlson said. “Politics at its core is a process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity, the gospel message, the message of Jesus, begins with repentance.”

Carlson went on to praise Kirk for not having “hate in his heart” and being able to “forgive other people” by following “a call to change our hearts from Jesus,” before acknowledging his own shortcomings.

“Charlie was fearless at all times, truly fearless. To his last moment, he was unafraid. He was not defensive, and there was no hate in his heart. I know that because I’ve got a little hate compartment in my heart, and I would often express that surely about various people,” Carlson said. “He would always say, ‘That’s a sad person, that’s a broken person, that’s a person who needs help, that’s a person who needs Jesus’. He said that in private, because he meant it.” 

A new poll commissioned by a left-wing advocacy group is raising hopes among progressive activists eager to enlist a challenger to take on Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Democrat whose House district leans heavily to the left, in next year’s June primary election.

The poll, released this week by Demand Progress Action, shows Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, leading by 19 points in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with Goldman, who wins just 33% of the vote. Lander, who served as a longtime city councilman in the district, claims 52% among likely Democratic primary voters, while also boasting a higher favorability rating, according to the poll.

While the survey was meant to coax Lander into entering the primary, it remains unclear if he has the appetite to compete in what would likely be a bitter race for the seat covering Lower Manhattan and a swath of Brooklyn, including such progressive enclaves as Park Slope.

Lander, a well-known progressive who has not explicitly ruled out a congressional bid after losing in the New York City mayoral primary, is more widely expected to accept a senior role in a potential administration of Zohran Mamdani, the far-left Democratic nominee for mayor whose upset in June lent renewed energy to progressive activists who have eyed challenges to several mainstream House Democrats in New York City.

Still, Lander had been looking at Goldman’s seat since before the primary concluded, according to a political consultant familiar with the situation, who suggested the city comptroller could be “serious” about a campaign.

Lander’s team, several members of which have joined Mamdani’s campaign, has also reportedly clashed with the nominee’s aides, fueling speculation about his prospects for securing a position in a potential future administration. A person familiar with some of the internal tensions said broadly that they stem in part from a lingering Brooklyn political dispute involving Lander and grudgingly recalled by some close aides to Mamdani.

“I think that Lander can beat Goldman, but I thought that even before the poll came out,” said a political consultant who worked to elect Goldman during his first primary in 2022, when the former Trump impeachment prosecutor beat a crowded field of progressives to clinch the nomination with a plurality of the vote.

A spokesperson for Lander did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider on his plans for a challenge. His team has otherwise said that “there is no drama between Brad and Zohran or their ‘camps.’”

If Lander chooses to run for the seat held by Goldman, a two-term Jewish Democrat whose strong support for Israel and refusal to endorse Mamdani have sparked backlash among left-wing voters, he would be a formidable candidate, experts say, citing his widespread popularity in a district he has long called home.

“I think that Lander can beat Goldman, but I thought that even before the poll came out,” said a political consultant who worked to elect Goldman during his first primary in 2022, when the former Trump impeachment prosecutor beat a crowded field of progressives to clinch the nomination with a plurality of the vote.

The potential matchup would also set up a unique primary between two Jewish Democrats who both identify as Zionists but have differing approaches to what that label means, particularly in the aftermath of Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Goldman, for his part, has continued to back U.S. military aid to Israel, even as he recently said the “crisis in Gaza shocks the conscience” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “personal and political interests are guiding Israel’s actions, rather than what is best for” the Jewish state.

The 49-year-old lawmaker has also withheld an endorsement of Mamdani until he takes “concrete steps” to address concerns raised by Jewish voters over his anti-Israel rhetoric, including his refusal to explicitly condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” a phrase many Jews view as antisemitic. Mamdani has said he does not use the slogan and that he will discourage its usage.

Goldman’s largely left-leaning House seat “is probably one of the biggest changes in terms of pro-Israel to not pro-Israel districts in the city,” said Chris Coffey, a veteran Democratic strategist who lives in the district and helped advise former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid during the primary.

Lander, who has long identified as a progressive Zionist, is a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza and has called for pulling aid to Israel. The 56-year-old comptroller has faced criticism from the organized Jewish community for divesting from Israel bonds while in office, though he has said the decision was not political. Lander was a key Jewish validator for Mamdani in the primary, cross-endorsing with the 33-year-old democratic socialist and assemblyman from Queens. Mamdani won Goldman’s district in June.

Speaking at a Jews for Racial and Economic Justice event earlier this week, Lander said he had not done enough “to speak out against Israel’s war crimes, against ethnic cleansing, against forced starvation of Palestinians.”

Chris Coffey, a veteran Democratic strategist who lives in the district and helped advise former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid during the primary, said that Goldman is not likely to find himself in a vulnerable position unless Lander chooses to run, an outcome he does not anticipate with Mamdani well poised to win the general election.

Still, Goldman is now in a “precarious place,” Coffey told JI, “where he’s a pro-Israel Democrat in a time when it’s been harder to be a pro-Israel Democrat.”

Goldman’s largely left-leaning House seat “is probably one of the biggest changes in terms of pro-Israel to not pro-Israel districts in the city,” he added, noting the shift had occurred in recent years amid growing Democratic divisions over Israel and Gaza.

Some observers recently speculated that Goldman could switch districts and run for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-NY) seat further north in Manhattan, where he would likely face a more friendly electorate. But his team has dismissed that idea as unfounded and said Goldman had no plans to run for another seat.   

“Dan Goldman isn’t a moderate, he’s definitely left of center,” said the political consultant close to Goldman, who is now working on a super PAC to oppose Mamdani. “Brad may win because of his name ID and reputation but any other opponent would likely lose.”

The poll released on Wednesday underscored that view, showing that Goldman would win with 41% of the vote against an unnamed Democratic candidate. His lead evaporated after the poll had, among other things, linked him to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which had quietly funded a local super PAC three years ago to help boost his first primary bid.

AIPAC, whose political arm endorsed Goldman in February, did not return a request for comment on a potential primary.

“Dan is laser-focused on rooting out government corruption, defending our democracy from Donald Trump and leveling the playing field for all New Yorkers.” Simone Kanter, a senior advisor to Goldman, told JI. “Anyone who would like to throw their hat in the ring is more than welcome to.”

David Greenfield, a former city councilman who leads the Jewish anti-poverty group Met Council, said the results of the poll were unsurprising, even as he dismissed the survey for posing a “misleading” question. “Everyone knows Brad is not running for Congress,” he told JI, “because he’s slated to join a Zohran Mamdani administration.”

It was unclear if the poll had surveyed respondents about other potential candidates. Demand Progress Action did not return requests for comment, nor did Data for Progress, a progressive firm that conducted the poll.

Simone Kanter, a senior advisor to Goldman, told JI the congressman’s team is “not paying any attention to agenda-driven push polls.”

“Dan is laser-focused on rooting out government corruption, defending our democracy from Donald Trump and leveling the playing field for all New Yorkers.” Kanter said on Thursday. “Anyone who would like to throw their hat in the ring is more than welcome to.”

While a competitive primary would likely attract spending from outside groups, Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune whose estimated net worth is up to $250 million, could also self-fund his bid as he did in 2022 — when he prevailed with 26% of the vote in a crowded field of well-known politicians. 

Yuh-Line Niou, a former state assemblywoman who came in second in 2022 with 24%, has said privately she plans to run again and has been making calls to feel out support, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Niou, an outspoken progressive who faced backlash in the last race for backing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, declined to comment on the record when reached this week by JI. 

Goldman is also likely to face a repeat challenger from his 2024 primary, Evan Hutchison, who won 24% of the vote last cycle and has recently sent out fundraising texts saying that the incumbent “won’t condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” But strategists said they do not see his campaign as a serious threat to Goldman, who claimed 66% in his last primary.

President Donald Trump came into office with a promise to make tackling antisemitism a priority of his second term. So far, the focus of that effort has been almost exclusively on addressing left-wing and Islamist antisemitism, primarily tied to anti-Israel extremism — while leaving out antisemitism emerging from the political right. 

Now, a group of staunch Trump allies from within the evangelical Christian community is urging Republicans to also focus on countering what they describe as a growing threat of antisemitism from within their own camp. They see prominent MAGA-aligned figures such as podcast hosts Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens platforming overtly antisemitic views, and worry that those voices — with massive social media followings — could play a role in shaping the direction of the Republican Party.

Last month, an organization called the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel hosted a meeting to discuss the topic at the Family Research Council, a powerful Christian advocacy group. Billed as a “private roundtable for key Christian leaders,” according to the event invitation, it identified right-wing antisemitism as a high-stakes challenge: “It is vital that Christian leaders counter the forces on the right who are demonizing the state of Israel, its leadership and the Jewish people,” stated the invitation, which was obtained by Jewish Insider. 

“We’ve been very concerned about the progressive leftist [antisemitism],” Mario Bramnick, a pastor in South Florida who is the president of the Latino Coalition for Israel, told JI on Tuesday. He is also the founder of the Christian Conference, and he organized last month’s event with Luke Moon, the executive director of the Philos Project. “But some of the statements coming out on the right, to me, are possibly more brazen and more troubling and clearly, clearly, do not represent President Trump or his administration,” added Bramnick. 

The meeting was attended by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, Trump’s nominee to serve as the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, as well as Mark Walker, a former congressman from North Carolina who is Trump’s pick to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Yair Netanyahu, the eldest son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the group virtually.

“Antisemitism is a bipartisan issue and needs to be condemned anytime, anyplace,” Kaploun told JI. “It is imperative that all parties educate their members about  the  dangers of antisemitism.”

The Christian group is concerned about a small but growing anti-Israel faction within the Republican Party. In a press release on Tuesday, Bramnick called out Carlson and Owens, as well as two figures who remain close to Trump: Steve Bannon and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). A Trump administration spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

“It’s almost like we have more of an onus to handle this, because it’s our own camp, our own family. Imagine something goes wrong with someone in your family, you feel more of an obligation,” Bramnick told JI. “Who better than us to be able to handle it?”

Bramnick met last week with Justice Department senior counsel Leo Terrell, the chair of the federal government’s antisemitism task force, to raise the issue of antisemitism on the right. 

“They are clearly on this and following it, from my understanding, and wanting to work with us,” Bramnick said. A spokesperson for Terrell did not respond to a request for comment.

The Conference of Christian Presidents has ties to influential conservative groups in Washington. Hours after the meeting at the Family Research Council, the Conference co-hosted an event on the Trump administration’s policies in the Middle East with the Heritage Foundation. The event featured video remarks from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and a keynote speech by evangelical leader Rev. Johnnie Moore, executive chair of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 

Last year, the Heritage Foundation released a policy document focused on antisemitism, called Project Esther, which identified left-wing antisemitism as the main form of antisemitism in the U.S., without mentioning any issues on the right. An inquiry to the authors of the Project Esther report did not garner a response. 

Christians United for Israel, the largest Christian pro-Israel group with more than 10 million members, is not part of the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel. But Sandra Hagee Parker, chair of the CUFI Action Fund, told JI that the organization agrees with the need to combat antisemitism on the right.

“One cannot be a Christian and antisemitic. The two are mutually exclusive,” Parker said in a statement. “Just as liberals must condemn those who use human rights as cover for their Jew-hatred, conservatives must call out those who drape themselves in the flag or the banner of the cross while bastardizing the former and defiling the latter.”  

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks said antisemitism is “percolating out there at the extreme ends of the far right, well outside of the mainstream of the Republican Party.” 

“I don’t know that it’s growing. It’s gotten a little louder,” he told JI. “Our challenge and our effort going forward is to ensure that it doesn’t take hold in the Republican Party as it did in the Democratic Party.”

Based on the latest wave of Democratic primary results, it’s looking more likely that the hard-left “resistance” faction of the Democratic Party, which was muted in the aftermath of the 2024 election, is reasserting itself in a consequential way — especially in the deep-blue cities that make up much of the party’s voting base. 

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s come-from-behind victory in the New York City mayor’s primary was a major wake-up-call for party leadership. His success came after a surge of progressive discontent with the Democratic establishment, a sentiment fueled by the Trump administration’s aggressive (and at times, unlawful) deportation push, the imposition of tariffs and the general sense that party leaders in Washington weren’t doing everything they could to oppose President Donald Trump’s polarizing policies.

The reason the Democratic Party brand is polling at historic lows is because a sizable share of younger, progressive voters are expressing their discontent with their own party leadership — even as most still plan to vote Democratic in a general election. We’re seeing the growth of the left-wing faction within the party, in real time. 

The fact that Mamdani’s radical views on the economy, crime and antisemitism did little to dissuade a critical mass of rank-and-file Democrats is a sign of the changing mood of the party. 

That same dynamic that drove New York City Democrats was apparent in the first round of results in Seattle’s local primaries Tuesday night. 

In the early returns from the city’s all-party primary, moderate incumbents — serving as mayor, city attorney and council president — were all trailing left-wing challengers. The moderate city officials were elected in 2021, largely as a backlash to the crime, homelessness and disorder in the city under progressive leaders. 

In the most high-profile race, Mayor Bruce Harrell is trailing progressive activist Katie Wilson, 46-45%. “Wilson’s campaign generated new excitement when Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, won the mayoral primary in New York City in June,” Seattle’s NPR affiliate reported. 

In Washington, the primary results aren’t determinative; the top two vote-getters compete against each other in the general election. But they suggest moderates will be facing an uphill battle against left-wing insurgents.

The same dynamic is at play in Minneapolis, where conventionally liberal Mayor Jacob Frey decisively lost the Democratic Party endorsement to a democratic socialist state senator, Omar Fateh. 

Frey still can win reelection in November, when all candidates appear on the general election ballot regardless of party, but the rebuke from the Democratic delegates is another sign that the party is facing a revolt from its left-wing activists.

Right now, this looks more like the party of Bernie Sanders, Mamdani and AOC. Those are the candidates that are energizing the grassroots and driving social media engagement— especially when it comes to the party’s urban voters. 

These results send a strong signal that the Democratic Party vibes have shifted. In the first few months of Trump’s second term, party leaders were desperately trying to distance themselves from the ideological baggage of the left. More recently, they’re coming to terms with the possibility that the left is taking over the party.