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Good Tuesday morning. 

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to senators about how Israel and the U.S. should respond to the recent ballistic missile strike on Ben Gurion Airport, and interview Illinois state Sen. Laura Fine about her newly announced bid for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Jan Schakowsky. We also report on Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s prediction that other Arab countries will soon join the Abraham Accords, and talk to an Atlanta-area surgeon who is suing anti-Israel groups for defamation over their attacks over his volunteer IDF service. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Marc Rowan, Gal Gadot and Michigan AG Dana Nessel.

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Even as deep ideological divisions within the Democratic Party persist, pro-Israel Democrats are growing bullish about their recruiting class of congressional candidates in key Senate and House races — as groups anticipate contested primaries against their favored frontrunners, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes. 

In three key Senate battleground races, the emergence of mainstream Democratic members of Congress with lengthy records supporting Israel — Reps. Haley Stevens (D-MI), Angie Craig (D-MN) and Chris Pappas (D-NH) — is a sign that for all the energy of the progressive left, traditional Democrats are still more reflective of their party’s overall electorate. 

While the lawmakers start their campaigns with advantages, several face the prospect of competitive primary challenges coming from their left. 

In Michigan, Stevens has emerged as one of the most outspoken backers of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, boasts close connections to Jewish community leaders and already has ousted an Israel critic (former Rep. Andy Levin) in her young political career. She starts out the Senate race with a healthy $1.6 million cash on hand, according to first quarter FEC filings.

Stevens, however, is facing candidates courting the progressive base: State Sen. Mallory McMorrow became nationally known for her abortion rights activism, and launched her campaign by calling for a younger Senate leader to replace Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). McMorrow, whose husband is Jewish, has also met with Jewish leaders to assure them of her pro-Israel bona fides.

The Michigan candidate courting anti-Israel elements of the electorate is former Michigan health official Abdul El-Sayed, who has run unsuccessfully for statewide office before. Former Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate, a former NFL player, is also seriously considering a run.

Many Jewish Democrats view Stevens as an ally in the same light as pro-Israel stalwarts like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) or Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) — as someone principled and unafraid to speak out against antisemitism and anti-Israel extremism. Her candidacy will serve as an early bellwether for how much room there is for such moderate voices in today’s Democratic Party.

In Minnesota, Craig is another Israel ally looking as the early favorite in the Democratic primary against the state’s progressive lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan. Craig has been willing to speak out against anti-Israel Democratic colleagues amid Middle East policy disagreements; Flanagan is more closely aligned with J Street.

And in New Hampshire, Pappas is looking like the clear favorite for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). A swing-district moderate, Pappas has generally held a more pro-Israel record than his Democratic colleagues in the state. 

Outside the battlegrounds, Illinois’ wide-open Senate primary to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) could potentially feature divisions over Middle East policy. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Robin Kelly (D-IL), both potential candidates, are listed on the AIPAC political portal for favored candidates, while Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), another possible contender, is not. 

There are also developing House race skirmishes over Israel. As JI’s Matthew Kassel scooped today, state Sen. Laura Fine announced her candidacy to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in a district with a significant Jewish constituency. Fine, who is running on a pro-Israel platform, is expected to face a challenge from Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who drew controversy in 2017 for initially tapping (and later dropping) an anti-Israel, DSA-affiliated running mate for his gubernatorial campaign. 

Levin, the former Michigan congressman who has been critical of Israel, is also exploring a political comeback in two of the open House seats in the Detroit suburbs. If he runs in Stevens’ House seat, he could face state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who is one of the strongest allies of the Jewish community in the Michigan state legislature.

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Senate Republicans predicted a continued escalation of U.S. and Israeli attacks on the Houthis following the group’s ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport over the weekend, which American and Israeli air defenses failed to intercept. The U.S. has been carrying out, and has pledged to continue, a heavy bombardment of the Iranian-backed Yemeni group for weeks. Though the pace of the Houthis’ onslaught has slowed, its continued attacks on Israel and repeated shoot-downs of U.S. drones have demonstrated that the group maintains significant capabilities. Israel launched its first direct attacks on Yemen in months on Monday, following the weekend strike, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.

GOP reactions: “It's pretty scary. I mean, it's scary that they were able to get through both the American defense and the Israeli defense. It's a dangerous place, and the only way this is gonna stop is when we start holding Iran accountable. This is not the Houthis, it's Iran, so until they get held accountable, it's not going to stop,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told JI. Other Republican senators shared Scott’s view that the Houthis are unlikely to cease their attacks and that Israel must respond militarily. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said, “I think the president needs to turn them into fish food.”

Kaine suggests listening to Houthi demands: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) described the Houthi strikes as “very troubling,” but said that the previous ceasefire agreements in Gaza had been the sole mechanism by which the U.S. had made any progress with stopping the Houthis. "The only thing that’s worked with the Houthis in the last couple years has been the ceasefire in Gaza, that’s it. When the ceasefire happened in November of ‘23, the short one, they ratcheted down and they ratcheted down during the last ceasefire that we just had that completed."

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).

STATE SEN. LAURA FINE/FACEBOOK

The next big intra-Democratic primary battle over Middle East policy is shaping up on the North Shore of Chicago in one of the most heavily Jewish House districts in the country, where longtime Jewish Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said on Monday that she would not seek reelection. Her widely anticipated retirement announcement had set off a behind-the-scenes scramble among several potential candidates eyeing the coveted open seat in Illinois’ deep blue 9th Congressional District, which includes part of Chicago and northern suburbs such as Evanston and Skokie, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Fine time to launch: The first major Democratic candidate to enter the race, Laura Fine, a Jewish state senator, launched her campaign on Tuesday morning and is emerging as a pro-Israel favorite in the developing primary, as she prepares to face several opponents who have been openly hostile to the longstanding U.S. alliance with Israel or drawn backlash from Jewish leaders over their approach to key issues involving Middle East policy. In an interview with JI on Monday, Fine touted her pro-Israel platform and described herself as a staunch defender of the Jewish state who has long been outspoken against rising antisemitism fueled by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Read the full interview here.

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Speaking at an event on Monday celebrating Israeli Independence Day, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff suggested that he expects additional countries will join the Abraham Accords in the coming year, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What he said: “We think [we] will have some, or a lot of announcements, very, very shortly, which we hope will yield great progress by next year,” Witkoff said of the prospects for additional normalization between Israel and Arab states, at an event organized by the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Read the full story here.

Elsewhere in Washington: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke at an event with the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition and pro-Israel Christian groups on Monday. Johnson pledged that the House will “continue to shed light on [college presidents’] failures and as long as I’m speaker of the House, the people’s House will continue to be a bulwark against antisemitism.” He also spoke about his visit to Columbia University’s encampment and his first trip to Israel. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and White House Faith Office Director Jenny Korn also addressed the group.

ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

An Atlanta Jewish surgeon who served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks is suing several anti-Israel groups after a medical student made defamatory accusations that the surgeon’s service aided and abetted a genocide in Gaza, rendering him unfit to provide medical care. The statements were circulated by major organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and National Students for Justice in Palestine. After Oct. 7, Dr. Josh Winer took leave as a physician and professor at Emory University School of Medicine to serve as a doctor in an IDF reconnaissance unit in Gaza, providing medical care to wounded soldiers. Upon returning to Emory, Winer “encountered hostility as a supporter of Israel,” he told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen.  

The accusations: Umaymah Mohammad, an Emory medical student, accused Winer of war crimes and genocide, according to the lawsuit. Her statements were initially made during a segment of “Democracy Now!,” a daily news program broadcast on the internet, television and radio. She repeated the statements in an op-ed, a podcast hosted by the International Union of Scientists and at a press conference. CAIR Georgia, CAIR National, Doctors Against Genocide Soceity, NSJP and Emory Students for Justice in Palestine — which are all named as defendants in the suit alongside Mohammad — published, reiterated and expanded upon Mohammad’s claims. Emory SJP, for instance, created social media posts that claimed Winer was a threat to students and patients of color. 

Read the full story here. 

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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, one of the most popular officials in the state, announced on Monday he will not challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) when he is up for reelection in 2026, dealing a blow to Senate Republicans, who were hoping his candidacy would have given Republicans an edge in a critical battleground, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Kemp said in a statement on Monday that he had “decided that being on the ballot next year is not the right decision for me and my family.”

What he said: Several Jewish Democratic leaders, disenchanted with anti-Israel elements of the Democratic Party, expressed an openness to backing Kemp over Ossoff, if the governor ran for the Senate. Ossoff’s vote last year to block military aid to Israel alienated many Jewish voters in the state, and the backlash led him to reject additional similar measures targeting the Jewish state when they came up for a vote last month. But Kemp’s decision not to run could help push skeptical Jewish Democrats and independents back toward Ossoff’s column, especially if the Democratic senator works more closely with the Jewish community in the state, which is strongly supportive of Israel.   

Read the full story here.

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Following online outrage from the right, the House canceled a planned vote on the IGO Anti-Boycott Act, legislation expanding current U.S. anti-boycott laws to include international organizations, despite broad bipartisan support for the legislation last year, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Growing pattern: The fallout is just one recent example of how actors on the political fringes have mobilized to stymie pro-Israel legislation and bills to combat antisemitism that otherwise enjoy bipartisan support — often by misrepresenting their aims and impacts — and have ammassed sufficient influence to upend that bipartisan consensus and scuttle the legislative process. Bipartisan support for identical legislation last year was so strong that it passed the House by a voice vote in February 2024, after being reported out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a 42-3 vote in late 2023. But this year, it’s meeting a very different reception following vocal criticism from far-right House members and conservative influencers that caught fire on X.

Read the full story here.

Hard Look at Harvard: The Atlantic’s Eliot Cohen weighs in on Harvard’s recently released report documenting antisemitism on the Cambridge campus. “The widespread harassment of Jews reported at Harvard reflects the attitudes of hundreds if not thousands of students, faculty, and staff—that last group is an often underappreciated element in indulging or even encouraging this behavior. It reflects the development of identity-driven politics, for which responsibility lies outside the university as well as within it. It has been fed by witch-hunting for ‘white privilege’ (no matter that there are plenty of Jews of color, as a walk down the streets of Tel Aviv will show you). It flourishes in the bogus specializations that have hived off from more traditional and all-embracing disciplines such as history, literature, and anthropology. It has been nurtured in research centers whose very existence is premised not on the quest for truth but on the pursuit of a political or ideological agenda.” [TheAtlantic]

Life in the Big Apple: In The New Yorker, actress Lena Dunham reflects on her childhood and life in New York before she made a transatlantic move to the U.K. “In the city, by contrast, my mother could pack ten or eleven separate excursions into a single day — or, conversely, spend hours wandering the floors of the discount department store Century 21, striking up endless conversations in the communal dressing room. … My mom and her sisters — Jewish girls at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Margarets, Hazels, and Tesses of the world — lived to move. I distinctly remember my mother repeating that ‘what I love about Manhattan is that if you really want to you can always get from one end to the other in twenty minutes.’ (This is not, strictly speaking, true, and I blame the remark for my lifelong inability to properly judge commute times.) My aunt Susan once said of my mother, ‘Laurie is a ‘from’ girl — the lox is from one place, the bagels from another, the flowers from someplace else.’ Knowing how to get the best out of the city — from discount Manolos to vintage buttons to a ten-dollar blow-dry — gives my mother the satisfaction of a chess grand master stumping her opponent with a series of unexpected moves. But being a 'from’ girl is about more than the provenance of goods; it’s about living at such high speeds that your inner life can never quite catch up to you.” [NewYorker]

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President Donald Trump is pushing Republican lawmakers to support the confirmation of Ed Martin, the administration’s nominee to be U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., who had previously praised a Nazi sympathizer…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo calling for a “minimum” 20% reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals on active military duty…

Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) received the distinguished statesmanship award from the Council of Jewish Organizations Flatbush at the group’s annual legislative breakfast over the weekend. Previous recipients include Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY)...

The House of Representatives passed the Solidify Iran Sanctions Act, extending indefinitely existing energy sanctions on Iran first passed in 1996, by a voice vote…

Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud al-Thani, the chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority and governor of the Qatar Central Bank, met on the sidelines of the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles with senior business executives including Steve Mnuchin, Peter Chernin and Howard Marks…

Speaking at Milken, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan backed the Trump administration’s tariff policy while cautioning that the economy could slow down if “damage” to the U.S. brand isn’t addressed…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company was dropping its plan to pivot to a for-profit structure… 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel withdrew all charges against seven University of Michigan students arrested last year for their role in anti-Israel protests on the campus; Nessel said the decision was made in part due to the “impropriety” of a letter sent by the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor defending her against allegations of bias…

The Trump administration proposed that Columbia University enter into a consent decree by which the government would have oversight over the school’s efforts to ensure viewpoint diversity and not factor race into admissions decisions; the consent decree was suggested as an alternative to a court battle between the government and the Ivy League school…

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy rescinded his offer to fund a trip to Auschwitz for at least one of two men involved in an incident in a Barstool bar in which an antisemitic sign was carried around the premises; Portnoy said one of the individuals, a student at Temple University, “did a 180” and absolved himself of responsibility for the incident…

New York’s City Park’s Foundation dropped singer Kehlani as a performer at an upcoming Pride concert in Central Park, following pushback, including from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), over Kehlani’s use of antisemitic and anti-Israel imagery and phrases in her performances and music videos…

Gal Gadot and Matthias Schoenaerts will star in the upcoming post-WWII thriller “Ruin,” about a Holocaust survivor and German soldier who partner to exact revenge on a Nazi unit…

If Hamas does not accept a ceasefire and hostage-release deal by the end of next week, Israel will launch “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” escalating the war in Gaza until Jerusalem attains its war aims, a senior Israeli defense source said on Monday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

The Daily Mail interviews Israeli singer Yuval Raphael, who survived the Oct. 7, 2023, attack at the Nova music festival by hiding under bodies in a bomb shelter, about her journey to the Eurovision Song Contest…

The IDF said that two Hamas commanders, including one who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks and held hostages, surrendered to Israeli troops in Rafah…

Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha received the Pulitzer Prize in commentary for his essays, published in The New Yorker, about life in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war…

Pope Francis, who died last week, had directed for the “popemobile” that transported him during a 2014 trip to the West Bank to be donated to a Catholic charity that operates in the Palestinian territories for use as a mobile children’s aid clinic in Gaza…

DMFI

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and documentarian Wendy Sachs speak at the Capitol Hill screening of “October 8,” which looks at the rise of antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Reps. Laura Gillen (D-NY) and Virginia Foxx (R-NC) were also in attendance.

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Conductor, pianist, clarinetist, and composer, he is currently music director of The Louisville Orchestra, Edward "Teddy" Paul Maxwell Abrams turns 38...

U.S. senator (R-AL) from 1987 until 2023, Richard Shelby turns 91... Senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, previously a Columbia law professor, a U.S. District Court judge and the State Department legal advisor, Abraham David Sofaer turns 87... Novelist, playwright and human rights activist, professor emeritus of Latin American studies at Duke University, Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman turns 83... Professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, she has been awarded 69 honorary degrees from around the world, Martha Nussbaum turns 78... Israeli theoretical physicist and astrophysicist, he is best known for his work on gamma-ray bursts and on numerical relativity, Tsvi Piran turns 76... Partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, she was the deputy attorney general of the U.S. in the Clinton administration, Jamie S. Gorelick turns 75... Former prime minister of the United Kingdom, he then served as the special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, Tony Blair turns 72... President emeritus of the Jerusalem College of Technology / Lev Academic Center, Noah Dana-Picard turns 71... Director of the Jewish studies program at Northeastern University, Lori Hope Lefkovitz turns 69... Co-founder of Boston-based HighVista Strategies following 23 years at Goldman Sachs, he is the former board chair of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Daniel Jick turns 68... Member of the Knesset for Likud between 2003 and 2006, Daniel Benlulu turns 67... President and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America, he was previously CEO of Hillel and a U.S. congressman, Eric David Fingerhut turns 66... Retired attorney and former member of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Sheri Goldberg... Los Angeles-based attorney and real estate entrepreneur, Daniel Todd Gryczman... Israel's minister of national security since 2025 and leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir turns 49... Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Shelly Tal Meron turns 46... Los Angeles-based television personality, actress, writer and video blogger, Shira Lazar turns 42... Partner at Amiti, an early-stage deep tech fund, Brachie Sprung... Founder at ALC Hospitality, Alyse Cohen... Senior principal at Alterra climate investment fund, Benjamin Levine... Partner at Courtside Ventures and advisor to the board of directors of the Atlanta Hawks, Oliver Ressler... Head of business development at Seam, she is a conservative commentator across many social media platforms, Arynne Wexler... Actor and singer, Noah Egidi Galvin turns 31...