Your Daily Phil: Diminishing support for Israel: A bipartisan issue
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we break down a new Quinnipiac poll showing a drop in support for Israelis among both Democrats and Republicans. We cover Van Jones’ speech at the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s 25th anniversary gala dinner last night, and report on a new push by the Orthodox Union to secure state funding for religious schools. We feature an opinion piece by Isabel Shech, Aliza Mazor and Jessica Balboni about “open-source innovation.” Also in this issue: Adele Raemer, Jay Tcath and Argentine President Javier Milei.
What We’re Watching
Argentine President Javier Milei is being presented with the Genesis Prize today at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance.
The Zionist Organization of America is holding its annual legislative lobbying day at the Capitol.
Ed. note: An earlier version of this newsletter included the incorrect date for the March on Washington for Jewish Civil Rights; it is scheduled for June 26.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
The American public’s support for Israelis continues to slip as its support for Palestinians is rising, according to a new Quinnipiac poll released yesterday, which found an all-time low level of “sympathies” for Israelis of 39% and an all-time high for Palestinians of 32%.
This is most apparent among Democrats, of whom 12% say their sympathies lie with Israelis, compared to 60% who said with Palestinians, and 29% said they did not know. For Democrats, though it has accelerated over the past year, this continues a long-running trend of diminishing support for Israel and rising sympathies for Palestinians.
But the drop in support for Israelis is perhaps more dramatic among Republicans. Though the majority of respondents, 64%, said that they support Israelis over Palestinians (compared to 7% who said the opposite), this represents an 18% drop from a year ago. In the latest poll, the share of those who said they did not know stood at 29% — an apparent all-time high level of uncertainty among Republicans. In a May 2024 Quinnipiac poll, support for Israelis stood at 78% and “did not know” was 16%; in November 2023, they were 80% and 12%, respectively; and in May 2021, they were 74% and 17%.
According to Chuck Freilich, a U.S.-born Israeli national security expert, both the drop in support for Israelis among Democrats and the growing ambivalence of Republicans are each causes for concern for the future of Israel, but taken together, they represent an even greater challenge. “The diminishing support for Israel generally and the growing isolationist wing in the Republican Party — these things have repercussions,” Freilich told eJP this morning, after the poll was released.
At these current levels of support, provided there is a Republican-led government in power in the U.S., the negative repercussions for Israel of this decreased support are limited, according to Freilich, a research fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies who lectures on political science in the U.S. and Israel. “But certainly if a Democratic government comes back in — and a Democratic presidency will eventually come back in — then it may have a dramatic effect,” he said. “Government policy can usually only differ from public sentiment for so long.”
Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security advisor, noted that in the near future, Israel and the United States will be negotiating a new “memorandum of understanding,” which will determine the level of military aid that Washington will provide over the next decade. The current MOU, which was signed in 2016 and went into effect in 2018, stands at $3.8 billion annually, making up a significant portion of Israel’s armament budget. “Are we going to get another MOU?” Freilich said.
Freilich has long warned of the profound consequences of waning support for Israel within the United States, describing it at times as a “potentially existential threat,” in light of Israel’s military and diplomatic reliance on the U.S. “The trend has been there for a long time, so it’s not surprising that it’s gotten even worse now,” he said.
He primarily blames the deterioration of American bipartisan support for Israel on the Israeli government, through both its policies and its public diplomacy efforts to present those policies. This has allowed Israelis, not Palestinians, to be seen as war-minded and as the primary obstacle to peace. “As long as this government is in office, or a similar one after the next elections, unfortunately, that cannot be turned around,” he said. “But if there is a significant change with the next government, I think it can recover, but it will take a long time. It will take years.”
Asked what, if anything, American lobbying groups focused on Israel could have done or still do to prevent this breakdown in bipartisan support, Freilich said that there likely wasn’t much, though he said the various organizations could have done a better job of coordination. “I don’t think there’s a great deal that they can do,” Freilich said. He singled out J Street on the left and the Zionist Organization of America on the right, along with other “non-AIPAC” groups, whom he said “undermine the strength of the Israel lobby as a whole.” He added: “If they’re not going to dismantle, they could at least restrain their rhetoric and put their criticism in a more constructive way.”
While support for Israel is dropping on both sides of the aisle, support for the American Jewish community has stayed strong, with nearly three-quarters of respondents — 73% — saying that antisemitism is a very serious or somewhat serious problem and 6% saying it is not at all a problem, the poll found.
BETTER TOGETHER
‘A double helix of hope’: Van Jones calls for renewed Black-Jewish alliance
“It’s not the firebombs and hunting of Jewish people in the streets of America right now, it’s the appalling silence of people that know better and won’t say better,” CNN commentator Van Jones told some 600 attendees of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s 25th anniversary gala dinner on Wednesday at Pier 60 in Manhattan, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy from the event.
‘Do it again’: Jones was honored at the gala for his work promoting Black-Jewish relations, which includes launching the Exodus Leadership Forum, a group that aims to renew the Civil Rights Movement-era alliance between the Black and Jewish communities. In January, he led an AJCF-Exodus Delegation to Poland, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. “It was a small number of Black folks who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘justice for all.’ It was a small number of Jews who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘repair the world,’” Jones said, reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement. “When you put those two bits of cultural DNA together, you get a double helix of hope for humanity.” Echoing remarks he made in March at the Jewish Funders Network conference, albeit now with greater urgency, Jones called on Black people and Jews to partner together again amid a different kind of crisis. “We have to do it again,” he said.
EDUCATIONAL MATTERS
OU launches major push for school choice legislation in reconciliation bill
The Orthodox Union on Thursday announced a national advocacy effort calling on the Senate to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act, which is part of the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate and could open up a new funding stream for Jewish families aiming to send their children to Jewish day schools, reports Marc Rod for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
New goal: The campaign, run jointly by the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center and the Teach Coalition, OU’s state-level advocacy arm, will include digital, print and grassroots advertising, urging Orthodox Jews to contact their senators to support the ECCA and double the funding recommended in the House bill. The OU is aiming to mobilize 50,000 people to contact their senators on the issue.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
COLLECTIVE INNOVATION
Steal this: Opening the Jewish innovation playbook
“[I]n a field often defined by proprietary ideas and protectiveness, several dozen organizations recently dared to ask: What if innovation wasn’t something to protect, but something to share?” write Isabel Shech, director of leadership programs at Leading Edge, Aliza Mazor, chief philanthropic engagement officer at UpStart, and Jessica Balboni, associate vice president at the Mandel Center for Leadership Excellence at the Jewish Federations of North America, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Elevate the field: “Last month, more than 1,300 Jewish community professionals gathered at JPro2025, co-hosted by Leading Edge and the Jewish Federations of North America. Amid the learning and networking, Leading Edge and JFNA partnered with UpStart to create Steal This, a joyful, open-source innovation showcase where 28 organizations pulled back the curtain on their best ideas and said, Go ahead: take them, adapt them, make them your own… Sharing freely doesn’t diminish your work’s value; it multiplies it. Embracing ‘stealable’ innovation demands the humility to learn from others, the courage to relinquish ownership and the faith that what lifts the field lifts us all.”
Worthy Reads
Of Blessed Memory: In The Times of Israel, Adele Raemer remembers her friend Judih Weinstein Haggai and her husband, Gadi Haggai, who were killed and whose bodies were taken into Gaza in the Oct. 7 terror attacks and whose funerals were held yesterday after Israeli soldiers retrieved their remains last week. “I had the honor of being invited to write a eulogy for today’s ceremony. This is what I told the hundreds in attendance: ‘Judih, you lit up my life, as you did the lives of so many. Your mother-earth wisdom, your old-time hippy-style spiced with modern-day techno savviness. Your laughter and your sense of humor never failed to lift my spirits and encourage me to step out of my comfort zone to achieve that for which I strived. … There is a hole in my heart, felt especially when I drive past Nir Oz, knowing that never again will I drive down that windy road to pick you up – always already walking towards me, to go …. wherever. I miss you, and I – as so many others who love you – take your spirit with me, wherever I go. So as long as we live, in a way, so do you.’” [TOI]
Loaded Words: In the Chicago Tribune, Jay Tcath examines the usage and intent of the slogan “Free Palestine.” “Not all ‘Free Palestine’ chanters understand it as a call to violence. Yet the phrase’s intentional lack of specificity is a big part of its utility: what the user means is left to the audience’s subjective interpretation… ‘Free Palestine’ can mean the justified yearning for Palestinians to enjoy the full freedoms, prosperity, and security that all peoples are entitled… The lack of specificity avoids answering the most revealing question: would a ‘Free Palestine’ be A) alongside Israel or B) instead of Israel?… In most instances, ‘Free Palestine’ is protected free speech in the United States. But after this most recent series of ‘Free Palestine’- motivated attacks and with an accompanying deafening silence of condemnation from most pro-Palestinian groups, is it so unreasonable to ask that those promulgating it own up to what it does and doesn’t mean to them?” [ChicagoTribune]
Word on the Street
A motion to dissolve the Knesset failed early Thursday morning after Haredi parties agreed to continue negotiations over military enlistment…
Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, resigned today and will join the opposition, but the rest of the Haredi bloc remains part of the coalition…
The Conference of European Rabbis was forced to cancel its annual meeting of chief rabbis, which was scheduled to take place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 16-18, after the Swissotel withdrew its booking under pressure from Bosnian Federal Minister of Labour and Social Policy Adnan Delic, who wrote in an open letter that the city “must not be a stage for supporting genocide”…
The bodies of hostage Yair Yaakov, who is believed to have been murdered by Islamic Jihad terrorists in the Oct. 7 terror attacks, and a second unnamed hostage, both from Kibbutz Nir Oz, were recovered by the Israeli military from Khan Younis yesterday…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution mechanism, reported that a bus carrying more than two dozen members of its team were “brutally attacked” by Hamas on Wednesday night, resulting in at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and concerns of some team members taken hostage…
Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical Christian pastor, former Trump advisor and CEO of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa this week. On potential Israel-Syria normalization, Moore told Reuters, “I think peace is very possible, if not probable”…
More than 15,000 people — some traveling from across the country — participated in the Boulder Jewish Festival last weekend in what the Boulder Jewish Community Center said was the event’s largest turnout in 30 years, just a week after 15 people were injured in an antisemitic terror attack there…
Nearly 200 Hindu and Jewish residents of Pittsburgh attended the “Harmony Across Traditions” gathering last week at the Monroeville Hindu Jain Temple to strengthen ties and emphasize shared interests…
Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies — in partnership with UJA-Federation of New York — has expanded aid from 12 hard-hit Gaza Envelope kibbutzim to 54 kibbutzim and moshavim, raising and allocating $17 million to support recovery and local leadership…
The Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, partnering with Essam Khashoggi, brother of the late Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, is among the “strong contenders” in talks to buy New York city’s famed Pierre Hotel — a popular venue among Jewish groups for their events…
The Holocaust Memorial at the grounds of the Iowa State Capitol has been removed for repairs after weathering two Des Moines winters. No date has yet been determined as to when it will be ready to return to its place…
Yad Vashem condemned the vandalism of Ottawa’s National Holocaust Monument on Monday and urged Canadian authorities to find those responsible. It also called on leaders to do more to fight antisemitism…
The trial of three teenagers accused of raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl, calling her a “dirty Jewess,” began yesterday in Paris…
Pic of the Day
Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick speaks yesterday with Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of New York’s Park Avenue Synagogue at the JCPA Summit at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.
Birthdays
Senior of counsel at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Martin Edelman… Retired sportscaster for NBA games on TNT, has also been the play-by-play announcer of multiple Super Bowls, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and the World Series, Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig)… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 1991, now on senior status, Judge Andrew Jay Kleinfeld… Former solicitor of labor in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then a senior partner at Gibson Dunn, William J. Kilberg… Social psychologist, he is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, Leonard Saxe… Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government including 20 years as a member of the Knesset, Yosef “Yossi” Beilin… Rabbi at Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz County, Calif., for 40 years, now emeritus, known as Rabbi Rick, Richard Litvak… British Conservative Party member of Parliament from 1992 until last year, his father was a rabbi, Sir Michael Fabricant… Dental consultant and recruiter, Kenneth Nussen… Peruvian banker and politician, José Chlimper Ackerman… Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and professor at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, Danielle Pletka… Television producer and executive, he was the CEO of Showtime Networks until 2022, David Nevins… Executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Levi Shemtov… Film and television actor, known for his role as Louis Litt in the legal drama series “Suits,” Rick Hoffman… Senior vice president for politics at NBC, Carrie Budoff Brown… Founder of Singularity Communications, Eliezer O. (“Eli”) Zupnick… Founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital and the co-founder of Oscar Health, Joshua Kushner … Partner at Enso Collaborative, Hanna Siegel… Co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, he was the director of product at Facebook and then worked at Uber, Blake Aaron Ross… Associate director of health policy and the law initiative at Georgetown Law School, Zachary Louis Baron… Vice president at MediaLink, Alexis Rose Levinson… Multimodal transportation coordinator in the planning department of Montgomery County (Md.), Eli Glazier… Photographer and Instagram influencer, Tessa Nesis… Israeli windsurfer, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tom Reuveny… Lead consultant at AutoNate, Joel Bond…
