The Senate passed by a 79-18 vote a $95 billion aid bill for Israel and other U.S. allies on Tuesday, with 15 Republicans and three Democrats voting against. The House-passed bill, which is largely similar to the bill passed by the Senate earlier this year, picked up nine more votes from Senate Republicans, now securing support from the majority of the conference. Meanwhile, Democratic support remained the same, despite growing progressive criticism of Israel. The bill, which the Senate did not amend, now moves to the president’s desk, finally unlocking additional aid to Israel, Ukraine and ..read more

Jewish voters in a major Pennsylvania county are concerned they won’t be able to vote in the state’s primary elections on Tuesday after not receiving their mail-in ballots before the start of Shabbat preceding Passover. Jewish residents of Montgomery County have been reaching out to their congressional representatives, local election officials, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office and even their rabbis to sound the alarm that they had not received their absentee ballots in the mail ahead of Shabbat and the Passover holiday, which overlaps with the state’s Primary Day. Shapiro, a Democrat, and electio ..read more

Antisemitic harassment, threats and intimidation hit a boiling point overnight at Columbia University, leading the White House on Sunday to condemn “physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community.” The White House statement came shortly after a prominent Jewish rabbi at the school declared the campus wasn’t safe for Jewish students, and urged them to leave until the school addresses “extreme” antisemitism. The reaction came amid a night of chaos and anarchy at the university and a few incidents of physical assault against Jewish students — and after a tumultuous wee ..read more

The House voted 366-58 on Saturday to approve $14.3 billion in additional U.S. aid to Israel, one of four bills legislators voted on to provide $95 billion aid to U.S. allies and related military and humanitarian programs. Thirty-seven Democrats and 21 Republicans, largely representing the far-left and -right flanks of the parties, opposed the Israel funding. Saturday’s vote is the clearest barometer of where support for Israel stands in the House six months after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and as Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza have prompted an unprecedented level of co ..read more

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) accused Columbia University President Nemat Shafik of felony perjury after Columbia professor Joseph Massad denied that he had been reprimanded or otherwise disciplined over comments praising the Hamas attack on Israel. Shafik, at a Wednesday congressional hearing, said that Massad had been “spoken to” about an article praising the Hamas attack on Israel and that administrators had communicated that his remarks — which come as part of a long history of anti-Israel commentary — were “unacceptable.” Shafik saidMassad also remains under investigation, with his tenure ..read more

Good Friday morning. In celebration of Passover, the nextDaily Kickoffwill arrive in your inbox on Thursday, April 25. Chag sameach! In today’sDaily Kickoff, we look at how recent tensions between Iran and Israel are testing Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu,andreport on the listening sessions theState Departmentis hosting with staffers unhappy about the Biden administration’s Israel policy. Also in today’sDaily Kickoff:Taffy Brodesser-Akner,Julian EdelmanandJosh Harris. For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition ofThe Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF ..read more

Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Maryland state Sen. Sarah Elfreth, the AIPAC-endorsed candidate running in the Democratic primary for the state’s 3rd Congressional District, appeared to suggest that they support Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) efforts to curtail Israel aid at an event this week. The incident occurred at a candidate forum hosted by the District 30 Democratic Club on Wednesday night in Annapolis. D30’s president, Fish Stark, asked the 16 House hopefuls to stand if they backed Van Hollen’s amendment to the Israel and Ukraine aid package conditioning future assistanc ..read more

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s standing as “Mr. Security” suffered a serious blow in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. But one of the keys to that reputation has been his decades-long focus on the Iranian threat. Now, after a reported limited Israeli strike in response to Iran’s weekend attack on Israel—the first direct Iranian attack on Israel in history — Netanyahu’s is being put to the test on his flagship issue. Netanyahu has never made a secret of the priority he gives to the Iranian file, making several memorable speeches about it: at the U.N. General Asse ..read more

House Democrats on the House Rules Committee voted on Thursday night to advance aid for Israel and other foreign allies to the House floor despite a rebellion from the Republicans’ right flank against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Democrats’ support in the Rules Committee was a highly unusual step, and effectively a signal that House Democratic leadership is backing the legislation. It’s unprecedented in at least the last 29 years for a House majority party to require minority party support to advance legislation out of the Rules Committee. But three conservative Republicans, Reps. Thomas Mas ..read more

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) daughter was suspended from Barnard College on Thursday morning over her involvement in an anti-Israel protest on Columbia University’s campus, a day after Omar questioned Columbia’s president at a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing. During her questioning, Omar repeatedly downplayed violations by anti-Israel protesters on campus and accused the school of unfairly and baselessly targeting pro-Palestinian activists. Omar did not mention her daughter’s leadership in a suspended campus anti-Israel group during the hearing. Barnard is technically independen ..read more