Video: Pollard speaks on Tuesday / Credit: Kan Reshet Bet

In the interview with Kan Reshet Bet, Pollard explained that he realized the full scale of the national failure through his own life: "I assumed my abandonment and the betrayal of me was an exceptional incident on Israel's part. But on October 7, I realized I was no exception. I realized the entire country was abandoned and betrayed. At that point, I concluded that I must do something to the best of my ability to prevent such a tragedy."

He directly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct during, particularly regarding the conflict with Iran and the air force's turning back after the attack in Beersheba due to US pressure: "Throughout the war, Netanyahu should have stood firm against Trump when it comes to Israel's security interests."

Regarding the meeting with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and the backlash he received, Pollard dismissed all claims of a secret meeting, insisting it contained no details indicating improper involvement: "There was nothing secret in the meeting." Later in the interview with Kan Reshet Bet, Pollard leveled harsh criticism at the American intelligence community: "The CIA serves as a tool of the Democratic Party. My advice is that its branch here at the American Embassy should be cleaned out, and people who reflect the president's agenda should be brought in."

Speaking about his time in American prison, Pollard made public the trauma he experienced behind bars : "I was raped in prison as revenge for my actions for Israel. I'm glad that some of the hostages are talking about it now ." He added, "It is necessary to understand the monsters we are dealing with."

Pollard, who is contemplating running in the upcoming elections, linked his political aspirations to what he witnessed as an Israeli citizen after October 7 : "I concluded that I must do something to the best of my ability to prevent such a tragedy."

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A poll released Monday by the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) indicates that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, leads former President Donald Trump by a wide margin among American Jewish voters, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The survey conducted by GBAO shows 68% of Jewish voters planning to support Harris, compared to 25% for Trump.

The poll, which has a 3.5 percentage-point margin of error, suggests that recent campaigning and heated exchanges between the parties have not significantly shifted the Jewish electorate. It also indicates that Republican efforts to attract more Jewish voters following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel have not substantially altered voting intentions.

"The survey shows Jewish voters favoring the Democratic candidate in slightly greater numbers than they did in April, when President Joe Biden was the presumptive nominee," the JTA reports. An earlier poll conducted by the JDCA-affiliated Jewish Electorate Institute found Biden leading Trump 64% to 24% among Jewish voters.

The latest survey also reveals strong support for the Biden administration's efforts to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, with 87% of American Jewish voters backing attempts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

From the GBAO Strategies-JDCA poll of Jewish voters:

83% of Orthodox voters support Trump, while only 17% will vote for Harris.

For Orthodox, Israel is ranked 4th on the list of the most important issue in the election. Economy and antisemitism top that. pic.twitter.com/8WsKimRL4I

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) September 9, 2024

Both major parties have intensified their outreach to Jewish voters as the November 5 election approaches. The campaigns have engaged in increasingly sharp rhetoric, with a recent JDCA ad linking Trump to Adolf Hitler, while Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition that Jews "will never survive" if Harris is elected.

Despite the heightened focus on Israel-related issues following the October 7 attack, the survey found that Israel ranked ninth when respondents were asked to select their top two issues of concern. The future of democracy and abortion rights were the top-ranked issues among Jewish voters.

83% of Orthodox voters support Trump, while only 17% will vote for Harris. For Orthodox Jews, Israel is ranked 4th on the list of the most important issues in the election. Economy and antisemitism top Israel.

The overall poll also indicated high levels of concern about antisemitism, with 91% of respondents expressing worry about the issue. Additionally, Jewish voters appear highly motivated to participate in the upcoming election, with 82% rating themselves at the highest level on a motivation scale.

The survey reached 800 voters between August 27 and September 1 via text-to-web polling, a method in which potential respondents are contacted by text message and directed to an internet poll.

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Vice President Kamala Harris' tax proposals for the 2024 election are coming into focus, building on the unfinished business of the Biden administration. The plan aims to increase taxes on corporations and high-income households while leaving most Americans' taxes unchanged or lower, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

Harris' proposed tax changes would increase taxes by approximately $5 trillion over the next decade, while cutting other taxes by more than $4 trillion. The overall federal government collections, projected at $63 trillion over 10 years, would remain largely unchanged. However, the Harris agenda would significantly shift the tax burden among different income groups.

Under the plan, some high-income households would face sharp tax increases, with top marginal tax rates reaching their highest point since 1986. Wealthy investors and company founders would encounter substantial capital gains tax bills that they currently do not face under existing law.

The Harris campaign has endorsed President Joe Biden's proposed tax increases from his most recent budget. This includes raising the top marginal income tax rate for individuals to 44.6% across almost all income types, compared to current lower top rates of 23.8% on capital gains, 29.6% on some business income, and 40.8% on wages.

HARRIS: "Under my plan, more than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut, and we will do this by restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle class and working Americans: The earned income tax credit and the child tax credit. ...and we will do this while reducing the deficit" pic.twitter.com/5Ky074fcDI

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) August 16, 2024

 A novel system would be created to tax unrealized capital gains of individuals with a net worth exceeding $100 million. This proposal, which affects about 0.01% of households, would implement an annual minimum tax of 25% on their income, using a broader definition that includes unrealized gains.

For corporations, the tax rate would increase from 21% to 28%, and large companies would face a 21% minimum tax instead of the current 15%. Higher taxes on foreign profits are also proposed.

Despite these increases, Harris has promised to prevent any tax hikes on households making under $400,000, effectively extending most of the expiring Trump tax cuts. She has also proposed additional tax cuts, including reviving the expanded child tax credit from 2021 and adding a new tier for newborns with a $6,000 tax credit.

"Instead of a Trump tax hike, we will pass a middle-class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans," Harris stated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The plan also includes reviving an expanded version of the earned-income tax credit for low-income families, continuing larger tax-credit subsidies for health, and exempting some tips from taxation.

However, some aspects of Harris' plan remain unclear, such as her stance on the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions and the estate tax exemption. These issues could prove contentious within the Democratic Party if they gain full control of Congress and the White House.

The implementation of Harris' tax plan would depend heavily on the outcome of the 2024 election and the composition of Congress. Even with Democratic control, intraparty disagreements and slim vote margins could prevent the full agenda from becoming law.

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Representative Ilhan Omar, a prominent member of the progressive "Squad" in Congress, has successfully defended her seat in Minnesota's 5th District Democratic primary, according to projections reported by BBC. The closely watched race concluded with Omar securing over 56% of the vote, solidifying her position as the party's nominee for the November election.

With 99% of votes counted, Omar received more than 67,000 votes, comfortably outpacing her closest rival, Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council member. Samuels, who had narrowly lost to Omar in 2022, garnered just under 43% of the votes in Tuesday's primary.

Rep. Ilhan Omar wins her primary election in the 5th Congressional district of Minnesota!

Omar has defeated The 75-year-old Black man named Don Samuels, winning 56% of the votes or 67,524 with 95% of the votes in.

pic.twitter.com/GVfq0JBadC

— EXECUTIVE MEDIA (@EXECUTIVEXMEDIA) August 14, 2024

The victory comes at a time when other members of the "Squad" have faced significant challenges. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri and Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York both lost their primary races earlier this year, with pro-Israel groups investing heavily in their opponents' campaigns.

Unlike the races involving Bush and Bowman, the Super PAC operated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) appeared to stay out of Omar's contest. However, The Intercept reported a last-minute effort by wealthy pro-Israel donors to raise six-figure sums in support of Samuels.

Omar, one of the first Muslims elected to the US Congress, has been a vocal critic of Israel's policies, particularly regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Her stance on Israel has been a source of controversy throughout her tenure in office.

In February 2023, Omar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee by the Republican-controlled House, citing previous comments she had made about Israel. Democrats decried the move as political retaliation for similar actions taken against Republicans when Democrats held the House majority in 2020.

The congresswoman's campaign received support from high-profile figures, including Senator Bernie Sanders and Vice President Kamala Harris. An internal poll conducted last month had suggested Omar held a 30-point lead over her challengers.

In the same primary elections, Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has served in the US Senate since 2007, also secured victory in her primary challenge.

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A campaign to prevent Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro from becoming Kamala Harris's running mate in her presidential bid is gaining traction, according to a report by the Times of Israel. The effort, which includes an article in The New Republic and a dedicated website called "No Genocide Josh," has sparked accusations of antisemitism due to its focus on Shapiro's stance on Israel.

The Times of Israel reports that Harris is expected to announce her vice presidential pick by Tuesday, with speculation mounting that Shapiro could be the choice. This has intensified efforts to block his selection, particularly from left-wing groups critical of his support for Israel.

Critics argue that Shapiro, who is Jewish, stands out among potential running mates for his vocal defense of Israel and concerns about antisemitism on college campuses. David Klion, writing in The New Republic, claimed Shapiro "stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine."

However, supporters of Shapiro, including Jewish and non-Jewish commentators and Democratic members of Congress, contend that he is being unfairly singled out. They point out that other potential candidates – Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly – also have pro-Israel records but haven't faced similar criticism.

California Representative Adam Schiff tweeted, "Singling him out, or applying a double standard to him over the war in Gaza, is antisemitic and wrong." Schiff, who is Jewish, added, "Don't go there."

There are several incredible options for vice president. The superb Governor of Pennsylvania, @JoshShapiroPA, is one of them.

Singling him out, or applying a double standard to him over the war in Gaza, is antisemitic and wrong.

Don't go there.

— Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) August 1, 2024

The controversy has highlighted broader tensions within the Democratic Party over Israel policy. The Democratic Socialists of America, which recently made anti-Zionism a litmus test for endorsements, is among the groups opposing Shapiro's potential selection.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said, "They can criticize him on policy – that debate is healthy. But when it's only the Jewish candidate being targeted with name-calling and personal attacks related to Israel, we need to be clear about how dangerous that is and not give cover to it."

Shapiro has been outspoken in blaming Hamas for the war while advocating for a two-state solution. He has also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the conflict, calling him one of the worst leaders in the world.

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The Democratic Party may encounter significant legal challenges in its attempt to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris on the 2024 presidential election ballot in several crucial swing states, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Following Biden's endorsement of Harris as his replacement, the party now grapples with stringent state laws that complicate ballot changes.

In Wisconsin, state law only permits candidate removal from the ballot in case of death. Nevada's regulations are similarly restrictive, allowing changes after a specified deadline if a candidate dies or is declared mentally incompetent. State laws in Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona may provide similar setbacks.

However, the state Democratic Party has flexibility in selecting its presidential candidate. According to the secretary of state's office, the party can alter its choice up until the ballot creation deadline, which falls around September 13. This timeline is significant, as it provides a three-week window after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, scheduled for August 19-22, where the party's presidential nominee is typically finalized.

Others say that although Biden competed in the Primary Debate against Donald Trump, he was never named the official nominee of the Democratic Party.

How hard or easy is it going to be for the Democratic Party in these states to change the ballots?

"They don't need to change anything at this point, because remember Joe Biden was never the nominee officially ... he was the presumptive nominee," @rickhasen tells @johnyangtv. pic.twitter.com/9kH7gUETmh

— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 21, 2024

 These legal barriers in key battleground states have left the Democratic Party's strategy unclear. As the election approaches, the party must navigate these state-specific regulations to ensure Harris's name appears on the ballot, potentially setting the stage for complex legal maneuvers or unconventional campaign tactics.

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President Joe Biden and his family gathered at Camp David over the weekend, grappling with the fallout from last week's debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump. Despite growing concerns within the Democratic Party, Biden's family is urging him to stay in the race and continue fighting, according to sources close to the situation who spoke to The New York Times.

The president is now tasked with reassuring anxious Democrats and demonstrating his ability to serve another four years. His son, Hunter Biden, has emerged as one of the strongest voices encouraging the president to resist calls to drop out of the race.

"The entire family is united," said one person familiar with the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity. "You get up and keep fighting," they added, emphasizing that the president has not considered leaving the race.

While the Biden family remains supportive, some members have privately expressed frustration with the debate preparation process, questioning the strategies employed by key advisers. This sentiment was echoed publicly by John Morgan, a top Democratic donor, who criticized the president's debate team, including Ron Klain, Anita Dunn, and Bob Bauer.

"It would be like if you took a prizefighter who was going to have a title fight and put him in a sauna for 15 hours then said, 'Go fight,'" Morgan told the New York Times, placing blame on the advisers for what he termed "political malpractice."

However, sources close to the president and First Lady Jill Biden maintain that the couple continues to trust their team. Ron Klain, former White House chief of staff, defended the president's position, stating, "He is the choice of the Democratic voters. We are seeing record levels of support from grass-roots donors. We had a bad debate night. But you win campaigns by fighting – not quitting – in the face of adversity."

As the Biden campaign works to calm nerves and reassess strategy, a conference call with the national finance committee is scheduled for Monday. The president's public schedule for the coming week includes visits to an emergency operations center, a Medal of Honor ceremony, and a Fourth of July barbecue for military service members.

Despite the current challenges, Democratic allies continue to publicly support the president. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Governor Wes Moore of Maryland both defended Biden on Sunday talk shows, highlighting his accomplishments and character.

However, a recent CBS News poll revealed that 45% of Democrats want a different candidate to face Trump, and only 27% of overall voters believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president.

As the Biden family navigates this crucial period, the president's next moves will be closely watched. Whether through press conferences, interviews, or other public appearances, Biden faces the task of changing the narrative and reaffirming his capability to lead the nation for another term.

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"Oh, Joe."

That gasp, from patrons at a Chicago bar when President Joe Biden first stumbled verbally in his debate with Donald Trump, spoke for a lot of Americans on Thursday night.

In watch parties, bars, a bowling alley and other venues where people across the country gathered to tune in, Trump supporters, happily, and Biden supporters, in their angst if not dread, seemed to largely agree they had witnessed a lopsided showdown.

By the end of the 90-plus minutes, some Democrats were saying what partisans say to put the best face on things: It's still early. One debate doesn't necessarily sway the United States. Judge him by what he's done and wants to do, not by how he says things.

But many were let down.

Biden "just didn't have the spark that we needed tonight," Rosemarie DeAngelus, a Democrat from South Portland, Maine, said from her watch party at Broadway Bowl. Trump, she said, showed "more spunk or more vigor" even if, in her view, he was telling a pack of lies.

Fellow Biden supporter and bowling alley attendee Lynn Miller, from nearby Old Orchard Beach, said: "It's like somebody gave Trump an Adderall and I don't think they gave Joe one." (The drug is used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.)

"I've never seen Trump seem so coherent," Miller said. "And I hate to say this, but Joe seemed a little bit off. But I still support him over Trump because Trump lied about every single thing that happened."

Trump supporters certainly agreed that the difference in energy and coherence between the candidates was striking. Wearing her red MAGA hat at a festive pro-Trump party in the Detroit suburb of Novi, Bonnie Call said of Biden: "He just cannot think on his feet at all. President Trump is just on."

In McAllen, Texas, near the Mexico border, London's Bar & Grill is normally loud on a day close to the weekend, but many patrons were quiet as they absorbed the debate from TV screens. Here, Biden supporters, Trump supporters and undecided voters mingled.

Among them, Vance Gonzales, 40, a moderate Democrat, said the debate convinced him that "we need another Democratic candidate, to be honest, because this is not competitive." He said of Biden: "He's not on point with anything. I think it's disappointing."

Marco Perez, 53, voted for Biden in the last election and voiced frustration with what he was hearing and seeing. "I want to hear more facts, more action as opposed to more finger-pointing, more accusations or false accusations," he said.

His friend Virginia Lopez, sitting with him, came away still not knowing whom she will support in November. She heard snappy but unsatisfying answers from the Republican. "Trump is just deflecting in all the answers and he's just lying," she said. "It doesn't feel like a real debate."

Biden? "I just feel like he's too old," she said.

Sitting up at the bar, Hector Mercado, 72, a veteran wearing a U.S. military beret, was a distinctive patron as he listened intently to the debate. Although he was a Democrat for several years, he switched parties under Ronald Reagan, a Republican.

Mercado heard Biden accuse Trump of making derogatory comments about veterans, but it didn't sway his support for Trump. "Yeah, he said a few things bad about veterans at one point back in the early days," he said of Trump. "But now he's saying, 'No, I back up the veterans and I never had any problems with him. I got a raise in my VA disability when Trump was president."

Biden's performance left him cold. "I think Trump is stronger," he said, "and Biden is a little weak."

In a Tijuana migrant shelter over the border in Mexico, people mainly from southern Mexico who are hoping to apply for asylum in the U.S. watched the debate in folding chairs in front of a screen on the wall.

The migrants, most of whom have been waiting for months for their appointments in that process, stared blankly at the screen as a Spanish-translated version of the debate played on. They watched an American democratic ritual in motion.

Andrea, who did not give her last name due to threats of violence back home, has lived at the shelter for nine months. Her debate takeaway: "Well, I feel that the people of the United States don't love Mexicans now."

At Hula Hula, a tiki bar in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, patrons cheered wildly as their city got a mention from Trump — even if it came up when the Republican was complaining about lawlessness. Biden supporter Amy Pottinger of Seattle said the Democratic president did best when Trump made him angry.

"Once he started talking about Roe v. Wade, it was like Biden woke up and was here," she said.

At the same Chicago bar where patrons exclaimed about Biden's stumbles — the M Lounge in the South Loop — the president scored with this zinger to Trump: "You have the morals of an alley cat."

"Whoa!" the viewers there said.

But at a Democratic watch party in downtown Atlanta, it was a night of jitters.

"I'm so nervous, I feel like my kid is going onstage," Georgia state Sen. Nikki Merritt said early on, patting her stomach as if she had butterflies.

Technicians struggled with sound and video. During one outage, the crowd chanted "Let's Go Joe!"

"I want to hear Joe Biden talking to the voters and ignoring the crazy man in the room," said Matthew Wilson, the Georgia Democratic Party's vice chairman.

But there was no ignoring the man they called crazy.

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"I'm the best version of myself here," Erin Schrode says after an hour-long conversation on her unique career.

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Schrode, an up-and-coming Jewish-American entrepreneur and social activist, had arrived in Israel to give a speech at the Birthright Israel Excel conference, sharing her own insight on how the program that brings young Jews from all over the world on a 10-day tour of Israel changed her, and possibly even her career.

Schrode is no stranger to public life and fighting for causes she believes in, both in her community and for the greater good. 

She formed an environmental NGO as a teen and even ran for Congress at the age of 24, and she continues to promote a whole host of environmental and social causes to this day. 

Schrode's statement about how she is her best version in Israel is particularly interesting since says this feeling of belonging to Israel has not worn off ever since her first trip to Israelonthat program. She was brought up in a home where Judaism was loosely observed and Israel was not a major part of life. But then, in 2010, a 19-year-old Shcrode joined Birthright Israel's 10-day without even really knowing what to expect, only to discover that it was a life-changing experience.

After coming back to the US, Schrode set her sights on national politics, becoming a rising force on the Left, to the point that 6 years later she was on the verge of becoming the Democratic nominee in the race to represent California's second congressional district, a heavily democratic area. Had she won the nomination and then gone on to win the general election (as most Democrats in California do), she would have become the youngest member of Congress at 25. 

Schrode's path to social activism began at a very young age when she saw her mother's non-stop pursuit of answers in the face of an unexplained rise in cancer cases in Marine County, California. 

"By all accounts, it was an idyllic place and one of the most affluent counties in America, but it had the highest breast, prostate, and melanoma cancer rates. It was plagued with a public health crisis, and people were dying. The supervisors said there wasn't enough money to do the testing but that didn't sit right with my mom, she organized a grassroots campaign from our living room. And so my mom had this idea ー I was 11 years old at the time ー to organize volunteers to go to households on one day, and ask why. Everyone must know why your cancer is off the charts. So 3,000 volunteers went to 50,000 households on one day and asked that question, and everybody had their own ideas. There are so many things I've learned from my mom throughout my life, but one is that you don't stand idly by in the face of injustice, and you take action."

Having caught the political bug from her mother, Schrode resolved to follow her example and founded the environmentalist NGO Turning Green when she was only 13. 

"I think, for me, that's the beauty of youth is that we questioned the status quo, that we don't blindly accept things, and that our minds are still malleable, which is why I spent the last 17 years of my life working with young people. Because that's such a right moment where we set ourselves, our communities and our families, our societies, and our peoples up for the rest of our lives. So we started organizing teenagers. It's now a nonprofit, 17 years later if you told me that, this is what I'd be doing. I'd say you're crazy. But it's who I am."

Q: I want to take you back to Birthright. Obviously, something clicked on that trip in 2010, because six years later you ran for Congress. Why do you think a 10-day visit to Israel put this in motion? 

"A friend asked me when I was 19 if I wanted to do Birthright. I said, 'What's Birthright?', and she said it was a free trip to Israel. Now where I'm from, everything that I told you that went along with all of those bullet points, those talking points, those ideologies, was anti-Israel. I wanted to come on Birthright to go to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and the West Bank. I have friends in all those places, activists who fought for environmental and social causes. And for me, it was a plane ticket to a part of the world that I had never thought I would see. And I landed at Ben Gurion and I walked across the street and I felt this visceral sense of warmth as if I were home, and it was something that I've never felt in my life. And I have the privilege of doing work that's very aligned with my values. That's very true to my core, and 12 years later I have tears in my eyes, and I spent the next 10 days seeing so many of my values in action. I saw my progressive values in action in Israel, I saw the renewable energy and the biotech and the female representation in the judiciary. I was going, 'What is this place?, these aren't the images that I think I was fed of Israel as an activist growing up in the States, and my mind was perpetually blown.

"I also had the privilege of bunking with a 21-year-old officer in the Intelligence Corps. Here I was sitting with my peer, who shared my same values. And I also met environmentalists and activists and I was sitting with her and this was probably one of the most powerful moments in my life. She kept using the word Zionism. And I said, 'What does it mean?'"

Q: You had never heard of that term before?

"I  had heard it tossed around. But no, if you'd asked me to define it at the age of 19, I couldn't. And there we were, probably staying up far past our bedtime, talking about a movement towards and a struggle for self-determination of our people, you know, in our ancestral homeland. And I looked at her and I said, 'I think I'm a Zionist.' And I spent the next 10 days, realizing that I was. But then I left."

During the interview Schrode makes it clear that Israel was more than just about history, it was about a path forward too, for her own experience in the US, and that she would not be defined by the regular mantras surrounding Israel in the progressive discourse on the American Left. 

"I had this unbelievable gift of a journey. But I knew what I was going back to. I knew from whence I came. And talking about Israel and the movements that I was a part of, wasn't something that people did, I marched in the first Women's March [after President Donald Trump was inaugurated], I was in the streets with Black Lives Matter before BDS was written to the platform. I was at Standing Rock [pipeline protest], and they had a sign that said, 'We stand in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people living under the apartheid state of Israel.' I crossed the line. I started to see Israel popping up."

Schrode said that she could not accept such slogans, especially in light of the sides of Israel that she saw first-hand as part of her social activism, to which other organizations were blind.

"I was in Haiti after the earthquake, and I launched an education project and I saw Magen David Adom there, I was in Lesbos in Greece with the refugee crisis, I heard Hebrew being spoken behind me, and it was IsrAid on their shores; I was in Puerto Rico, where I ran a very large humanitarian feeding program following Hurricane Maria and there was this Israeli agricultural and water technology being used in the wake of the hurricane.

"Birthright changed my life. Personally, it had connected me to a land, to a people to history to a living, breathing, current vibrant society, with which I not only wanted to connect or was invited to but professionally outwardly. That wasn't anything that I talked about."

Having stood against her own camp's anti-Israel agenda, it did not take long for her to channel this determination into a political cause and run for office.

"I've always believed fiercely in the power and importance of policy and legislation and politics. I've operated mostly at the local level, we fought for a lot of bills and pieces of legislation at the county and state level because so goes California so goes the nation. I never saw myself as a politician but then I gave a speech, a talk in the Bay Area, in Marin County. And I walked offstage and two people said, 'How do we get you to run for office?' and this was in early 2016. I looked at them and said, you have got the wrong girl. I was 24 years old at the time, I'd never held elected office."

Q: Why why why would you consider yourself being the wrong girl? I mean, you literally had it in you from day one. 

"In my mind, politicians were a different breed of human. I hadn't spent decades in corporate boardrooms or law offices in the halls of government. I didn't own millions in the bank. I didn't fit the mold of what I thought of as a politician. I've been involved in policy but not politics. And I have three weeks until the filing deadline. And I started having conversations with people who are wiser than I. And for me, I've always been very clear in my purpose and had to figure out why I was doing it. What if I didn't know why I was running for office? Why would anybody vote for me? So I had to become clear on why I was doing it. And really, it was to redefine civic engagement."

Q: At the time, you said there was no one under 30 in Congress. You were the champion of the under-represented.

"Yeah, but I wanted to reinvigorate a culture of public service, and expand the definition of who could be a politician. Yes. I haven't seen anybody who looked like me who talked like me in office at the time. But I wasn't in it to make history, I actually want to make a difference. I think that's what caught people by surprise. At the time, I'd been working in this field for 11 years. That's not normal, for a 24-year-old; my life has taken a very circuitous path."

Schrode ultimately filed to compete in the Democratic primaries in March 2016, just as the nation was rocked by the stunning rise of Donald Trump on the Republican side, effectively taking away any attention from all other candidates on both camps. In California, the Democratic nominee for the 2nd Congressional District was all but guaranteed to win against the Republican nominee in November, so Schrode was essentially running a general election campaign not for the nomination but for the actual seat. Despite falling short, her candidacy made an imprint on progressive politics in California, which is not an easy thing to achieve, especially by creating a sense of urgency among young female voters who want to be heard in Washington. 

Q: In one of your speeches on YouTube, you don't even stand at the podium, you just walk around and go to the audience for questions, which was like a dialogue. Is that what transformed your campaign, even though you lost? Do you think that that was what made you different?

"I made contact with people, I break that fourth wall, I jump off the stage if there is a stage I shake the hands. I'm 31 years old now, but I still feel like a kid. I still feel like a college student. But in our campaign, I think what surprised people was that I wasn't afraid to have the hard discussions."

Q: Including on Israel?

"Yeah, but that wasn't something that I came out with. That wasn't something that I led with. That was something that I put forth as a policy decision and five days before the election I was actually so excited these two small Jewish publications reached out and asked to interview me. Did I want to do an interview? Of course, I remember I was up in the northern part district on my cell phone walking around a convenience store looking for nuts. The vegan snacks were few and far between. And the headline said, 'Progressive, pro-Israel and potentially youngest person in Congress.' I know exactly where I was when I read that headline. Pro Israel? That's a dirty moniker where I come from. And I read the article. And it actually represented what I said where I stood. But my campaign manager looked at me and he said, 'Eric, this is going to cost us.'"

Q: Do you think this is what cost you the primaries?

"I don't. I don't I think that. My number one piece of advice to anyone running is start early. We launched the campaign seven days before the election. And that's just not enough of a ramp to get to where we need it. And I think with more time, we could have closed that gap. But this article that came out, within hours, there was a newsletter circulating inside saying it's like spitting on the grave of a murdered Palestinian child."

Q: Who wrote it?

"A local newsletter, by activists who had worked with me for more than a decade. And that was the first time that I saw that there's this litmus test imposed on people on the Left by progressive Democrats and liberals. You can't be pro-Israel and pro-progressive, it didn't matter that I agreed with them on 99% of the issues. Suddenly, they had some oversimplified litmus tests on it. So I failed. So I remember my campaign manager said, 'We need to respond to this.' I wanted to, I woke up the next day, and I had my phone six inches from my face. I opened it and I opened my email and I saw my face with a yellow Jude scar on my chest next to a monster. And it said, 'Get out of my country kike. Get back to his real where you belong.' And I scrolled through my email and there were dozens of emails, as well as voicemails on my cell phone. And there were thousands of pieces of hate speech and acute death threats on social media and across the internet."

Q: People say that if you're attacked by both sides, you're probably right.

"I have always felt like that. My mom is a Democrat, my dad is a Republican, and I grew up hearing both of them, falling somewhere in the middle. But it was this very bizarre convergence of the extremes. One side, coming from the extreme Left, says that it is fine to be a Jew, but if you're a good Jew, you have to be an anti-Israel; and on the other side, [on the extreme Right] they say, 'You filthy Jew, get out. This is in your country, you do not belong, you're inferior.' I think so many things in my life changed in June of 2016. But more than anything, for the first time, in my life, I was seen as Jewish in the eyes of the world. I was armed to the board but I was equipped with facts, with experience with personal anecdotes. Because of a 10-day journey that I've been gifted with on the ground in Israel, I just went back to that moment, which at that point was six years prior. And I, I really fundamentally see that trip as one of the largest turning points in my life, like running for Congress, but I saw so many young people being faced with that false choice. Are you an activist or a Zionist? Will you stand for Israel? Or will you rise up behind Judaism and social justice? I've never been one to be put in boxes. I face the same stuff around environmentalism. This is what I was talking about last night. This isn't a binary choice. But over the past six years the Left, the progressive movement, has become even more vitriolic and anti-Israel. And I understand why people fall prey to that because it's just thrown in there with a myriad of other causes, that people do believe that they do understand that they are willing to fight for. And unfortunately, 750,000 young people being brought to the State of Israel on a trip is one of the greatest feats, I think, in the history of the Jewish people."

Q: A lot of Jews in the US, I guess the Bernie Sanders camp, are pro-BDS. Maybe even this anti-Israel rhetoric is just as strong coming from some Jews as it is from non-Jews. 

"I think that there is a small vocal minority that is making a lot of noise; they are not representative of the American Jewish community. They are tokenized and used by the Left when you see If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace popping up in every progressive space. There are a couple others but the list is not so long…contrary to the little Twittersphere, or, you know, these liberal arts institutions, most people are not talking about Israel 99% of the time. We're not the center of attention. There are massive domestic policy crises happening in my country that we need to address. Now, if you come at me, because of my support of Israel, because of my Jewish identity, great. But I'm going to lead with other stuff. I'm going to work and I think for me, it's about refusing a litmus test, I can be all of these things, and support the State of Israel. But I'm not going to lead with that. Because I don't think that that's the most important thing for the success of domestic policy agendas in the US today. There are moments, certainly, that's what we need to be talking about it first, but not most of the time."

Schrode made sure to point out her active involvement in pro-Israel organizations during the interview, making it clear she is not just about talking the talk. "I sit on the boards of Zioness unabashedly progressive, unapologetically Zionist, IsraAID (a global humanitarian organization), and Birthright-Israel's education committee that plans curriculum and follow-up around trips. I am deeply proud of pushing the needle and making a real impact with all three. As well as three environmental organizations."

Q: I guess a lot of counties I mean, districts are having their primaries ahead of the midterms. So what's your advice to progressive, pro-Israel candidates?

"Do the work? I'm much more interested in what candidates are doing than what they're saying. What matters to your district, That's what you should be talking about. Yes, if you are confronted and asked, certainly go on the record with what you believe and what you want to talk about regarding the State of Israel, and the heart of your discussion, part of your agenda, the heart of your campaign should be about the issues that matter most and affect the daily lives of people in your district because that is what matters to them."

Q: Will you run again? 

"I think so. I can't tell you for what office…I believe fiercely in the importance of a diverse base of elected officials who represent constituencies that there's seeking to serve. I'm very proud of where I'm from in the San Francisco Bay Area. But I think anybody who tells you what they'll run for, and in five years, 10 years, 20 years, don't understand the landscape. And you should be running because of the issues that matter and the people that you're seeking to represent. I think local office is very, very important. And I think the place where I feel I can be most impactful right now is outside of elected office. And I'm incredibly proud of the work that our nonprofits doing. And eight months of the pandemic we served 20,000,090 point 7 million, but almost 20 million organic meals source packed and served in Northern California. And that's coming from local organic farms, local businesses, for local students, so positively impacting local soils, local economies, local health, and local family. I'm an activist. everything I've talked about with anybody is dirt, about carbon sequestration, healthy soils, and climate resilience."

Q: And you will run ー if you runー as a Democrat?

"Yeah. I believe that unlike Israel, where there are umpteen political parties, we do still have a two-party system. And while I have a problem with the polarization that's happening in the States, that the pendulum swung to the extremes both on the Left and on the Right, the way to impact change in the most effective way, I believe, is still running through the Democratic and Republican Party. And I believe in a lot of the tenets of the Democratic Party and have for my entire life. I don't believe that this extreme anti-Israel bias is true to the heart of the values to the core and the bulk of the base of the Democratic Party. And I think we need people, especially young people, and progressives, who share a lot of the values and platforms that I do, to proudly stand up as a part of the Democratic Party, whether we're voters or were running for office and redefine what that actually looks like and not let it be hijacked by a few non-representative voices who think that they have some monopoly on truth as it relates to Israel."

Q: Are you considering moving to Israel?

"I cannot say that I don't think we're making aliyah. The sensation that I had when I landed at Ben Gurion on Birthright-Taglit for my first time in Israel, at the age of 19, is a sensation that is a sensation that I get every time I'm here. I started crying on the plane here. My friends always ask me, 'Do you think it'll wear off? Do you think that the magic and the sensation you feel when you come to Israel, will wear off?' Twelve years strong and I actually have tears in my eyes looking over the city (Tel Aviv). I think I have a role to play in my country in the US as an activist fighting for so many of the climate and social movements with which I'm deeply embedded, and also, as an American Jew, and I don't take that responsibility lightly. I've never been more grateful for the existence of the State of Israel, as a literal safe haven and refuge, but also as a place that safeguards and nurtures and elevates and catalyzes so many things in which I believe not only around faith in history and culture and peoplehood, but also about progressive values and, and climate and social movements. I am the best version of myself here. I am one of the best versions of myself here. I was at the event last night and walked in and people said, 'You have curly hair?' and I said, 'Yes, because in the states I straighten it, and I think it looks more professional, whatever.' And here sitting on the beach in Yafo and I can really tan. I was not surrounded by Jews when I grew up, definitely not Israelis. I think about that a lot. I think one of the greatest things is that the door is always open."

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President Biden and the aides that make up his inner circle have allegedly informed allies in the past days that he intends to run in 2024, the Washington Post reported.

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According to the report, the efforts are aimed at assuaging ongoing Democratic concerns that Biden would not run for a second term due to his age and declining approval numbers, but they could also have the effect of cutting short any potential presidential aspirations for Vice President Kamala Harris or others.

"The only thing I've heard him say is that he's planning on running again," former senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said. "And I'm glad he is."

Biden also told a small group of donors at a virtual fundraiser earlier this month that he intends to run for reelection, reiterating the message he had delivered to the nation at his first White House news conference in March.

Others fear that a second presidential run will entail a far more demanding schedule than the comparatively subdued 2020 campaign, which was primarily handled remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The post Biden's inner circle assuring allies he will seek 2nd term appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.