News

After word of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s untimely death spread, reaction from both aisles of Congress poured in. Doug Friednash, the chief of staff to former Gov. John Hickenlooper, has been intimately familiar with Graham’s impact on foreign relations, and specifically, his longtime support for Israel.

Why did it take sexual assault allegations to collapse Graham Platner’s Maine Senate campaign when the Nazi-linked tattoo was there all along — for 18 years? Posted CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, on X: “Leaders should not have needed another scandal to act. The Nazi tattoo should have been enough.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who was one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress, died suddenly at 71 on July 11. Graham had returned from Ukraine, where he met with Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, the day before. Last month, Graham won the Republican primary in South Carolina, positioning him for a fifth Senate term in November.

The diplomatic isolation of Israel during the war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre will go down in history as a moral failure and a defeat of humanity, says French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy. “The absence of support for Israel will be considered by future historians as a moment of huge disgrace for the West,” Lévy commented  in an interview in Tel Aviv.

Dr. Shimon Blau, the Denver doctor who announced July 5 that he wanted to run as an independent in Colorado’s Congressional District 1, has submitted the necessary signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State.

At 8:30 a.m. on July 5, Bruce Shaffer was the first to arrive at the Colorado Convention Center, holding a sign that said “T/Y N.E.A. For No To Anti Zionist Hate.” The message was aimed at members of the National Education Assn. “It’s really important to be out here,” Shaffer said, “and let the NEA know that we’re really in favor of solid education that presents kids with fair content and not indoctrination to anti-Zionist, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic tropes that predispose them to a type of thinking that really just leads nowhere but to hatred.

Two former Israeli hostages have wed, in the first marriage of hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Sasha Trufanov and Sapir Cohen were visiting Trufanov’s family on Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 when they were attacked and abducted to Gaza.

With the primary races over, attention turns to the November elections. For Jewish and pro-Israel voters in Colorado it is likely to be a mixed bag of options as progressive candidates swept two key races and younger voters came out in significant numbers for a primary. Statewide, more than 1.43 million voters, out of 4.02 million total voters, cast ballots in last week’s primary. 

Graham Platner, the anti-Israel progressive with a covered-over Nazi tattoo who took Maine’s political establishment by storm, is under intense pressure to suspend his campaign for US Senate amid allegations of sexual assault.

Denver doctor Shimon Blau is trying to run as an independent candidate in Congressional District 1, challenging Democratic Primary winner Melat Kiros and Republican nominee Christy Peterson.