{"id":498427,"date":"2026-06-18T04:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498427\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:06:09","slug":"alex-bores-draws-backing-from-rival-israel-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498427\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Bores draws backing from rival Israel camps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Bores, who\u2019s running to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler in Congress, is threading a very delicate needle.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, Bores, a two-term New York State Assembly member from the Upper East Side, has garnered support from several Jewish leaders and political moderates who tout his backing for Israel. He marches annually in the city\u2019s Israel Day Parade<\/a> and has resisted growing calls for Democratic politicians to support conditioning military aid to Israel.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he\u2019s being backed by a number of left-wing groups and individuals calling for those very conditions.<\/p>\n

Those two camps seldom coexist on a single candidate\u2019s list of endorsements, especially as Israel has become a major wedge issue this midterm election cycle. But Bores, who has made a promise to regulate artificial intelligence at the center of his campaign for New York\u2019s 12th Congressional District, has managed to maintain the coalition.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could make a sitcom,\u201d said Cameron Kasky, a former candidate in the race who\u2019s now backing Bores, referring to what he called the \u201cBoalition.\u201d \u201cIf you put 12 Alex Bores endorsers in a mansion together and showed up with a reality TV crew, you could make the most must-watch television in the entire world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AssemblyAssembly member Alex Bores speaks during a press conference on the Climate Change Superfund Act at Pier 17 on May 26, 2023 in New York City. Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) were joined by state lawmakers, including State Sen. Liz Krueger the author of the Climate Change Superfund (credit: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO\/GETTY IMAGES)<\/p>\n

Scroll through the \u201cEndorsements\u201d page on Bores\u2019 campaign website, and you\u2019ll find Chi Osse, the democratic socialist City Council member who\u2019s called for divesting city pension funds from Israel bonds, just a couple rows down from Carolyn Maloney, the former Upper East Side representative who was a staunch supporter of Israel in Congress.<\/p>\n

Progressive groups such as Bernie Sanders\u2019 Our Revolution and PSC-CUNY, the City University of New York\u2019s staff-faculty union, are backing the same candidate who drew the support of ActJew, which supports more centrist candidates and calls itself \u201ca response to a political and social landscape that normalizes antisemitic and anti-Israel activity and rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bores\u2019 endorsers include some of Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u2019s political allies, such as failed City Council candidate Lindsey Boylan, as well as vocal critics of the mayor, including Fabien Levy, a Jewish spokesperson for Mamdani\u2019s predecessor, Eric Adams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine the Bores campaign hasn\u2019t occasionally looked at each other and been like, \u2018What is happening right now?\u2019\u201d Kasky said.<\/p>\n

A coalition across the Israel divide<\/p>\n

So how is Bores pulling it off?<\/p>\n

For progressive groups, the answer lies, at least in part, in Bores\u2019 work on AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe put forward the country\u2019s strongest regulation of the AI industry<\/a> to protect Americans from those who want no rules and only care about unfettered power and profit,\u201d wrote Our Revolution\u2019s executive director, Joseph Geevarghese, in an endorsement announcement. Geevarghese was referring to the RAISE Act, a state law that Bores introduced to impart transparency and safety regulations on AI models.<\/p>\n

As an elected official, Bores is no political outsider, though the 35-year-old\u2019s background in the tech industry differentiates him from fellow frontrunner Lasher, who\u2019s spent decades working for politicians such as Nadler, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor.<\/p>\n

Bores\u2019 resume includes a nearly five-year stint at the tech company Palantir, starting as a data scientist in 2014 and working his way up to become the US government lead. That gig has complicated how some progressives view Bores, given Palantir\u2019s work with ICE<\/a>, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that Bores himself has called for abolishing. He has repeatedly said that he quit Palantir over its contract with ICE back in 2019, and that he chose \u201cprinciple over my career and millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pundits such as center-left commentator Matthew Yglesias, who has also joined the Bores coalition, say there is a \u201cunique value\u201d to him winning because of his promise to enforce AI regulations and the message that it would send to the anti-regulation PACs that have been spending against him. Yglesias added that Lasher, too, would be \u201can above-average House member.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a race with little daylight between the two frontrunners, particularly regarding the US-Israel relationship, Bores\u2019 AI focus is setting him apart. And rather than sit out the race due to differences on Israel, a number of progressive groups are backing him anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think progressives see something in Alex that is a testament to a resolve he\u2019s going to bring,\u201d said Kasky, who has advocated for policies such as an arms embargo on Israel. \u201cAnd I think that that is enough for progressive groups to cede ground on the issue of Israel-Palestine, and frankly, the issue of Israel and the Middle East region as a whole, which is getting increasingly severe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israeli politics in a heavily Jewish district<\/p>\n

The makeup of the district itself plays a role as well. As one of the country\u2019s most heavily Jewish districts, NY-12 is seen as less hospitable than other deep-blue districts for a \u201cSquad\u201d-type insurgent candidate. John F. Kennedy\u2019s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, is the only major candidate who calls for conditioning aid and blocking weapons sales to Israel, but he has dropped in recent polls as he\u2019s faced questions over his lack of experience.<\/p>\n

Bores, Lasher, and Schlossberg are all listed as \u201cprimary approved\u201d candidates by J Street, the liberal pro-Israel organization.<\/p>\n

Bores has confirmed that Our Revolution asked him about Israel and gave him its endorsement despite not being aligned on the issue. During a candidate forum in May, he said that \u201cwe need to make it acceptable for there to be people in progressive spaces that still believe in the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Miller, who was CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York for 36 years, is endorsing Bores and wrote in a Facebook post that Bores is a \u201csteadfast supporter of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview, Miller, whom Bores named at a recent Temple Emanu-El forum as a Jewish American he admires, said he felt assured that Bores\u2019 support from groups such as Our Revolution was mostly due to his AI work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that he\u2019s receiving support from a coalition that includes decidedly left-wing supporters doesn\u2019t trouble me for as long as the issues of central concern to me, antisemitism and support for Israel, are those issues where he has given his support and with which he has identified,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Miller added that he believes Bores\u2019 Jewish family, his wife, Darya (who recently appeared in a campaign ad), and son, Charlie, who is also Jewish, play a \u201clarge role in how he thinks about matters of concern to the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Praise and skepticism from Jewish groups<\/p>\n

A number of Jewish celebrities in the district have embraced Bores. The Oscar-winning songwriter Benj Pasek and Jewish cookbook author Jake Cohen posted photos on social media showing them at a Bores event in a private home that included a conversation with journalist Laurie Segall about AI.<\/p>\n

On the same day, Miller and more than 20 other local Jewish leaders and elected officials signed a letter endorsing Bores. The letter emphasized his record of combating antisemitism, pointing to measures such as securing funds for Holocaust survivor programs, funding security for synagogues and Jewish institutions, and organizing trips for students to Jewish museums.<\/p>\n

But for some Jewish groups, Bores\u2019 support from left-wing groups critical of Israel has given them pause.<\/p>\n

Moshe Spern, a board member of the group ActJew, called on Bores to drop his PSC-CUNY endorsement back in March, saying the union is \u201cconsistently calling for divestments from Israel\u201d and has \u201cdownplayed and ignored Jewish students\/faculty experiences since 10\/7.\u201d PSC-CUNY revoked a pro-BDS resolution against Israel in February 2025, after its initial passage sparked backlash, including from Hochul and CUNY itself. Spern told JTA he pushed for the group to rescind its endorsement, but was outvoted.<\/p>\n

Bores replied to Spern\u2019s tweet, writing that \u201cevery major candidate pursued PSC-CUNY\u2019s endorsement,” and that his endorsement interview focused on funding public education and regulating AI. Bores added that he has \u201cspoken out against antisemitic incidents on campuses (including CUNY specifically) and will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some progressive groups have refrained from endorsing Bores because of his pro-Israel politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much a non-starter for us to endorse someone who wouldn\u2019t sign on to the Block the Bombs,\u201d said Sophie Ellman-Golan, director of communications of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, referring to the Block the Bombs to Israel Act that would prohibit certain weapons sales to the country. She added that Bores also voted for a statewide \u201cbuffer zone\u201d bill meant to curb protests outside houses of worship, which Lasher introduced, and which JFREJ has vehemently opposed throughout the year.<\/p>\n

According to the latest polling data, despite Bores\u2019 greater support from the left, there\u2019s been little difference in the number of voters who are responding to each candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go into any Jewish WhatsApp chat, I see this as an Upper East Side resident myself, and there\u2019s no consensus,\u201d said Michael Harris, ActJew\u2019s CEO. \u201cThe consensus is Bores or Lasher.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Bores, who\u2019s running to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler in Congress, is threading a very delicate needle. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[229399,7737,11863,85,46,43],"class_list":["post-498427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-alex-bores","tag-congress","tag-democratic-party","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}