US Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) speaks on stage during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on July 11, 2025, in Tampa, Florida. Photo: Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect

US Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) has firmly established himself as the frontrunner in Florida’s Republican primary for governor, new polling shows, building a substantial lead over the field, which includes anti-Israel investment firm CEO James Fishback. 

The survey, carried out by The American Promise, finds Donalds leading the field with 38 percent support among likely Republican voters. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins trails far behind at 9 percent, while Azoria CEO James Fishback registers 2 percent and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner garners just 1 percent. Nearly half of respondents, 49 percent, say they remain undecided.

Donalds, a stalwart conservative and strident ally of US President Donald Trump, has established himself as a firm ally of Israel. Donalds expressed support for Israel’s right to self-defense in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. As skepticism about Israel has surged within the Republican Party in recent months, Donalds has maintained strong vocal support for the Jewish state.

During an interview with Fox Business this week, Donalds lamented rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment within the country and around the world. 

“This level of antisemitism, this hatred against Jewish people and against Israel, it’s out of control. It’s insane,” Donalds said. 

Donalds also reflected on the antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on Sunday, connecting the rise of extremism in Western countries to relaxed migration policies. 

“I mean, this rhetoric around hating Israel, hating the Jewish people, that has to stop because there are real-world consequences. There are crazy people who will carry this out,” he said.

“And to Joe Biden and what he did on the southern border for four years, this is the reason why Republicans and President Trump, we are taking border security so seriously in the face of Democrats who had no problem leaving our borders wide open. It’s actually put the nation at risk,” he added. 

Fishback, a successful investor, entered the gubernatorial race on a slate of populist agenda items. He has raised eyebrows in recent weeks by flirting with members of the antisemitic Groyper movement and signaling acceptance of its leader, Nick Fuentes. 

During a December appearance on Rift TV, a podcast hosted by antisemitic social media pundit Elijah Schaffer, Fishback said that he finds “the audience of young men who follow and watch Nick Fuentes to actually be incredibly informed and insightful.”

After receiving substantial blowback over his comment, Fishback released another campaign video in which he reiterated his defense of Fuentes’s supporters. 

“I want to clarify some comments I made this week rather abruptly” about “the young men in our country who watch and follow Nick Fuentes,” Fishback said. 

“I want to clarify and apologize for absolutely nothing,” he continued, adding that his interactions with Fuentes supporters at his campaign events were “respectful” and “civil.” 

“We had a great conversation, and they have a real pulse for what is going on in the country,” Fishback said. 

Fuentes, a 27-year-old antisemitic internet personality and provocateur, has experienced an increase of popularity in recent months, propelled by a surge of viewership from young men. Fuentes has repeatedly parroted Holocaust denial talking points and suggested that Jewish people are more “loyal” to Israel than to the United States.

Amid the uproar, Fishback released a subsequent video on Tuesday defending the free speech rights of those who believe that Israel is committing a so-called “genocide” in Gaza and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be considered a “war criminal.” He falsely suggested that those who criticize Israel are facing legal repercussions. 

“Is Netanyahu a war criminal? Did Israel commit genocide? If you say either of those statements in public, you could be convicted of antisemitism. Criticizing a foreign government or any government is always protected under our constitution,” he said. 

Observers have noted that Fishback’s attempts to entice younger, more online portions of right-wing audiences are a microcosm of the growing rupture between Gen Z and older conservatives on the topic of Israel. Recent polls have indicated a collapse of support for Israel among young Republicans, with this portion of the party expressing more skepticism of providing military aid to the Jewish state. Large swaths of GOP voters under 30 have voiced vocal criticism of US support for Israel and the supposed influence of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, in US politics.

Recent surveys have also shown a substantial rise of antisemitic views among younger cohorts of the Republican Party.

Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s father — Mahmood Mamdani — denounced Columbia University’s efforts to combat antisemitism on Friday, exacerbating concerns that the incoming Mamdani administration will be an anti-Zionist coterie bent on fostering a hostile climate for Jews and supporters of Israel.

“Well, students are terrified; they are terrorized,” Mamdani said on the Substack of Peter Beinart, a prominent anti-Israel writer who earlier this year refused to classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, arguing that the designation carries racial undertones.

“In the smallest move they make, they are targeted,” Mamdani continued. “They are expelled. They are suspended. They are warned. Which means we have less and less of an idea of what they think and how they might respond to their situation.”

He added, “The university is in a vindictive mood.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Columbia University was, until the enactment of recent reforms, the face of anti-Jewish hatred in higher education in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. Dozens of reported antisemitic incidents transpired on its grounds, including a student’s proclaiming that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself and the participation of administrative officials, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes which described Jews as privileged and grafting.

The shocking acts of hatred alone did not militate the university’s adopting a new posture to confront antisemitism on its campus. A slew of civil rights complaints, lawsuits, and the federal government’s impounding $400 million in taxpayer funds did. In July, it agreed to pay over $200 million to settle the cases, which alleged that school officials allowed Jewish students, faculty, and staff to suffer antisemitic discrimination and harassment.

Additionally, Columbia pledged to hire new coordinators to oversee complaints alleging civil rights violations; facilitate “deeper education on antisemitism” by creating new training programs for students, faculty, and staff; and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — a tool that advocates say is necessary for identifying what constitutes antisemitic conduct and speech. Columbia also announced new partnerships with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and vowed never to “recognize or meet with” the self-titled “Columbia University Apartheid Divest” (CUAD), a notorious pro-Hamas campus group which has serially disrupted academic life with unauthorized, surprise demonstrations attended by non-students.

Last week, Columbia University’s Antisemitism Task Force implored the school to foster “intellectual diversity” with respect to the subjects of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, concluding its fourth and final report on the origins of antisemitism on the campus. The task force found several instances of Jewish and Israeli students being harassed on campus as well as an overwhelming anti-Israel bias among faculty.

Mamdani took issue with the establishment of the task force in the first place.

“As you know, they created a task force on antisemitism. And then they followed suggestions that … why don’t we have a task force on Islamophobia? Why don’t we have a task force on XYZ? Student experiences cover lots of, you know, grievances,” he said.

Mamdani’s reversing the roles of victim and perpetrator is a staple of anti-Israel activism in the West, which thrives on misrepresenting the power dynamic between Israelis and Palestinians while insisting that antisemitic expression, conduct, and even terrorism are legitimate means of advocating Palestinian statehood.

Earlier this year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) sued Northwestern University to cancel a course on antisemitism prevention. The group argued that the course, which aims to discourage discrimination, violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an anti-discrimination law. CAIR added that the antisemitism Northwestern University strives to prevent manifest as legitimate “expressions of Palestinian identity, culture, and advocacy for self-determination.”

Weeks earlier, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) sued California to stop the enactment of a law to combat K-12 antisemitism. ADC said that Arabs are victims of discrimination and that fighting antisemitic harassment in accordance with the new law undermines First Amendment protections of speech unfettered by governmental interference. Furthermore, the ADC argued that the law amounts to a hijacking of American policy by Israel, an argument advanced by neo-Nazis, including Nicholas Fuentes, and commentators who promote their views such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.

Such notions appear to have convinced many anti-Israel activists that escalating their conduct is acceptable.

In November, for example, hundreds of people amassed outside a prominent New York City synagogue and clamored for violence against Jews.

Mamdani’s son, Zohran, received widespread backlash from Jewish leaders and pro-Israel advocates after issuing a statement that appeared to legitimize the gathering. The younger Mamdani, who was elected the city’s next mayor last month, issued a statement that “discouraged” the extreme rhetoric used by the protesters but did not unequivocally condemn the harassment of Jews outside their own house of worship. Mamdani’s office notably also criticized the synagogue, with his team describing the event inside as a “violation of international law.” The protesters were harassing those attending an event being held by Nefesh B’nefesh, a Zionist organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel, at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.

Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and anti-Zionist, is an avid supporter of boycotting all Israeli-tied entities who has been widely accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric. He has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide”; refused to recognize the country’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and refused to explicitly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been associated with calls for violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.

Leading members of the Jewish community in New York have expressed alarm about Mamdani’s victory, fearing what may come in a city already experiencing a surge in antisemitic hate crimes.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (middle), and Mossad Director David Barnea (right) attend the Mossad Excellence Awards ceremony in Jerusalem. Photo: Screenshot

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Mossad Director David Barnea on Tuesday honored 12 employees of Israel’s renowned intelligence agency with Certificates of Excellence, recognizing their exceptional service and critical contributions to the Jewish state’s security during the past two years of war.

Marking its 15th year, the Mossad Excellence Awards ceremony was held at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, bringing together former Mossad directors, employees, and commanders, as well as the families of the honorees.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also attended the ceremony on the third night of Hanukkah, praising the honorees for their service, dedication, and unwavering commitment to the Jewish state.

“I want to thank you for your vital part in the ‘miracles and wonders’ we are performing in these times. I have absolute faith in your ability, your daring, and your commitment,” Netanyahu said during his speech at the ceremony. 

“I commend the people of Israel that we have a modern-day generation of Maccabees performing miracles and wonders,” the Israeli leader continued. 

Among the recipients of the Mossad Excellence Awards were four women and eight men, including field operatives in hostile territories, recruitment and case officers, peer operators, operations personnel, cyberwarfare specialists, and leading experts in intelligence, technology, and headquarters functions.

(Communicated by the President’s Spokesperson)

Tuesday, 16 December 2025.

*President Isaac Herzog and Mossad Director David Barnea Award 12 Certificates of Excellence to Mossad Employees*

Today (Tuesday, 16 December 2025), President Isaac Herzog and Director of the Mossad… pic.twitter.com/wXqUafGKz7

— Government Press Office (@GPOIsrael) December 16, 2025

Barnea also praised the honorees for their dedication and sacrifice, recognizing their willingness to risk their lives in service of the people of Israel and the security of the country.

“You are the 12 wonders, the excellence awardees chosen from the best of the best, representing the entire spectrum of our activities,” the Mossad chief said during remarks at the ceremony. “You are the ones who, in the past two years, saw neither day nor night, did not see your families, and were entirely immersed in our success on the battlefield.”

“You are our spearhead from the operational wings who risk their lives on a daily and hourly basis. I am proud of you. All the men and women of the Mossad are proud of you. The citizens of Israel are proud of you, even without knowing who you are or why you were chosen,” Barnea continued.

During his speech, Barnea also warned about Iran’s ongoing nuclear ambitions, reaffirming the Mossad’s commitment to countering the Iranian regime and protecting Israel against any hostile threats.

“Even though the ayatollah regime woke up one moment to discover that Iran is exposed and completely penetrated, Iran has not abandoned its ambition to destroy the State of Israel,” he said, referring to Iran’s shattered air defense capabilities, as well as its decimated nuclear sites, during the 12-day war with Israel in June.

“The idea of continuing to develop a nuclear bomb still beats in their hearts. It is our responsibility to ensure that the nuclear project, which has been mortally wounded in close cooperation with the Americans, will never be activated,” he continued.

Barnea also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims of last weekend’s deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 attendees dead and at least 40 others wounded.

“The murderous terrorist idea of harming innocent civilians was, and remains, at the base of the current Iranian regime’s security strategy,” he said. “Our hearts are with the families of the Australian victims.”

“The purpose of these terrorist attacks is to break our spirit. Our spirit will not be broken; we will continue to celebrate our holidays and live our lives in Israel and around the world. Justice will be done and will be seen,” he continued.

The Mossad, which is assisting Australia’s investigation into the massacre, had reportedly warned Australian authorities in recent months of an increased risk of terrorist attacks targeting the Jewish community.