The Michigan Senate race is a three-way contest between Rep. Haley Stevens, whose last campaign was boosted by millions of dollars from AIPAC; Abdul El-Sayed, a leading advocate of the “Uncommitted Movement” who’s known as Michigan’s Mamdani; and a third candidate, state legislator Mallory McMorrow, who sits between the two. Today’s story is based on leaked audio from a recent McMorrow campaign call.

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Mallory McMorrow speaks on the floor of the Michigan Senate in March, 2024.

Mallory McMorrow, a leading Michigan Senate candidate, has privately produced an “AIPAC position paper” that is “outstanding,” but has not made it public, according to her supporter Rob Kalman, who spoke on a recent McMorrow donor call. The position paper he describes has not been made public.

Kalman is former mayor and council member in Keego Harbor, Michigan, and said on the call he has been in close touch with local and national AIPAC leadership. A recording of the August 20 call was obtained by Drop Site.

AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, asks candidates to privately share position papers before winning an endorsement. According to candidates and campaign managers who’ve gone through the process, the group has a series of litmus tests that candidates must meet, including support for the Taylor Force Act, a willingness to say that “all options are on the table” when it comes to Iran (which is code for a nuclear strike), support for laws against boycotting Israel, and opposition to any conditions on aid to Israel, among others.

McMorrow is running against Rep. Haley Stevens, who was AIPAC’s vehicle in 2022 for one of their more controversial power plays, when they organized against incumbent Rep. Andy Levin, a former synagogue president and self-described Zionist. Levin’s sin, from AIPAC’s perspective, was his willingness to defend his Michigan colleague Rep. Rashida Tlaib and to level criticism at the Israeli government.

Also running is Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a critic of Israel who is running as a Michigan Mamdani. Stevens is presumed to be the favorite to win AIPAC support, but McMorrow has argued publicly that the organization should stay out of the race. In a call with high-level donors, her campaign and some of its key supporters divulged further details when it comes to their AIPAC strategy.

On the call, McMorrow campaign manager Wellesley Daniels is speaking with Rob Kalman, the supporter and former mayor of Neego Harbor. The wife of donor Scott Loney, Sarah Loney Marks, asked the campaign if they would be willing to talk to AIPAC, telling her that AIPAC tends to come in late with a large infusion of cash.

Daniels, the campaign manager, responds vaguely, saying that the campaign is aware of the dynamic and has been in discussion with relevant organizations. Pushed again, Daniels tells her, “We have been talking to every organization that wants to talk about this issue, and that's sort of our policy. So we've had conversations with them.”

It seems as if Daniels would have preferred to leave it there, but former Mayor Kalman then chimed in. “I can tell you that I've talked with them directly, because I know leadership locally and nationally. They know very clearly that I'm supporting Mallory and why I'm supporting her, and I have read her AIPAC position paper. It's outstanding. I don't know if it's public or not,” Kalman said.

A spokesperson for the McMorrow campaign, in a statement, said that no questionnaire has been filled out. “Rob Kalman is not a part of the Mallory campaign. Our campaign does not speak ‘through’ him,” the statement read. Kalman’s offer to take additional questions, however, gives the impression he was a lead part of the call, rather than a supporter asking the campaign manager questions. Indeed, he answered questions on the call rather than asked them.

“Mallory has not received nor filled out a questionnaire from AIPAC. Mallory has expressed her position on the war in Gaza publicly and to many groups representing Jewish and Muslim Michiganders, which is already publicly reported and on her website. She also answered two questions on the issue of weapons and meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on MSNBC earlier this evening.” Asked in a follow-up if the campaign had produced a position paper, the campaign didn’t respond.

The news outlet Jewish Insider reported that McMorrow, according to a source familiar, had produced a position paper for “at least one Democratic pro-Israel group.” That is likely a reference to an AIPAC offshoot known as DMFI, or Democratic Majority for Israel.

Kalman, on the call, went on to argue that Mallory is well-positioned in the three-way race because El-Sayed will be aiming his criticism most loudly at AIPAC’s top candidate. El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official, was an outspoken leader of Mighigan’s “uncommitted” movement. “Mallory will benefit, I believe, because Abdul's gonna hit Haley really hard over it, and so there might be that spend [by AIPAC], but Abdul's gonna provide some cover on that,” he said.

Kalman acknowledged that he has his own concerns with McMorrow’s record when it comes to Israel, citing her recent comments in a D.C. politics newsletter, which said McMorrow questioned a “reflexively pro-Israel stance.”

“I'll tell you that I was concerned with the Bernie vote and some of the public comments that were made – especially like a Punch Bowl article this morning – but Mallory gets it. She understands it. And this is somebody who supports Israel and understands reality on the ground in Gaza. I'm very comfortable with where she's at,” he said. In Punch Bowl, she had said she was urging AIPAC not to weigh in to the campaign, warning that voters are frustrated at the influence of outside money. (It’s unclear what he means about “the Bernie vote.” Sanders has endorsed El-Sayed in the race and Mallory endorsed Elizabeth Warren for president back in 2020.)

“And I think a lot of young people and some, quite frankly, some of the older people within the Jewish community will still vote for Haley, because that's what they've been doing in Oakland County,” he said. “I've told people it's gonna be split. I don't believe it's a monolith, but I think you're going to see a very large part of the Jewish community still support Mallory. It's not just the Andy Levin voters. There's plenty of people that really, really appreciate Mallory's approach. I'll leave it at that. And then a couple other questions, if anybody else has anything else.”

Kalman and a spokesperson for AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment.

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Correction: Kalman is currently a council member in Keego Harbor, Michigan.

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Israel strikes Doha, Qatar, targeting senior Hamas officials. At least 35 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since dawn, Al Jazeera reports, with 83 killed over the past 24 hours. Netanyahu boasts of destroying 50 high-rises in Gaza City, as Israel issues displacement orders for over 1 million in Gaza City. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allegedly threatens to punch a financier in the face. The Trump administration threatens to block diplomats from countries including Brazil and Iran from visiting wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club on visits to the United States. Israel conducts more airstrikes on Lebanon and Syria. Nineteen dead amid protests over a ban on social media in Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu, as the prime minister resigns. British government “finds” that Israel is not committing a genocide in Gaza. The Sumud Flotilla ship Family was rocked by an explosion on its front deck overnight while docked off the coast of Tunis.

Jeremy Scahill discussed Israel’s strike on Hamas HQ in Doha live on Breaking Points this morning.

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Watch yesterday’s ⚡️Drop Site Video Recap, for September 8, 2025.

Frame from an AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing after explosions in Doha's capital Qatar on September 9, 2025. Photo by JACQUELINE PENNEY/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images.

Breaking: Israel’s Strike on Hamas in Doha

Israeli forces carried out a strike in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, targeting senior Hamas leaders. Local media reported six powerful simultaneous explosions and smoke across the capital. A senior Hamas source told Al Jazeera Arabic the delegation survived the attack, while Qatar condemned the strike. According to Al-Arabiya, an Israeli official said Israel informed the U.S. in advance, and that Washington gave its “full support” for the operation. It is not yet confirmed whether anyone was killed.

The Israeli military and Shin Bet published a statement confirming they "conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership" of Hamas. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X: “Today's action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.”

Before the Doha strike, Senior Hamas official Basem Naim called Trump’s proposal for Gaza a “humiliating surrender document” and a push for either “a shameful peace or continued war.” He said the U.S. plan demands Hamas hand over all captives on day one, ties Israeli withdrawal to a government approved by Israel, seeks to disarm the resistance, while completely ignoring Gaza’s reconstruction. Naim stressed Hamas seeks a deal to end the war and “halt the genocide,” and “Hamas leadership has no emperor like Japan’s Hirohito.”

Channel 12 reported that Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met Monday with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to discuss the American proposal on a captive deal and ending the genocide in Gaza, as well as the U.S. “day-after” plan for the Strip. The report cited a senior U.S. official.

Israel also launched a series of airstrikes in Syria today, hitting a base near Homs as well as targets near Latakia and Palmyra. Monitoring groups report that Israel has carried out over 97 operations in 2025, marking a significant escalation. Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes as violations of sovereignty and regional stability, while casualty and damage reports remain unclear. A separate wave of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley killed at least five people and injured five more, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The Genocide in Gaza

At least 35 Palestinians have been killed since dawn in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports at least 82 Palestinians killed and 223 injured in the past 24 hours. Fourteen Palestinians were killed and 37 injured while seeking aid. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 64,605 killed, with 163,319 injured.

Six more deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours due to starvation and malnutrition, bringing the total since the start of the war to 399, including 140 children.

Israel issued a formal order to all Palestinians in Gaza City to forcibly displace and empty every neighborhood, and head to the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi, in the south. Civilians were told to use the Al-Rashid coastal road, with the army threatening: “Remaining in the area is extremely dangerous.” Many are refusing to leave. Gaza’s Government Media Office said more than 1.3 million people remain in Gaza City and areas north of the city as the Israeli army “attempts to carry out the crime of forced displacement in violation of all international laws.”

Israel’s displacement order, instructing people to leave Gaza City.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of destroying 50 high-rises in Gaza and warned Palestinians in Gaza City to “get out.” In a harrowing report, Abdel Qader Sabbah and Rasha Abou Jalal speak to residents who have been forced to displace once again by Israel’s devastating air campaign on Gaza City, their belongings destroyed. “The tent we used to live in cost 200 shekels ($60), and today its price has risen to 4,000 shekels ($1,200), an amount most families cannot afford,” said Um Samir al-Ajlouni.

A Palestinian resistance unit launched a deadly raid on an Israeli army encampment near Kafr Jabalia, north of Gaza City, killing four soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion. The fighters targeted an armored tank, shooting the commander and throwing an explosive inside, killing the entire crew.

On Breaking Points, host Krystal Ball pressed GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay on whether the organization bears responsibility for the daily massacres outside its sites, while Ryan Grim challenged Fay’s claim that 1,100 UN aid trucks in a month proved Israel isn’t blocking aid; Palestinians need 600 trucks per day to stave off famine. Israel has killed at least 2,430 Palestinians and wounded nearly 18,000 while seeking aid since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations on May 27.

West Bank and Jerusalem

Israeli forces shot and killed two 14-year-old boys and injured four others in the Jenin refugee camp today, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The attack came just hours after Netanyahu vowed to target “terror nests” in the West Bank in retaliation for a Jerusalem bus stop attack earlier in the day that killed six people.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the demolition of all buildings without permits in the towns where the attackers are from to be demolished and work permits for hundreds of Palestinian workers to be denied: “This morning, I instructed the imposition of civilian sanctions on the relatives and residents of the villages of the terrorists who carried out the murderous attack in Jerusalem last night, to demolish every illegal structure in the villages, and to revoke 750 work permits and entry permits to Israel,” Katz posted on X.

Hamas praised the “heroic Ramot operation” in occupied Jerusalem—which killed seven Israelis and wounded 17—as a “natural response” to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its crimes in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Senior official Mahmoud Mardawi called it “an act of self-defense in the face of extermination in Gaza.” In its statement, Hamas said Israel’s plans to destroy Gaza City and desecrate Al-Aqsa “will not pass without punishment,” urging Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate confrontation with the occupation and its settlers.

U.S. News

The Department of Homeland Security launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, targeting undocumented immigrants in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods as part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on sanctuary cities. While DHS frames the effort as focused on violent criminals, immigrant advocates and local officials report that people with no criminal records have been detained, sparking fear in communities and prompting residents to organize legal aid and protective measures.

The House Oversight Committee on Monday released hundreds of pages of documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including a redacted “birthday book” allegedly gifted to the financier on his 50th birthday with messages from high-profile figures, including a controversial sketch and note purportedly from Donald Trump, which the White House denies. The release, which also includes Epstein’s will, a 2008 non-prosecution agreement, and a contact list, is part of an ongoing congressional investigation into Epstein’s network and raises questions about transparency, potential complicity of powerful individuals, and the limits of federal accountability.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering new visa restrictions on delegations from Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Brazil ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York, following its earlier denial of a visa to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Proposals under review include limiting Iranian diplomats’ ability to shop at wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, though it remains unclear which restrictions, if any, would apply to Brazilian President Lula da Silva or other foreign delegates.

According to Politico, at a private Trump administration dinner in Georgetown, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to “punch” top housing finance official Bill Pulte in a heated confrontation, prompting club co-owner Omeed Malik to intervene. The clash highlights ongoing tensions between Bessent and Pulte over control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and differing approaches to Federal Reserve leadership.

International News

French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government collapsed after a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly, where he lost by 364 to 194. Bayrou had been pushed for a multi-billion dollar austerity plan, which included cuts to public holidays and social spending, triggering strong public opposition. Bayrou is the third prime minister to be forced out in just 14 months, and his removal weakens the government of Emmanuel Macron.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities on Tuesday to study a petition for a presidential pardon for prominent political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the state-affiliated human rights council said. Abd El-Fattah has been jailed for much of the past decade.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest hydroelectric project. While the $5 billion dollar project has been hailed in Ethiopia as a symbol of self-reliance, the dam has heightened regional tensions, with Egypt and Sudan warning it threatens their Nile water security in the absence of a binding agreement, and Cairo threatening to engage in a conflict with Ethiopia over the issue.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will reportedly meet International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi in Cairo this week, en route to Tunisia, to finalize a new cooperation deal. At the IAEA Board of Governors meeting earlier today, Grossi said “progress has been made” and voiced hope the talks would conclude within days to allow the agency to “resume our indispensable work with Iran.”

Nepal is experiencing its most violent civil unrest in decades as mass youth-led protests erupt over corruption and a now-reversed social media ban. At least 19 people have been killed and hundreds injured as demonstrators defy curfews, clash with security forces, and torch symbols of the political elite, including the Parliament building and leaders’ homes. The largely leaderless youth movement, fueled by anger at nepotism and inequality, forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign today; he admitted the country faces an “extraordinary situation.”

Argentine President Javier Milei suffered a major defeat in Buenos Aires province, with center-left Peronists winning 47% of the vote to Milei’s 33%, raising doubts about his ability to push through fiscal austerity measures and forcing him to consider forming political alliances. The loss, coupled with a sharp drop in markets, signals challenges for Milei ahead of October’s mid-term elections, while Peronist governor Axel Kicillof’s victory boosts his national profile despite internal party tensions.

The British government does not believe Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the Genocide Convention’s definition, citing a Foreign Office review, though former Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the bombings “utterly appalling,” and critics say the stance shields Israel from accountability amid rising civilian deaths and famine. Meanwhile, PM Keir Starmer met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on September 8, with both agreeing that Hamas should have no role in future governance. Starmer signaled that the UK will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN unless Israel ends the crisis in Gaza, allows UN aid, halts West Bank annexations, and commits to a sustainable two-state solution.

Mali’s military launched airstrikes in the gold-rich Kayes region after al Qaeda–linked militants imposed a fuel blockade on Bamako, aiming to pressure the government and restrict civilian movement. The escalation underscores the growing strength of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which has also targeted transport routes, kidnapped truck drivers, and attacked local and foreign-owned businesses to destabilize the transitional authorities.

A new Banksy mural outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice shows a judge striking a protester holding a blood-stained placard. Banksy confirmed the politically charged piece on Instagram, just days after nearly 900 people were arrested for carrying signs backing Palestine Action, which the UK has newly outlawed. Authorities swiftly covered the mural and say it will be removed.

More than 1,200 filmmakers and actors—including Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Melissa Barrera, Ayo Edebiri, Mark Ruffalo, and Javier Bardem—have pledged not to work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” Organized by Film Workers for Palestine, the declaration names festivals such as Jerusalem, Haifa, Docaviv, and TLVfest as complicit through ties to the Israeli government. “In this urgent moment of crisis, where our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror,” the statement warns.

More from Drop Site

Global Sumud Flotilla update: The principal flotilla ship Family was rocked by an explosion on its front deck overnight while docked in Tunis. The Global Sumud Flotilla released a statement last night stating that the organization suspects a UAV had dropped an incendiary device onto the ship, causing a small fire that was quickly put out by those onboard. The ship’s crew and the participants of the Flotilla are safe and unharmed. The Tunisian national guard claimed the GSF reports of the drone attack were “unfounded,” adding that the fire was caused by a cigarette butt or a lighter. Footage shared by GSF shows an object emitting light falling to the deck of the Family Madeira and exploding. The source and nature of the exploding object remain unconfirmed. All passengers and crew were evacuated safely, and the Global Sumud Flotilla vowed the attack would not deter their mission to break Gaza’s siege.

This week on the Drop Site podcast, Murtaza Hussain is joined by Steve Hsu to break down China’s massive military parade and its rise as a global defense power. They explore how Beijing’s growing arsenal and industrial sccould reshape international relations and U.S.-China tensions.

Footage from another boat of the projectile hitting the “Family” flotilla boat.

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