Daily Kickoff
DRIVING THE WEEK: “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Leads Delegation on Israel Trip: Cuomo Intends First International Trip as Governor to Be Gesture of Support” by Erica Orden in the WSJ: “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a delegation of state legislative leaders are scheduled to fly to Israel this week in the governor’s first international trip since taking office in 2011, officials said Sunday. Mr. Cuomo and leaders including state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Coalition co-leaders Dean Skelos and Jeffrey D. Klein are set to leave Tuesday night on a commercial flight to Tel Aviv as a “demonstration of solidarity” with Israelis during the continuing conflict between the nation and Palestinians, according to the governor’s office. During the two-day trip, the Democratic governor is expected to meet with Israeli government officials as well as with individuals affected by the conflict, including New Yorkers who live in Israel.” [WSJ]
—Delegation will also include Mort Zuckerman, Gov. Cuomo’s brother-in-law Kenneth Cole,Neil Cole, and Howard S. Maier. “Friends stand together in times of crisis, and I am proud to lead this bipartisan delegation to Israel to reaffirm our friendship and support,” Cuomo said in a statement. “New York has always had a special relationship with Israel. As Hamas and other terrorist organizations continue to threaten Israel, now is the time to deliver that message of solidarity in person.” (ed. note: Jewish Insider will be joining and reporting on the trip)
RELATED: Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer are set to travel to Israel next week as part of a 3-day solidarity mission sponsored by COJO of West Side.
THOMAS FRIEDMAN LANDS OBAMA INTERVIEW – Israel Is Here To Stay, The Question Is How: “It is amazing to see what Israel has become over the last several decades.. To have scratched out of rock this incredibly vibrant, incredibly successful, wealthy and powerful country is a testament to the ingenuity, energy and vision of the Jewish people. And because Israel is so capable militarily, I don’t worry about Israel’s survival. … I think the question really is how does Israel survive. And how can you create a State of Israel that maintains its democratic and civic traditions. How can you preserve a Jewish state that is also reflective of the best values of those who founded Israel. And, in order to do that, it has consistently been my belief that you have to find a way to live side by side in peace with Palestinians. … You have to recognize that they have legitimate claims, and this is their land and neighborhood as well.”
—Bibi is Too Strong, Abbas Is Too Weak To Make Peace: “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s poll numbers are a lot higher than mine and were greatly boosted by the war in Gaza.. And so if he doesn’t feelsome internal pressure, then it’s hard to see him being able to make some very difficult compromises, including taking on the settler movement. That’s a tough thing to do. With respect to Abu Mazen, it’s a slightly different problem. In some ways, Bibi is too strong [and] in some ways Abu Mazen is too weak to bring them together and make the kinds of bold decisions that Sadat or Begin or Rabin were willing to make. It’s going to require leadership among both the Palestinians and the Israelis to look beyond tomorrow. … And that’s the hardest thing for politicians to do is to take the long view on things.”[NYTimes]
2016 WATCH: HILLARY DIFFERS WITH OBAMA ON FOREIGN POLICY: In an interview withJeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic, Hillary Rodham Clinton used her sharpest language yet to describe Obama’s “failure” that resulted from the decision to keep the U.S. on the sidelines during the first phase of the Syrian uprising.The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle—the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” she said. “One of the reasons why I worry about what’s happening in the Middle East right now is because of the breakout capacity of jihadist groups that can affect Europe, can affect the United States.. Jihadistgroups are governing territory. They will never stay there, though. They are driven to expand. Their raison d’etre is to be against the West, against the Crusaders, against the fill-in-the-blank—and we all fit into one of these categories.”
— On Operation Protective Edge: “I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to the rockets. Israel has a right to defend itself. The steps Hamas has taken to embed rockets and command-and-control facilities and tunnel entrances in civilian areas, this makes a response by Israel difficult… Just as we try to do in the United States and be as careful as possible in going after targets to avoid civilians, mistakes are made.. We’ve made them. I don’t know a nation, no matter what its values are—and I think that democratic nations have demonstrably better values in a conflict position—that hasn’t made errors, but ultimately the responsibility rests with Hamas… It’s impossible to know what happens in the fog of war. Some reports say, maybe it wasn’t the exact UN school that was bombed, but it was the annex to the school next door where they were firing the rockets. And I do think oftentimes that the anguish you are privy to because of the coverage, and the women and the children and all the rest of that, makes it very difficult to sort through to get to the truth…”
—Defends Bibi on Peace Process: “If I were the prime minister of Israel, you’re damn right I would expect to have control over security, because even if I’m dealing with [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas, who is 79 years old, and other members of Fatah, who are enjoying a better lifestyle and making money on all kinds of things, that does not protect Israel from the influx of Hamas or cross-border attacks from anywhere else. With Syria and Iraq, it is all one big threat. So Netanyahu could not do this in good conscience… I saw Netanyahu move from being against the two-state solution to announcing his support for it, to considering all kinds of Barak-like options, way far from what he is, and what he is comfortable with... Dealing with Bibi is not easy, so people get frustrated and they lose sight of what we’re trying to achieve here.”
—- On Iran: “I’ve always been in the camp that held that they did not have a right to enrichment… I think it’s important to send a signal to everybody who is there that there cannot be a deal unless there is a clear set of restrictions on Iran. The preference would be no enrichment… No enrichment at all would make everyone breathe easier. If, however, they want a little bit for the Tehran research reactor, or a little bit for this scientific researcher, but they’ll never go above 5 percent enrichment— If we’re talking a little, we’re talking about a discrete, constantly inspected number of centrifuges. “No” is my preference…JG: Would you be content with an Iran that is perpetually a year away from being able to reach nuclear-breakout capability? HRC: I would like it to be more than year. I think it should be more than year.” [The Atlantic]
—Maggie Haberman Analyzes: “Political watchers will be tempted to characterize Clinton’s comments as calibrating away from an unpopular president as she looks toward a second presidential campaign. But Clinton has always been more of a hawk than Obama, and she has reached a point where she seems comfortable explaining their differences. Still, while her comments may not have been a specific effort to escape the creeping shadow of global chaos stretching over the White House, they will be viewed that way.” [Politico]
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal goes to Vegas as rumors of Sheldon Adelson meeting swirl [AJC]
GAZA WAR CEASE-FIRE HOLDS AS NEGOTIATORS GATHER [AP]
UK Watch 2015 – Resigned minister says Tories will pay the price at the polls for Israelpolicy: Baroness Warsi, who stepped down as a Foreign Office minister last week, told the Sunday Times and Independent that she believed David Cameron’s government policy on Israel would damage Britain and the conservative Party in next year’s election. “People like George Osborne and Michael Gove are very, very close to the Israeli government and the Israeli leadership,” Warsi said. The financial Times quoted several sources within the Tory/Liberal Democrats that lay the blame on the government’s reluctance to criticize Israel on Philip Hammond, the new foreign secretary, who in their view has taken a more pro-Israeli stance than his predecessor, William Hague. [FT]
THE HILL: Why Millenials Are Turning Away From Israel: Young Americans are showing far less fervent support for Israel than older generations, but almost no-one can agree on why the change is happening, how permanent it is likely to be, or what it all means. Observers say millennials are more likely than their elders to be liberal.. Millennials are also much more avid consumers of social media, on which different narratives explaining the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians are more readily available.. These young people also don’t have the same memories as their parents… “Israel has taken a PR battering in the current war,” Tevi Troy, who served as a liaison to the Jewish community for the administration of President George W. Bush, told The Hill. “There is a lot of anti-Israel propaganda… But .. I’m not hugely worried. Over the long run, America’s interests and Israel’s interests are aligned.” [The Hill]
BUSINESS BRIEFS: Israel Investor Confidence Seen in Too-Strong Shekel [Businessweek]
ON THIS DATE IN… (via the AP: 1992 – “The Ghermezian Family’s Mall of America, the biggest shopping mall in the country, opened in Bloomington, Minn.”
STARTUP NATION: “An (Israeli) App Like Yo Could Turn Out to Be Bigger Than Twitter”:“And yet Yo recently received $1.5 million in funding, putting its valuation at between $5 million and $10 million. Its co-founders, Or Abel and Moshe Hogeg, say that they were offered far more. Yo has been downloaded two million times, and its 50,000 or so active users have sent more than four million Yos. If Yo is a novelty app, it’s the most successful one in history.” [WSJ] — “Israel’s IronSource Closes Pre-IPO Investment Round of Up to $100M” [Digits]
SPORTS BLINK: Lebron James Talks Blatt: In a city welcoming him home, Lebron James said he did some research on the former Maccabi Tel Aviv coach hired by Cleveland in June and likes what he’s seen. “I watched all his clips from him coaching Maccabi and I kind of broke them down to see how I fit and obviously I can fit in every position on the floor,” he said. [AP] — Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2014 Preseason Schedule Features Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Schottenstein Center [Cleveland]
TALK OF THE TOWN: “Orthodox Jews get long-sought eruv in Westhampton Beach”: “The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach installed 45 of the markers — called lechis — in Westhampton Beach last week, following a favorable court ruling in June. The synagogue has sought since 2008 to establish an eruv in the villages of Westhampton Beach and Quogue and an unincorporated part of Southampton Town. The East End Eruv Association, a nonprofit group affiliated with the synagogue, is still locked in litigation with all three municipalities. In June, a federal judge ruled that Westhampton Beach had no laws that could block creation of an eruv, clearing the way for utilities to issue licenses for the synagogue to affix lechis to their poles. The judge did not issue a definitive ruling for Quogue or Southampton. Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesman for the eruv association, said the eruv “is hardly visible to the eye” and “has no impact whatsoever on non-Jews and nonobservant Jews.” [Newsday]
Murder in Miami Beach: Local Jewish community mourns slain Brooklyn rabbi amid police investigation: Florida’s Jewish community continued to grapple with the death of an Orthodox rabbi, one day after, police said, he was gunned down while walking to temple on the Sabbath. 60-year-old Joseph Raksin was confronted by two men Saturday morning as the religious leader was walking to Bais Menachem Chabad, a nearby synagogue. An altercation ensued, and then one of the subjects took out a gun and shot Raksin… Raksin’s family said the rabbi was targeted for being Jewish… Miami-Dade Police continue to search for the two suspects. Investigators said there’s no proof at this time that confirms the shooting was a hate crime. [WSVN] — “Presser scheduled for NY rabbi killed in Florida” [WSJ]
BIRTHDAYS: David Rubenstein turns 65… Isaac “Yitz” Applbaum turns 54… David Brooks turns 53
That’s all folks, have a great Monday!
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