Daily Kickoff
TRANSITIONS: “Netanyahu Appoints Hawkish Ally to Run Foreign Ministry” by Jodi Rudoren: “The new ministry director, Dore Gold, is a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a prolific author. He is a ubiquitous promoter of Mr. Netanyahu’s policies on international television who has warned against concessions to the Palestinians given the raging chaos in the Middle East… Mr. Gold said in an interview that he did not oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state — unlike the new, far-right deputy foreign minister, who advocates Israeli annexation of the West Bank. But Mr. Gold sees most of the Palestinians’ conditions as impossible to balance with Israel’s security.” [NYTimes] • “Can Dore Gold make Israeli diplomacy relevant again?” [ToI]
TOP TALKER: “Netanyahu proposes talks on borders of settlement blocs” by Barak Ravid: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the European Union’s top foreign policy official last week that he wants to resume talks with the Palestinians, with his goal being to reach understandings on the borders of settlement blocs that Israel would annex under any peace agreement. An Israeli source briefed on Netanyahu’s meeting with Federica Mogherini last Wednesday said the prime minister explained that in this way, it would be clear what parts of the West Bank Israel could continue building in.” [Haaretz; Reuters]
David Horovitz: “Netanyahu and the boiling frog: The PM says Israel must not become a bi-national state. It’s past time for him to act on that conviction” [ToI]
The Economist: “Israel’s new government is running out of friends abroad” [Economist]
“Nuclear Move Stands to Lift U.S.-Israel Ties” by Jay Solomon: “By Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Secretary of State John Kerry and praised the White House for instead blocking the proposed meeting… Israel’s diplomatic U-turn over the weekend shined a light on the continued discord in the U.S.-Israel alliance under the leadership of Mr. Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. U.S. officials hope the U.N. episode helps to mend frayed relations between the two allies ahead of a June 30 deadline to conclude talks with Iran over that country’s nuclear program.” [WSJ; AP; BV] • “Israel Seeks Surge in US Security Support” [DefenseNews]
FROM FRIDAY: Recap of President Obama’s visit and speech at Adas Israel [JewishInsider] • How it played: “At Synagogue, Obama Restates His Support for Israel” [NYTimes] • “Obama shores up Jewish support at D.C. synagogue” [Politico] • “Obama strikes right chord with Jewish audience” [Haaretz] • “Obama says Israel should live up to its founding ideals” [WashPost]
Spotted at Adas: Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Sandy Levin, the Lantos family, Ira Forman, Rabbi Steven Wernick, Jeffrey Goldberg, Judy Gross, Steve Rabinowitz, William Daroff, Alan Solow, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Eric Fingerhut, Matt Nosanchuk, Greg Rosenbaum, Nathan Diament, Abba Cohen, Jay Footlick, Rabbi Nissan Antine, Ron Halber, Matt Dorf, Steve Rakitt, Barbara Goldberg Goldman, and Alex Jakubowski.
Yair Rosenberg: “In poring over Obama’s comments on these big ticket issues, one of the president’s more remarkable statements has largely been overlooked: his equation of denying Israel’s right to exist with anti-Semitism. Essentially, Obama defined anti-Zionism—as distinct from sharp, public criticism of Israel and its policies—as anti-Semitism.” [TabletMag]
“Obama Cares Too Much About Israel” by Eli Lake: “I understand why Obama likes the collective Israeli farms, or kibbutzim, but Golda? She makes current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look like Desmond Tutu when it comes to the Palestinians… But the way Obama frames this matter is a whitewash of history. In his telling, Israel’s founders understood the importance of treating all Palestinians with decency, but over time these nasty right-wingers came into power and Israel is now careening toward a kind of apartheid.” [BloombergView]
Robert D. Kaplan: “It’s Time to Bring Imperialism Back to the Middle East:
Empire may have fallen out of fashion, but history shows that the only other option is the kind of chaos we see today.” [ForeignPolicy]
Bret Stephens: “In November 2013 the president said at a fundraising event that he was “not a particularly ideological person.” Maybe Mr. Obama doesn’t understand the compelling power of ideology. Or maybe he doesn’t know himself. Either way, the tissue of assumptions on which his Iran diplomacy rests looks thinner all the time.” [WSJ]
HAPPENING TODAY: At 12pm, the Hudson Institute hosts a panel on “The Consequences of the Emerging American-Iranian Nuclear Deal” with Efraim Inbar and Lee Smith. [Hudson]
At 10am, the Atlantic Council hosts a panel on “Europe and the Iran Nuclear Deal” with French Amb. Gerard Araud, British Amb. Sir Peter Westmacott, and German Amb. Peter Wittig moderated by Barbara Slavin. [AC]
2016 WATCH: “Florida’s Jewish voters a target for 2016 Republicans, but a near lock for Democrats” by Adam C. Smith and Kirby Wilson: “Republicans can’t win the White House without winning Florida, so every presidential election cycle they look longingly at Florida’s Jewish voters. It’s such a tantalizingly obvious key to locking down 29 electoral votes: hundreds of thousands of Florida Jews who overwhelmingly vote Democratic.” [TampaBayTimes]
Scott Walker to Israel Hayom: “A part of my visit was not only to be briefed and to see firsthand these very real issues, but I also wanted to make it clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to others I met on this trip that if I were to ultimately be a candidate for president and the American voters elected me, I would want to re-establish a very strong relationship between Israel and the United States, and I would make that a priority.” [IH]
“Marco Rubio the hawk turned dovish on Syria in 2013” by Michael Crowley: “At the heart of Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign rollout has been the message that, on foreign policy, he is the toughest hawk in the Republican primary field. But at one of the most hawkish moments of Obama’s presidency, Rubio was a dove.” [Politico]
“Bernie Sanders Rallies a Progressive Campaign With a Realist’s Eye” by Sam Frizell:“Bernie Sanders will hold the first major rally of his presidential candidacy Tuesday in a Burlington, Vt., waterfront park that he helped create as the city’s mayor. But nothing is as unblemished as it seems in politics, and Sanders long ago proved himself a far cannier politician than his idealistic trappings might suggest.” [TimeMag] • “Vermont’s Favorite Underdog” [PoliticoMag]
PA SEN: “Montco’s Josh Shapiro will not run for U.S. Senate” by Thomas Fitzgerald: “Montgomery County Commissioner Chairman Josh Shapiro has told national Democratic Party leaders that he will not run for the nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Pat Toomey next year. Senior Democrats had been encouraging Shapiro to jump into the primary against Joe Sestak, a retired Navy rear admiral and former Delaware County congressman who lost a close race to Toomey in 2010 but who also has a strained relationship with members of the party establishment.” [Philly]
“As Boteach’s political clout grows, critics ask: What’s his goal?” by Mike Kelly: “These are ambitious days for Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Critics dismiss him as a shameless publicity hound, backed by powerful and wealthy special interests. Admirers describe him as a courageous, much-needed voice in the public arena. But who is he anyway? Why does he need to be heard — so much and so often?”
“Reached by phone in Las Vegas, where he runs his international casino business, Adelson, who has emerged as an influential Republican power broker, declined to say precisely how much money he has donated to Boteach in the five years that he said they have known each other. But he said the figure is well into the millions of dollars.” [NorthJersey]
TOP-OP: “Congress Can Fight the Boycott Israel Movement” by Rep. Peter J. Roskam: “If these countries want free trade with the U.S., they can’t engage in politically motivated boycotts against Israel. These same principles were successfully negotiated into U.S. free-trade agreements with Bahrain and Oman in the mid-2000s, prompting both countries to end their boycotts of Israel.” [WSJ]
STARTUP SPOTLIGHT: “Yet another ride service. Only this one is different” by Matthew Flamm: “Modeled on Israel’s sherut van service—a low-priced, communal way to get around—Via requires a dense population to work. But it is like nothing else out there, especially not the shared dollar vans that honk and swerve their way along outer-borough thoroughfares. “We exist in this unique but also very large space between the bus and the subway on one side, and taxis-Uber-Lyft, what have you, on the other,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Daniel Ramot, 39. A Stanford neuroscience Ph.D., he has spent his career developing “complex systems,” including working on advanced avionics in the Israeli Air Force.” [Crains]
STARTUP NATION:
“Wibbitz raises $8 million in Series B funding to automate video production for news outlets” [GeekTime; VentureBeat] • “Israeli digital ad agency establishes beachhead abroad” [ToI] •BUSINESS BRIEFS: “Sheldon Adelson Graft Suit To Be Heard in U.S. Court: A lawsuit against billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, which could lead to the revocation of his gambling license, will be heard in the United States. A Las Vegas judge on Friday ruled that the lawsuit filed by Steven Jacobs, the former CEO of Adelson’s casinos in Chinese-administered Macau, will be heard in the U.S. and not in Macau, as the company had requested.” [Forward]
LongRead: “House of Secrets: Who owns London’s most expensive mansion?” by Ed Caesar: “If a vast and lavishly appointed house in Manhattan—a palace nearly double the size of the White House—were being redeveloped on the edge of Central Park, New Yorkers would want to know who lived there. Londoners are equally inquisitive, and concerted efforts have been made to uncover the identity of Witanhurst’s owners… (The largest residential property in Manhattan is said to be a fifty-one-thousand-square-foot mansion, on East Seventy-first Street between Madison and Fifth, owned by Jeffrey Epstein.)” [NewYorker]
TALK OF THE TOWN: “One Man’s Millions Turn a Community in Florida Around” by Lizette Alvarez: “Two decades ago, Harris Rosen, who grew up poor on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and became wealthy in the Florida hotel business, decided to shepherd part of his fortune into a troubled community with the melodious sounding name of Tangelo Park… Twenty-one years later, with an infusion of $11 million of Mr. Rosen’s money so far, Tangelo Park is a striking success story. Nearly all its seniors graduate from high school, and most go on to college on full scholarships Mr. Rosen has financed.” [NYTimes]
TALK OF OUR NATION: “High wire strewn through city lets Jews keep the faith” by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein: “Being Jewish in Manhattan comes with strings attached. Orthodox Jews are allowed to push baby strollers and carry prayer books on the Jewish Sabbath thanks to a loophole made of fishing line that stretches some 18 miles on utility poles around the city.” [NYPost]
TALK OF THE NATION: “In Holy Land, a tribute to Lorde gets complicated” by Daniel Estrin: “What does the international teenage pop sensation Lorde have to do with the Israeli Palestinian conflict? Nothing, until one Israeli musician set out to partner with a Palestinian artist for a Lorde tribute album.” [PRI]
TOP TWEET: @OneRepublic – “We’ve been to some old places.. Jerusalem somehow feels older than all of them.” [Twitter]
DESSERT: “Bedford Kitchen & Wine Bar NYC” by Dani Klein: “The owner of Los Angeles’ Ditmas Kitchen & Cocktails has confirmed that he is officially opening his second restaurant, Bedford Kitchen & Wine Bar, on Monday, June 1st in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens, NY.” [YTK]
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