Daily Kickoff
Hillary writes to Haim Saban: “I know you agree that we need to make countering BDS a priority. I am seeking your advice on how we can work together – across party lines and with a diverse array of voices – to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel.”
“I hope you will work with me on this priority. It was more than three decades ago when Bill and I took our first trip to Israel… The Jewish state is a modern day miracle – a vibrant bloom in the middle of a desert. We must nurture and protect it. I will be speaking out publicly on this issue in the weeks ahead, so I am eager to hear your perspective and advice.” [Full Letter]
Malcolm Hoenlein received an identical letter from Hillary but she signed it “Looking forward to working with you again” instead of the “Look forward to working with you on this” signature that Clinton wrote on the letter to Saban. Compare the two signatures [JewishInsider]
How It Played — [Politico; TheHill; TheCable; AP; NYTimes]
Quick Take: @RosieGray – “seems to me likeliest reason for HRC letter to Saban on BDS is to reassure pro-Israel donors before she (potentially) supports the Iran deal.” [Twitter]
“Boycott Israel Drive Gains Strength, Raising Alarm” by Tia Goldenberg: “Ten years ago, a small group of Palestinian activists had a novel idea: inspired by the anti-apartheid movement, they called for a global boycott campaign against Israel as a nonviolent method to promote the Palestinian struggle for independence. The BDS campaign – named for its call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel – began as an idea by 170 Palestinian civil society groups in the West Bank in 2005. It has grown into a worldwide network of thousands of volunteers lobbying corporations, artists and academic institutions to sever ties with Israel.” [AP]
IRAN TALKS: “Iran Now Pushes For An End To Arms Embargo In Nuclear Deal” by George Jahn: “As negotiators braced for yet another possible extension of nuclear talks, Iran demanded on Monday that any deal should include the end to a U.N. arms embargo as well – a condition backed by Russia but opposed by the United States as it seeks to limit Tehran’s Mideast influence.” [AP] • “Iran talks resume on new deadline day” [Yahoo]
“Is No Nuclear Deal With Iran a Better Outcome for Obama?” by Aaron David Miller:“Washington could manage the fallout from no agreement. And in that case, it’s more than likely that Iran would become a problem for the next administration, which, frankly, wouldn’t be such a bad outcome for this one.” [WSJ]
“Netanyahu prepares to fight world over Iran deal” by Barak Ravid: “An Israeli source noted that Netanyahu seems optimistic about his chances. According to the source, Netanyahu recently told Jewish-American leaders that the battle is not lost. Those who heard the prime minister say it is hard to tell if he actually believes his own words or is only using the rhetoric to try to muster the forces. Either way, Netanyahu conveyed to his interlocutors that he believes that with the right steps, enough Democratic lawmakers with enough political clout can be swayed to stop the deal in its tracks.” [Haaretz]
ICYMI: “Israel losing Democrats, ‘can’t claim bipartisan US support,’ top pollster warns” [ToI]
“America and Israeli Are Letting Their Enemies Kill Each Other Off” by Jonathan Schanzer: “As some see it, what’s happening now in the Mideast provides the best excuse the Israelis have had in a long time to just sit back and let their worst enemies rub each other out. Senior Israeli officials now view Hamas, the terror group that lobbed thousands of rockets at Israel last summer, as a potential bulwark against supporters of the Islamic State (Daesh in Arabic) in the Gaza Strip.” [PoliticoMag] • “U.S. Seeks Mideast Shift to Follow Iran Deal” [WSJ]
2016 WATCH: Bobby Jindal — “Let’s be true to our principles,” Jindal said. ”Let’s show the American people we are willing to fight for what we believe in. Let’s shrink the size of government, but let’s also win the war against ISIS, stand with Israel and stop allowing Iran to become a nuclear power.” [WMUR]
“As Republican Infighting Grows, Donors Call For Calm” by Steve Peoples and Julie Bykowicz: “Worried about “Republican-on-Republican violence,” top party donors are taking action, with one firing off a letter calling for more civility and another seeking to block businessman Donald Trump from the debate stage altogether… “Anyone, in either party, who cannot strive for office and challenge his opponents while remaining civil and gracious is unlikely to be qualified to be leader of this great country,” Lewis Eisenberg, finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Monday.” [AP]
HAPPENING TODAY: Allen & Co.’s annual convergence of media and tech moguls begins today in Sun Valley, Idaho. If the Aspen Ideas Festival is known as ‘summer camp for D.C.’ then Sun Valley is ‘summer camp for billionaires,’ 300 of them to be precise. Attendees include Sheryl Sandberg, Harvey Weinstein, Casey Wasserman, Barry Diller, Fred Wilson, Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman, David Friedberg, Thomas Friedman, Charlie Rose, UAE Amb. to the U.S. Youssef Al Otaiba, Rory Abovitz.
BUSINESS BRIEFS: “Israeli Gas Boon Blocks Out Solar Industry Hopes” [WSJ] • “Israel’s Teva Plans to Raise Mylan Bid to $86-$88/Share This Week” [Bloomberg] • Bill Rudin, Mort Zuckerman team up with Adam Neumann’s WeWork for new Brooklyn Navy Yard office building [WSJ] • “One of Ziff Brothers Relocating to Establish Own Firm at 285 Madison” [WSJ] • “Asher Raphael and Corey Schiller run the “Best Workplace for Millennials” [Fortune] • “Recriminations and accusations are flying after the PBS series shelved veteran reporter Lowell Bergman’s documentary about Sheldon Adelson and the gambling industry in Macau” [DailyBeast] • “Intel launches Israeli startup accelerator” [Globes]
STARTUP NATION: “Google’s Waze Launches Ride-Sharing App In Israel” by Neal Ungerleider: “Google-owned traffic app Waze is beta-testing a new ride-share initiative in its home city of Tel Aviv. The new app is called RideWith and connects commuters going to work with Waze users traveling along the same routes. Drivers are then compensated for the cost of their ride through the RideWith app. This isn’t, however, meant to be an Uber competitor: To avoid regulatory issues, the app limits drivers to accepting only two rides a day—and only during rush hour when going to and from the workplace.” [FastCompany; WSJ; Wired; Bloomberg] • Headline: “Google is taking on Uber and it’s starting in Israel” [Fortune]
JEWISH TECH: “The Patent Office is a repository of Jewish innovation, from the baseball cap-cum-yarmulke to the KosherSwitch” by David Zvi Kalman: “By the time the KosherSwitch was patented in 2007, more than a hundred patent applications had been filed for devices or processes relating to Jewish ritual practice; the earliest of these patents date back to the very beginning of the 20th century. Although these patents are public record and available online, they have never before been documented systematically. I have spent the last few weeks doing just that.” [TabletMag]
“Say Hello to the Internet’s Biggest Jewish Stars” by Philip Eli: “Ezra Klein, Sarah Koenig, Josh Ostrovsky, David Portnoy, Kate Siegel.” [Forward]
HOLLYWOOD: “Michael Douglas’ sensitive new role: promoting Jewish identity” by Jeffrey Fleishman: “A conversation doesn’t often meander from the life of ants to the Iranian nuclear negotiations, but Michael Douglas, newspapers scattered at his side, is busy these days selling a new Disney film and acting as an ambassador of sorts to promote Jewish identity at a time when Israel is facing increasing international pressures.”
“Douglas, 70, said that for decades, Orthodox rigidity made him feel estranged from his faith. His son Dylan’s bar mitzvah last year and his father’s return to religion later in life inspired him to use his fame to persuade other secular Jews to feel included and “not to drift away.” With an estimated 14 million Jews worldwide, he said, it is critical that the population not shrink or “go the way of the Etruscans” and vanish.” [LATimes]
“Longtime Hollywood Producer Jerry Weintraub Dies at 77” by Jake Coyle: “One of the last of the classic Hollywood showmen, Jerry Weintraub built his show business empire on a Rolodex and chutzpah. The Brooklyn-born son of a Bronx jeweler, Weintraub rose from the mailroom of a talent agency to become a top concert promoter before shifting into a decades-long career as a top Hollywood producer… He titled his 2011 memoir: “When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead.”” [AP; HollywoodReporter; NYTimes]
LongRead: “Why a top Israeli cop killed himself” by Gidi Weitz: “Pinto, his followers, and his uninhibited publicists did not give up. They promised themselves that this battle would end in victory. The rabbi’s followers launched an entire industry of fatal, unbridled rumors regarding Bracha, and didn’t let up. They disseminated sensitive personal information about him that would have hurt those less tough than Bracha, accused him of corrupt ties with the worst of Israeli criminals, of being a serial bribe-taker, and of leaking information from sensitive investigations to shady individuals and those with vested interests.” [Haaretz]
TALK OF THE TOWN: “Lawsuit aims to stop Jewish ritual that involves tossing, killing chickens on Brooklyn sidewalks” by Barbara Ross: “A group of Brooklyn residents is suing four rabbis, several Hasidic congregations and the city to stop an annual religious ritual that involves flinging chickens around by their wings and slicing their necks on public sidewalks.” [DailyNews]
“Ari Roth Talks About His Controversial Firing and What Comes Next” by Paul O’Donnell:“Ari Roth may have more to say, in private, about the unpleasantness that accompanied his firing late last year from Theater J, the company based at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center on 16th Street where Roth, 54, spent nearly two decades as artistic director. Under Roth, the group was known for drama that was politically charged, intellectually curious, and above all controversial—too controversial, in the end, for the JCC: Roth’s insistence on presenting plays critical of Israel provoked years-long, increasingly nasty, and ultimately terminal quarreling.” [Washingtonian]
2015 TOP 200 ART COLLECTORS: Included on this year’s list — Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova, Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, Debra and Leon Black, Len Blavatnik, Irma and Norman Braman, Edythe and Eli Broad, Alexandra and Steven A. Cohen, Glenn Dubin, Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg, Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg, Lawrence Ellison, Caryl and Israel Englander, Susan and Leonard Feinstein, Noam Gottesman, Laurence Graff, Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis, Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder, Leonard Lauder, Barbara and Aaron Levine, Margaret Munzer Loeb and Daniel Loeb, Daniel Och, Marsha and Jeffrey Perelman, Ronald Perelman, Lisa and John Pritzker, Penny Pritzker, Emily and Mitchell Rales, Steven Rales, Aby Rosen, Joseph Safra, Lily Safra, Jerry Speyer, Judy and Michael Steinhardt, Abigail and Leslie H. Wexner, Stephen A. Wynn. [ArtNews]
SPORTS BLINK: “Amar’e Stoudemire raises big money for Israeli lifesaving concept NY won’t accept” by James Ford: “Six-time NBA All Star Amar’e Stoudemire, who cemented his career in New York, is taking the matter into his own hands and is deploying a fleet of ambucycles in a place where they’re welcome — Israel — and he’s doing it with a big assist from hundreds of young people from the Tri State area and their families.” [Pix11]
TOP TWEET: @ChrisBosh — “Walking in the steps of the prisoners at #Dachau puts life and freedom in stark perspective. #NeverAgain” [Twitter]
DESSERT: “Harry & Ida’s, a Modern Reincarnation of the Jewish Deli” by Rani Molla:“Truthfully we’re doing so many different, weird things in there, it’s tough to call it a pure reincarnation of a Jewish delicatessen,” Mr. Horowitz said. [WSJ]
BIRTHDAYS: Yitzhak Tshuva turns 67… Shalom Klein…
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