Daily Kickoff
DRIVING THE DAY: There will be a lot of Iran-related activity on Capitol Hill today. AIPAC has flown in many of their lay leaders and activists from around the country for lobbying appointments with members of Congress. President Obama will host lawmakers at the White House for another discussion on Iran. For the second day in row, Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Moniz will testify on the Hill. The Senate Armed Services Committee will hear from the two Secretaries, as well as Defense Secretary Ash Carter and General Martin Dempsey. [SCAS] Prior to the hearing, Kerry is hosting reporters at the State Department for an “off-the-record discussion on Iran.” [Twitter]
HEARD YESTERDAY: “Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz testified at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Iran nuclear agreement and its enforcement.” [CSPAN] — As each lawmaker only had 5 minutes to both ask their questions and receive answers from the witnesses, many questions were raised but very few answers heard… “Dems clash with Kerry over Iran deal” [TheHill; NYPost]
HAPPENING TODAY: At 10:15am, top Israeli officials — Amb. Dore Gold and Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin — will brief the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in NYC.
Spotted Yesterday: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat jointly addressing the Conference of Presidents at a reception, held at the law offices of Weil Gotshal in NYC, honoring Bob Sugarman’s recent service to the Conference as chairman. [Pic]
POLLS: “Is support for the Iran deal dropping? It appears so” by Scott Clement: “A CNN-ORC poll released Tuesday finds 52 percent of Americans say Congress should reject the deal, while 44 percent want them to approve it. The findings mirror a Pew Research poll released last week and mark the first public polls this year to find majority or plurality opposition to a deal with Iran.” [WashPost; CNN]
“Barack Obama invites Dems to White House for Wednesday meeting” by Lauren French: “Billed as a working reception, it’s a rare overture to lawmakers from Obama, who normally shuns congressional schmoozing. Obama will likely push Democrats — who are scheduled to leave Wednesday for a five-week recess — to support his nuclear deal with Iran.” [Politico]
“Iran Nuclear Deal Gets Support of House Israel Backer, Sander Levin” by Jennifer Steinhauer: “Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan and the longest-serving Jewish member now in Congress, said Tuesday that he would support the Iran nuclear accord, lending a hefty voice of approval in a chamber deeply skeptical of the deal.” [NYTimes; Statement] • Flashback:“Matt Nosanchuk, 48, is taking his experiences in Metropolitan Detroit’s Jewish community all the way to the White House… Nosanchuk is no stranger to the region’s Jewish political circles; he was married to Rep. Sandy Levin’s daughter Madeleine and has worked closely with the Levin brothers on their campaigns.” [DJN]
“The Pro-Israel Lobby Battles ‘Voice of God’ Morgan Freeman Over Iran” by Tim Mak: “On one side: The self-annointed defenders of the Holy Land. On the other: the “Voice of God” and his buddy Jack Black. On Tuesday, Global Zero, a group that advocates for a world without nuclear weapons and is supportive of the Iran deal, released a new ad featuring Freeman and other prominent actors actors and actresses, including Jack Black, Natasha Lyonne, and Farshad Farahat in support of the deal.” [DailyBeast; YouTube]
Heard at Hudson: Sen. Tom Cotton discussing the Iran agreement yesterday… “Iran being able to provide their own samples to the IAEA is like an NFL player giving over his own urine samples to Commissioner Roger Goodell” [Twitter; Video]
Norman Podhoretz: “Israel’s Choice — Conventional War Now, or Nuclear War Later: There was no ‘better deal’ with Iran to be had. Now this calamitous one offers Tehran two paths to the bomb.” [WSJ]
Gary Rosenblatt: “‘Stop Iran Now’ rally was great theater, but mocking our national leaders is not the way to go.” [JewishWeek]
Ronen Bergman: “What Information Collected by Israeli Intelligence Reveals About the Iran Talks” [TabletMag]
Thomas Friedman: “So the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal marks a big change — but because it will lead to an end to economic sanctions on Iran, it could turbocharge 1979 as easily as end it.” [NYTimes]
Pollard to be released in November after 30 years in jail: “A federal panel has granted parole to Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, with a planned release in November, his attorneys said. The announcement said the decision by the parole commission was unanimous and wasn’t in any way related to U.S. negotiations with Iran.”
“The decision by the three-person commission was unanimous, said Mr. Pollard’s lawyers Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman. The lawyers said they were separately asking President Barack Obama to intervene and order that Mr. Pollard, 60 years old, be freed before the Nov. 21 release date. They also asked the White House to let Mr. Pollard move to Israel, which granted him citizenship in 1995.” [WSJ; JPost]
Donald Rumsfeld tweets: “WRT release of notorious spy, Jonathan Pollard, remember: if u want more of something, reward it & if u want less of something, penalize it. Spying ought not to be rewarded. #Pollard” [Twitter]
David Makovsky: “Why Jonathan Pollard’s Release Means Little” [PoliticoMag]
Noah Feldman: “I’m relieved that the nightmare of Jonathan Pollard’s imprisonment is about to be over. Not because I feel any sympathy whatsoever for the convicted spy who will be paroled in November after spending 30 years in prison. No, what relieves me is that, once he’s freed, we’ll be spared the spectacle of respectable American Jewish leaders calling for his early release. Those requests have been harmful to the principle that American Jews can be totally loyal Americans and also care about Israel.” [BloombergView]
Shmuel Rosner: “How not to celebrate the release of Jonathan Pollard” [JewishJournal]
Another day, Another round of Huckabee Headlines: “Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says if he was president, he would use the same language when referring to potential deals with Iran — and that the response from Jewish people to his controversial comments has been “overwhelmingly positive.”.. “We need to use strong words when people make strong threats against an entire group of people as the Iranians have made toward the Jews,” the former Arkansas governor said Tuesday in an interview with Matt Lauer.” [Today] • “Huckabee Stands By Holocaust Remarks in Katie Couric Interview” [Yahoo]
Chemi Shalev: “10 comments on Mike Huckabee” [Haaretz]
2016 WATCH: “Koch brothers summon Bush, Cruz, Walker, Rubio to SoCal confab” by Kenneth P. Vogel: “Most have the capability to write seven- or even eight-figure checks to the super PACs fueling the GOP presidential primary, and a significant proportion have yet to settle on a 2016 choice, or are considering supporting multiple candidates. That includes Charles and David Koch, as well as Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, both of whom will be represented at the conference by advisers, and a number of other attendees of past conferences whose 2016 leanings are being closely watched.” [Politico]
“Jeb Bush Drawing Big Bucks From GOP Establishment” by Beth Reinhard: “A Texas oil man, a Wall Street financier and several former U.S. ambassadors are among the top donors to Jeb Bush’s super PAC, providing hard evidence the Republican establishment is rallying to his presidential candidacy as he girds for a long primary battle.” [WSJ]
“Trump Aide’s Outburst Raises Questions About His Ambiguous Role” by Rosie Gray: “Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, is also an executive vice president at the Trump Organization. He has no official role with the campaign and, per Federal Election Commission documents, isn’t being paid by the campaign. Despite this, Cohen frequently appears on television talking about Trump’s campaign and often fields reporters’ campaign-related questions.” [BuzzFeed] • Trump on Cohen: ‘He’s speaking for himself’ [Politico]
“Werner Herzog For Israeli Prime Minister” by Liel Leibovitz: “In an interview with Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker, CNN quoted the Wisconsin governor musing about his talks with the leader of the Israeli left. But rather than identifying Labor’s head as Isaac Herzog, the non-stop news network awarded the privilege to another Herzog, documentary filmmaker and monotone messiah Werner.” [TabletMag]
BUSINESS BRIEFS: “Supermarket mogul likely last man standing in Mort Zuckerman’s Daily News sale” [NYPost] • “Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media, said to be nearing bankruptcy, is cutting 50 jobs” [LATimes] • “Bloomberg poaching Gray Lady talent for ‘fast commentary’ project” [NYPost]
REAL ESTATE ROUNDUP: “Miami Beach planning board approves Russell Galbut’s Baptist Health urgent care facility” [MiamiHerald; RealDeal] • “Ira Zlotowitz’s Eastern Union to go on hiring spree, open new offices” [RealDeal] • “Samson Management Buys LIVWRK’s Gowanus Building for $73M” [Observer]
STARTUP NATION: “Messaging App Viber Buys Nextpeer To Add Social Features To Its Gaming Portal” by Ingrid Lunden: “Viber, the Israeli messaging app with 600 million+ users acquired last year by Japan’s Rakuten for $900 million, is today making its first acquisition, specifically aimed at building out its new games business. It is paying $9 million for Nextpeer, a social gaming startup based in Israel that offers games developers an SDK to incorporate social gaming features into their apps.” [TechCrunch]
TALK OF THE TOWN: “Confusion reigned as Jewish community groups sought Baltimore curfew exemptions” by Kevin Rector: “On April 28 — just hours before the first nightly curfew would go into effect in Baltimore — Nathan Willner wrote an email to a neighborhood liaison in the office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake thanking her for “verbally authorizing” volunteers with the Jewish safety patrol groups Shomrim and Chaverim to be out past 10 p.m… Over the course of the next 24 hours, Willner would exchange a flurry of emails with several city officials, getting mixed responses until he was ultimately told on the afternoon of April 29 that a decision had been made not to issue curfew exemptions to the groups.” [BaltimoreSun]
Samuel Pisar, Aide to JFK, Dies at 86: “Samuel Pisar, who survived Auschwitz as a boy to become a successful lawyer, an adviser to presidents and the creator of the text for Leonard Bernstein’s symphony “Kaddish,” died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 86. Mr. Pisar was rescued by a French aunt, and with the help of uncles in Australia he slowly created a life of manifold accomplishments: becoming an adviser on foreign economic policy to John F. Kennedy, whom he met at Harvard, and a confidant to Presidents François Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing of France…” [NYTimes; Forward]
SPORTS BLINK: “Vikings’ Mark Wilf ‘most excited I’ve been’ in decade of ownership” by Chris Tomasson: “Wilf, the Vikings’ owner and president, whose family bought the team in 2005, was an enthused spectator in training camp Tuesday at Minnesota State Mankato. “I would say, personally, it’s the most excited I’ve been since we purchased the team,” Wilf said of the upcoming season.” [TwinCities]
HOLLYWOOD: “Adam Sandler: I always had a great connection with Israel” by Noam Kessel: “I always had a great connection with Israel and the fact that the Israelis are like the Zohan, that makes me feel great,” he adds. [YNet]
DESSERT: “The 12 Best Falafels In NYC” [Gothamist]
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