Daily Kickoff
TOP TALKER: “Ann Coulter Accuses Republican Candidates of Pandering to ‘F—ing Jews’ — “Controversial conservative pundit Ann Coulter posted a series of arguably anti-Semitic tweets at the tail end of Wednesday night’s Republican debate, accusing the candidates of pandering to Jewish voters, including one posing the hypothetical question of: “How many f—ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?” [Haaretz]
Simon Wiesenthal Center Denounces Ann Coulter’s Anti-Semitic Presidential Debate Tweet: “Disgusting,” charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper. “And if a simple, “I am sorry” is beyond the reach of the vocabulary of this noted wordsmith, then perhaps she has unearned her spot among top tier political pundits,” Cooper concluded. [PressRelease]
Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein tweets: “To every Jew outraged at Ann Coulter’s comments tonight: You are giving her the attention she craves. Best thing we could have done: ignore” [Twitter]
2016 WATCH — Hillary Clinton to Jimmy Fallon last night: “The most significant email that has come to light, because this was a really important issue, and I had to talk about it on the email, and that is I was asked if I could get gefilte fish into Israel in order for it to be used in time for Passover.” [YouTube]
ICYMI: “5 memorable moments from the Republican debate” [CNN]
Scene at the GOP Debate — Jared Sichel was on location at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley yesterday: Frank Luntz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz separately stopped by to chat with reporters, and shortly before the primetime debate, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson were spotted arriving at the library. Prior to the undercard debate, I spoke with someone on Hugh Hewitt’s team, who said the conservative talk-show host was cramming last minute and wasn’t going to draft his questions until 20 minutes before the debate…
In the press filing room, which was absolutely packed with hundreds of reporters in seats, and dozens standing and sitting on the floor and on stairs, the relative boredom that filled the room in the undercard debate (aside from laughter at Lindsey Graham’s wisecracks) turned to a buzz for the second debate. Many of Donald Trump’s early zingers against Rand Paul and Jeb Bush were met with booming laughter in the filing center, but as Trump calmed down after the first 15 minutes, his comments were met with far less audible interest from reporters as the evening wore on.
Both Paul and Kasich offered positions on Iran more nuanced than obliterating the deal on day one. Paul said he opposes the deal but that if he were president he would see “whether or not Iran complied” with it before tearing it up. And he also said that “[Saddam] Hussein was the great bulwark and counterbalance to the Iranians.” Kasich, meanwhile, offered ambiguous positions on the deal. On the one hand he said that if Iran violates it, “We’ll put on the sanctions, and we have the high moral ground to talk to our allies in Europe to get them to go with us.” And then he said, “If they [Europe] don’t go with us, we slap the sanctions on anyway.” And then, “If they [Iran] fund these radical groups that threaten Israel and all of the West, then we should rip up the deal and put the sanctions back on.” The text of the deal, though, doesn’t require Iran to stop funding groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and the Obama administration has repeatedly said that it’s not counting on the deal to modify Iran’s regional aggressiveness or funding of terror proxies.
In the spin room, two of Kasich’s supporters — former Senators Trent Lott and John Sununu — defended his Iran position. Sununu told me: “Simply saying I know what the world is going to look like in 18 months and my decision is to tear up the deal, that’s a little simplistic and I think that’s the point he was trying to make.”… Lott: “When people say they’re going to shred it all the first day of the next administration in a year and a half from now, that’s not reality, it can’t actually happen.” [Video]
Michael Pregent, Director of Veterans Against the Deal, tweeted: “Kasich’s advisors should know supporting Iran Deal is not something a Republican can run on especially one in denial about Iran cheating now.” [Twitter]
Kasich on fighting ISIS: “Western civilization, all of us, need to wake up to the fact that those murderers and rapists need to be called out, and in Western civilization we need to make it clear that our faith in the Jewish and Christian principles force us to live a life bigger than ourselves…”
Kasich added later… “One more time in America, we need to revive the concept of citizenship, where everybody’s actions make a huge difference in changing the world. We have a Holocaust memorial on our state house grounds. And there is one line on there that stands out all the time. “If you’ve saved one life, you’ve changed the world.”
“Republicans and the Limits to American Power” by Eli Lake: “In one important sense, the Republican field for 2016 has also begun to acknowledge, indirectly at least, the limits of American power to remake the world in its image.” [BloombergView]
Dov Zakheim: “Trump Didn’t Win” [ForeignPolicy]
Shmuel Rosner: “To repeal or to not repeal the Iran deal: 10 notes about the GOP debate” [JewishJournal]
Karen DeYoung: “The Republican divide over the Iran deal” [WashPost]
Peter Beinart: “If AIPAC Lost the Iranian Nuclear Fight, It Won Too: The reason is that although AIPAC didn’t kill the nuclear deal, it has helped kill, at least for now, the prospect of a fundamentally different relationship between the United States and Iran.” [Haaretz]
On The Hill: “U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Ben Cardin, senior Democrats who oppose the nuclear agreement with Iran, will vote against a Republican effort to require new conditions before President Barack Obama could lift any sanctions under the deal, aides said on Wednesday.” [Reuters]
At 10am, Adam Szubin testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on his nomination to become undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Crimes. [CSPAN]
NEXT PHASE: “Time To Make Up: Netanyahu And Obama Will Meet At White House” by Jessica Schulberg: “President Barack Obama plans to meet Nov. 9 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House announced Wednesday, in what will be the first sit-down between the two leaders since relations sagged over U.S. efforts to complete a nuclear deal with Iran.” [WSJ; HuffPost; NYTimes]
Samantha Power on a possible French resolution regarding a Palestinian state: “Without the text, it’s very hard for me to say what we would do. But I can say what President Obama has always said, which is anything that would undermine Israel’s security or is biased or one-sided, the United States would oppose.” [HuffPost]
Next Gen: “Norm Coleman’s son eyes state Senate seat for 2016: Jake Coleman announced on Tuesday a bid for a state Senate seat representing southwestern Twin Cities’ outer suburbs as a Republican. Coleman is a 29-year-old who lives in Chanhassen. He’s worked for Rep. Erik Paulsen for the last four years.” [AP]
BUSINESS BRIEFS: Patrick Drahi’s Altice to Buy Cablevision for $17.7 Billion [Bloomberg; Reuters] • “Henry Kravis’ $29 billion albatross” [Crains] • “Billionaire Marc Benioff and Goldman Sachs employee save money using Uber Pool service” [TechWorld] • “Relativity Bankruptcy: Paul Singer’s Affiliates Challenge Speedy Sale Plans” [Deadline] • “Ivan Glasenberg’s Glencore Raises $2.5 Billion in Share Issue” [WSJ] • “Lord & Taylor to appeal the $31 million White Flint verdict issued in its favor against Lerner Enterprises” [WashBizJournal] • “Jeff Sutton looks to delay Israeli bond offering as deal hits snag” [RealDeal] • Mort Zuckerman’s Daily News may not be ‘daily’ anymore [NYPost]• Shari Redstone, Peter Chernin and Jeff Weiner invest in meditation app [HollywoodReporter] • “Anthony Weiner out of his job at powerhouse p.r. firm” [NYPost]
DRAMA: “Discord Breaks Out at Carnegie Hall” by Gregory Zuckerman and Jennifer Smith: “A simmering clash between leaders of New York’s Carnegie Hall boiled over on Wednesday as financier Ronald O. Perelman, who recently became chairman of the hall’s board of trustees, accused the prestigious music institution’s executive director of improprieties and said the hall has operated with poor oversight.” [WSJ; Bloomberg; NYTimes]
HAPPENING TONIGHT: The Broad museum is throwing an 800-person, black-tie gala Thursday night, with an RSVP list made up of the elite from the art world, Hollywood, business and politics. [LATimes; HollywoodReporter]
PROFILE: “How a Jewish Business School Drop-Out Created a Marijuana Empire” [Forward]
STARTUP NATION: “Gil Shwed: Israel wants to throw out its high tech: Check Point’s CEO talks about the difficulties of being incorporated in Israel and attempts to hire more Arabs and haredi Jews.” [Globes] • “24 Israeli Companies You Should Watch” [Forbes] • “Orange, Publicis invest in Israeli video distributor Hola” [Reuters]
CAMPUS BEAT — ‘Existentially, Yeshiva Is Not In Trouble’ by Gary Rosenblatt: “A sober appreciation of outgoing YU President Richard Joel.” [JewishWeek]
“A Sit-Down With God” — Naomi Schaefer Riley reviews David Gregory’s new book: “His wife speaks the language of spiritual longing, but the Jewish texts that Mr. Gregory studies with Erica Brown, a modern Orthodox tutor, are rooted in rules, conduct and ritual.” [WSJ]
Rabbi David Wolpe: “The Internet Can’t Replace Real Human Interaction: Yes, the synagogue is full of problems and politics, but that is just another way of saying it is full of people.” [Time]
TALK OF OUR NATION: “A Rabbi From Uber” by Jacqueline Jacobs Caster: “A couple of hours later, as we were headed back to the City, and after Chaim had done exactly what he had offered (a beautiful recitation from Psalms and some help with the Hebrew inscriptions), I must admit, this basically secular Jew couldn’t help but feel that Grandpa Jack, a deeply religious Jew whom I never had the chance to know, had somehow sent this lovely man, Rebbe (Uber) Chaim, from above.” [NYTimes]
Neighborhood: “Midwood, Brooklyn, Where Urban and Suburban Meet” by Walecia Konrad: “Midwood has long been known as a Jewish neighborhood. Orthodox families began moving there about 30 years ago, attracted by the housing at prices that were lower than in nearby Orthodox areas like Borough Park.” [NYT]
Page Six: “Hudson Media mogul throws daughter $1 million bat mitzvah” by Emily Smith: “Hudson Media mogul Jimmy Cohen threw a wildly lavish, $1 million-plus bat mitzvah this weekend for his daughter, Jaclyn, where Nick Jonas was paid an estimated $300,000 for performing six songs.” [NYPost]
DESSERT: “This young Jewish chef made vegan food tasty — long before Beyonce made it cool” by Lucy Cohen Blatter: “There’s a buzzy new eatery on the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal streets in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The restaurant, by CHLOE, is garnering consistently good reviews and attracting slews of young, hip diners. Of her decision to have the restaurant certified kosher by the International Kosher Council, Chef Chloe Coscarelli says: “I have a lot of friends in the kosher community, so why not serve them, too? Plus, vegan food is naturally a lot easier to make kosher because there are no animal products.” [JTA]
Making Kosher Cool — “Synago is a new app that mixes networking, dating and content in one site. Soho Synagogue founder Dovi Scheiner discusses his mission to kosher cool.” [WSJ-Video]
Gather the Jews: “Is the group best known for its Jewish girls and guys of the week ready for a rabbi? Gather the Jews, a networking group for Jews in their 20s and 30s, is about to find out. The group, which began in 2010 as an online portal of events, jobs and housing, has hired Rabbi Aaron Potek as its community educator.” [WJW]
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