Daily Kickoff
BIBI IN DC: The Center for American Progress confirmed our report from yesterday and officially announced that they will host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on November 10th for “a discussion on Israeli foreign and domestic issues as well as ways to strengthen the partnership between Israel and the United States.” [JI]
“Netanyahu Successfully Lobbies To Address Progressive Think Tank During DC Visit” by Jessica Schulberg and Ryan Grim: “Some current and former CAP employees were disappointed by the news of Netanyahu’s upcoming visit, which was first floated Tuesday by Jewish Insider, a newsletter on Jewish politics… As part of the effort to restore Netanyahu’s clout with Democrats, the Israeli embassy reached out to Tanden, the president of CAP, requesting the institution host the prime minister during his November trip. AIPAC, which has paid for multiple CAP employees to visit Israel, followed up to pressure the think tank on the request.” [HuffPost]
TOP TALKER: “During Clinton tenure, State Department vetoed Bill Clinton events on Mideast” by Josh Gerstein: “Top aides to Hillary Clinton were involved in heading off a meeting between former President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2010, as well as a speech the former president was planning to give at an event later that month marking the tenth anniversary of unsuccessful Camp David peace talks at the end of Bill Clinton’s term, the records show. Bill Clinton’s attempt to meet Netanyahu in New York in July 2010 was derailed after National Security Council Mideast staffer Dan Shapiro flagged NSC Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to the plan based on information picked up from top Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer.” [Politico]
Ya’alon speaking yesterday at the National Defense University in DC: “Conflict is rooted in denial of Jewish state, not settlements” [ToI; Reuters]
Thomas Friedman: “I visited Monday with Israel’s very decent defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon. Hearing him describe Israel’s strategic theater is hair-raising: The nation has nonstate actors, dressed as civilians, armed with rockets, nested among civilians, on four of five borders — Sinai, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria — and he does not want to chance opening a fifth one by just evacuating the West Bank. I get it. But there has to be some alternative to doing nothing or doing everything. It needs to be an alternative that at least tests Palestinians to really control some territory — and creates some hope that the two communities can separate securely.” [NYTimes]
Natan Sachs: “Why Israel Waits: Anti-Solutionism as a Strategy” [ForeignAffairs]
Max Fisher: “What Israeli leaders think America gets wrong about the world” [Vox]
Elliott Abrams: “If you love Israel, don’t boycott it” [WashPost]
Intifada Childhood — by Ruth Margalit: “In recent days, in light of the bloodshed, you hear a lot of Jerusalemites, current and former, talk about a feeling of déjà vu. It sounds hackneyed and jaded—this we’ve seen it all before. But how can we not say it?” [NewYorker]
DRIVING THE DAY: CNBC hosts the third Republican debate of the 2016 cycle. The undercard debate begins at 6PM with the main event getting underway around 8PM.
Jeb supporter Jay Zeidman on Rubio: “He’s been a great U.S. senator, but we’re not running for Senate.” [CBS]
“Billionaire to Rubio: Time to step it up” by Alex Isenstadt and Glenn Thrush: “Paul Singer, the billionaire super PAC moneyman, likes Marco Rubio just fine — but he’s not quite ready to crack his seven-figure checkbook for a shoestring Rubio campaign run out of a tatty Capitol Hill row house.” [Politico]
“New GOP Groups Taking Aim at Hillary Clinton” by Patrick O’Connor and Rebecca Ballhaus: “Both entities will be bankrolled by some of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and causes, including hedge-fund billionaires Ken Griffin and Paul Singer and the family of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, whose wife, Marlene, donated more than $5 million to super PACs backing candidates in the first half of the year.” [WSJ]
“Report Spotlights the New York Elites Who Fund Nativist Groups” by Eric Levitz: “Among the other individuals singled out in the report is Barbara Winston, president of the Bruce Winston Gem Corporation and a prominent donor to the GOP, who Newsmax once put on its list of 2015’s “75 Most Influential Jewish Republicans.”” [NYMag]
“Ben Carson Puts Spotlight on Seventh-Day Adventists” by Alan Rappeport: “Mr. Carson’s religion has been cast in a harsher light in recent days, as Mr. Trump, whose support among evangelicals is falling, suggested that the doctor is not a mainstream Christian because he is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Unlike members of other Christian denominations, Adventists honor the Sabbath on Saturdays instead of Sundays. They tend to be vegetarians, and they continue to wait patiently for the Second Coming and the end of the world.” [NYTimes]
“How the Dodgers and baseball shaped Bernie Sanders’ world view” by Les Carpenter:“When the Democratic presidential candidate was a teenager, his beloved Dodgers fled Brooklyn for Los Angeles – and those closest to him believe the shock of their departure helped inspire his political ideologies today.” [TheGuardian]
PROFILE: “The transformation of David Brooks” by Danny Funt: “Explaining Christian theology has bedeviled Brooks for several years now, in writing his latest book, The Road to Character, and in recent columns, much to the bewilderment of readers. It’s strange partly because Brooks was raised Jewish, but also because the opinion pages are generally reserved for current events and politics… Brooks reveals little of his personal life, either in columns, books, or interviews. He threads Christian theology through his recent work, yet won’t say whether he has converted to anything (though he’ll say vaguely that he’s integrating with a new religious community).” [ColumbiaJournalismReview]
INBOX — out later today from Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge: “A National Blueprint for Biodefense: Leadership and Major Reform Needed To Optimize Efforts” [Hudson]
BUSINESS BRIEFS: Antony Ressler scraps $2.6-billion merger for money management firm [LATimes] • A Conversation With Real Estate Publicist Steve Solomon [NYTimes] • “Casey Wasserman Lists in Beverly Hills” [Variety] • “Brookfield buys piece of Park Tower’s Greenpoint Landing”[RealDeal] • “Brooklyn Office Market Exploding With New and Converted Buildings” [Observer] • “Baltimore City settles with Rennert over unpaid water bills” [Brew] • “Delek Oil Exploration Spinoff May Float Shares in Tel Aviv” [Haaretz] • “B&H Photo Still Keeping Secrets in Brooklyn Warehouse” [Patch] • “Mort Zuckerman’s Daily News could be for sale again soon” [NYPost]
TALK OF THE TOWN: “As Sheldon Silver Heads to Trial, A Democratic Challenger is Poised to Run” by David Howard King: “Manhattan District Leader Paul Newell is gearing up for his second bid to replace Assemblymember Sheldon Silver. Newell told Gotham Gazette that he has started fundraising and is “close to running.” A political lifetime ago, in 2008, Newell ran a grassroots campaign to unseat Silver, who was then at the height of his power.” [GothamGazette]
TALK OF OUR NATION: “Ultra-orthodox Jews are using WhatsApp to defy their rabbis’ internet ban” by Amar Toor: “WhatsApp has become popular among the Haredi community — an umbrella term for ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects that include the Hasidim. For Moshe and other Hasidim, the app provides a window into the outside world, and a forum for candid debate and discussion. In their view, it’s a closed network that’s not explicitly connected to the open web. For Hasidic leaders, it’s the latest threat to centuries of tradition and insularity.” [TheVerge]
“Modesty moves into the mainstream” by Katherine Finnerty: “Frustrated by the lack of good quality, affordable options for Hasidic women, the women decided to go into business together in 2012, and created a collection that reflects their “religious-but-worldly sensibility,” said Hecht, 28, in an interview with Women in the World. “We keep the Sabbath, and we also love Beyonce,” Notik, 26, added.” [NYTimes]
Related: “Startups Cater To Muslim Millennials With Dating Apps And Vegan Halal Soap” by Monique Parsons: “Matchmaking apps like Salaam Swipe provide a twist on Tinder for Muslim millennials. Other companies supply everything from vegan halal soaps to gourmet halal meals delivered fresh to your door… “I definitely do see us following us the trend of the Jewish and Hispanic market,” Sahiba Ansari says: A tech-savvy generation moving far beyond the old neighborhood and the corner stores their parents and grandparents built and relied on.” [NPR]
SPORTS BLINK: “Komoroski: Blatt a Renaissance man” by Bob Jacob: “Len Komorski, CEO of Cleveland Cavaliers, is a huge supporter of head coach David Blatt. He told the Cleveland Jewish News that “David is sort of a Renaissance man. Great guy, great person, interested in people and in just life in general. He’s such a high-quality person. He has been so successful wherever he’s been. It transcends anywhere, whether it be Europe or the U.S., whatever the case may be.” [CJN]
“Did a Jewish woman blaze a new path for women in pro baseball?” by Hillel Kuttler: “This month, the 40-year-old Siegal, who lives in Southern California, got even closer to the action than those box seats: She worked as a coach for the Oakland Athletics’ Instructional League team in Arizona. In doing so, Siegal became the first female to serve as a coach for a Major League Baseball club and joined the ever-growing list of women blazing new paths in the game.” [JTA]
DESSERT: “Watch Chuck Schumer’s Cold Open in SNL-like Commercial for JNF” [JI]
