Daily Kickoff
THANK YOU — Rabbi David Wolpe writes: “Want a quick daily digest of Jewish political and cultural news? I get Jewish Insider each day and highly recommend it.” [Facebook]
TOP TALKER: “Republican governors and candidates move to keep Muslim migrants out” by Robert Costa and Abby Phillip: “The efforts come amid heightened fears among Republicans, and some Democrats, that potential terrorists may be concealing themselves among the tens of thousands of people fleeing Syria’s civil war… “When I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test,” Obama said, “that’s shameful. That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.” “It’s very worrisome,” said Ari Fleischer. “We must always make the distinction between law-abiding Muslims, of which there are many, and radical Islamists who want to do us great harm.” [WashPost]
“ADL to U.S. Governors: Reconsider Position on Refusing Refugees” — Jonathan Greenblatt: “This country must not give into fear or bias by turning its back on our nation’s fundamental commitment to refugee protection and human rights. Now is precisely the time to stand up for our core values, including that we are a proud nation of immigrants. To do otherwise signals to the terrorists that they are winning the battle against democracy and freedom.” [ADL]
Ishaan Tharoor: “What Americans thought of Jewish refugees on the eve of World War II” [WashPost]
David Brooks: “It’s easy to think that ISIS is some sort of evil, medieval cancer that somehow has resurfaced in the modern world. The rest of us are pursuing happiness, and here comes this fundamentalist anachronism, spreading death. But in his book “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence,” the brilliant Rabbi Jonathan Sacks argues that ISIS is in fact typical of what we will see in the decades ahead. The 21st century will not be a century of secularism, he writes. It will be an age of desecularization and religious conflicts.” [NYTimes]
Bret Stephens: “People are dead in Paris because Europe decided to make a fetish of its tolerance for intolerance.” [WSJ]
Chemi Shalev: “Obama Needs to Show ‘How to Take Out Those ISIS Bastards'” [Haaretz]
Eli Lake: “Bush, you could say, lost patience with losing. Obama, on the other hand, has shown too much patience for a strategy that to date has failed. His exasperation is reserved for his critics who are asking him to do more.” [BloombergView]
VIRAL: “Schumer: ‘Condoning’ Terror Against Israel Led to Paris Attacks” [JI]
2016 WATCH: “Sanders knocked off stride by foreign policy focus” by Gabriel Debenedetti:“Bernie Sanders didn’t sign up for a foreign policy election. Yet that’s exactly what he’s getting in the wake of the Paris attacks, a shift that’s turned the primary contest — temporarily at least — into a test for commander in chief… The Vermont senator suddenly finds himself forced to deviate from an economic message he’s been honing for decades.” [Politico]
Marco Rubio at the WSJ CEO Council last night — by Jared Sichel: In an interview with the WSJ’s Editor-in-Chief, Gerard Baker, Rubio hit Ted Cruz by name and Rand Paul by implication in regards to the two senators’ opposition to the NSA’s controversial collection of telephone meta-data, which was curtailed last summer by Congress. “At least two of my colleagues in the Senate aspiring to be president, Sen. Cruz in particular, have voted to weaken the U.S. intelligence program,” Rubio said. “Weakening our intelligence-gathering capabilities leaves America vulnerable.”
Asked about President Obama’s continued plan to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States in the next year, Rubio said, “It’s not that we don’t to accept migrants–I’m not sure we can. I’m increasingly convinced we can’t.” “[If] you allow 10,000 people, 9,999 of them are innocent people fleeing oppression, and one of them is a well-trained ISIS fighter, you’ve got a huge problem on your hands,” Rubio said. “What if we get one of them wrong? Just one of them wrong? The consequences can be extraordinary.” [WSJ]
HAPPENING TODAY: Rubio returns to NYC for a 12PM fundraiser on the 43rd floor of the Bank of America Tower hosted by Phil Rosen, Ben Heller, Eric Anton, Wayne Berman, Josh Mandel, Jonathan Burkan, Daniel Shuchman, Anthony Gioia, and Julian Gingold. [JI]
INBOX — RJC Board Member and GOP Bundler Marc Goldman emails… “Choice for President: I am supporting Marco Rubio, I believe he is clear in his thinking, has no trouble knowing right from wrong, and has the broadest appeal in the general election, as well as epitomizing the American Dream. Obviously also very articulate, and represents the future.”
–Ed Note: If you’re a major undecided donor, feel free to join Marc by announcing in the Daily Kickoff which candidate you plan to support in 2016.
From a source with the Cruz campaign — “A large scale fundraiser for Cruz is in the works in Englewood on Dec 3rd. Hosts include Alan Berger, Avi Samuels, Ben and Batya Klein, Howard and Debbie Jonas, Joshua and Shevy Rovner, Leslie Edelman, Yosef and Idit Agus, Rannan and Nicole Agus, Ben Chouake, Trudy and Stanley Stern, and Esther and Paul Lerer.”
DEBATING THE DEBATE: “GOP campaigns tell RNC not to let Adelson stack the debate crowd” by Alex Isenstadt: “Top campaign officials on Monday pressed the Republican National Committee on whether Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson would receive an extra block of tickets for next month’s GOP debate at his Venetian hotel — and potentially stack the crowd for his favored candidate.” [Politico]
POLL: “More Israelis Prefer a Democrat For President” by Jacob Kornbluh: “According to the poll, commissioned by Panel Politics for The Jerusalem Post, 34 percent of Israelis say they would vote for a generic Democrat for president were they given the right to vote in 2016 while 30 percent would choose the Republican nominee. 36 percent were undecided.” [JI]
Nadler, Engel: Allow Pollard to Return to Israel: “Reps Jerry Nadler and Eliot Engel, both Democrats from New York, sent a letter directed to Attorney General Loretta Lynch urging her to give “fair consideration” to Pollard’s expressed desire to reunite with his wife, Esther, in Israel following his 30-year prison sentence.” [JI]
SCENE LAST NIGHT: Approximately 500 current and former military officers, members of Congress, foreign policy experts and Jewish leaders gathered last night for JINSA’s (The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) annual awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis in D.C. Guests listened, while enjoying an all-kosher center cut rib eye, as the evening’s Master of Ceremonies Catherine Herridge presented the institute’s Grateful Nation Award to six young soldiers from each of the five branches of the U.S. military and the U.S. Special Operations Command. Later, in a show of bipartisanship, Rep. Eliot Engel presented the Henry M. Scoop Jackson Award to Rep. Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. [SnapStory]
Spotted: Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who delivered the evening’s invocation… Menachem Shemtov, Ken Weinstein, Sen. Ron Johnson — sporting a new goatee, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Rep. Billy Long, Rep. Mimi Walters, Rep. Lee Zeldin, Israeli Amb. Ron Dermer, Noah Pollak, Jonathan Fluger, Michael David Epstein, Nick Muzin, Joel Mowbray, David Cordish, Joshua Landes, Harris Vederman, Yaakov Amidror, Jordana Cutler, Gen. Chuck Wald, California Assemblyman Travis Allen, Bill Bode, Scott Shiller, Jonathan Ruhe, David Bowser, Michael Makovsky, and Michael Nachman.
NYC SCENE — by Jacob Kornbluh: “Elie Wiesel was honored with the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Social Justice by the Blue Card, a national non-profit organization dedicated to aiding Holocaust survivors, at its annual benefit gala at the Stephen A. Schwarzman New York Public Library building. The award was presented by actor Michael Douglas, who said, “Wiesel speaks out against silence, carries the unending fight for the victim, shines the light of truth and shouts the voice of outrage against the horror of oppression.” White House Jewish Liaison Matt Nosanchuk opened the event with brief remarks before presenting a 6-minute video message by Vice President Joe Biden. “Elie, how are you, buddy?” Biden started. “Thank you for your friendship and thank you for your counsel… From you, Elie, I learned that we have to educate every successive generation exactly what happened, and we can never, ever forget.”
BUSINESS BRIEFS: “Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Bold Plan For The Future Of Facebook” [FastCompany] • “According to Ben Horowitz, there is no tech bubble” [GeekTime] • “Money Millennials: Liz Wessel and J.J Fliegelman Making Job Hunting Easier” [HuffPost] • “New York Developer Joseph Chetrit Resolves Lawsuit With Kazakhstan” [WSJ] • “Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Appoints Russell W. Galbut to Its Board of Directors” [NewsWire]
PROFILE: “BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti: how the great entertainer got serious” by Jane Martinson: “Chief executive on not paying to push news on Facebook, measuring impact not traffic, and his best content.” [TheGuardian]
STARTUP NATION: “High-Tech Sector Draws Diverse Expats to Tel Aviv” by Sara Toth Stub: “There are a growing number of individuals who have managed to secure a work visa, creating the emergence of a new sort of expat around Tel Aviv: those who move to Israel for its high-tech and entrepreneurial prowess rather than for Judaism, Zionism or family connections. And a law passed recently creating a so-called innovation visa could, in theory, boost this trend and make access to Israeli expat life easier for foreign non-Jewish entrepreneurs, although in practice, demand is likely drastically to outstrip the limited supply.” [WSJ]
MEDIA WATCH: “Breitbart News Network is continuing it’s international expansion with the launch of a new content vertical and bureau in Jerusalem, Israel. Breitbart Jerusalem will produce daily, hard-hitting exclusive news and features related to Israel and will also cover Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and beyond. The bureau will be led by veteran Middle East correspondent Aaron Klein, an Israel-based American reporter.” [Breitbart]
INBOX — “President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom: Among the winners are Itzhak Perlman, Stephen Sondheim, Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand.”
HOLLWOOD: “Adam Sandler updates ‘The Chanukah Song’ for first time since 2002” [JewishJournal]
DESSERT: “Trendy Brooklyn Restaurant Proudly Offers the Complete Israeli Experience” [Haaretz]
BIRTHDAYS: Nobel Laureate Stanley Cohen turns 93… National Security Advisor Susan Rice turns 51… Daniel Gastaldi… Halie Soifer… Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft…
