Jewish House Dems call for Stephen Miller’s ouster | Bernie, Buttigieg and Biden on Israel

Good Friday morning!

Exclusive: Twenty-five Jewish Democratic House members, led by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to fire Stephen Miller from his position as a senior advisor after a recent leak of his emails showing white nationalist leanings.

Tonight in Maryland, Trump will sign the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which includes additional funding for Israel’s defense, at Joint Base Andrews.

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DEBATE NIGHT — Sanders calls Netanyahu racist in contentious debate

Israel, here we come: Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg offered their views about Israel and the Mideast peace process during the sixth debate last night in Los Angeles.

Two states or bust: “There’s no solution for Israel other than a two-state solution,” Biden said. “It does not exist. It’s not possible to have a Jewish state in the Middle East without having a two-state solution.” Biden further stressed that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu know each other well and is aware that Netanyahu’s conduct on the Israeli-Palestinian issue is “outrageous.” The former vice president suggested that the U.S has to “put pressure constantly” on the Israelis to “move to a two-state solution.” But he cautioned that the way to do that should not be by leveraging U.S. military aid. [Video]

Leading from behind: Buttigieg directed his attacks at Trump, accusing the president of “refusing to lead” on the Israeli-Palestinian issue and choosing to “effectively interfere in Israeli domestic politics.” Buttigieg said the president thinks that his moves on Jerusalem and the Golan would “make him pro-Israel or pro-Jewish while welcoming white nationalists into the White House.”

It’s Bibi’s Israel: When asked about his views on Pompeo’s recent announcement on settlement policy, Sanders reiterated his stance that Israel has a right to exist “in peace and security” and that U.S. foreign policy must also be pro-Palestinian. The Vermont senator also mentioned Netanyahu’s indictments and repeated his claim that the current prime minister “is a racist.”

Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council for America, tells JI: “We were glad to hear Israel raised in tonight’s debate, which provided the opportunity for a few of the candidates to demonstrate what we know to be true — all the Democratic presidential candidates support Israel and its right to self-defense, oppose the global BDS movement, and support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which are views shared by an overwhelming majority of Jewish voters.”

Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, tells JI: “Once again we see, sadly, no leading Democrat defending Israel. Rather the leading Democrats chose to blame Israel for the failure of the Israel-Palestinian failure, labeled Israeli prime minister a racist and criticized all of the pro-Israel accomplishments of President Trump. The contrast between the Republicans and the Democrats when it comes to Israel couldn’t be clearer. There is only one pro-Israel party and that’s the GOP”

Wine caves: The long-anticipated showdown between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Buttigieg took place over Buttigieg’s high-dollar fundraisers, including an event held earlier this week in a Silicon Valley wine cave. Buttigieg noted the Massachusetts senator’s own financial success and prior fundraising efforts, faulting her “for issuing purity tests that you cannot pass.”

Yang gets some time: Businessman Andrew Yang has had a steady presence in the polls, but the quirky candidate — whose top political priority is a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for every American adult — has not received attention commensurate with his polling. That changed on Thursday, when the reduced stage finally gave Yang time in the spotlight. The first-time candidate broke the fourth wall during his closing statement, saying “I know what you’re thinking, America: How am I still on this stage with them?”

Missing from the stage was Michael Bloomberg, who did not hit the donation threshold set by the DNC for inclusion in the debate. JI spoke to Bradley Tusk, a longtime Bloomberg advisor, about the former mayor’s campaign strategy: “I do think ultimately if you’re going to beat all these people who’ve been out there for a year campaigning, you’ve got to be onstage with them, and it really comes down to the DNC,” Tusk said. “They haven’t had a situation where the person not only doesn’t need to raise money but is adamantly opposed to it, and at the same time, he’s doing well in polls… So the real question — what’s the DNC going to do when [Bloomberg] breaks double digits?”

GIVING BACK —Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus on sunsetting his foundation

Home Depot co-founder Bernard “Bernie” Marcus is well-known in philanthropic, political and business circles. His foundation, established 30 years ago, supports hundreds of Jewish, medical and other organizations around the world. But unlike other major philanthropists who want their charitable work to continue long after they’re gone, Marcus is requiring that his foundation sunset within two decades of his passing.

Why would a major philanthropist sunset his foundation? Marcus doesn’t want the assets of his foundation to go the way of the Ford Foundation, he told Jewish Insider’s Debra Nussbaum Cohen over the course of two phone interviews, explaining that he doesn’t want money he earned to go to causes he personally would not support, or to be spent by people who did not personally know him. Upon his passing, 80-90% of his remaining assets will go to The Marcus Foundation. The 90-year-old Marcus is worth $6.1 billion, according to Forbes.

By the numbers: According to publicly available tax records, at the end of 2017 ✎ Edit Sign, The Marcus Foundation’s assets totaled $98.6 million and had distributed $159 million. According to the 2018 tax filing, which is not yet public and was provided by Jay Kaiman, the foundation’s president, last year Marcus contributed $175 million to the foundation, which distributed $138 million in grants. Grant-making in 2018 included many millions of dollars to medical research at Duke, Emory and Johns Hopkins universities.

Giving back: Roughly 30% of the foundation’s spending is devoted to Jewish causes, said Kaiman. The Jewish portfolio currently includes 114 grantees, ranging from the Israel Democracy Institute, which bills itself as a non-partisan “think-and-do tank” in Jerusalem, to the right-wing Zionist Organization of America. “It’s important to make a distinction between Bernie’s politics and his philanthropy,” said Yoni Kaiser-Blueth, program director of The Marcus Foundation’s Jewish portfolio. “The politics doesn’t bleed into the philanthropy much.”

Playing favorites: A big donor in national politics, Marcus is one of the country’s top financial supporters of the Republican party and President Donald Trump. In 2016, he gave then-candidate Trump 7 million, and is one of this cycle’s biggest spenders. While Marcus declined to say how much he’s given Trump’s re-election campaign, Federal Election Commission filings show that through the third quarter of 2019 he has donated more than $4 million to the Republican National Committee, PACS and individual congressional candidates, but doesn’t yet show any donations directly to the Trump re-election campaign. “I’ll do as much as I can for Trump in 2020,” he told Jewish Insider. “I think he’s good for America. More people in America are living better because of this president and that’s reason enough.”

Supporting a supporter: Trump “is my favorite president,” Marcus said, adding that he and the president speak occasionally but aren’t close. “If I was Israeli I would like him because he’s been the most supportive president,” he added, citing Trump’s moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and approval of Israel’s annexing the Golan Heights.

Read the full profile here.

HEARD YESTERDAY — Boris Johnson pledges to push anti-BDS law

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged on Thursday to pass measures to outlaw public bodies that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

The new policy was outlined ✎ Edit Sign in the “Queen’s Speech” delivered by Queen Elizabeth II at the opening ceremony of the newly elected parliament. In a memo attached to the speech, the U.K. government said the measure will apply to “institutions across the public sector, not just [local] councils, where there have been issues of bodies using public resource[s] to carry out boycotts, pursuing their own agenda beyond UK sanctions.”

During a debate in the House of Commons, Johnson said, “One innovation that this Queen’s Speech introduces is that we will stop public bodies from taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries, to develop their own pseudo-foreign policy against countries, which with nauseating frequency turns out to be Israel.”

Watch Johnson’s remarks here.

INTERVIEW — Mayor of Efrat: Trump’s settlement policy is ‘America First’

Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat and the chief foreign envoy of the Yesha (the Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council, discussed the Trump administration’s settlement policy and the political crisis in Israel in an interview with JI’s Jacob Kornbluh during a visit to New York this week.

Take what you can get: Revivi, who attended Trump’s inauguration and maintains close ties with the administration, suggested that the president’s recent moves on Israel should be taken at face value under the banner of ‘America First’ and with an eye to 2020. Revivi pointed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement of the administration’s reversal on Israeli settlements as “the strongest example” that Trump is focused on strengthening his base for his re-election bid. The declaration, he explained, was delivered at a time that didn’t suit Israel’s political calendar and will not benefit the settler community until a new government is formed next year.

Off-season gift: “Both [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Blue and White leader Benny] Gantz received his gift, put it on the table; they understand that the correct thing is to say, ‘Thank you very much,’ but neither one had the time to take the wrapper off the gift and start implementing it,” he explained. “In the fastest scenario, we will have a government in May or June, and by then nobody will remember what Pompeo had declared. Trump needed it in order to start his 2020 campaign.”

‘Get your act together’: Revivi tells Jewish Insider that in meetings with top Trump administration officials, they tell him, ‘If Israel would just decide what Israel wants, then this administration will back it, but we need to know what it wants.’ The American administration is clearly saying to Israel, ‘Get your act together.’”

Annexation watch: Revivi indicated that Netanyahu is not pushing hard enough, despite recent comments on the campaign trail, in seeking U.S. support for the annexation of the Jordan Valley. “Most Israelis are skeptical whether Netanyahu or Gantz will annex the Jordan Valley because so much time has passed and nothing has been done,” he explained.

Never-ending crisis: According to Revivi, the political instability in Israel and the dim prospects of forming a right-wing government in the near future are “frustrating” for most Israelis but especially for local municipalities and the communities he’s representing. He blamed all parties for refusing to compromise their positions in order to form a functioning government. Revivi tells JI that in private conversations, Netanyahu shares his confidence in eking out an outright win on March 2, 2020. “He’s convinced that in this election, he’s going to manage to get to 61 seats.”

Likud primaries: Revivi tells JI that he’s under immense pressure from both Netanyahu and his primary challenger, MK Gideon Sa’ar, to announce his support for one of the candidates ahead of next Thursday’s leadership ballot. Revivi said that his deliberations are based on showing his gratitude to the incumbent Likud leader for “all the good things that he’s done for us” in the past 10 years and agreeing with Sa’ar’s claim that Netanyahu has failed to maintain his party’s rule in two consecutive elections. “At the moment, I have decided not to take any public stance on who am I supporting,” he said. But he did question whether Sa’ar will be able to form a government that would deliver on the hawkish views he’s currently presenting to voters.

Read the full interview here.

PODCAST PLAYBACK

Walter Russell Mead discusses Israel and Trump on Tikvah podcast

Speaking on the Tikvah podcast, Wall Street Journal columnist and Hudson Institute distinguished fellow Walter Russell Mead discussed the past, present and future of Israel, alongside the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Holy Land Houdini: “Bibi Netanyahu has Houdini beat in every way,” Mead joked, “It is extraordinary that he is still the person who controls where Israeli politics is going to go.” Mead said that he has met Netanyahu several times, and “I have been very impressed with the prime minister over the years.”

Man of vision: “He has a vision that people don’t often credit him for. In some ways he reminds me of people like [Former Prime Minister] Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew always had 10 reasons for the things he did, and I think the more you talk to Netanyahu, the more you realize there are layers and layers to what he is trying to accomplish.” Mead credited Netanyahu for developing Israel into a technological and business center, along with diplomatic efforts that broadened its international prestige, adding “It’s actually quite an impressive record.”

Good news/Bad news: Mead characterized the future of U.S.-Israeli relations as mixed, explaining, “With fracking, the Middle East is much less important to the American economy.” Subsequently, “There’s a higher threshold in getting involved in the Middle East.” As evidence, Mead pointed commonalities between the Obama and Trump administrations regarding foreign policy, noting how both presidents sought to reduce the American presence in the Middle East. Nonetheless, Israel’s security “remains an important reason for getting involved in the Middle East,” and a priority for many Americans.

Moment in history: Mead relayed a story of Theodor Herzl meeting with the Kaiser in Constantinople shortly after publishing Der Judenstaat. Facing internal friction, Herzl hoped to “use the gentiles to move the Jews.” Ultimately, the Kaiser tried, yet failed, to convince the Ottoman sultan to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine under German supervision.

Listen to the full podcast here.

PODCAST PLAYBACK — Walter Russell Mead discusses Israel and Trump on Tikvah podcast

Listen to the full podcast here.

Bonus: Haaretz’s Noa Landau writes in The Washington Post as one of 13 journalists discussing how Trump has changed their home countries. “It’s the free rein Trump has afforded Netanyahu that accounts for by far his greatest influence on the internal politics of Israel: Annexation is now Netanyahu’s main campaign promise; ‘land for peace’ — the desire for two states, Israel and Palestine, to coexist — could dwindle to nothing.”

WORTHY READS

👨‍💼👨‍💼 Table for Two: The New York Times takes a closer look at how indicted Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman rose through the ranks to be considered fixtures of the Republican party donor club before becoming key players in Trump’s impeachment process. [NYTimes]

👂 Inner Circle: Writing in Politico magazine, Ryan Lizza lists former Vice President Joe Biden’s set of longtime advisors who are serving as his brain trust in the presidential campaign. [Politico]

⚔️ On the Ground: Cengiz Yar writes for Rolling Stone about his time on the ground in northern Syria in the weeks after Trump’s “betrayal of the Kurds.” One woman living in a refugee camp told him: “The Americans sold us out. May the same thing happen to Erdogan and Trump — one day they should live under a tent.” [RollingStone]

AROUND THE WEB

🏫 Demanding Gratitude: Members of the Sackler family are pushing back against Tufts University for removing their name from its buildings and programs over the family’s role in the opioid epidemic, claiming the move is a violation of past agreements.

💲Pushback: The United Arab Emirates has hired Max Gleischman, a former spokesperson to former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, to fight back against accusations of human rights violations.

🦅 Bring Them Home: In a letter ✎ Edit Sign to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY), Michael McCaul (R-TX), and five other congressman urged the State Department to continue their efforts to free Americans held in Iran—including Robert Levinson, Michael White, Baquer Namazi, and Siamak Namazi.

🚫 Taking Action: Germany’s parliament passed a resolution on Thursday calling on the government to ban all of Hezbollah’s political and financial activities in the country.

🤝 Outreach: Vali R. Nasr and Ali Vaez write in The New York Times that the time is ripe for the Trump administration to hold negotiations with Iran to avoid a military confrontation.

🎒 Below Par: The much-delayed New York City Department of Education study of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas was finally released yesterday, finding that only two out of 28 yeshivas meet the city’s standards.

💵 Protection Dollars: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an additional $10 million in grant funds for security measures to protect non-public schools and Jewish institutions amid a rash of violent antisemitic attacks.

👎 Double Down: Al Sharpton’s National Action Network chapter director Carolyn Oliver Fair on Wednesday criticized Gov. Phil Murphy and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop for calling on Jersey City BOE trustee Joan Terrell-Paige to step down following offensive comments she made about the Jewish community, and agreed with Terrell-Paige’s statement.

🏫 Meeting Nixed: A school board meeting in Jersey City scheduled for Thursday was canceled for “safety reasons.”

💸 Crowdfunding: Jews around the world helped raise $1.5 million for the husband and children of Mindel Ferencz, who was killed last week inside the Jersey City kosher grocery store the couple owned.

🗞️ Media Watch:The Washington Postreports about the chaos at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after the departure of the newspaper’s longtime editor David Shribman, who led the staff to a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in 2018.

🥪 Sandwich Matters: Fuad Hassan, the current co-owner of Brooklyn’s David’s Brisket House and Deli, is trying his hand at a new venture, Pastrami Masters in East Williamsburg.

WINE OF THE WEEK

JI’s wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews Nadiv Elyone Judean Hills 2016:

“I suspect I’ll be sharing more about the Nadiv Winery frequently as my first experience with this vineyard was outstanding. The wine has a distinct intertwining of French and Israeli cultures. The winery is named for Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who was called ‘HaNadiv.’ The flavors produced by this vineyard are entertaining and fun.”

“The Nadiv Elyone Judean Hills 2016 is a blend of fifty percent Cabernet and fifty percent Syrah grape. The wine is aged for 18 months in a mixture of new and used French oak. The Syrah grapes overpower the palate with the thickness of maple syrup which marries nicely with the thin, sweet juices of the Cabernet. This wine is pleasing, and full-bodied. In time for Hanukkah, drink with jelly doughnuts.”

BIRTHDAYS

NYC-based political consultant since 1969, ordained as a rabbi in 2011, his early career included stints as a policeman, taxi driver and bounty hunter, Henry “Hank” Sheinkopf turns 70 on Sunday…

FRIDAY: Founder of an online children’s bookstore, Yona Eckstein turns 78… Former chair of the executive committee of the Jewish Federations of North America, Michael Gelman turns 75… Illusionist, magician, television personality and self-proclaimed psychic, Uri Geller turns 73… Television producer, he is the creator and executive producer of the “Law & Order” and “Chicago” franchises, Richard Anthony (Dick) Wolf turns 73… Marina Del Rey, California resident, Carol Gene Berk turns 69… President of the University of Miami, he’s the former Secretary of Health of Mexico, Julio Frenk turns 66… Bob Lindenbaum turns 66…

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale, Tamar Szabó Gendler turns 54… Writer and a psychotherapist based in Los Angeles, she is the author of the “Dear Therapist” column for The Atlantic, Lori Gottlieb turns 53… Executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, Jeremy Burton turns 51… Swiss-born British philosopher and author, Alain de Botton turns 50… Actor, producer, screenwriter and comedian, Jonah Hill (full name Jonah Hill Feldstein) turns 36… Development executive at the UJA-Federation of New York, Adam Wolfthal turns 34… Denver-based managing director at Israel on Campus Coalition, Megan Nathan Ziemke turns 34… Executive director of the Lawfare Project, Brooke Goldstein…

SATURDAY: Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Steven Mnuchin turns 57… Former chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in the Bush 43 and Obama administrations, he was chair of the NY Fed and a partner at Goldman Sachs, Stephen Friedman turns 82… Producer of over 90 plays on and off Broadway for which she has won seven Pulitzer Prizes and ten Tony Awards, Daryl Roth turns 75… Music director of the San Francisco Symphony and artistic director of the New World Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas (family name was Thomashefsky) turns 75… Member of Knesset since 1999 for the Likud party, Haim Katz turns 72… Director of the LA Initiative at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, he was a member of the LA County Board of Supervisors (1994-2014) and the LA City Council (1975-1994), Zev Yaroslavsky turns 71… Film, television and voice actor, Barry Gordon turns 71…

CEO of WndrCo and founder of Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg turns 69… Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney who has become a behind-the-scenes fixture in the world of rap, Drew O. Findling turns 60… NFL insider for ESPN, Adam Schefter turns 53… Owner of Liberty Consultants in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, Cherie Velez turns 50… Former member of the Knesset for the Kulanu party, Rachel Azaria turns 42… Angel investor and former co-host of the Katie Couric Podcast, Brian Goldsmith turns 38… Chief investigative reporter at KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, IA, Josh Scheinblum turns 31… SVP in the financial services practice at NYC-based Bliss Integrated Communication, Julia Mellon turns 30… Political reporter for the Boston Globe, Joshua Miller… Marta Skipper…

SUNDAY: Former President of the World Bank, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and Dean of JHU’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Paul Wolfowitz turns 76… Associate at Mersky, Jaffe & Associates, he was previously executive director of Big Tent Judaism and VP of the Wexner Heritage Foundation, Rabbi Kerry Olitzky turns 65… Mary Rose Francini turns 63… Senior managing director in the DC office of Newmark Knight Frank, Lisa Benjamin turns 60… Former CFO of Enron Corporation, Andrew Fastow turns 58…

Rabbi at Temple Dor Dorim in Weston, Florida, David Novak turns 57… NPR correspondent covering the State Department and Washington’s diplomatic corps, Michele Kelemen turns 52… Junior U.S. Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz turns 49… CEO of American Council of Young Political Leaders, Libby Rosenbaum turns 38… Visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a columnist for Tablet Magazine, James Kirchick turns 36… MFA candidate at the Helen Zell Writers’ program at the University of Michigan, Sofia Ergas Groopman turns 30… National campus outreach coordinator at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Carly Korman… Head of philanthropy and impact investment for EJF Philanthropies, Simone Friedman… Liberty Consultants’ Lisa Brazie…

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