How Bibi plans to take a page from Trump’s playbook for upcoming election

Good Tuesday morning!

On Capitol Hill, the Senate will kick off the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and debate the organizing resolution drafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

In Davos today, the annual World Economic Forum began without the presence of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who dropped out after organizers “abruptly changed its agenda,” Iran said. Trump is set to receive a warm welcome at the summit, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin.

In Israel, world leaders are arriving for the World Holocaust Forum’s upcoming commemoration ceremony at Yad Vashem on Thursday. Hamas has reportedly been warned that it would face a “forceful” response if it tries to disrupt the summit.

Bloomberg‘s Eli Lake reports that Israel’s snubbing of Polish President Andrzej Duda has “angered senior members” of the Trump administration.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to the event. The delegation — which includes Reps. Nita Lowey (D-NY), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) — will first travel to Poland, where they will visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Pelosi is set to meet with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz during her visit.

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Driving the day

World Zionist Congress voting begins today

Jews in the United States begin voting today for a stake in decisions made in and about the Jewish state over the next five years. Tens of thousands of American Jews are expected to cast their ballots in the World Zionist Congress elections before polls close on March 11.

Seat at the table: More than 1,500 candidates across 15 slates are running for the 152 U.S.-held seats in the Congress. The rest of the body’s 500 elected delegates come from the global Jewish diaspora, where Jewish communities around the world agree upon their delegations, and from Israel, where each Zionist political party in the Knesset is alloted a corresponding number of seats in the Congress.

How it works: Following the elections, the Congress forms a Zionist Council, a scaled-down group proportional to the total number of delegates in the Congress. While the Congress meets every five years, the Zionist Council meets at least once a year. The Zionist Council governs the World Zionist Organization and also serves as the general assembly of the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, in addition to holding half the seats on both the Jewish Agency for Israel’s board of governors and the board of Keren Hayesod. The four organizations collectively have a budget of $1 billion per year.

Does it actually matter? As board members, delegates are able to weigh in on the direction and senior leadership of the organizations. While the delegates are not solely responsible for the overall strategies and actions of each organization, they work in cooperation with each group’s leadership.

High turnout: Herbert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement, which runs the U.S. elections, told Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss that he expects a high turnout this year, in part because of the buzz around elections in both Israel and the U.S. “It does provide an opportunity for American Jews, who hopefully will be in election mode because of the presidential primaries, and [because of] the focus on American and Israeli elections,” he said. “But people who… feel well, you know, ‘I want to express my opinions on things going on in the Jewish world and Israel,’ they can’t vote in the Knesset elections, but here’s a small way [they] can have a say.”

Meet the candidate

One of Ilhan Omar’s Republican challengers is a Muslim refugee from Iraq

Dalia al-Aqidi, a Muslim refugee from Iraq and a former journalist who last week announced a run for Congress in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, discussed her candidacy in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Jacob Kornbluh.

Details: Al-Aqidi, 51, joins a handful of Republican candidates who have jumped into the race for a chance to unseat first-term Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who won the district with 78% of the vote in 2018. The Minnesota 5th is historically a solidly blue district, which was last won by a Republican in 1960. Nonetheless, Al-Aqidi’s candidacy has already attracted national attention, though it remains to be seen if she can garner mainstream Republican support for her longshot bid.

Bio: At age 20, Al-Aqidi fled Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, eventually gaining U.S. citizenship and becoming a White House correspondent for Alhurra, a U.S.-sponsored TV channel broadcasting in Arabic in the Middle East. While in Iraq covering then-President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, The Chicago Tribunedeclared her “the most-watched television reporter nobody in America has seen.” Herself a refugee from a Muslim country, al-Aqidi is supportive of President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies, including the president’s stance on severely restricting refugees.

Drawing a contrast: “I recognize that [Omar’s] far-left politics are the politics of extremism and grievance and anti-Americanism,” al-Aqidi told JI. “I have used my life experiences to expose oppression and boost the U.S. while Omar has done the opposite — stoking fear, inspiring hatred, inciting violence and embarrassing America. I believe this message will resonate with residents of Minnesota’s 5th district, just as it will throughout the country.”

Fighting words: “We don’t know what’s in someone’s heart. We can only tell what they say and how they behave. And, of course, nearly everything [Omar] says about Israel or American Jews who support Israel is laced with contempt, hatred and antisemitism.”

Travel plans: Al-Aqidi says she hasn’t yet had an opportunity to visit Israel, but “I would welcome it. I’d love to see the only modernized, functioning democracy in the Middle East, but I won’t have the trip sponsored by Miftah,” the Palestinian nonprofit organization that last year planned Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) canceled trip. “Miftah is an organization that publishes ancient blood libels against Jews, along with neo-Nazi propaganda and praise for suicide bombers. To be clear, this isn’t just anti-Israel; it is basic antisemitism.”

Read the full interview here.

israeli election watch

Bibi to borrow from Trump in third election campaign

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will kick off his threepeat re-election bid at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem tonight. JI’s Jacob Kornbluh on the latest developments:

Mirroring Trump: Netanyahu’s campaign is expected to undergo some changes, including working to mirror President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Israel Hayomreported on Monday. As first reported by Jewish Insider, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, respectively the president’s former campaign manager and deputy campaign manager, were recently hired to serve as strategic advisors. And similar to Trump’s campaign rallies, Likud campaign events will feature supporters stationed behind Netanyahu and he will be preceded by warm-up speakers.

Handshaking strategy: Netanyahu is expected to spend more time on the stump and less time on digital media, learning a lesson from the recent Likud leadership primary. “In this campaign you will see much less Facebook Live and much more Netanyahu Live,” a Likud official told Israel Hayom.

Trump’s grand prize: The Trump administration is reportedly days away from making a final decision on the rollout of its long-delayed Mideast peace plan, potentially giving a boost to Netanyahu ahead of the March 2 election. In a campaign ad, Netanyahu touted the forthcoming plan as an alternative to the Oslo peace accords: “Oslo or the Deal of the Century — it’s what the upcoming elections are about!”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiroposited that releasing the plan before the election or during the period of government formation “badly misreads the Israeli political situation… Its ability to sway voters who won’t vote for Netanyahu back to him because the terms are so great for Israel is dubious. Even more dubious is the idea that other parties would rescue him by coming into the government over this plan.”

Will Putin step up? Netanyahu met on Monday with Yaffa Issachar, the mother of Israeli-American backpacker Naama Issachar, who is jailed in Russia. The prime minister told her that he will discuss a possible pardon for her daughter in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. A poll released on Sunday showed that 51% of Israelis would consider Naama’s release a personal achievement for Netanyahu.

Roadblock: Another hurdle in the way of Netanyahu building a 61-seat government is the announcement by Itamar Ben-Gvir that his Kahanist party, Jewish Power, will stay in the race, despite failed attempts in past elections. In recent days, Netanyahu pressed Ben-Gvir to withdraw from the race so that right-wing votes don’t go to waste. Offers included an ambassadorship, according to Ben-Gvir, and hints of a ministerial post. Ben-Gvir argued that his party’s name on the ballot is Netanyahu’s only shot at winning 61 seats.

The picture Bibi wants to avoid: Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein has come under fire from his own Likud party for announcing a date for a special Knesset session that would approve the formation of a House Committee to consider Netanyahu’s request for parliamentary immunity. Since his request is expected to be denied by a coalition of members from the center-left and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, Netanyahu’s tactic has shifted to delay the process to avoid a trial before voters head to the polls.

Moving on: Blue and White, meanwhile, launched its campaign slogan — “Moving Forward” — over the weekend, a possible allusion to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. In an attempt to reach a solution to the ongoing political crisis, the party will target voters yearning for stability. Joel Benenson, a prominent Democratic pollster who was Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaign pollster, is the chief strategist for Benny Gantz’s campaign.

Annexation watch: During a campaign tour on Tuesday, Gantz pledged to apply Israeli law on the Jordan Valley, but with support of the international community, if elected. Gantz also told reporters that he would welcome the release of Trump’s peace plan before the election.

Bonus: CNN ran a segment on Monday summing up Netanyahu’s rise to power and his journey to becoming Israel’s longest serving prime minister — and how his legal situation could reshape his legacy.

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