Good Tuesday morning!

In new figures released today, the Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic attacks against Jews in America hit a record high last year, citing the most incidents since the group began keeping track in 1979.

Yesterday, a 2013 U.S. District court case from Maryland — involving the construction of a sukkah at a Jewish day school — was highlighted in oral arguments before the Supreme Court amid a debate over whether parochial school employees are protected by employment discrimination laws.

In an interview with Israel Hayom ahead of his visit to Israel tomorrow, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he is coming in order to bring Israeli leaders “up to speed on the progress we think we are making on President Trump’s vision for peace,” and reiterated that annexation of West Bank settlements is “an Israeli decision.”

Today is Lag Ba’omer, traditionally celebrated by bonfires and large gatherings. Despite a ban in Israel on holding any bonfires to stem the coronavirus spread, thousands of people in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh defied the orders.

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at the polls

Familiar names fill today’s Democratic primary in Nebraska’s 2nd district

Ann Ashford and Kara Eastman

Transition

Likud minister Gilad Erdan appointed as next ambassador to U.N. and U.S.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s outgoing public security minister and strategic affairs minister, has been appointed to serve as Israel’s next ambassador to the U.N. Erdan will also replace Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer when he ends his extended term in the fall, following the U.S. election. 

Background: According to the rotation deal signed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, when Gantz becomes prime minister in late 2021, he can replace Netanyahu’s selected ambassador to the U.S., but not the country’s envoy to the U.N. Under the arrangement, Erdan could potentially only serve as the ambassador to Washington for one year. Erdan visited the U.S. last year to meet with American Jewish community leaders and is proficient in English. 

Flashback: As strategic affairs minister, Erdan has overseen Israel’s efforts to fight BDS, including publishing a blacklist of groups and individuals barred from entering the country due to their ties to the boycott movement. In August, Erdan was the official who signed off on banning Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) from visiting Israel on a trip organized by the NGO Miftah, which has expressed support for the BDS movement. 

Ready for the challenge: “I am proud and excited for the privilege of fighting for our justice on the international stage,” Erdan said Monday evening, “and protecting Israel against the challenges expected in the coming years.”

Read more here.

Bonus: Gershom Gorenberg writes in The Washington Post that the unanimous Israeli Supreme Court decision to allow Netanyahu to head the next government only cements the fact that the prime minister “can ride roughshod over constraints on the majority’s power.”

IN THE RACE

The Georgia state senator who wants to be the first Iranian-American in Congress

Zahra Karinshak, a state senator in Georgia, is taking on a crowded Democratic primary field in the state’s 7th congressional district. But the U.S. Air Force veteran is hoping that her connection to the last Democrat to hold the seat in Congress will give her an edge among voters in the June 9 primary. Karinshak spoke to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel about her congressional hopes.

Buddy buddy: Karinshak likes to point out that she was nominated to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy, in 1989, by Rep. George “Buddy” Darden, the former congressman who represented the district from 1983 to 1995. “Granted, the borders have changed,” Karinshak said. “But there’s a little bit of karma there.”

Tough crowd: Her opponents include the young progressive Nabilah Islam, state representative Brenda Lopez Romero and Georgia State University professor Carolyn Bourdeaux, who, last election cycle, came within 433 votes of unseating Rob Woodall, the Republican representative who is retiring at the end of his term. Bourdeaux is the obvious frontrunner, experts say, having notched endorsements from heavyweights such as Reps. John Lewis (D-GA) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and is leading the pack in fundraising.

Track record: Whoever wins the Democratic primary will work to flip the seat held since 2011 by Woodall, who is not seeking reelection. Karinshak has experience in flipping seats; in 2018, she flipped the Republican-held 48th district in Georgia’s State Senate, her first campaign for elected office, and received an endorsement from former President Barack Obama in that race. And while she had to give up that seat to run for Congress, “at the end of this race, it’ll be a plus one,” she said. “We’ll flip another seat that needs to be flipped and should have been flipped last time.” 

Drawing distinction: Karinshak, whose father emigrated to the United States from Iran, has been endorsed by the National Iranian American Council. She said the U.S. must keep up a pressure campaign on Iran to prevent it from pursuing nuclear and ballistic missiles. “But we must remember that the Iranian people are not consistent with the Iranian leadership,” she said. “We need to be cognizant that the Iranian-American people are separate and distinct.”

Read the full interview here.

heard yesterday

Jake Sullivan: U.S. snapback sanctions ‘vindicated’ the Iran deal

Jake Sullivan, who served as national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, discussed the future of the Iran nuclear deal in a webcast hosted yesterday by the Hudson Institute, moderated by Wall Street Journal columnist and the think tank’s distinguished fellow Walter Russell Mead. 

Iran deal narrative: Sullivan, who as an aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was part of the team that established backchannel talks with Iran that led to the 2015 nuclear deal, maintained that the Trump administration’s snapback sanctions on Iran have “vindicated the basic principle” behind the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 

Vindication: Sullivan explained that opponents of the deal argued that Iran will grow economically powerful and resilient as a result of the sanctions relief, making it almost impossible for the U.S. to snap back sanctions. Instead, he posits, the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the international accord and the reimposition of sanctions on Tehran proved that “the power of the U.S. dollar and the U.S. financial system” was sufficient enough to drive down Iran’s oil production. “[That] tells us that actually the basic logic of a nuclear deal that says, ‘You get sanctions relief if you continue to comply with strict limitations on your program, but if you violate those limitations, we will snap sanctions back,’ [works],” he added. 

Two steps back, one step forward: Going forward, Sullivan suggested that a potential Biden administration should “immediately re-engage nuclear diplomacy with Iran” and “establish something along the lines of the JCPOA, but immediately begin the process of negotiating a follow on agreement” which would deal “with the timelines for the restrictions and extend them, and should also try to address other elements that we have learned, subsequently, could be strengthened.”

Pushing for a seat at the table: A coalition representing 51 anti-war groups — including IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Code Pink — sent a letter to Biden on Monday demanding he adopt a “principled foreign policy” and a “new approach to international relations” that breaks away from even former President Barack Obama’s policies. The letter includes a call to leverage military aid to Israel and to end the blockade on Gaza. Meanwhile, the Zionist Organization of America and the Coalition for Jewish Values are criticizing Biden for pledging to resume economic and security assistance to the Palestinians.

Worthy Reads

😟 Weighing In: In an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Betsy McKay, billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates says he regrets not speaking up louder about the world’s lack of readiness for a global pandemic. “I feel terrible,” he said. “I wish I had done more to call attention to the danger.” [WSJ]

💓 Back to Life:Lawrence Garbuz, the 50-year-old lawyer from New Rochelle who was identified as “patient zero” of the coronavirus in the Westchester city — which became the first epicenter of the outbreak in New York — discussed his experience battling the virus in an interview with “The Today Show” on Monday. [Today]

Around the Web

😥 Wasn’t Me: Jeffrey Katzenberg is blaming the coronavirus outbreak for the slow start of Quibi, the mobile streaming platform he co-founded with Meg Whitman earlier this year, despite a high-profile lineup and a frenetic daily schedule. 

🌐 Global Crisis:In an interview with The Independent, billionaire philanthropist George Soros warned that the pandemic “really endangers the survival of our civilization.”

👮 Never Again: The Ukrainian Jewish community is outraged after a police official requested a list of all Jews in the city of Kolomyya as part of an investigation into organized crime.  

🎖️ Killed in Action: IDF soldier Amit Ben-Yigal was killed early this morning during a West Bank operation, marking the first combat death for Israeli forces in 2020.  

💪 Tough Diplomacy: France is urging European Union countries to consider threatening Israel with action if it moves forward with a plan to annex parts of the West Bank. 

💲Helping Hand:Israel has issued a rare loan of up to $228 million to the Palestinian Authority as it struggles financially amid the coronavirus crisis. 

✌️ Mission Accomplished: Israeli Finance Ministry director-general Shai Babad announced yesterday that he will be stepping down from his job once the new government is installed. Israeli Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar-Siman-Tov, who became the face of the country’s coronavirus response, also submitted his resignation to Netanyahu today.

☎️ Greetings From Jerusalem: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin “restated the strong relationship between the State of Israel and New Jersey” in a phone call with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy yesterday. 

👨‍👧‍👦 Over Policing: Chabad of Dumbo’s Rabbi Noah Chakoff was detained for hours by the NYPD for alleged endangering the welfare of a child on Monday for letting his kids go the grocery store unaccompanied.

📹 Spreading Hate:A San Diego man who goes by the name “Dusty Shekel” online uploaded a video of himself shopping with his wife while wearing masks bearing a swastika, followed by a confrontation with two sheriff’s deputies. 

🎙️Media Watch:Al Jazeera deleted a tweet linking to a podcast glorifying assassinated Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

👎 Across the Sea: Malta’s Ambassador to Finland Michael Zammit Tabona resigned after comparing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Hitler in a Facebook post. 

🎓 Campus Beat: The George Washington University has named BDS activist professor Ilana Feldman as the interim dean of its Elliott School of International Affairs.

📺 Transition: Koby Gal-Raday, a former executive at Israel’s Yes Studios, has been appointed as chief content officer at Beta Film. 

Pic of the Day

Birthdays