Good Friday morning!

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)was elected chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a virtual Democratic caucus meeting yesterday, beating Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) by a vote of 148 to 78.

In a statement last night, Meeks said he was “incredibly honored” to have been elected to help move the committee into a “new era of U.S. global affairs,” and pledged, among other initiatives, to work to rejoin the nuclear agreement with Iran. Read more here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahusent a message to the incoming Biden administration yesterday in a webcast hosted by the Hudson Institute: “It’s a mistake to go back to the JCPOA.” 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarifindicated his country is willing to comply with the terms of the nuclear deal if Europe and the U.S. honor their “commitments” without preconditions. 

Last night, in an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Biden said it’s “hard to tell” whether the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh “complicated” his plan to return to the Iran deal. The president-elect acknowledged that restarting negotiations with Iran “is going to be hard — I have no illusions about that,” but maintained that in order to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear bomb, the U.S. “cannot do this alone. And that’s why we have to be part of a larger group.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazimet with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Hsafadi, at the Allenby border crossing to discuss peace efforts and bilateral issues. 

In a Zoom call with the Republican Jewish Coalition, Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are both competing to hold on to their seats in January’s special election runoff, acknowledged Biden’s victory in the presidential election, vowing to act as a buffer to the incoming administration. 

Check out Jewish Insider’s ‘Jewish Nielsen’ report to see which webcasts people tuned into in the past two weeks. 

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political pivot

 The Hollywood Republican who boosted Biden

Chairwoman of MGM’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group, Mary Parent and Chairman and CEO of MGM, Harry Sloan take part in a panel discussion at the American Pavilion during the 61st International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Saturday, May 17, 2008.

Harry Evans Sloan, the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios CEO and broadcast executive turned investor and philanthropist, is a rare Hollywood type: a Republican. The son of working-class Jewish parents — his mother helped found Temple Menorah in Los Angeles’s South Bay region — the studio chief became one of Hollywood’s GOP stalwarts, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and PACs, including serving as Mitt Romney’s California finance chair during his 2012 presidential campaign. That is, until the 2016 general election. “I believed even then that we couldn’t take a chance on Trump,” Sloan told Tina Daunt for Jewish Insider in a phone interview this week. “And of course the nightmare turned out to be even worse than I envisioned then.”

Early to Joe: After Clinton’s loss in 2016, Sloan went to work strategizing the best way to defeat Trump in his 2020 reelection bid. While others in Hollywood were auditioning multiple Democratic candidates, Sloan honed in early on Joe Biden as a centrist who could appeal to moderate Republicans. “It was at a moment when Joe wasn’t doing so well,” Sloan said. “It looked like Bernie was going to be the nominee. Plus Mayor Pete [Buttigieg] was winning primaries. I just called all my friends and said: ‘It looks like if we don’t get behind Biden it’s going to be Sanders. And if it’s Sanders he’s probably going to lose to Trump.’ And so the way to stop Trump was to get behind Biden. That was my theory and my strategy for raising money for Joe last year.”

It’s personal:Sloan found Trump’s constant digs at his longtime friend Sen. John McCain especially painful, making his involvement even more personal. “It’s one thing to disagree, but to belittle McCain’s heroics is like a whole different level,” said Sloan, who serves as a trustee on the board of the McCain Institute for International Leadership. “We were all horrified and appalled. John McCain handled it much better than we did.” Last December, Sloan raised more than $1 million at a fundraiser for the former vice president in his Bel Air home. The crowd included a mix of Republicans and Democrats, among them former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. 

No regrets:Unlike many top presidential fundraisers, Sloan says he’s not interested in a political ambassadorship. “I’ll be supportive in the best ways I can,” he said. “That won’t be one of them, I don’t think.” Sloan, who said he is proud of Biden’s “elegant approach” to uniting the country, is now raising money for the president-elect’s inauguration committee. “It wasn’t until I was almost 70 years old that I raised money for Democrats,” Sloan said. “And I’m not ashamed or afraid to admit it at all.”

Read the full interview here. 

book shelf

The hidden side of Shimon Peres

For more than 25 years, Avi Gil was an aide, confidant, advisor and friend to Shimon Peres. While Gil, 65, remained largely in Peres’s shadow throughout his career, two years following the former president’s death, Gil published a remarkably candid portrait of his time in formal and informal government service, now translated into English by Eylon Levy as Shimon Peres: An Insider’s Account of the Man and the Struggle for a New Middle East. Gil spoke to Jewish Insider’s Amy Spiro about his decades working in political life and the legacy Peres left behind. 

Truth teller:“I didn’t feel it was right to write the book before he was gone,” Gil told JI in a phone interview this week from his home in Tel Aviv, noting that Peres repeatedly pushed him to write his memoirs. And even when Gil pointed out that Peres would not necessarily be flattered by his account, “he said ‘you should write the truth, I have no problem with the truth.’ That was his reaction, and I was quite surprised, because it’s not typical to the average politician.” The book, based on Gil’s diaries, notes and memories of several decades in political life, paints a humanizing and often unflattering portrait of one of Israel’s most prominent and enduring politicians. 

Sidelined: Gil is blunt about Peres’s consistent role as “a supporting actor who aspired to a leading role” in Israeli government, repeatedly losing elections and having to fight for his dreams and ambitions from the sidelines. Gil details the deep enmity between Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who could never quite put their rivalry to rest even when they were reluctant partners, and also admits to Peres’s pettiness and desperation for attention, noting “his inability to be magnanimous toward his own staff and his voracious appetite for credit.” He details dirty political machinations and backstabbing, as well as media manipulation including lying to the press, leaking damaging information and planting fake stories.  

Behind the scenes: In the book, Gil shares numerous intriguing behind-the scenes anecdotes from his time and travels with Peres. The book includes mentions of when the 70-year-old Peres went dancing at a nightclub in Paris until 3 a.m. after a day of negotiating with the Palestinians, and when Peres introduced Palestinian advisor Nabil Shaath to Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, during which the then-foreign minister attempted to convince Milchan to create a “Free Willy”-style film about a camel who inspired Middle Eastern peace. Gil also revealed how, when Peres was president and Netanyahu was prime minister, Netanyahu blamed Peres — with some justification — for providing President Barack Obama with the idea of calling for negotiations based on the 1967 borders. 

Secret peace talks:Much of the book details the intensive undercover negotiations Peres conducted that led to both the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 1994 peace treaty Israel signed with Jordan — including the disguises Peres and Gil donned to slip across the border into Amman. And 25 years later, Gil greeted news of Israeli normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan with tempered optimism. “Peres would have been the first to congratulate Netanyahu on these peace agreements,” Gil said. “But in the same breath, he would warn that we must not delude ourselves that the division of land between us and the Palestinians continues to be the indispensable condition for peace.”

Read the full interview here. 

Gavel Time

House staffers expect Pelosi to continue status quo despite shrunken majority

Although Democrats will enter the 117th Congress in January with a significantly narrower House majority than they have enjoyed for the last two years, House staffers say they are not expecting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to significantly change her strategy in the next term. Pelosi will likely continue to keep a firm grip on her caucus to manage the ongoing rift between the progressive and moderate wings of the party, three House staffers told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod.

View from the ranks: Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), a conservative Chicago-area Democrat who has served in Congress since 2005 and who lost his primary race earlier this year to a progressive challenger, said Pelosi will have a tough challenge holding her caucus together during the upcoming term. “The narrow House majority is going to make things incredibly difficult,” Lipinski said. “There will be a lot of interesting politics going on in the House as Speaker Pelosi tries to keep both the left flank and the right flank of the Democratic Party on board for any bipartisan legislation that comes out of the Senate that President Biden really wants to get passed into law.”

Upper chamber: Lipinski predicted that the Senate will likely be the main engine of legislation in the upcoming term, and that President-elect Joe Biden will likely have a significant role to play both in helping to wrangle House Democrats and in encouraging Democrats in both chambers to moderate their stances. “The question is going to be how does the House… pass what the Senate passes,” Lipinski said. “President Biden is going to have to step in and really ask the Democratic Caucus in the House to go along with some legislation that probably the progressives are not going to be happy with in the House. And if they don’t, [Democratic leaders will] probably have to reach out to moderate Republicans in the House.”

Bridge builder: “I think Pelosi and [House Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer continue to be effective notwithstanding their age because they are extraordinary bridge-builders,” one aide told JI. “They are able to coalesce and bring disparate parts of the caucus together in ways that few people can… I don’t see leadership changing their modus operandi much.” A second aide agreed, noting that Pelosi “demands loyalty and… perfection,” and predicting Pelosi will be willing to cut deals with both the progressive members in her party and moderate Republicans — when needed — to pass bills. But they also acknowledged that the Democrat’s smaller majority will create “legislative barriers.”

Floor battle: Three of the Democrats who voted against Pelosi in 2019, Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Jason Crow (D-CO) and Jim Cooper (D-TN), told JI they will vote for Pelosi, while several other members who opposed her last bid lost their seats in last month’s elections. Two legislators — Reps. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Jared Golden (D-ME) — have publicly said they will not back Pelosi, but others have yet to publicly commit to a candidate.

Read more here.

Bonus: In further comments to JI’s Marc Rod, Lipinski sounded the alarm on Democrats’ electoral future. “Democrats need to be concerned about a Republican who comes along who embraces some of the policy positions that President Trump did but who is a much more likeable individual. That should be a concern looking at the presidential election four years from now,” the Illinois representative said. “A President Trump who was more likable could have won, and would have won.”

Worthy Reads

🤳 Unfriend:In Tablet magazine, Emily Benedek reveals how a 30,000-member Facebook group for women in Los Angeles began expelling its Jewish members after an argument broke out in August. “What I saw and experienced in that group,” said one member, “was Jew-hatred cloaked in the veil of social justice.” [Tablet]

🤝 Joining Forces:Shalom Lipner, a 26-year veteran of the Israeli prime minister’s office, writes for The Atlantic Council that Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “are hunkering down now to meet the challenges of the impending post-Trump era.” [AtlanticCouncil]

👨‍💼 Milk n’ Honey:The Jewish Chronicle’s Jenni Frazer profiles Dan Rosenfield, the recently appointed chief of staff to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent a year milking cows on an Israeli kibbutz in his teenage years and details his recent work as chair of the World Jewish Relief. [TheJC]

Around the Web

💵 New Filings: Sheldon and Miriam Adelson gave $15 million to the pro-Trump super PAC Preserve America in October, boosting their total 2020 GOP contributions over $85 million. 

👩🏼‍💼 Under Oath:White House senior advisor Ivanka Trump confirmed yesterday that she was questioned by investigators over spending by the Trump Inaugural Committee, but claimed it was motivated by politics. 

🔍 Under Scrutiny:A federal judge unsealed court documents this week relating to alleged illegal lobbying by Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Jared Kushner, and GOP fundraiser Elliot Broidy. 

🕍 Religious Freedom:The Supreme Court ruled yesterday to overturn a lower court ruling upholding California’s COVID-19 curb on indoor religious services. 

⚖️ In Court:On Monday, the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments over the restitution of the Guelph Treasure, an art collection sold by Jews to the Nazis in 1935 for a fraction of its worth. 

💼 Presidential Reward: President Donald Trump appointed former Special Representative on Iran Brian Hook as a member of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution board of trustees. Trump also appointed Republican lobbyist Jeff Miller to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

🗣️ Speaking Out:Former CIA director John Brennan toldHaaretz’s Yossi Melman that Netanyahu “is not a very principled or ethical individual.”

🇶🇦 Not Now:Qatar’s foreign minister said his country will not sign a normalization deal with Israel anytime soon since it won’t “add value to the Palestinian people.”

✈️ Striking Deals: Bahrain’s national airline Gulf Air signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel’s El Al Airlines on direct flights starting next year. Bahraini Minister Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani said yesterday the Gulf country won’t discriminate against imports from Israeli settlements. 

⏲️ Waiting Game: U.S. envoy on Iran Elliot Abrams said that Tehran is unlikely to immediately retaliate for Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s killing, so as not to anger the incoming Biden administration. 

⚠️ Warning: The Israeli government issued a travel advisory against flying to the UAE and Bahrain out of concern that Israeli tourists could be targets for Iranian retaliation. 

🛫 Hide Out: Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is reportedly relocating from Lebanon to Iran out of fear of assassination. 

🏥 Name Blame: The San Francisco board of supervisors condemned the naming of a hospital after Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, who donated $75 million to the institution.

😡 Urgent Call:A U.K. bipartisan parliamentary panel is urging Microsoft to fix its search engine, Bing, after it appeared to promote Holocaust denial and antisemitic tropes. 

⚽ Taking a Stance: The English Premier League has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

🎙 Podcast Playback: Moneyball’s Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s joined Dan Senor’s “Post Corona” podcast to discuss the fragile future of youth sports, the COVID-spike in sports gambling, the pandemic’s birth of professional sports you’ve never heard of, and the rise of Israeli sports-tech start-up PlayerMaker. In the episode, Beane also reveals his love of Israeli history.

🔤 Back In Time: Germany is expected to return to pre-World War II alphabet tables, going back to the system after the Nazis removed names with Jewish associations.

🗳️ ‘Fake’ News: A local candidate in Namibia named Adolf Hitler Uunona won his election in a landslide, but insisted his agenda doesn’t reflect Nazi ideology.

🎥 Hollywood: Fran Drescher said she was happy to star in a Christmas movie despite being Jewish because “I celebrate anything that feels happy and positive.”

🥪 Big Bite: Eaterspotlights the D.C.-area kosher food truck Schmaltz Brothers, which includes a vegan cheeseburger and fried matzo ball bites. 

🕯️Remembering: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alison Lurie died at age 94. 

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