Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
The White House announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. In August, JI’s Gabby Deutch spoke to Jewish groups pushing for a diplomatic boycott of the games. Read the story here.
In a victory for immigrants to Israel who are giving birth in the coming weeks, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked will permit the parents of immigrants to enter Israel for their grandchildren’s births. Previously, COVID-19-related restrictions had kept soon-to-be grandparents from being allowed into the country.
Efforts to repeal the 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Forceappear to have stalled out again, with the Senate deciding not to proceed with a vote on the issue as part of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is set to arrive in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning, where he is scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog and leaders of AIPAC and think tanks. On Friday, Gantz is due to speak at the Israeli American Council’s National Summit in Miami. His visit will focus on policy and security issues, his office said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in Jerusalem today, together with Energy Minister Karine Elharrar, in the framework of the Israel-Greece-Cyprus trilateral summit. Following the meeting, Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen and Cypriot Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Kyriakos Kokkinos signed a scientific research and technology cooperation agreement.
heard last night
Bloomberg: Both major parties ‘coddling antisemites,’ not condemning them

Michael Bloomberg
The fight against antisemitism was front and center at UJA-Federation of New York’s Wall Street Dinner, held on Monday night at the Marriott Marquis in Midtown Manhattan, where former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored with the UJA’s Gustave L. Levy Award. In addition to Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs Global Co-head of Consumer and Wealth Management Stephanie Cohen received the Alan C. Greenberg Young Leadership Award.
Political problem: The former mayor addressed both political intolerance — singling out Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) by name — and efforts by Jewish groups to combat antisemitism. “On the right, we have heard conspiracy theories about the COVID vaccine being a Jewish plot, and even Jewish space lasers starting the virus out west — you can’t make this shit up, folks,” Bloomberg said. “It would be funny if it were not so dangerous, because when we hear wild conspiracy theories, whether they were about vaccines or wildfires, or the election and [QAnon], or anything else, we must remember, antisemitism is the original conspiracy theory… In some circles on the left and on many college campuses, there are those who are using the political situation in Israel to spread lies and prejudices. They assert that American support for Israel is about nothing more than Jewish money controlling politicians and Jewish people acting as oppressors.”
Learning young: Bloomberg, who noted that his sister had been a member of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, said his family had inspired his commitment to fighting hate in all forms. “When I was a young boy, I remember seeing my father write a check to the NAACP for something like 100 bucks, which was a lot of money for us back then,” he recalled. “And we talked about it at the dinner table, and I asked my father, ‘Why are you writing this check?’ ‘Because,’ he said, ‘discrimination against anyone is a threat to all of us.’”
Community mobilization: Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’s senior chairman and the event’s emcee, joked that the dinner — which raised $32 million — was the first time he’d worn a suit in two years, before pivoting to UJA’s efforts to combat antisemitism. “This past spring, the conflict in Israel led to a dangerous rise of antisemitic attacks. Jews were targeted on the streets of New York City and around the world. UJA took a strong stance right away by mobilizing our communities and allies to denounce hate by creating the community security initiative to help protect Jewish institutions across the New York region, and by advocating for and obtaining government security grants.”