
Daily Kickoff: Gantz hosts Iftar in Tel Aviv + AIPAC super PAC’s public filing
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
Elon Musk will purchase Twitter for roughly $44 billion, drawing mixed reactions from both the Jewish community and the broader Twitter universe. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” the billionaire entrepreneur tweeted shortly after yesterday’s announcement.
“Twitter has made some strides in tackling online hate and extremism in recent years, and so while we want to be cautiously optimistic about how Elon Musk will run the platform, he has not demonstrated any focus on these issues to date,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said shortly after the announcement. “We worry that he could take things in a very different direction. Moreover, as a private company, Twitter will lack the transparency and accountability of a public firm. It strikes me as deeply troubling and potentially dangerous that two people — Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — essentially control the public square. That seems like a sad day for democracy.”
Israeli-American writer Yossi Klein Halevi said he was “delighted” by the move and speculated that Musk will create “a censor-free Twitter,” adding, “The situation today is that the most vile calumny against Israel and the Jewish people is permitted, while pro-Israel voices are arbitrarily removed. So level the playing field and let us debate.”
Delivering the Tanous Family Lecture at Georgetown University yesterday, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who served in both the Bush and Obama administrations, warned that North Korea and Iran are watching the situation in Ukraine as it relates to their nuclear programs.
“They’re not stupid,” Gates said. “So they look around the world — [Muammar] Qaddafi gave up his nuclear weapons, he’s dead and his regime is gone. Saddam [Hussein]…had nuclear weapons, he’s dead, his regime is gone. Ukraine gave up 1,800 nuclear weapons in 1994 in exchange for guaranteed territorial integrity by the United States, United Kingdom, and — guess who — the Russians. And now they’ve lost a third of their country. Kim [Jong Un] looks at that picture. And he’s trying to figure out how you could possibly think getting rid of his nuclear weapons is a good idea.”
“And I think it’s a question of whether Iran will be willing to be a threshold state, which means, in essence, they have the capability to build a nuclear weapon, they have the components to build the nuclear weapon, but they won’t throw it together unless they have to,” Gates added. “If they were to acquire nuclear weapons, and everybody knew they had nuclear weapons, I would wager a lot that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey would probably not be far behind. So there is a real risk there if the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons.”
breaking bread
Israeli defense chief hosts Iftar for Arab ambassadors

Attendees at Gantz’s Iftar
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Monday sought to soothe tensions over recent violence in Jerusalem by inviting Arab diplomats to break the daily Ramadan fast at his office compound in Tel Aviv, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports.
Table talk: Over a traditional Iftar dinner, Gantz asked envoys from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt to relay to their leaders that Israel is “taking unprecedented steps to enable freedom of worship,” according to a Defense Ministry statement. He said “extremists” are to blame for restrictions that have triggered clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Shared concerns: In his remarks to the Arab diplomats on Monday, Gantz hailed the Abraham Accords while warning about the nuclear threat from Iran. “Israel values freedom of worship and we will do everything in our capacity to enable it, while an extremist group — the minority — aims to harm it,” Gantz said. “It is important for us that this message is brought to the leaders of your countries.”
Invite list: Guests at the Iftar meal in Tel Aviv included Moroccan Ambassador Abderrahim Bayoud, UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja, Bahraini Deputy Head of Mission Abdulkarim Ebrahim Alanansari and Egyptian Embassy Counsellor Walid Talaat Mahdy. No Jordanian representative was listed in the Defense Ministry statement.
Bonus: President Joe Biden spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan on Monday. The two “discussed in detail recent efforts to stem violence in Israel and the West Bank, including at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem,” according to a readout of the call distributed by the White House. “The President welcomed recent steps to reduce tensions and expressed his hope that the final week of Ramadan will pass peacefully. He underscored the need to preserve the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, and recognized the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s role as the custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem.”