Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer speaking during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, DC.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer is set to join the Jerusalem-based investment firm Exigent Capital Group this month as a senior partner, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports. Dermer, who spent eight years as Israel’s envoy in Washington under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told JI that he will draw on the partnerships he forged as one of the key architects of the Abraham Accords to help develop Exigent’s outreach with strategic partners around the world and, particularly, in the Gulf.

Goodwill gestures: “There’s a lot of goodwill from the top-down and from the bottom-up to develop people-to-people peace,” said Dermer, who is in the midst of a month-long speaking tour in the U.S., of the Accords signed by Israel, the UAE and Bahrain in September 2020, with Sudan and Morocco inking separate normalization agreements with Israel in the following months.

Game-changer: “There are a lot of wealthy people in the Gulf and while those looking to only raise money might be successful, I think that such an approach is very limiting,” he told JI. “I want to create a situation where entrepreneurs from Israel and the Gulf set up shop together, build joint ventures – and maybe even the Saudis will join – and that will really be a game-changer in the Arab world.”

Under the radar: Dermer said that he was approached by multiple companies and organizations following his return to Israel a year ago, but was most drawn to Exigent, a multi-strategy investment manager with a focus on early- and late-stage venture capital, private equity, distressed debt and turnarounds, real estate, financial markets arbitrage and fund sponsorships, because of the firm’s top-notch leadership team and the quality of its global investments. “They have been working quietly and under the radar, but I like their track record,” Dermer explained. “They are grounded, but ambitious and want to grow their portfolios. I am happy to be with them and help them grow.”

Strategic move: Eliezer Brender, Exigent’s CEO, told JI that bringing someone of “Ambassador Dermer’s caliber on board,” was a strategic move for the company, which is made up of professionals drawn from major financial institutions worldwide. He said the company was looking to grow its operations globally and in the region, as well as become a leader in boosting the diplomatic process sparked by the Abraham Accords.

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Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey speaks to the press at the TCF Center on November 3, 2020, in Detroit, Michigan.

Armed with a strong initial fundraising total, longtime Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey is coming out swinging in her challenge to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Winfrey told JI in a recent interview that she felt the district “is not being represented,” describing Tlaib’s vote last year against the bipartisan infrastructure package as “the last straw.” Winfrey entered the race in February and has since raised $200,000, she told JI.

Quotable: “It appears to me that my opponent is more interested in political gain than she is in serving our constituents,” Winfrey said. “For me, that just makes my teeth itch… For you to run as a Democrat in that district and then don’t support our Democratic president, and don’t support some of the benefits that would directly benefit our community, I feel like you have another agenda. When you don’t support the one ally that we have in the Middle East, then I feel you have another agenda, and that agenda is not conducive to the citizens of the 12th Congressional District.”

Fighting Chance: “If she’s actually raised $200,000 already, then she’s had a good first six weeks of her campaign. That’s a respectable total. She needs to raise a hell of a lot more, but if she’s actually got 200 in the bank, color me impressed and a little surprised,” Adrian Hemond, a local political consultant, told JI. Hemond led then-Rep. John Conyers’ (D-MI) campaign in 2016, when Winfrey challenged him. “That doesn’t mean she’s going to win, but that’s at least a viability signal, and a pretty strong one, that Congresswoman Tlaib could have a race on her hands.”

Contrast: The congressional hopeful emphasized her support for the U.S.-Israel relationship and military aid to Israel as well as her opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. “I don’t care what your dislike is with the Jewish people, you don’t just wipe out a whole country, a whole group of people — that’s never the answer,” Winfrey said. “However fancy you want to make those words so it doesn’t sound like that — but that’s what it is and that’s what you want to do… And I’ll do whatever I need to do to eliminate the likes of those who want to work and dislike the Jewish people just because of who they are.”

Standing back: Winfrey was only broadly familiar with the two-state solution, saying she was “not proficient” in Israel policy but that a two-state solution “might be the best outcome.” She elaborated on her stance in a position paper provided to JI. “We must have confidence in Israel’s ability to determine what is best for her own security and well-being,” she said. “While I support the U.S. conducting Middle East peace talks, the United States should not infringe upon Israel’s sovereign right to pursue peace accords best aligned with her national interests. The United States has a role to facilitate in peace talks, but not dictate them.”

Making friends: Winfrey’sbaseline support for Israel has earned her friends among pro-Israel advocates in the Detroit area. Joshua Tobias — a director of the Ira Kaufman Chapel, the largest Jewish funeral home in the area, and a longtime friend of Winfrey and her husband — told JI he connected Winfrey with local AIPAC activists who organized a recent fundraiser. “From what I can tell, as soon as she met the folks at AIPAC they fell in love with her too and are really trying to help in any way they can,” he said. “She understands the importance of America’s alliance with Israel, and it’s become a very important subject for her as well.”

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Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich waves to supporters at the Republican election night party in Phoenix.

Mark Brnovich, the attorney general of Arizona and a leading Republican Senate candidate, boasts the sort of establishment credentials and statewide profile that have given him a running start in the August primary. His résumé — including a college internship with self-proclaimed maverick John McCain — suggests continuity with an individualist style of Republican politics in the Copper State, and he casts himself as a party faithful who is also charting a solo path in the spirit of such personal heroes as Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. “It’s a long, strange trip,” Brnovich, 55, quipped in a recent interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel.

Psychedelic influence: Lately, though, Brnovich — who hopes to take on Sen. Mark Kelly (D-CA) in the general election — appears to have found himself adrift as former President Donald Trump has asserted his psychedelic spell over Arizona’s warped political landscape. The two-term attorney general has struggled to balance his messaging with appeals to Trump’s base, which remains in thrall to the former president’s attacks on 2020 presidential election results. Brnovich has drawn direct rebukes from Trump for acknowledging that Joe Biden won the election in November 2020.

Mounting a defense: Brnovich defended his record in the interview. “Fortunately, no one has to guess where I stand because I’ve been involved in every single major fight in not only Arizona but this country over the last seven years,” he told JI. “When you look at law and order, someone that’s actually been toe-to-toe with the cartels and gangbangers, when you look at someone that literally lives in the same neighborhood they grew up in and cares about the price of gas and the price of groceries — I am a consistent rule-of-law Republican, and I think that’s what Arizonans want.”

Eye on Israel: Describing himself as an “unabashed supporter of Israel,” Brnovich said he is “wholeheartedly” in favor of continued U.S. security funding as well as supplemental assistance for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. In 2018, Brnovich visited Israel for the second time since he assumed office, attending a financial technology conference in Tel Aviv and visiting the city of Sderot near the border with Gaza — an experience he characterized as instructive. “I understand the threats to Israel’s existence are very, very real,” said Brnovich, recalling that he had toured an indoor recreation center designed to protect against rocket attacks from Hamas. “I’ve seen it firsthand.”

Burn, baby, burn: Brnovich has led public polling on the race, even as most voters say they are still undecided. But his surprisingly sluggish fundraising has proven incommensurate with his status as a well-known elected official, fueling speculation over his viability. In his quest to claim the seat once occupied by his old boss, McCain, Brnovich said he recognized that there were challenges ahead, but expressed confidence that he would prevail. “You’ve got to be able to take a punch and give a punch,” he said. It was unclear, though, if he was including the former president in that assessment.

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