Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent JI stories, including: Ehud Bleiberg on the true story behind Netflix’s ‘Image of Victory’; ‘People love Joe Biden here,’ Nides says of the president’s reception in Israel; Learn from Israel’s example, Aspen Security Forum speakers encourage; Burns: U.S. will ‘do everything we can’ to encourage increased Israeli normalization in region; Space Force provides a deterrent for traditional ground conflict, chief of space operations says; Israel’s SolarEdge Emerges With Saudi Deal After Biden Trip; AnD Ventures grooms start-ups as cash gets tougher to find; ‘Someone has to pay for it’: Aid workers and organizers on the burdens and benefits of American Jewish missions to the Ukrainian border; and Miriam Anzovin, TikTok Daf Yomi star, to join Moishe House. Print the latest edition here.
At the last in-person Aspen Security Forum, the idea of Bahraini and Israeli officials publicly embracing each other and making jokes was an unthinkable sight. The year was 2019, and the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between the two countries, was more than a year away.
But yesterday afternoon, that was exactly what happened. In between their back-to-back sessions with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Israeli Defense Secretary Benny Gantz — surrounded by perhaps the largest security delegation of any speaker in Aspen this week — and Bahraini Undersecretary for Political Affairs Abdulla Al Khalifa posed for photos and exchanged laughs.
Goldberg peppered each conversation with similar questions, ranging from the viability of a two-state solution to the Iranian nuclear program.
On Iran:
Al Khalifa: “October 9, 2006. The world woke up to the news that North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon. That was the reality that the world still is facing its consequences. What if one day, all of us wake up to the news that Iran has tested its first nuclear weapon and face it as a reality? So I believe addressing the issue now, when there is an opportunity, is much better than addressing it later, when it’s too late.”
Gantz: “I would say we all see Iran’s malign activities in the region and elsewhere. Now, they’re doing all that without having the nuclear canopy deterrence to support. Now just try to figure out the reality, how would they act without using nuclear but just using the nuclear canopy in all those activities that we are seeing around in the region.”
On the Palestinians:
Gantz: “I would like to tell you that from a Zionistic perspective, from a Jewish, democratic and Zionistic perspective, I would like to see a better future between us and the Palestinians… I think that the more we invest in strategic planning, the more we invest in infrastructure, the more we make sure that there is a security, then there is stability, and then there is economy, prosperity, I would say, then, hopefully we can, down the road, be able to create what I call [a] bridging situation. My own phrase for it is two-entity situation — to create a better, positive situation on the ground that will enable us in the future to come to a permanent arrangement between the Palestinians and us.”
Al Khalifa: “There’s a limitation to what Bahrain can do or to what anyone can do to support the Palestinians if they do not support themselves. We would have to see a united Palestinian national front, for them to know what exactly they want, instead of us looking into rather than a two-state solution, it looks more like a three-state solution nowadays. So there’s a limitation to what could be done from our end in Bahrain. But at the end of the day, whatever the Palestinians agree, unanimously, to achieve, we are more than [likely] to support that.”
On Israel’s increased integration into the region following the Abraham Accords:
Al Khalifa: “We have interestingly signed a joint, warm-peace strategy, a 10-year strategy [that]… has specifically identified areas of interest to develop and deliver tangible results, namely in innovation and technology, through investment for the security, healthcare, education, tourism and a couple of others. This was signed on the sidelines of the historic Negev Summit, last March, which was an event hosted by Israel and attended by foreign ministers from Bahrain, the U.S., the UAE, Morocco and Egypt. It was the gathering of like-minded countries in the region interested in developing stability and prosperity in the region, and to upscale the level of cooperative coordination in the various fields… And I think it was a step to conceptualize a new regional network.”
Gantz: “I think that those countries have realized that Israel is there to stay. I think those countries have realized that Israel is not a burden, it’s an asset. I think they realize the good relations that Israel has with the United States. It’s a good bridge to be used. And altogether, we never threaten them, while the Iranians do so. So I think they took the right decisions from their own perspective.”
Watch the full conversation here.Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Jewish Insider yesterday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s meeting earlier this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei highlights that the three have become “an axis — a trio of evil, as far as I’m concerned.”
“This is another example of how Erdogan alternately sides with the most despotic and oppressive leaders in the world,” Menendez continued. “And another manifestation of why helping him with the F-16s is not in the national interests of the United States.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that any new Turkish offensive in Syria “would have the potential to set back some of the tremendous progress that the coalition has made,” but said, “We strongly value our partnership with Turkey.” Price said that the administration is working with Congress on Turkey’s request to purchase 40 F-16 fighter jets.
by the numbers
New MI-11 poll shows Stevens leading Levin by 27 points

Reps. Andy Levin (D-MI) and Haley Stevens (D-MI)
New polling released Thursday in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District shows Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) with a 27-point lead over Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) two weeks before the Aug. 2 Democratic primary, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
By the numbers: Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed said they plan to vote for Stevens, while 31% said they’ll cast their ballot for Levin. Eleven percent of voters remain undecided. The poll of 500 likely voters was conducted by landline and cell phone from July 18-20, and has a margin of error of 4.5%. The poll was conducted by Target Insyght, a Michigan-based firm, and was not commissioned by a campaign or outside group.
Response from the field: A source inside the Stevens campaign told Jewish Insider the data was consistent with its internal polling. Levin’s campaign spokesperson, Jenny Byer, called into question the reliability of Target Insyght and the poll, saying that their internal polling, which she declined to share, showed “a very tight race.”
Final verdict: “Polls like this at this time in the campaign usually exaggerate the winner if they have a big lead,” Target Insyght’s executive director, Ed Sarpolus, told JI. “So it’s probably going to be a lot closer, but it still shows the trend… Unless something happens, Haley is going to win.”