Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on a new bipartisan push byReps. Ritchie Torres and Mike Lawler to create a State Department ambassador position to advance the Abraham Accords, and interview Adam Frisch on his second bid to unseat Rep. Lauren Boebert. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Judy Blume, Nikki Haley and Eli Cohen.
American-Israeli citizen Elan Ganeles, 27, was killed in a terror attack yesterday, shot dead while driving near the West Bank city of Jericho, amid a flare-up of violence in the area.
U.S. State Department Ned Pricesaid during a press briefing, “The United States is extremely concerned by the events of this weekend and the continuing violence in Israel and the West Bank. As we noted yesterday, we condemn the horrific killing of two Israeli brothers near Nablus and the killing today of an Israeli near Jericho, who we understand was also an American citizen. We express our deepest condolences to all of the victims’ families and their loved ones.”
“We also condemn the widescale, indiscriminate violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians following the killing,” he continued, saying that he expects the Israeli government “to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks,” in addition to compensation for the lost homes and property burned down in the rampage.
The Israeli Consulate General of Israel in New Yorktweeted, “We are shattered by the loss of Elan Ganeles, a US-Israeli citizen & IDF vet murdered today by Palestinian terrorists. Elan grew up in Connecticut & graduated last May from Columbia. He volunteered in his local community & sought to better the world. May his memory be a blessing.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee had been scheduled to vote today on Eric Garcetti and Michael Ratney’s nominations to be the U.S. ambassadors to India and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Both nominations were approved by the committee in the last Congress, but must be voted on again after stalling on the Senate floor. Last night, however, the committee’s scheduled meeting was canceled after multiple senators requested that nomination votes be delayed until the committee’s next business meeting. Jewish Insider learned yesterday that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had planned to ask that, at minimum, Garcetti’s vote be delayed.
Other Hill hearings we’re watching today include the Senate Banking Committee, which will hear from former National Security Council officials on sanctions and export controls as a national security tool; the House Intelligence Committee hearing with think tank leaders; the House Homeland Security Committee’s hearing on “Secretary Mayorkas’ Border Crisis,” which could preview potential impeachment proceedings against the Homeland Security secretary; and the House Oversight Committee will hold a markup on legislation aimed at preventing government employees from urging social media platforms to take down lawful content.
Further up Pennsylvania Avenue, the American Jewish Committee is bringing antisemitism envoys from the European Commission, Organization of American States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Norway to the White House to meet with administration officials. The envoys will also meet with members of Congress.
exclusive
Torres, Lawler push for a U.S. Abraham Accords ambassador
Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) are pushing for the creation of a dedicated ambassador post at the State Department focused on advancing the Abraham Accords, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod has learned.
New bill: The two House lawmakers are set to introduce a bill today that would create an ambassador-rank special envoy for the Abraham Accords, who would be tasked with leading and coordinating the State Department’s efforts to strengthen and expand the Arab-Israeli normalization agreements. The ambassador would report directly to the secretary of state, conduct talks with potential Abraham Accords signatories and work with nongovernmental organizations.
Combatting bureaucracy: “The Abraham Accords cannot be allowed to atrophy from bureaucratic neglect, there should and must be a clear delineation of power within the federal government. The Abraham Accords are so monumental that it merits a special envoy of its own,” Torres told JI in an interview. “It’s not about politics, it’s about bureaucracy… Regardless of the administration, without a single point person, there is often a bureaucratic muddle in which many people have power but no one has responsibility.”
In the spotlight: Lawler described the proposed special envoy as “an important measure to not only help oversee the Abraham Accords in the region but hopefully help grow it and provide more stability.” “Having someone who is specifically focused on the Abraham Accords will help ensure the long-term strength of these agreements,” the New York Republican continued, noting the “robust portfolio” that U.S. ambassadors in the region already handle. “It’s important to really maximize what we’re trying to accomplish here, and I think giving special attention to it is a good thing.”
Job description: The legislation directs that the special envoy, who would be subject to Senate confirmation, should have high-level diplomatic experience and be knowledgeable about the Islamic and Jewish worlds, economics, security and human rights. The nominee may also come from within the State Department’s civil service ranks.
round two
New comments by U.N. official prompt second call from Capitol Hill for her removal
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote to United Nations leadership on Friday demanding that Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, be removed from her position — the second such call since the beginning of 2023, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Renewed concerns: The new letter, led by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Ann Wagner (R-MO) and signed by 16 other lawmakers, cites comments made this month by Albanese regarding recent terror attacks and other incidents. In addition to Albanese’s firing, the letter calls on U.N. leadership to disband the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry investigating Israel and address “deep-seated antisemitic and anti-Israel bias at the United Nations.”
Condemned: The letter highlights what the lawmakers describe as Albanese’s refusal to condemn recent Palestinian terrorist attacks targeting an Israeli bus stop and a Jerusalem synagogue, and her condemnations of Israel following these incidents. The lawmakers also point to her praise of the attempt by the mayor of Barcelona to cut ties with Tel Aviv as its “sister city.” “For an official tasked with serving as an independent, neutral, and expert voice on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, her inexcusable silence against terrorism targeting Israelis and her outrageous and prejudicial remarks clearly reflect the irredeemable bias of her mandate,” the letter reads.
Signatories: The letter was addressed to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. It was signed by Reps. David Scott (D-GA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), David Trone (D-MD), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Don Davis (D-NC), Grace Meng (D-NY), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Greg Landsman (D-OH).
rematch
Three months after close defeat, Frisch gears up to face Boebert again
When he announced his long-shot campaign to unseat Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) just over a year ago, it was by no means assured that Adam Frisch, a Jewish Democrat from Aspen, would advance past the primary, let alone have the chance to face off against one of the most high-profile, if controversial, Republicans in Congress. Even less predictable was that Frisch, who narrowly clinched the Democratic nomination, would explode onto the national stage last November, as he came within some 550 votes of defeating Boebert, an unexpectedly vulnerable freshman, in one of the closest House races of the midterms. Now, as he gears up for a rematch only three months after his tantalizingly close defeat, Frisch believes that he is even better poised to pull off an upset over his far-right opponent, whose performative antics, the election results suggested, have proven off-putting to a large number of disaffected voters from across the political spectrum, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Eyeing the finish line: “She is the only nationally known politician who has any chance of losing, and not just any chance but a really darn good one,” Frisch, who launched his second House campaign earlier this month, told JI in a recent interview. “We proved that out before, and we’re confident, now that we have a longer runway, that we’ll be able to deliver a final result — and have this be her last term.” Frisch, 55, had aggressively courted frustrated Republicans and unaffiliated voters in Colorado’s historically conservative 3rd Congressional District, which takes in most of the state’s rural Western Slope, and he intends to build on that strategy in the coming months, he said.
Calling out ‘the circus’: Even with well over a year until the next election, Frisch, who identifies as a “moderate conservative Democrat,” said he expects that voters will continue to feel disenchanted with Boebert, a leading avatar of Republican extremism in the House. During her brief tenure, the incendiary two-term incumbent has drawn controversy for amplifying conspiracy theories and antagonizing congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, among other things. “She’s not focused on the job, she’s focused on herself,” Frisch claimed, citing her conduct at a recent House Oversight Committee hearing, where Boebert, 36, accused a former Twitter executive of “shadowbanning” her account. “People wanted the circus to stop,” he explained of her poor showing in the November election. The current view, he maintained, “is that she hasn’t changed.”
Wokeism warning: The congresswoman, who was caught by surprise when Frisch’s surging campaign almost toppled her, now seems to be taking a second challenge more seriously. Hours after he entered the race, Boebert’s campaign released a fundraising email warning supporters about a likely rematch that “that will surely attract a flood of woke money from across the country.” “Liberal Democrat Aspen Adam announced today that he’s officially running for Congress again,” the email said, reupping an epithet that Boebert, who lives in the town of Rifle, has used to cast Frisch as out of touch with most of the district. “We’ve worked tirelessly to bring fundamental change to the direction of our country,” Boebert’s message added. “Because of this, a lot of people on the Left are angry. They want to keep the status quo.”
Funding matters: During his first campaign, Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman, was largely ignored by Democratic leadership and national political action groups, despite some internal polling from his campaign that indicated the race would be closer than anticipated. In hindsight, he suspects that their support would likely have helped tipped the scales, as he struggled to raise money and boost his profile. Seth Masket, a professor of political science at the University of Denver, agreed with that assessment. “My impression is that a bit of additional funding and organization could have put Frisch over the top last year,” he said in an email to JI. “Many top Democrats just didn’t take his contest seriously, and the contest was close enough that with a little bit more investment he might have been successful.” Still, Masket suggested that Frisch’s “odds are longer for 2024,” when there will be a Republican presidential candidate on the ballot “who will undoubtedly” help bolster turnout for Boebert.
spelling semantics
Dictionary [dot] com changes antisemitism spelling away from ‘anti-Semitism’
Amid an ongoing national conversation about the evolving nature of language, one of the biggest online dictionaries is changing its official spelling of the word used to describe what it defines as “discrimination against or prejudice or hostility toward Jews.” Dictionary [dot] com is replacing “anti-Semitism” — written with a hyphen and a capital S — with “antisemitism,” the website’s senior director of editorial, John Kelly, told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch on Monday. The term’s definition will not change. “As a dictionary, we take pains to document and describe the language that’s being used,” Kelly said. “How a word is present in a dictionary has real effects on real people in the real world. The effects can be social, it can be psychological, it can be personal.”
Linguistic debate: The move comes nearly two years after The Associated Press similarly changed the spelling in its widely used style guide. It also reflects an ongoing push by many American Jewish organizations to spell “antisemitism” without the capital S. The linguistic debate kicked off in earnest in 2015, when the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance published a memo arguing for the updated spelling. Using the capital S, the memo said, “allows for the possibility of something called ‘Semitism.’”
Capital qualms: The Anti-Defamation League suggests that “there is no such thing as a Semitic peoplehood,” only Semitic languages, including Arabic and Amharic — and notes that it is possible to speak a Semitic language and still be prejudiced against Jews. Since the term was popularized in the late 19th century by a German journalist who espoused conspiracy theories about Jewish people, it has “referred to prejudice against Jews alone,” and not against any other “Semitic” entity, IHRA writes. “It’s quite important to note that ‘antisemitic’ as we use it in our general culture isn’t noting a prejudice against, say, somebody who speaks Aramaic. It is noting a very particular prejudice, which is discrimination against or prejudice or hostility towards Jews in particular,” said Kelly. “The capital S spelling in Semitic is, by a number of groups, interpreted as reinforcing some outdated pseudo-science of race that has kind of applied to Jewish people.”
Two Jews, three opinions: Supporters of the change argue that it serves an educational purpose, of clarifying what, exactly, antisemitism is — and what it is not. But others in the Jewish community fear that it offers what looks like an easy way out while doing little to actually combat antisemitism. Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian and the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, argued for the updated spelling in her 2018 book, Antisemitism: Here and Now. Journalist Yair Rosenberg wrote in The Atlantic in 2021, “It’s understandable that those looking for a win against a seemingly intractable prejudice such as anti-Semitism would gravitate toward this issue. But the time and energy spent on this subject would be much better spent on combatting anti-Semites and educating allies.”
Worthy Reads
🇮🇱 Powder Keg: In an op-ed headlined “Netanyahu Is Shattering Israeli Society,” The New York Times’ Tom Friedman cautions that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu risks a series of crises that could topple his government. “Israel today is a boiler with way, way too much steam building up inside, and the bolts are about to fly off in all directions. Lethal attacks by Palestinian youths against Israelis are coinciding with an expansion of Israeli settlements and the torching of Palestinian villages by settlers, as well as with a popular uprising against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial power grab. Together they are threatening a breakdown in governance the likes of which we’ve never seen before in Israel.” [NYTimes]
📚 Literary Legend: The Atlantic’s Amy Weiss-Meyer spotlights author Judy Blume, who has enjoyed decades-long popularity among young readers. “I hadn’t planned to consult the subject of my story on the boring logistics of the visit, but those details were exactly what Blume wanted to discuss: what time my flight landed, where I was staying, why I should stay somewhere else instead. Did I need a ride from the airport? The advice continued once I arrived: where to eat, the importance of staying hydrated, why she prefers bottled water to the Key West tap. (Blume also gently coached me on what to do when, at dinner my first night, my water went down the wrong pipe and I began to choke. ‘I know what that’s like,’ she volunteered. ‘Bend your chin toward your chest.’) I’d forgotten to bring a hat, so Blume loaned me one for rides in her teal Mini convertible and a walk along the beach. When I hesitated to put it on for the walk, eager to absorb as much vitamin D as possible before a long New York winter, she said, ‘It’s up to you’ in that Jewish-mother way that means Don’t blame me when you get a sunburn and skin cancer. I put on the hat.” [TheAtlantic]
🗺️ Policy Prescription: In the Wall Street Journal, Walter Russell Mead suggests how the Biden administration could deter or mitigate conflict in the Middle East. “The U.S. can’t compel Iran and Russia to avoid actions that trigger a new Middle East war, but strong policy on our part still might deter them. Unfortunately for the Biden administration, that involves precisely the kind of hawkish Middle East posture that many Democrats — including senior Biden officials — viscerally loathe. The American approach to Saudi Arabia will have to move from a fist bump to wholehearted embrace. Drone attacks and other provocations by Iran and its allies against the Saudis, Emiratis and their neighbors will have to be met with the kind of American military response that leaves no doubt of our determination to prevail. The best way to avoid war, and to minimize direct American engagement should war break out, is to ensure that our Middle East allies have the power to defend themselves. We must make it unmistakably clear that we will ensure our allies win should hostilities break out. Nothing else will do.” [WSJ]
✋ Haley’s Pledge: In the New York Post, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, who launched her 2024 presidential campaign earlier this month, pledges to cut U.S. foreign aid “to fund anti-American countries and causes,” citing as one example American funding for the U.N. agency that supports Palestinians but has been cited numerous times for distributing antisemitic content. “As US ambassador to the United Nations, I saw how often anti-American countries bashed us in public then privately begged us for money. And I lost confidence in our leaders, who know what’s happening but keep letting our enemies pig out at the taxpayer trough. Year after year, Congress throws billions of dollars at our enemies and their allies, instead of focusing on America’s allies and our interests… At the UN, I put together a book of how much money we give other countries and how often they vote with us. It was eye-opening. We are giving huge amounts of cash to countries that vote against us most of the time. That doesn’t make sense. I’ll stop it. America can’t buy our friends. We’ll certainly never buy off our enemies. No country has a right to the American taxpayer’s money. Our leaders have a responsibility to protect our people and promote our interests. Our politicians aren’t doing that, all the way up to President Joe Biden. It’s about time we had a president who did.” [NYPost]
🕍 Under Abraham’s Tent: The Atlantic Council’s Marcy Grossman considers the broad implications of the opening of the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue in Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Family House. “But if the synagogue rises to the occasion of its namesake, it will be much more than the center for Jewish life. It has the potential to be something greater: a global center for pluralism, culture, education, and engagement; a center for interfaith education, research, and engagement; a center that can create links between Jewish, Arab, and Christian communities within the UAE, across Arabia, and around the world. The Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue is not just another synagogue. It’s a synagogue in the UAE, where the motto is ‘Impossible is possible.’ It is a beacon of faith from a Muslim country demonstrating its values of peace and coexistence. It is also a beacon of light at a time when western antisemitism is at an all-time high. Perhaps, most significantly, it is a beacon of peace in the Middle East.” [AtlanticCouncil]
Around the Web
🗳️ In the Race: Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) announced her bid for U.S. Senate, which was followed by confirmation that former Michigan state Sen. Tom Barrett, who lost to Slotkin in November, will again seek the congressional seat.
🛏️ On the Mend: Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), is recovering from surgery to remove gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors that doctors discovered last year.
✋ In the House: The House of Representatives passed a resolution 412-2 — with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) voting nay — affirming support for the victims of this month’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, and condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for “cynically exploit[ing] the disaster to evade international pressure and accountability.”
📄 Natural Move: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, signed into law a bill adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, making the state the 28th to adopt the definition.
👟 Sneakers Saga: Sales of Yeezy sneakers, from Kanye West’s sneaker and clothing brand, have increased on Impossible Kicks, an online clothing and shoe reseller, following the end of the artist’s partnership with Adidas over his antisemitic comments, CNN reports. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Adidas is struggling to decide what to do with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the sneakers.
🏈 Football Fret: Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder has demanded indemnification against future legal liability and costs if he sells the team, angering some fellow NFL franchise owners and renewing talk of voting him out.
👩⚕️ Human Interest: In the Wall Street Journal, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor reflects on the efforts of her grandmother, a nurse, to provide medical care to the children of Nazi officers, and compares her actions with those of Israelis offering aid to earthquake victims.
🛬 Diplomatic Visit: Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is visiting Germany today and held a meeting with his counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, and other officials to discuss efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
👋 Moaz’s Move: Avi Maoz, the head of Israel’s anti-LGBTQ Noam party, resigned from his role as deputy minister over what he cited as the government’s failure to live up to its coalition agreement, but will remain a member of the coalition.
✍️ Making the List:Forbes Israel released its “30 Under 30” list.
💸 Wiz-zing Forward: Israeli digital security company Wiz raised $300 million in its latest round of funding, with a valuation of $10 billion.
🏦 Money Heist: The New York Timesreports on a string of bank heists in Lebanon that are being conducted by unlikely culprits — the banks’ own customers, who are attempting to withdraw their own money in the face of economic and political corruption.
🛰️ Deadly Drones: Russia launched more than a dozen Iranian drones into Ukraine, killing two rescue workers on the ground in Khmelnytskyi.
✍️ Upping Aid: Saudi Arabia signed a series of agreements with Ukraine that will see Riyadh provide $400 million in humanitarian aid, during a visit to Kyiv by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the highest-level Saudi official to visit the country in three decades.
💼 Transition: Former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) is joining the Center for American Progress as a distinguished senior fellow. h/t Playbook
🕯️ Remembering: Film producer Walter Mirisch, a former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died at 101.
Pic of the Day
Emmanuel Nahshon, deputy director general for public diplomacy at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, speaks on a panel about combating delegitimization at the Global Coalition For Israel conference in Jerusalem on Monday.
Birthdays
New York Times op-ed columnist and 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, he is the author of 27 books, Paul Krugman turns 70…
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972, professor emeritus at Brown University since 1958, Leon Cooper turns 93… Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego, Linda Preiss Rothschild turns 78… Actress and singer, Ilene Susan Graff turns 74… Former State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Ira Niles Forman turns 71… Chief scientific officer at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Samuel Klein, MD turns 70… Greensboro, N.C., businessman, he is a past chairman of Hillel International, Randall Kaplan… Self-described as “America’s most notorious lobbyist,” Jack Abramoff turns 64… Editor at large of the Jewish Week, Andrew Silow-Carroll turns 62… Owner of a commercial lavender farm in New Jersey, she previously served as a member of the New Jersey State Senate, Ellen Karcher turns 59… Jerusalem-born businessman, he worked as a NYC taxi driver after completing his IDF service, started and sold several companies in the automotive field, Mordechai (Moti) Kahana turns 55… President and CEO of The New York Times Company, Meredith Kopit Levien turns 52… Political commentator Peter Beinart turns 52… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party, Ruth Wasserman Lande turns 47… Mayor of Jersey City, N.J., Steven Fulop turns 46… National political correspondent for The New York Times, Lisa Lerer… Senior director at Purple Strategies, Erica Goldman… Counsel in the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine, Adam Sieff… Executive director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission since 2019, Andrew H. Gross turns 34… Senior manager in the Boston office of PwC, Li-Dor David… Israeli national fencing champion and fashion model, she represented Israel at Miss Universe 2015, Avigail Alfatov turns 27… Retired executive director of the Montreal chapter of ORT, Emmanuel Kalles…
February 29: Economist and professor at New York University, Roman Frydman turns 75… Advisory director at Goldman Sachs, former board chair at Jewish Theological Seminary, Abby Joseph Cohen turns 71… Former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Paul D. Rosenthal turns 63… Co-founder of Biebelberg & Martin in Millburn, N.J., Keith N. Biebelberg… Professor of bible at Bar-Ilan University, Joshua Berman turns 59… Denver-based attorney at Recht Kornfeld, Richard K. Kornfeld… Former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk and now a UCLA law professor known for his eponymous prominent legal blog “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Eugene Volokh turns 55… Israeli mountain climber, search and rescue professional, photographer and speaker, best known for his heroic rescue of an unconscious Turk he found near the summit of Mount Everest in 2012, Nadav Ben Yehuda turns 35… Political operations project manager at AIPAC, Samantha Friedman Fallon… Head of strategic partnerships at TailorMed, Christie Lee…
