Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Jewish activists who played a key part in the “Save Darfur” movement about the current situation in Sudan, and report on Morningstar’s removal of “controversy ratings” attached to companies operating in Israel and the West Bank. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ben Judah, Rufus Gifford and Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman.
The streets of Tel Aviv and other cities across Israel were once again filled with spontaneous demonstrations last night following the news that Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Eshed had resigned from the police force, citing political interference by members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The move preempted Eshed’s transfer to a different position, which was seen as a demotion, and came after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized Eshed’s handling of the anti-judicial reform protests.
In a press conference last night, Eshed said he “could not live up to the expectations of the ministerial echelon, which included the breaking rules and process and a clear interference in the professional decision-making… I could have easily used disproportionate force and filled the ER at Ichilov [Medical Center] at the end of every demonstration in Tel Aviv. We could have cleared Ayalon [Highway] within minutes at the terrible cost of cracking heads and breaking bones, at the cost of breaking the pact between police and the citizenry.”
Ben-Gvir responded to Eshed’s speech,saying it “proved that a political commissioner in uniform served in the Israel Police. I wish him great success in his future as a candidate in the next elections in a leftist party.”
Police arrested a driver who drove through a group of protesters on the Ayalon highway, injuring one man.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said yesterday that Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov is being held hostage in Iraq by the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah group. Tsurkov had been missing for several months after traveling to Iraq to work on her doctorate and academic research for Princeton University, the statement said.
Despite the militia’s link to Iran, the Israeli PMO statement noted that “Elizabeth Tsurkov is still alive and we hold Iraq responsible for her safety and wellbeing,” and added that “The matter is being handled by the relevant parties in the State of Israel out of concern for Elizabeth Tsurkov’s security and well-being.”
The trajectory of several key Senate races grew clearer this week, as leading candidates begin to post their second-quarter fundraising tallies ahead of the July 15 deadline. The reports, covering money raised from April 1 to June 30, are useful guides to which candidates are showcasing momentum heading into the political homestretch.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), running for Senate in California, announced he raised a whopping $8.1 million for the race — the most money raised in the second quarter of a non-election year by any Democratic Senate candidate in history, according to his campaign. He ended June with $29.5 million in his campaign account.
Schiff, who led the first impeachment against former President Donald Trump, turned his censure by House Republicans last month into campaign cash. Schiff is using his high-profile fights against Trump and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as a selling point in a hotly contested primary against Reps. Katie Porter (D-CA) and Barbara Lee (D-CA).
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) announced he raised over $4 million in the second quarter as he prepares for the likelihood of a competitive challenge by GOP businessman David McCormick. That’s Casey’s highest quarterly fundraising total in his career, leaving him with over $6 million in cash on hand. Casey, who underwent treatment for prostate cancer earlier this year, only raised $440,000 in the last fundraising quarter.
McCormick, a top GOP recruit who nearly won the Republican nomination for Senate last year, would be able to self-finance some of his campaign.
And in Maryland, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a first-time Democratic congressional candidate, raised a solid $1.6 million since entering the Senate race in May. She’s facing Rep. David Trone (D-MD), one of the wealthiest members of Congress, in the primary. Trone is already spending his money on campaign ads.
One other notable fundraising haul: Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), running against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), raised $6.2 million in the first two months of the race. That means he’ll likely have the resources against Cruz, but remains a clear underdog in a state where Republicans still predominate. (Cruz hasn’t released his fundraising haul yet.)
spotlight on sudan
‘It’s all happening again’: 20 years after genocide in Darfur, ethnic violence returns

When the political situation in Sudan deteriorated in April, global human rights advocates looked on with alarm. Two warring military leaders had sparked an armed conflict after talks to create a civilian government fell apart. The violence quickly reached Darfur, an impoverished region now experiencing ethnic violence that, to some, felt eerily familiar: Nearly two decades ago, Jewish activists led a global movement to stop a genocide there. Now, as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., again warns of a “dire risk of genocide” in Darfur, where do the leaders of the Save Darfur movement stand? Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch spoke to activists and atrocity-prevention experts to find out.
On the ground: The Save Darfur campaign drew widespread support from within the American Jewish community: Rabbis spoke about the genocide from the pulpit, while students solicited donations for relief efforts. In Washington, advocates lobbied Congress to address the genocide, and thousands of activists turned out for a 2006 rally on the National Mall, with speakers that included Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Green rubber bracelets that said “Save Darfur” became a fixture at synagogues.
Different era: Today, reports of ethnic violence in Darfur may have a harder time getting through to people in a world that is awash with stories of humanitarian crises in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Burma, Xinjiang and more. In part, that’s due to Jewish activists focusing their energy elsewhere — including in the U.S., where antisemitism is on the rise and domestic issues have drawn the attention of American Jews. But it’s also because the Save Darfur movement succeeded in dramatically reshaping and reinvigorating the human rights field of atrocity prevention.