Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight Reps. David Kustoff and Max Miller, the two Jewish Republican members of Congress, and look at former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s past comments about the U.S.-Israel relationship. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ron Dermer, David Solomon and Rebecca Weiner.
A month after former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides left his posting as the top U.S. envoy in Jerusalem, former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is reportedly the top candidate to replace him, Axios’ Barak Ravid reported yesterday.
The Biden administration is reportedly vetting Lew, 67, who served as Treasury secretary from 2013-2017. The former Cabinet official served as chief of staff to former President Barack Obama for the final year of Obama’s first term, and prior to that was director of the Office of Management and Budget, a role he also held in the Clinton White House. From January 2009 to November 2010, Lew served in the newly created role of deputy secretary of state for management and resources. Nides would go on to succeed Lew in that position after Lew was confirmed by the Senate for the OMB role.
If nominated, Lew, the first Orthodox Jew to serve as chief of staff and Treasury secretary, will face his third confirmation hearing, in a Senate that looks markedly different than it did in 2013. His nomination to head OMB was confirmed by unanimous consent, while the vote to confirm him as Treasury secretary passed 71-26, with three abstentions.
Sen. John Barasso (R-WY), who chairs the Senate Republican Conference, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voted against Lew’s Treasury confirmation, as did Sens. John Boozman (R-AR), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Jim Risch (R-ID), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Roger Wicker (R-MS). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was the sole Democrat to vote against Lew’s confirmation, citing at the time Lew’s Wall Street background as cause for concern.
Nineteen Republicans voted for Lew’s Treasury confirmation in 2013, six of whom are still in office: Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Hoeven (R-ND), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY) and John Thune (R-SD).
Speaking at Columbia University’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies in 2017, Lew reflected on the state of U.S.-Israel relations during the Obama administration, calling the ties between Washington and Jerusalem “extremely close,” but acknowledged that the relationship between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “was not as good as one might have hoped.”
“There were differences on policy,” Lew said at the time, “and I think the differences are legitimate differences. But I agreed with President Obama – and do – on issues like the settlements policy. I think that if one cares deeply about a stable, lasting, peaceful future for Israel, preserving space for there to be a negotiated two-state solution is critical. And I think unilateral actions that make that less likely to happen also diminish the probability of a long-term stable, secure future.”
common cause
‘Tip of the spear’: Kustoff, Miller carry Jewish GOP torch in Congress
When Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) referred to Israel as a “racist state” at an event last month, Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) quickly went to work drawing up a resolution declaring congressional support for the Jewish state. Two of his first calls were to Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Max Miller (R-OH), who soon agreed to sign on as the measure’s leading co-sponsors. It may not seem like Kustoff and Miller — a 56-year-old former Bush appointee and a 34-year-old former Trump aide, respectively — have much in common, but Pfluger sought them out because they share membership in one of Capitol Hill’s smallest clubs: They are the only two Jewish Republicans currently serving in either chamber of Congress. With Israel becoming an increasingly partisan issue in Washington, the unique role held by Kustoff and Miller has only grown more visible in recent weeks, Gabe Fleisher reports for Jewish Insider.
Amplifying their voices: In addition to co-sponsoring Pfluger’s resolution, which passed easily, they also both served on the escort committee when Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed a joint session of Congress in July. Later that day, when Herzog and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) unveiled a first-of-its-kind task force to increase relations between Congress and the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Kustoff was appointed chairman and Miller was named a member. “I believe that David and I have been the two loudest Jewish voices [in Congress],” Miller said. “Not just because we are Jewish and there’s only two of us who are Republicans in the whole Congress. Because we know it’s the right thing to do.”
Top priorities: Bolstering Israel and combating antisemitism have been top priorities for both congressmen since their arrivals in Washington. After Miller was sworn in earlier this year, the first piece of legislation he sponsored was the resolution that removed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for controversial comments she made about Jews and Israel. Kustoff’s first bill after joining Congress in 2017 was the Combating Anti-Semitism Act, which would have increased the federal penalty for threats against synagogues, churches and other religious institutions. Kustoff and Miller are the “tip of the spear on issues of concern to the Jewish community,” Sam Markstein, the national political director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said. “They’re always trusted and important voices in the room when these sorts of issues come to the fore.”
crossing boundaries
Saudi-Israeli joint venture aims to boost solar power use in Gulf
SolarEdge Technologies, one of Israel’s largest companies trading on the Nasdaq, is forming a joint renewable energy venture with a business group in Saudi Arabia amid White House efforts to broker a normalization pact between the two countries, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports. The new company created by SolarEdge and Ajlan & Bros Holding will be based in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and work to accelerate the adoption of solar power in the kingdom, the two partners said in a July 31 statement.
Energy-efficient: SolarEdge, an S&P 500 company that maintains headquarters in both Herzliya, Israel, and Milpitas, Calif., produces solar inverters, which manage photovoltaic cells to make renewable energy more efficient. Ajlan is the majority shareholder. The announcement came more than a year after the Saudi and Israeli companies signed a cooperation agreement that provided little detail of what the alliance would entail. It was one of 13 deals between Saudi and U.S. companies that were announced while President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia in July 2022.
Saudi vision: Zvi Lando, SolarEdge’s Israeli CEO, said in the statement that his company was “honored to partner with Ajlan & Bros. Holding and to support Saudi Arabia’s journey towards Vision 2030” – referring to a document outlining the kingdom’s efforts to wean the economy off oil and develop industries ranging from finance and tourism to sports and entertainment. “SolarEdge is committed to driving the clean energy transition on a global scale, exemplified by this JV which will provide local enterprises in Saudi Arabia,” Lando said.
Read the full story here and sign up for The Weekly Circuit newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
💲 Dissecting the Deal: The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the Biden administration’s brokering of a prisoner exchange with Iran. “This is good news for the unjustly detained people and their families. But if they are released, the mooted price will be steep. Leaks from the Administration suggest that Iran will gain access to $6 billion of its frozen assets in an account in South Korea. That’s $1.2 billion a hostage. White House spokesman John Kirby told CBS News on Thursday that Iran will only be able to use the $6 billion for ‘humanitarian purposes,’ such as food and medicine. The Administration also says there will be no sanctions relief in this hostage deal. But that’s a semantic distinction without much of a difference. Why were the funds frozen if not as a sanction against Tehran? That’s certainly how Iran sees it. ‘The decision on how to utilize these unfrozen resources and financial assets lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran,’ said the foreign ministry in Tehran. Money is fungible, as the White House knows, and its ‘humanitarian purposes’ line is best understood as political cover to justify the money-for-hostages deal. In a competition for the funds between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the public health of the Iranian people, who do you think wins?” [WSJ]
🇮🇷 A Different Kind of Holiday: The New York Times’ Farnaz Fassihi looks at how Iranians observed the mourning holiday of Ashura, in light of the anti-government protests that have swept the country in the last year. “The 33-year-old son of a senior cleric in the religious city of Qom said that he was boycotting the Muharram ceremonies because of his opposition to the government and its violence. His relatives, he said, searched for ceremonies that either were not political or took on the regime. He also requested anonymity, fearing for his safety. Some Iranians wore white, in defiance of the customary black attire, and trekked to cemeteries to pay homage to killed protesters. In the northern city of Amol, a religious marching band dressed in white went to the home of Ghazalleh Chelavi, 33, a female athlete shot in the head during protests last September, videos showed. Her mother wailed by the door. In Yazd, the maddah led the crowd in singing a famous poem that honors protesters killed by governments: ‘From the blood of our country’s youth, tulips grow.’” [NYTimes]
🪡 A Cut Above: In Air Mail, Lucy Horowitz spotlights London-born rabbi-turned-tailor Yosel Tiefenbrun, who today owns menswear atelier Tiefenbrun in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “His calm cadence and God-given eye for aesthetics mean he has a diverse Rolodex of clients, from Hasidim in Lakewood and Borough Park to gentile businessmen from Japan and Vienna. ‘Some clients call me “rabbi,” Jews and non-Jews [alike],’ he says. His speech is full of Yiddishisms and English slang; he’s just as likely to quote Oscar Wilde as he is Psalms. He exists between two worlds but sews them into one garment. ‘I don’t feel like you have to be making a Hasidic garment to feel that godliness,’ he says. ‘Every person is created in the image of God.’” [AirMail]
💰 Solomon’s Struggle: New York magazine’s Jen Wieczner reports on the disarray within Goldman Sachs, exacerbated by the abrasive personality of CEO David Solomon. “Goldman veterans say that in some ways, the situation is more toxic than what the bank faced in the post-financial-crisis vampire-squid days. ‘This is considerably uglier for Solomon,’ says a former insider. ‘It’s worse because it’s much more personal, and it’s all directed at him.’ In other words, at Goldman Sachs, Solomon’s sins are considered more unforgivable than contributing to (and profiting from) the near collapse of the global economy. Strategic mistakes that might have been tolerated under a more respected regime are being read as disastrous, a direct result of his personality. Solomon is blamed for mismanaging a push into new territory — banking for relatively ordinary customers — that has lost $3 billion and counting since 2020. But at Goldman, that’s frankly not a whole lot of money… ‘I’ve called for CEOs to be fired before,’ says Mike Mayo, a bank analyst well known for his often antagonistic views. ‘If it’s warranted, I’ll speak up, but I’m not seeing it from the outside metrics.’ Instead, the mutiny is best understood as backlash to Solomon’s attempt to change Goldman’s business and culture.” [NYMag]
Around the Web
🛫 D.C. Bound: Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer is slated to travel to Washington this week for meetings with top administration officials to discuss efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
🗳️ Backing Omar: Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), who heads the Congressional Black Caucus political action committee, said both he and the CBC will support Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) against any primary challengers.
🚫 Travel Ban: Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that a travel ban on Iran “should be certainly considered.”
👩 Intel Chief: The New York Times spotlights Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD’s new deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism.
⬇️ Hail Mary: Former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder dropped the asking price of his Potomac, Md., home to $34.9 million, from an original asking price of $49 million.
🧑⚖️ Back In: A federal judge in Manhattan revoked Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail, citing the FTX founder’s efforts to influence witnesses in his upcoming trial while he has been under house arrest in his parents’ home.
🕍 Vandalized: Police in Manhattan are searching for a man who wrote antisemitic graffiti on Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue on the city’s Upper East Side.
📰 AI Oy Vey: The New York Times is opting out of an effort organized by Barry Diller to push back on efforts by Google and Microsoft to use news content in the development of artificial intelligence.
💸 Icahn Crisis: The Wall Street Journal spotlights billionaire Carl Icahn, who at 87 is fighting for the survival of his Icahn Enterprises company after its value got slashed following a Hindenburg Research report charged that it was overvalued.
🏠 On the Market: The Great Neck, N.Y., home where Groucho Marx lived from 1926-1931 was listed for $2.3 million.
🏦 Banking on Cohen: The First International Bank of Israel named Eli Cohen, who for the last four years has served as the bank’s head of its risk management division, as its new CEO.
☢️ Slowing Enrichment: Iran is reportedly slowing its accrual of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, as Washington and Tehran engage in a prisoner swap that will also see $6 billion in withheld oil revenues.
🇺🇸🇮🇱 Action Plan: In The Hill, JINSA’s Michael Makovsky and Gen. (ret.) Chuck Wald lay out how the U.S. can respond if Israel initiates an attack on Iran.
🪖 Thwarted Terror: The Shin Bet foiled planned shooting and bombing attacks against IDF forces and a kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, arresting nine Palestinians suspected of establishing a Hamas terror cell.
🛃 Shut Out: Israeli security officials refused entry into Israel for a Jewish Iranian man who admitted to traveling to Israel to spy for Tehran.
🚢 Travel Warning: Western naval forces in the Persian Gulf are for the second time this year warning shippers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz to keep distance from Iran’s territorial waters, amid an uptick in seizures of maritime vessels by Iran.
🇯🇴🇵🇸 Two Hats: Saudi Arabia appointed its ambassador to Jordan to serve concurrently as “nonresident ambassador to the State of Palestine.”
🎥 Barbie World: The New York Times looks at how audiences — and governments — across the Middle East are responding to the “Barbie” movie.
🕯️ Remembering: Former New York State Parks Commissioner Joan Kaplan Davidson, who for 16 years led her father’s J.M. Kaplan Fund, died at 96. Sociologist Nechama Tec, a Holocaust survivor whose book about the Bielski partisans was adapted into the movie “Defiance,” died at 92.
Pic of the Day
German soccer team Makkabi Berlin, which was founded in 1970 by Holocaust survivors, became the first Jewish team to play in the German Cup on Sunday. The team lost to Wolfsburg 6-0.
Birthdays
Ukrainian-born actress, she moved to Los Angeles at the age of 7 and has appeared in dozens of films, Mila Kunis turns 40…
Former attorney general of New Jersey and chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, David Samson turns 84… President of the Hampton Synagogue and former board member of the UJA Federation-New York, Carol Levin… Member of the New York State Assembly since 2005, Charles D. Lavine turns 76… Professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Ester R. Fuchs turns 72… Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, Henry Brem, M.D. turns 71… U.S. District Court Judge in South Carolina, he is the co-author of a book on the early Jews of Columbia, S.C., Judge Richard Mark Gergel turns 69… Turkish-born economist and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, he is also a general editor of the academic journal Global Policy, Dani Rodrik turns 66… U.S. senator (R-TN) since 2021, Bill Hagerty turns 64… Home fragrance and décor guru, Harry Slatkin turns 63… Founder and CEO of Citizen Congress, Martin J. Sweet turns 53… Filmmaker and producer, she is the executive director of DOC NYC, Raphaela Neihausen turns 47… Financial advisor at UBS Financial Services, Jeremy Wynes… Professional tennis player for 15 years, primarily a doubles specialist, now a coach, Scott Lipsky turns 42… Strategic advisor for coalitions on the Trump 2020 Campaign, Boris Epshteyn turns 41… Retired lacrosse player, he played for ten seasons in Major League Lacrosse and for Team Israel at the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship, Maxwell (Max) Oren Seibald turns 36… Principal at Marcus & Associates Executive Recruiters, Jacob Lefkowitz… Ryan Smith… Dylan Cooper… Tim Carney…
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