Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ delegation to Israel, and interview author James McBride about his new book out today. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jennifer Senior, David Krumholtz and Harvey “Bud” Meyerhoff.
A report set to be released today by the Anti-Defamation League delves into the rise of left-wing antisemitism in four Western European nations, finding that “its penetration into the political mainstream is cause for concern and has in some cases alienated Jews and other supporters of Israel,” Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports. The challenges facing European Jewish communities, the report suggests, “can be a bellwether for what is to come for the U.S. Jewish community.”
The ADL partnered with four European organizations — the U.K.’s Community Security Trust, French magazine K., The Jews, Europe, the 21st Century, German NGO Amadeu Antonio Foundation and Spain’s ACOM — to look at how left-wing antisemitism manifests in each country.
In the U.K., CST found “strong crossover between the pro-Palestine movement, the far left of the Labour Party and other left-wing groups including some Trades Unions.” CST noted that “antisemitic discourse” on social media was found at “every level” of the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, but added that “the situation at the time of writing” — with the party under the leadership of Keir Starmer — “is somewhat different to that which existed” under Corbyn.
In France, K. suggested that members of the country’s Jewish community face “a rapidly growing left-wing antisemitism that includes both anti-Zionism and traditional antisemitism.” K. wrote that left-wing activists in France follow a recognizable pattern: “to engage in antisemitic rhetoric, to deny that antisemitism exists on the left, to excuse the antisemitism of those assumed to be political allies, and then to claim that they are the real champions in the fight against antisemitism.”
Amadeu Antonio writes that in Germany, “Israel-centred antisemitism is a major contributor to the normalisation of antisemitism,” and warns that discourse around antisemitism is “having an impact on politics, art and culture, the politics of remembrance, subcultures and the political left.” Amadeu Antonio added that despite government efforts to push back against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, the movement is growing “not least in leftist, anti-racist and post-colonial circles,” which has begun to cause “debates and alliances to be hijacked by anti-Israel activists.”
But in Spain, some members of the government “openly defend the dissolution of the State of Israel and who are close to its most vicious enemies,” ACOM writes. The organization notes a shift away from right-wing antisemitism that has taken place over six decades, by which “anti-Israel antisemitism of the political left accounts for the overwhelming share of antisemitism, while the Spanish right is almost entirely pro-Israel and guards against antisemitism.” ACOM bluntly adds, “The BDS movement and the extreme left are the same thing in Spain.”
The case studies, the ADL suggests, “demonstrate that the prevalence of antisemitism within elements of the political left in Western Europe is shaped by post-WWII political trajectory, by individual political leaders, and by left-wing non-governmental groups.” Above all, the report “highlight[s] the need for the American Jewish community and supporters of Israel more broadly to pay close attention to the trends happening in elements of the political left in Europe and to remain alert to the potential for them to spread around the world.” Read the full story here.
Jeffrey Gunter, the U.S. ambassador to Iceland under former President Donald Trump, jumped into the Nevada Senate race on Monday. Gunter also serves on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and is a leading GOP donor.
“I was honored and humbled to serve as President Trump’s ambassador to Iceland, where I fought the deep state, I fought China and I fought Russia’s influence in the Arctic in the great high north,” Gunter said in a video kicking off his campaign.
Gunter also endorsed Trump in his campaign video, and has been a longtime champion of the former president on his social media.
Gunter, a dermatologist, is the third Republican to run in the GOP primary against Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV). Republican leaders, led by National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Steve Daines (R-MT), are championing the candidacy of retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2022. Former Nevada secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant, an outspoken election denier, is also running.
Gunter faced a tumultuous tenure as ambassador, fueling an unusual amount of staff turnover in his office. At the onset of the pandemic, he moved back to California and handled the job remotely until then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Gunter to return to Reykjavik in May 2020.
dem delegation
Jeffries tells Netanyahu that he hopes the PM will seek a broad consensus on judicial reform

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday that he hoped the current government would seek “a broad consensus across the ideological spectrum” before any further changes are made relating to its plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary. Jeffries, along with Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), is in Israel this week leading a delegation of 25 House Democrats as part of the AIPAC-linked American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Shared values: Speaking to journalists at a press conference at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem following the group’s meeting with the prime minister, Jeffries said that despite recent steps taken by Netanyahu’s government, including passing legislation last month that weakens the power of the judiciary on overruling government decisions, “we can continue to lean into the shared democratic values related to the judiciary, which is based on the principles of a respect for the rule of law, and an independent judiciary that serves as a check and balance on other parts of the government.”
Raising concerns: Jeffries told journalists that his group — which includes a number of progressive lawmakers — raised concerns with Netanyahu during their meeting about a recent rise in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis. “We wanted to get the prime minister’s perspective on how this issue could complicate efforts to eventually achieve peace in the region,” Jeffries explained. “Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear to us that he doesn’t condone violence, no matter where it originates, and I take him at his word.”