Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on an expected primary challenge to Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and interview the head of South Africa’s Jewish community about rising concerns over the government’s stance in the Israel-Hamas war. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Hillary Clinton, Nikki Haley and Mark Zuckerberg.
Reuters, The Associated Press and CNN — all of which published photos from Palestinian photographers taken in the first hours of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — scrambled overnight to distance themselves from allegations that they, as well as The New York Times, had advance warning of the terror attacks in Israel, Jewish Insider’s Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
The images represent some of the earliest footage of the attacks, and were taken by Palestinian photographers who accompanied Hamas terrorists into Israel on Oct. 7. A report published yesterday by NGO Honest Reporting found that at least four photographers whose work appeared in the outlets were on the scene in the initial hours of the attack, and called into question the journalistic integrity of the photographers, whom, the report notes, “just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists.”
After the report’s release, a photograph of Hassan Eslaiah — whose photos were used by CNN and the AP in their coverage of the attacks — posing with Hamas official Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, began to circulate.
CNN said it had severed ties with Eslaiah, but said it did not have “any reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us.” Reuters said it “did not have a prior relationship” with two of the named freelancers, and “categorically denies that [Reuters] had prior knowledge of the attack or that we embedded journalists with Hamas on Oct 7.” The AP also denied prior knowledge of the attacks, saying its role “is to gather information on breaking news events around the world, wherever they happen, even when those events are horrific and cause mass casualties.” The New York Times has not issued a statement on the issue.
Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office, demanded immediate action, calling the photojournalists “accomplices in crimes against humanity” whose “actions were contrary to professional ethics.” The Government Press Office sent a letter to the bureau chiefs of the AP, Reuters, CNN and The New York Times asking for clarifications, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who sits in Israel’s war cabinet, took the condemnation a step further with an implicit threat, saying on X: “Journalists found to have known about the massacre, and still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered – are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”
Stateside, the third Republican presidential debate Wednesday evening, co-sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition, focused predominantly on foreign policy — with the issue of the Israel-Hamas war and campus antisemitism playing central roles in the proceedings, JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
All the Republican candidates offered strong support for Israel’s military efforts to take out Hamas.
“I’m sick of hearing other people blame Israel just for defending itself. We will stand with Israel in word and in deed, in public and in private,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the debate’s opening.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, asked about what Israel should do with Hamas, responded: “Finish them. Finish them.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)argued that Biden needed to be more aggressive against Iran: “If you want to stop the 40 plus attacks on military personnel in the Middle East, you have to strike in Iran. If you want to make a difference, you cannot just continue to have strikes in Syria on warehouses, you actually have to cut off the head of the snake and the head of the snake is Iran and not simply the proxies.”
Most of the candidates highlighted tough proposals on cracking down on antisemitism on campus, though entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said that punishing students would risk being a violation of free speech.
DeSantis said he was the first presidential candidate to take action against campaign antisemitism, banning Students for Justice in Palestine from campus and calling for foreign students on a student visa who engage in antisemitic behavior to be deported.
Haley offered one of the most memorable soundbites of the night about the surge of antisemitism at universities: “If the KKK were doing this, every college president would be up in arms. This is no different… Antisemitism is just as awful as racism.”
Haley was an audience favorite even as the debate was held in DeSantis’ home state. She continued to showcase her political and foreign policy chops, and got another indignant dig in at Ramaswamy, calling him “scum” after he invoked her daughter in an exchange about TikTok.
All told, the debate is unlikely to change the trajectory of the race. Trump is still the dominant frontrunner, and escaped without facing much criticism. But Haley will likely benefit from another strong debate showing — at a debate with a foreign policy focus geared to her strength — and is positioned to emerge as Trump’s top rival when the dust settles.
gaza war: day 34
Israeli forces move deeper into Gaza, capturing Hamas stronghold in Jabaliya

Nearly two weeks after launching its ground incursion into Gaza, the IDF said on Thursday morning that forces from the Nahal Infantry Brigade had captured a Hamas stronghold in the area of west Jabaliya, east of Gaza City and that it was strengthening positions across the north part of the Palestinian enclave, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports. “The operation in Jabaliya was completed in ten hours, during which the forces eliminated terrorists, uncovered tunnel shafts, including one located near a kindergarten, and confiscated weapons at the scene,” the army documented on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
Deeping offensive: In his daily briefing on Wednesday night, IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the army was continuing to deepen its offensive inside Gaza and discounted claims that a cease-fire was on the horizon. “We are fighting Hamas and there is no cease-fire,” Hagari stated, adding that brief humanitarian pauses are taking place frequently as the army facilitates the movement of the civilian population out of areas where heavy fighting is taking place in the northern Gaza Strip.
Moving south: “There are set times to allow the civilian population to get organized and to move southward safely,” he said, highlighting that an additional 50,000 civilians had moved southward on Wednesday. “We want the civilians to go to a safer area and to temporarily remain in that safer area in southern Gaza. We are not fighting against the Gaza population,” Hagari emphasized. “We are fighting against Hamas — Hamas, which is holding our hostages and carried out the Oct. 7th massacre. We are fighting against Hamas and we will dismantle it.”