Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at an effort by some progressive Senate Democrats to condition aid to Israel, and report on Germany’s move to cut funding to UNRWA in Gaza. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Javier Milei, Maggie Haberman and Israel Joshua Singer.
Voting begins today at the University of Michigan on an anti-Israel referendum that accuses Israel of engaging in “genocide in Gaza,” Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports. The referendum comes after the school’s student government voted by secret ballot to put the question to the student body.
The voting period, which concludes on Thursday, comes after weeks of heightened tensions on the campus. On Oct. 10, University President Santa Ono issued a statement condemning the “horrific attack by Hamas terrorists on Israeli citizens” that had occurred days prior. The text of the ballot initiative denounces Ono’s statement, alleging that his statement caused “entire student populations to feel unseen and otherized.”
This is the first time the issue will be brought to the Ann Arbor school’s entire student body. Six years ago, Michigan’s student government passed a call for the school’s administration to form a committee to look into divesting from some companies that operate in Israel. A month after the vote, members of the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents rejected the call.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, UM faculty members and graduate studentslaunched an open letter blaming the attacks on Israel’s “structural apartheid.” The letter has garnered more than 1,000 signatures.
On Oct. 10, SAFE Michigan, the anti-Israel campus group pushing the ballot measure, promoted an upcoming rally in nearby Dearborn. In the post, the group said that the Hamas terror attack “has shaped a new precedent for our national liberation struggle and we remain steadfast in our right to resist imperialism in all its forms.” The post included a call to “honor the resistance, honor our martyrs and uplift the call for liberation.”
Earlier this month, hundreds of protestorscharged into the UM administrative building housing the president’s office, chanting “Ono, Ono, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide” as they demanded the university divest from companies operating in Israel.
The vote is likely to sow further division in the Detroit area, which is home to one of the largest Palestinian-American communities in the country, and where young activists have threatened not to turn out for President Joe Biden next year over his support for Israel.
The referendum will also serve as a bellwether for other campuses that in recent years have become hotbeds of pro- and anti-Israel activity. The majority of Israel-related campus votes at universities across the U.S. have historically taken place in student governments. Campus-wide referenda are increasingly seen as a tool by which anti-Israel groups can amplify their message to a broader student population.
In Israel, X owner Elon Musk met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday in Jerusalem; Netanyahu also accompanied Musk to Kfar Aza, one of the Israeli communities hardest hit on Oct. 7. In a cryptic X post shortly after visiting the kibbutz, Musk wrote, “Actions speak louder than words.”
In Kfar Aza, Musk visited the home of Abigail Idan, a 4-year-old dual American-Israeli citizen who was released from Hamas captivity on Sunday night. Idan’s parents were killed on Oct. 7, and she was taken hostage, along with her neighbors. Her older siblings survived the attack.
Later, in an X Spaces conversation with Netanyahu, Musk discussed Hamas, saying that “those who are intent on murder must be neutralized. Then the propaganda must stop.” Hamas, Musk said, is “just training people to be murderers.”
During his sit-down with Herzog, Musk also met with families of hostages still being held in Gaza. In one video, Malki Shem Tov, whose son Omer is a hostage, could be seen giving Musk a metal dog tag calling for the hostages’ safe return — of the kind worn by Israelis around the country — which Musk then wore for a photo with the group.
on the hill
Progressive Senate Dems push to condition aid to Israel

Senate Democrats are expected to debate a push by some progressives to impose conditions on the administration’s request for $14 billion in emergency military aid to Israel during a caucus lunch today. Around a dozen Democrats met with Israeli officials in the Capitol on Monday evening in a sit-down organized by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
In the room: Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) described the conversation as “extremely frank.” He continued, “We just want to be assured that they are abiding by American values as they try to dismantle Hamas. And we all conveyed that collectively and clearly. I do believe they heard us, but obviously, we have a long way to go.” Lawmakers said the discussion centered around Israeli military practices in the current conflict, including tactics, strategy, operational goals and rules of engagement, as well as the civilian casualty rate in Gaza and plans for Gaza after the war.
Elsewhere in D.C.: The progressive push to condition aid to Israel comes as a senior Biden White House official said Monday that the administration, at all levels, is pressuring Israel to restrain its operations in southern Gaza when the current pause expires. “The conduct of the Israeli campaign when it moves to the south must be done in a way that is to a maximum extent not designed to produce significant further displacement of persons,” the official said. “You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north replicated in the south… It also has to be conducted in a way that is maximally de-conflicted with humanitarian facilities — power, water, humanitarian sites, hospitals, other facilities including the many U.N.-supported shelters located throughout south and central Gaza.”
Republican side: Any effort to condition aid is likely to face opposition from Republicans, although several who spoke to JI yesterday said they’re waiting to see what, if anything, Democrats put forward. “I think it depends on the limits and how well received it would be to people who are on the battlefield,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told JI. “To me, it would be very important to see how Israeli leaders would react to it, if they think that they’re manageable, and do not create any constraints. But I don’t think that the United States should ever get on the front end of determining what’s best for Israel. I think Israel’s in the best position.” He said Republican support for the emergency aid bill is also contingent on the outcome of ongoing talks on border policy.