Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate David McCormick about his trip to Israel this week, and talk to Lihi Lapid about the global silence in response to Hamas’ widespread sexual violence. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Natan Sharansky, Mike Pompeo and Alanis Morissette.
The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries are less than a month away, with the state of play in the presidential nominating fights remarkably stable for months, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
Former President Donald Trump is still the dominant front-runner and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is looking like his most credible rival, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in need of a surprisingly strong Iowa performance to salvage his struggling campaign.
Haley, by consolidating the most Trump-skeptical elements of the Republican Party, has an outside but credible chance to survive the first round of early primaries and emerge as the last Trump challenger standing. Her reported $24 million fourth-quarter fundraising haul is a sign that top Republican donors have rallied to her side, even if she’s not making many inroads with MAGA-oriented voters.
Haley’s path to success is difficult but straightforward: Finish second in Iowa, and knock DeSantis out of the race; win or come close to defeating Trump in New Hampshire, building a wave of momentum; and parlaying that into a home-state victory in South Carolina in preparation for Super Tuesday on March 5.
But the reality is that Haley (or any Trump rival) needs a whole lot of help outside their control in order to beat the odds and remain a contender on Super Tuesday. Haley badly needs former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is peeling off anti-Trump voters in the Granite State with an unequivocal anti-MAGA message, to drop out before New Hampshire.
And Trump’s legal troubles would have to become a bigger factor for any challenger to dent his strong standing with Republican voters now. It’s hard to imagine Republican voters would be dissuaded by the charges against the former president at this point, but it’s possible that a critical mass of GOP voters would be concerned that a conviction could make it impossible to serve effectively.
Here’s a quick JI cheat sheet: The results to watch in Iowa are whether Trump can win an outright majority of the vote (he’s polling at exactly 50.0% in the FiveThirtyEight polling aggregator), whether DeSantis can get within 10 points of Trump and whether Haley can top DeSantis and get about one-quarter of the caucus-wide vote. (Haley and her allied super PAC are outspending the competition in the final weeks before the caucuses, showing she’s hoping to close strong.)
In New Hampshire, the biggest question is whether Gov. Chris Sununu’s endorsement of Haley fuels her momentum, or whether her potential path to victory is closed off by Christie. She’ll likely need at least 40% of the vote to have a good chance at victory. This is Trump’s weakest primary state, in part because of the large number of moderates and independents able to vote in the open primary.
And don’t sleep on the unsanctioned Democratic primary in New Hampshire, where President Joe Biden is competing as a write-in candidate against Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and self-help author Marianne Williamson. It would be embarrassing if a sitting president failed to win 60% of his party’s vote, even under the unusual circumstances of the primary.
solidarity mission
Top GOP Senate recruit Dave McCormick underscores importance of American strength in Middle East
In a show of solidarity with Israel, GOP Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick spent the first week of the new year in the Jewish state, meeting with the country’s military leaders, government officials and families of hostages — while spending a day touring the remains of Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim hit hardest during the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack. “You can read about these things, but when you see it yourself, it’s just much more meaningful. It has reinforced my belief of the need to have solidarity with Israel and the people of Israel, but also to make clear the difference between right versus wrong,” McCormick said in an interview from Tel Aviv with Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.
Takeaways: McCormick added that he watched the 47-minute video compiled by the Israeli Defense Forces documenting the Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7: “The evilness of what occurred here and the need to have a united front against that evil — that’s the lesson. Lesson two: The brutality and heinous nature of Hamas is even more extreme than I could have imagined… It’s about fighting back against an ideology and a terrorist threat that goes far beyond just Israel.”
Military strategy: The Pennsylvania Republican said that he endorsed Israel’s policy of seeking the eradication of Hamas from the Gaza Strip, saying he fully backs the country’s military strategy. “You cannot live that close to an enemy threat that is genocidal like Hamas. The eradication of Hamas is not negotiable. The war has to be conducted in a way the Israelis best determine,” McCormick said.
the sound of silence
Lihi Lapid: ‘I expect all women to support all women’
It’s been nearly three months since Hamas’ mass terror attack, and despite the mounting evidence that the thousands of Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated into southern Israel on Oct. 7 raped, brutalized and kidnapped women and girls in a cruel and systematic way, some of the world’s most prominent women and leading feminists have remained ominously silent. For author and journalist Lihi Lapid, one of Israel’s leading feminist voices, their failure to speak out against what happened to Israeli women on Oct. 7 is both shocking and disappointing. “I expect all women to support all women,” Lapid – who is also the wife of Israel’s former prime minister and current opposition leader, Yair Lapid — told Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash in a recent interview. “What happened [on Oct. 7] is a matter that should worry every woman, everywhere,” she said.
Mixed up with politics: Lapid said she believes that the world’s silence about the rape and brutalization of Israeli women, including around a dozen women still being held hostage in Gaza, is largely political. “Many times, when women’s issues are discussed in parliament or in Congress, it does not matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican, a right-winger or left-winger, everyone comes together to help empower and advance women,” said the author. “In this situation, I feel like the world is talking about what happened with a political opinion that relates to what they think or feel about Israel and Palestine,” Lapid continued. “This is something that should be outside of the political story.”
Double standards: Despite the reports – including clear visual evidence suggesting what took place – there has been no mass movement or broad global condemnation of the sexual crimes Israeli women suffered at the hands of Hamas terrorists. International organizations that purport to support women, human rights NGOs that are quick to condemn other kinds of human rights abuses and prominent celebrities or politicians who have advocated for other women’s causes such as the 2017 #MeToo movement and the 2014 kidnapping of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram have made watered-down statements or largely stayed silent. “I expect every woman who supported the #MeToo movement to be a part of the fight to bring our hostages back home, especially the young women,” stated Lapid. “You can’t say you want to protect women because they are women and then say this is a different struggle.”
cair concerns
Baltimore lawmaker seeks to remove CAIR from Md. hate crimes commission
A legislative effort is underway in Maryland to remove the Council on American-Islamic Relations from a state hate crimes body after the organization’s Maryland director published a series of antisemitic Facebook posts after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, a lawmaker confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch.
In the works: “We are working on legislation to remove CAIR from the [Maryland Hate Crimes] Commission,” Del. Dalya Attar, a Baltimore Democrat, said on Wednesday, a week before the start of Maryland’s 2024 legislative session. “Legislation will be drafted and submitted then.” Attar said she has the backing of several other Jewish legislators.
Background: CAIR Maryland’s director, Zainab Chaudry, was temporarily suspended from the commission in November after JI revealed that her Facebook posts after Oct. 7 had glorified Hamas and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. But she was reinstated in December when Maryland’s attorney general determined he lacked the power to formally remove her from the body.
In the text: The law creating the commission, passed last year, explicitly named the organizations that would be represented on the body. CAIR was named in the legislation, meaning even if Chaudry is removed, the group, which has a history of trafficking in antisemitic tropes, would still be represented by someone else.
Building support: The burgeoning legislative push, still in early stages, has earned the tentative support of some Jewish organizations who are represented on the body alongside CAIR, including the Anti-Defamation League, while other Jewish leaders are more hesitant.
high alert
Assassinated Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri was key conduit between Hamas, Iran
From the moment Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, described by the terrorist group as “one of the architects” of the Oct. 7 massacre, was killed in a drone strike in Beirut on Tuesday, Israel has been on high alert. With the war against Hamas in Gaza ongoing, plus constant shelling in the country’s north from Hezbollah, which has a massive missile stockpile, the response could come from either direction. Arouri was an “arch-terrorist,” Dikla Cohen, a research fellow at the Truman Institute for Peace at Hebrew University, told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov. “His whole life was dedicated to terrorism against Israel.”
Tehran ties: Arouri was a key figure in bringing Hamas and Iran closer together. Documents and other evidence uncovered by the IDF in Gaza show how effective Arouri was in that role. Cohen said that Iran’s “fingerprints are everywhere, and at a level that you can understand that they worked together for 12 years…to prepare Oct. 7.” Arouri and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in November, asking for Tehran to supply the group with weapons if the war lasts over six months, a Hamas official told The Wall Street Journal. The two were reportedly unsuccessful in convincing Iran to engage in a broader war against Israel.
Lebanon link: Arouri’s ties with Iran helped him build Maquar al-Dafah, Hamas’ West Bank command. Tal Beeri, head of research at Alma Research Center, which specializes in analyzing threats against Israel’s north, said that Arouri “was in very close contact with Hezbollah and the Iranians about how to develop Hamas terrorism with better infrastructure, transferring money, weapons sent via Syria and Jordan.” In the years since he was released from Israeli prison in 2010 as part of a deal, Arouri moved from Jordan to Syria, Turkey, Qatar and Lebanon. It was in Beirut that he developed close ties with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and reportedly was the one to tell him about the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli voices: Officially, Israel has not taken responsibility for the strike in Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that he was “not responding to what’s being voiced here and elsewhere,” and that “the IDF is on high alert in all sectors for any scenario.” Yet Mossad Chief David Barnea said on Wednesday that his intelligence organization is “committed to bring the murderers, planners and those who sent them to account. It will take time, but we will reach them wherever they are.”
cease-fire coalition
California Senate candidate Barbara Lee to join cease-fire rally with Rashida Tlaib
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), one of the three leading Democratic candidates for California’s Senate seat, is set to participate on Thursday in a digital rally pushing for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Political dynamics: The event, organized by the Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-linked political group Our Revolution in connection with IfNotNow, highlights how Lee, a longtime progressive one of the earliest supporters of a cease-fire in Congress, has leaned on her support for a cease-fire as she seeks to secure the progressive vote in the Senate primary. Lee has polled fairly consistently in third place behind Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Katie Porter (D-CA) in her Senate bid. An announcement about the event from Lee’s campaign claimed she’s the only candidate in the race calling for an “unequivocal ceasefire in Gaza,” although Porter is also supporting a cease-fire.
No response: Lee recently declined to submit a questionnaire on Israel policy and antisemitism to Democrats for Israel CA, a local pro-Israel group, in contrast with her two competitors. Lee had participated in a virtual forum with the group in April 2023, during which she aimed for a conciliatory approach, highlighting her “commitment to a two-state solution and to Israel’s security and a Palestinian state,” and noting that she’s previously taken criticism from both the pro- and anti-Israel communities.
Looking left: Lee’s focus on the left in the primary appears to be paying off to some degree — despite lagging in the polls statewide, in November Lee narrowly finished first in the California Democratic Party convention, an activist-dominated event. Schiff came in second with 40% and Porter third with 16%, none of the three securing the 60% needed to receive the party’s endorsement. Lee’s victory was driven partly by her vocal support for a cease-fire, a position that won her cheers at the party convention, according to CalMatters.
Bonus: Following the news that the U.S. had quietly renewed its agreement with Qatar to host a key U.S. airbase for an additional 10 years, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who had led a letter urging the administration to hold Qatar accountable for its role in supporting Hamas, told Jewish Insider, “Qatar has the obligation and responsibility to help get every hostage, including the six Americans, released and should be acting as fast as possible. We need to make that clear to the Qataris. I believe it’s incumbent upon them and expected upon them to do everything they can, in their conversations with Hamas, to bring everyone home.”
Worthy Reads
Hamas’ Money Man: The Wall Street Journal’s Rory Jones, Benoit Faucon, Ian Talley and Abeer Ayoub spotlight Hamas official Zaher Jabarin, who sits atop the terror group’s expansive real estate portfolio. “When Zaher Jabarin ran a Hamas cell in the 1980s, he borrowed cash from his mother to buy weapons. Now, he oversees a financial empire that the U.S. estimates is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and funds Hamas’s operations against Israel. The 55-year-old militant manages Hamas’s financial relationship with its main benefactor Iran and handles how Tehran gets cash to the Gaza Strip, U.S. and Israeli officials say. He looks after a portfolio of companies that deliver income annually for Hamas and runs a network of private donors and businessmen who invest for the Islamist group. Jabarin’s influence over Hamas’s finances is so significant that current and former U.S. and Israeli security officials believe he enabled the group to pay for weapons and fighters’ wages to mount the Oct. 7 attacks. ‘Jabarin played a huge role because he handles all of Hamas finance outside Gaza,’ said Uzi Shaya, a former Israeli security official who has researched illicit finance. ‘Jabarin is the CEO of Hamas.’” [WSJ]
Beyond Claudine Gay: In The Atlantic, Tyler Austin Harper, using the example of Harvard, looks at efforts by some academics to reject legitimate accusations of wrongdoing when it doesn’t suit their politics. “Conservatives have long seen [ousted President Claudine] Gay as the ‘diversity hire’ avatar of their DEI bogeymen. They wanted an excuse to force her out, so they went looking for skeletons. The problem, for progressives, is that the conservatives found a closet full of bones. As The Intercept’s Ryan Grim put it, ‘The right launched a witch hunt against Gay but instead found a plagiarist.’ Although the initial examples of plagiarism were weak — easy enough to excuse as shoddy paraphrasing and forgotten quotation marks — a series of subsequent investigations by the conservative outlet The Washington Free Beacon found more damning cases. As [conservative activist Christopher] Rufo predicted, the plagiarism story soon broke into the mainstream, thanks to sustained coverage in outlets such as The Boston Globe and The New York Times. A fair-minded but bracing December 21 Times op-ed by John McWhorter, simply titled ‘Why Claudine Gay Should Go,’ was a nail that struck especially loudly against the coffin wood. Those who rushed to characterize her resignation as the outcome of a ‘bullying’ campaign designed to oust Harvard’s first Black president omit an inconvenient detail: She was clearly guilty. The bullying worked because the facts were too difficult to massage. That didn’t stop many of my fellow academics from trying.” [TheAtlantic]
Trouble Under the Ivy: The New York Times’ Ross Douthat considers the circumstances in which Harvard President Claudine Gay had to tender her resignation. “For the Ivies and their imitators, the great danger is a fracture within the liberal meritocracy. In this scenario, some important portion of the credentialed upper class — Silicon Valley money, pro-Israel Democrats, Wall Street moderates or just affluent professionals migrating to the South and West — becomes so alienated by contemporary progressivism, by D.E.I. and all its works, that it ceases to regard the famous schools of a declining Northeast as the natural destination for its sons and daughters or the natural repository for its generous donations. It’s to forestall that potential future, not to reward the muckraking of conservatives, that Harvard presumably decided to sacrifice its plagiarist president. The Ivy League believes in its progressive doctrines, but not as much as it believes in its own indispensability, its permanent role as an incubator of privilege and influence.” [NYTimes]
The Day After: In The Wall Street Journal, Natan Sharansky and Bassem Eid posit that Western and Arab nations need to play key roles in building up Gaza and Palestinian political institutions following the Israel-Hamas war. “Some might think it outlandish to speak about democracy now, with Israeli hostages still held captive and Gaza thoroughly ravaged. But Germany and Japan both built democracies on the wreckage of dictatorships. To be sure, everyone in Israel remembers the crowds of Gazans who cheered the Oct. 7 terrorists as they paraded their victims. But one need only compare pictures of Germans demonstrating their loyalty to Hitler in 1943 with pictures from 1945 and 1955 to see that such enthusiasm is fleeting. Expressions of disillusionment with Hamas will increase as soon as Gazans are less fearful of their leaders — and there are signs this is already happening. What does the ‘day after’ look like for Gaza? There must be elections. But elections in a society that isn’t free will have no significance. Arafat, Mr. Abbas and Hamas all had elections — after which they killed or removed everyone standing in their way.” [WSJ]
Around the Web
Security Strategy: The Biden administration’s national security team met yesterday to discuss possible courses of action to take against the Houthis — including possible strikes against the Iran-backed Yemeni terror group.
Kicking Off 2024: President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is centering his 2024 message on former President Donald Trump posing a threat to democracy. In a speech tomorrow in Pennsylvania, the president will make clear that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — and Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election — will be a major campaign theme.
Gaza Appointment:Politico reports that the Biden administration had mulled appointing a senior diplomat to focus on long-term Israeli-Palestinian relations, but decided instead to appoint David Satterfield to oversee efforts to get humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Cease-fire Call: Seventeen members of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign signed onto an anonymous letter calling for the administration to pursue a permanent cease-fire. A Department of Education political appointee resigned yesterday over Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war.
Security Protection: The Biden administration renewed protections for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook, who continue to face threats from Iran three years after they left government.
Buckeye Boost: Club for Growth endorsed GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio’s three-way primary, choosing the former car dealer over state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
Ackman Takes Aim: In The Free Press, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman, a Harvard alum, called for the removal of Harvard Corporation chair Penny Pritzker (who has rebuffed calls for her resignation), and an overhaul of the rest of the board as well as a dismantling of the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office.
Gay’s Side: Former Harvard President Claudine Gay addressed her departure from the university in a New York Times op-ed in which she acknowledged errors in her handling of antisemitism on the campus.
Final Days?:The Messenger’s board reportedly weighed shutting down the startup news outlet at a meeting held last week, after learning that the publication was set to run out of money by the end of January.
Tie a Yellow Ribbon: The Anklerlooks ahead to Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, where the Bring Them Home Now advocacy group that calls for the return of the hostages held in Gaza is urging celebrities to wear yellow ribbons to raise awareness of those still in captivity.
Bomb Threats: Six synagogues in San Diego County were hit with bomb threats on the same day.
California Concerns: California’s Legislative Jewish Caucus called on the full body to address the fallout in the state from the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
ADL Departures: Yaël Eisenstat, the Anti-Defamation League’s director of its Center for Technology and Society, is departing the organization as a result of her desire to focus more directly on elections and pro-democracy work.
Campus Beat: A lawsuit filed by a Jewish Israeli student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago alleged that she was the subject of repeated antisemitic harassment at the college.
Deadly Shooting: An imam shot outside his mosque in Newark, N.J., died from his wounds.
Costly Cup: Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper was fined $300,000 for throwing a drink in the direction of Jacksonville Jaguars fans during the Panthers’ 26-0 loss over the weekend.
Awkward Ad: Warner Bros. promotional page for its upcoming film “One Life,” about the efforts of British stockbroker Nicholas Winton to save hundreds of Jewish children from Nazi-controlled territory at the onset of WWII, omits any mention of the children’s religion or the Holocaust.
Coming Soon: “The Trial of Adolf Eichmann” a new play by director and producer David Serero, is set to open Off-Broadway in May at the Center for Jewish History.
Memorial Mayhem: Police in Berlin are investigating the vandalism of a memorial for children rescued from Nazi Europe through the Kindertransport.
Swift Kick: A soccer player for Nice was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a 45,000 euros ($49,000) fine for sharing an antisemitic social media post; the French soccer league had already suspended him for seven games.
Alanis’ Discovery: In a new episode of PBS’ “Finding Your Roots,” singer Alanis Morissette discovered that her grandfather, whom she learned was Jewish when she was an adult, escaped Hungary during the Holocaust.
Empty Wallet: The head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s department to combat antisemitism told a Knesset committee that the unit was “operating in a situation of zero budget and we cannot assist diplomats around the world in their activities against antisemitism.”
Rescue Operation: Two Palestinian family members of an American serviceman were rescued from Gaza in a clandestine operation coordinated by the U.S., Israel, Egypt and others.
Iran Blast: At least 84 people were killed in dual blasts at a ceremony in Kerman, Iran, marking the fourth anniversary of the targeted killing of Quds Force head Qassem Soleimani.
Moscow Moves: Russia is moving forward with plans to purchase short-range ballistic missiles from Tehran.
Remembering: Rabbi Matisyahu Chaim Salomon, the mashgiach of Bais Medrash Govoha of Lakewood, N.J., died at 86. Dr. Sidney Wolfe, a co-founder of the Health Research Group, died at 86.
Pic of the Day
An Israeli soldier prays at a position near the border with Lebanon yesterday, amid ongoing cross-border tensions on both the northern and southern fronts.
Birthdays
Center fielder for six MLB teams, he played for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic in 2023, Kevin Pillar turns 35…
English celebrity chef, restaurateur and television star, Rick Stein turns 77… Founder and president emeritus of the Alliance for Justice, Nan Aron turns 76… Retired major general in the IDF and a former member of the Knesset for Likud, he is a nephew of Moshe Dayan, Uzi Dayan turns 76… Television producer for CBS and co-author of three novels, Karen Mack Goldsmith turns 74… CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, the advocacy organization for investor-owned hospitals, Charles N. (“Chip”) Kahn III turns 72… Former member of the Knesset for 17 years, she was born in Vilna, Lithuania, as Zehava Schnipitzky, Zehava Gal-On turns 68… Author of the satirical Borowitz Report, he is a comedian, actor and New York Times best-selling author, known for creating “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Andy Borowitz turns 66… Author of 35 best-selling mystery novels and thrillers with over 80 million copies in print, Harlan Coben turns 62… Senior health care editor at Axios, Adriel Bettelheim… Professor of Jewish history at both the University of Munich and the American University in D.C., Michael Brenner turns 60… Founder of AnyDate (personalized gifts), ShareSomeFriends (referral tool) and Upstart Ideas, Michael Eglash… Television and film actor, Josh Stamberg turns 54… Professor of management at UCSD, Yuval Rottenstreich turns 53… SVP in the Austin office of public strategy firm Mercury, he was the first Jewish liaison in the Bush 43 administration, Adam Blair Goldman… American living in Uzbekistan where he promotes business development among the five Central Asian countries, Daniel Zaretsky… White House senior aide for energy and investment, Amos J. Hochstein turns 51… Historian and NYT best-selling author, he is a contributing editor at PoliticoMagazine, Joshua Michael Zeitz turns 50… Film and television actor, Aaron Schwartz turns 43… Founder of Darshan Yeshiva and spiritual leader of Kehillah, a Jewish community in Richmond, Va., Patrick Beaulier turns 41… Senior broadcast producer at “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” Ben Mayer… Alex Band… Bookkeeper at her family-owned The Bookstore in Lenox, Mass., Shawnee Tannenbaum… Partner at D.C.-based public affairs firm The Herald Group, Marc Brumer… Chief of staff for Stacey Abrams, Samantha Slosberg… Senior director of development at Wavelength Productions, Emily Tess Katz… National politics reporter for Time magazine, Eric James Cortellessa… Judicial law clerk at the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, Alexander Abraham Langer… Administrator of legacies and endowments at the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Judah Gavant… The youngest member of Maryland House of Delegates, he is running for the U.S. House of Representatives to succeed David Trone, Joseph Vogel turns 27… D.C. correspondent at The Nevada Independent, Gabby Birenbaum…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
