Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on a new complaint filed by the families of Jewish students against the Berkeley Unified School District, and look at how the proposed New York congressional map will impact the primary between Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Noah Feldman, Samantha Power and Aaron Lansky.
President Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020 was a product of an unusually large Democratic coalition bringing together groups across the left-to-center ideological spectrum: suburbanites, African Americans, blue-collar union workers and progressive younger voters. It included pro-Israel Jewish voters and anti-Israel Arab Americans.
The Biden coalition held together because of the groups’ shared antipathy towards President Donald Trump. Now, Trump is no longer the main focus of many disaffected Democrats.
The Michigan presidential primary results last night suggest that the days of Biden’s broad coalition are over, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes. A faction of left-wing organizers in the state, agitating against the president’s support for Israel, won about 13% of the Democratic primary vote for “uncommitted” — far from a dominant showing, but enough to give headaches to Democratic Party leaders in the battleground state.
The results show that these left-wing activists are far from a force within the party, but are willing to threaten Biden’s reelection to advance their policy goals. By winning around 100,000 votes — less than Biden’s winning Michigan margin in 2020 — many are willing to tip the race to Trump if the president doesn’t abandon his support for Israel.
The epicenter of the anti-Biden, anti-Israel effort is in Dearborn, Mich., home to one of the largest Arab-American communities in the country, and the results from the city are telling. In Dearborn, “uncommitted” is winning a majority of the vote, ahead of Biden.
Politically speaking, Biden is in a no-win situation. Even in Michigan, backers of Israel outnumber Palestinian sympathizers by more than a 2-to-1 margin (53%-25%), according to a February Fox News poll. The uncommitted campaign, with ample media coverage, is receiving less than one-fifth of the state’s Democratic vote.
If Biden suddenly ramps up public criticism of Israel, he’d risk alienating a much larger constituency, including Jewish voters and the more-moderate swing voters up for grabs in the general election. Consider: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tallied about one-quarter of the vote among Michigan Republicans. Many of her voters might consider backing Biden over Trump in a general election, but that is unlikely if he abandons Israel to woo far-left activists.
Biden’s playbook so far has been to symbolically pander to the anti-Israel crowd without making many substantive concessions to them. The Biden White House has leaked its frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sanctioned several Israeli settlers. They sent some foreign policy advisers to Dearborn this month to offer regrets for past rhetoric in support of Israel, without offering any promises to change policy.
Biden himself even gave a sound-bite to the press after his late-night TV appearance Monday, saying he thought a “cease-fire” could be reached as part of Israel’s ongoing negotiations — a statement that sounded like it was designed to placate the activist base the day before the primary, not one reflecting the current reality on the ground.
The reality is that politically speaking, Biden comes across as weak to many by making concessions to an outspoken faction — that brings all kinds of political baggage to the table and is threatening to disrupt the Democratic convention in Chicago — instead of showing confidence over his administration’s stated support for Israel.
If Biden manages to win reelection in 2024, it’s likely not going to be by putting together pieces of the 2020 coalition, but by branding himself as a mainstream candidate against the forces of extremism.
scoop
ADL, Brandeis Center file Title VI complaint against Berkeley school system for rampant antisemitism
Students chanting “kill the Jews.” Students asking their Jewish classmates what “their number is,” referring to numbers tattooed on Jews during the Holocaust. Teacher-promoted walk-outs in support of Hamas. A second-grade teacher leading a classroom activity where children wrote: “Stop Bombing Babies” on sticky notes to display in the building. Those are some of the incidents endured by K-12 Jewish students in the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) that have sparked a Title VI complaint filed on Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Details: The complaint alleges that the district has failed to take action against “severe and persistent” bullying and harassment of Jewish students by peers and teachers since Oct. 7. JI has obtained a copy of the complaint, which was filed jointly by the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League. It states that Berkeley administrators have ignored parent reports, including a letter signed by 1,370 Berkeley community members to the Berkeley superintendent and Board of Education, while knowingly allowing its public schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.
Permeating middle school: Chiara Juster, a parent in the district for years, recently made what she called the “uncomfortable” decision to pull her eighth-grade daughter out of the school district and homeschool instead because of “scary” antisemitism in the school district. “She was called a ‘midget Jew,’” Juster told JI. “That just shook me in a different way than [other bullying she had faced]. It was scary.” Juster recalled that her daughter was able to transfer to a different class, away from the student who name-called, but the situation grew worse. “That first day in the new class, she was told by a teacher that she should go to the watermelon club” — a reference to a symbol associated with Palestinian rights — “to learn the truth about Gaza.”
Read the full story here.
mapping meaning
Updated New York map ensures Latimer has fighting chance to oust Bowman
The Democratic-led New York Legislature unveiled a proposed House map on Tuesday that locks in the showdown between Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and George Latimer, the Westchester County executive who is mounting a well-funded primary challenge in one of the most hotly anticipated races of the 2024 election cycle. The newly revised congressional lines, introduced after New York Democrats rejected a separate map devised by the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission, would make only minimal changes to Bowman’s district, which includes more than half of Westchester County and a portion of the Bronx, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Map movement: In a Bronx swap, the updated map, which state lawmakers in Albany are expected to vote on this week, would remove the neighborhood of Wakefield but return Co-Op City to Bowman, who lost the predominantly Black community when the district lines were redrawn in 2022. But even as the modified lines would slightly increase the percentage of Black voters, giving Bowman a minor boost, the new boundaries were not expected to meaningfully shape the primary, owing to the large remaining swath of Westchester County where Latimer has long been known to constituents.
Pluses and minuses: A Democratic source in Albany who is familiar with the redistricting process and supporting Latimer’s campaign described the calculus behind the lines as amounting to “pluses and minuses,” noting that the new district still represents a “90-10” split between Westchester and the Bronx — which helps to ensure a competitive race. “We’re not worried this is going to impact the primary,” the insider said on Tuesday. “The percentage of the Bronx is the same.”
Jewish voters: If approved, the new boundaries would wholly preserve the district’s sizable population of Jewish voters, many of whom have grown frustrated with Bowman’s outspoken criticism of Israel amid its war against Hamas in Gaza. In recent months, more than 2,300 voters in the safely blue district have changed their registration to Democrat following an initiative to convince independent and Republican Jews to switch their party enrollment so they are eligible to vote in the primary.
summer of her discontent
Summer Lee cancels appearance at CAIR banquet featuring antisemitic speakers
Amid fierce backlash, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) announced yesterday that she had canceled her planned appearance this weekend at a fundraising banquet for a leading Muslim advocacy group featuring several speakers who have espoused antisemitic and homophobic views, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. “I have and continue to condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia everywhere it arises,” she said in a statement shared on Tuesday morning. “To prevent the Muslim community from being the target of any more politically motivated Islamophobia and to ensure my Jewish and LGBTQ+ constituents know their concerns are heard, I will not be attending this event any longer.”
Contentious lineup: The about-face comes just a day after JI first reported on past comments from three speakers scheduled to deliver remarks at an event hosted by the Philadelphia branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Saturday, including one who appeared to celebrate Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and another who has called Israelis “demons” who lie to “cover their horns.”
Peer pressure: Lee, a vocal critic of Israel now preparing for a tough primary fight, had faced intense pressure to pull out of the banquet from a growing number of prominent Jewish leaders and elected officials in Pennsylvania who vocally condemned the event on Monday, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and the chairs of Pennsylvania’s Jewish Legislative Caucus.
a father’s plea
Father of IDF soldier held in Gaza: Don’t forget our sons in hostage deal
With the ongoing negotiations for a second deal to release Israeli hostages from Hamas’ clutches in Gaza, the parents of male soldiers called for their sons to be included in any agreement – either released or with concrete information about their whereabouts and well-being. Rabbi Doron Perez, whose son, Daniel, a tank commander, is believed to have been taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7, is the executive chairman of the World Mizrachi movement. Like many other Israeli hostages in Gaza, Daniel Perez has dual citizenship, but his is from South Africa, the country that brought Israel before the International Court of Justice on genocide charges. Perez spoke to Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov about his efforts to bring his son home, his fears and concerns.
‘Most exposed’: “We are worried that our children are the most exposed as male soldiers. Hamas wants to leave them to the end, at the highest price… We are very, very concerned that if soldiers are not in some way part of this deal, it will really expose them,” Perez told JI.
U.S. pressure: “[President Joe] Biden has been supportive of Israel beyond what many thought. He spoke so clearly and morally and sent an aircraft carrier. Yes, it comes with some prices… Specifically, because it’s an election year [in the U.S.] there is pressure…for there to be a partial deal now,” Perez said.
A deal for everyone: “Three months ago, it made sense,” Perez continued. “There were 240 hostages, women and children were released first based on international norms; they were civilians — it made perfect sense. We feel that today, after months have passed, it makes less sense. It was hard enough to get the world to see Jewish children and women as human children and women; how much more so will that be for men and soldiers. A deal without [the male soldiers] could seal the fate of those left behind. We need a deal that includes everyone.”
terror talk
Houthi FTO designation remains on the table if attacks continue, U.S. envoy says
Tim Lenderking, the U.S. envoy for Yemen, said on Tuesday that the administration may fully reimpose a terrorism designation on the Houthis in Yemen if their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea continue, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Lenderking, testifying before a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the U.S. may yet reimpose the Iran-backed militant group’s Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation, after imposing a separate label as a Specially Designated Terrorist Group (SDTG) last month. The FTO designation would grant additional authorities and penalties.
Options open: “I think we have come down hard with this designation that we have. The FTO is a possibility. We can constantly assess the impact of the campaign that we’re doing — both the military [and] the impact of the designation,” Lenderking said. “The SDTG… will cut off financial networks, their ability to fundraise. It will… hurt. And if we need to adjust to the FTO, if these attacks continue, then we’ll maintain that option.”
War powers: Several senators on both sides of the aisle pressed Lenderking and Ambassador Daniel Shapiro, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy, on the legal authorities underpinning U.S. efforts to combat the Houthis, including both strikes on Houthi positions and ongoing efforts to patrol and protect maritime shipping lanes. The senators argued that the military efforts were beyond the scope of existing U.S. law and the Constitution, and required congressional authorization.
China concern: Lawmakers pressed the officials on efforts to expand the international coalition — spearheaded by the U.S. and the United Kingdom — that has been working to counter the Houthis, asking specifically about China and Saudi Arabia. “We do see a certain degree of freeloading [by China] that is absolutely unacceptable,” Lenderking said. “When we talk about an international problem that needs an international solution, we need the Chinese to be much more aggressive, much more aggressively engaged.”
Worthy Reads
Old/New Hatred: In Time, Noah Feldman considers the confluence of modern anti-Zionism and centuries-old antisemitism. “The new narrative of Jews as oppressors is, in the end, far too close for comfort to the antisemitic tradition of singling out Jews as uniquely deserving of condemnation and punishment, whether in its old religious form or its Nazi iteration. Like those earlier forms of antisemitism, the new kind is not ultimately about the Jews, but about the human impulse to point the finger at someone who can be made to carry the weight of our social ills. Oppression is real. Power can be exercised without justice. Israel should not be immune from criticism when it acts wrongfully. Yet the horrific history and undefeated resilience of antisemitism mean that modes of rhetorical attack on Israel and on Jews should be subject to careful scrutiny.” [Time]
Center Lane: For CNN, John Halpin, the president and executive editor of The Liberal Patriot, points to data suggesting that President Joe Biden’s policies vis-a-vis the Israel-Hamas war will not have a catastrophic effect on his reelection prospects. “No matter how you look at it, base partisan voters, particularly Black and Hispanic Democrats and even a sizable number of young people, are much more aligned with Biden’s centrist world view than they are with the more extreme policy positions ascendant on the left. With Trump and the right saying things sure to alienate the middle this cycle, the center lane is wide open for Biden to turn his sensible, moderate views on securing the border, advancing American energy independence and supporting Israel into a viable electoral majority. But Biden can only do this if he clearly delineates his differences with the progressive left and continues to defend his moderate perspective with the wider American electorate.” [CNN]
Foreign Money on the Quad: In Tablet, Neetu Arnold looks at what she describes as “the internationalization of the American university,” as schools admit escalating numbers of international students and accept increasing amounts of money from foreign governments. “The motivations of universities to admit so many international students are two-fold. Foreign students, first and foremost, serve as cash cows. They disproportionately pay full price for tuition and housing, whether it comes from sponsorships by foreign governments or their own families’ largesse. The deal is even better for public universities — international students pay the out-of-state price, which is significantly higher than the tuition rate for in-state students. Increasing international student enrollment also fits neatly into universities’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals. While this particular phenomenon is more recent, it is crucial for understanding the current shifts in international student recruitment. It also provides universities with a moral justification for their equivocating response to egregious — and perhaps even illegal — acts by international students in recent months.” [Tablet]
Reform the PA: Ghaith al-Omari, a Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, weighs in on the potential for Palestinian Authority reform following the resignation of Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and his cabinet. “Once the next prime minister is named, the Biden administration’s reaction will be seen as an indicator of Washington’s resolve about PA reform. Hence, U.S. officials should make clear that Shtayyeh’s replacement needs to be independent and empowered. They should also note that U.S. pressure to reform will not end just because a new prime minister is appointed. In the longer term, rehabilitating the PA requires a more comprehensive and ambitious approach, and this starts with rejuvenating its political leadership. The blueprint for such an approach was first suggested by President George W. Bush in a 2002 speech outlining a political horizon for Israeli-Palestinian peace and the steps needed for its realization. The most important steps were clear: establishing a new Palestinian leadership and hitting a series of reform benchmarks. These proposals provided a political umbrella for a U.S.-led diplomatic process that culminated in the ‘Quartet Roadmap’ and the only serious PA reform effort to date, spearheaded by then-prime minister Salam Fayyad.” [WashingtonInstitute]
Proxy Policy: In The Wall Street Journal, Seth Cropsey, the president of Yorktown Institute, argues that the U.S. and Israeli approach to Iran’s proxies is giving Tehran more power. “America has insisted on a fictitious distinction between Tehran and its proxies. But the threat this pseudo-empire poses to the U.S. — as well as countries across Europe and Asia — is real. Iran’s goal is regional dominance, by which it plans to export the Islamic revolution throughout the Mideast. An Iran with proxies across the Levant, and in time the Arabian Peninsula, would be a bona fide great power capable of competing with Europe, Russia, China and India for Eurasian influence. It would be able to challenge America directly in military, diplomatic and economic terms. Eurasia has never been able to secure itself absent a stable Middle Eastern order. Even ignoring its oil flows, the Mideast is the nexus point between Europe and Asia and therefore the linchpin of the Eurasian economic power on which the U.S. depends and a key transit route for U.S. military forces. Yet rather than consider the Israeli struggle as a key to greater geopolitical stability, Washington treats it as merely another Gaza war. Attacks by Iran-backed militants in the Red Sea and on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria are considered aftershocks of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This plays into Tehran’s hands.” [WSJ]
Around the Web
New Sanctions: The U.S. announced sanctions on a deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a Houthi militant, as well as companies registered in Hong Kong and the Marshall Islands tied to shipping commodities from Iran to China.
Tempering Expectations: Officials from Israel, Qatar and Hamas distanced themselves from President Joe Biden’s comments earlier this week that a temporary cease-fire agreement may soon be reached.
Survey Says: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited a new Harris-Harvard poll on American attitudes toward Israel, saying that the survey’s finding that 82% of Amercans support Israel over Hamas “will help us continue the campaign until total victory.”
SOTU Prayers: The families of the remaining U.S. citizens being held in Gaza wrote to chaplains of the U.S. House and Senate askingthem to offer a prayer in each chamber on March 7 — the day of the State of the Union address — to the hostages.
Hostage Diplomacy: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew met yesterday with USAID Administrator Samantha Power to discuss efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas and to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
SBF Plea: Attorneys for Sam Bankman-Fried asked for a reduced sentence of 5-6 years for the FTX founder, who was sentenced to roughly 100 years in prison, citing his autism and commitment to effective altruism.
Hate in ‘The Company’: In Tablet, Justine El-Khazen writes about the dying wish of her mother, a former CIA Middle East analyst, who asked that her daughter not raise her children Jewish, and the shock El-Khazen received from the ensuing conversations with her mother’s former colleagues.
History Lesson: In Quillette, Israeli historian Benny Morris accusesThe New York Times of misrepresenting the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Last Chapter: Yiddish Book Center President Aaron Lansky is retiring more than 40 years after founding what became a repository of more than 1.5 million books.
The Smart Money: Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan said in a nearly hour-long interview yesterday with David Rubenstein that the best investors are no longer in the U.S., but rather in countries such as Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Rowan also discussed his fight against antisemitism on college campuses.
Berkeley Bias: University of California, Berkeley students attending an event featuring a former IDF soldier were forced by police to evacuate to a safe room after anti-Israel activists got unauthorized access to the building where the event was being held and staged a disruption.
Staying Put: Longtime mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Ron Huldai, was reelected yesterday in the local elections.
Tune Trouble: Israel threatened to withdraw from the upcoming Eurovision competition amid a disagreement with organizers over the lyrics to the country’s entry, “October Rain,” which the European Broadcasting Union says contains political messages in violation of the contest’s rules.
The Ramadan Offensive: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant cautioned that Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are planning to use the upcoming Ramadan holiday as “the second stage of October 7, and ignite the ground.”
Northern Border: Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, but will reportedly cease its attacks if Hamas agrees to a temporary cease-fire with Israel.
Remembering: New York antiques dealer Bruce Newman died at 94.
Pic of the Day
Families of some of the remaining 134 hostages march past Kibbutz Be’eri today at the start of a four-day trek to Jerusalem to call for the release of their loved ones.
Birthdays
World-renowned architect and designer, born as Frank Owen Goldberg, Frank Owen Gehry turns 95…
Winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1972, professor (now emeritus) at Brown University since 1958, Leon Cooper turns 94… Israeli jurist, she was the first woman to serve as president of the Israeli Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch turns 82… Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego, Linda Preiss Rothschild turns 79… Retired executive director of the Montreal chapter of ORT, Emmanuel Kalles… Actress and singer, Ilene Susan Graff turns 75… Former State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, now a visiting professor at Georgetown, Ira Niles Forman turns 72… New York Times op-ed columnist and 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, he is the author of 27 books, Paul Krugman turns 71… Chief scientific officer at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Samuel Klein, MD turns 71… Founding engineer and a large shareholder of Facebook, Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild turns 70… Greensboro, N.C., businessman and past chairman of Hillel International, Randall Kaplan… Self-described as “America’s most notorious lobbyist,” Jack Abramoff turns 65… President of The New York Public Library, Anthony W. Marx turns 65… Editor-at-large of the Jewish Week, Andrew Silow-Carroll turns 63… Owner of a commercial lavender farm in New Jersey, she served as a member of the New Jersey State Senate until 2008, Ellen Karcher turns 60… Jerusalem-born businessman, he worked as a NYC taxi driver after completing his IDF service, started and sold several companies in the automotive field, Mordechai (Moti) Kahana turns 56… President and CEO of The New York Times Company, Meredith Kopit Levien turns 53… Political commentator Peter Beinart turns 53… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party, Ruth Wasserman Lande turns 48… Mayor of Jersey City, N.J., Steven Fulop turns 47… National political correspondent for The New York Times, Lisa Lerer… Former professional ice hockey goaltender, Dov Grumet-Morris turns 42… Managing director at Purple Strategies, Erica Goldman… Counsel in the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine, Adam Sieff… Director of international innovation and partnerships at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Andrew H. Gross turns 35… Director in the Tel Aviv office of PwC, Li-Dor David… Israeli national fencing champion and fashion model, she represented Israel at Miss Universe 2015, Avigail Alfatov turns 28…
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